A few days ago, Roger Waters posted a rather good version of “Mother” that he recorded with his band in isolation (attached below).
A day or so later there appeared an “announcement’ in which he bemoaned the fact that he was unable to post on the official Pink Floyd website due to being banned by David Gilmour, This comes after reports of animosity between the two of them causing the delay in releasing the deluxe edition of Animals (apparently due to the choice of who remixed their 5.1 surround).
Do either of them have a point or is this just a case of two rich, spoilt 70 something year olds behaving like little kids and making decisions purely in the basis of pissing off the other one ? I’m sure there is a lot more behind these issues / stories, but surely at this stage in their life’s there are more important things……
Do we care ?
hubert rawlinson says
Roget Waters, sorry @Chrisf too tempting.
bedew
moisten
spray
sprinkle
wet
estuary
stream
beck
brook.
runnel.
Chrisf says
Took me a minute……. was thinking it was words to an obscure PF track that I didn’t know.
Who’s stupid idea was it to put R next to T on a keyboard anyway ?
Black Type says
I once posted a thread about that overly verbose tennis genius, Roget Federer.
DavidB says
I think we do not care, even though their squabbles can be quite entertaining.
Ultimately, the Floyd produced some stunning work despite – or perhaps because of – the tensions within the band. Nothing changes that.
We might have cared when there was an iota of a possibility of a Floyd reunion, but those days are long gone.
I wonder what Roger sees as the point of continuing to air such dirty laundry in public….
niallb says
Exactly. “David Gilmour thinks he owns Pink Floyd.” Well, you buggered off, Rog.
With everything else going, I could not be less arsed.
slotbadger says
Exactly. Either Roger Waters is staging some sort of immersive performance art piece for our enjoyment, a savage critique of the petty squabbles and irascible blusterings of superannuated pop stars, or he really is failing to, as the kids say “Read the room” right now
Gary says
I get the impression from recent interviews (including a lengthy one with Michael Moore) that he divides the world into two groups: 1. billionaires, who are evil bastards, responsible for all the world’s wrongs, and 2. the rest of us, me, you and him, all of us in it together, struggling to pay the bills and stay afloat. So that’s nice.
He paid £30 million for his two main homes in Manhattan and The Hamptons.
Bargepole says
That doesn’t mean he can’t have a social conscience though surely. I’m a massive fan of Waters era Floyd and they were both vital to the band’s success. This is a shame but in the grand scheme of things not that important – unless like me you’re waiting for the Animals reissue. It’s not unusual for key band members to fall out of course – this has been simmering on and off since the Final Cut era when there were major disagreements and then the.mid 80″s when Waters left and attempted to stop Gilmour continuing to use the Pink Floyd name.
Twang says
I think they’re both entitled to feel passionate about their legacy. Shame they can’t put their differences aside as the evidence is clear that when they worked together great stuff appeared.
Skirky says
I think the reason you’re not allowed to post on the official Pink Floyd site Roger, is that you’re not in Pink Floyd. I had similar feelings whenever Dave Swarbrick used to bang on about the band he hadn’t been in for thirty years. Also, isn’t it legally a thing that Steven Wilson does all the 5:1 remixes?
SteveT says
But @Skirky using that argument Polly Samson is not in Pink Floyd either but is allowed to use the site to promote her work. FWIW I am siding with Roger on this. Mr Gilmour is a very good guitarist but comes across as a pompous arse. (Not that Roger Waters doesn’t also have an abrasive personality).
Skirky says
I think that the organisation keep an extraordinarily tight rein on all things Floydular, and will avoid any unnecessary complications involved in being seen to support Waters’ claim to be part of the family. In the words of long-time collaborator Guy Pratt “Because, well, Floyd.”
Bargepole says
The website is operated by a company owned by Gilmour and Mason so they call the shots as to what can and can’t appear.
MC Escher says
Not that I care, but surely anyone who Gilmour says is in the band is in the band. Therefore his missus is in.
Vincent says
I have long stopped caring. I’ve been a fan over the years, but they are so over-exposed as to the music having stopped meaning much. Gilmour is a fab guitarist who needs a foil to bring out his best, and dreary Waters turned a corner into irrelevance with his dominance over the Floyd in the dismal last 5 years of the original line up. (As songs that made “Animals” were being performed from 1974, I see these as part of the proper end canon.) Roger’s solo career is built on the Floyd songs, as is Gilmour’s. Nick Mason has the best idea in exploring the long unplayed corners of the catalogue with a good bunch of players and a simulacrum of the earlier gigs.
Arthur Cowslip says
The Final Cut is my favourite Floyd album! “Dismal”??
Vincent says
IMHO, Dismal. Another dreary Roger Waters solo job. Presume the other chaps had addictions that had to be paid for and these took priority. OOAA.
Twang says
I wasn’t grabbed by it nor Animals, though I’ve subsequently revisited them both – Animals is actually really good, but Cut doesn’t do it for me.
dai says
And Waters cheats, he doesn’t actually sing in his concerts (at 0.41):
Bargepole says
Give me a Waters solo album over a Gilmour one any day of the week .
Thegp says
They are as bad as each other.
Waters is a belligerent who thinks as he wrote all the songs he is Pink Floyd. Not true Rog as without Dave and Rick they’d sound shit
Gilmour thinks he’s Pink Floyd as they can play without Roger and no one knows the difference. Ignoring the fact all the songs are Rogers. Plus a lot of Pollys lyrics are dreadful
The Final Cut and On an Island are polar opposites demonstrating the problem. An unlistenable rant devoid of any musicality and a lovely sounding soulless bland dirge devoid of any depth
They need each other
Bargepole says
The Final Cut an unlistenable rant – really? One of my favourite Floyd albums!
Arthur Cowslip says
Oops. There’s an echo in here. See above!
Thegp says
Hehe well each to their own… I’d have preferred more musicality
Thegp says
Having said that Rogs last album was pretty good as he got Nigel Godrich in to make it sound good. Probably another reason why Gilmours pissed off
Mike_H says
I think I’m in the “Who Gives a F**K?” tendency here. Nothing either of them has done since the mid-’70s interests me much.
Nick Mason has the right idea, bringing life back to the old catalogue from when they actually meant something.
F**k Gilmour & Waters and goodnight.
GCU Grey Area says
Ditto Steve Hackett. People want to hear a lot of old, he wants to play it, and if there’s any score-settling to do with your old band, do it on stage. Hackett’s band is excellent, and I’m sure he doesn’t miss Tony Banks behind the keyboards.
Vincent says
It was Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins who really shafted Genesis. In this month’s Mojo, Mike is pissy about playing “Apocalypse in 9/8” in the forthcoming dates. Phil Collins used to like sneering at good-humoured fans “in fishing hats”. More power to Steve Hackett. Wish he was playing the 02, rather than the dullest band to “move on” and “mature out of” progressive music. If this is “mature”, give me a mullet and cloak.
dai says
I saw Steve Hackett a couple of years ago, I was the closest I have ever been to falling asleep at a concert.
Junior Wells says
I did think he had a point re flogging Gilmour’s wife’s side products while black banning Waters’s efforts.
GCU Grey Area says
I guess any band who’ve had a long career and gone through different line-ups have the problem of not wanting to play something from their past; the Banks/Collins/Rutherford band have fans who’d really not want to hear them do ‘Watcher Of The Skies’ any more than they want to play it.
If they want to just do stuff from the trio era, well that’s great, as long as you know what you’re likely to get in advance. I was surprised when they announced the reunion, as I’d assumed there was no longer an itch there that needed to be scratched.
ruff-diamond says
Gilmour may be a bit of a dullard, but at least he’s not a vocal supporter of closet-dwelling sex nonces*, so he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.
(*alleged closet-dwelling sex nonces, for the benefit of any lawyers who might be reading…)
Twang says
Gilmour is bloody great. Fantastic guitarist, good bloke in a doing decent things sense and thoughtful about music in general. he does need a bit of grit in his oyster though, it’s true.
Gary says
Gilmour does have a sort of zen like “at peace” vibe about him. Very much the polar opposite of Waters in that respect.
Bargepole says
I think they got along when they had to, but were never really great mates, just a working relationship. Now they no longer have to compromise, so when cooperation is called for old animosities soon resurface. The book In The Pink sheds some light of their mid seventies relationship, see my review from a good while ago in ‘reads’. Two very different personalities – the old Spinal Tap joke about ice and fire springs to mind, with Nick Mason as the luke warm water keeping the peace!
Bargepole says
In happier times…
Beezer says
He once pulled up next to me in a Maserati at some traffic lights in Maidenhead.
At least I’m 99% certain it was him. I only had a quick glimpse before he blammed off in a flurry of multi-millionaireness leaving me behind in a green Peugeot 106. .
It must have been him because he was definitely rehearsing up ‘On An Island’ at Bray Studios at the time, just up the road.
True story.
Black Type says
That’s just nonce sense.
fatima Xberg says
So, Mr. Waters thinks »he was unable to post on the official Pink Floyd website due to being banned by David Gilmour…« – did it ever occur to him that he’s just not allowed to use the company site of a business that he left nearly 40 years ago?
And in the interview he goes on about him not being able to speak to “the” Pink Floyd fans – if he really considers his own websites a failure he can easily set up a site called “do-any-Dave-Gilmour-fans-want-to-hear-about-my-new-music.com” (and it don’t cost much, it says ‘ere). Or write one of his tedious songs about it.