Roger Waters Biography

Birth of Roger Waters, later bassist, lyricist and conceptual leader of Pink Floyd

Waters plays in early student bands that lead toward the formation of Pink Floyd

Waters performs as the group adopts the Pink Floyd name from blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council

Pink Floyd make their debut appearance using that name with the line-up of Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Rick Wright, the venue is the Countdown Club in London's Palace Gate

Pink Floyd gets its first billing at London's Marquee Club

Pink Floyd sign a management contract with Peter Jenner and Andrew King

Two days of recording at Sound Techniques studio in Chelsea with Joe Boyd, the tracks recorded are "Interstellar Overdrive", "Arnold Layne", "Let's Roll Another One" (later to be called "Candy And A Currant Bun") and "Nick's Boogie"

Granada's TV documentary on the UFO club and underground scene is broadcast

Pink Floyd sign to EMI records with an advance of GBP 5,000

"Arnold Layne" is released backed by "Candy And A Currant Bun"

"The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" is released

Pink Floyd release Apples and Oranges as a late Syd Barrett-era single

Waters contributes to A Saucerful of Secrets as Pink Floyd shifts beyond the Barrett period

"Point Me At The Sky" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" are recorded at Abbey Road Studios

Pink Floyd perform at Mothers Club in Birmingham; recordings later appear on Ummagumma.

"Ummagumma" is released

Studio sessions in Rome for the soundtrack of "Zabriskie Point"

"Relics" is released. Waters collaborates with British composer Ron Geesin, who co-wrote Pink Floyd's title suite from Atom Heart Mother, on a soundtrack album, Music from "The Body", which consisted mostly of instrumentals interspersed with songs composed by Waters

"Relics" is released

"Atom Heart Mother" is premiered at the Bath Festival

Pink Floyd play to 20,000 people at a free concert in London's Hyde Park

Pink Floyd release Atom Heart Mother in the United Kingdom

"Atom Heart Mother" is released

"Meddle" is released

Recording starts at Chateau d'Herouville outside Paris for the soundtrack of "Obscured By Clouds", the album is finished by the 29th

Eight days of recording and filming starts in a Roman amphitheatre for "Pink Floyd Live At Pompeii"

"Obscured By Clouds" is released

Sessions start at Studio 2 in Abbey Road on "Eclipse", the original title of "Dark Side Of The Moon"

Pink Floyd release The Dark Side of the Moon in the United Kingdom

"Dark Side Of The Moon" performed at Earls Court, London

"Dark Side Of The Moon" Released

"Dark Side Of The Moon" hits number 1 in the Billboard album chart

Pink Floyd abandon most of the Household Objects project and move toward new material

Syd Barrett unexpectedly visits Abbey Road while Pink Floyd work on material for Wish You Were Here

Roger Waters pre-empts Punk by spitting at the audience, stunned by his own actions, he starts to think of building a polythene wall between himself and his audience

Knebworth Festival, Pink Floyd premiere "Wish You Were Here" with the help of Spitfires, pyrotechnics and an exploding plane which flies into the stage, probably the most spectacular gig of the decade

Wish You Were Here is released; black, shrink-wrapped, anonymous

Press launch for "Animals" at Battersea Power Station

"Animals" gets a world exclusive airing on the John Peel Show

Pink Floyd begin the In the Flesh tour supporting Animals

"Animals" is released

Waters spits at a fan during the tour, helping inspire the concept behind The Wall

"Another Brick In The Wall Part II" is released, it goes straight to number one in the UK chart. It is the band's only number one

"The Wall" is finally released

Pink Floyd release The Wall, dominated by Waters's narrative concept

"Dark Side Of The Moon" breaks the record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top 100

Pink Floyd play Earls Court, the performance is filmed for inclusion in the film of "The Wall"

The world premiere of "The Wall" takes place at The Empire, Leicester Square

Roger Waters receives a BAFTA award for "Another Brick In The Wall Part II"

Roger Waters receives a BAFTA award for "Another Brick In The Wall Part II"

Roger Waters receives a BAFTA award for "Another Brick In The Wall Part II"

The last Waters-Gilmour-Mason collaboration, The Final Cut, is released

Pink Floyd release The Final Cut, the final album of the Waters-led period

Roger Waters releases his first solo single, "5.01 a.m. (The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking)"

Roger Waters releases his first solo album, "The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking"

Waters declares that he has left Pink Floyd and later contests use of the band name

Waters contributes songs and a score to the soundtrack of the movie When the Wind Blows, based on the Raymond Briggs book of the same name

A press statement is issued stating that Pink Floyd intend to continue using the name without Roger Waters and are recording their next album

Roger Waters lawyers issue a statement that Roger believes himself to be the creative driving force behind Pink Floyd and therefore he will contest the use of the name by anyone else

Waters released another concept album, Radio K.A.O.S., about a man named Billy who can hear radio waves in his head

Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters sign an agreement ending the years of dispute, Waters will receive a royalty payment every time that any images created during his time with the band are used

400,000 people watch Roger Waters stage "The Wall" in Berlins Potsdamerplatz with a variety of guests

Roger Waters issues a High Court writ against the band for breach of copyright, he claims $ 35,000 compensation for illegal use of the inflatable pig, one of his concepts, which has been used on their latest tour

"The Wall - Live In Berlin" is released

The concert takes place on Potsdamer Platz, part of the former "no-mans land" of the Berlin Wall, and features many guest superstars: The Band, Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, Van Morrison, Sin‚ad OConnor, The Scorpions, Marianne Faithfull, and Joni Mitchel. After the Berlin Wall came down Waters stages The Wall Concert in Berlin to commemorate the end of the division between East and West Germany

Waters releases "Amused to Death", about the corrupting, desensitising nature of television

The "Shine On" box set is released

To mark the Twentieth anniversary of the release of "Dark Side Of The Moon", the album is re-mastered, re-packaged and re-released

Pink Floyd are inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

Waters and Pink Floyd reunite for a performance at the Live 8 concert, they play a six-song, 23-minute set, including "Speak to Me/Breathe"/"Breathe (Reprise)", "Money", "Wish You Were Here", and "Comfortably Numb"

Waters and Pink Floyd reunite for a performance at the Live 8 concert, they play a six-song, 23-minute set, including "Speak to Me/Breathe"/"Breathe (Reprise)", "Money", "Wish You Were Here", and "Comfortably Numb"

Waters reunites with Gilmour, Mason and Wright for Pink Floyd's Live 8 performance

Releases 16 yr work, "€a Ira"

Waters plays at the American leg of the Live Earth concert, an international multi-venue concert aimed to raise awareness about global climate change, featuring the Trenton Youth Choir and his trademark inflatable pig