"It was like sleeping with your ex-wife." Why a one-off reunion convinced one of the world's best-loved bands to turn down a $250 million offer to tour again

On July 2, 2005, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright performed onstage together as Pink Floyd for the first time in more than 24 years. The quartet's appearance at London's Hyde Park as part of the global Live 8 charity concert was a huge coup for organisers Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the two musicians who also masterminded the 1984 Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas? and 1985's historic Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia, and gave fans - and some music industry executives - hope that it might help ease long-standing tensions within the band, and perhaps even inspire the the four musicians to set aside past differences and commit to a reunion tour. it was not to be, despite one promoter dangling a huge financial incentive for the group to get back together, as Roger Waters later revealed.

Perhaps surprisingly, given his reputation, it was Waters who was the most amenable to Bob Geldof's pitch for the band to reunite for Live 8, a global initiative, purposely staged ahead of a G8 summit in Scotland, involving ten concerts staged simultaneously in support of the UK's Make Poverty History campaign and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. David Gilmour was so sure that the idea was a non-starter that, when Geldof told him to was going to travel down to his farm to personally explain the concept behind the event, he suggested that it would be a waste of time for the Irish singer to get off the train. But Geldof and Roger Waters had pre-existing history - the Boomtown Rats frontman having played the character Pink in Alan Parker's 1982 film Pink Floyd - The Wall - and Waters was open to the idea.

"Here’s what happened," he explained to Word magazine in October 2005. "I get an email from Nick Mason saying he’s had Bob Geldof on the phone bending his ear about reforming Pink Floyd to play Live 8. Apparently Bob had already approached Dave Gilmour and got a no. Bob wants Nick to try to persuade Dave. Nick is up for it, but doesn’t think he stands much of a chance of influencing Dave. Would I stick my oar in? It sounds like a good cause to me so I get Bob’s number from Nick and call him."

"My mobile rang," Gilmour later recalled, "and it was, 'Hi this is Roger, how about it?' It was… surprising."

Waters told Word's Mark Ellen that he and Gilmour had a "very cordial conversation" and that Gilmour had expressed some reservations, but agreed to reconsider his original rejection of the idea.

"24 hours later," Waters continued, "my phone rings, it’s Dave. ‘Ok', he says, ‘Let’s do it'."

On June 12, 2005, the Live 8 concert organisers broke the news that Pink Floyd would perform together for the first time since 1981, joining U2, Elton John, R.E.M, Madonna, Paul McCartney, The Who and more at Hyde Park.

"Like most people I want to do everything I can to persuade the G8 leaders to make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and increased aid to the third world," David Gilmour said in a press statement. "Any squabbles Roger and the band have had in the past are so petty in this context, and if reforming for this concert will help focus attention then it's got to be worthwhile."

Within a matter of hours of the announcement, an unnamed promoter pitched the idea of extending this reformation beyond Hyde Park.

"I went out to dinner with a friend," Waters revealed, "and an offer arrived – literally bang on the dinner table – for the four of us, the Pink Floyd, to tour again. An offer of $250 million. Guaranteed."

As well-received as the band's triumphant and emotional set at Live 8 was, the idea of a reunion tour was never given any serious consideration. While all four members expressed their satisfaction with the performance - Waters calling it "terrific", adding "it was really good to transcend all the crap" - they were also reminded, as they rehearsed for the gig, why they'd parted company in the first place.

"I felt it was unhealthy and unreal and dishonest to carry on in Pink Floyd," Waters said later in 2005, reflecting on the original split. "How can a group of people who can’t stand working with each other call themselves a group?"

"Because of all the arguments and issues that Roger had with me, and with David, it was wonderful that we actually got up there and did it together," Rick Wright mused. "But we did learn something. It would be very hard for the four of us to go and do a world tour, simply because our ideas are so different musically."

"The Live 8 thing was great, but it was closure," David Gilmour stated emphatically. "It was like sleeping with your ex-wife. There’s no future for Pink Floyd."