Little is known of David Gilmour, Rick Wright, Nick Mason and Roger Waters beyond their music. They gave, and give, no interviews, endorse no particular style of living, and are apparently immune to the appeals of fan magazines. The group's most extraordinary aspect, however, was not its music, but the decision by its four members to remain relatively anonymous. On tour, the theatricality of Pink Floyd was never in dispute, and required, in fact, 11 tons of lightning and amplification equipment. It produced hit albums ('Dark Side of the Moon' and 'Animals') thatwere characterized as psychedelic, electronically imaginative, and 'mellow'in the appropriately dopey way. By 1967, Pink Floyd had adopted the light show as part of its performance routine, and was the first English ensemble to do so. It was founded in 1965, a year in which many of its most devoted fans were born,to play rhythm and blues.

Still, it is entirely posible that other-wise well-informed persons - National Symphony subscribers who readtwo newspaperss on Sunday and intend to vote in November - have altogether escaped Pink Floyd until now.

It rides on a jack-booted bass-line, and it is that chant of menace and cold intention that now reverberates from the dairy farms of New Zealand to the boulevards of Rome to the lanes of McLean, Va. It is not a gentle message, and thereis no irony in its delivery. The central statement of 'The Wall,' inescapable on AM and FM radio and in spot television advertisements, is contained in a refrain sung by children: We don't want no education We don't want no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teachers leave the kids alone.

1 in Italy, Germany, Canada, Australia, Sweden and New Zealand. 1 on the chart after 17 weeks, with more than 2 million units sold. IT IS AS simple as this: Pink Floyd's album, 'The Wall,' dominates the popular music of the Western World.

1980s pink floyd the wall album cover