Pink Floyd, Waters vs Gilmour is the argument that outlived the band. One side hears the records that made Pink Floyd famous and a writer who held them together; the other hears three musicians who kept working, sold enormously and toured for another decade. Both sides are describing real records. This guide sets out the dates, the line-ups and the chart figures for each era, and ends with the album to start each one with.

Two dividing lines, not one

Pink Floyd has been split twice. The first break came at the very beginning: Syd Barrett, a founder member who wrote most of The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), left the band in 1968. David Gilmour had joined at the turn of 1967 and 1968, first as a fifth member, and stayed for the rest of the band’s life. From then on Roger Waters took over as the main writer, and the run of albums that most people mean by Pink Floyd begins.

The second break is the one the argument is about. In December 1985 Waters wrote to the band’s record companies, EMI in London and CBS in New York, to say that he had left, considering the group, in his own phrase, a spent force creatively. Gilmour and Nick Mason took a different view and carried on under the name. The dispute that followed was settled out of court in December 1987, a few months after the first album of the new era had already been released: Gilmour and Mason kept the name, Waters kept rights connected to The Wall.

The two line-ups

The Waters era. From 1968 the band was Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason, and that four-piece made every album up to The Wall (1979). Then a third change, often forgotten in this debate: Wright left under pressure from Waters after the Wall sessions, which makes The Final Cut (1983) the only Pink Floyd album without him, and the last with Waters. On it every song is credited to Waters alone.

The Gilmour era. Gilmour and Mason made A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) with Wright taking part again, and by The Division Bell (1994) the band was a three-piece once more. On stage the three were joined by a permanent group of other musicians, among them Guy Pratt on bass and Tim Renwick on guitar, which is one of the practical differences between the eras: the later Pink Floyd was a small band inside a large one.

What the records did

The Waters era holds the albums the band is known by. The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) reached number one in the United States and stayed on the American chart for years afterwards; Wish You Were Here (1975) went to number one in both Britain and America; Animals (1977) reached number 2 in Britain and 3 in the United States; The Wall (1979) was a number one album in America and produced the band’s only transatlantic hit single. The Final Cut closed the era at number 1 in Britain and 6 in the United States.

The Gilmour era did not fall away, which is the fact that keeps the argument alive. A Momentary Lapse of Reason reached number 3 in both Britain and the United States; The Division Bell went to number one in both, and the tour that followed was one of the largest of the decade. The Endless River (2014), built mainly from instrumental music recorded during the Division Bell sessions in 1993, entered the British chart at number one with 139,000 copies in its first week and the American chart at number 3 with 170,000.

What changed on the records

The clearest difference is not the sound but the authorship. Across the 1970s Waters moved from co-writer to sole lyricist: by Animals and The Wall the words are his, and on The Final Cut so is every song. After 1985 that role had to be filled from outside. On A Momentary Lapse of Reason Gilmour wrote the music and worked with several outside lyricists; on The Division Bell most of the words came from Polly Samson, writing with him; The Endless River is almost entirely instrumental. Whatever you think of the results, the two eras are organised differently: one is built around a single author with a subject, the other around a guitarist assembling a record.

Where to start with each era

Waters era: Wish You Were Here (1975). Four songs, two of them long, and the most approachable of the run that includes Dark Side, Animals and The Wall. If it lands, The Dark Side of the Moon is the obvious next step and Animals the one for anyone who wants the band at its most severe.

Gilmour era: The Division Bell (1994). The record where the three-piece sounds settled rather than provisional, and the one that produced the Grammy-winning instrumental “Marooned” and the closing “High Hopes”. A Momentary Lapse of Reason is the place to hear the transition itself, with its 2019 remix offering a rearranged version of the same album.

For the whole catalogue in order there is my guide to Pink Floyd albums ranked, and where to start with Pink Floyd is the shorter way in.

The two men apart

Both sides kept working, which gives the argument a second front. Waters has toured The Wall and Dark Side material with his own bands for decades, with other guitarists taking Gilmour’s parts. Gilmour has made solo albums and concert films, and my guides to his best guitar solos and to the Comfortably Numb solo follow that thread. The four members played together once more at Live 8 in July 2005, the first time since 1981.

Go deeper

For the band itself, start with the Pink Floyd band guide, the best Pink Floyd albums and the best Pink Floyd songs. For the same argument elsewhere, see the hub of prog rock’s great era debates and the piece on line-up changes that improved a band; and if you would rather compare bands than eras, there is Pink Floyd vs Genesis. The full story of British progressive rock, Pink Floyd included, is told in Beyond the Thames, the second book in my Beyond the Sound series.

Want the full story of Pink Floyd and the British scene? The books map every era →

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