“I was absolutely right”: the song David Gilmour refused to play at Live 8
Most Pink Floyd fans were bound to be in disbelief when they heard that their favourite band would be reuniting for Live 8. Sure, they had flown a massive pig balloon in the middle of their cover for Animals, but this was the first time when it truly felt that the farm animals had flown when Roger Waters agreed to play with them for a few minutes to raise money for relief efforts. Then again, David Gilmour was bound to assure everyone that it was far from the kiss-and-make-up session that everyone was hoping for.
After all, Waters had been nothing but nasty towards the band ever since they left. You can understand that he would be upset over not getting the rights to use the band’s name while his old mates played stadiums, but with every subsequent record they put out, Waters didn’t make it a secret about how much he loathed what they were doing, especially on albums like A Momentary Lapse of Reason.
Then again, the band probably thought that this was Waters getting a taste of his own medicine. They had to work their way through albums like The Wall and The Final Cut, and while the former is still regarded as a masterpiece, the idea of everyone being told what to play by Waters made it feel like a glorified solo record that happened to have the band’s name plastered over top of it.
So when they eventually got onstage, it was the safe choice for all of them to play music from before all hell broke loose. From the minute that they took the stage, hearing them cutting loose on ‘Breathe’ and eventually salvaging a version of ‘Comfortably Numb’ for the show was a great sight to behold when they finally started playing.
“Roger wanted to do ‘Another Brick In The Wall’, but I didn’t think it was appropriate.”
David Gilmour
Even in those 20 minutes onstage, they managed to find a way to pay tribute to Syd Barrett, performing a version of ‘Wish You Were Here’ in honour of their lost friend. It was definitely a change of pace hearing Waters sing one of the verses instead of Gilmour’s solo vocal, but it’s nice to see that they had enough camaraderie to mess around with some of the arrangements live.
But for a band that was meant to play a handful of their greatest hits, Gilmour made sure that one of their tunes was left absent, saying, “Roger wanted to do ‘Another Brick In The Wall’, but I didn’t think it was appropriate. This was a thing for Africa, and I didn’t really think that little children in Africa should be singing, ‘We don’t need no education’. There was no argument about it. I was absolutely right.”
There were plenty of moments where things could have blown up in the meantime, though. Even when looking behind the scenes at how everything came together, the band almost looks like they need a mediator in the room with them as they’re making decisions, with most of the disagreements being broken up by nervous laughter as Gilmour and Waters argue back and forth.
If they were going to keep any piece from The Wall, it really should have been ‘Comfortably Numb’. It may have been one of their most celebrated albums for a reason, but instead of catering to the massive story, it was better to remember one of the few times when the band could actually collaborate well with each other.
