Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died aged 65 from cancer reports the BBC. Wright appeared on the group's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, in 1967 alongside lead guitarist Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and Nick Mason. Dave Gilmour joined the band at the start of 1968 while Barrett left the group shortly afterwards. Gilmour said: "He was such a lovely, gentle, genuine man and will be missed terribly by so many who loved him." Writing on his website, he added: "And that's a lot of people. Did he not get the loudest, longest round of applause at the end of every show in 2006?" Wright's spokesman said in a statement: "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." He did not say what form of cancer the self-taught keyboard player and pianist had. Wright, a founder member of The Pink Floyd Sound - and other previous incarnations including Sigma 6 - met Waters and Mason at architecture school. Pink Floyd achieved legendary status with albums including 1973's The Dark Side Of The Moon, which stayed in the US album chart for more than a decade.
