The one gig Roger Waters wanted the chance to play again: “Interesting both musically and emotionally”
Every great band thrives when bouncing off each other in a live setting. Although it’s one thing to be able to create tapestries of sound in the sound, anyone can find a sense of exhilaration once the adrenaline kicks in and everyone is playing at their best on the stage. However, while Roger Waters may have been responsible for burning Pink Floyd out on the idea of performing live, there were certain shows that he would have gladly played again if given the opportunity.
You have to remember that Waters was the pure craftsman behind every one of Floyd’s classic tours. The band may have had the fantastic light show with Syd Barrett that reflected that 1960s mentality of far-out music, but there weren’t many songs on their subsequent albums that catered to getting stoned and tripping balls while listening. So, if they did away with the light show, they needed something different.
While David Gilmour had initially wanted to let the music do the talking, Waters knew there needed to be something more than four guys onstage performing. There would always be pieces missing from the album onstage, so why not make up for that by turning everything into a theatrical piece?
The pig from Animals was one thing, but The Wall was both an epic change of pace and the straw that broke the camel’s back at the same time. Waters got what he wanted by making something grandiose onstage, but since no one in the band wanted to carry on with him as a musical dictator, it wasn’t long before he left the picture, and Gilmour took the reins whenever they made new material.
Since they were still using a lot of their classic material onstage, there was always a lingering suspicion of Waters returning in some capacity. And despite everyone seemingly hating each other throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, having them come together for a good cause during Bob Geldolf’s Live 8 was a sight to behold. They may have only played their greatest hits, but seeing the sense of camaraderie between them again was enough to bring a smile to every fan’s face.
“I’d like to do more of it. I thought it was really cool.”
roger waters
Despite Waters’s satisfaction with the show, he felt that he would have loved to have played the whole thing again if he had the chance, saying, “I think that was great, and if that’s the only time that we get to draw a line under it, well then so be it. But I’d like to do more of it. I thought it was really cool. I thought it was interesting both musically and emotionally.”
Going back through the documentary of them rehearsing, though, it’s probably for the best that they didn’t go through with another run of shows. Some of the wounds between them were still relatively fresh, and even if they managed to stick it out for one show, an entire tour of them playing together would have most likely resulted in them getting at each other’s throats again and most likely broke them up for good.
Still, now with Richard Wright gone, the performance at Live 8 stands as one of their finest moments onstage together. They had their moments in the sun during the glory years, but since none of that was filmed properly back in the day, this is the closest that anyone is going to get to see what the band could have sounded like in their prime.
