Pink Floyd

If ever a band learned to alchemise triumph from trauma, then surely that’s Pink Floyd. In their initial psych-pop incarnation, their first major hit, See Emily Play, and their whimsical, Lewis Carroll-inspired debut album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, looked set to make them bona fide pop stars in 1967, but after their original frontman, Syd Barrett, withdrew from public life, the group were forced to start again.

Recruiting new guitarist/vocalist Dave Gilmour, the Cambridge quartet then enjoyed five years of sizeable cult success, with early-70s titles such as Atom Heart Mother and Meddle finding favour among the prog-rock crowd. However, Pink Floyd’s lives changed forever with the release of 1973’s colossal The Dark Side Of The Moon. Though it addressed difficult (and still prescient) issues such as madness, greed and social isolation, this touchstone record also featured some of Pink Floyd’s most concise and accessible music – and it struck a chord globally, eventually selling an estimated 45 million copies and making reluctant stars of the band.

The group followed it up with further significant albums such as Wish You Were Here, Animals and 1979’s expansive The Wall, though their bassist and primary lyricist, Roger Waters, left the band in 1985, ahead of later highlights such as A Momentary Lapse Of Reason, The Division Bell and 2014’s final farewell, The Endless River. Nonetheless, Pink Floyd’s monolithic music endures, with The Dark Side Of The Moon’s lavish 50th-anniversary edition revealing that their catalogue shines on like the most brilliant of multi-carat diamonds.