Roger Waters

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Roger Waters Considers Performing “The Wall” On US-Mexico Border

Posted by Stargazer on February 18, 2017
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Euronews reported that Roger Waters, the co-founder of musical rock n’ roll group Pink Floyd, said the group’s cult album “The Wall” is more relevant now given Donald Trump’s US presidency than ever before.

Waters, 73, made the comment during a rare public appearance in London to promote “Pink Floyd, Their Mortal Remains”, an exhibition which will feature memorabilia and archived footage of the band as it celebrates its 50-year career.

Waters, who was joined by drummer Nick Mason, said he was prepared to consider performing the album in concert along the US-Mexico border, where US President Trump has vowed to build a wall in an effort to fight illegal immigration and protect the United States’ sovereignty.

“But before this can happen, there will first need to be an awakening against these far-right policies,” Waters said to AFP. “The sewers are engorged by greedy and powerful men as I speak to you.”

This was not the first time Waters has taken a swipe at the US President.

In Mexico City in October, during a concert performance on Zocalo Square, Pink Floyd displayed images of the then-Republican presidential candidate with “Charade” written across the front. They appeared during a performance of the song “Pigs (Three Different Ones). Subsequent images of Trump appeared with “Joker” emblazoned on huge screens. In one image Trump appears to be doing a Nazi salute.

Later that same month, Waters and Pink Floyd renewed their attack on Trump with a scathing critique during the Desert Trip music festival in Indio, California.

There, children appearing on stage wearing anti-border wall slogans sang along to one of the The Wall’s signature songs Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.

 

Roger Waters To Re-release “Amused To Death” Via Sony Music

Posted by Stargazer on July 23, 2015
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The New York Comedy Festival And The Bob Woodruff Foundation Present The 7th Annual Stand Up For Heroes EventSony Music Entertainment Australia is proud to announce Roger Waters’ album AMUSED TO DEATH returns in a remastered release on Friday July 24th 2015. AMUSED TO DEATH sounded the alarm about a society increasingly – and unthinkingly – in thrall to its television screens. Twenty-three years later, AMUSED TO DEATH speaks to our present moment in ways that could scarcely have been anticipated two decades ago.

“I’m remembering the record from [over] 20 years ago, that most of what I had to say then sadly still pertains today and is maybe even more relevant to our predicament as people in 2015 even than it was in 1992,” says Roger Waters.

An unblinking look at an entertainment-obsessed society, AMUSED TO DEATH addresses issues that have only grown in complexity and urgency over the past two decades. In 2015, television is just one option in an endless array of distractions available to us anytime, anywhere, courtesy of our laptops, tablets and smart phones. With eyes glued to our screens, the dilemmas and injustices of the real world can easily recede from view. The 2015 editions of AMUSED TO DEATH feature a new 5.1 surround remix of the album on high-definition Blu-ray audio and a new remastered stereo mix completed by long-time Roger Waters / Pink Floyd collaborator and co-producer, James Guthrie. The cover and gatefold art has been updated for 2015 by Sean Evans, the creative director of Waters’ 2010-2013 THE WALL LIVE tour and movie. Produced by Roger Waters and Patrick Leonard, AMUSED TO DEATH is a musically ambitious work featuring a stellar line-up of musicians.

Guitar legend Jeff Beck figures prominently on the album, bringing his signature virtuosity to eight songs. Guest vocalists include Don Henley (‘It’s A Miracle’), Rita Coolidge (‘Amused to Death’) and soul singer P.P. Arnold (‘Perfect Sense’ Parts I and II). Also contributing were Waters’ long-time collaborators, guitarist Andy Fairweather Low and drummer Graham Broad; percussionist Luis Conte; and Pat Leonard, who played keyboards on several tracks. The album reunited Waters with composer/arranger Michael Kamen, who supervised orchestral arrangements for THE WALL, Waters’ semi-autographical concept album with Pink Floyd. Kamen arranged and conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra Limited’s contributions to the songs ‘Too Much Rope’ and ‘What God Wants, Part III’.  “… damned if Roger Waters’ 14-track rumination on some of our choicest social ills doesn’t score some serious points, especially in ‘Late Home Tonight’, which, with music that evokes both a kiss at a drive-in and the peace of the wide-open sky, shows us an American pilot soaring toward Libya to bomb children, giddy as an exuberant teen with the sheer joy of flight.” – Grade: A-, Entertainment Weekly, September 11, 1992 “It is the poet’s responsibility to foresee the future, and it is his neighbour’s duty to prevent the worst of it from taking place. With AMUSED TO DEATH, surely one of the most provocative and musically dazzling records of the decade, Roger Waters has fulfilled his part of the bargain.” – Timothy White, “Music to My Ears,” Billboard Magazine, July 1992 The 2015 editions of AMUSED TO DEATH will be available on: CD CD / Blu-ray Hi-res digital download 2LP 200 gram vinyl (pressed at Quality Record Pressings) Limited edition, numbered 2LP picture disc vinyl Legacy Recordings has collaborated with Analogue Productions / Acoustic Sounds in the United States on the release of the 2LP 200 gram vinyl as well as SACD and DSD download audio products.

Roger Waters: “Angry” Over State Of Music Industry; “It’s Just Stealing!”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on May 3, 2015
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The difficulties that younger musicians are facing in trying to make a living these days have not gone unnoticed by the generations that came before them. In a new interview, Roger Waters lashed out at the people who have created the technology that has resulted in putting less money in the hands of artists, as reported by ultimateclassicrock.com.

Speaking to the Times, the former Pink Floyd bassist calls himself “enormously privileged to have been born in 1943 and not 1983, to have been around when there was a music business and the takeover of Silicon Valley hadn’t happened and, in consequence, you could still make a living writing and recording songs and playing them to people.”

And while Waters admits that the diminishing sales of records “doesn’t change my life in any way,” he is still “angry” at “this gallery of rogues and thieves [who interject] themselves between the people who aspire to be creative and their potential audience and steal every f—ing cent anybody ever made and put it in their pockets to buy f—ing huge mega-yachts and Gulfstream Fives with. These…thieves! It’s just stealing! And that they’re allowed to get away with it is just incredible.”

However, Waters also does save some of his ire for the audience, who have taken full advantage of the technology. “I blame the punters as well to some extent,” he continues, “a whole generation that’s grown up who believe that music should be free. I mean why not make everything free? Then you could walk into a shop and say ‘I like that television’ and you walk out with it. No! Somebody made that and you have to buy it! ‘Oh, I’ll just pick up few apples.’ No! Some farmer grew those and brought them here to be sold!”

Waters’ words echo those spoken by Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of KISS to Billboard last week. “I think we’re very fortunate to have come out when we did, and to not be relying upon an industry that has basically committed suicide,” Stanley said.

“It’s really sad for the new artists. Where’s the next Elvis [Presley], where’s the next Beatles, where’s the [Led] Zeppelin? They’re out there but they don’t have a chance […] What are they gonna do? Give away their music for free? They’re gonna be living in their mom’s basement, unfortunately, and they’re never gonna get the chance that we did which is the saddest part of all for the new bands because there should always be a new generation of bands.”

The New York Comedy Festival And The Bob Woodruff Foundation Present The 7th Annual Stand Up For Heroes Event

Bryan Bedder, Getty Images

DAVID DRAIMAN Demands Apology From ROGER WATERS For ‘Blatant’ Anti-Semitic Symbolism

Posted by aliblackdiamond on July 27, 2013
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Source: Blabbermouth.net

DISTURBED and DEVICE frontman David Draiman has asked his 120,000 Twitter followers to condemn British rock musician and anti-Israel activist Roger Waters for allegedly using the Jewish Star of David as one of the symbols on the giant inflatable pig that hovers over “The Wall” concerts.

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the pig-shaped balloon emblazoned with the Star of David, as well as dictatorial symbols, dropped from the ceiling while Waters performed on last week in Belgium.

The 69-year-old rocker has been using the inflatable pig for years to display political messages, serving primarily as a symbol of greed, fascism and oppression.

In a message on Twitlonger.com, a related Twitter site that allows one to send tweets that require more than 140 characters, Draiman — who has extensive family in Israel, including his brother, Jerusalem-based folk rock and ambient musician Ben Draiman, as well as his grandmother — wrote: “My brothers and sisters, my blood,

“Regarding Roger Waters‘ usage of a flying pig with the Star of David on it during his performances;

“I have personally been a fan of Mr. Waters‘ work for many years. I think that PINK FLOYD are one of the most groundbreaking and visionary acts of all time. Mr. Waters‘ position on the Palestinian/Israeli crisis is well known, and has been well publicized.
“Whether or not you agree with the policies of the Israeli government (and there are times where I myself, a half Israeli Jew, with a large number of relatives still living in Israel, including my brother and grandmother; do not agree with some of their policies), nothing excuses the usage of the Star of David (the symbol of the Jewish people as a whole, not Israel or its government) emblazoned on a flying pig/zeppelin during his performances for ‘The Wall’. It is uncalled for, abhorrent, and blatantly Anti-Semitic.

“If the pig is in fact a symbol of greed and tyranny as described in the song from ‘The Wall’ called ‘In the Flesh’, then affixing the symbol of the Jewish people to it, is an attempt at reinforcing an age old anti-Semitic stereotype that is unwarranted and beyond offensive. All he is doing through such symbolism is encouraging hatred and teaching his fans that Jews are greedy tyrannical people, which could not be further from the actual truth. If he wanted to make a political statement against the policies of the Israeli government (which I would not be in agreement with either, but would be political and not religious/racial, and therefore understandable), he should have had an image of the Israeli flag on it, the symbol of the government, and not the lone star of David, the symbol of the Jewish people as a whole.

“Hitler himself used the star of David as a badge of identifying Jews with the word ‘Juden’ under it, marking ALL Jews as they were mercilessly driven into the cattle cars that lead to the death camps in his maniacal attempt at genocide.

“Once again, this is not an issue of freedom of speech, or expression, as Mr. Waters is well within his rights to say and display anything he chooses, even if it does incite hatred, but it does NOT mean that we as responsible individuals against hatred and anti-Semitic imagery, have to sit back and just take it. Freedom of speech and expression is a two way street, and sometimes you will reap what you sow.

“I therefore urge all of my followers, friends, and colleagues, and certainly the Jewish people within the entertainment community to take issue with this anti-Semitic symbolism, and to demand that the Star of David be stricken from the flying pig, and that a formal apology/explanation be given from Mr. Waters himself.”