€1983
During and after the recording of The Final Cut, it was pretty clear that
there was no way that Dave and Roger were going to record together again.
The artistic and personal differences between the two had just grown too
strong. Whether this meant that Pink Floyd was dead or not is an open
question -- suffice to say that Floyd was certainly not going to continue
with the same membership. But there was never an offical statement
disbanding the group or stating its future intentions.
€1984
So following TFC's release, Roger went off and did his "might have been
Floyd" album, The Pros n'Cons of HitchHiking, while Dave worked on his
own solo album, About Face. Both were released in '84, and both went to
about #30 on the Billboard charts. At the time, Dave said "there are three
of us in what is laughingly called the Pink Floyd, and none of us have any
plans at the moment to work together on any project." [The three being
Rog, Dave, and Nick.]
Both Gilmour and Waters embarked on world tours, neither of which were
terribly financially successful. Dave stated "I've made this record and done
this tour to see if it was possible for me to continue without Pink Floyd."
€1985
Roger continued touring in 1985, while Dave devoted his energies to
working on projects for and with other musicians.
In mid-85, Waters decided to terminate his personal management deal
with Steve O'Rourke, who was pressuring him to make another Floyd album.
Since Steve was Pink Floyd's manager, and since Floyd had not been
officially disbanded, Roger was still contractually obligated to him. In
order to terminate this deal, he needed the assent of Dave and Nick, the
other parties to the deal.
In return, he offered them the rights to the Pink
Floyd name (later saying he did so without making the ethical
considerations he should have). At any rate, Dave and Nick would not ratify
O'Rourke's termination.
Roger then decided the way to get around this was to simply leave the
group officially, as he had unofficially, thinking it would be dead without
him. So, in December 1985, Roger wrote to the record companies and
announced his departure from Pink Floyd.
Also, in autumn of 1985, Mason said that he'd like to tour again as Pink
Floyd, stating that he and Dave were "interested in revitalizing [Pink
Floyd]...We definitely haven't agreed it's all over."
€1986
So then Roger did the (fairly rare) When the Wind Blows soundtrack, and
started work on Radio KAOS. Gilmour meanwhile started work on a project
he said publicly might either be a Floyd album or a solo album.
In mid-1986, Steve O'Rourke sued Waters for holding back commissions. If
nothing else, this certainly did nothing to brighten Waters' feelings
toward the remaining Floyd members (with whom Steve was still
associated).
Gilmour, working with Mason, Wright, Bob Ezrin, and a variety of others
had decided by this time that what they were working on was indeed to be
a new Floyd album. Learning of this work-in-progress, Roger went to the
High Court on Halloween (October 31st) 1986 to have the group
partnership, and thus the group, formally disbanded. Several days later, on
November 11, 1986, Pink Floyd (that being Gilmour and Mason, "with Rick
Wright and producer Bob Ezrin") publicly announced they were working on a
new album.
Upon finding out that the group partnership was in fact unofficial (and
thus that disbanding it would be meaningless), Roger asked the Court for a
ruling that would make the unanimous consent of all members (including
Roger) necessary for any decision regarding Pink Floyd Music, including
use of the name, concert props (like Mr. Screen), etc.
The court never actually ruled on the issue, and meanwhile Momentary
Lapse of Reason was released. Roger raised a lot of public hell, but
privately his lawyers told him he didn't really have a case, and so he
settled for a compromise: Dave and Pink Floyd agreed to give Roger sole
jurisdiction over the Wall theatrical concept, and of course to pay
royalties for those songs they played that Roger had been credited on. And
while Floyd retained the use of the circular screen and other (non-Wall)
concert elements, they were forced to give Roger credit for the "original
pig concept" used in "One of These Days..."
And I think that's about it... I ignored several issues (Ezrin and Wright's
involvement, "the record company meeting," etc.) that I don't think are
legally relevent -- info on them can be found in the articles and
interviews at ftp.halcyon.com. The degree to which they're morally
relevent, and the question of whether reviving Pink Floyd was "good," are
matters I leave to your judgement...