“If you’re here because you like Pink Floyd but can’t stand Roger Waters politics: fuck off to the bar.” This text appears before the start of each concert in the new, received with rave reviews roger waters tour, This is not a Drill. In the German city of Frankfurt, where the vocalist was supposed to perform in May, Waters’ message (79) will not be read: the city council and the state of Hesse labeled him “one of the most influential anti-Semites in the world” and canceled his performance for that reason. Water’s reply:Fuck ’em”.
The fact that the former Pink Floyd bassist and rock legend has been a political radical from the very beginning has been known since his emergence in the 1960s. Along with his progressive psychedelic rock sound, his politics are the most defining aspect of his hugely popular body of work. His public performances and often experimental musical works are interspersed with furious, anti-anarchistic criticism of big business, Israel, American interventionism and the education system, among others.
Voice of a generation
„We don’t need no education”, „There is no dark side of the Moon really […] it’s all dark” and “Sitting in a bunker here behind my wall, waiting for the worms to come”: these are lyrics that have been sung by countless fans over the past five decades. The views and music of Waters and Pink Floyd were considered the vanguard of hippie culture in the 1960s and long after: contrary and progressive. To many, he was the voice of an aggrieved and politically engaged generation. Conservatives denounced Pink Floyd’s pacifism.
In 2023, Waters has by no means lost his contrariness. During a tour more than a decade ago, Waters levitated a gigantic pig – a left-wing symbol for wealthy capitalists – over his audience. It included the Shell logo and the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union, but also a Star of David chalked on. It led to criticism, which Waters dismissed. He strongly denies allegations of anti-Semitism; according to Waters, the problem is the state of Israel, not Jews themselves. While some people of Jewish descent in the United States and the United Kingdom bear responsibility for Israel’s “apartheid” regime, “particularly because they pay for everything”.
Waters seems to have caught up with time, Rolling Stones journalist James Ball reflects with a heavy heart in a disclaimer of almost fifteen minutes, ahead of a high-profile interview with Waters in October 2022. In it, he and Waters are at each other’s throats several times. It turns out that Waters’s condemnation of American interventionism, which in its early years was still aimed at the Vietnam War, among other things, now also includes Western support for Ukraine.
Hawks in Washington
On March 9, about two weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, cried Waters to a ceasefire. Waters denounced the war as a “criminal mistake, the action of a gangster,” referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin. But immediately after his Russia critique, Waters aims his arrows at the West: “I am sorry that Western governments are fueling the fire that will destroy your beautiful country by supplying weapons to Ukraine, instead of conducting the diplomacy necessary to to stop the massacre.” The American “gangster hawks” in Washington, wrote Waters, enjoy the “bravery of being out of range“, a reference to the Pink Floyd hit of that name. The message: American politicians who support Ukraine only dare to show courage because they are not in danger.
Fans who hoped at the time that Waters would moderate his stance or, exceptionally, support US foreign policy, were disappointed. Waters spoke at the invitation of Russia at the beginning of last month expressed roughly the same position to the United Nations General Assembly: the invasion is illegal and Putin is a villain, but the West is just as bad. In Waters’s eyes, the West has been guilty of exactly the same imperialist attitude for years, from Vietnam to Iraq. Last spring, Waters already lashed out at his former Pink Floyd colleagues, with whom he has been at odds for years, because they had organized a benefit concert for Ukraine.
So far, only the Frankfurt city council has an appearance in the This is not a Drilltour cancelled, calling already German politicians in other cities also to cancel Waters shows. Waters will perform three nights in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam at the beginning of April. The Center for Information and Documentation Israel calls Waters a “disgusting man”, and calls on concert organizer Mojo to “keep a close eye on” the concerts. Mojo says Waters shows ‘for musical reasons’, which does not mean that the company stands by its statements. Furthermore, Mojo has not received any complaints about Waters, so he will also refer his ‘fake fans’ who do not fully support his politics to the bar in the Ziggo Dome.