Wish You Were Here has been frequently regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and is generally ranked as one of the greatest progressive rock albums. In 1998, Q readers voted Wish You Were Here the 34th-greatest album of all time. In 2000, the same magazine placed it at number 43 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2014, British rock magazine Louder ranked it as the seventh-greatest progressive rock album of all time. In 2015, it was chosen as the fourth-greatest progressive rock album by Rolling Stone In 2020, it was ranked at number 264 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The group found it difficult at first to devise any new material, especially as the success of The Dark Side of the Moon had left all four physically and emotionally drained. Keyboardist Richard Wright later described these sessions as “falling within a difficult period”, and Waters recalled them as “torturous”.

“It was a very difficult period I have to say. All your childhood dreams had been sort of realised and we had the biggest selling records in the world and all the things you got into it for. The girls and the money and the fame and all that stuff it was all ... everything had sort of come our way and you had to reassess what you were in it for thereafter, and it was a pretty confusing and sort of empty time for a while.” —David Gilmour

Wish You Were Here became an instant commercial success, topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, with EMI reportedly unable to print enough copies to satisfy initial demand. Both Gilmour and Wright have cited this album as their favourite by the band and, while it had initially received lukewarm critical reviews, the album has grown to near universal acclaim over the past five decades. Wright and David Gilmour have each cited Wish You Were Here as their favourite Pink Floyd album.

The 50 th anniversary celebration will continue the Evolution concept of previous concerts and will be comprised of

-WISH YOU WERE HERE

-With excerpts from ANIMALS & THE WALL