Roger:

Hello Roger.... haa haa haa... Hi Jim?

Jim:

How ya doin man?

Roger:

I'm doing well.

Jim:

You begin touring again on June 2nd in Tampa Florida and your going do 23 cities in all. Tickets are already on sale in most of those cities, and I just want to know first off, Were you surprised at the overwhelming reception you received on the first leg of this tour?

Roger:

Yeah, I was surprised. It was extremely gratifying. And it made us a pretty happy band of campers, I don't mind telling you.

Jim:

Would you like to expand on that?

Roger:

(Laughter) Ahh... you know ahh there's something very pleasurable about making music and people sitting there and listening to it and telling you that they like it, and it's a happy situation and I like it. What more can I say?

Jim:

You have spoken about the magic that happens when you really connect with an audience. And I imagine that's different than just... I mean does that happen every night that magic, that magic connection or is that kind of a rare thing? And describe that feeling for me.

Roger: Well it happened every night on the first leg of the tour. There were a couple of nights when I got involved in some of the old stuff. But strangely enough, in the Smallest venues... We did the Rosemont Theater in Chicago, and that was one of the less good gigs. Because not withstanding the fact that there were only 3000... or three and a half thousand people, there were 2 or 3 who were wanting to whistle... do the old joining in business... ah... through the whole show. Which I find rather distracting I have to say. Um, when you're trying to sing a song and there's somebody whistling loudly through it, it's off putting. And so... but by and large we had wonderful responses from the audiences. And the magic was definitely there... I got a lot of kind of um... shivers down the spine.

Jim:

Glad to hear that. We might just put it out there in the ether; that if you're going to one of these concerts and you really want to be connected with Roger, SHUT UP during the quiet songs and go nuts at the end of the tune. Is that fair to say?

Roger:

That would be marvelous!

Jim:

Now speaking of the shows... First off you were surprised I think, that you actually had to cancel some of the smaller halls and re-book in some of the bigger places because the response was so great, is that correct?

Roger:

Uh... yea, I mean clearly we didn't have too. But in fact some of the small halls, didn't work very well with this show. You know, the Rosemont Theater in Chicago, was too small for this show. And there were a couple of others that... the place we did in Quebec was a bit too small. It felt like we were cramming a medium sized show into a very small venue and that didn't work. So it seems to work best in places that are from, sort of 6 to 7 thousand people, up to... you know... some of the sheds, some of the indoor outdoor venues were kind of 20 thousand people. I think any bigger than that and it would start become alienating again.

Jim:

This brings us to the point that you are really unequaled when it comes to staging a show. Now every band of course uses some form of lights and special effects to one degree or another. But your show always has a story line that you use these things to enhance the show rather than really having a lot of sound and fury which signifies nothing. Will this tour... does it have a theme, a thematic thread to it, from the beginning, middle and end to the show?

Roger:

Not really. The narrative such that it is, is really the narrative of my career. It's something of a greatest hits. That is, there's work from my days with Pink Floyd as well as stuff I've done since I left. And we'll be doing at least one new song during this tour. So really, the way it really hangs together is that, the way the songs connect with one another dictates the running order and so it's a kind of a... there is no real narrative. In that... because everything's written by one guy... then there's some kind of philosophical and musical thread running through it all.

Jim:

Will the second leg of this tour differ from the first? And by that I mean, did you do something after all of these shows and you thought; Well geez when I go back out again I want to try this or that? Or is it going to be the same set list.

Roger:

No. Well the set list is changed. I've made a few changes to it. I've dropped some tunes and put other tunes in instead. And I've changed the... and I've continued to work on the show. I've been working the last couple of days in fact with Jonathan Park on new visual stuff, and changing visual stuff. And I'm dropping some of the stuff I did from The Wall, and adding some other things.

Jim:

You did, ah, which I was happy to hear, some personal meet and greets with the audience after some of your shows. I wanted to ask you how you liked the experience and will you be doing more of these?

Roger:

What, you mean just outside the gig?

Jim:

Yeah, I understood that you like took time to actually... shake hands, talked to people, sign autographs... whatever... spend some time with your fans.

Roger:

Yeah, I don't mind doing that. I mean, clearly, it's a numbers thing, if there's like 40 or 50 people, then you can say hello to them all and sign something and you know they can say thank you and you can say thank you, and everybody goes away happy. If there's a lot more than that, then it could become a problem.

But yeah, on the last tour. If I ever see people standing around with something to be signed, I'm very happy, if I've got the time, which I usually have, to sign it for them. I'm a bit concerned about it though, I see a... there seems to be some kind of a business of selling on, signed articles and memorabilia. You know, you start seeing the same faces in city after city and suddenly the same people have got (autographs on) all your albums from the start, and it's quite clear that their actually in a business. These things are going to go to trade fairs or fan conventions or something and they're selling on these autographed items. When I see those faces I refuse to sign that stuff. You know if somebody's got a treasured album and they bring it in and they want me to sign it, I couldn't be happier to personalize that. But I'm not really interested to help people run businesses.

Jim:

Good for you. Let's get back to the song list for a minute. And I asked you this the last time I spoke to you and you had a great story about it. When you look back over your career with so many songs to choose from, how did you decide on a set list?

Roger: I went back to the beginning and I listened to all the songs. And I wrote a list of everything that I wanted to do. And it was about 5 hours long. So then I started hacking at it and I whittled it down to a couple of hours. And then there's a couple of things that ... you know when you're playing the songs night after night, on the last tour, it became clear which ones work really well and which ones weren't so good. So, I've put in a couple of... so I'm doing Set the Controls... now.. which I didn't do on the last thing.. what else am I doing new? I'm going to do Bravery... from Amused to Death, I thought the stuff from Amused to Death worked great... apart from What God Wants which was always hard work. Every night it seemed like hard work... the theater of the piece was difficult to get across, so I'm probably dropping that. And I don't know...

Jim:

Well I'm sorry to hear that. I was hoping that you would do What God Wants. That's too bad.

Roger:

Well you know, I was watching the video the other night. And I was thinking, well you know, this could work... if we put that guitar part in here so the whole thing doesn't grind to a halt when the vocals start. And if we edit it a little bit and shortened it. And if I brought up the ... added in the voices here that are on tape, you know the shouting responses... What God wants God gets... then it could work. It's maybe a question of dynamics. So, I'm still not completely clear what I'm going to do.

Jim:

Can you very quickly run down the people in the band. And I especially want to make mention of that little midget from Wales.

Roger:

Right. How quickly do you want me to do this?

Jim:

Well, just tell us who's in the band. I don't have a stop watch on you, Roger, I just wanted you do give a quick rundown.

Roger:

(Laughter...) I wondered whether you wanted... (talks real fast) John-Scramble-lead-guitar.... like that..... or whether you wanted more... you said very quickly... but I think I've got the picture.

The drummer is called Graham Broad. And there's three guitar players, um... Snowy White, who you know, I have a long history with. He was one of the extra guitar players in Pink Floyd for a long time, so he in fact did the original Wall shows. Um, Doyle Bramhall II, who's... I'm sure a lot of people from LA will know, though he's originally from Texas. Andy Fairweather Low, the ubiquitous Welshman, one of the great guitar players is in the band as always. And then there's two keyboard players, Jon Carin, and Andy Wallace. And two other vocalists Katie Kassoon, and P.P. Arnold, who were on the first leg of the tour last year. And in fact I'm adding a third woman, Doyle's wife is going to join us, so that there are three background vocals rather than two. I felt that that needed thickening up a bit.

Jim:

Let's talk about the new live version of The Wall, which will be in stores on April 18th. The title will be "Is There Anybody Out There, The Wall Live" and this is recorded at Earls court in London. Why did you choose that particular performance?

Roger:

Those were the only performances that were recorded. Actually, that's not true. There were some performances in 1980 that were recorded but very badly. These were the only ones that were recorded with any kind of real separation on 48 tracks. So it's just those five nights... is all that exists, really.

Jim:

So LA, New York, and the one in Germany, no.... didn't happen....

Roger:

No.

Jim:

That's too bad. Ah, how long had it been since you heard these shows? 20 years?

Roger:

Yeah.

Jim:

And did you do any overdubbing or re-recording for the live CD?

Roger:

No, nothing.

Jim:

So it's as it happened... that's what we're hearing?

Roger:

Yep. Scary aye?

Jim:

Well, I think it's a wonderful piece of history....

Roger:

You know... Strangely enough the performances sound really good! I mean it's quite clear when listening to it, that it is live, but we haven't fiddled with anything. I think we were all agreed that that would not be a good idea.

Jim:

You know, now, that begs the question; When you say we were all agreed, what do you mean by that?

Roger:

Well, I don't know what I mean.... I didn't hear that anybody had said... you know... lets re-record with the... I want to do the drums again... please? (laughing)... So I just assumed we were all agreed. I didn't actually sit in a room and say, "now are we all agreed?"

Jim:

OK... Do you have fond memories of those performances? Was that a good time in your career?

Roger:

Absolutely. Yeah, they were fantastic! They really were. It was kind of a daft idea. And with the help of Gerry Scarfe, and ah... Mark Fisher and Jonathan Park, who were the main collaborators in putting the shows together, they kind of pulled it off. And that they worked as well as they did. And every night was a great pleasure.

Jim:

Well, you know, I'm glad to hear that. Because when you talk to people that attended those shows... That's a real hallmark in their lives. You know, those shows made such an impression on people. ...Not me (facetiously) ...but you know... most people. That I'm glad hear... that they made an impression upon you as well.

Roger:

Yeah, it was cool.

Jim:

You have included two songs on this live album, we're talking about The Wall now... that are not on the studio version... that you played that night. And one of them is "What Shall We Do Now," and the other is "The Last Few Bricks," right?

Roger:

Wrong! Well you know, the idea that these are new songs is... wrong. They aren't new songs. "What Shall We Do Now," is the kind of list of consumer items... Do you remember in the movie, the wall of consumer items? And it's that list, and they're actually figured in the lyrics on the studio album, but the cut was not on the studio album, because it screwed up the dynamic of the record. Shall we by a new guitar, shall we drive a more powerful car, shall we work straight through the night, shall we get into fights... and all that. So it's that. So, there's nothing really new about it. And ah... "The Last Few Bricks" is ah... towards the end of the first half... in rehearsal we discovered that, physically the guys that were building the wall, didn't have time to finish it for Goodbye Cruel World. So we had to fill in a few minutes of time. So we actually played a kind of reprise of some of the tunes from the first half. So it's actually... there's nothing new about that either. It's just a medley of bits from the first half of the show.

Jim:

OK, I'll try not to be so literal next time.

Roger:

Well, no, it's an interesting point. Because the record company have put out that there are two new songs on this thing. And it's just not true. And I think that people should know...

Jim: No... your absolutely right... your absolutely right. They're not new... like you wrote them yesterday. They just weren't on the uh... Roger: Well... "What Shall We Do Now" is in the movie. So anybody who's got the movie has had that for the last 19 years or something... and the other bit is just a medley.

Jim:

Who's idea was it to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of The Wall with this release? Did you say; guys lets do this... or the record company?

Roger:

I don't... it certainly wasn't my idea. It was concocted between, I don't know.... between Steve O'Rourk and Dave Gilmour and the record company I suppose. I would think, probably largely the record company. And I was a bit... you know when I heard of the idea, I thought... it felt a bit like you know... scrambling to scrape the bottom of the barrel and see if there were any dollar bills left sticking out of it... that could be... scraped up. And so I was rather against the idea. And then I actually talked to my son Harry, who's 23 now, and he said 'well why are you against it? A lot of people are interested in live recordings.' And some bands... that he likes, particularly like... you know the American band Phish for instance.... he said that somebody records every single show they do. And a lot of people listen to them. He does, for instance. You know, there's a big market in bootleg recordings and there's a big interest in recordings of live performances of pieces of music that people know well. And I thought... well yeah, why shouldn't there be. And actually, James Guthrie, who has produced the record and done all the mixes has done a great job. And it sounds really good. And it's really interesting to hear... what happened when we did it live. And it is the original cast recording.

Jim:

It is the original cast recording. That's true. That's true. Let's go on to something new, OK?

Roger:

Yes!

Jim:

You have already begun work... I am told... on a new solo project yes?

Roger:

Yes.

Jim:

And what will be the title and subject of this work, Mr. Waters?

Roger: