“The aggravation”: the 1980 show Roger Waters couldn’t wait to finish
Pink Floyd’s existence as a musical entity was always incredibly multifaceted, stretching far beyond the remit of churning out an LP every few years. It was, after all, their pioneering, other-worldly live shows where the band really thrived, even if Roger Waters enjoyed those iconic performances about as much as he enjoyed spending any time with David Gilmour.
One unavoidable aspect of that multifaceted existence, after all, was the vicious infighting that plagued the group for the vast majority of its existence. Their first era, under the psychedelic leadership of Syd Barrett, came to an acrimonious end once the songwriter had been muscled out of the band, but that only ushered in an even more argumentative era courtesy of Roger Waters and David Gilmour, who got on like warring factions in a medieval epic.
Impressively, though, Floyd managed to produce some of the greatest records of all time during that particularly conflict-ridden period.
With each of those records, the band put on some truly incredible live performances, more akin to grandiose theatrical productions and light shows during a time when most concerts were relatively lo-fi. In fact, Pink Floyd were an essential driving force in creating the live music production stylings that typify stadium and arena shows to this day. Within the band, though, those performances were just as fraught with feuding as the albums that they centred around.
Not only did Roger Waters’ resentment of David Gilmour – and vice versa – intensify during their extensive touring schedules, but the pair had the added annoyance of dealing with stage sets, lighting techs, and all the technical difficulties that came with those big-budget shows.
Arguably, the group’s most ambitious tour outing was in 1980, in support of The Wall. Employing a litany of stage theatrics that would be impressive in the modern day, but utterly unheard of back in 1980, that 31-date tour still stands out among the most lauded concert tours of all time. Behind the scenes, though, the tour was expectedly fueled by the same personal and technical difficulties that denoted virtually every Pink Floyd tour.
So much so that, during a 1982 interview with Karl Dallas, Waters shuddered at the very thought of resurrecting The Wall tour. “I can’t imagine that,” he moaned. “The aggravation of getting it together. You never know. We won’t be certain about that for another few years, when one will know that everything has rotted and all the machinery is rusty.”
“If you haven’t seen it again in the next five years, then you’ll know you’re not going to,” he declared. “Because everything will have been stolen or rusted away, the cardboard will all be soggy.” Stage setting and its gradual decay weren’t the only issues Waters had with the idea of bringing the tour back, though.
The Wall itself was a product of the songwriter’s increasing alienation and dissatisfaction with the music industry, and by the early 1980s he was rapidly reaching breaking point with Pink Floyd. Exhaustive and technically complicated concerts, coupled with the constantly intensifying ego battle with David Gilmour, meant the songwriter was nearing the end of his tether.
In the end, Waters did revisit The Wall in a live setting, but crucially, it was as a solo artist in 1990, having severed his ties with Pink Floyd five years prior.
