R.I.P., Richard Wright

Aww man... now Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright has died at 65 after a bout with cancer. They'd been pretty inactive lately, but at least the band got back together (sans Syd Barrett) for Live 8 in 2005. People have a tendency to forget about Rick's contributions, as the bigger egos had shoved him aside by the time The Wall was recorded, but he was a lot more active earlier, writing a couple of songs per album for a while and even singing lead or co-lead on songs like "Echoes" and "Astronomy Domine."

I do like this anecdote, as told in Wikipedia:

Battling both personal problems and an increasingly rocky relationship with Roger Waters, he was forced to resign from Pink Floyd during The Wall sessions by Roger Waters, who threatened to pull the plug on the album's tapes if Wright did not leave the band. However, he was retained as a salaried session musician during the subsequent live concerts to promote that album in 1980 and 1981. Ironically, Wright became the only member of Pink Floyd to profit from those hugely spectacular shows, since the net financial loss had to be borne by the three remaining "full-time" members.

Amazingly enough, that Wikipedia article actually uses the term "ironically" properly.