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Exclusive Interview with Roger Waters

Rock legend Roger Waters speaks to us about music, the role of artists in today’s society and his activism for justice around the world, including in Palestine.

- Recorded 04/12/2013




Frank Barat: When did you make the decision to make the « Wall tour » (that ended in Paris in September 2013) so political ? And why did you dedicate the final concert to Jean-Charles De Menezes ?

Roger Waters: The first show was October 14th 2010. We started working on content of show with Sean Evans in 2009. I had already decided to make it much broader politically than it had been in 1979/80. It could not be just about this whinny little guy who didn’t like his teachers. It had to be more universal. That’s why ‘fallen loved ones’ came into it (the shows are showing pictures of people that died during wars) trying to universalise the sense of grief and loss that we all feel towards family members killed in conflict. Whatever the wars or the circumstances, they (in the non western world), feel has much lost as we do. Wars become an important symbol because of that separation between ‘us and them,’ which is fundamental to all conflicts. Regarding Jean-Charles, we used to do Brick II with three solos at the end and I decided that three solos was too much, it was boring me. So sitting in a hotel room, one night, I was thinking about what I could do instead of that. Somebody had recently sent me a photograph of Jean-Charles De Menezes to go on the wall. So he was in my mind and I thought that I should sing his story. I wrote that song, taught it to the band, and that’s what we did.

FB: A lot of artist would say that mixing arts and politics is wrong. That their goal is only to entertain. What would you say to those people?

RW: Well it’s funny you should say that because I just finished yesterday the text of a new piece which will be a new album of mine. It’s about a grandfather in Northern Ireland going on a quest with his grandchild to find the answer to the question: “Why are they killing the children?”, because the child is really worried about it. Right at the very end of it, I decided to add something more. In the song, the child tells his grandpa: “Is that it?” and the grandpa replies “No, we cannot leave on that note, give me another note”. A new song starts and the grandpa makes a speech. He says: “We live on a tiny dot in a middle of a lot of fucking nothing. Now, if you’re not interested in any of this, if you’re one of those “Roger I love Pink Floyd but I hate your fucking politics”, if you believe artists should be mute, emasculated, nodding dogs dangling aimlessly over the dashboard of life, you might be well advised to fuck off to the bar now, because, time keeps slipping away.” That’s my answer to your question.

FB: When will album be out?

RW: I’ve got no idea. I’m working away furiously on lots of old projects. I’m going to give a first listen to this to Sean Evans. He’s coming to my house tomorrow to listen to it. I’ve made a demo which is one hour and six minutes long. It’s pretty heavy I confess, but there is also some humor in it, I hope, but it’s extremely radical and it poses very important questions. Look, if I’m the only one doing it, I am entirely content. I mean, I’m not, I wish there were more people writing about politics and our real situation. Even from what could be considered extreme points of view. It’s very important that Goya did what he did, same for Picasso and Guernica and all those anti-war novels that came out during and after the Vietnam war.

FB: You’re talking about yourself being one of the only one, in your position, taking radical political positions. When it comes to Palestine, you are very open about your support for a cultural boycott of Israel. People opposing this tactic say that culture should not be boycotted. What would you answer to that?

RW: I would say that I understand their opinion. Everybody should have one. But I can’t agree with them, I think that they are entirely wrong. The situation in Israel/ Palestine, with the occupation, the ethnic cleansing and the systematic racist apartheid Israeli regime is un acceptable. So for an artist to go and play in a country that occupies other people’s land and oppresses them the way Israel does, is plain wrong. They should say no. I would not have played for the Vichy government in occupied France in the Second World War, I would not have played in Berlin either during this time. Many people did, back in the day. There were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it’s the Palestinian People being murdered. It’s the duty of every thinking human being to ask: “What can I do?”. Anybody who looks at the situation will see that if you choose not to take up arms to fight your oppressor, the non violent route, and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (B.D.S) movement, which started in Palestine with 100% support from Palestinian civil society in 2004-2005, a movement that has now been joined by many people around the world, the global civil society, is a legitimate form of resistance to this brutal and oppressive regime. I have nearly finished Max Blumenthal’s book “Goliath: Life and Loathing in greater Israel”. It’s a chilling read. It’s extremely well written in my view. He is a very good journalist and takes great pains to make sure that what he writes is correct. He also gives a voice to the other side. The voice, for instance, of the right wing rabbinate, which is so bizarre and hard to hear that you can hardly believe that it’s real. They believe some very weird stuff you know, they believe that everybody that is not a Jew is only on earth to serve them and they believe that the Indigenous people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are sub-human. The parallels with what went on in the 30’s in Germany are so crushingly obvious that it doesn’t surprise me that the movement that both you and I are involved in is growing every day. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine was trying to shed light on this when we met, I only took part in two sessions, you took part in many more. It is an extremely obvious and fundamental problem of human rights which every thinking human being should apply himself to.

FB: The scary thing is that the extreme Rabbinate you were talking about with the extreme right wing views about the Palestinians and the non-Jews are having a more and more prominent place in terms of the Israeli society, regime and power structure and that is very scary.

I wanted to follow up on the Cultural Boycott and about the fact that you are one of the only ones who take such a stand. You could, as many others do, I guess enjoy the benefits of your success and lead a quiet, at least politically, non-controversial life. Why do you do it but more importantly why do you think not more people are doing it? Why a lot of artists who often take position against wars, why don’t they touch Palestine?

RW: Well, where I live, in the USA, I think, A: they are frightened and B: I think the propaganda machine that starts in Israeli schools and that continues through all the Netanyahu’s bluster is poured all over the United States, not just Fox but also CNN and in fact in all the mainstream media. It’s like a huge bucket of crap that they are pouring into the mouth of a gullible public in my view, when they say “we are afraid of Iran, it is going to get nuclear weapons…”. It’s a diversionary tactic. The lie that they have told for the last 20 years is “Oh, we want to make peace”, you know and they talk about Clinton and Arafat and Barak being in Camp David and that they came very close to agreeing, and the story that they sold was “Oh Arafat fucked it all up”. Well, no, he did not. This is not the story. The fact of the matter is no Israeli government has been serious about creating a Palestinian state since 1948. They’ve always had the Ben Gurion agenda of kicking all the Arabs out of the country and becoming greater Israel. They tell a lie as part of their propaganda machinery whilst doing the other thing but they have been doing it so obviously in the last 10 years . For instance, even after when Obama went to Cairo and made that speech about Arabs and the Israelis, everybody was like “Oh, this is a step in a new direction at least”. But as soon as he visited Israel, they said. “Oh by the way, we are building another 1200 settlements”. Exactly the same when Kerry went last year saying, “Oh I am going to try to get the sides together and talk peace”. Netanhayu said “Fuck you. We are going to build another 1500 settlements and we a going to build them in E1, this is our plan.” This is so transparent that you’d have to have an IQ above room temperature not to understand what is going on. It is just dopey.

You know I read some piece the other day where it said “apparently only the Secretary State of the United States, believes that these current peace talks are real, no one else in the world does”.

It is a very complicated situation which is why you and I and all the other people in the world who care about their brothers and sisters and not just about the people of our own faith, our own colour, our own race or our own whatever, have to stand in solidarity shoulder to shoulder. This has been a very hard sell particularly where I live in the United States of America. The Jewish lobby is extraordinary powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry and in rock’n roll as they say. I promise you, naming no names, I’ve spoken to people who are terrified that if they stand shoulder to shoulder with me they are going to get fucked. They have said to me “aren’t you worried for your life?” and I go “No, I’m not”. A few years ago, I was touring and 9/11 happened in the middle of the tour and 2 or 3 people in my band who happened to be United States citizens wouldn’t come on the next leg of the tour. I said “ why not? Don’t you like the music anymore?” and they replied “no, we love the music but we are Americans and it’s too dangerous for us to travel abroad, they are trying to kill us” and I thought “Wow!”.

FB: Yes, the brainwashing works!

RW: Obviously it does, that is why I am happy to be doing this interview with you because it is super important that we make as much noise as possible. I’m so glad that this right wing newspaper in Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth, printed my interview with Alon Hadar. At least they printed it. Although they changed the context and made it sound different that what is actually was but at least they printed something. You know, I would expect to be completely suppressed and ignored.

You know that Shuki Weiss( preeminent Israeli promotor) was offering me a hundred thousand people at hundred dollars a ticket a few months ago to come and play in Tel Aviv! “Hang on, that’s 10 million dollars”, how could they offer it to me?! And I thought Shuki are you fucking deaf or just dumb?! I am part of the BDS movement, I’m not going anywhere in Israel, for any money, all I would be doing would be legitimizing the policies of the government.

I have a confession to make to you. I did actually write to Cindy Lauper a couple of weeks ago. I did not make the letter public but I wrote her a letter because I know her a bit, she worked with me on the Wall in Berlin which is why I found it super difficult to understand that she is doing a gig in Tel Aviv on January the 4th. apparently, quite extraordinary, reprehensible in my view, but I don’t know her personal story and people have to make up their own mind about these things. One can’t get to personal about it.

FB: For sure but you can help them, I guess by what you are doing, by writing to them. You can open their eyes because that’s what they need I think.

RW: Yes but if their eyes were going to be opened they would need to either visit the Holy land, visit the West Bank or Gaza or even visit Israel or any single checkpoint anywhere and see what it’s like. All they would need to do is visiting or, read, read a book! Check out the history. Read Max Blumenthal’s book. Then say “Oh I know what I am going to do, I am going to play a gig in Tel Aviv”. That would be a good plan! (sarcastic tone).

From lemuradesoreilles.org

Roger Waters: The Man Behind the Wall

Book Reviews


By NENAD GEORGIEVSKI, Published: December 6, 2013

Roger Waters: The Man Behind the Wall

Dave Thompson

288

ISBN: 161713564X

Backbeat Books

2013













The story of British band Pink Floyd is one of an enigma that has lasted for decades. Regardless if the band has sold trillions of records and countless of books and articles had been written, still, the general audience knows very little about how the band's music was created or details about band members' private lives. Further, the intriguing and brilliant Hipgnosis designed covers also said and revealed too little about its musical journey which was so significant that it altered the entire course of late 20th century sound. During the four decades the band had actively existed it became synonymous with a magnetic edgy music in which its pervasive chilling mood is the star. Over the years the focus of fans' adulation remained the anonymous banner of Pink Floyd. But subsequent ego battles, financial problems, the inability to share credits among each other eventually has led to Waters' divorcing from the band and commencing legal battles with the remaining members, which was the subject of many tabloid headlines in the 80s and the 90s. Regardless if the group had exploded into acrimony, the legacy of its music is still a mystery that deserves to be unraveled.

The man at the center of this book's story, Roger Waters is a lyricist extraordinaire whose meditations on death, madness and apocalypse were pivotal in leading an obscure British psychedelic group to the pinnacle of commercial preeminence in rock music. Basically, Roger Waters: The Man Behind the Wall consists of two separate parts that gives the impression of two separate streams in one book. The first part maps the biography of Roger Waters starting from early childhood by analyzing his family background, the death of his father during WWII, his family's political background that has influenced Waters' social and political thinking that has also reflected in his work with Pink Floyd and in his solo career work, his early music interests, biographical details, education and jumps to various moments in his musical biography with Floyd where Waters had a more prominent role in lyric writing, conceptualizing the later output with works such as Wish You Were Here, (EMI, 1975) Animals, (EMI, 1977) The Wall (EMI, 1979) and eventually a dominating role, as in "The Final Cut" (when the credits wrote by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd). While doing that the author skims various important chapters in Waters' life that were part of Pink Floyd's biography and proceeds with an outlook on his subsequent post Floyd solo career, the highs and the lows, the dispute over the name all leading to the eventual last stand of the classic Pink Floyd at the Live 8 in 2005 at Hyde Park.

The second part is a detailed biography of Pink Floyd's oeuvre and the times when those records were made over the course of the several stages that the career of this band has had. Starting from the musical endeavors that each band member had participated in before Floyd, the story, that was mapped through various sources such as books and interviews (either author's or by others) is told through the records, soundtracks, song by song details that actually portray the road traversed from its early start, when the band became darling of the psychedelic scene under the guidance of the first front man Syd Barrett. Barret had been a maverick artist and a true original that had to departure prematurely from the band due to drug abuse and psychological problems, a legacy that the band had to wrestle with many times during the course of its illustrious career. What followed in the second chapter of the band's career was a series of exotic rock reveries with exotic titles such as A Saucerful of Secrets, (Columbia, 1968 ) Ummagumma, (Columbia, 1969) Atom Heart Mother (EMI, 1970) that set the scenery for the mega selling records and tours that would catapult them in the major league

Thompson's prose is never boring and is detailed as he leads the stories through the myriad of information. The good thing here is that each record gets its own equal analysis regardless if it's an obscure single or a record, shoulder to shoulder with the better known ones in their cannon. On the other hand, there is very little or nothing whatsoever about the Pink Floyd's legendary concerts which were as important as their studio efforts. The band's stage productions of the era were the forerunners of the modern rock and pop extravaganza, featuring elaborate special effects and one of rock's inaugural light shows, where among that the music was played on a quadraphonic sound system called Azymuth coordinator.

While Waters' career is anything but uneventful the author doesn't give much info about the many charity activities he has participated in. He was a spokesman for the Millennium Promise charity in 2007, he reunited with Gilmour for a charity in 2006 for the children of Palestinian refugees and in 2012 he led a benefit for United States military veterans called Stand Up for Heroes. Judging by the book, he and Eric Clapton were not on the best of terms when the tour in 1984 had ended, but then again the author fails to mention the charity events they participated in afterwards, like them performing together in 2005 on TV for the Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope when they performed "Wish you Were Here" as well as Waters taking part in a charity cricket match that Clapton had organized in 2008. Plenty of the info apart from author's own interpretation of Waters' and Pink Floyd's output doesn't reveal anything new.

The story of Roger Waters and Pink Floyd is far too complex to be told in one book just by going through various and select musical details without giving a broader picture of the cultural impact it has had since its early days and the subsequent changes and the fashions it has survived. What this book lacks is more depth and a broader picture and analysis of the band's cultural impact that goes beyond the world of music. It has no fresh conversations with Waters, his family, or his well known former band mates. Rather, it is a collocation of stale, previously published interviews and chats with former low level co-workers. And instead of working on a fine portrait, it seems like he has been working on the sketch. It is unquestionable that Waters' contribution had been pivotal for the band's success both artistically and commercially, but if there had been a better assessment of his role it could be argued that he also contributed greatly to its demise and initial disbandment after the heights reached in the 70s. Roger Waters: The Man Behind the Wall is an averagely good book about Roger Waters, but he and Pink Floyd deserve a better one.

From www.allaboutjazz.com

Roger Waters - Keynote Q&A at Billboard Touring Conference 2013

Waters talks with Billboard's Ray Waddell about Pink Floyd's first U.S. gig, the music business today and the monumental success of The Wall tour.

Dystopia: “Are There Any Paranoids in the Theatre Tonight?”: Roger Waters’s The Wall as Dystopian Spectacle

November 29, 2013

By Ana Malinovic



Roger Waters, the Easter Island-headed prophet of Pink Floyd, recently revived the band’s seminal 1979 albumThe Wall on a worldwide stadium tour. Just why did Waters return to The Wall? On his official website, he says:

The story of my fear and loss …provides an allegory for broader concerns: nationalism, racism, sexism, religion, whatever! All … are driven by the same fears that drove my young life.

Roger Waters performs the entirety of Pink Floyd’s The Wall at Wembley Stadium. Photo by Chiazi Nozu.

While Waters acknowledges that the album initially arose from his own highly personal tale, in recent years he has recognised its potential to relate to a wider socio-political context. Indeed, The Wall is nothing if not a searing dystopian narrative. The OED defines a dystopia as “an imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible”, but more specifically, the following elements are pervasive: constant state surveillance; a widespread lack of freedom and dehumanisation of the masses; corruption and injustice; prolific propaganda within a system of indoctrination; a “personality cult” figure. Each of these elements was very much present in the performance of The Wall I attended in September at Wembley Stadium.

From the outset Waters made clear that this spectacle was intended as a deeply felt protest against injustice and outrages perpetrated by governments and state machinery worldwide. Before performing a sombre and altogether darker version of Another Brick in the Wall, he said: “This concert is dedicated to Jean Charles [Menezes] and victims of state terrorism all over the world.” Waters’s critique didn’t stop there. He continued to hammer home his protest against excessive state power with the songs that followed, without exception.

Prior to this show, I always saw Mother as one of the most personal songs on the album, about a stifling and overprotective mother who nonetheless wishes the best for her son: “Mother will check out all your girlfriends for you,” sings Waters. “Mother will always find out where you’re been.” (Though there remain disturbing overtones: “Mama’s gonna make all of your nightmares come true… Put all of her fears into you.”) However, in this stage incarnation, Mother was taken from the personal sphere and propelled into the expressly political. A giant, sinister-looking Mother came to life on the stage. Cold probing lights radiated out of her eyes, surveying the audience, with a security camera positioned by her. On a screen the words “Big Brother” appeared - so evocative, of course, of the most iconic dystopian novel of them all - with the “Br” in “Brother” crossed out and replaced with an “M”. This represented how dangerous our need to feel secure as a society can be - a need that can be used to manipulate us. The leaders who claim to have our best interests at heart are invariably to be the most distrusted. Such leaders justify the surveillance state by citing increased security, but in fact they rob us of more and more of our freedom.

After Waters sang the line “Mother should I trust the government?”, big red letters were projected onto The Wall, spelling out “no fuckin’ way” - drawing a great reaction from the audience. It’s no surprise that this sentiment had no such resonance: in addition to longstanding political disaffection, this is a country which has between 4 and 5.9 million security cameras (according to a report in July ). That is approximately one camera for every 11 people  in the UK – a very disquieting statistic and one that makes Waters’s surveillance state Mother seem all the more plausible.

The larger the state, the more it can impose into our everyday lives. Heather Brooke’s The Silent State is one such exposé of just how much data the government has built up about us in recent years, the extent of which is kept largely hidden from us. If we are kept unaware of what is happening with governmental legislation and the way in which the state uses our data, the state can go ahead even with oppressive laws and experience less opposition than it should rightly have. In light of last week’s revelations  that the US and UK governments struck a secret deal to allow the NSA to “unmask” our data, Brooke’s arguments hold greater weight than ever.

Goodbye Blue Sky’s projected animation - which has previously attracted considerable controversy - was a very explicit critique of corruption and abuses of power within corporations, ideological belief systems and organised religion. The crucifix, star of David and star and crescent fell from aeroplanes like bombs, alongside the corporate logos of Mercedes, Shell and McDonald’s - as well as communism’s hammer and sickle and capitalism’s dollar sign.

Such anti-war and anti-profiteering messages were iterated again and again during The Wall. Nobody Home’s animation illustrated the individual’s powerlessness against nefarious military planes flying overhead, while during Vera Lynn, a damning quote by Eisenhower was projected onto The Wall: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies… a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.”

Again, Waters was focusing on the human fallout of cold, calculated military actions. Malala Yousafzai, the extraordinary campaigner for girl’s education, has drawn renewed attention to the fact that the world’s most powerful nations spend so much on their forces but shamefully little on education. As she defiantly said at the UN in September: “Instead of sending weapons… to Afghanistan and all these countries which are suffering from terrorism, send books.” Unsurprisingly, the 2013 Global Peace Index shows that the world has become less peaceful .

Another Brick in the Wall: Part Three, meanwhile, began with footage of a French newscaster projected onto one of the bricks in the centre of the screen. The surrounding bricks then rapidly filled up with footage of newscasters speaking different languages: a potent Chomsky-esque critique of the way the media gives us a particular slant on certain events, depending on where we live. Tracking back to Another Brick in the Wall: Part Two, this is a continuation of the way we are taught to think in school. We are expected to conform to a particular ideological mindframe (“we don’t need no thought control”), actively prevented from attempting to form our own potentially subversive opinions.

Goodbye Cruel World ended on a particularly disturbing note: as Waters sang in a mocked-up living room from the last brick that was yet to be covered up, he was being targeted by the red dot of a sniper rifle. As the song ended, all went startlingly black - a highly laden critique of the military and political sphere intruding into the personal and domestic.

The finale of The Wall, segueing fromWaiting for the Worms into The Trial, was the most visually arresting projection in a concert loaded with spectacle. The sheer perversion of the judge was highlighted through snippets of cartoonish video, while Waters inhabited the role of megalomaniacal dictator, equipped with a megaphone and wearing a uniform. The song was also accompanied by quotations from 1984 - most notably “he loved Big Brother” - and the opening of Kafka’s The Trial.

The Wall was a forceful, resolutely spectacular reminder of just why dystopias hold such power over the imagination. While they show us a vision of the worst future possible, they simultaneously reveal disturbing and uncomfortable truths in our present. They act as a warning. They are often an attempt on the part of their creator to urge us into action, so that we feel moved to change the things that we see are deeply wrong with our world - a motivation that clearly courses through Waters’s  veins.

Waters’s stadium tour coincides with a cultural dystopian turn: Black Mirror on the television; The Hunger Games in the cinema; Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam in the bookstores; Headlong’s acclaimed 1984 on the stage. The sheer variety of The Wall’s multidisciplinary spectacle, and the scope of its concerns, make it a powerful, pounding distillation of this trend. Just before Run like Hell, Waters wryly asked: “Are there any paranoids in the theatre tonight? This song is for you.” As he had shown us repeatedly throughout the evening, we have plenty to be paranoid about.

Ana Malinovic

Ana graduated from Warwick University with a BA in English and American Literature in 2010. Her dissertation was centred on dystopian elements in the fiction of Kafka. She enjoys uncovering innovative works of fiction by a diverse range of authors. She also spends much of her time roaming around London’s arts and culture scene overexcitedly.

From www.litro.co.uk
 

Roger Waters Recording First Rock Album in Over Two Decades

By ANDY GREENE
NOVEMBER 13, 2013



Concept record is 'a quest,' says the Pink Floyd co-founder

Roger Waters performs in Paris.

Roger Waters wrapped up his three-year Wall tour in September, and since then he's turned his attention toward his first rock album since 1992's Amused to Death. "I finished a demo of it last night," he tells Rolling Stone. "It's 55 minutes long. It's songs and theater as well. I don't want to give too much away, but it's couched as a radio play. It has characters who speak to each other, and it's a quest. It's about an old man and a young child trying to figure out why they are killing the children."

He's not sure if he'll support the disc with a tour. "I'm suffering a little bit of withdrawal after ending the Wall tour," he says. "It's sort of a relief to not have to go out and do that every night, but they're such a great team. There were 180 of us together everyday. That piece was very moving every night."

The massive show was staged 219 times at stadiums and arenas all over the globe, grossing upwards of $458,000,000. "I can't top that tour," Waters says. "First of all, you have to accept the fact that I'm not going to live forever. I'm 70 years old. You just have to accept that when you do something as enormous as that tour. The hardest thing in the world is thinking of something to do, so going and doing it is a reward in itself." 

The memory of the tour still brings a big smile to his face. "I found that the loudest fans in the world are in Istanbul," he says. "I remember standing there with the band during 'Hey You.' We were behind the wall, so nobody could see us playing. We started looking at each other going, 'What is that sound?' When they sang 'Don't give in without a fight,' you could feel it. It was like the roof was coming off, even though there was no roof. It was amazing." 

With that in mind, he refuses to rule out the possibility of reviving The Wall tour at some point in the future. "I'm not thinking about that right now," he says. "But that's not to say I won't. I think there's an audience there. We did do 219 shows, which is a lot." 

From www.rollingstone.com

Roger Waters sends poem to vet who located spot father was felled in war

By Nick Squires, Rome and Rosa Silverman  11 Nov 2013


Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd bassist and song writer, has sent a poem to the British army veteran who located the exact spot where the musician’s father was killed in action in Italy during the Second World War

Harry Shindler used British intelligence reports and military maps last month to identify the place where the guitarist’s father, Lieutenant Eric Waters, died in the aftermath of the Allied landings at Anzio, south of Rome.
Roger Waters contacted him and sent him a poem entitled “One River”, along with a letter which he signed “To Harry, with gratitude”.
The rock star was just five months old when his father died at the age of 31 during intense fighting between Allied and German forces in February 1944.
The poem alludes to the acute sense of loss he felt and the pain of never having known his father, who was serving with Z Company of the 8th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers.

“When the wind sighs through the crop and good men fall, And children soft in their mothers' arms cringe, unbelieving, from the desperadoes' casual blade, My father, distant now but live and warm and strong, in uniform tobacco haze, Speaks out 'My son',” the poem begins.
“He says, Stay not the passion of your loss, But rather keen and hone its edge, That you may never turn away, Numb, brute, from bets too difficult to hedge.”
Mr Shindler, 93, who served at Anzio and is now head of the Italy Star Association of veterans, said he was deeply touched by the poem.
“It’s very moving indeed,” he told The Telegraph. “I think Roger was grateful that I went to all this trouble to find where his father was killed. I see my job as to make sure that nobody forgets all the lads who died down there and what happened after the landings. I came through it, fortunately, but many didn’t.”
Mr Shindler used War Office records at the National Archives in Kew and military maps to find the location of Lt Waters’ death - a fox hole a few miles inland from the sea, on the outer perimeter of the Allied bridgehead.
“It’s in a field surrounded by ditches, near a stream. It’s a pretty damp place and it was even worse in February 1944 – the weather was awful, we had a shocking winter and it was very muddy,” he said.
Roger Waters is expected to travel to Italy in February to mark the 70th anniversary of his father’s death.
“We’re expecting him to come on Feb 18 to unveil a monument to his father,” Mr Shindler said. “The town of Anzio wants to give him honorary citizenship.”
Lt Waters’ body was never recovered but his name is commemorated at the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at nearby Monte Cassino, also the scene of intense fighting.
Mr Shindler is negotiating with local authorities in the town of Aprilia, near Anzio, to erect a plaque to commemorate not only Lt Waters, but all the Allied soldiers whose remains were never retrieved from the battlefield.
The 70th anniversary of the start of the Anzio landings, which were codenamed Operation Shingle, falls on Jan 22 next year and is expected to be attended by veterans and dignitaries from Britain, Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand and Canada, and the United States.
The Allies suffered around 40,000 casualties in the battle of Anzio, which eventually led to the liberation of Rome.
The British intelligence summary found by Mr Shindler revealed that on the night of Feb 17, 1944, Lt Waters’ company came under sustained assault from a German counter-attack involving tanks and infantry.
By the morning of the next day, Feb 18, the situation was desperate, the unit was eventually surrounded and Lt Waters was killed.
Mr Shindler, who lives in Italy, heard of the story after Roger Waters visited Monte Cassino, south-east of Rome, in March this year in a tribute to his father.
The death of his father inspired several of the songs that Waters, 70, wrote for Pink Floyd, in particular When The Tigers Broke Free, which also appeared in the film The Wall.
He once said the loss of his father had left him very angry.
“It took me years to come to terms with it. Because he was missing in action, presumed killed, until quite recently I expected him to come home.”
Roger Waters, who wrote the poem in the 1990s during the Balkan conflict, said Mr Shindler's discovery had been "an extraordinary turn of events".
He told the Telegraph that he had spoken to the veteran on the phone a number of times now and was looking forward to meeting him in Italy in February for the anniversary of the battle in which his father died. He planned to take Mr Shindler out for a drink.
"Harry is such a remarkable man," he said. "This isn't a one-off for him.
"He has been doing it for years and years.
"He's made it his life's work to find out what happened to men who served."
While knowing where his father died could not provide closure, it had offered him "the opportunity to connect with a lovely man like Harry Shindler," he said.

From www.telegraph.co.uk
 

Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters Rock New York for Wounded Veterans

By ANDY GREENE
NOVEMBER 7, 2013



Bruce Springsteen is a man of many talents, though stand-up comedy is most definitely not one of them. But as the final performer of the annual Stand Up for Heroes benefit last night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden – which also featured Roger Waters and short sets by comedy superstars Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby and Jim Gaffigan – he was unable to resist the urge to tell a few jokes. "I'm puzzled," he said. "This is a night of comedy with soldiers in the audience, but the entire night went by without anybody telling any dirty jokes? I can't let that happen."

With that, Springsteen got uncharacteristically bawdy. "An old man is having trouble getting an erection," he said shortly after walking onstage clutching an acoustic guitar. "He goes to the doctor and he tells him the story, 'I can't sustain an erection. I've tried Viagra. I've tried it all, like jellybeans. Nothing.' Doctor says, 'You may be beyond medical help, but there's a gypsy around the corner. Go around to her and tell her this.' The gypsy listens and she says, 'Take this vial, and when the time comes, sprinkle it a little bit where it counts and say: "One, two, three." And then it's Washington Monument, Louisville Slugger time. But it's only going to work once.' The guy goes, 'Great, great. How do I get it back down?' 'That's easy, say, "One, two, three, four." It's going to go down.' The guy runs home, all excited, sees his wife and tells her to get into bed. He hops in, gets his clothes off and sprinkles a little bit on and says, 'One, two, three.' His wife goes, 'I don't get it, what's the 'One, two,three for?'"

Thankfully for the large audience of rock fans, military vets and deep-pocketed benefactors, there were far better jokes throughout the three-hour show. This was the seventh annual Stand Up for Heroes benefit, and the biggest one yet. ABC News reporter Bob Woodruff and his wife Lee put the first one together at New York's Town Hall in 2007, a little more than a year and a half after a roadside bomb in Iraq left him in a coma for 36 days. He awoke with an intense desire to help injured soldiers returning home from war, and they've raised $16 million for the Bob Woodruff Foundation through these annual benefits, which always attract the biggest names in comedy. Springsteen has played all of them, and Waters has participated in the last two. The event is part of New York Comedy Festival, and Caroline's on Broadway founder Caroline Hirsch plays a crucial role in putting it all together.

After introductory remarks by the Woodruffs and a stirring rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner," Stewart kicked off the night with a mini-set focused on subjects familiar to anyone who has watched The Daily Show in recent weeks. "They always say the Democrats are playing checkers and the Republicans are playing chess," he said in a hysterical bit about the troubled Affordable Care Act website. "But right now the Republicans are playing chess and the Democrats are in the nurse's office because they glued their balls to the inside of their thigh. That is the one injury that I have had."

He then handed the mic over to Bill Cosby, who sat on a chair and delivered a 20-minute (occasionally rambling) set focused almost entirely on his epic fights with his parents and siblings while growing up in Philadelphia. "I'll tell you now, after reading the Bible, I sided with Cain," he said. "The whole time through that story I just kept saying, 'I'm with you, brother.'" The only time he deviated from the childhood tales was when somebody in the audience interrupted a joke. "Let me tell my story," he said. "I don't care what war you were in, you will behave when I'm talking. I was in the service way before you guys were born. I was there when there was no guns. We just dug a hole and yelled at each other."

Jim Gaffigan came up next, and devoted his 10-minute set largely to food and self-depreciating fat jokes. "I just want to eat something healthy," he said. "I recently saw an apple and for a moment, just a moment, I didn't recognize it. I was like, 'What is that? Oh, it's an apple! It's so weird to not see it in a pie.' No one really wants fruit. It's a bunch of work. You got to wash it and peel off that sticker that Al Qaeda put on there. It's too much work. Some people make the gathering of fruit into an activity, 'Why don't we go apple picking?' Because I'd rather die."

Jerry Seinfeld was the final comedian of the night, and he killed with a 15-minute routine that dealt with his standard topics of raising children, dealing with his wife and the awkwardness of public bathrooms. "My daughter is having a birthday party tomorrow," he said. "Do you find that other people's children never look quite right? 'Is that boy's head supposed to look like that? He's a melon-head.' Then the parents come to pick him up and it's, 'Oh, they're melon-heads too. It's just a big melon-head family.'"

Waters played with a small band of veterans last year, but this year he assembled 20-plus soldiers who joined up with a handful of members of his touring band, including guitarist G.E. Smith and keyboardist Jon Carin. Waters is as anti-war as they come, but he's always a strong supporter of the troops and he's spent weeks organizing this four-song set, even going down to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington D.C. to meet wounded soldiers and form a unique rock orchestra. There was a huge choir, three drummers (one of whom had one arm, but didn't miss a beat) a bassist, about six acoustic guitarists and many others. They all blended together seamlessly.

Waters grabbed an acoustic guitar and sat on the side of the stage, allowing 22-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Timothy Donley, who lost both legs and part of his right arm in Afghanistan, to sing a rousing rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." This is a song that's been dusted off for a lot of benefits over the years. Adam Sandler even mocked the tradition at the 12/12/12 Hurricane Sandy benefit last year, but Donley sang his heart out and made the familiar tune feel fresh again. He deserved the huge standing ovation.

John Lennon's "Imagine" was the next selection, and Waters handled the lead vocals. "This is one of the songs that I suggested for this concert," he said. "I sent it to the guys through Bob and Lee Woodruff. I wasn't entirely sure they would want to do this." It's easy to understand his hesitation. "Imagine" has been called the "socialist national anthem" and it's certainly anti-war, but a good song is malleable and can mean different things at different times. At this show, it felt like everybody (onstage and off) was imaging a world where these brave soldiers didn't have to go overseas and return home with devastating injuries.

Some people in the audience were yelling out "Pink Floyd!" by this point, but the set continued with Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." Waters switched over the bass for this, and former Marine JW Cortes belted out the civil rights-era tune with incredible passion and intensity. He sounded like a mixture of Marvin Gaye and John Legend, absolutely stunning most everyone in the room.  The Pink Floyd fans were finally satisfied when Waters dug out "Comfortably Numb" for the finale. Donley handled the David Gilmour vocal parts, and the famous guitar solo was impressively replicated, though nobody does it like Gilmour.

There were a lot of Springsteen fanatics in the audience and calls of "Brooooooce" filled the hall about a minute after Waters and his band left the stage. (Fun fact: Springsteen has made fewer U.S. live appearances in 2013 than any year in his career, going all the way back to 1965.) After telling his erectile dysfunction joke, he played a barn-burning solo-acoustic "Dancing in the Dark" and followed it up with a joke about an "Amazonian" prostitute named Hurricane Tessie that farts on men and spanks them. It was weird. Patti Scialfa came out for a tender duet on "If I Should Fall Behind," and then Springsteen sat at the pump organ for a stirring"Dream Baby Dream." Pre-recorded guitars, synths and strings kicked in midway through, and Springsteen stood up and  poured himself into every word of the Suicide cover, before quietly ending it back on the pump organ.

They were dangerously closed to the 11 p.m. curfew after Springsteen's brief set, so Brian Williams quickly rushed onstage to help auction off one of Springsteen's electric guitars. As Bruce strummed out the bluesy chords to "Mystery Train" on the instrument, a bidding war broke out in the audience. When the price hit $140,000, Springsteen sweetened the pot by tossing in an hour of personal guitar lessons. That sped up the process, and at $230,000 Springsteen added an invitation to watch him record at his home studio. That was enough to get an extra $20,000, and a gray-haired man in a leather jacket won the entire package for a quarter of a million dollars.

The cost of going over curfew at MSG is apparently $10,000 a minute (one hopes they make an exception for this event), so as soon as the auction wrapped Bob and Lee Woodruff ran out to quickly thank everybody and wave goodbye. It's unclear when Springsteen will perform an American show again, but he'll certainly be back for Stand Up for Heroes again next year. Maybe they'll even upgrade it to the arena at Madison Square Garden by then.

From www.rollingstone.com

Roger Waters Stand Up For Heroes 2013

"Roger Waters and more paid tribute to the sacrifices of our military members at The Bob Woodruff Foundation and New York Comedy Festival Production's "Stand Up for Heroes" benefit at New York City's Madison Square Garden.

Waters performed Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," accompanied by a group of injured soldiers who are also musicians"

Rock Legend Roger Waters Teams Up With Wounded Veterans

Pink Floyd musician teams up with Musicorps to help Army vets rock and roll.
11/11/2013

Breaking News

Roger Waters 'Absolutely Determined to Make Another Album'

By PATRICK FLANARY
NOVEMBER 6,2013



More than 20 years since making a rock concept record, Roger Waters tells Rolling Stone he has finished a song for an album tentatively titled Heartland. Completed on lunch breaks during the elaborate Wall tour that ended in July, the untitled song confronts what Waters calls "religious extremism."

"I'm not sure what it will be called," Waters said in an interview Monday in Manhattan, where he will perform at the Bob Woodruff Foundation's Stand Up for Heroes benefit, part of this week's New York Comedy Festival. "I'll tell you what the first line is – I haven't told anyone else, and I may be sticking my head too far above the parapet – but the first line is, 'If I had been God . . . '"

Waters, who last referenced God outright on 1992's Amused to Death in the three-part song "What God Wants," said this song was just what he needed to move forward with Heartland.

"The Heartland idea sort of came from another song I wrote maybe 15 years ago, or longer even, which was a song that I wrote for a movie – a really, really bad movie called Michael that was about an angel," Waters said. "I'm absolutely determined to make another album. And I think this new song may give me the chance to do that. It provides a cornerstone and a core idea for me to write a new album about. You know, it's just one of my obsessions, which is, I'm sort of obsessed with the idea that religious extremism is a maligned factor in most of our lives."

Waters' other obsessions – themes of battlefield bloodshed, threatened liberty, isolation and madness – have advanced much of his solo work beyond Pink Floyd, though he confirmed his next album will not feature former bandmates David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason. Waters last recorded with the group, excluding Richard Wright, on 1983's anti-war opus, The Final Cut.

That album opened with "The Post War Dream," the idea of which "is somewhat in tatters" in the real world, Waters said. "But having said that, it is developing in other parts of the world . . . We are determined to continue to fight against the onslaught, if you like, of a society driven mad by the headlong rush to maximize the bottom line."

Long known for his condemnation of war yet strong devotion to troops worldwide, Waters will rehearse with a band of wounded veterans he recruited from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center prior to Hurricane Sandy. Eight soldiers and three Marines will join him for three songs, including Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," at Thursday's Stand Up for Heroes benefit at Beacon Theatre, which will also include performances from Bruce Springsteen and John Mayer.

"These guys are good," Waters said of his recruits. "I'm really proud to be working with them."

From www.rollingstone.com

Rogers Waters Returns to Benefit for Wounded

NEW YORK November 6, 2013 (AP)
By JOHN CARUCCI Associated Press



Their faces are young and strong, but their bodies sit in wheelchairs or stand on artificial limbs.

They laugh and smile as Roger Waters holds court in a rehearsal hall. The wounded servicemen are waiting to rehearse their set with the former Pink Floyd frontman ahead of Wednesday's "Stand Up for Heroes," the annual fund raising benefit that supports wounded veterans through the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

They are excited for the chance to perform with the rock great, but these young men are not the only ones with admiration in their eyes.

"I feel a great sense of empathy for the people that live on the sharp end of conflicts and the ones that actually get injured," said the 70-year old Waters at Monday's rehearsal. "I get so much more out of it than I put into it."

Throughout his long career, Waters has written music about victims of conflict, with both "The Wall" and "The Final Cut" having a direct connection to war (he lost his father in World War II, and his grandfather in the first World War).

Last year, he played a touching version of his seminal "Wish You Were Here" while accompanied by 14 wounded soldiers he met at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Waters wants to do his part to help returning veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts because he feels that all too often, they fall through the cracks.

"I'm not a U.S. citizen, but I pay taxes here, and I wish a far greater percent of my tax dollars went to look after these guys," Waters said.

He joins Bruce Springsteen (who's performed at every one of the benefits), "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart, Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld and other guests.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation was started by the 52-year old ABC journalist after he was seriously injured by an improvised explosive device while covering the war in Iraq in 2006. The foundation helps returning veterans and their families reintegrate with society.

"I never imagined any of this when I woke up out of that coma," Woodruff said. "You wake up in the hospital happy to be alive, but then realize we're not the same anymore."

He added: "I wanted to create a way to help these guys because this was a new kind of war."

Not long after, he was approached by Caroline Hirsch, who made the "Stand Up for Heroes" benefit a part of her yearly New York Comedy Festival.

She said she was proud to do it.

"These soldiers will be coming back and need to be taken care of for the rest of their lives; we cannot forget what they have done for us," Hirsch said.

Stand Up For Heroes

From abcnews.go.com

Touching moment Pink Floyd star visits World War II cemetery in Italy to honour his soldier father who died in heroic final stand

By NICK PISA
PUBLISHED: 10 October 2013



Roger Waters' father Eric died in Italy in the closing stages of the war

He made an emotional journey to the battlefield where his father died

Pink Floyd star was just five months when his father was killed in action

Lt Waters' name is on a memorial at Cassino but remains were never found

Roger Waters said his father died because of foolhardy generals in songs he recorded

This is the touching moment Pink Floyd star Roger Waters visits a cemetery near where his soldier father died in the final months of World War II.
Eric Fletcher Waters was serving as a second lieutenant with the Royal Fusiliers as they advanced through Italy in 1944 when he was killed in action.
His newborn son Roger was aged just five months when he was killed on the battlefield near Cassino.
Earlier this year, the Pink Floyd musician made an emotional journey to visit the battlefield where his father was killed along with thousands of other Allied troops.
He was able to pinpoint the exact spot where he died and also visited a graveyard where his death is marked on a memorial.
The second lieutenant's remains were never found.

Graveside: Roger Waters of Pink Floyd visits a cemetery in Cassino, Italy, as he makes an emotional journey to visit the battlefield where his father was killed along with thousands of other Allied troops

A war diary belonging to Pink Floyd star Roger Waters' father has been uncovered by a fellow soldier (pictured) the Waters family while father Eric was serving in the Royal Fusiliers

Now, War Diary documents unearthed at the National Archives in Kew by former veteran Harry Shindler, paint a clear picture of the final 24 hours of Lt Waters and the brave men of Z company (coy) who were with him at Anzio in February 1944.

The first line dated February 17 records how at 11am 'intensive shelling and mortaring' took place in the area where Lt Waters, commanding officer John Oliver-Bellasis and the rest of Z company as they tried to advance on a heavily defended German position.

Later in the day, an entry timed 1745, describes colourfully how the Germans called on Lt Waters and his comrades to give up: 'Z coy reported an attack on the left forward platoon. The bosche called on them to surrender but were answered with all available SA (semi automatic) fire. Casualties were inflicted.

The diary, which documents dramatic dispatches from Mr Waters' time in service

Just over an hour later, the entry adds: 'Situation well in hand, enemy decided to withdraw. 'Prisoners from Z coy said they had recently marched from Rome and were told they would not be used in an attack. Had also been told that b'head was almost finished.'

The report goes on to record a quiet night but then in the early hours of the morning at 1.45am, the day Lt Waters was killed, describes an 'enemy concentration reported on the rt of 7th Oxf & Bucks, which is followed by an entry at 0630 of how the Oxf and Bucks troops are being attacked 'and sounds of tracked vehilces heard to their front.'

At 7.15am 'Z coy reported attack by approx 50 Bosches. Successfully dealt with.' More than two hours later at 0945am it adds: '5 enemy killed and several spandaus captured as result of above.' Then 30 minutes later the battle which will claim Lt Waters life begins.

On the offensive: This picture shows troops landing in Anzio, on the Italian coast, in 1944

It reads: 'Further attack on Z coy. This time in greater strength than previous attack. Enemy in close contact with forward positions. Unable to send assistance as Z coy having trouble on their rt.'

An hour later the Diary records: 'Z coy reported enemy all round their positions, very stiff fighting going on.' Then at 1130am the final report reads: 'Lt Waters killed and Lt Hill wounded, situation now critical. Message received over air that assistance would now be too late.'

Lt Waters was killed in the first wave of fighting as the Allies attempted to secure the beach head at Anzio, south of Rome. 

Lt Waters name is on a memorial at the nearby Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Cassino but his remains were never found.

Eric Waters' death provided the inspiration for several songs and it is commemorated in particular with When The Tigers Broke Free, which also appeared in the film The Wall.

In the song, Waters describes how he feels that his 31-year-old father died because of foolhardy generals.

The last verse has the lyrics 'It was dark all around. There was frost in the ground When the tigers broke free. And no one survived  From the Royal Fusiliers Company Z. They were all left behind, Most of them dead.

'The rest of them dying. And that's how the High Command Took my daddy from me.'

He also describes coming across a letter of condolence from George V as he tried on his father's uniform, adding how he found it disturbing that it was rubber-stamped and not actually signed.

After visiting the cemetery at Cassino in March, Waters, 70, told a local Italian TV station: 'I'm on a journey through Europe, my grandfather was killed in 1916 and my father was killed down the road in Anzio. This is the end of my journey.

'Some of my past is in my music and so is my future. I'm making a film that won't be aired in public.'

Speaking of his father, Waters recalled in an interview his childhood and how his father's death had affected him. He said: 'When men in uniform came to collect their children, that's when I realised I didn't have a father anymore.

'I was very angry. It took me years to come to terms with it. Because he was missing in action, presumed killed, until quite recently I expected him to come home. The sacrifice of his life has been a great gift and a great burden to me.'

The film and album The Wall tells the story of how a troubled rock star called Pink, who is said to be Waters, is left psychologically scarred by the loss of his father in the war. The film opens with scenes of a solider - Eric Waters - along with his comrades, storming a beachhead.

Mr Shindler, 93, a veteran who fought in Italy during Word War Two and is in charge of the Itay Star Association which represents former soldiers, said: 'I started to dig around on the story when I saw a report of this man on the TV. 

'I was very moved that he wanted to find out more about his father's death and the circumstances of how he was killed. I don't know who Pink Floyd are, my music stops at The Beatles.

'The report describes the events leading up to his father's death and how they were surrounded and outnumbered but despite putting on a brave fight their was nothing they could do.'

Mr Shindler adds that he had been in touch with Roger Waters agent but had no direct contact with the musician who recently completed a successful tour of Europe.

On his official website Waters has posted a tribute to his father and urged fans to send in photos and stories of their 'Fallen Loved Ones'.

He writes it 'is a request, from me, reaching out to ask you to provide a photograph and personal details of a "Loved One" lost in war. Your "Loved One’s" pictures and details would be included, along with those of my father Eric, in my up coming show THE WALL, as an act of remembrance. The "Fallen Loved One" does not have to have been a soldier. Civilian deaths are equally, if not more, harrowing.

'I make this request to you in light of my belief that many of these tragic losses of life are avoidable. I feel empathy with the families of all the victims and anger at "THE POWERS THAT BE", who are responsible, in equal measure. Please join me in honouring our dead and protesting their loss.'

From www.dailymail.co.uk

  

A note from Roger - October 9, 2013

On September 7, 2013, Roger was interviewed by Alon Hadar for the magazine accompanying Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.  The article can be read here. Below is an open letter to the editor from Roger. The transcription that is referred to was pulled from a video recording of the nearly 90-minute on-the-record conversation between Roger and Alon.

To the Editor

Dear Sir,

I do not read Hebrew so I have had to wait for a translation of the article your paper printed on Wednesday, 18th September, based upon an interview I did with Alon Hadar in Amsterdam the previous week.

Without wishing to fan the flames, I feel I owe it to my fans in Israel to correct the record on a number of points.

The article was a serious distortion of the actual interview I gave.

Both questions and answers were changed. I can only assume to suit an editorial agenda.

The measured, reasonable and humane conversation that Alon and I had in Amsterdam was intended as a way for me to communicate with my Israeli fans, to explain my position on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), to break down Walls, and shed light on possible misunderstandings and our shared predicament. It has been re-written as a combative, ill-natured, dog-fight. It appears, with all its distortions and untruths, to want to maintain the status quo, alienate me from my fans in Israel and retreat from any consideration of the position that all the peoples of the region deserve to live in peace and justice with equal rights for all under the same laws, irrespective of color, race or religion. I have today received and studied a transcript of the interview I gave. The thing that is most strikingly different between the actual interview and what you printed in your magazine is that you have rewritten all the questions. It is very shoddy journalism to hold up to be real, what is in fact, a fabrication. I attach a link to the transcript at the end of this letter, should your readers and my Israeli fans wish to know what really happened, and what was really said.

As for the article itself, the editorial content is littered with misinformation. As you know, I have an agreement with your paper that I have copy approval of my quotes. When I finally got an English translation of the article, even though there was very little time before you went to press, I sat up half the night trying to correct some of the worst errors. You largely ignored my input.

I intend no pettiness or rancor, but will mention two specific untruths.  Firstly, the article claims that I am constantly contacting other musicians trying to persuade them not to perform in Israel.  It’s simply not so. I have never written to Elton John or Rihanna. In fact, I have made no specific approach to anyone except Stevie Wonder, about an IDF fundraiser in Los Angeles, and Alicia Keys. There is one other Englishman, but my letter to him was in confidence and will remain so. That’s it. To their credit, Elvis Costello, and many others, supported BDS before me.

It is true I have recently written an open letter to my Colleagues in Rock and Roll declaring my support for BDS and asking them as a group to join the movement. We are attempting peacefully, through BDS, to encourage your government to change its colonial and apartheid policies.

There are many other distortions and untruths.  I shall mention but one more of them. Alon asked me what I would like to say to Benjamin Netanyahu. In my reply I suggested, that based on his record, it seemed unlikely he would be the one to negotiate a just peace and that he might better spend his time looking for ‘The One,’ the one who might be Israel’s ‘de Klerk.’

For anyone who may not know: F.W. de Klerk was the last white president of South Africa and is best known for brokering the end of apartheid, and supporting the transformation of South Africa into a multi-racial democracy by entering into the negotiations that resulted in all citizens, including the country's black majority, having equal rights. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, along with Nelson Mandela, for his part in ending apartheid in South Africa. To be clear, I’m suggesting that Israel, like South Africa in the past, needs a leader who is prepared to negotiate a just and lasting peace based on equal rights.

I attach a translation of this letter in Hebrew and here is a link to a transcript of the whole on-the-record conversation I had with Alon in Amsterdam.  http://rogerwaters.com/interview/

With respect,

Yours truly,

Roger Waters

From www.facebook.com/roger-waters-the-wall

Roger Waters The Wall Live 2013 - Amsterdam ArenA 08.09.2013

Ça ira | Götaplatsen

Publicerad 14 augusti 2013

Gabriel Byström

OPERA
Ça ira
Götaplatsen
Roger Waters, berättare
Göteborgs Symfoniker
Rick Wentworth, dirigent
Sångsolister: Sally Matthews, Bryan Hymel, Christian van Horn och Oren Gradus och Richard Söderberg
Brunnsbo Musikklasser, barnkör
Göteborgs Symfoniska Kör

Bild: Lisa Irvall

I tisdags invigdes Göteborgs kulturkalas. På Götaplatsen framfördes Roger Waters opera Ça ira. En utmärkt inledning på ett kalas som tagit åtskilliga steg i rätt riktning, konstaterar Gabriel Byström.

Göteborgs kulturkalas har genomgått en metamorfos de senaste åren. Från att ha varit ett langosdoftande träsk utan annan kulturell ambition än att locka så många som möjligt till trakterna runt Avenyn finns här idag en bredd och åtminstone glimtvis ett djup som är värt att framhålla. I ett kulturpolitiskt perspektiv är det viktigt för konsten att finna nya gränssnitt, nya kontaktytor. Så har ambitionerna med svensk kulturpolitik sett ut sedan 1974 även om det alltför sällan gett konkreta resultat.

Så, när stadens kulturkalas väljer en konsertant version av en tämligen perifer nyskriven opera som invigningsarrangemang på Götaplatsen måste det betraktas som ett stort steg fram. Låt vara att omständigheterna rörande initiativet är något dunkla. En lätt påstruken Roger Waters skriver, påhejad av Live Nations mäktige vd Thomas Johansson, ett par rader på en bordsduk riktade direkt till Anneli Hulthén. En tid senare står över 200 personer på en jättelik scen på Götaplatsen och framför en milt nedskalad Ça ira (Waters hade kapat 35 minuter). Tisdagens konsertant bidrar givetvis till att öka intresset för lördagens konsert/föreställning av The Wall på Ullevi, vilket den drivne Thomas Johansson självklart är medveten om. Å andra sidan, för alla som inte vill lägga upp de åtskilliga hundralappar för The Wall innebar Ça ira en möjlighet att få lyssna på Roger Waters musik och dessutom se den snart 70-årige Pink Floyd-ikonen på scen (Waters agerar berättare i en bekväm läderfåtölj på scen) under närmare två timmar.

Ça ira utspelar sig vid tiden före och under franska revolutionen. Librettot skrevs ursprungligen av makarna Etienne och Nadine Roda-Gil i samband med 200-årsfirandet av franska revolutionen 1989. Via gemensamma bekanta introducerades Etienne och Nadine Roda-Gil och Roger Waters för varandra. Under 90-talet började Waters komponera musik till operan. Inte förrän 2005 kunde den emellertid höras på cd och live. Uruppförandet ägde rum i Rom, på cd finns den i en utomordentlig version med bland andra den walesiska superstjärnan Bryn Terfel i en av de ledande rollerna.

Roger Waters arbetar som alltid konceptuellt. Ça ira (ungefär ”det ska gå”) skildrar delar av revolutionen. Ångesten hos Ludvig XVI och Marie Antoinette när revolutionens kraft börjar bli uppenbar. Drottningens oförstående inför hungern. Påven som inte vill se mänskliga rättigheter. Operans titel är hämtad från en känd revolutionsvisa med samma namn. Waters poängterar i intervjuer frihetstemat och dess allmängiltighet. Han vill peka på möjligheten till förändring. Och den som följt honom ser och hör paralleller till åtskilligt av vad han gjort tidigare även om operagenren är delvis ny (rockoperan The Wall finner fortfarande nya lyssnare och kommer att dra bortåt 40 000 på lördag men renodlad opera är otrampad mark för Waters).

Musikaliskt rör sig Ça ira i en djupt romantisk tradition, Roger Waters har alldeles uppenbart lyssnat och inspirerats mycket av framförallt Puccini under arbetet. Mest imponerar den brittiska sopranen Sally Matthews med sin närvaro, klangliga precision och förmåga att gestalta spänningen mellan styrka och sårbarhet. Imponerar gör också den kraftfulle amerikanske tenoren Bryan Hymel. Och givetvis Symfonikerna som skickligt balanserar patetiken. Det finns snarare en nyfikenhet i tolkningen, en vilja att lyfta fram, att se grundmaterialets möjligheter. Där Waters målar med den allra bredaste penseln arbetar Symfonikerna under Rick Wentworths ledning med mer subtila medel och med den självklara auktoritet orkestern utvecklat.

Riktigt besvärande blir det bara en gång, när operan förläggs till den franska kolonien Saint-Domingue i Karibien och det allvarsamt romantiska tonspråket ersätts av något som eventuellt ska föreställa sprittande karibiska rytmer. Tenoren Richard Söderberg gör vad han kan för att väcka liv i något som knappast ens kan ha svängt på idéstadiet. Djupt obehagligt.

Annars är detta, trots bitande kyla, hotfulla moln och upprepade åskknallar, en imponerande utomhusafton. Närmare två timmar så gott som nyskriven opera med landets nationalorkester och flera solister av hög klass. Därtill påfallande många nyfikna göteborgare.

ÄMNET

Roger Waters opera Ça ira som i tisdags kväll invigde Kulturkalaset på Götaplatsen.

SKRIBENTEN

Gabriel Byström är kulturchef. Skrev senast om Bradley Manning och Edward Snowden.

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Roger Waters servett-brev till Anneli Hulthén

Publicerad 13 augusti 2013

Daniel Olsson

På en tygservett från en finare Sydney-restaurang skrev rockikonen Roger Waters till kommunstyrelsens ordförande Anneli Hulthén:
"My Dear Mayor!"

Bild: Göteborgs stad

Det är troligen en av de märkligare allmänna handlingar som kommit in till Göteborgs stadsledningskontor. Det tar också nästan en vecka för registraturen att finna handlingen, men i morse återfanns den:

Tygservetten i vitt bomullstyg mäter 50x52 cm där rocklegenden och Pink Floyd-grundaren Roger Waters frågar Anneli Hulthén om inte han kan få arrangera kvällens egenskrivna opera Ça Ira på Götaplatsen.

"Brevet", som kom för två år sedan gick inte att skanna in så den sändes vidare till Anneli Hulthéns kontor, där den blev kvar.

Nu finns den diarieförd som "Post till politiker och kommunalråd" och under benämningen "Förslag på evenemang".

– Den fick inte plats i scannern så jag fick fota av den med min mobiltelefon, säger Maria Janås, registrator vid Göteborgs stadsledningskontor.

Hon bedömer servetten som kommande från en finare restaurang.

"My dear Mayor!" inleds "brevet", i Roger Waters karaktäristiskt spretiga handstil. Och han fortsätter med att berätta att han precis fått höra talas om Göteborgs symfoniorkester och stadens återkommande "festival".

I dagens GP säger Roger Waters i en intervju att det var under en middag med Live Nations Thomas Johansson som Göteborgs kulturkalas kom på tal.

– Jag måste varit lite full under tillfället, men jag skrev tydligen ett brev till borgmästaren på duken, sa Roger Waters till GP.

Fakta: Så lyder texten i sin helhet

"My Dear Mayor!

My old friend Thomas, well he´s not that old! But you know what I mean! Happened to mention that Göteborg has not only the best Symphony Orchestra in Sweden but also a great annual festival. Also that he might persuade you to consider a semi staged concert version of my opera "CA IRA" (There is Hope) for inclusion. Should that happen, I would be very happy. Thank you for your consideration!

Roger Waters

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