Man...

That is truely a great loss, not just for us diehard Floyd fans, but to everyone in general. He will be missed.

I'll probably go dig up my old copy of 'Dark Side of the Moon' tonight.

*commences silence*

....

*silence in the room....

Thank you all for your kind words... Rick's former bandmates have all released statements concerning his death:

David Gilmour -

"No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend. In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten. He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound. I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on 'Echoes'. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without 'Us and Them' and 'The Great Gig In The Sky', both of which he wrote, what would 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' have been? Without his quiet touch the album 'Wish You Were Here' would not quite have worked. In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early nineties, with 'The Division Bell', his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and it's a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him, (though not to the rest of us). Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously."

Roger Waters -

(Former bandmate Roger Waters' website displayed a picture as a tribute, showing an array of candles and poppies against a black background).

"I was very sad to hear of Rick's premature death, I knew he had been ill, but the end came suddenly and shockingly. My thoughts are with his family, particularly [his children] Jamie and Gala and their mum Juliet, who I knew very well in the old days, and always liked very much and greatly admired. As for the man and his work, it is hard to overstate the importance of his musical voice in the Pink Floyd of the '60s and '70s. The intriguing, jazz influenced, modulations and voicings so familiar in 'Us and Them' and 'Great Gig in the Sky,' which lent those compositions both their extraordinary humanity and their majesty, are omnipresent in all the collaborative work the four of us did in those times. Rick's ear for harmonic progression was our bedrock. I am very grateful for the opportunity that Live 8 afforded me to engage with him and David [Gilmour] and Nick [Mason] that one last time. I wish there had been more."

Nick Mason -

"Like any band, you can never quite quantify who does what. But Pink Floyd wouldn't have been Pink Floyd if [we] hadn’t had Rick. I think there’s a feeling now -- particularly after all the warfare that went on with Roger and David trying to make clear what their contribution was -- that perhaps Rick rather got pushed into the background. Because the sound of Pink Floyd is more than the guitar, bass, and drum thing. Rick was the sound that knitted it all together... He was by far the quietest of the band, right from day one. And, I think, probably harder to get to know than the rest of us... It's almost that George Harrison thing. You sort of forget that they did a lot more than perhaps they're given credit for."

Copied and pasted from Gilmourish.com

Posted on 9.17.2008

"It's been a couple of days since we heard the tragic news and reality starts to sink in. Richard Wright is no longer with us yet he lives on in his work. It’s like losing a member of the family. A close friend. I miss him.

To me, Richard has always been the George Harrison of Pink Floyd. The quiet one. He was often left in the shadow of both Roger and David, still his contributions are essential to Pink Floyd's sound. I always thought, and still do, that he deserved more credit. This is not the time to throw stones but we remember his huge talent and his contributions to one of the biggest bands ever existed. With his roots planted deep in jazz he brought a slightly different sound to the blues oriented guitars and melodies and his playing on songs like Breathe, Us and Them and Great Gig In the Sky is as much a tribute to his heroes like Miles Davis than anything else. Richard also wrote some of the most majestic pieces like Celestial Voices (Saucerful of Secrets ending), the build up from the middle section on Echoes and Shine On You Crazy Diamond part 9.

My personal favourite has always been Wearing the Inside Out. It caught my attention the minute I heard it after buying Division Bell in 1994. The lyrics could very well be the story of Richard Wright struggling with his demons and emotions. He was very much retired after Broken China in '96 and emerges as one of the most powerful on David's latest tour. I remember sitting in the balcony in Albert Hall on the first night weeping like a child when they played Wearing. I don't know why but the song has always been special to me and sitting there hearing Richard’s soulful voice just hit me right in the face. That's what music is all about and Richard has created some of the most beautiful songs ever written.

I'm very lucky to have seen him live several times. One of the occasions was with David in 2002 performing another great song, Breakthrough. I remember seeing this rather anonymous guy strolling over the stage with glasses looking like a teacher I once had. I didn’t really occur to me that David had just announced "We're gonna perform a song from Rick Wright's last solo album. And here to sing it - Mr. Richard Wright!"

I remember standing in the middle of 200,000 people in Hyde Park in 2005 and seeing Pink Floyd perform together for the first time in decades. I noticed Richard behind his organ and the next time I looked he was jumping up and down as he was hammering out the chords on Comfortably Numb.

I saw David four times on the 2006 tour and of course I knew that Richard was going to play but I remember that I felt in an odd way that it was more special to see him on that stage than David. We discussed it after the concerts and we agreed that seeing Richard and hearing his voice and playing was incredibly emotional and it wouldn't have been the same tour without him. Our drummer and manager was lucky to meet Richard in Paris and they talked about how much of a gentleman he was and utterly amazed that the fans would wait outside the hotel to get his autograph. I don't think he ever really understood how loved he was.

At our rehearsal yesterday we took a pause from Airbag and played Echoes, Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Us and Them as a tribute. It felt only natural and also good to remember his talent. Our Pink Floyd show on October 25th is dedicated to Richard and we hope as many as possible will join us celebrating his memory.

Richard Wright will be deeply missed but never forgotten."