Pink Floyd versus EMI

[max_tranmere]

I was reading about the feud between Gilmour and Waters in the years after the latter leaving Pink Floyd. Bob Ezrin was, as I mentioned before, the producer of the later Floyd albums. Ezrin then went and produced the 'Pink Floyd album' (Gilmour, Rick Wright as a salaried staffer on keyboards, and Nick Mason doing little else but appear with Gilmour in the photo on the sleeve) and Waters was very unhappy about Ezrin, as he saw it, coluding with the enemy. Roger Waters' next solo album was entitled "Amused To Death" (self-produced) and he included a line about this in the song 'Too Much Rope' on the album. Waters sang "each man has his price, Bob, and yours was pretty low". So the digs continued from one camp to the other.

I would say that the most juvenile thing that ever happened between the post-Waters Pink Floyd and Waters himself occured in 1990. Roger Waters did a huge solo gig, with lots of famous people duetting with him, in Berlin to mark the falling of the Berlin Wall. This got huge publicity and in order for the world not to view this as a 'Pink Floyd gig' - in the sense that Waters just performing Floyd material ('The Wall' album) may be seen in spirit as that - although it was of course a Roger Waters solo show - the other three decided to reform and headline a huge gig in England as Pink Floyd.

Like a lot of big bands from years ago, the Floyd (those three anyway), would reform for an album/tour occasionally then disappear for years. The Rolling Stones are another example of this, and a one-off show in the middle of one of these long hiatus's would never normally occur. Waters announced many months earlier about his huge gig in Berlin which would take place on 21 July 1990. The other three reformed as Pink Floyd (they hadn't seen each other for 2 years) and headlined a large charity gig at Knebworth on 30 June - just 3 weeks before. It got loads of publicity in advance and was designed to steal Roger Waters' thunder with his huge Berlin solo show. Very juvenile I think.

[The Last Word]

max_tranmere wrote:

> I was reading about the feud between Gilmour and Waters in the
> years after the latter leaving Pink Floyd. Bob Ezrin was, as I
> mentioned before, the producer of the later Floyd albums. Ezrin
> then went and produced the 'Pink Floyd album' (Gilmour, Rick
> Wright as a salaried staffer on keyboards, and Nick Mason doing
> little else but appear with Gilmour in the photo on the sleeve)
> and Waters was very unhappy about Ezrin, as he saw it, coluding
> with the enemy. Roger Waters' next solo album was entitled
> "Amused To Death" (self-produced) and he included a line about
> this in the song 'Too Much Rope' on the album. Waters sang
> "each man has his price, Bob, and yours was pretty low". So the
> digs continued from one camp to the other.

According to some reports, Ezrin had previously declined Waters' invitation to work on his earlier Radio Kaos for family reasons.

> The other three reformed as Pink Floyd
> (they hadn't seen each other for 2 years) and headlined a large
> charity gig at Knebworth on 30 June - just 3 weeks before. It
> got loads of publicity in advance and was designed to steal
> Roger Waters' thunder with his huge Berlin solo show. Very
> juvenile I think.

The concert was for Nordoff-Robbins music therapy & Brit School of Performing Arts and had a huge line-up. Floyd were headliners, but were also bringing the mammoth Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour to a close, so they were hardly reforming to stick one on Waters. Were Macca, Clapton, Plant, Page & Genesis in on this thunder-stealing prank as well?

Juvenile indeed.

[max_tranmere]

They weren't bringing the 'Momentary Lapse Of Reason Tour' to a close. I remember the last show on that tour being a year earlier, and this has been confirmed by a bit of research I've just done in order to respond to what you've just said. The last gig on that tour was on 18 July 1989, a year earlier. They reformed especially for the show at Knebworth. It was a charity show and it raised awareness for some very good causes. I can't see how it could even be considered that any of the other acts, people like Mark Knopfler, and all the others you mention, could have been doing it to 'get one over' on anyone. I remember watching it on TV, recording it on video, and I think I still have the video somewhere. Gilmour and co's thunder-stealing attempt didn't work anyway, Waters' show in Berlin three weeks later got massive publicity, it was one of the biggest concerts ever held, and an album and worldwide TV broadcast was released of it. I have a copy of the album.

[The Last Word]

max_tranmere wrote:

> I can't see how it could even be considered that any of the other acts,
> people like Mark Knopfler, and all the others you mention,
> could have been doing it to 'get one over' on anyone.

Neither do I. Can't you spot a jokey allusion? Nice to see you did some research though.

> Gilmour and co's thunder-stealing attempt didn't work anyway.

Again you see something that probably wasn't there. The sort of twaddle the press drum up.

> Waters' show in
> Berlin three weeks later got massive publicity, it was one of
> the biggest concerts ever held, and an album and worldwide TV
> broadcast was released of it. I have a copy of the album.

Shame it was load of rubbish though - can't recall anyone liking it. To these eyes Waters comes off worse in this torrid non-story, and he really overdid the old pals act onstage at Live 8.

The Wall concert does have an interesting wiki page though:

[max_tranmere]

I remember reading an article in one of the more real music magazines (it might have been Mojo magazine) which covered this Pink Floyd feud in 1990. The cover of the magazine had two large photos: one of Waters doing his large concert in Germany and the other one was of the other three doing their gig at Kneborth. The wording on the cover said: "David Gilmour in London, Rogers Waters in Berlin - Pink Floyd's Cold War isn't over". The reference to London referred to Knebworth, which is actually in Hertfordshire, but why split hairs. It was a major feature about the two sides and it was interesting to read.

A seperate feature in that magazine was about the 5 original members of Pink Floyd and what happened as the years went on. It was titled "One lost his band, one lost his friend, one lost his mind". The one who lost his band was obviously Roger Waters, I think the one who lost his friend was Nick Mason who always regarded Roger Waters as his best ever friend and he said later "I've not had a best friend for years, ever since Roger left the band", and the one who lost his mind was clearly Sid Barrett. It has been a rocky road for the five original members, two of whom are now dead. They made unbelievable amounts of money but Pink Floyd and everything associated with it took its toll on their lives too.

[max_tranmere]

Dave and Rodge bump into each other. Both are quite friendly.

[The Last Word]

I see Waters is peddling, sorry, touring The Wall again:



Some slightly flimsy reasoning in the 'Why..' part.

[KJ]

That Berlin show was a technical shambles. There were chunks where the band stopped playing because nobody could hear what was going on, and they had to re-perform bits of it again after the end of the live TV broadcast so that they usable material to put on the CD and DVD afterwards.