by Mark Blake
With all the ‘noise and thunder’ of the show, few in the O2 noticed the slip-ups. Fewer still cared. As such, it seemed to take a while for the mood to settle, as the regular band returned for the aptly named ‘The Show Must Go On’. But Waters still had another surprise card to play.
The concert’s spectacular finale came at the end of ‘The Trial’. Waters, his band and the audience chanted the words, ‘Tear down the wall’, until, finally, the first bricks toppled forward and the whole structure collapsed as if struck by some huge invisible wrecking ball. On any other night, Waters would stroll out in front of the ruins before bringing on his backing group to perform the final song of the night, ‘Outside the Wall’. This evening, though, he stopped and addressed the audience first. ‘So, now we know, tonight was the night when David did me the enormous honour of coming to play “Comfortably Numb”,’ he said. On cue, the guitarist reappeared clutching a mandolin and smiling shyly during another round of tumultuous applause.
But Waters wasn’t done yet. ‘By another extraordinary and happy coincidence there is another remnant of our old band here tonight,’ he declared. Enter: Nick Mason. The drummer, looking a little frazzled having only just flown back from America, sauntered on from the wings clutching a tambourine and grinning.
‘I was going to go to the show anyway,’ Mason told this writer. ‘I came straight from the airport to the 02, and Dave said, “Why don’t you come on at the end?” So I said, “Oh, OK then”.’ Flanked by the rest of Waters’ band, the three old stagers performed ‘Outside the Wall’ while a joshing Waters stuck his microphone into Gilmour’s face and urged him to sing, and grabbed hold of Mason and forced him to sway rather stiffly in time to the music.
It was hard to imagine anything like this happening in 1980; something Waters was swift to acknowledge. ‘Thirty years ago when David and Nick and I first did this, with Rick, I was a rather grumpy person and disaffected with rock ’n’ roll audiences . . . as young David will attest.’ To his left, a smiling Gilmour nodded in agreement. Waters paused, with his hand on the guitarist’s shoulder. ‘But all that’s changed!’ he shouted. ‘I could not be happier than to be here with these guys . . . and all of you here in this room tonight. Thank you very very much indeed!’
‘It felt terrific on the night,’ said Mason. ‘And I now have a really nice photo of the three of us laughing.’ Though he was unsure how genuine Waters’ statement about no longer feeling grumpy and disaffected had been. ‘It was very odd. We can’t decide whether he means it or whether he thinks that makes him sound like a nicer person.’
It was the end of another Pink Floyd reunion, but not The Wall. Waters went on to stage the show in Ireland and across Europe before finishing in Athens’ Olympic Indoor Hall. Despite many of the nations visited being in the grip of a punishing economic recession, the box office data for the European dates showed that The Wall was financially bulletproof. The show’s gross box office revenue was usually well in excess of $1.5 million a night, with profits from merchandising sales still to come. Unsurprisingly, then, Waters announced that he would be back with The Wall the following year.
While Roger Waters was on a financial winning streak, Pink Floyd’s record company, EMI, was having a tougher time of it. In January 2010, the beleaguered label had reported pre-tax losses of £1.75 billion for the previous year. Two months later, it was reported that Pink Floyd were suing EMI for breaking the terms of an earlier contract by making individual Floyd songs available to purchase via the Internet.
As well as claiming that the band hadn’t received all of the royalties due to them from online sales, the group’s lawyers’ main bone of contention was that, for artistic reasons alone, the songs should not be sold separately, and that Floyd albums should only be sold as a whole. EMI contested that this ruling only applied to physical product such as CDs and vinyl, but not to downloads.
The court heard in the band’s favour. However, a year later, Floyd and EMI announced a new five-year partnership, which allowed the label to continue selling Floyd songs individually on iTunes. In spring 2011, the news that Pink Floyd had sanctioned reissues of The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall seemed like a well-timed move to help prop up the ailing label.
All three albums were re-released in their original format, plus a version with additional tracks and a sumptuous Immersion box-set edition, which retailed at an eye-popping £80. The box sets were packed with ephemera, including replica tickets, backstage passes and drinks coasters designed by Storm Thorgerson. But, more importantly, they contained a treasure-trove of bonus tracks, alternative mixes and live material. Some of the music had been circulating for years on bootlegs, but a lot had never been heard outside the Floyd camp, and much of it had been languishing in the EMI vaults for decades.
At last, Floyd completists could sample the fabled early mix of Wish You Were Here’s title track, featuring Stéphane Grappelli’s rococo violin solo, and hear segments from the mysterious Household Objects project, where the band had twanged elastic bands to make a bass sound and created a melody with tuned wine glasses. Waters also bravely made available some of his earliest demos for The Wall. These demonstrated how much the rest of the band had improved his original ideas, but also how focused Waters’ vision was even before he’d shared the material with co-producer Bob Ezrin.
Unfortunately, while the music press and Floyd obsessives anticipated the 5.1 surround-sound mix of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ and other gems, the rest of the media was preoccupied by events in David Gilmour’s home life. Just as the press campaign for the reissues began, Gilmour’s twenty-one-year-old stepson, Charlie, was sentenced to sixteen months in prison. He had been arrested seven months earlier, during protests in central London against proposed increases in student tuition fees. Charlie was photographed swinging on the union flag at the cenotaph, and was later caught on CCTV kicking a shop window in Oxford Street. The harshness of the sentence was widely criticised. He was later released on curfew after serving four months.
There was, inevitably, a sense of finality about the reissues, as if it was drawing a line under Pink Floyd’s career. ‘We thought, Fuck trying to hang on to anything anymore,’ admitted Gilmour. ‘The thinking was, If we don’t do this now, we never will,’ Mason told this writer, before joshing that sales of the costly box sets might help keep EMI in business ‘for another fortnight’. In the end, even Pink Floyd couldn’t save EMI. In September 2012, the label was swallowed up by the Universal Music Group in a £1.2 billion takeover deal.
With the traditional music industry in decline, the continuing success of Roger Waters’ Wall tour seemed both heartening and extraordinary. At the beginning of 2012, he announced forthcoming dates in South America. But if there was ever a time to question how far Waters had strayed from The Wall’s original ethos and its criticism of the inhumane nature of stadium gigs, then it was now.
In 1980, Pink Floyd, at Waters’ request, had turned down a $2 million guarantee from a US promoter to perform The Wall at Philadelphia’s open-air JFK Stadium. ‘It’s three years since we did that last stadium,’ Waters told the band, referring to the night in Montreal in 1977 when he’d spat at a fan. ‘I said then that I would never do one again. The Wall was entirely sparked off by how awful it was . . . and that’s why we’ve produced this show strictly for arenas.’
But that was then. As well as announcing outdoor stadium shows in Chile and Brazil, Waters declared a nine-night run at the open-air River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The combined fifteen South American dates in March would see Waters playing to a total of over 750,000 people and breaking box office attendance records previously set by The Rolling Stones in 1995. The gross revenue from the Buenos Aires run alone was later reported as $37,970,877.
Waters justified these 65,000-capacity stadium shows like so: ‘My walls are coming down,’ he said. ‘There’s something about connecting with that many people outdoors, which is actually extremely gratifyin
g.’
‘The Wall is not just about me,’ he told Mojo magazine. ‘It’s not just about you, this is shared experience – our grief. It’s now about social, economic and political issues.’
Waters brought The Wall back to North America for another run in summer 2012. The final performance was held at Quebec’s Plains of Abraham on the site of a 1759 battle between British and French armed forces. Seventy thousand people watched the rise and fall of an 800-ft wall, in what was the second biggest production of The Wall yet, outdone only by Waters’ 1990 performance in Berlin.
Back in Britain, the Olympics kept the nation enthralled for most of the summer, and fired up speculation that Pink Floyd, or at least David Gilmour, would appear at the closing ceremony. In the end, it was left to Nick Mason to fly the Floyd flag at a show that also featured The Who, Madness and what was left of Queen.
Mason bowled up to play drums on twenty-one-year-old folky-pop singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s perfectly respectable rendition of ‘Wish You Were Here’. Many of Sheeran’s young audience took to Twitter to praise what they presumed was his new song. Some Floyd purists bristled, but as Mason rightly pointed out in an email to the singer: ‘Sooner or later people will work out the origin of the song, and who knows, maybe check out our catalogue, just as hopefully our fans might check out yours.’
Mason and Waters’ past lives came under the spotlight a month later, when the house they had lodged in as students was sold at auction for £1.2 million. In 1963, the Floyd’s drummer and bassist moved into 33 Stanhope Gardens, Highgate, a house owned by art school lecturer and part-time musician Mike Leonard. When Mason moved out, Syd Barrett moved in. The early Floyd had rehearsed in Leonard’s front room, and improvised music to accompany their landlord’s light-show demonstrations at Hornsey Art School. Leonard’s willingness to let the group rehearse at the house despite complaints from his neighbours was a godsend to Pink Floyd. Some of the band’s old musical equipment was later discovered in the attic. ‘Stanhope Gardens made a real difference to our musical activities,’ explained Mason, who claimed to have buried the hood of one of his first cars, an Aston Martin International, in the garden of the house.
In December, Waters enjoyed his own Olympic-style victory. Year-end figures revealed that The Wall had been the third most profitable tour of 2012, just behind Bruce Springsteen and Madonna, but ahead of pop giants Coldplay and Lady Gaga. The Wall’s 192 shows had grossed a staggering $377 million. Images of Waters in his military-style leather greatcoat with its red and white ‘marching hammers’ armband now turned up in the business pages of newspapers as well as music magazines.
Waters may have performed a complete volte-face when it came to playing in stadiums, but there was so much to admire in the show’s ambition and spectacle. He’d also achieved the rare feat of turning a production weighted with genuine social and political messages into a money-spinner. Many may have attended for the visual eye-candy alone, and there was certainly no other show on earth where one could experience a crashing plane, a rock star dressed like a military dictator and a massive wall tumbling down, but Waters had never once stinted on driving The Wall’s serious message home.
Predictably then, in November 2012, he revealed plans for further shows in Europe for the following summer. These would include a date at London’s prestigious Wembley Stadium. Twenty-five years earlier, a newly solo Roger Waters could only watch as Pink Floyd filled the stadium twice over without him, after his own shows had recently struggled to fill the neighbouring arena. When asked whether any of his old bandmates, especially David Gilmour, might appear at the forthcoming hometown show, Waters replied, with a lovely hint of mischief, ‘I think, by and large, David is retired.’
Gilmour may have been out of the spotlight but he was quietly working on new material. In his absence, though, Pink Floyd’s more prolific and outspoken songwriter had reclaimed at least some of the group’s legacy. Now thirty-four years old, Waters’ favourite Floyd album The Wall had acquired a new lease of life, and so too had its now sixty-nine-year-old creator. Waters hadn’t released a new album since 1992. But touring The Wall had spurred him into writing a brand-new song that, in turn, had convinced him that perhaps it wasn’t time to stop just yet.
Pink Floyd were no more. EMI Records were no more. The music business as Pink Floyd knew it was no more. But Roger Waters was planning his studio comeback. The opening line to Waters’ latest composition was, he revealed, ‘If I had been God . . .’
‘It may prove deeply unpopular in certain quarters,’ he said, doubtless relishing any future objections. ‘But, fuck it!’ In an uncertain and changing world, it was reassuring to know that some things never change.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book wouldn’t have been possible without the help of friends and colleagues at Mojo and Q magazines, including Phil Alexander, Danny Eccleston, Gareth Grundy, Ted Kessler, Paul Rees and Stuart Williams. Further thanks to John Aizlewood, Johnny Black, Dave Brolan, Fred Dellar, Peter Doggett, Tom Doyle, Jerry Ewing, Sarah Ewing, Lora Findlay, Dawn Foley, Pat Gilbert, Ian Gittins, Ross Halfin, John Harris, Neil Jeffries, Philip Lloyd-Smee, Steve Malins, Toby Manning, Mark Paytress, Mark Sturdy, Phil Sutcliffe and Paul Trynka for phone numbers, information, interview transcripts, website expertise, encouragement and advice.
A warm handshake to Graham Coster at Aurum Press for effusive praise, tactful criticism and a nice E.M. Forster anecdote, to Rachel Leyshon for her sympathetic copy-editing, and to Matt Johns of the superlative Pink Floyd website www.brain-damage.co.uk for all his help and support.
Several people tolerated my frequent telephone calls and intrusions into their (past) lives. So a special thank you to Jeff Dexter, Iain ‘Emo’ Moore, Matthew Scurfield, Anthony Stern and John Watkins, who were especially gracious with their time and memories.
This book draws on my own interviews with David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and Richard Wright conducted between 1992 and 2006 for various magazines, including Mojo and Q. Also my own interviews with and contributions from: Nick Barraclough, Andrew Bown, Joe Boyd, Mick Brockett, Ivan Carling-Scanlon, Paul Carrack, Libby Chisman, Caroline Coon, Alice Cooper, David Crosby, Karl Dallas, John Davies, Chris Dennis, Jeff Dexter, Geoff Docherty, Harry Dodson, Bob Ezrin, Jenny Fabian, Mick Farren, Hugh Fielder, Duggie Fields, David Gale, Ron Geesin, John Gordon, Caroline Greeves, Jeff Griffin, Bob Harris, Dave ‘De’ Harris, Jeanette Holland, John ‘Hoppy’ Hopkins, Nicky Horne, Sam Hutt, Richard Jacobs, Jeff Jarratt, Nick Kent, Susan Kingsford, ‘Bob’ Rado Klose, John Leckie, Jenny Lesmoir-Gordon, Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon, Peter Jenner, Andrew King, Jonathan Meades, Tabitha Mellor, Bhaskar Menon, Clive Metcalfe, Peter Mew, Iain ‘Emo’ Moore, Seamus O’Connell, Davy O’List, Alan Parsons, Danny Peyronel, Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, Guy Pratt, William Pryor, Stephen Pyle, Andrew Rawlinson, Alun Renshaw, Tim Renwick, Pete Revell, Mick Rock, Sheila Rock, Peter Rowan, Gerald Scarfe, Barbet Schroeder, Matthew Scurfield, Vic Singh, Christine Smith, Norman Smith, Jay Stapley, Anthony Stern, Steve Stollman, Storm Thorgerson, Clare Torry, Pete Townshend, John Watkins, Clive Welham, Peter Whitehead, John Whiteley, Andrew Whittuck, Rick Wills, Peter Wynne-Willson, John ‘Willie’ Wilson, Baron Wolman and Emily Young. Many thanks to everyone who spared the time to talk to me.
Countless magazine interviews and articles proved invaluable in writing this book, including many published in Classic Rock, Melody Maker, Mojo, Musician, NME, Q, Record Collector, Rolling Stone, Sounds, Spin, Uncut, The Word and more. Those deserving of a special mention are listed in the bibliography.
Finally, lots of love and gratitude to Claire and Matthew for infinite amounts of patience, particularly during the last big push.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Harris, John, The Dark Side of the Moon: The Making of the Pink Floyd Masterpiece (Fourth Estate, 2005)
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Manning, Toby, The Rough Guide to Pink Floyd (Rough Guides, 2006)
Mason, Nick, Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2004)
McDonald, Bruno (ed.), Pink Floyd: Through the Eyes of … The Band, Its Fans, Friends And Foes (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1996)
Miles, Barry, Pink Floyd, A Visual Documentary (Omnibus Press, 1980)
Miles, Barry, Pink Floyd, The Early Years (Omnibus Press, 2006)
Palacios, Julian, Lost in the Woods: Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd (Boxtree, 1998)
Parker, David, Random Precision: Recording the Music of Syd Barrett 1965–1974 (Cherry Red Books, 2001)
Povey, Glenn and Ian Russell, Pink Floyd: In the Flesh, The Complete Performance History (Bloomsbury, 1997)
Povey, Glenn, Echoes: The Complete History of Pink Floyd (Mindhead Publishing, 2006)
Pratt, Guy, My Bass and Other Animals (Orion, 2007)
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Shaffner, Nicholas, A Saucerful of Secrets: A Pink Floyd Odyssey (Helter Skelter, 1992)
Thorgerson, Storm and Peter Curzon, Mind Over Matter: The Images Of Pink Floyd (Sanctuary, 1997)
