Роджер Уотерс / Roger Waters

MAJOR WATERS INTERVIEW IN WORD MAGAZINE


The October 2005 issue of the UK's Word Magazine, published this coming Thursday, is a treat for Roger Waters fans.

From the striking cover shot of Roger, to the indepth interview with him that covers six pages, the conversation covers his forthcoming opera, Ca Ira, the Live 8 reunion, and his feelings about David and Nick's decision to continue the band without him.

With the passing of time, you find out how his views have changed in some areas. Indeed, at one point in the interview, he even states: "I would have preferred it if Dave and Nick had not gone around the world using my songs, but it wasn't to be. And in a way it wasn't that bad a thing that they did, as regards keeping Pink Floyd's music alive."

The interview starts with detail on the birth of the Ca Ira project, and the early days of its creation. He draws parallels from the story of the French Revolution, to the present day of the Bush administration.

Things then move to a fascinating discussion on the Live 8 reunion, with Roger setting out his side of the story. He also talks about how emotional the whole experience was: "It was just... really good. I was very moved to be on stage with Dave, Nick and Rick that night. I felt at ease and glad to be given the opportunity to let bygones be bygones, and to demonstrate that, although we'd had our difficulties in the past, we are grown men who understand that rapprochement is possible even in the face of differing points of view.It was really good to transcend all the crap and say 'Well, fuck it, let's just get up onstage. It's been a long while. We can agree to disagree about all of the old stuff and stand up here and play these three or four songs and it can be fun, it can be good.'"

The final segment concerns itself with the acrimonious split in the 80s, and Roger's thoughts on various aspects of those days.

Pretty much the final words provide hope for those who weren't able to attend Hyde Park back in July: "I really loved [the Live 8 concert]. I hope we do it again. It was more than good. If some other opportunity arose, I could even imagine us doing Dark Side Of The Moon again - you know, if there was a special occasion. It would be good to hear it again. Live 8 was so great. [It would have to be] something with a political or charitable connection...

The magazine hits UK shop shelves on Thursday, and is available in selected other countries as an import. It can also be ordered by mail order from www.wordmagazine.co.uk - they will send the magazine worldwide.

Our thanks to Mark Ellen and David Hepworth, both of Word Magazine, for their invaluable help.


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Date news posted: 5 September 2005

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0509052.html

Статья из Sunday times, помещённая пару страниц назад под названием 'Talking Liberties'


Езё бы покрупнее найти скан;), совсем было бы здОрово!..

BATTERSEA POWER STATION DOCUMENTARY RELEASED

Battersea Power Station
as seen on Animals cover

Just released is a DVD looking at the past, present and future of one of London's best loved landmarks - Battersea Power Station (BPS).

BPS holds a special place in Pink Floyd fans hearts, appearing on the cover of their 1977 album, Animals, with a pig floating between two of the massive chimneys. Fans to this day stare at the building, and take pictures.

There have been plans for some time to renovate the dilapidated building. Eclipse Films have put together "Battersea: Its past, Its Future" looking at the history of the landmark, with a focus on what might be happening to the edifice with the ownership of the development going to the Parkview Company.

With the use of vintage stills, alongside present day footage shot inside and outside the building, it is an interesting portrait of a very much utilitarian construction that has fascinated people over the decades. The largest brick building in Europe, it has a preservation order on it, ensuring its familiar facade will never change.

The documentary, lasting some 23 minutes, has no Floyd content in it, other than BPS itself. However, many fans are fascinated by the building, and this gives a good grounding of information on why the building came into being, its decline, and its future.

The picture betrays the recording medium - it looks clearly like it was shot on DV. The quality isn't superb, but with the nature of the content, this doesn't matter. Sound is perfectly adequate as well. For those Floyd fans interesting in finding out more about BPS, copies can be ordered from their site - www.efilms.tv, along with BPS t-shirts and posters.

Eclipse Films, Inc specializes in documentary film work of antiquities, archaeological sites and endangered landmarks for conservation and educational purposes worldwide. The Battersea Power Station DVD is their first foray into a present day construction - other titles on their site include ancients cities and civilisations.

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Date news posted: 4 September 2005

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0509042.html

А вот и сам DVD

SCARFE'S NEW BOOK - UNRELEASED WALL IMAGES & UPDATED COVER FROM GERALD!

We reported last week on the publication on November 3rd of "Drawing Blood: Forty Five Years of Scarfe Uncensored", a book that sees highlights of Gerald Scarfe's career compiled into a lavish hardback book.

The book promises to be a feast for all Floyd fans, due to his extensive work with the band, over the years. We were sent the image to the right last night by Gerald's office. It shows the final cover for the book, keeping the Wife character from The Wall, and now showing Ronald Reagan as Mickey Mouse and Margaret Thatcher as a pterydactyl!

The consensus of the BD office is that the cover, now blood red, is much more striking and eye catching than the previous version. And we're pleased that his Floyd work features so prominently on the cover!

Furthermore, Gerald's PA told us that the book features a few illustrations from The Wall which haven't been seen before - alongside the five decades of incredibly varied work he has done for all sorts of people and publications - from the likes of Time, Punch and Private Eye, to Disney, the English National Ballet, and the BBC.

Gerald's office mentioned that, whilst the book is pricey, they assured us that "when you see the size of the book you will know why!" Previous collections of Scarfe's work have been thoughtfully compiled, and well presented, so a collection of all his work should be a real treat.

Advance orders for this keenly-awaited title, at time of writing at a good discount, can be placed through the following special links: Amazon.com (US/International), Amazon UK/Elsewhere, Canada, France, or Germany.

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Date news posted: 3 September 2005

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0509031.html

О! Какие вещи уникальные попадаются на eBay'е!.. Роджин и Дэйвин Микрофоны с Live 8!!!
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My name is Phil Thomas organiser of the Bobby Bragg Celebrity Golf Day & I am offering a truly unique opportunity to obtain a piece of rock history to any Pink Floyd fans.


Our friend Gareth Williams was Pink Floyds monitor engineer at this years live 8 concert in London’s Hyde Park in July, following Floyds sensational performance Gareth aquired David Gilmore’s microphone from Mark Saunders of Sannheiser UK on behalf of our great friends Fairport Convention who then donated it to the Bobby Bragg Celebrity Golf Day in aid of The Teenage Cancer Trust.

When Mark found out , he generously donated Roger Walter’s microphone as well.

The two Neumann KMS 105 microphones were used only once by David Gilmore and Roger Walters of Pink Floyd at The live 8 concert in Hide Park. Footage of David & Roger during the concert is also included on DVD. Both mic’s have their names on gaffer tape and come complete with cases and clips. Both have a certificate of authentication.

Our sincere thanks go to Gareth Williams, Mark Saunders and Fairport Convention.

EVERY PENNY RAISED I GAURANTEE WILL BE DONATED TO TEENAGE CANCER TRUST

STARTING BID Ј500. (LESS THAN COST NEW

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...144297&ssPageName=ADME:B:EF:UK:1#ebayphotohosting

ПОЗДРАВЛЕНИЕ ИМЕНИННИКА ОТ BRAIN DAMAGE И КОЕ-КАКИЕ ПОДРОБНОСТИ О ПРЕДСТОЯЩЕМ ИСПОЛНЕНИИ ОПЕРЫ В РИМЕ!!!

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ROGER WATERS - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!


Today marks the 62nd birthday of Roger Waters - many happy returns, Roger! He was born in 1943 in Great Bookham, Surrey, where he lived until the age of two, when his family moved to Cambridge.

Roger is currently busying himself with the run-up to the release of his opera Ca Ira, and, as a reminder, tickets for the performance at the Auditorium Parco Della Musica in Rome, on November 17th (more details here) went on sale yesterday morning.

Ticket prices range from €120, for stalls seats, down to €40, for gallery seats. The show itself starts at 9pm.

Tickets can be ordered via the Auditorium.com website ( http://www.auditorium.com/eventi/?...fc=11&year=2005&month=11&%2e%2e%2efc=17&year%5fc=2005 ), by telephone (most operators speak English as well as Italian), along with other normal ticket agents for the venue.


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Date news posted: 6 September 2005

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0509061.html

http://www.auditorium.com/eventi/1141413
и
http://biglietteria.listicket.it/biglietti/disponibilita.php...zazione=113&idProdotto=3303

LIVE 8 DVD - FULL DETAILS ANNOUNCED TODAY

The much-anticipated 4 DVD release of the Live 8 concerts was fully announced today, giving full detail of the tracklisting and extra features, and additional international single discs, concentrating on individual shows, were also announced.

There is fantastic news for Pink Floyd fans, as the headline-making reunion with Roger Waters is included in full on the main set.

What makes the release particularly important (apart from the proceeds going to charity), and interesting, is that they are also including footage of the Floyd's rehearsals for the concert!

As yet, we don't know the extent of the footage, or which rehearsals are included - either the dress rehearsals in Hyde Park, or the main rehearsals in the North London studios they used for three days prior to the show.

We're just waiting for the PR company handling the release to confirm this to us - but we are sure they've been deluged with enquiries since they put out the announcement!

Here's the full announcement, with the tracklisting of the four discs:

THE GREATEST SHOWS ON EARTH TO BE RELEASED ON DVD
EMI are proud to announce the DVD release of Live 8 on 7th November 2005 (8th November - USA)


On 7th November 2005 (8th November - USA) the biggest live event DVD project of its kind will be released. Live 8 brings together performances from the amazing series of concerts which took place around the world on 2nd July 2005.


Live 8 - One Day One Concert One World

The 4-disc set contains three discs of live footage taken from the Live 8 shows staged in London and Philadelphia alongside key highlights from the seven other events staged across the world. Every artist who performed at London’s Hyde Park and Philadelphia’s Museum Of Art appear on the DVD, many of them with their full sets.

"It was 20 years ago today": Live 8 opens with U2 and Paul McCartney’s crowd-rousing rendition of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and also features Pink Floyd’s historical reunion, Robbie Williams’s show-stopping performance and Madonna’s breathtakingly energetic set. Younger artists such as Snow Patrol, The Killers and Joss Stone comfortably intertwine with rock n’ roll legends such as The Who and Sting. One-off duets come from Paul McCartney and George Michael, Stevie Wonder and Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Elton John and Pete Doherty and Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft. Disc 3 closes as the London concert closed on 2 July with the stars of Live 8 Hyde Park taking to the stage for the stunning ‘Hey Jude’ finale.

Along the way the Kaiser Chiefs waved the flag for Britain in Philadelphia and their vigorous performance is captured alongside American superstars Destiny’s Child, Bon Jovi, Black Eyed Peas and soul legend Stevie Wonder.

Also threaded through the UK and US acts are performances from artists who appeared at the Live 8 concerts in Rome, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, Johannesburg and Moscow. Tracks from Green Day, Brian Wilson and Roxy Music in Berlin and Neil Young in Toronto are included along with the Pet Shop Boys in Moscow, Duran Duran in Rome, Vusi Mahlasela in Johannesburg and Placebo and Muse in Paris.

Disc 4 features exclusive extras including a never-before-seen backstage documentary filmed at Hyde Park, Pink Floyd’s Live 8 reunion rehearsal, more acts from Live 8’s global concerts including McFly and Bjork in Tokyo, films by The Who and Travis and a contribution from Ricky Gervais. The special features section will offer highlights from Edinburgh’s Final Push concert at Murrayfield on July 6 which will include performances from James Brown, Travis and The Proclaimers.

Single disc sets for the French, German, Italian and Canadian Live 8 concerts have also been produced. These will focus further on each country’s concert and will be available globally:

"I hope this will be the biggest selling DVD of all time. It deserves to be. More importantly perhaps, it should be, for it will help us achieve our goal of changing the lives of the extreme poor for the better and making our generation the one that helped end the disgrace of poverty." Says Live 8 organiser Sir Bob Geldof.

Money raised from sales of the Live 8 DVD will go to the Band Aid Trust for the relief of hunger and poverty in Africa.

Live 8 was held on 2 July 2005. Nine simultaneous, free concerts starring the cream of international rock and pop artists were staged in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Tokyo, Moscow, Toronto, Johannesburg and Philadelphia. The concerts acted as a starting point for The Long Walk To Justice in support of the Make Poverty History and Global Call To Action campaigns and was timed to focus attention on the critical decisions made by the G8 summit four days later.

"You’re such a lovely audience, we’d like to take you home with us" sang Bono. Now the million-strong live audience and 5 billion viewers around the world can take Live 8 home with them...

TRACKLISTING - Disc 1
Paul McCartney & U2 - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
U2 - Beautiful Day
U2 - Vertigo
U2 - One
Coldplay - In My Place
Coldplay with Richard Ashcroft - Bittersweet Symphony
Coldplay - Fix You
Elton John - The Bitch Is Back
Elton John - Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
Elton John with Pete Doherty - Children Of The Revolution
Dido & Youssou N’Dour - 7 Seconds
Stereophonics - Bartender And The Thief
REM - Everybody Hurts
REM - Man On The Moon
Ms Dynamite - Dy-Na-Mi-Tee
Keane - Somewhere Only We Know
Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love
Black Eyed Peas - Let’s Get It Started
Black Eyed Peas with Stephen Marley - Get Up Stand Up
Duran Duran - Wild Boys (Rome)
Bob Geldof - I Don’t Like Mondays
Muse - Time Is Running Out (Paris)
Travis - Sing
Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot
Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday I Love You Less And Less
UB40 with Hunterz & The Dohl Blasters - Reasons
UB40 - Red Red Wine
Green Day - American Idiot (Berlin)
Snoop Dogg - Signs
Snoop Dogg - Who Am I (What’s My Name)?
Bon Jovi - Livin’ On A Prayer
Annie Lennox - Why
Annie Lennox - Sweet Dreams

TRACKLISTING - Disc 2
Destiny’s Child - Survivor
Destiny’s Child - Girl
Razorlight - Somewhere Else
Razorlight - Golden Touch
Bryan Adams - All For Love
Kanye West - Diamonds From Sierra Leone
CBC Ethiopian Famine Film
Madonna - Like A Prayer
Madonna - Ray Of Light
Madonna - Music
Will Smith - Getting’ Jiggy Wit It
Will Smith - Switch
Will Smith - The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air
Brian Wilson - Good Vibrations (Berlin)
Snow Patrol - Run
Toby Keith - Stays In Mexico
The Killers - All These Things That I’ve Done
Dave Matthews Band - American Baby
Daniel Powter - Bad Day
Linkin Park - In The End
Linkin Park with Jay-Z - Numb
Joss Stone - Super Duper Love
Joss Stone - Some Kind Of Wonderful
Jars Of Clay - Show You Love
Scissor Sisters - Laura
Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama
Alicia Keys - For All We Know
Velvet Revolver - Fall To Pieces
Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me
Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl?
Sarah McLachlan & Josh Groban - Angel
Sting - Message In A Bottle
Sting - Driven To Tears
Sting - Every Breath You Take

TRACKLISTING - Disc 3
Mariah Carey - Make It Happen
Mariah Carey - Hero
Vusi Mahlasela - When You Come Back (Johannesburg)
Roxy Music - Do The Strand (Berlin)
Maroon 5 - This Love
Maroon 5 - She Will Be Loved
Neil Young - Four Strong Winds (Toronto)
Pet Shop Boys - Go West (Moscow)
Robbie Williams - We Will Rock You
Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You
Robbie Williams - Feel
Robbie Williams - Angels
Keith Urban - Somebody Like You
Placebo - Twenty Years (Paris)
Rob Thomas - Lonely No More
Faithless - We Come 1 (Berlin)
Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin’)
Stevie Wonder & Rob Thomas - Higher Ground
Stevie Wonder & Adam Levine - Signed Sealed Delivered
Stevie Wonder - So What The Fuss/Superstition
The Who - Who Are You?
The Who - Won’t Get Fooled Again
Pink Floyd - Speak To Me
Pink Floyd - Breathe
Pink Floyd - Money
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
Paul McCartney - Get Back
Paul McCartney & George Michael - Drive My Car
Paul McCartney - Helter Skelter
Paul McCartney - The Long And Winding Road
Finale - Hey Jude

TRACKLISTING - Disc 4 - EXTRAS
Edinburgh - The Final Push: Highlights from the Murrayfield concert held on 6 July
McFly - All About You (Tokyo)
Good Charlotte - Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous (Tokyo)
Dreams Come True - Love Love Love (Tokyo)
Bjork - All Is Full Of Love (Tokyo)
The Who - ‘Who Are You?’ film
Travis - ‘Why Does It Always Rain On Me?’ film
Ricky Gervais - Enjoy The Day
Behind The Scenes At Hyde Park
Pink Floyd rehearsal
Additional bonus international performances may be added

DVD SPECIFICATIONS:
Format: 4 Disc PAL DVD (Europe) / NTSC DVD (US)
Packaging: Fold-out Digipack in slipcase (12-page booklet)
Picture: 16:9 / Colour
Audio: DTS 5.1 Surround Sound; Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Stereo
Subtitles: English, Dutch, French
Our thanks to Maria at LD Publicity for her help.

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Date news posted: 6 September 2005

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0509063.html

Надо будет заиметь сие издание, благо - Elton John, Will Smith, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd...

2SergeK:
>Надо будет заиметь сие издание, благо - Elton
>John, Will Smith, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd...

Ну последний исполнитель у меня есть;)

Хотя, стоит приобресть!;)

..Правда, это выступление Елтона Джона я бывряд ли ещё захотел посмотреть;)..

PF to reunite for US tour...?

Pink Floyd Reunion

As "Rock Star: INXS" contestant Marty Kasey kicked butt last week with his rendition of “Wish You Were Here,” (he’s still my favorite to win the job of lead singer for INXS), intel from my sources within rock 'n' roll circles is that Pink Floyd (search), including lead singer Roger Waters, may be coming to the U.S. for a reunion concert tour.

This news is sure to set Floyd fans in a frenzy of anticipation. It’s been years since “The Wall” group performed together, and a reunion concert tour will surely challenge The Rolling Stones' dominance in the classic rock arenas.

Stay tuned.

Your Grrrs

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168525,00.html

ДОЛГОЖДАННОЕ БОЛЬШОЕ ИНТЕРВЬЮ РОДЖЕРА ЖУРНАЛУ SYNTHSIS!!!
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Former Pink Floyd Mastermind Roger Waters Battles the Dark Side and
Waxes Optimistic with His Long-Awaited Opera, Ca Ira

Excerpt from the magazine's introduction by Bill Fishkin:
"Welcome to the second issue... ...this issue features interviews
with a completely diverse array of talent including...
Roger Waters . Yes, Roger Waters called our office -
- that's crazy."

BY MAURICE SPENCER TIEILMANN AND GAYLAND MORRIS


LISTENING TO HIS EXTENSIVE

body of work, you might not necessarily take Roger Waters for an optimist. Themes of alienation, societal wrongs and man's natural gift for cruelty and insanity have dominated his musical works, both as Pink Floyd's primary songwriter from the late '60s to the early '80s, and on the solo albums that followed his departure from the band. This assumption could be furthered, noting that after losing a lawsuit in which Waters sued the residual members of Pink Floyd to stop them from using the group's name, they continued to great success, releasing multi-platinum selling (if lyrically and musically unambitious) records. Meanwhile, Waters remained resolute, challenging both himself and his faithful fans with ornate, brain-bending concept albums, including 1992's criminally overlooked Amused to Death. But speaking with Waters, one gets the sense that the acrimony and dread found in his lyrics have been less about expressing contempt for his fellow man than addressing and overcoming his own feelings of disconnection. His long-rumored opera, Зa Ira -- an ambitious work written about the French Revolution, and boasting the sanguine subtitle "There is Hope" -- will be released on September 27th and Waters took some time out of his day to talk about politics, last July's one-time Pink Floyd reunion at the Live 8 concert, and the daunting task of adapting Etienne Roda-Gil's French libretto.



Synthesis:


I was reading this rock magazine the other day, and it had a piece on President Bush meeting with [Live 8 organizer Bob] Geldof and Bono following the G8 summit. It made a quip about Bush "coming out strongly against MTV cutting into Pink Floyd's performance." I assume that was probably a lame joke, but the first time I read it, I thought to myself, wow, this is the first time I've ever agreed with Bush.



Roger Waters:


[Laughs] I haven't heard that story; I think it's very funny.




Synthesis:


How would you feel knowing your music appealed to, or had a profound effect on a political figure like Bush?



Roger Waters:


Well, I don't think anything I've ever done would have any effect on Bush. I think he's impervious to any thoughts I might have. We come from such different ends of the political spectrum, and his agenda is so different than mine. I would find it extraordinary if I actually had an effect on him in any way. Except possibly as a member of Bob Geldof's team putting on the Live 8 concert, as I was a small part of that. It's possible that we and that [concert] gave a little push in the right direction.




Synthesis:


I wanted to speak with you about your new album, Зa Ira. My understanding of French is limited at best. I've read a few translations of Зa Ira and it generally means, "there's hope" or "this will go well." What does the phrase Зa Ira mean to you? And apart from being the title of a song from the French Revolution, how does it relate to the overall piece?



Roger Waters:


Well, in fact the subtitle, "There is hope," is something that I invented, because that's sort of what it meant to me. I think Etienne [Roda-Gil], who wrote the French libretto, latched onto [Зa Ira] as a title, partly because the song emerged in 1790 and it was also popularized by Edith Piaf after the Second World War. So it has a resonance for the French and it's almost like, well you could say it's like a rallying call for the empathetic bit in all of us -- our daily fight and battle against the dark side in all of us. It seems to me that the big question facing mankind is whether or not the humane side of our individual personalities has a fighting chance against the parts of us that are greedy and motivated only by self-interest. I find myself determined in my optimism in that school. I just have this sense that it may be that the individual at some point will get a chance to wrestle the reigns of power from where it resides at the moment and express ourselves more individually. Not anarchist -- far from it -- but in order to encourage our governments to uphold the rule of the law, which at the moment... well certainly your government and my government are not, and that is something that causes me great personal pain and anguish. Because, you know in my teens and 20s, it took me a while, but I finally came to realize that the law is really all we have. Actually, I talk about it in Зa Ira. I talk about "cooling in the crucible, an idea forms." It forms a nugget in the hearts of the poor that in the daunting light they have a right to the law. It's something I realized that, only in law, hope for the future really resides. Which is why it's so kind of, well, sickening that we've actually distanced ourselves now from habeas corpus. This is the absolute fundamental tenet of British law and was then adopted in America. Now we find ourselves incarcerating people without trials, giving them no access to lawyers, to anything, and that seems to me to be an extraordinarily retrograde step -- one I hope people will notice more and more and protest about more and more.

Synthesis:


I hadn't realized fully the implications of Guantanamo Bay until I watched a Canadian news broadcast to know the extent of what we're doing.



Roger Waters:


Well, it's a fundamental abuse of the power of this American administration that throws all international law out of the window and says, we don't care about the law, we're not interested in the law, we will do what we do." It's exactly what they're pretending to be fighting and it is, of course, in its own may, an act of terror -- in the same way that somebody straps a suicide bomb to themselves and kills innocent people, which of course is against international law. As soon as you start breaking international law, you're putting yourself on the same moral low-ground of bin Laden or anyone else in my view.




Synthesis:


Do you believe human beings have the capacity to first start a violent revolution and then relinquish power back to the people once the fighting is over?



Roger Waters:


Well the French did, the Americans did. I don't know if it's quite happened in Algeria yet. As far as in a parliamentary or republican democracy, the power can develop with the people. Americans are at heart good-natured, kind and given half the chance, one would expect them to be happy to adopt the moral high-ground. By that I mean doing the right thing -- not getting involved in debates about gay marriages, but actually providing some kind of moral leadership for the rest of the world. There is an enormous amount of sensitivity in America for that kind of leadership and it's desperately needed, I think. It's certainly not coming from Great Britain anymore.




Synthesis:


I'm suspicious that the power truly hasn't been handed back to the people, or if it's ever stayed in the people's hands. I'm more suspicious that politicians have just gotten better at fooling the people into thinking they have power.



Roger Waters:


Clearly you have a point. One would need to supersede the current system here and you would need to find something to put in its place, and that has proved difficult in the past. One hates to use the words "more socialist model," because "socialist" is such a dirty word in America, so I prefer to say towards a more humane model where the extreme between the wealthy and poor is narrowed rather than being widened as they have been during the last seven or eight years. What I find extraordinary is if you are the poor, why do you vote for an administration that gives themselves huge tax breaks and does nothing for you, except to pretend to fight terrorists... and getting the population to focus on that and only on that. Then you can pursue any policies you want depending on what your agenda is... They have alienated an entire generation of young Muslims around the world. Where it will end, God only knows, but wherever it does end, it doesn't seem like a very happy scenario going into the future.

We are not listening to the minds of the people who might be able to help us get out of this hole. Because surely to goodness, if you ask any sane person, "Is this what we want? For the extremes of various religions to lock horns across international and religious boundaries and have a religious war?" I don't think so. Well that's what is happening and it's not all their fault. I'm sure George Bush would say, "well we have to respond, you know, and we didn't start it..." I'm sorry, but you did. It's not a one-sided thing. The fact is that you are not right, all right, and they are not all wrong. It's really a question of understanding the opposite position and being prepared to compromise.

I mean, I went to my rehearsals with Pink Floyd ready to roll over at every possible moment. I did that. Day one, the first rehearsal, if something comes up or there's some musical difference or whatever with Dave [Gilmour], I'm going to roll over immediately and I did. And it worked great [laughs], it worked perfectly! I'm not saying I could roll over the rest of my life, but then we're not going to work together so, it's cool, it doesn't matter.

We've all got to find the place where we can roll over even if we disagree with the other guy. Rationalize as much as possible even with wildly different points of view. You just have to care more about the other guy's kids than about your own entrenched position. You have to care about your kids and his kids. You have to care about the children. We have to care about that more than we care about the oil or our Gulf Stream or whatever it might be. Then there is a possibility that we can start making more humane decisions and judgments and display more humane actions.




Synthesis:


Considering the historic animosity between you and David, it's refreshing to hear that you both made compromises to be able to work together.



Roger Waters:


Well I didn't say that. I said I rolled over.




Synthesis:


Oh, you rolled over, he didn't make the compromise.

Roger Waters:


He didn't roll over, and I didn't think he would for a minute. That's why I made the decision to roll over at any point, which I did. That's not to say he couldn't, or Dave isn't capable. Of course he is. I'm sure he is. He's a grown man, he's not stupid, and he can understand that it's important to make compromises. It's absolutely essential and it's only in compromise that we can create a world that's fit for our children to live in.




Synthesis:


Getting back to Ca Ira, I understand you're considering staging it as a concert performance in Rome with a full symphony this year. Is this something you're personally going to be directing?



Roger Waters:


Yeah, I will be, and we're not considering it: it's going to happen on November 17th. It's in an auditorium in a park, in a beautiful place in the middle of Rome. The promoter is a big fan of mine and he loves the work, so through his help and with the help of a few other people, we're putting it on with the orchestra, the big chorus with the kids, eight soloists. I've had my arm twisted a little so I've agreed to conduct the overture, after which I will leave it to a professional. I don't know if there are enough beta blockers in the world to calm me down for that one. It will be fun anyway.




Synthesis:


You've been working with orchestral arrangements since Atom Heart Mother and you brought to fruition an operatic piece on The Wall. Do you consider Зa Ira a culmination of your desires to create something that transcends pop music?



Roger Waters:


I wouldn't call it a culmination. It's been enormously hard work and it's been enormously rewarding, and I'm really glad with Sony's help and, well, everyone's help. It's come to fruition and it now exists as a record. I guess it is a culmination in a sense. It's a milestone along the road. I certainly hope to do more things in the future.




Synthesis:


Do you hope Ca Ira will appeal to an entirely new audience, one that may have been ambivalent towards your music before?



Roger Waters:


Yeah. It would be great. I think the piece has merit. It's very melodic, it's very emotional. The libretto was extremely passionate, and I stayed very true to the libretto. I think it has some important ideas in it. I think the narrative that finally evolved with reference to the friendship between Marie Antoinette and the Revolutionary Priest is an interesting one, and it sort of pits opposing political positions within a historical context that, eventually at the beginning of act three, comes together as a duet between the Priest and Marie Antoinette just before she's about to be beheaded. So, um, yeah I think it sort of hangs together and has some merit.




Synthesis:


I've been listening to Ca Ira, and I haven't detected your voice or instrumentation.



Roger Waters:


If you hear somebody shouting, that will be my voice. But no, I didn't sing on it at all.




Synthesis:


At the end of the Animals tour you had a really bad incident with an audience member at the end of a show, where you spat at them. This helped you create the idea of The Wall, of putting up this barrier between you and the audience.



Roger Waters:


That's right, yes.

Synthesis:


Have you dealt with your issues of contempt for your audience?



Roger Waters:


[Laughs] Yeah, absolutely! That was in 1977 and actually had nothing to do with contempt of the audience. It was the contempt I felt for myself, and I redirected it onto this poor kid in the audience. It had nothing to do with him or his behavior or anything he did. It was because I realized I was involved in an operation that had become mechanical and monetary, and so I was disgusted with myself because of that. I suddenly realized that Pink Floyd by 1977 no longer had [anything] to do with music and communicating with an audience, it had to do with cash by and large. So it was sort of self-loathing that caused that. I realized it at that moment and after that moment, lying awake that night in a hotel room, I thought, "Wow, what's happened to me?" It was appalling behavior and it was at that moment that the genesis of the idea to do The Wall came, and I wrote a bit of a blurb. In fact, if you go to the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, they built a bit of wall there. On it, there is some graffiti that I wrote for them to put on it. I can't remember it verbatim, but it basically says that The Wall is something I did to try and discover who I was and where I fit. I was faced with the question whether to accept that kind of enslaved position, being enslaved to profit, or would I take the risk of the road less traveled and not be enslaved to that very cozy position? It's apparently cozy to have a powerful brand name and sit under it. But it's actually deep beyond uncomfortable to deny one's creativity in that way. That was the question that was posed in The Wall and writing The Wall was sort of my way of discovering the answer to those questions.




Synthesis:


I always found it highly amusing that the punk rock generation in England at the time considered your music pompous, yet your spitting at the audience was perhaps one of the most punk rock things recorded at that time in musical history.



Roger Waters:


I guess it was. I never really took that punk attack on Pink Floyd very seriously.




Synthesis:


Your work on Ca Ira began almost 15 years ago, during the bicentennial of the French Revolution. Has this been a continual project for you or one that you've set aside and revisited over the years?



Roger Waters:


I worked on it in 1988 and I made a demo with an engineer which went to Paris on a cassette, and someone took it to President Mitterrand and he listened to it and he loved it. And that was me singing all the parts and playing all the instruments. It was rather crude, but it had something... and me singing in French was kind of strange. So he wrote a letter to Pierre Berge, who was the director of the Paris opera, saying that he thought this piece should be a part of the bicentennial celebration. I got very excited and I thought, "How am I going to lick this into shape in six months?" So they stopped talking about it being the inaugural work of the Bastille and then about six months after that, Nadine Roda-Gil, who illustrated the libretto and was very much a part of the whole process, died of leukemia. So we did nothing for another five years. We just put it away on a shelf. In 1995, I spoke to Etienne again and said, "Let's pick up, you know, it's time," and he agreed. That's when I started the orchestrations and started working on finding a recording company, making a record and doing everything properly.




Synthesis:


How do you think shelving it for those years affected the end results?



Roger Waters:


I think probably for the better. It's five years older and maybe five years wiser. It was a good thing. I don't think it would have been goad to leave it much longer, and I'm glad it's done.




Synthesis:


Personally I think one of your strongest artistic traits is your ability to craft thought-provoking and poetic lyrics. How difficult was it to adapt Etienne's original French libretto?



Roger Waters:


It was hard work. It wasn't until I was trying to translate it that I realized that it was a bit narrative-like and a lot of the French was based upon archaic terms which a literal translation couldn't even begin to express. In consequence, I had to search in my own craft for new ways of expressing things, sometimes changing things almost entirely while staying true to the spirit of the original text. I added a lot of prologues and added narrative pieces which Etienne translated back into French. It became very symbiotic and a collaboration. I only did it because the record company was desperate that I provide them with an English version as well as a French version. But I'm very glad they did.




Synthesis:


Would you indulge me for a couple of super-fan questions?



Roger Waters:


Sure.




Synthesis:


When was the last time you thought of [Pink Floyd's founding member] Syd [Barrett]?



Roger Waters:


Well, obviously during live 8. I mentioned him on stage and of course the papers, stupidly as they always do, sent reporters off to find him in Cambridge, and of course he never answers the door, and he won't. They did manage to unearth Rosemary, his younger sister, and she just said, "Leave him alone, he's not interested and he hasn't been for the last 35 years and he will never will be. So stop badgering him, you know?" But, I think about him regularly and I sort of keep tabs on him. My mum is still alive and well, living in Cambridge, so I occasionally ask her if there's any word and if he's okay. He does, you know, he putters around. He's got his own house where he lives. Royalties come through, so within the context of the discomfort of being schizophrenic, I think he's as comfortable as he can be.




Synthesis:


What about old rumors that he had a lobotomy?

Roger Waters:


Oh absolutely not! That is completely untrue.




Synthesis:


Great, I'm glad to clear that up. Here's a fun one. Dark Side of the Moon and Wizard Of Oz: Brilliant preplanned combination of mixed mediums, amusing coincidence or complete load of rubbish?



Roger Waters:


It has nothing to do with us, that's for sure.




Synthesis:


I have one more question for you... How will the world end?



Roger Waters:


Oh, it will. Isn't it supposed to slowly cool off? Though they do say they're worried about global warming. But my thought is that it will go quietly and get cold, or there will be some supernova nearby and it will go with a bang! I think those are two possibilities [laughs], but I don't think it should concern any of us. It's not going to happen for a few million years... unless we get hit by a giant asteroid or something, which is always a possibility. But I think these kinds of cosmic questions are, I don't know... One experiences life from one grain of sand that is one's own feeling about things. I'm more concerned about how people feel than what's happening in the great "out there."




*** THE END ***




Regards,Lostin70s http://www.geocities.com/lostin70s.geo/index.html




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Posted: 7 September 2005

http://bobclose.narod.ru/synthesis2005.html

Вот статья, упоминающая об участии возрождённого состава Пинк Флойд в трибьют-альбоме Джону Пилу
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4 September 2005
HERE'S EL PRESIDENTE
Rockers join all-star tribute to DJ legend
Edited By Billy Sloan And Mickey Mcmonagle
SCOTS rockers El Presidente will star alongside Elton John, R.E.M., Pink Floyd and Robert Plant on an all-star tribute to DJ legend John Peel.

They've recorded a cover of Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) - a hit for Buzzcocks in 1978.

Lead singer Dante Gizzi was asked to take part in the Band Aid-style single by Peel's son, William.

He taped his vocals in a behind-closed-doors session in London with Pete Shelley of Buzzcocks last week.

The disc will be released to coincide with Peel Day, a series of music events on Radio One on October 13 - the first anniversary of John's death.

Gizzi said: "I was knocked out to be asked to do it. To appear with superstar acts like Elton John, Pink Floyd, R.E.M. and Robert Plant is a big thrill"William wanted acts such as Bloc Party, Futureheads and ourselves to get involved because his dad loved new bands, too.


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"It was great recording the track with Pete and Andy Gill of Gang Of Four who produced it.


"Peely was the guv'nor. He wasn't bothered about trying to be cool. He was just into good records."


El Presidente play a sell-out show at The Garage in Glasgow on October 7 to launch new single, Rocket.


The group's brilliant self-titled debut album is released on October 24.


They will also headline their first gig at Glasgow's Barrowland on December 17. Tickets, priced £10, go on sale on September 10. Call 0870 169 0100to book. Gizzi said: "In the space of a few months we've gone from King Tut's to great gigs at T In The Park and T On The Fringe.


"To now be heading for our first ever headline show at the Barrowland is amazing."


Things are just getting better and better for the band, who scored hits with 100MPH and Without You.


Last night, they were signed up as a support act on the Jamiroquai arena tour, which includes a date at Glasgow's SECC on September 8. In November, Dante will also fulfill a lifelong ambition when he appears on stage with his music hero, former Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson.


He said: "He's being inducted into the UK Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.


"We're hoping to perform with him at the event. I'd love to duet on God Only Knows with the great man."


Peel's late-night shows on Radio 1 made him one of the most influential and best-loved men in British music.


Scores of bands broke into the big-time after being championed by the pioneering DJ

http://www.sundaymail.co.uk/entertainment/entertainmentmail/tm_objectid=15928600%26meth...