Roger Waters concert cancelled over claims of antisemitism
The Frankfurt tour date of former Pink Floyd musician Roger Waters has been cancelled after fresh claims of antisemitic behaviour. While the show was supposed to go ahead on May 28th, the owners of the venue, Festhalle, have taken the decision to cancel his scheduled performance.
The German venue was previously a Jewish detention centre during World War II, where 3,000 people were killed by Nazis. In a statement, the Festhalle mentioned Waters’ recent behaviour and stage props as their motivation for the cancellation, saying (via The Jerusalem Post) that Waters “emphasised the use of antisemitic imagery in Waters’ performances, one of which includes a balloon in the shape of a pig with a Star of David printed on it alongside a host of corporate logos”.
This comes weeks after David Gilmour’s wife, Polly Samson, called Waters an antisemite. She wrote on Twitter: “Sadly, Roger Waters you are antisemitic to your rotten core. Also, a Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical, tax-avoiding, lip-synching, misogynistic, sick-with-envy, megalomaniac. Enough of your nonsense”. Gilmour supported his wife on the website, and said her statement was “demonstrably true”.
In light of the allegations, Waters also took to social media to refute the claims. He said: “THE TRUTH WILL SET US FREE. Against the backdrop of the outrageous and despicable smear campaign by the ISRAELI LOBBY to denounce me as an ANTI-SEMITE, WHICH I AM NOT, NEVER HAVE BEEN and NEVER WILL BE”.
Additionally, Waters posted another tweet addressing Sampson’s claims directly, and commented: “Roger Waters is aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson, which he refutes entirely. He is currently taking advice as to his position”.
This latest news arrives months after Waters’ allegedly cancelled shows in Poland after sharing an open letter about the war in Ukraine. On his personal website, he controversially noted: “If by ‘support for Ukraine’ you mean the West continuing to supply arms to the Kyiv government’s armies, I fear you may be tragically mistaken. Throwing fuel, in the form of armaments, into a fire fight, has never worked to shorten a war in the past, and it won’t work now”.
Waters is yet to comment on the cancellation of his show in Frankfurt.
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