Roger Waters

Roger Waters is best known as a founding member of Pink Floyd. After Syd Barrett left the band, Waters and David Gilmour engineered a change in their musical direction that would see them become one of the biggest-selling rock bands in the world. Their 1973 album Dark Side Of The Moon was hugely acclaimed by critics and went on to sell 40 million albums, becoming the fifth biggest-selling album ever. The follow-up, Wish You Were Here, was also a massive success, going on to sell 12 million units. Waters wrote the lyrics and helped compose the music on both these records. He went on to take more control of the musical direction for albums such as The Wall (1979), which sold 30 million albums worldwide. However, over time personal problems erupted between members of the group, resulting in Waters' departure in 1985 due to "irreconcilable differences".

Since Pink Floyd, Waters has sporadically released solo concept albums, to limited success. In 1990, he financed and organised a gigantic commemorative concert to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall. With a host of famous guests, he performed The Wall in full at Postdamer Platz, a square that had, until a year previously, spent three decades in "no-mans land". Anywhere between 3-500,000 people were in attendance, and a further 500 million people watched the concert live on TV across the world. After Waters recouped his initial outlay, all profits were donated to war charities.

In 2005, Waters reunited with Pink Floyd for the first time in 24 years to perform six songs at the Live 8 charity show at Hyde Park, London. In 2006 he toured the world performing Dark Side Of The Moon in full.