Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt. Roger Waters still has three German cities on his Europe-wide agenda for the “This Is Not A Drill Tour”. Outside of Germany, his arena concerts were largely “business as usual”, apart from cancellations in Poland and isolated protests.
The gun smoke of the last few weeks had almost gone.
But now Waters is back on his tour blog. Pictured is the Palestinian girl Hajar Al-bahtini, who was allegedly – according to unconfirmed reports – killed in an Israeli attack last week.
“The persecution of the Palestinians must stop,” writes Waters. “I am being harassed in Germany because I stand up for my brothers and sisters in Palestine. These harassments from Germany are at best mosquito bites…”
He also quotes a line from the book “The Trial” by the (Jewish) poet Franz Kafka.
“Someone must have told lies about Josef K. He knew he had done nothing wrong, but one morning he was arrested.
The beginning of a lengthy argument that Waters builds:
“My case is about lies: I am a Jew-hating anti-Semite and an apologist for Putin who is on the wrong side of the war in Ukraine. And that I should therefore, at least in Germany, be banned from performing my work.
With hot keys, Waters escalates into a furor against “Germany”:
“These slanderous lies have become so ingrained in the German psyche that on Monday, May 8th, in Cologne, at a small demonstration in front of the venue (…), no fewer than eight speakers appeared to To denounce the crowd as monstrous anti-Semites..”
Waters must obviously have burned something under his nails. The exact wording can be found on the “This Is Not a Drill” website. It follows a series of question mark sentences, which also raises the question of the real aggressor in the war against Ukraine and talks about “neo-fascists in Kiev”. Almost one to one the speech of the Kremlin.
Waters quotes from his song “Sheep”, refers to various literary dystopias and presents himself as a harmless “bassist”. rich retro sound, has to let the master teach him otherwise in a final statement that almost bursts with hubris:
“The next stop in Germany is Berlin on May 17 and 18,” writes Waters. “Please come and show your solidarity with all your brothers and sisters around the world. Regardless of your ethnicity, religion or nationality, stand up against Big Brother and the forces of predatory capitalism that are destroying our beautiful planet of homeland.”