Though he has long since embarked on a successful solo career, Roger Waters will always be best known for his 20-year association with prog-rock legends, Pink Floyd. As one of the band’s singers and chief songwriters, as well as being their bassist, he played a key role in making them one of the biggest-selling, most enduring outfits in rock history.
Waters founded Pink Floyd in 1965 along with then lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter Syd Barrett, keyboard player Richard Wright and drummer Nick Mason. They scored with early hits such as ‘See Emily Play’ and ‘Arnold Layne’, before releasing their ground-breaking debut album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. In 1968, Barrett’s deteriorating mental health led to his leaving the band and Waters began to take control along with co-writer, guitarist and singer David Gilmour. They went on to record a series of albums in the 1970s that remain among the most critically-acclaimed and best-selling records of all time. They include classic concept-albums such as Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall, for which Waters wrote almost all the material.
In total, Waters has songwriting credits (solo or shared) on over 70% of Pink Floyd’s entire back catalogue. He is the sole writer of many of their better known hits including ‘Money’ and ‘Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2’ and he penned other key tracks on their Dark Side Of the Moon opus such as ‘Brain Damage’ and ‘Eclipse’ (in a recent interview with Uncut magazine, he claimed he had been too generous with the songwriting credits on Dark Side Of The Moon: “This album is my baby. They were my ideas and I wrote them,” he said, while adding that, “Dave particularly but Rick as well had major important contributions.”)
In 1985, following the poor reception accorded their Final Cut album, the band dissolved citing irreconcilable musical differences. Waters and Gilmour then battled it out in the law courts over the latter’s intention to continue to use the name Pink Floyd. Gilmour succeeded in retaining the name and a version of the band continued to record and tour. Though Pink Floyd have been effectively defunct since their 1995 album, The Division Bell, they continue to enjoy huge popularity thanks to live albums such as Pulse and the more recent compilation, Echoes.
Waters embarked on a solo career, producing concept albums such as, 1984’s The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking, which featured legendary guitarist Eric Clapton. In 1986 he contributed songs to the soundtrack of the movie When the Wind Blows, which he followed in 1987 with another concept album, Radio K.A.O.S., about a boy named Billy who can hear radio waves in his head. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Waters staged a massive charity concert of The Wall in Berlin in the summer of 1990. Featuring many guest superstars, it was at the time the biggest concert ever staged with an attendance of over 300,000 and watched live by over 5 million people worldwide.
In 1999 Waters embarked on his hugely successful In The Flesh tour, which saw him performing some of his most famous work, both solo and Pink Floyd material. The tour was a huge success and such was the demand that it was extended over three years (including an Irish show at Dublin’s Point Theatre).
In July 2005, following the intervention of Bob Geldof, Waters agreed to rejoin his former bandmates David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright for an appearance at Live 8. It was an emotionally memorable moment for millions of Pink Floyd fans, and hopes were high that the band would tour again. However, the musical differences proved to be too deeply embedded and it wasn’t to be. As Waters told Rolling Stone, “I decided that if anything came up in rehearsals – any difference of opinion – I would just roll over. And I did... I didn’t mind rolling over for one day, but I couldn’t roll over for a whole fucking tour.”
In 2005, Waters' opera Ça Ira, was finally completed after 16 years of work and was released as a CD/DVD by Sony Classical, with baritone Bryn Terfel, soprano Ying Huang and tenor Paul Groves. The original libretto was written in French by the late Étienne Roda-Gil, who set the opera during the optimistic days of the early French Revolution.
Waters' 2006 tour, which takes in dates in Europe and the US, promises to be a spectacular affair and a feast for Pink Floyd fans. The first half of the show will be a mix of Floyd classics and Waters solo material, while the second half will feature a complete run-through of the ultimate progressive rock classic, The Dark Side Of The Moon. Elaborate staging, complete with projections and a full 360 degree quadraphonic sound system should make this an unforgettable experience, especially for the growing legion of fans too young to have witnessed Pink Floyd in their heyday. It has also been announced that Waters’ former Pink Floyd bandmate, Nick Mason, will be joining him on some of the tour dates. (Rick Wright had also been invited to participate on the tour as well, but he declined).