Author(s): Mark Blake

Music Biography

In July 2005 in Hyde Park, before a global audience in the tens of millions, Pink Floyd performed together on stage for the first time in 24 years. As even Bob Geldof himself acknowledged, it was 'a far bigger story than Live 8 itself'. From the moment the metronomic pulse of a human heartbeat thudded out to begin 'Speak to Me' to the soaring, stinging guitar solo by David Gilmour that climaxed 'Comfortably Numb', these four self-effacing men in their late fifties stole the show. Almost a year later, the death of their troubled and reclusive founder-member Syd Barrett made headline news around the world. Both events signalled a kind of closure to the remarkable tale of one of the world's biggest bands.