(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Tue 6 January 2026 6:00, UK
Pink Floyd were never strangers to tragedy. In fact, the band’s entire career seemed utterly dogged from it, sometimes in a silly, stupid way like when they accidentally massacred a bunch of fish simply by rocking too hard. But then, in harrowing moments, it hit hard and serious and devastating.
The first and most obvious takes the shape of Syd Barrett – the enigmatic leader that started it all but wouldn’t see the end of it. Initially, the band was utterly based around Barrett’s mind; his lyrics, his songs, the ideas that were currently fascinating him. He was a kind of psychedelic messiah for a moment, almost akin to a Jim Morrison for the Brits in looks and artistic path – but also in complete and dangerous hedonism.
After Barrett spiralled deeper and deeper into drug use, it wasn’t that he overdosed as so many rock stars have. Instead, it was almost something worse as he seemed to just lose his mind. First, he became so unreliable that the band had to cut him loose, but then he became utterly unrecognisable, leading to the famed day when he wandered back into the studio years later, and it took all of his old friends a minute to know who he was. That led to the making of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ – one of many tribute tracks the band have written for lost friends.
But the last one is equally as sad, though in a completely different way. The devastation in Barrett was partly the tragedy of hope and potential squandered so young. The devastation they felt over the death of Richard Wright was more simple but no less painful as the all had to reckon with losing a friend after a long career together.
Wright still wasn’t particularly old when he died. The band’s keyboard player was 65 and was still working as he was creating a solo album, at the same time, he was battling lung cancer. Upon his passing in 2008, the rest of the band fell into mourning, pouring out their tributes not only in words, but in songs too.
They also fell back into work after the passing of their friend provided the motivation necessary to make The Endless River; the band’s final album, crafted mostly to be a vehicle for the last recordings they had of Wright. “With Rick gone, and with him the chance of ever doing it again, it feels right that these revisited and reworked tracks should be made available as part of our repertoire,” David Gilmour said.
But along with reworkings of old tracks, there were new ones including ‘Louder Than Words’; a track dedicated to and made in tribute of Wright.
As Wright was interested mostly in instrumental works in his final years, The Endless River is almost entirely wordless, except for this one song. Here, Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson, takes to the mic to read a poem written for Wright and for the rest of the group, attempting to capture their energy and their dynamics.
“It’s about the dynamics of being in bands, which I’ve always thought of as Big Brother on wheels. You become best of friends and worst of enemies all the same time,” producer Andy Jackson said, but really, ‘Louder Than Words’ is about the love behind that complexity and the attempt to immortalise their time with Wright and the brotherhood they’d all shared, even if it wasn’t always sunshine and roses.
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