The progressive rock pioneer Pink Floyd was in a big crisis in the late 70s. The egos of the band members led to so many acrimonies. It was at the point where the band was almost broken. While such bands enjoy lots of commercial sales and hits, they still undergo financial crises.
Pink Floyd was not an exception. In the late 70s, the band almost went broke. The experience was very similar to Genesis. Genesis was a big name back then. They were publicly famous and commercially successful. But due to the poor financial management of their manager, they almost went bankrupt.
Forty years ago in 1979, Pink Floyd released their 11th studio album, ‘The Wall’. It featured 26 tracks and became the No.2 bestselling double album in history. But back then, they were almost broke while producing that album. By 79, they had various successful alums. With hits like 1973’s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’, and 1975’s ‘Wish You Were Here.’ They were critically very successful but still, they were at a point of a financial crisis.
The management of such crucial stuff is handled by someone else in the band. The operation of such things is something bands cannot handle for themselves. Financial advisors are hired for those matters. That’s when Pink Floyd gave the management of finance to a group of advisors.
However, things took a U-turn when they realized the band was on the verge of bankruptcy during the production of their album, ‘The Wall’. David disclosed this particular event back in 2000. In an interview with Weekend Knack magazine, David discussed.
“It was our own fault. Pure stupidity. We let others take care of our money. We thought we handled our money with care. We had everything under control, didn’t we? The financial experts we appointed made a mess of our administration, and the British tax wanted us to be caught. If we didn’t take action right on time, we would have been bankrupt. But everyone makes mistakes.”
To talk about ‘The Wall’ was inspired by an incident that took place during the ‘In the Flesh’ tour. Waters was annoyed by the firecrackers during the stage event. Also, he had a feeling that the audience was not listening to their music. That’s when Waters tried to build a wall between himself and his fans.
That’s when Waters created a 90-minute demo and the band members agreed to make the album. The idea behind the album was Waters’ and Syd Barrett’s life story. Some lyrics also talked about the death of his father. The walls embodied Water’s defense mechanisms built against people who could hurt him.
The financial problems were very clear. They had to hope their next album would help them. And it did.
Pink Floyd worked their way out of all the problems they had. And today, ‘The Wall’ is considered one of the best albums in rock history. However, it was the very last time the four members recorded an album together. Gilmour and Mason later on recorded three more albums under the name Pink Floyd but none would match the critical success of ‘The Wall’.
