David Gilmour has claimed he was “bullied” into making the final Pink Floyd album ‘The Endless River’ in a new interview.
The former Pink Floyd guitarist and vocalist opened up about making the final album with the band in 2014 – a work that arrived 20 years after their last work on ‘The Division Bell’, which was meant to be the band’s final goodbye to fans.
Work on ‘The Endless River’ included contributions from drummer Nick Mason and some archived recordings from keyboardist Richard Wright who passed in 2008. Former bassist Rogers Waters had left the band in 1985 and did not return for any of these recording sessions.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Gilmour explained that while recording ‘The Division Bell’, they’d produced many hours worth of ambient music that was originally meant to make up a new instrumental record. However, when this release never happened, Gilmour claims their record label then insisted that the ambient recordings were released.
Gilmour explained: “I’ll tell you: When we did that album, there was a thing that Andy Jackson, our engineer, had put together called ‘The Big Spliff’ – a collection of all these bits and pieces of jams [from the sessions for 1994’s ‘The Division Bell’] that was out there on bootlegs.
“A lot of fans wanted this stuff that we’d done in that time, and we thought we’d give it to them. My mistake, I suppose, was in being bullied by the record company to have it out as a properly paid-for Pink Floyd record. It should have been clear what it was – it was never intended to be the follow-up to ‘The Division Bell.’ But, you know, it’s never too late to get caught in one of these traps again.”
NME has reached out to the label for comment.
Recently, Pink Floyd agreed to sell their back catalogue for $400million (£309 million) in a deal with Sony.
According to Music Business Worldwide, the legendary rock veterans’ deal with the music giant is set to include the band’s recording catalogue, neighbouring rights, and name and likeness rights. However, the band’s publishing rights were not included in the deal.
Pink Floyd’s recorded music royalties are currently managed by two companies: Pink Floyd (1987) Limited and Pink Floyd Music Limited. The main difference between the two companies is that the latter collects revenue for music recorded before Waters’ departure in 1985, and the former collects revenues for music recorded after.
As reported by Music Business Worldwide, the two companies generated a combined revenue of $50million (£40.399million) during their fiscal year ended June 30 2023.
In the same interview with the Los Angeles Times, Waters was also asked if he was worried if the deal would result in other instances – like ‘The Endless River’ – where the band’s music would be presented in forms he wouldn’t like.
Gilmour replied “no” before elaborating: “It’s history – it’s all past. This stuff is for future generations. I’m an old person. I’ve spent the last 40-odd years trying to fight the good fight against the forces of indolence and greed to do the best with our stuff that you can do. And I’ve given that fight up now. I’ve got my advance – because, you know, it’s not fresh new money or anything like that. It’s an advance against what I would have earned over the next few years anyway. But the arguments and fighting and idiocies that have been going on for the last 40 years between these four disparate groups of people and their managers and whatever – it’s lovely to say goodbye to. And I haven’t sold the publishing rights.”
Pink Floyd in 1973 – CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
On why he hasn’t sold the publishing rights, he added: “That’s a very, very different issue. You have to have an agreement about synchronisation licences and all that sort of stuff. [Sony] bought the records, the recordings, and can do what they want. But if it comes on an advert, I’m not gonna give a shit. I’m just not going to. There are all sorts of things that are just as distasteful as that.”
Speaking about the arguments, Gilmour is most likely referring to the tension between him and Waters that’s continued for decades. Their disagreements erupted again last year when Gilmour accused Waters of antisemitism. Waters also vowed to never perform with Waters again.
In other news, Gilmour has made recent headlines following the release of his new album ‘Luck and Strange’, which arrived on September 6. He performed his first live gig in four years at a pub open mic night and spoke out against the dynamic pricing practices that followed the release of Oasis concert tickets.
“I think Oasis should do exactly what they want to do,” he told ITV News. I’m not sure about this strange ticketing thing that’s going on. They should put a price on tickets and stick to it.” In the same interview, he said that a Pink Floyd reunion is unlikely because the band has only “three people left and we’re not talking”.
Waters also addressed rumours earlier this week about Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’ being written to synchronise with ‘The Wizard Of Oz’.
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