The Pink Floyd sessions Richard Wright refused to attend: “The straw that broke the camel’s back”
A rock and roll band doesn’t always make for the most stable working relationships. Of course, there are some acts that seem to look at their bandmates as an extension of their family, but for many people, it’s just another job like everyone else’s, and it’s up to them whether they’re going to show up in the studio or fall behind when things don’t work out. While Roger Waters was already leading Pink Floyd into some dark place on The Wall, Richard Wright finally had the confidence to stand up for himself right as the album was about to start.
But when we’re talking about this era of Pink Floyd, it normally comes down to Waters’s ability to move everyone else around. Although no one could claim to be the leader of the group at any one point, Waters did seem to have a handle on what he wanted to say from Dark Side of the Moon onwards, whether that was paying tribute to Syd Barrett or talking about the dangers going on in big business.
If that stuff was too cerebral for the rest of the group, they weren’t prepared for what he had cooking up for the next record. Presenting two separate concepts for rock operas, the rest of the band decided that the idea of someone trapping themselves inside their mind and building up their own wall was the best way to bring their songs to life.
That is, at least, what was supposed to happen when everything started. Despite only taking a little bit of time off during a stop-gap between touring and recording, Waters was convinced that they needed to get into the studio as soon as possible to build on the momentum that they had already started when they were on the road.
But Wright was already in a different headspace, wanting to spend time with his family rather than spend hours hunched over his keyboard trying to find the right sound. As Waters recalled, Wright was infuriated about coming back into the fold and left a few too many angry messages for him before he got back.
When talking to Mark Blake, Waters remembered Wright’s comments being the deciding factor in keeping him in the group, saying, “I got Steve O’Rourke to call Rick and tell him about the new plans. A couple of days later, I got a call from Steve, and he said, ‘I’ve found Rick, he’s in Greece. He said, ‘Tell Roger to fuck off’. And that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Then again, Wright hadn’t even said that, recalling, “I didn’t say [that]. I said, ‘No, I’m coming on the agreed date.’” That wasn’t enough to calm the waters, so to speak, as Wright was greeted with an ice-cold reception by Waters and ultimately written out of the band when it came time to tour for the record, only coming on as a session musician.
While the communication breakdown may not have led to Wright staying in the group, Pink Floyd were already in a state of change when making the record. They had all the pieces together to make an amazing album, but the camaraderie that brought Wish You Were Here into existence would never happen again.
