By John Reed and Patti Waldmeir
Published: November 3 2008 02:00
Everyone agrees the world needs greener cars and Wang Chuanfu believes he is the man to deliver them – by combining Chinese brains and hard work with Warren Buffett’s money.
Just over a month ago – when the Dow Jones index fell nearly 7 per cent, one of Wall Street’s worst days – Mr Buffett’s Mid-American Energy Holdings bought a 10 per cent stake in BYD, the company that Mr Wang founded.
BYD is a global leader in rechargeable battery technology and a rising star of the Chinese auto industry. Mr Buffett’s investment is a clear vote of confidence that Mr Wang – an engineer-turned-entrepreneur – can combine batteries and cars to lead a green revolution in electric vehicles. The move electrified the Hong Kong stock market: shares in BYD, which is 25 per cent owned by Mr Wang, rose by 42 per cent.
On a Saturday morning recently at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, in the industrial hinterland just across the border from Hong Kong, Mr Wang made clear he sees his company as a symbol of the passing of the baton of industrial leadership from mature western economies to China.
Sitting at the end of a long boardroom table stocked with Diet Coke for visitors, his short-sleeved shirt complete with ballpoint pen in the pocket, the bespectacled 42-year-old Mr Wang looks more like a Chinese Bill Gates than a polished car-industry executive such as Carlos Ghosn. Mr Buffett is clearly betting that he will be the geek who launches the next revolution in automotive technology.
The quietly spoken Mr Wang says his goal is to make BYD the world’s largest car company by 2025. “For new-energy cars, we believe we can become the global leader,” he says. “From the technology standpoint, 10 years should be enough.” He is positioning himself at the centre of the automotive industry’s impending shift into plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries, a move due to bring some of the fastest technological changes in a century of automotive history.
Asked to sum up how BYD built its business, he offers a modest response. “We are a typical Chinese company,” he says. “We are smart and we work hard. We took advantage of the situation.”
But his unassuming words mask a cultural pride: Mr Wang says Chinese companies are smarter and work harder than their western competitors. He says China’s main advantages are the size of its market and the quality of its people; 5m graduates leave Chinese universities every year, “more than the population of some European countries”, he says. And they will work for much lower salaries than their western or Japanese competitors.
BYD employs 10,000 engineers, half of them working on cars, and Mr Wang says he will have 30,000 automotive engineers within a decade. His US and Japanese competitors cannot afford to hire so many, he says. “The cost is too high.”
BYD recruits most managers straight out of university, trains them on the job and lodges new graduates in a high-rise dormitory-style building adjacent to the factory.
Thirteen years ago, when he founded the company, Mr Wang lacked even the capital to import an automated battery production line from Japan. Today his company is the world’s largest producer of mobile phone batteries – with 30 per cent of the market – and the second-largest producer of rechargeable batteries to power electronic goods such as laptop computers. And perhaps even more surprisingly, BYD – which produced its first branded car in 2005 – sold more cars than any other Chinese carmaker in September. That monthly milestone, achieved largely through the launch of BYD’s new F0 subcompact, is unlikely to be sustained in the near term; but JD Power, the leading auto consultancy, still expects BYD sales to grow by more than 50 per cent this year.
Trained as a researcher in Beijing, Mr Wang founded BYD in 1995, when China’s government was opening its economy to the world. “At that time Shenzhen was a hot place,” he says. “There was a gold rush here.”
Frustrated by the lack of funding available to government researchers, Mr Wang borrowed money from a relative and set up on his own making nickel batteries. He used semi-automated equipment that he pieced together after reading technical publications. BYD put Japan’s incumbent battery producers on the defensive. It faced down lawsuits by Sony in Japan and by Sanyo in the US, the latter put to rest in an out-of-court settlement.
With the market for smaller lithium–ion batteries now cornered, Mr Wang is focusing much of BYD’s energy on alternative-fuel cars. With world attention focused on greener options than the internal combustion engine, Mr Wang feels his expertise in battery production will give him an unstoppable advantage in the arena of electric cars. BYD will launch a plug-in hybrid car later this year, with sales in the US and European Union to follow in 2011. An all-electric model, the E6, will be launched in China in 2009.
BYD will be competing with plug-in models produced by Renault, Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, and General Motors, which plans to make its Volt model in China. Mr Wang says he is ready. “I believe Chinese companies can become leaders in the alternative car business because we make good batteries,” he says. More experienced carmakers are struggling with such issues as the speed of charging and durability of automotive batteries – which need to last far longer than in laptops – in their prototype plug-in cars.
Mr Wang’s competitors may disagree, pointing out that the fit and finish of BYD’s models falls far below the standard of vehicles produced by established carmakers. “They’ve got a long way to go on rattles, squeaks, comfort, fuel economy, acceleration, and smoothness of ride – all the things that take a long time to get right,” says the China head of one leading foreign carmaker who has ridden in BYD’s cars, but requests anonymity.
A test drive of a prototype E6 by the Financial Times around BYD’s parking lot confirms this view. The car is quiet and efficient, but its handling and quality of finish fall short of most foreign carmakers’ models. BYD vehicles could face substantial hurdles to widespread acceptance in the US and Europe, especially after recent scandals over Chinese products, such as milk.
And, given cases of exploding lithium-ion batteries in laptops, the potential product liability risk of electric cars faced by carmakers – Chinese or not – is huge.
Mr Wang deflects the point firmly. “We’re the only battery maker that has never had a recall,” he says, leaving unspoken the names of Sanyo and Sony, which have both had expensive recalls. “We’re very confident of the quality of the batteries.”
He acknowledges BYD has a long way to go in building its brand to compete with foreign ones with decades of consumer awareness and marketing experience. On the other hand, he says, plug-in cars present a blank canvas of sorts.
“We’re talking new cars and ever-yone is starting from the same point,” he says.
Additional reporting by Justine Lau
Life of leisure just wouldn’t play well for boss of the batteries
Wang Chuanfu is all work and no play – and proud of it.
He says his punishing seven-days-a-week schedule is par for the course in China. “Maybe in the Western world, life is number one and work is number two,” he says one bright Saturday morning at the bustling headquarters of BYD, his battery-cum-car company in Shenzhen. “But in China, work is number one and life is number two,” he adds. “Especially in my generation. I don’t know if the next generation will be the same. I enjoy working very much, if you ask me to go sightseeing for a day I probably wouldn’t enjoy it.”
In the rare moments when not at the office, Mr Wang lives in a modest penthouse flat in the “workers’ village” with his wife and daughter.
Mr Wang spurns the trappings enjoyed by many of his western peers, such as corporate jets and expensive clothes.
He does, however, own three Mercedes-Benz cars and a Lexus, which he says he owns because he likes to take them apart to figure out how they work. He also wears an Adidas watch, which displays the time of different cities so that he knows whether it is day or night in BYD’s overseas offices.
Mr Wang’s success in becoming one of China’s leading entrepreneurs has surpassed his ambitions. “I had dreams,” he says, “but nothing this big.”
SAN JOSE, Calif.–The West Coast Green 2008 building show
SAN JOSE, Calif.–The West Coast Green 2008 building show kicked off on Thursday, for the first time in this city with one of the nation’s most ambitious “greening” plans.
During our sneak peek at some of the 400 exhibits, products that caught our attention included a device that seemed to make water out of thin air, a solar-powered table, home energy automation systems, and better concrete blocks. Check out the video below for more.
Element Four
Element Four claims to extract water from the air. Its Watermill appliance is supposed to supply enough water daily to quench the needs of a six-person family. It costs around 35 cents to produce more than 3 gallons of drinking water each day, according to the British Columbia-based company. The Watermill is set to become available next February for around $1,300.
CEO Rick Howard said he’d like to create different versions of the 300-watt Watermill, perhaps powered by the sun or wind. He sees the technology as ideal for household use during emergencies, as well as for people in the developing world. It could even customize flavored water, Howard added.
As air enters the Watermill, humidity condenses on a patented coil, and passes into a reservoir. Water passes through a carbon filter and past a germ-killing UV light. The product could be hooked up to a kitchen faucet.
Most drinking water technologies, by contrast, take dirty or salty water, or even sludge, then purify it.
Intelligent Forms
This Vancouver design firm’s $14,000 solar panel-topped table could become a fixture on the decks of cruise ships and on poolside patios of the well-heeled and eco-chic. The weather-sealed, stainless-steel shell encases a 110-volt outlet and USB ports meant for a laptop and various gadgets. Beneath the SOlo lounge table’s top are an inverter and 18 batteries of 12 volts each.
“Everything we did we tried to stick with local suppliers and as much recycled content as we could,” said co-founder and designer Keith Doyle.
Adura Technologies
Adura Technologies of San Francisco specializes in wireless lighting controls for commercial buildings, which make up nearly 20 percent of U.S. energy consumption and carbon emissions. The system can be installed within light fixtures, without running wires or tearing up walls, and controlled remotely with an iPod or other handheld device. The company, a 2005 winner of the California Clean Tech Open competition, is closing a $5 million Series A round of financing.
Agilewaves
Agilewaves of Menlo Park, Calif., makes energy monitoring systems to help homeowners see and control their use of gas, water, and electricity. At West Coast Green, Agilewaves demonstrated its product within a showcase home made from five shipping containers.
The company integrated its product this summer with home control systems from Crestron.
“We can now truly make a smart home,” said David Brock, chief technology officer. “You may set up your carbon budget, and this system will tell the home control system that it needs to reduce the carbon footprint. Maybe that means reducing your lights by 20 percent by turning off nonessential appliances.”
Integrity Block
Integrity Block of Los Altos, Calif., aims to build more sustainable buildings from the bottom up by reinventing the lowly concrete block. Cement manufacturing increasingly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, and cement can’t be recycled easily. Integrity Block, by contrast, says it uses an engineered soil composite, including recycled materials, resulting in 40 percent fewer carbon emissions.
“We have a block that’s inherently sustainable,” said company co-founder Randy Schmitz.
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is on the advisory board of Integrity Block, which raised $2.7 million in capital in June.
Partnership to advance power technology for mobile and embedded electronic devices
Lockheed Martin and Infinite Power Solutions (IPS) announced the signing of a cooperative agreement to apply unique Micro Energy Cell products from IPS to systems and solutions that Lockheed Martin is developing for military and civil applications.
“We believe that this cooperation will result in a new class of networked, mobile electronic devices that can take advantage of energy harvesting to reduce the burden of battery weight and power management for our customers,” said John Mengucci, president of Lockheed Martin IS&GS’ Mission & Combat Support Solutions. “We are very excited about the opportunity to further develop this new technology to help solve one of the key challenges facing warfighters today.”
“This working agreement provides a unique opportunity for Lockheed Martin to combine its integration expertise, domain knowledge, and customer presence with IPS’ innovative solid-state, rechargeable, thin-film micro-battery technology,” said Raymond R. Johnson, president and CEO of Infinite Power Solutions, Inc.
Infinite Power Solutions, Inc. (IPS) is the global leader in developing and manufacturing solid-state, rechargeable thin-film energy storage devices (commonly known as thin-film batteries) for micro-electronic applications. Founded in 2001, IPS is a privately held company with corporate headquarters and the world’s first high-volume manufacturing facility for its thin-film micro-energy cell products (MEC(TM)) in the western suburbs of Denver, CO. Additional information about IPS is available at http://www.InfinitePowerSolutions.com.
Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2007 sales of $41.9 billion.
For decades the surest and safest mortgage has been the quiet and dull fixed-rate loan. With fixed-rate loans the monthly payment for principal and interest never changes, the interest rate stays the same, the loan balance declines every month and the threat of payment shock is non-existent.
The Sanyo Ark: Covered in 5,000 solar panels, the edifice is a working power-generation system which also houses a solar museum. But is it a genuine statement of Sanyo’s ideology or just a PR stunt?
The electronics giant is turning to rechargeable batteries and waterless washing machines, writes David McNeill in Tokyo
RIDING THE Shinkansen Bullet Train out of Tokyo along the eastern industrial corridor towards Osaka has long been one of the best and most pleasurable ways to experience Japan’s high-tech economy. Electronics giant Sanyo has added another attraction to the route: as the train barrels along at 270km/h (168m/h), it passes Sanyo’s Solar Ark, a futuristic 15m (50ft) -wide solar building that rises out of the landscape like a giant black boombox near the industrial city of Nagoya.
Simultaneously a working power-generation system and a monument to solar energy, the ark’s surface is made up of 5,000 solar panels that help power the entire facility. Inside, a museum to solar power attracts thousands of schoolchildren a year, part of what Sanyo – with a straight corporate face – calls an attempt “to live in harmony with the earth”.
The company has just emerged from a bruising battle with its founding family, ending what the Nikkei business newspaper called “six decades of nepotism”. In a spring-cleaning that shocked Japan’s staid corporate world, president Toshimasa Iue was ousted last year along with Tomoyo Nonaka, his hand-picked chairwoman. Iue’s father, 75-year-old chairman Satoshi, went the year before.
Shareholders rebelled after Sanyo posted a record net loss of about €1.16 billion in 2005, following earthquake damage to its Niigata semiconductor plant and failed investments in liquid crystal panels and microchips.
Analysts also believe that Nonaka, one of the very few women to run a Japanese company, pushed Sanyo’s conservative board too far, by attempting an ambitious restructuring linked to the environmental theme of Gaia, which holds that the planet is a self-regulating, interrelated organism. In a corporate blurb more Greenpeace than mass manufacturer, Sanyo now says it is “committed to listening to Gaia’s voice and engaging in activities that are beneficial to life and the Earth”.
Some observers have been startled at this fulsome embrace of environmentalism by a company known mainly for dour if dedicated service to churning out batteries and consumer appliances.
Long-time Tokyo tech-watcher J Mark Lytle calls it “the mother of all corporate makeovers”. Yurika Ayukawa, a leading environmental consultant who gave a presentation to Sanyo’s board in 2005, recalls that the Gaia concept was “not popular at all” among the company’s directors.
But even she acknowledges that this may be more than just a case of environmental opportunism. Sanyo’s rebranding coincided with the release of the Eneloop, a range of rechargeable batteries that have clocked up 60 million sales in less than three years and grabbed half the market for that product niche with two simple innovations: they last much longer than anything else on the shelves, and come to the shops already recharged.
The Eneloop series has expanded to include reusable solar chargers and other products, and Sanyo now makes battery packs for Nintendo’s mega-hit Wii. Expect the rest of the world to follow: just 400 million rechargeable batteries are sold globally out of total disposable sales of 40 billion, and Sanyo wants a much bigger share. And it is going after the burgeoning market for hybrid-electric car batteries in deals with Honda, Ford and Volkswagen.
Then there is Aqua, a range of state-of-the-art washing machines that clean clothes with little or no water or detergent. The trick is a drum that converts oxygen to ozone, which destroys bacteria and dirt, and recycles ozone-purified water from the rinse cycle – or even from last night’s bath. The Aqua 3,000 doesn’t come cheap – it’s about €1,300 – but its environmental appeal, and the promise of a €100 cut in annual water bills have helped make it a hit in Japan, with 210,000 units sold.
Of course nobody, least of all Sanyo, is considering a full-on Gaia revolution, which would entail abandoning our entire modern lifestyles. Still, these are the kind of innovative products that put Japan on the map, and they have helped vindicate the rebranding decision. The company plans more of the same, earmarking 70 per cent of €2.45 billion in capital spending over the next three years on solar cells, batteries, and components, as it continues to scale down production of mobile phones, white goods and LCD displays.
Solar technology, in particular, is seen as a key growth area, with €477 million set aside for capital spending on that technology alone. Production of solar panels at Sanyo’s European assembly base in Hungary will triple in the next few years. “‘Think Gaia’ is genuine,” insists Sanyo spokesman Aaron Fowles, who says that the entire company is aiming to become “carbon-neutral” by 2010.
He urges those sceptical of Sanyo’s conversion, to consider the Gaia opposite: the “blind pursuit” of convenience and comfort: “‘Think Gaia’ is more than merely a ‘green’ or ‘eco’ initiative. It really is a focus on how we can contribute to make life and the Earth be in harmony.” The rebranding comes at a crucial time. Although Sanyo returned to profitability this year, its financial problems in 2005 forced it to go cap in hand to a consortium of lenders, who bought 300 billion yen (€1,925 billion) of preferred stock – about 70 per cent of the company’s value.
So far, the new management has kept the shareholders on board, but critics will continue to pick at Sanyo’s new-found environmental credentials. The Solar Ark provides an irresistible symbol of the company’s rebranding: is it genuinely saving power or just a giant PR stunt? According to its website, the ark’s solar panels generate 530,000 kilowatt-hours of energy per year, providing power to plants within the complex, and saving money on energy bills. But Sanyo doesn’t say how much money.
Technology writer Tim Hornyak urges caution: “It’s easy to bamboozle consumers with slogans. Big companies that have these campaigns are the very ones that are trying to block governments from curbing environmental emissions, so it behooves us to look beyond these slogans, and see what are they actually doing.”
Like many other observers, and companies, in Japan, he will be watching to see if Sanyo pulls off its green revolution.
Space shuttle Atlantis is being readied on launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral for the fifth and final repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. When in orbit, four of its seven-member crew will venture into space to make five spacewalks over as many days to fix and upgrade the aging telescope. If they are successful, NASA officials expect the Hubble Space Telescope to be “at the absolute apex of its capabilities.”
Space shuttle Discovery deployed Hubble into orbit on April 25, 1990. Since then, there have been three servicing missions to the telescope for a total of four repair trips (one mission required two shuttle flights to complete).
The first mission came in December 1993, when the shuttle Endeavor flew to Hubble so astronauts could install corrective optics on the “nearsighted” telescope. Also during this first mission, the original wide-field planetary camera was replaced with its second-generation counterpart, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. In addition, Hubble’s solar panels were changed and new gyroscopes installed.
Servicing Mission two lifted off in February 1997 with the Discovery shuttle. Two spectrographs — instruments that decipher information from light — were replaced as well as a guidance sensor, data recorder and a reaction wheel.
Mission 3A flew in December 1999 also using Discovery. Again, some gyroscopes were replaced along with a fine guidance sensor. A new computer was installed in addition to a data recorder and a thermal blanket that was designed to keep the telescope cool.
Servicing Mission 3B, the most recent flight to Hubble, launched with Columbia in March 2002 and installed the Advanced Camera for Surveys, a new cooling system for NICMOS (one of the spectrometers installed in 1997) as well as replacements for the solar panels, gyroscopes and the reaction wheel.
The coming journey is the fifth visit or “Servicing Mission Four,” and will address the telescope’s current instrument and flight control problems. Mission specialists expect the telescope to be improved to such an extent that Hubble will last at least for another five years in orbit, and possibly another 10, if that option becomes available.
Currently, two of Hubble’s scientific instruments are malfunctioning, along with most of its gyroscopes, and its rechargeable batteries are weakening.
Space shuttle Atlantis will fly the fifth and, sadly, final expedition to Hubble. Atlantis is scheduled to lift off Oct. 14 and will be loaded with about 22,000 pounds of hardware to be used for the repairs and replacements. This payload includes new scientific instruments, specialized tools developed for this Hubble mission, and a rig that will hold the telescope in the Shuttle’s cargo bay once it has been grappled by the Shuttle’s robotic arm.
In an exceptional move, NASA will have Endeavor ready to launch on pad 39B in the event that a rescue mission becomes necessary. Since the Space Station is in a different orbit than Hubble, Atlantis would not be able to fly to the Space Station for refuge, if need be.
Repair Schedule
During the first spacewalk, astronauts John Grunsfeld, who has repaired Hubble twice before, and Andrew Feustel will swap the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 with its successor, Wide Field Camera 3. Then they will change half the telescope’s six 125-pound, nickel-hydrogen rechargeable batteries that are used to power the telescope when its solar panels are not in sunlight. These batteries are original equipment installed in the telescope before its 1990 launch.
On the second spacewalk, Mike Massimino, who worked on Hubble during the last repair mission, and Michael Good will replace all six of the telescope’s gyroscopes. Four have failed, and the telescope has been flying with its remaining two since August 2005. Usually three gyros are used to point the telescope with the remaining three serving as backups. The astronauts will also replace the remaining power batteries.
The third spacewalk will be made by Grunsfeld and Feustel to remove the corrective optics unit that compensated for the optical “fuzziness” in Hubble’s primary mirror. Hubble’s new scientific instruments have the optical correction built into each unit. Next, Grunsfeld and Feustel will begin refurbishing the Advanced Camera for Surveys that was installed during the March 2002 repair mission. This will involve removing an access panel on the camera, then cutting away some of this instrument to reach the circuit boards that have failed and finally, installing the functioning replacements.
Day four of the spacewalks will have Massimino and Good fixing the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. This device, installed during the second repair mission, also has a failed circuit board. To access it, the astronauts must remove more than 100 screws that hold its cover in place. A special low-torque drill that also captures and stores the screws upon removal has been designed for the astronauts to use on this repair.
On the last day of extravehicular activities, repairs will be finished on the Advanced Camera for Surveys and a Fine Guidance Sensor will be replaced.
New Science
Hubble has made possible unparalleled accomplishments in modern astronomy. Observations done with the Hubble Space Telescope have allowed astronomers to establish the age of the universe, determine that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing, accurately measure super-massive black holes and make the first assessment of the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star.
After repairs are completed, astronomers will begin a three-month period of calibrating the new instruments, and then Hubble will take on its new science goals. Some of its coming results will be available as early as next year.
Wright (right) wrote songs on albums including Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd keyboard player and founder member Richard Wright has died, aged 65, from cancer.
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: “No-one can replace Richard Wright – he was my musical partner and my friend.”
Writing on his website, he added: “In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick’s enormous input was frequently forgotten.”
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.
Live 8
Wright, a founder member of The Pink Floyd Sound – and other previous incarnations including Sigma 6 – met Waters and Mason at architecture school.
Wright rejoined Pink Floyd for the London Live 8 concert in 2005
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.
Wright, known as Rick earlier in his career, wrote The Great Gig In The Sky and Us And Them from the album.
Waters left the band in 1981, performing his last concert at London’s Earls Court.
Wright, together with Gilmour and Mason, continued to record and tour as Pink Floyd during the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s, releasing their last studio album – The Division Bell – in 1994.
In 2005, the full band reunited – for the first time in 24 years – for the Live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park.
Wright also contributed vocals and keyboards to Gilmour’s 2006 solo album On An Island, while performing with his touring band in shows in Europe and the US.
Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright dies
Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65.
Pink Floyd’s spokesman Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member’s family did not want to give more details about his death.
Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.
The group’s jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia “happenings” made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” was a hit.
In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group’s dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and sang.
The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Us And Them” for that album, and later worked on the group’s epic compositions such as “Atom Heart Mother,” “Echoes” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”
But tensions grew between Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of “The Wall” when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of “The Wall,” and did not perform on Pink Floyd’s 1983 album “The Final Cut.”
Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris, from the band Fashion, and released one album, “Identity,” with Atlantic Records.
Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums “The Division Bell” and “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums “Wet Dream” (1978) and “Broken China” (1996).
In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the “Live 8″ charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.
Wright also worked on Gilmour’s solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album “On An Island” and the accompanying world tour.
Quarterinch Jack is a group of musicians from different backgrounds, different places, different time-zones, and different musical influences, that come together to to keep Rock & Roll standards alive.
