Pink Floyd founder member and keyboard player Richard Wright has died at the age of sixty five after suffering from cancer. A statement on behalf of his family has been released and reads as follows: "The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness that Richard died today after a short struggle with cancer. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time."
Wright appeared on Pink Floyd's first album, 1976's 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn', alongside Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason, having met Waters and Mason at architecture school.
He continued on as a member of the band following Barrett's departure and the arrival of Dave Gilmour. He did not write as many songs as his band-mates, but nonetheless wrote a number of tracks for the band's seminal album 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' as well as for the band's final studio album 'The Division Bell'.
Although he resigned from the band during sessions for 'The Wall' because of his tense relationship with Roger Waters, he later rejoined the group, and he also appeared at the band's reunion gig in 2005. During the course of his career, he also released a solo album which was well received amongst Floyd fans and also formed his own duo, Zee, which failed to achieve critical success.
Dave Gilmour said: "He was such a lovely, gentle, genuine man and will be missed terribly by so many who loved him. And that's a lot of people. Did he not get the loudest, longest round of applause at the end of every show [of Gilmour's three night Albert Hall run] in 2006?"