The reunion shows Roger Waters would love to play: “I would do something in a heartbeat”
Reunions are usually a challenging topic for any musician to tackle. As much as the paycheck might seem nice, there’s always the question of whether people are coming together because they want to or because they like the amount of zeroes at the end of the paycheck. While it’s clear that any true Pink Floyd reunion is gone forever, Roger Waters wouldn’t mind doing a reunion like the one that took place at Live 8.
By the time they got together for a good cause, though, it was clear that the Pink Floyd everyone knew was long gone. Waters had graduated to the stadiums of the world by putting on his own version of The Wall, and while David Gilmour still performed classics like ‘Comfortably Numb’ on tour with Pink Floyd, he knew that there was a massive contingency waiting to see if Waters returned.
So when Bob Geldolf organized the first Live Aid, it felt like a no-brainer to get everyone back, right? All of the band members had great respect for Geldolf for working on The Wall film, but tensions were still far too raw to make any formal reunion, especially with Richard Wright contractually still not back in the band.
When the same thing happened decades later, fans were promised to see the original Dark Side of the Moon era lineup once again onstage. The tension between Gilmour and Waters hadn’t quite gone away, but there was enough time and space away for them to bury the hatchet for at least a handful of songs. Even then, they couldn’t find a way to truly come together, with Waters eventually arguing with Gilmour over which songs they were going to play before going on.
Despite Gilmour looking more than a little bit uncomfortable onstage, the group sounded like they hadn’t aged a day, with Waters, in particular, putting his all into the show. After they went their separate ways again, though, Waters had the itch to do the whole thing over again if he had the chance.
While the jury was out on whether Waters would ever contribute any new music, he would be happy to share the stage with his bandmates somewhere down the line, saying, “I would do something else (like Live 8) in a heartbeat — but if it was for anything more than a few songs, then I think there would be difficulties.”
Then again, any real chance of a true reunion was gone the minute that Wright passed away from cancer in the 2000s. Regardless of how Waters treated him during the making of The Wall, Wright’s keyboard work was one of the main strengths of the group’s early years, especially during their classic period like on Wish You Were Here.
There have been a handful of reunions like when Gilmour joined Waters onstage alongside drummer Nick Mason during a performance of The Wall, but it’s clear that the magic that came from the 1973 incarnation is gone forever. As far as fans are concerned, there was a band called Pink Floyd, and all we’re left with is the beautiful music they created during their prime.
