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Richard
Wright - Keyboards,
Organ, Piano, |
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Synth,
Acoustic Guitar,
Trombone, Vocals, |
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Guitar,
Fiddle, Harpsicord,
Saxophone, Cello |
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Syd
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Vocals, Bass, Slide |
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guitar, Ukelele,
Mandolin, Banjo |
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Album Art |
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George Roger Waters (born
September 6, 1943) is an English rock musician;
singer, guitarist, bassist, songwriter, and composer.
He is best known for his 1965-1985 career with
the band Pink Floyd (he was credited as their
main songwriter, after the departure of Syd Barrett),
bass player and one of their lead vocalists (along
with David Gilmour and, to a lesser extent, Rick
Wright). He was also the lyrical mastermind behind
many of the band's concept albums, especially
The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here,
Animals, The Wall, and The Final Cut, and their
well known symbols including the Pink Floyd Pigs
and the marching hammers.
Following this, he began a moderately successful
solo career releasing three studio albums and
staging one of the largest concerts ever, The
Wall Concert in Berlin in 1990. In 2005, he released
an opera, Ça Ira and joined Pink Floyd
at the Live 8 concert in London, on July 2, for
their first public performance with Waters in
24 years.
(1944-1965) Early years
Waters was born George Roger Waters in Great Bookham,
Surrey near Leatherhead, and grew up in Cambridge.
Although his father Eric Fletcher Waters had been
a Communist and ardent pacifist, he fought in
World War II and died in action at Anzio in 1944,
when Roger was only five months old. Waters would
refer or allude to the loss of his father throughout
his work, especially on The Final Cut album from
1983 (which is dedicated to his father) and the
song named When the Tigers Broke Free, first used
in the movie version of The Wall. However, he
has said that the mother character from the latter
album was nothing like his own. Distrust of authority,
particularly government, educational, and military
institutions, is a recurring theme in Waters'
writing. This theme is clearly expressed in When
the Tigers Broke Free as Waters expresses what
he felt was a hollow and patronizing response
to his father's sacrifice at Anzio:
"And kind old King George sent Mother a note
when he heard that Father was gone.
It was, as I recall, in a form of a scroll, with
gold leaf and all.
And I found it one day in a drawer of old photographs,
hidden away.
And my eyes still grow damp to remember, His Majesty
signed with his own rubber stamp."
He and Syd Barrett attended the Morley Memorial
Junior School on Hills Road, Cambridge, and later
both attended the Cambridge County School for
Boys (now Hills Road Sixth Form College), while
fellow band member David Gilmour attended The
Perse School on the same road. He met Nick
Mason and Richard Wright while attending the Regent
Street Polytechnic school of architecture. He
was a keen sportsman and was fond of swimming
in the River Cam at Grantchester Meadows. At 15
he was chair of YCND in Cambridge.
(1965-1985) Pink Floyd years
In 1965, Roger Waters co-founded Pink Floyd (after
many different incarnations - see Pink Floyd)
along with Syd Barrett, Richard Wright and Nick
Mason. Although Barrett initially did most of
the songwriting for the band, Waters wrote the
song "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk"
on their debut LP, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
The album was a critical success and positioned
the band for stardom. Barrett's deteriorating
mental health led to increasingly erratic behaviour,
rendering him unable to continue in his capacity
as Pink Floyd's lead singer and guitarist. Waters
attempted to coerce his friend into psychiatric
treatment; this proved unhelpful, and the band
approached David Gilmour to replace Barrett at
the end of 1967. Even the band's former managers
felt that Pink Floyd would not be able to sustain
its initial success without the talented Barrett.
Filling the void left by Barrett's departure,
Waters began to chart Pink Floyd's new artistic
direction. The lineup with Gilmour and Waters
eventually brought Pink Floyd to prominence, producing
a series of albums in the 1970s that remain among
the most critically acclaimed and best-selling
records of all time.
In 1970, Waters collaborated with British composer
Ron Geesin (who co-wrote Pink Floyd's title suite
from Atom Heart Mother) on a soundtrack album,
Music from "The Body", which consisted
mostly of instrumentals interspersed with songs
composed by Waters. Within Pink Floyd, Waters
became the main lyrical contributor, exerting
progressively more creative control over the band:
he produced thematic ideas that became the impetus
for concept albums such as The Dark Side of the
Moon and Wish You Were Here, for which he wrote
all of the lyrics and some of the music. After
this, Waters became the primary songwriter, composing
Animals and The Wall largely by himself (though
continuing to collaborate with Gilmour on music).
Waters' band-mates were happy to allow him to
write the band's lyrics and guide its conceptual
direction while they shared the opportunity to
contribute musical ideas (Gilmour described Waters
as "a very good motivator and obviously a
great lyricist," even at the height of
the acrimony between them in 1995). Some of the
band's most popular and beloved songs, including
"Echoes", "Time", "Us
and Them", "Wish You Were Here"
and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", feature
the strong synergy of Waters' sharp lyrical instincts
combined with the melodic talent of Gilmour, the
soft, precise drumming of Nick Mason, and atmospheric
patterns of keyboardist Richard Wright ("Us
and Them", for instance, began as a sweetly
melodic Wright keyboard instrumental and gained
poignancy when Waters added plaintive antiwar
lyrics). Unfortunately, this give-and-take relationship
began to dissolve: a consequence of the band's
collective ennui, according to Waters. Songwriting
credits were a source of contention in these difficult
years; Gilmour has noted that his contributions
to tracks like "Another Brick in the Wall,
Part II", with its blistering guitar solo,
were not always noted in the album credits. Nick
Mason addresses the band in-fighting in his memoir,
Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd,
characterizing Waters as being egomaniacal at
times. It was while recording The Wall that Waters
decided to fire Wright, after Wright's personal
problems began to affect the album production.
Wright stayed with the band as a paid session
musician while Waters led the band through a complete
performance of his opus on every night of the
brief tour that followed (for which Gilmour acted
as musical director).
In 1983 , the last Waters-Gilmour-Mason collaboration,
The Final Cut, was released. The sleeve notes
describe it as being a piece "by Roger Waters"
that was "performed by Pink Floyd" (rather
than an actual Pink Floyd record). So, to many
the album came across more like a Roger Waters
solo album than Pink Floyd. It
was the lowest selling Pink Floyd album in a decade
without a hit single. Gilmour unsuccessfully tried
to delay production on the album until he could
author more material; Waters refused, and in 1985,
he proclaimed that the band had dissolved due
to irreconcilable differences. The ensuing battle
between Waters and Gilmour over the latter's intention
to continue to use the name "Pink Floyd"
descended into threatened lawsuits and public
bickering in the press. Waters claimed that, as
the original band consisted of himself, Syd Barrett,
Nick Mason and Richard Wright, Gilmour could not
reasonably use the name "Pink Floyd"
now that it was without three of its founding
members. Another of Waters' arguments
was that he had written almost all of the band's
lyrics and a great part of the music after Barrett's
departure. However, through agreement, Gilmour
and Mason won the right to use the name and a
majority of the band's songs, though Waters did
retain the rights to the albums The Wall (save
for three of the songs that Gilmour co-wrote),
Animals, and The Final Cut, as well as claiming
ownership of the famous Pink Floyd pigs.
For many fans and casual listeners, the collaborative
years of 1971-1979 remain the "classic"
Pink Floyd years due to the albums released and
prominence of Pink Floyd in music culture; a 1987
end-of-year review in Rolling Stone noted that
Waters' solo effort Radio K.A.O.S. and the post-Waters
Pink Floyd album A Momentary Lapse of Reason,
if taken together, might have made a nice follow-up
to Dark Side of the Moon. In 2005, Waters agreed
to rejoin Pink Floyd on stage for Live 8, and
on July 2, 2005, Roger Waters, David Gilmour,
Nick Mason, and Rick Wright performed together
onstage for the first time since the June 1981
Wall concerts at Earl's Court in London.
(1985-2005) Early solo years
After his departure from Pink Floyd, Waters embarked
on a solo career producing three concept albums
and a movie soundtrack which did not garner impressive
sales. His solo work has managed critical acclaim
and even some comparison to previous work with
Pink Floyd.
His first truly solo album, 1984's The Pros and
Cons of Hitch Hiking, was a project about a man's
dreams in a night. The list of musicians helping
Waters during recording included legendary guitarist
Eric Clapton and jazz saxophonist David Sanborn.
Conceived around the same time as The Wall, the
concept was shown to the Pink Floyd members, but
they preferred The Wall over The Pros and Cons
of Hitch Hiking. The album had been demoed by
Waters at the same time as The Wall, but the band
had voted it too personal. Waters decided to shelve
it until he could do it as a solo project. The
album received mixed reviews, with Kurt Loder
describing Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking in Rolling
Stone as a "strangely static, faintly hideous
record," adding that "Waters sounds
like the kind of guy who'd bring Hershey bars
and nylons along on a first date." (Loder
gave the album one star out of five, though user
ratings have averaged four out of five). On the
other end of the spectrum, Mike DeGagne of the
All Music Guide praised the album for its "ingenious
symbolism and his brilliant use of stream of consciousness
within a subconscious realm," rating it four
out of five stars.
In 1986 Waters contributed songs to the soundtrack
of the movie When the Wind Blows. His backing
band, featuring Paul Carrack, was credited as
"The Bleeding Hearts Band".
In 1987 Waters (still accompanied by the Bleeding
Hearts Band, although not always credited as such)
released another concept album, Radio K.A.O.S.,
about a man named Billy who can hear radio waves
in his head. Waters followed the release with
a supporting tour, also in 1987. The sound system
for the arena portion of the tour used numerous
speakers which created a surround sound effect.
His album did not garner the impressive sales
he had achieved in Pink Floyd. One possible reason
was that he was now competing with a reformed
Pink Floyd who were touring to support their latest
release, A Momentary Lapse of Reason. At the time
Waters was quoted to have said "I'm competing
against myself and losing."
After the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 , Waters
staged a gigantic charity concert of The Wall
in Berlin on July 21, 1990 to commemorate the
end of the division between East and West Germany.
The concert took place on Potsdamer Platz (a location
which was part of the former "no-man's land"
of the Berlin Wall), featured many guest superstars,
and was one of the biggest concerts ever staged
with an attendance of over 300,000 and watched
live by over 5 million people worldwide.
1992's Amused to Death, about the corrupting,
desensitising nature of television, is perhaps
Waters' most critically acclaimed solo recording,
with music critics comparing it to later Pink
Floyd work, such as The Wall. The album had one
hit which was "What God Wants, Pt. 1"
which hit #4 on Mainstream Rock charts. Jeff Beck,
another legendary guitarist, saw action on Waters'
album as he played lead guitar. There was no tour
in support of this record, Waters would later
perform several songs from this record nearly
eight years later on his In the Flesh tours.
In 1999 Waters embarked on the In the Flesh tour
which saw him performing some of his most famous
work, both solo and Pink Floyd material. The tour
was a success in the US, and after Waters had
booked mostly smaller venues (after the letdown
in attendance from his 1987 tour), tickets sold
so well that most of the concerts had to be upgraded
to larger venues. With Gilmour's Pink Floyd retiring
after 1994, and many Floyd albums selling at the
pace of Beatles records, Waters was in great demand.
The tour eventually stretched across the world.
Tickets were at such high demand, that the tour
had to be spanned over three years. Almost every
show was sold out with some venues garnering more
sales than Pink Floyd shows of early touring years.
One concert (Filmed in Portland, Oregon) was released
on CD and DVD, named In the Flesh Live, after
the tour. During this tour he played two new songs
from his next solo album, "Flickering Flame"
and "Each Small Candle", as the final
encore to the show.
Waters, performing live in 2006In 2002 Waters
performed at a concert organised by the Countryside
Alliance. In June of 2002 Waters played the Glastonbury
Festival performing many classic Pink Floyd songs.
This was the first time a special speaker system
had been set up among the Glastonbury audience
to enable sound effects to appear to be moving
around amongst the crowd.
Miramax Films announced in mid-2004 that a production
of The Wall was to appear on Broadway with Waters
playing a prominent part in its production. Reports
stated that the musical contained not only the
original tracks from The Wall, but also songs
from Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here
and other Pink Floyd albums, as well as new material.
On the night of 1 May 2004, the overture for Ça
Ira was pre-premièred on occasion of the
Welcome Europe celebrations in the accession country
of Malta, performed over Grand Harbour in Valletta
and illuminated by light artist Gert Hof. The
event was broadcast over all EBU television stations.
In September 2004, Waters released two new tracks,
"To Kill The Child" and "Leaving
Beirut". These were released only on the
Internet. Both of these tracks were inspired by
the U.S./UK 2003 invasion of Iraq. Waters, who
currently resides in the U.S., has said that the
songs were written immediately after the start
of the war, but he delayed releasing them until
just before the 2004 Presidential election, hoping
to derail George W. Bush's re-election. The lyrics
included "Oh George! Oh George! That Texas
education must have fucked you up when you were
very small" (from "Leaving Beirut").
Although the songs' criticism was primarily aimed
at the American government, Tony Blair is also
referenced: "Not in my name, Tony, you great
war leader". They were also released as a
limited edition on CD in Japan.
After the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and subsequent
tsunami disaster, Waters performed "Wish
You Were Here" with Eric Clapton during a
benefit concert on the American network NBC.
(2005-present) Later solo years
On July 2, 2005 Waters and Pink Floyd reunited
for a performance at the Live 8 concert. They
played a six-song, 23-minute set, including "Speak
to Me/Breathe"/"Breathe (Reprise)",
"Money", "Wish You Were Here",
and "Comfortably Numb". Before going
into "Wish You Were Here", Waters said:
“ It's actually quite emotional standing
up here with these three guys after all these
years. Standing to be counted with the rest of
you. Anyway, we're doing this for everyone who's
not here, but particularly, of course, for Syd.
”
Waters remarked shortly after Live 8 to the Associated
Press that, while the experience of playing as
Pink Floyd again was positive, the chances of
a bona fide reunion would be "slight",
considering his and Gilmour's continuing musical
and ideological differences. During an interview
with Rolling Stone, Waters further denied the
possibility of a future Pink Floyd tour, saying
"I didn't mind rolling over for one day,
but I couldn't roll over for a whole fucking tour."
He has since stated on a radio interview that
he would be interested in the possibility of recording
a new album with the rest of Pink Floyd as long
as he had creative control. However, David Gilmour
has said on several occasions that he is retired
from extensive touring, shedding more doubt on
the possibility of a bona fide Pink Floyd reunion
tour.
Waters is known to be working on two new solo
albums (as remarked to Jim Ladd, with whom he
worked on Radio K.A.O.S.): one has the working
title of Heartland. Two new songs that might appear
on this album have been released on Flickering
Flame: The Solo Years Vol. 1: "Each Small
Candle" and "Flickering Flame".
The other of the two albums deals with the theme
of love, much in the vein of Pros and Cons. A
work-in-progress, which may appear on this album
and was dubbed "Woman" by bootleggers,
was heard during the sound checks for the "In
the Flesh Live" tour. However, in a recent
telephone interview, he confirmed that the release
of his next project has been delayed due to not
having a concept to draw all the individual songs
together into one piece.
In February of 2005 , it was announced on Roger
Waters' website that his opera, Ça Ira,
had been completed after 16 years of work. It
was released as a CD/DVD set by Sony Classical
on September 27, 2005 with Baritone Bryn Terfel,
soprano Ying Huang and tenor Paul Groves. The
original libretto was written in French by the
late Étienne Roda-Gil, who set the opera
during the optimistic days of the early French
Revolution. From 1997 Waters rewrote the libretto
in English.
On May 20, 2006 he performed with a set band consisting
of Roger Taylor and Eric Clapton and former band-mate
Nick Mason performing two songs, "Wish You
Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb".
Prop used by Waters while on tour.Roger Waters
toured Europe during the Summer of 2006 and North
America in the fall for his The Dark Side of the
Moon Live Tour. As part of his performance he
played a complete run-through of the 1973 Pink
Floyd classic, The Dark Side of the Moon, as the
second half of the show. The first half was a
mix of Floyd classics and Roger's solo material.
Elaborate staging designed by Mark Fisher, complete
with projections, and a full, 360 degree quadrophonic
sound system were used. This new Waters' solo
tour is expected to be as successful as his previous
In the Flesh tour. His former Pink Floyd bandmate,
Nick Mason joined Roger on some of the tour dates.
Richard Wright was invited to participate on the
tour as well but he declined the offer to work
on solo projects. There is also a 2007 leg of
the Tour, starting in January in Australia, followed
by New Zealand and going through Asia, Europe,
South America, and finally North America in June.
Waters' former bandmate Nick Mason began patching
their relationship in 2002. After speaking to
Mason and Bob Geldof about a possible Pink Floyd
reunion at Live 8, Waters contacted Gilmour by
phone and e-mail, and it appears that they have
buried the hatchet since the historic concert
and now communicate on a friendly basis. Waters
has made overtures to Richard Wright, as well.
Syd Barrett, who died on Friday 7 July 2006, remained
an emotional subject for most of his friends and
former colleagues. Waters said in interviews before
Barrett's death that it would be difficult and
inappropriate for him to try to insert himself
back into his old friend's life. Waters will be
performing another Dark Side of the Moon concert
in the summer of 2007.
He contributed to the The Last Mimzy soundtrack
with award-winning composer Howard Shore in March
2007. His song, "Hello (I Love You)",
was played during the credits of the film. Waters
commented on its development: "I think together
we've come up with a song that captures the themes
of the movie - the clash between humanity's best
and worst instincts, and how a child's innocence
can win the day."
In March 2007, Roger Waters told Rolling Stone
magazine that he would be a performer at the U.S.
leg of the Live Earth event--an international
multi-venue concert aimed to raise awareness about
global climate change. At that time he also confirmed
that his former Pink Floyd bandmates would not
be joining him at the event. On July 7th, 2007,
Waters played at Live Earth, performing the intro
to "In the Flesh", "Money",
"Us and Them", "Brain Damage",
and "Eclipse". Waters finished off with
"The happiest Days of our Lives" and
"Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)",
featuring the Trenton Youth Choir and his trademark
inflatable pig.
Waters has also recently become a spokesperson
for Millennium Promise, a non-profit organization
that helps fight extreme poverty and malaria.
He wrote a special commentary for CNN's website
on June 11, 2007 about the topic.
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Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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