The Division Bell

The Division Bell is the fourteenth studio album by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on 28 March 1994 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and on 5 April by Columbia Records in the United States. The second Pink Floyd album recorded without the founder member Roger Waters, The Division Bell was written mostly by the guitarist and singer, David Gilmour, and the keyboardist, Richard Wright. It features Wright's first lead vocal on a Pink Floyd album since The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). Gilmour's fiancée, the novelist Polly Samson, co-wrote many of the lyrics, which deal with themes of communication. It was the last Pink Floyd studio album to be composed of entirely new material, and the last recorded with Wright, who died in 2008. Recording took place in locations including Pink Floyd's Britannia Row Studios and Gilmour's houseboat, Astoria. The production team included longtime Pink Floyd collaborators such as the producer Bob Ezrin, the engineer Andy Jackson, the saxophonist Dick Parry and the bassist Guy Pratt. The Division Bell received mixed reviews, but reached number one in more than 10 countries, including the UK and the US. In the US, it was certified double platinum in 1994 and triple platinum in 1999. To promote the album, the band embarked on the Division Bell Tour two days after its release, with concerts in North America and Europe; the tour sold more than 5 million tickets and made around $100 million in gross income. Pulse, a live album and video recorded during the final London dates, was released in 1995. Unused material from the album sessions became part of Pink Floyd's next and final album, The Endless River (2014).