“One of my favourite albums” says David Gilmour. The haunting central theme of ‘Shine on you Crazy Diamond’ is never far out of consciousness. ‘Welcome To The Machine’ introduces Waters’s fascination with pessimistic sci-fi views of the future. ‘Wish You Were Here’ itself is a sad and wistful indictment of insecurity. Storm Thorgerson recalls that one theme, indeed one word, prevailed during the recording of the album at Abbey Road – ‘absence’. Nothing more poignantly, or powerfully illustrated this than the unexpected arrival of Syd Barrett at the studio during the vocal takes for ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’, having been absent for seven years. Says Storm – “the handshake from the burning man is as empty or absent a gesture as you can get. The man is really on fire. He wore an asbestos suit under the cloth suit, which extends over the head, where a wig was attached. The first attempts at setting him alight were in the wrong wind direction. The flames were blown back and ignited his moustache for an instant. A close shave, one might say.’. . . .” the diver in the lake makes no splash, so is he there really? Or is he absent?. The man in the desert is faceless, no features, no scruples or rather absent morality . . . and so on and so forth. The whole album design was then hidden from public view by an opaque black shrink-wrap. In effect, this cover too was absent”