2018 Roger Waters He began the UK leg of his Us and Them tour in 2016. There had previously been speculation that his career was nearing the end. Desert Journey What followed was a series of events that left Waters, then 74, with renewed vigor and in his normally trenchant tone, telling us exactly what he saw.
Roger Waters' latest live show, the Us + Them tour, arrives in Dublin for the first of two shows on June 26th, before playing six more concerts across the UK, arguably headlining in London's Hyde Park on July 6th.
This is the same type of massive live concert that Waters became famous for with Pink Floyd in the late '70s, and in the past decade, few have surpassed prog's leading conceptualist when it comes to stadium-sized events.
After Pink Floyd's final performance at Live 8 in July 2005, Waters The Dark Side of the Moon From 2006 to 2008. In 2010 wall They embarked on a tour of arenas around the world and then began performing in outdoor stadiums.
And now, his “Us + Them” jaunt, Pink Floyd's greatest hits and last year's Is this the life we really want?His first full-fledged solo album in a quarter century.
As of 2013, Wall Live It's the highest grossing tour ever by a solo artist, so it's safe to say Waters is doing just fine. Is this really the life we want? is a fantastic piece of work, and the continued playing of Floyd's back catalogue around the world is proof that the man behind so many of the ideas and music that emanated from Pink Floyd in the late '70s is on the right track.
What's even more interesting is that in 2010 he wallIn 2010, the now 74-year-old declared: “I think I have one last song and it will probably be my last.” Eight years on, the facts tell a somewhat different story…
“That's a very good point,” Waters says. “This tour was started two years ago by Paul Tollett and the Goldenvoice people. [Tollett’s promotions company] They asked me to play Desert Trip, which was an event at Coachella. I played Coachella in 2008, and they always said, “We want you to come back, blah blah blah.”
“But Coachella is a gathering of all young people doing young people things. One fall, we had the idea to bring in more established artists, and we did it.
“His idea was basically, 'Let's have Pink Floyd, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Who. Six acts over a weekend – two acts per day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If we sell enough tickets, we'll do it again over the weekend.'”
“Well, tickets sold. I think we had half a million requests for tickets in the first few hours. So I put a lot of effort into putting the shows together, but then I realised I was being asked to take on the mantle of Pink Floyd, which had never really happened before. So I said, 'Yes, OK, I can do it,' and so I did.
“But after all that work, I thought, ‘Maybe if this new album does well, I can put together a show that combines what I did with Desert Trip with a few songs from the new album.’ So that’s what I did.
Most people think that everything happens because someone is right and someone is wrong, and that the person who is wrong must be put in his or her right place.
The idea behind the song was Us and Them from Dark Side of the MoonIt is a quest to find within ourselves love and empathy for all our fellow human beings.”
As you said, the tour is 75 percent old material and 25 percent new, but you also said it's connected by an overarching theme. So what ties it all together?
Well, it's called “Us + Them,” and it got that name because of a line in the song that goes: “With or without, who can deny that that is what we are fighting for?'
The answer to that question is that almost everyone would deny that the nature of war is yes or no. It is the war on terror, and it is also an ideological question. But what is it really?
Most people think that everything happens because someone is right and someone is wrong, and that the wrong people must be put in their right place, and the best way to do that is to bomb them, or invade their country, or whatever it may be.
I'm not saying that I know the truth and others don't, but that I am presenting what I believe to be the truth as directly as possible.
But that is not the point of war. The point of war is to make the rich rich and the poor poor. That is the purpose of war. The economies of Western countries are flooded with money. It is mainly the United States, the UK, Russia, Germany, France and Belgium that manufacture weapons.
So much is tied up in the huge military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about, and that's why we're in constant war.
Do you think it's possible to make an album of songs that aren't thematically connected?
Personally, no. I can't write songs that don't relate to how I feel. I think the reason my songs last is because they're true and they come from the heart. That's not to say that I know the truth and other people don't, but that in the songs I write, I tell the truth I believe in as directly as possible.
Are live performances from this tour being filmed for future release?
Actually, we're filming this show in Amsterdam. I don't know what we're going to do after we finish filming, but we're going to film it in Amsterdam. That's already decided.
Are you working on anything else Pink Floyd related?
Yeah. I was working with Po. [designer Aubrey Powell]There is a reissue of animal5.1 mix animal So I was working… no, I wasn't working, he was working, and he came up with some new photos of Battersea Power Station to use as the CD cover for the new 5.1 mix. They're beautiful.
