THE ORIGINAL CRAZY DIAMONDS

Some 52 years since the moon went dark, an exhaustive and entertaining new Pink Floyd biography unravels the rows, rivalries and mania of one of the world's biggest-selling bands

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UNSTABLE GENIUS: Singer and heavy LSD user Syd Barrett, second right, in the studio with Roger, Nick and Rick in 1967, the year before he left the band

Journalist Mark Blake has interviewed all of Pink Floyd and many of their associates for his new oral history, Shine On. And Blake insists that Pink Floyd aren’t as earnest as their reputation suggests with their sporting prowess extending to having their own tough-tackling football team.

“The squash story is hilarious,” Blake tells the Express. “Roger was obsessed with the fact he’d book a squash court for half an hour, wait around for 12 minutes for Storm to show up, then have to immediately get changed back out of his squash gear as Storm was too late to get a proper game going. Anyone can get cross over timekeeping, and that story is classic bickering that anyone can identify with.”

Waters and guitarist David Gilmour’s feuding has been relentless ever since Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985, but they were able to get along on the football pitch in the 1970s for the amateur team World’s End Wanderers, started by Pink Floyd’s tour manager, Tony Howard.

“I love that David generally seen as a reserved character was such a hardman on the football pitch that his nickname was ‘Chopper Gilmour’,” Blake chuckles.

“It says something about the band’s dynamics that team photos show that David and Roger seem to look more committed to the game than the other members of the band.”

When Waters left, he was surprised and hurt that Gilmour took over as Pink Floyd’s singer, with drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright also staying in the band. They carried on for two more successful albums, calling it quits after a stadium tour for their final record The Division Bell in 1994.