Rick trashed in Sunday Newspaper

[Luca]

I wonder if Franka Wright will share some other memories once the Identity reissue will be released. In the mean time, Gala and Guy divorced!

[AndrewJFisher]

Not saying that we all have to think Rick was a bastard because of this article, but at least it brings people back to reality a bit. While a lot of these guys are busy being great musicians, they're busy being bad husbands and fathers.

Maybe it's not a joking matter but....♫"From your bed I gained a child and lost my bloody wife"♫

[AndrewJFisher]

The story about Gilmour and Wright being not on speaking terms is to my knowledge true according to the story that Gilmour did not defended Rick against Mr Roger Waters.

To support that, I remember reading about Gilmour being unhappy with Wright's contributions to The Wall, but not necessarily wanting him out of the band like Waters supposedly did. But later he seemed to blame Waters for Wright's failures.

[DarkSideFreak]

Mr Gilmour openly said that both of his bandmates had been affected by the despotic Mr Waters, and this was the reason why Pink Floyd was backed up by an army of session musicians in the studio, and doubled on stage with Jon Carin and Gary Wallis. That statement could be true. But one had to add the fact that much of the music was programmed, as much as most of the contemporary pop and rock music in mid 1980 (a horrible era!!!). The question is, did Mr Gilmour made the music on AMLOR driven by sequencers because of the modern taste? Or was it needed because it would help the rusty bandmates keep the appearence onstage, being assisted by gizmos helping them play?

Not sure this point holds much water, since AMLOR only made up about half of the live set and there was no sequencing on the older stuff. For the rest, pretty spot on I guess.

This interview from the November 4, 1978 with Rick Wright is interestung IMO.

November 4, 1978, Pink Floyd: Rick Wright interview

Karl Dallas talks to Rick Wright about his solo debut, only to find him preoccupied with a mysterious Floyd project – “The Wall” – that will soon drive him out of the band

https://kdarchive.wordpress.com/2013/02 ... interview/

He even made a comment underneath which says a lot about a certain Mr Waters

[ZiggyZipgun]

Well, not being an expert on this topic, but...

...here are 30 paragraphs about it. Jesus Harold Christ, Peter!

This is a dramatic retelling, but you left out an important detail: Dave and Nick and Rick have all said that had Rick come back as an official member, he would also have been targeted by Roger's ongoing lawsuits. They also said that they intended to take a break after the tour was over, then get back together to start playing together as a proper band; this resulted in the soundtrack they recorded prior to Division Bell. There wasn't much of a break until after their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, when Rick finished work on Broken China.

Rick was always quiet and reserved, but he was also the most open and honest in his interviews. And he really didn't do more drugs than the others - that label got stuck on him after a party at his house in Greece, when Rick got punched in the face by the police chief. For a group whose personal lives didn't spill into the public very often, that was all anyone really heard about Rick back then.

Sequencing simply seemed like the answer to their prayers after The Wall tour, where 12 people were always playing to a pre-recorded click track tape and still couldn't stay in sync with the screen projections. It had become the industry standard, but overuse certainly killed the feel of a live performance.

[Kerry King]

he really didn't do more drugs than the others

Let me guess... You were there weighing everything out?

Eventually you'll have to provide more sources/evidence. I can't just keep taking your word for every bit of pink floyd minutiae. Are there any pics of you weighing out the drugs for each member?

[ZiggyZipgun]

he really didn't do more drugs than the others

Eventually you'll have to provide more sources/evidence.

How about looking back to where the rumor that Rick was cokehead got started? It's casually repeated here all the time, but not only will you not find Roger, Dave, or Nick saying it, you'll actually find all four saying that that wasn't the issue.

"It would have been quite easy to say, 'Oh he left because he had a cocaine problem or a drink problem.' I can honestly say that it really was not a drug problem. It was taken without a doubt by [Roger], me, Dave, Nick, Bob Ezrin, but purely socially, it wasn't lying around in the studio." - Rick, 2000

[Kerry King]

^ So...you weren't there?
Disappointing.

If it wasn't "lying around in the studio" it's only because it was in someone's pocket.

[ZiggyZipgun]

^ So...you weren't there?
Disappointing.

If it wasn't "lying around in the studio" it's only because it was in someone's pocket.

What is this based on? You're just repeating the same rumor.

[Kerry King]

^ So...you weren't there?
Disappointing.

If it wasn't "lying around in the studio" it's only because it was in someone's pocket.

What is this based on? You're just repeating the same rumor.

No I'm not. I said "if". I know nothing of the rumors. I don't pay much attention to that shit. It's based on the fact that it was 1979 and if you were in a rock band that used cocaine it probably would have been with you during those long, tedious recording sessions. If not, that's fine with me.

[ZiggyZipgun]

I'd like to see anyone post find any specific reference to the coke problem that got Rick kicked out of the band. There are plenty of glaring errors in Franka's tell-all interview. For example, the "pregnant groupie": Rick's son Ben was born in 1992; very impressive for a famously anonymous and private musician to have groupies following him around two years after their tour ended. Also, Franka didn't divorce Rick for two years after that, and he didn't marry Ben's mother for another two years after that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ZiggyZipgun]

For the rest, pretty spot on I guess.

He posted that same rambling mess elsewhere as a blog. His timeline is all screwed up. Rick and Juliette had been going to Greece since 1964, the same year they were married. Pink Floyd collectively owned a villa on Rhodes for years, and they each owned other places on the same island; Gilmour sold one several years ago that he hadn't used in over twenty years. Franka didn't meet Rick until 1982, the same year he and Juliette divorced, the same year he was officially out of the band, and the same year he went into a long depression. The police incident happened in August 1977, less than two months after Roger's spitting incident.

"The British rock musician, Richard Wright, of the Pink Floyd, has claimed that he was beaten on the face and threatened with a revolver at a police station in Rhodes. Police said yesterday that Mr Wright, aged 34, and a Canadian friend, Professor Michael Smith, living in Hertfordshire, had both filed civil suits complaining of ill-treatment by Mr. Ioannis Dimitriades, the police station chief at the small coastal town of Lindos. Mr. Wright, who sings with Pink Floyd, and his wife Julia, 32, are on holiday at Lindos with Professor Smith. Police said that the lawsuits resulted from an all-night party. The police station chief had gone to the party at dawn after neighbors complained of noise. An argument had started and Professor Smith was arrested and taken to the police station. "When I and my wife went to the police station, the police officer threatened us with his revolver, beat me in the face and pushed my wife violently. I have bruises in my eye and my lips are cut." He said that his wife had suffered shock. The police said that the Lindos station chief had been recalled to Rhodes pending the outcome of an investigation." - The Guardian, August 29, 1977

Contrast that with Peter's storytelling mastery:

Now follows the obscured chapter of Mr Wright's life. In the chronology we only know that he was remarried to a woman in Greece, where he under some influence attacked the police because a friend was (according to him) wrongly put in arrest. Next thing was about him putting out a record with Mr Dave Harris under the brand ZEE (I have tried to get in touch with Mr Harris, but I don't get any reply, and it is pretty common that people don't answer questions about Mr Wright).

[DarkSideFreak]

It seems like the article you mentioned is stirring up some controversy. These kinds of stories often paint a dramatic picture of celebrity lives, but it's important to take everything with a grain of salt. People have different perspectives, and there’s always more to a story than what’s shared publicly.

Do you have anything to add to this forum that doesn't sound like it was written by an AI?