Roger Waters played his first show since June this past Sunday (Oct. 8), and it was also his first performance since the Oct. 6 release of his The Dark Side of the Moon Redux. The show has received a lot of criticism, however, as the musician apparently told the crowd to “fuck off,” which prompted some fans to leave.
The show took place at the London Palladium, and according to various sources, including LW Theatres, Waters intended to premiere his new version of The Dark Side of the Moon. However, fans got much more than that. Daily Mail reports that the 80-year-old singer also spent about an hour reading excerpts from his unpublished memoir Dark Side of the Moon: Memoirs of a Lanky Prick on his laptop while sitting at a desk onstage. One of the stories he read was about a duck named Donald, and it went on for around 20 minutes.
“Another began promisingly as a memory of [Pink] Floyd’s original leader, Syd Barrett, but revealed nothing more than that Barrett wrote a lot of songs and had an innocent air about him,” The Times’ writer Will Hodgkinson said in a review of the show [via Independent].
Men’s Journal further noted that Waters shouted at the audience to “fuck off” as they became frustrated with the unanticipated performance, and thus fans began exiting the venue.
Waters allegedly informed the audience at the start of the performance that it was going to be split into different parts though, according to The National News, so those who waited out the storytelling apparently witnessed a great show. The musician kicked off the music portion of the show with a new song called “The Bar,” followed by a different rendition of “Mother” from The Wall. Then, he and his band tackled The Dark Side of the Moon Redux in its entirety.
They received a standing ovation at the show’s conclusion, and then played again at the venue last night (Oct. 9).
Check out fan-filmed footage of Waters’ performance of “Any Colour You Like” from the evening below.
Pink Floyd fans are discussing the performance and the many reviews of it on Reddit, with some of them arguing in defense of Waters’ approach to the show, and others understanding why some of the attendees were dissatisfied.
“So people got what they paid for, a performance of the Redux, and some bonus insight into the mind of the guy putting on the show as well as a few other songs, one of which being a new song performed in its entirety for the first time. Sounds like a good time to me, but to each their own,” one fan wrote.
READ MORE: Roger Waters Responds to Documentary Alleging Antisemitism
“I don’t think it was announced beforehand that 50 percent of the show would be Roger reading from a laptop. I think it was perfectly reasonable to assume that it would be a full concert. I thought the first half would consist of ‘lockdown sessions’ style arrangements of various tracks. If someone is mad that that they didn’t get the classic arrangement of Dark Side it’s totally their fault. But I think the audience had every right to be unhappy with the first half of the show. I know I would be,” another asserted.
Waters’ next performance is set to take place later this month in Brazil. See the rest of his upcoming dates on his website.
Roger Waters, “Any Colour You Like” Live (London Palladium 2023)
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