Pink Floyd's Rick Wright dies aged 65

Pink Floyd's keyboardist and occasional singer and songwriter Rick Wright has died aged 65.

The musician, who formed the influential band with Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Syd Barrett in 1965, passed away today (September 15) after battling with cancer.

A spokesman said: "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."

As well as playing keyboards, Wright contributed a number of songs to the band in their early years, including 'Paint Box', 'Remember A Day' and 'Summer '68', and also contributed prominent vocals to the band's 1971 23-minute classic 'Echoes'.

He will most likely be remembered primarily for 'The Great Gig In The Sky', his stately song on 1973's million-selling 'Dark Side Of The Moon'.

Although his influence in the band declined, and he was eventually forced to leave as a full-time member during sessions for 1979's 'The Wall', Wright returned as a session musician and rejoined the band when Roger Waters left, performing on hit albums including 1994's 'The Division Bell'.

After the '70s line-up reunited for a one-off gig at 2005's Live 8, Wright has recently been seen regularly performing with Pink Floyd singer and guitarist David Gilmour.

The keyboardist also released a handful of solo albums and worked on albums by founding member Syd Barrett, who died in 2006.

Stay tuned to NME.COM for a full obituary, plus see our sister site Uncut.co.uk for more.