The 2005 gig Roger Waters would do all over again: “I’d like to do more of it”
It’s probably going to take a miracle for David Gilmour and Roger Waters to ever be on the same page again.
There was already so much tension between them after Waters said that he wanted Pink Floyd to end, and even when they could be cordial towards each other in the 2000s, there are far too many bridges that have been burned at this point to entertain the idea of them kissing and making up for a few shows. But even if Waters was the one who was always talking about the issues that he had with certain rock bands, he wasn’t going to rule out absolutely everything whenever someone floated an idea his way.
After all, there had to be at least a little bit of nostalgia there if Waters is still managing to play a lot of those Floyd songs in his sets. He was still proud of the work that he had made, and even if he tried his hardest to wipe out the memory of Dark Side of the Moon with his alternative rendition of the album, it was never going to sound the same without Gilmour’s guitar and voice soaring above everything else.
And let’s not forget about Richard Wright, either. Even though Gilmour and Waters have been the soul of the band in many people’s eyes, their sound wouldn’t have been the same without Wright’s keyboard parts, whether it was breaking out the organ in their early days or turning in some of the most beautiful piano lines on their later works. Since Wright is no longer with us, though, the only lasting memory any fans will have is that final performance of them playing at Live 8.
Which is funny because the idea of them playing that show at all was a miracle in and of itself. Gilmour still felt that there was a lot of baggage having Waters onstage with him, but when Waters seemed to be intrigued by the idea, he was willing to listen. The bassist wasn’t going to have the same kind of say in the matter that he had when he was dictating everyone when working on The Wall, but he could at least show up and play the bassline of ‘Money’ and even share the vocals on ‘Wish You Were Here’.
The whole show was over far too quickly for most fans, but even if it was only a handful of songs, Waters said that he would have been glad to do the whole thing all over again if he had the opportunity, saying, “I think it was really good, it happened. If that’s the only time that we get to draw a line under it, so be it. I’d like to do more of it. I thought it was really cool. It was very interesting musically, emotionally, and philosophically.” But the idea of them getting together for an entire tour was probably not in the cards.
Even when all of them came together to honour Syd Barrett after his passing, Gilmour and Waters weren’t even bothering to play at the same time. They were on the same bill and were happy to pay tribute to the man who started them off on this journey, but Waters was out the door before the show was even over, with the remaining members of the band bringing the house down after the fact.
There were still more than a few times where Gilmour would perform during Waters’s recent Wall performances, but the thought of them doing any of that these days is probably unlikely. Even if you take politics out of the equation, Waters is still more than happy to talk about how he was the driving force behind the band in many respects, and Gilmour is usually the one who’s pushing back on what Waters is saying and using his platform for more important purposes, like when he put out ‘Hey Hey Rise Up’ for relief efforts in Ukraine.
The thought of either of them having any type of peace with each other is probably not in the cards anymore, but we will always have those few minutes when they were brothers in arms one last time on that stage. The whole thing might have been way too quick, but when listening to the whole band locking in together playing ‘Comfortably Numb’ for the last time, you can tell that they were honestly thrilled to hear the same spark that they had in the old days.
