Chicago, September 1987, with Brain Damage's Richard Ashton and Glenn Povey.

The door opens and in files Nick Mason, David Gilmour and Rick Wright with Steve O'Rourke and a few other persons. I came face to face with Nick, but only for a brief hello, goodbye. Then Steve came up to us and we explained who we were and asked if we could hang on a while, while he talked to the American folk. Great stuff, but what we didn't realise was that Rick didn't enter the room any further than where we were; he seemed disinterested in chatting to all these reps. So we took our chance and fired away, after introducing ourselves...

Glenn: So, what's it like being back on the road, is it good to be back in the band?

Rick Wright: Yes, it is.

Richard: Why didn't you get a full credit on the album?

Rick Wright: I'm not really back in the band yet because they asked me if I would help out on the LP which they had already started, so the tour is an additional favour as well; but I'm free to come and go as I please without being bound, and I'll consider the situation after the tour and maybe rejoin.

Richard: How is the tour? Is it like, well today is Friday so it must be Chicago?

Rick Wright: It hasn't got to that stage yet. It's too early in the tour, that'll come later.

Richard: I thought the Wet Dream album was a really sweet, nice album.

Rick Wright: Thank you.

Glenn: So, any chance of another solo project?

Rick Wright: If I do another solo, I'll get some decent musicians...

- At which point, David Gilmour and Steve O'Rourke reappear, and we introduce ourselves again...

Glenn: ...And we publish Brain Damage Magazine.

Steve O'Rourke: Yes, we guessed that!

- They both look us up and down.

Steve O'Rourke: I see you've got T-shirts now.

Glenn: Yes, nice design.

Steve O'Rourke: Who's responsible for them? Who gave you permission to print them?

Richard: Oh, that was Glenn.

Glenn: (Cheers Richard) Good heavens, is that the time?!

Steve O'Rourke: As long as they're just for the magazine I guess.

Richard: Well, I don't think you'll miss the royalties on a couple of T-shirts!

David Gilmour: Maybe we could throw them in prison for a couple of years!

Richard: Wow! David Gilmour sends me to jail! Thanks David!

Glenn: So, we were really wondering if we could have ten minutes with the band for a chat sometime.

Steve O'Rourke: I think we can do that. C'mon we'll do it now.

- Moves us out of the door and downstairs...

Glenn: Ah! We haven't got our tape recorder!

Steve O'Rourke: Oh, c'mon, shut up and get down the stairs!

Richard: I see you've changed spectacles since I last saw you?

Steve O'Rourke: Is that all that's changed?

David Gilmour: He's a little bit thinner on top now.

- So we went downstairs and through a corridor, past the party room and to the end where in a small room a saxophone and guitar was set up as well as a rowing machine. Steve left us.

Glenn: Is that yours as well?

David Gilmour: Yes. This is what we do for a little bit of a work out.

Richard: Really? Doesn't look as if it's working.

- Nice bit of rapport going on; we all sat down. David pulls up a chair, Richard on the floor, and myself (Glenn) on the rowing machine. Neither of us recalls quite how the following conversation began, but we somehow drifted onto the Roger Waters problem!

David Gilmour: The real problem is that there is no problem. It goes back, well, you know the whole "When The Wind Blows" thing?

Glenn & Richard: Yes?

David Gilmour: The situation is, is that Virgin wanted to release the soundtrack, and in order to do so, CBS or EMI made him sign a piece of paper on the case saying essentially, if you want to put this soundtrack out on another label, not to interfere with Pink Floyd being Pink Floyd, or pursuing any activities in the name of Pink Floyd, which Roger signed and agreed to. So, although there is still a court case, it really is all over.

[David is drinking a can of Pepsi] It's like this can of Pepsi. If you're a director of Pepsi Cola and you suddenly quit the company, that doesn't mean you can sue the rest of the company from being Pepsi Cola. You don't go away and form your own Pepsi Cola just 'cos you quit.

[Flings a perfect shot with the can straight into the dustbin on the other end of the room. What a showman!] It's like Peter Gabriel leaving Genesis. No one turns around to the others and says to them you can't be Genesis anymore.

Glenn: Different circumstances though.

David Gilmour: Well yes.

Glenn: Any chance of a live video this tour?

David Gilmour: We might. We haven't thought about it yet.

Richard: Well, you don't milk everything like Genesis do in that line.

David Gilmour: Yes, they're pretty terrible! What is also very stupid is that any decisions made by the board, we have to call a full board meeting because there are now two Pink Floyd companies. The old one and the new one. The old one we all belong to and the new one. Anything to do with the old one of which Roger is a shareholder, we have to call a meeting. We invite Roger, who condescends to come along, and we all sit around a table with our respective lawyers and we have a vote on the issue. Roger says no, and myself and Nicky say yes, and we all go home. It is such a stupid waste of time.

Richard: What do you think of Radio KAOS? Do you think it could have been a Pink Floyd album?

David Gilmour: Maybe, it's OK, it's better than Pros and Cons.

Richard: What about Eric Clapton. Do you feel offended that Eric was just used to broaden that as a substitute for yourself?

David Gilmour: No, I've played with Eric Clapton. He's got every right to do it, and Roger had every right to ask him.

Glenn: And Floyd never thought of recording Pros and Cons?

David Gilmour: The demo's for both The Wall and Pros and Cons were unlistenable, a shitty mess. The demo's for both sounded exactly alike, you couldn't tell them apart. I mean we thought of recording Pros and Cons at a later date, but as it turned out Roger preferred to go off and do it as a solo project. So we had to put a hell of a lot of work into that. And on The Wall there was a song that Bob Ezrin never got credited for, "Is There Anybody Out There"; Roger never credited him for that.

Glenn & Richard: What?! Why?!

David Gilmour: Roger never used to credit anyone yet he was always fussy about the credit for himself. I never had the time to worry about it, that sort of thing. I never used to quibble about it. On Animals for instance Roger took the credits for everything. Let's say that I wrote about 70% of Sheep. At least half of that album I played bass on and Roger was hardly ever in the studio during the recording of Animals.

Glenn & Richard: You're kidding?!

David Gilmour: I played bass on almost all of the Pink Floyd albums, which is where Roger forgets that other people had HUGE, VAST amounts of input, but at that time I never worried, as long as the product was completed.

Richard: Why were there so many outsiders with the writing credits on the new album?

Glenn: And not so much of Nick and Rick?

David Gilmour: Well, it's all the same thing. There is never a percentage breakdown of who wrote what and who played this and that. Essentially myself, Nick and Bob [Ezrin] had started the backbone of it. They were mostly songs I had written, but we played in the studio for a long time and invited people to play along a bit and thought it only fair to credit people for that input. We never sat down and called people up to do any particular thing, as the bulk of it is my work, just that my attitude is different in crediting people to that of Roger's.

Richard: Did you have any problems with the album after such a long absence and the success of The Wall and Dark Side?

David Gilmour: No, not at all. It was just a natural continuation. There was no pressure, we just went ahead and spent a lot of time in the studio on the album.

Glenn: And the tour?

David Gilmour: Perhaps a bit early to say, obviously we're very pleased with the album that it's selling well, it's better in those terms than The Final Cut, and we're getting a lot of airplay.

Glenn: And what about the bad publicity you're getting in England?

David Gilmour: Well, we'll worry about that when we eventually come round to playing in Europe. There's not a lot we can do about it from here, but we're pleased that it's charting in England and the States. But this tour is really financing the European tour on advance tickets.

Glenn: So where to after America?

David Gilmour: We go to Australia and New Zealand, possibly Japan.

Glenn: And Europe after that?

David Gilmour: In the summer.

Richard: And plans after the tour?

David Gilmour: We haven't really. We'll wait until the tour is over. It's a two year project. The bulk of the work is done, the making of the album was the hard work, the tour is the easy part; but this project will finish in 1988, but we can't think beyond that at the moment, but take a very long vacation.

- Steve O'Rourke pokes his head round the door.

Steve O'Rourke: C'mon Dave, it's time to earn some money!

- So we left the room and thanked everyone for their time and trouble, but not before asking David to slap his autograph on the programme.

David Gilmour: I never used to sign things, but I spent more energy refusing to do it, that I may as well have done it in the first place!

And so our meeting ended. We headed for our seats and enjoyed a breath-taking show, only wishing we had seen it before the interview, which would have raised some interesting questions. But, there is always another time. Thank you David, Nick, Rick, and Steve for a great time.