Roger Waters' In The Flesh Tour Press Conference

Roger:

Um, 18 years, has it been? Um, I mean there is a different atmosphere at my gigs than there was 18 years ago, I think the audiences are by and large similar, and I think there are a few more people who know who I am now than there was 18 years ago.

Press:

There has been a.... you've had a very successful tour in America for the past 3 years. Is that been part of your thinking to now bring it into Europe and the rest of the world?

Roger:

Uh, yeah, my intention was to come to Europe this Summer, but several important members of the band, Andy Fairwhether-Low, Katie Kassoon, and Doyle Bramhall, are all involved with Eric Clapton who has been touring this entire year. So rather than change personal, I decided to go on tour next year instead.

Press:

I think... I'm sure that for many people here, and the people that come to your shows... in that you're playing a lot of Pink Floyd along with your own solo career, and also era's of Pink Floyd that maybe people would not expect, how did you come to choose the songs that you're working into your live set, of Pink Floyd and your solo career?

Roger:

Well, when I decided to do this 2 years ago, I wasn't sure whether I was going to be playing in little theaters, so we contacted some promoters in the United States, and they said, yeah, it might be possible. And they started to talk to local people and at that point I just started to listen to the records and I went back to the beginning and listened to the whole catalog from start to finish, and everytime I heard a song that I thought would be good to do live I wrote it down and added it to a long list. And I whittled it... I just whittled it down slowly until it became a manageable length. And then after the '99 tour I through a couple of songs out. In '99, I did "The Powers That Be" and "What God Wants," which I'm not doing any more. And the show I did last year felt good, which is what this DVD is, and so I'm going to do the same show in Europe and in the Southern Hemisphere.

Press:

OK, now I know you've gone back into the studio, and have been working on a new rock album... we'll talk about the opera in a moment, but is there any of that material going to find it's way into the show as well?

Roger:

Only "Each Small Candle" which I did last year in the States. Um, the album.. I've done two... I did nearly a month, a year ago last February, in Nassau, with this same band, and I did a couple of weeks in London three weeks ago. And I've cut nine or ten tracks, and I'm waiting to see how it will develop into something. It's this strange narrative about... uhm... well perhaps I won't go into what it's about cause at the moment I'm not really sure myself.

Press:

A work in progress?

Roger:

It's a work in progress, yes.

Press:

Something that has been in progress for a long time, is the opera, that you've been working on, which most of our friends here would be interested in because it's based around the French Revolution. So you're not performing any of that live, presumably?

Roger:

No.

Press:

Can you tell us a little bit about the work?

Roger:

Uhm, yeah I can. It's based on a libretto that was written by Etienne Roda-Gil, and I've been working on it for 10 or 11 years, and I'll probably work on it for another few years. I recently finished a whole section of the work, which is about 85 minutes finished now recorded with soloists. There are three soloists, there's a baritone a soprano and a tenor, and a large adult chorus and a children's chorus. But I've been dissatisfied because of the way the libretto was written in the original French, it's come out as a kind of series of tableau with no strong narrative thread running through it.

And recently I was in Paris working with Ishmal Low, who is a Senegalese singer working on a tenapod for the section of the opera which is about the revolt in Santa Domingo in the West Indies, and I had an idea which I wrote down in the middle of the night, that maybe I could find a narrative in a philosophical and emotional relationship between Marie Antoinette and the dauphin Prince who...

So now I've got a new beginning for the whole thing which starts off with Marie Antoinette in a walled garden, eating a peach and sitting on a balancoir, a swing and a raggedy kid outside in an oak tree. And then eventually at the end of act 2, they all die together. She wants to become a queen, he wants to change the world, and so they both achieve their ends, but they end up dead. So in that I have discovered, I think, my narrative, to hold all the tableau, that are bits and pieces from the French Revolution together. But this means me going back to the piano, and I have to write a couple of new Aria's, and I have to write a whole new beginning, and I have to interweave this story into whatever we've got. So we might be looking at a few more years work.

Press:

It sounds like a lot of work?

Roger:

It is.

Press:

Talking about a lot of work, we are about to see the worldwide release of "Echo's," the best of Pink Floyd. How do you feel about that, were you involved in that?

Roger:

I don't really think anything about it. You know, I think it's OK if the record company wants to put it out, and people want to buy it. It's no skin off my nose. You know... so yes.

Press:

You were not involved in any way at all?

Roger:

I was involved... slightly. Because James Guthrie, who put it together kept telephoning me... and in my ear. I didn't want to be involved in it, I must confess. But um, I had a little bit of involvement, yeah.

Press:

Well I think it's probably a good time now to open up the floor here to your French guests to ask some questions too. So are there some questions from the floor?

Press:

If you were a teenager now, what kind of music would you play... would you listen to?

Roger:

If I was a teenager now? Well I am a teenager... at heart. Uhm, I must confess, I'm still attracted to the same kind of music that I was attracted to when I was a teenager, which was Blues and Jazz. And the kind of singer songwriter thing. Uhm, I'm still really moved by songs. So I keep... Bob Dylan, Neil Young and John Lennon and before that, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday... my background... the kind of music I loved when I was a kid was really Blues and Jazz. So, you know, I don't actually listen to a great deal of modern music, but from time to time, you know, I hear a song and I think, that's a good song... if it comes up.

Press:

About your In the Flesh tour, it is visually and in concept very strong, as it has always been with your work in the past. With most rock concerts being all so much alike, why are your shows so different? Since so many shows are very standardized, when communicating a concept, why are your shows always so different, and so carefully prepared visually and in the message, while others are not? Why is there such a difference between musicians like you who do this, and musicians who just play on a stage with standardized sound and lighting systems?

Roger:

Well I guess people are all different so some people release feelings... Place them in a position where they are very happy to sit at a piano, in a white spot light, where they sing there songs and be very calm in the visual representation of their thing, and there's a certain purity in that which I admire. I mean somebody like Le... I saw Leonard Cohen, in the Olympia in Paris, it must be nearly 30 years ago now. I remember it was a very plain white light, nothing much happened, it was just him and a couple of girls and a bass player and a drummer and I thought it was extremely effective, nothing to interfere with the flow of the ideas and the songs communicating with the audience. And that's one way of doing it.

I tend to do it another way where I search for images that, I suppose, help me to express the feelings that I have in my songs and the words that I want to get over to the audience. Part of the work that I did on producing Rock 'n' roll shows when I was in Pink Floyd had to do with feeling that as the audiences grew larger and we played in larger and larger venues, I felt compelled to provide some kind of spectacle, because we were like tiny dots a long way away from most of the audience and they couldn't see really body language, never mind facial expressions so it was only an aural experience unless we could provide some kind of visual stimuli. And I got kind of used to it. And I quite like using images or big quite simple ones that I feel enhance the experience and make it more moving.

Press:

On behalf of your Norwegian fans, I'd like to ask, do you plan to go to Norway on the European leg of the tour?

Roger:

I have no idea. Are we going to Norway? I haven't looked at a list of towns that we will be going to on the European leg so we'll see. I can't answer that question.

Press:

You won't have much time there either I guess, playing one day each place?

Roger:

I don't know I'm doing 6 weeks in Europe, so... I have no idea where I'm going to be or how long I'm going to be.. or what I'm doing. We'll have to see. IÔm much looking forward to it I have to say. I'm told I haven't done anything... 18 or 19 years... that's 1982? 1984... Pros and Cons... I didn't do Radio KAOS in Europe.

Press:

I've noticed the visual behind you of the tour poster is of The Wall, I was wondering why you used that visual to support In The Flesh.

Roger:

Well, it's a work that I'm well known for. I suppose... the same reason anybody advertising anything, if you can find something iconic for people to attach to, I think it's legitimate to use it. So that's the reason. The reason for all of this is so that people know I'm going to be doing this tour and hopefully go out and buy the tickets and the shows are successful. Obviously that's the point of this press conference. It may be that the imagery of The Wall helps people know that I am connected with that. Because believe it or not when I started doing solo work in 1984, it came as an enormous shock to me that very few people had any idea that I had anything to do with Pink Floyd. And uh... so I use that to make that connection to some extent. I mean it's changed now, you know... now it's different. I was touring the States last year and the shows... we had a good time, we sold lots of tickets, and the people clearly knew exactly who I was and why I'd come. And uhm... so I'm hoping that Europe will be like that. We shall see...

Press:

What do you think about your music on the Internet? I mean on one particular newsgroup people were posting videos of your shows on the Internet.

Roger:

Some of my shows? On the... you mean from the '99 tour? I mean what can I say... I guess one has to take one's hat off to the video pirates and say well done. I don't know... that whole arena of intellectual property rights is a strange and difficult one in light of the technological revolution that we're facing, and this and that... but I can't... it's not something that concerns me really. I'll let other people worry about that. It's really a question for the hackers and the lawyers. It doesn't really concern me at all. If people want to steal the shows, good luck to them. You know, I don't care, frankly.

Press:

About the visual effects being a great part of your show, now that you are playing smaller venues, would you ever consider one day doing a pure musical shows in smaller venues?

Roger:

You know, I actually discovered... I did a show on the last tour at a place called The Gorge, which is near Seattle, in Washington state, and it was so windy that we couldn't use any of the projections, so we didn't use any of the visual stuff. And low and behold, surprise surprise, it didn't seem to make any difference to the show at all. I think the connection is actually in the music and in the lyrics and that the visual things are peripheral by and large. And I have no question that if I decided to go into small theaters, you know whether it was in the... I remember years ago, that the Floyd did gigs in the Sean se Lese , which was a very intimate space, and a wonderful place to perform, and I have no doubt that should I go and do gigs like that, with a single light bulb and a good band and sing my songs, that that would be very satisfying to me and to the audience as well, in the same way that these (shows) are.

You know mine are... I've sorted out these shows that I'm doing and they are very satisfying, and there is great empathy between me and the audience which I adore. I've arrived at a place in my own personal journey now where I'm much more open to the idea that it's OK for me to have a loving relationship with an audience. And it's what I feel when I'm in front of an audience which is an enormous pleasure. Uhm, it's OK, I allow myself that pleasure now, and I'm just having a good time when I'm on the road. But you know I would like that other thing too, you know. When I go and see a Randy Newman show, which I do as often as I possibly can, when he sits down in front of his piano and plays his songs, it's magical, it's a magical experience.

Press:

Let's make a wish to have this magical experience at your upcoming show in Berlin, on June 9th I guess. Since it will be 11 years since you played there, will it be a special show for you with your In the Flesh tour?

Roger:

That's correct it will be 11 years, yeah. I don't know... maybe. I don't know how much connection they will make or I will make, I don't know what the venue is that we're playing in... yeah, I'm sure there will be some kind of edge to it because of what happened in '89 and '90. I shall certainly go and have a look at Potzdammer Platz. I haven't been back since 1990 so... it's all covered with MacDonalds and things similar I assume... like everywhere else.

Press:

What moved you to tour In The Flesh in 1999 when you had not performed at all since 1992? What changed your mind? And my second question; You are touring bigger venues in Europe than you did in the US, so why this change?

Roger:

Well lets take your second question first. I didn't know I was doing bigger venues in Europe...

Press:

The venues in Europe are nearly 10,000, and you played to just 6, or 8,000 in the US.

Roger:

Well no, actually quite a lot of them in the USA were 10,000 as well. A lot of the Ôsheds' (outdoor amphitheaters) in the USA, if you sell them out, you get about 7,000 under cover, and 15,000 on the lawn, and we sold quite a few of those out. So, it sounds like they are... For a minute I was worried that you were going to tell me the venues held 50,000 people, which really would be...

Press:

...like a stadium...

Roger:

No, no stadiums... So long as I don't play at stadiums... I think I can... I think you can make a connection with 20,000 people... in fact I know you can, I've done it, and it feels OK to me, it feels satisfactory. Uhm, to answer your other question, I... you know, I had a tough time on the road, particularly in the States when I did Radio KAOS, which was in 1987, it was hard. I was playing in 8-10,000 arena's to 2,000 people or 1,500 people, and ah, I think it was good for my character, but it was also... tough, you know, particularly because my ex-colleagues were playing in football stadiums, sometimes in the same week in the same towns to 70 or 80,000 people. And so I didn't want to go through that experience again. And when Amused to Death came out, I told Sony that I would tour Amused to Death, which I wanted to do, but only if there was a market for it. And I decided, maybe rightly or wrongly, to gauge that market based on record sales. I said if you will move 2 million units, I will go on the road. They didn't. They sold maybe 8-900,000, and so I said OK, well then I'm not doing it.

But, in '92 I was in Los Angeles working on Amused to Death, and Don Henley, who sang some harmony for us, and who I had known before and was a friend anyway, asked me to do a gig at the Universal Amphitheater, in support of his Walden Woods project, and I did. And the evening was Don, Neil Young, John Fogerty and me. And we kind of shared the evening, and I did 4 or 5 songs, using his band. And when I walked... and no show or anything, so it was what you were talking about earlier, it was just me and the band on the stage and whatever kind of honky tonk... and when I walked on stage and started playing... I can't remember what I played... there was this incredible (makes a roaring crowd sound) of affection and pleasure that came from the 5 or 6000 people that were there. And I was bowled over by it. And I was very moved by the whole experience. And I saw it being played out by the other guys who were performing there... and I determined at that point, that this was something that I really wanted to do again. I discovered that the performer in me, was prepared to re-establish that relationship, and ah, it took me another 7 years to, you know, find the right time, or to summon the courage to put my feather back in the water of that arena. And I liked it so, I'll probably just go on doing it for a bit.

And I'm playing the Southern Hemisphere, starting in February and through March and doing 6 weeks in Europe, and I'm not going back to the States cause I've done it now for a couple of years in a row, and then that will be it. I won't do this material again. Uhm, but I may well go on the road with new material. There's songs that I've been working on for this new album, I know that every day when we go over the sound check, I will not be able to resist the temptation to pick up my acoustic guitar and start playing one of the new songs. And I know the band will pick up, and I know that we will be playing some of those songs on this tour, just not in front of the audiences. Because the temptation is too great you know, not to perform them. I don't know if that had anything to do with what you asked me... (laughter) but...

Press:

The question I have is about the movie... The Wall. Now it has been almost 20 years, and I would like to know your opinion of the movie today.

Roger:

Well, funny enough I watched the movie in Paris a few years ago. Because there was a DVD made, and Gerald Scarfe and I sat in a room at The Creon, and did a commentary on it. So if you want to know what I think of it, (laughs) if you get the DVD and you see the chart list...

Press:

Yes, I heard it.

Roger:

OK, I thought the movie was a bit dour, you know, not much humor, there aren't many laughs in it, and that is a considerable regret to me I have to say at this point. And in fact, from time to time I dip into my cyon, Where I have got a new version of The Wall, I write on airplanes, which is a version for Broadway, a theatrical version. And the only reason that I work on it, sort of a hobby, for something to do on an airoplane you know, finish my book. And the reason I'm doing it is two fold. Because I like the idea of a version that has got jokes in it, so I'm writing it sort of as a comedy version. And what's the second reason? The second reason is, that in the 20 years that have gone by since I've written the piece, I've been on a strange and convoluted personal journey of self discovery. And ah, it may be that through that process, I may have started to discover what maybe at the end of the piece. And I'd like to put it in a play, when I find out what that is. I'd like it to be the end of the play.

Press:

You've found it now?

Roger:

I'm not sure. I'm definitely a lot closer to it than I was in 1980. There's no question about that. I'm not quite... I'm nowhere near as consumed with fear as I was then.

Press:

What do you think about how much influence you've had on music in general and also your influence in the song writing of many of today's bands, Radio Head for instance? What do you think about Radio Head?

Roger:

Radio Head? Well, I'm told... I have been told over the years that they're a wonderful band with a great talent, in fact, my son, who's 23, my eldest son, gave me "OK Computer" for my birthday a couple of months ago, and I listened to it, and I really liked it. I thought there was some beautiful songs on it. And then somebody else, an American record producer, gave me the new album, so I've been showered with Radio Head products suddenly. And the new album, I found, quite difficult I have to say, and I wouldn't dream of listening to it again. I had it once in the car and "wow this is weird," you know, "so this is what young people are into these days?" Because, I'm... you know... in my work I'm drifting back towards Woody Guthrie, and I'm finding that I'm using less and less effects and going more and more back towards the simple kind of expression and rendition of my idea's and this is the way. But I admire and appreciate what work Radio Head has been trying to do. It's just that it doesn't personally appeal to me particularly. I've been told that they claim some influence from some of the things that I may have done in the past, which is nice, but I don't really feel anything about it.

Press:

Hi Roger, I have two questions. I wanted to know what you thought of a band called Placebo? Do you know of them?

Roger:

No.

Press:

No? They are an English band and they're very famous. Oh boy!

Roger:

I'm sorry I know very little about popular music, it's not one of my area's of expertise. I'm quite good at the asshole football crowd or... (laughter)

Press:

My point actually was more that they have a single called "Taste In Men," and they use the intro from "Let Their Be More Light" without mentioning it, I wanted to know if you knew it? They don't mention it and they just copied the intro. And I wanted to know if you knew it?

Roger:

No. Was that Pasting or tasting Men...

Press:

No, Taste In Men!

Roger:

Oh, Taste - in... No, I don't know that.

Press:

The second question is; When you wrote 26 years ago songs like "Wish You Were Here" or and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," it was very obvious that you were concerned about what Syd Barrett was becoming. Are you keeping in touch and still concerned about what he is becoming now today?

Roger:

Interesting enough, there is a guy in England, I think his name is Ted Willis, who is writing a book about him, and I've been talking to him on the telephone, I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago, and he had called me back, because he had visited with Syd, and described his encounter with Syd, which was quite interesting.

So, Syd is living you know, in his Mums house in Cambridge. Still living in apparently reasonable comfort on the royalties from the old stuff, and he still sits back, you know, he on this particular day, the guy knocks on his door and Syd came out, standing there in a pair of Bermuda white trunks, looking bemused, as he always does when people go and visit him. And then Ted was so sort of taken aback about being confronted in that way, that he forgot to tell Syd that he was writing a book. So he went back, and Syd was gardening, and Ted said to him, "I've got some questions here," because he had written them down, or something, "and can I give it to you?" And Syd said to him, "I don't care what you do." he said put it through the door... or Ted said, "Shall I put it through the door?" And Syd said, "It's nothing to do with me. You can do what you want with it. It's nothing to do with me."

So I thought that was interesting, in that Syd clearly sees that whole past thing, that people should be interested in him, is nothing to do with what he is, or who he is now. And so he has a schizophrenic relationship with that too. And in a way, I think that probably makes things easier for him. That he doesn't feel a need to relate who he is now, to who he was then. So, I took some comfort from that conversation that I had with Ted Willis. Because over the years I have made inquiries from time to time, whether or not it would be a good thing for me to make contact with him. And everything that has come back to me, from Ruth, his sister and from his family is no, he gets very agitated when he is reminded of the past, and he's much better left alone. So that's all I can tell you.

Press:

Back to The Wall DVD, and the new sound mixes on the DVD, maybe you will have a passion for more quad surround mixes on music in the future?

Roger:

Quadraphonic sound you mean? Well I mean I use it in my live shows. But for surround sound and the rest, I don't think about that. I mean for DVD and TV, everything's remixing for that, but you know it's something that's still to come in the Western world, where we can all afford to buy these high priced speakers and put them all around our living rooms, and you know, and sit down and surround ourselves... I don't know... it's a bit like talking about a traction drive on an LD 400, or something, I don't know, it's just something that happens. I don't think about that. It's not something that concerns me.

Press:

So you were not involved in The Wall for the DVD, you were not involved in the Surround Sound mixes?

Roger:

Only so far as when we were putting the show together, I worked with Nick Griffiths, who's an engineer that I've worked with a lot, and who does all the technical work putting it together, so, yeah, when I'm putting the show together I sit in a room with him and we listen to it and see how it will work and decide what improvements to make and how everything works. So yeah, putting the show together obviously, that's part of the thing, its like putting the visuals... it's like rehearsing the band, it's like... getting ready for the show, you know. I'm sorry if I misunderstood your question.

Roger: