David Gilmour has claimed Pink Floyd were “bullied” by their record label to release their final album, ‘The Endless River’, as a “properly paid-for record”.
The 78-year-old rocker – who joined the legendary prog rock group in 1967 – believes the 2014 record was wrongly promoted as a follow-up to 1994’s ‘The Division Bell’, when in fact, it was just a continuation of instrumental and ambient music recorded in the same sessions for its predecessor.
Engineer Andy Jackson originally edited the music into an hour-long ambient composition tentatively titled ‘The Big Spliff’, but the ‘Comfortably Numb’ group decided not to release it, though two of the tracks do appear as bonus tracks on the deluxe edition of ‘The Endless River’.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Gilmour said of his latest solo album ‘Luck and Strange’: “Hope you like this album better than The Endless River.”
He then explained: “A lot of fans wanted this stuff that we’d done in that time, and we thought we’d give it to them.
“My mistake, I suppose, was in being bullied by the record company to have it out as a properly paid-for Pink Floyd record. It should have been clear what it was — it was never intended to be the follow-up to ‘The Division Bell.’ But, you know, it’s never too late to get caught in one of these traps again.”
The album was released following the departure of the bassist, Roger Waters, in 1985, and the first following the death of keyboardist, Richard Wright, in 2008, who made a posthumous appearance.
While promoting the record, Pink Floyd transferred to the Parlophone Label Group during the sale of EMI to Universal Music Group.
Then, Warner Music Group agreed a deal with Universal to buy the Parlophone Label Group from EMI, acquiring publishing rights to Pink Floyd’s back catalog and future releases.
Last month, it was revealed that Pink Floyd had sold their music catalogue to Sony Music for a whopping $400 million.
Gilmour said of the sale: “This stuff is for future generations. I’m an old person.
“I’ve spent the last 40-odd years trying to fight the good fight against the forces of indolence and greed to do the best with our stuff that you can do. And I’ve given that fight up now.”
The sale was agreed after a tax dispute between Gilmour and Waters, 81, as well as drummer Nick Mason, 80, and the estates of Wright and founder Roger ‘Syd’ Barrett, who died in 2006.