David Gilmour Comments on Death of Richard Wright

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has issued the following statement regarding the death of keyboardist Richard Wright:

"No one can replace Richard Wright. He was my musical partner and my friend.

"In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten.

"He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.

"I have never played with anyone quite like him. The blend of his and my voices and our musical telepathy reached their first major flowering in 1971 on Echoes. In my view all the greatest PF moments are the ones where he is in full flow. After all, without "Us and Them" and "The Great Gig in the Sky," both of which he wrote, what would The Dark Side of the Moon have been? Without his quiet touch the album Wish You Were Here would not quite have worked.

"In our middle years, for many reasons he lost his way for a while, but in the early Nineties, with The Division Bell, his vitality, spark and humour returned to him and then the audience reaction to his appearances on my tour in 2006 was hugely uplifting and it's a mark of his modesty that those standing ovations came as a huge surprise to him, (though not to the rest of us).

"Like Rick, I don't find it easy to express my feelings in words, but I loved him and will miss him enormously."

• David Gilmour
• Monday 15th September 2008

Wright died on Monday, September 15, at his home in Britain after a long battle with cancer. He was 65.