Rock music still a platform for protest, says Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, as he talks about Us + Them, his new concert movie
- Waters says he has ‘run up against a huge brick wall’ championing the Palestinian cause, something his new two-hour documentary references
- The film, featuring footage from his 156-date tour that ended in 2018, debuted at the Venice Film Festival. Waters says he rescued it after ‘boring’ first cut
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“Don’t get up,” says Roger Waters, as he enters the Excelsior Hotel. He’s on a whistle-stop trip to the Venice Film Festival, where Us + Them, a concert film of his last lavish 156-date tour, has just had its world premiere. It will be shown in several places around the world, including Hong Kong, on October 2.
Most films of musicians performing on stage are usually denied cinematic exposure, relegated to DVD-only release for ardent fans. But there’s no question Waters’ background as the driving force of mega band Pink Floyd means spectacle comes as a big part of the show.
“A lot of people who haven’t see the concert, they see the Battersea deployment and go, ‘F*** me, how do they do that? Is that a hologram?’,” says Waters.
While he has often used cinema in relation to music – Alan Parker’s 1982 film, The Wall , being a prime example – Us + Them came from a desire to “make a record” of the latest tour on film.
When Waters saw the first cut, however, he was less than happy. “It looked great and it sounded great, but it was unbearably boring.” He went back to the edit suite, ruthlessly ditched seminal track Comfortably Numb, and got it down to two hours.
Us + Them, a reference to one of the songs from Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album, is about more than just Waters’ showmanship. In the background, there is harrowing footage of refugees. Images of Donald Trump also feature.
“It provides context for the songs,” explains Waters, who instructed director Sean Evans to shoot additional material – actually filmed on a beach in Suffolk, England, with actors from Syria, Palestine and North Africa.
“Over the last 12 years or so, I’ve been trying to rally the troops to the cause of the human rights of the Palestinian people, and I’ve run up against just a huge brick wall. They’ve tried to destroy me, the Israeli lobby, AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).”
Does he fear speaking out will lead him into difficulty? “I accept that there are risks involved. Whenever I turn up at immigration in the States, I’m half expecting them to say, ‘U-uh. F*** you! You can’t come in here.’”
On stage, the 76-year-old Waters is still a commanding presence. “It feels like I’m full of p*** and vinegar,” he laughs. “It’s very energising. Obviously when you step onto a stage, you get a huge adrenal rush. But it’s not as easy as I make it look!”
Years of touring have taken their toll. “Because of the loud music for all these years, I’ve sort of destroyed my inner ears and as a consequence, balance is a problem.”
While his acrimonious split from Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has been well documented – the band did reunite in 2005 for the charity Live8 concert – Waters did recently take to the stage to sing vocals for one track for ex-Floyd drummer Nick Mason’s band, Saucerful of Secrets.
Did that make him nostalgic for the old days? “For the old days? F*** no! Urgh! No, no. I love Nick. It was lovely to do. But the old days … f***!”
