thewall

Roger Waters about to announce a 'Wall' tour

by Klaus Kinski

The Wall

To say I have an eclectic taste in music would be a gross understatement, and I think that sentiment applies to most people these days. But the one band that has remained at the top of my musical heap has been Pink Floyd. Starting in about 1990, I would buy any Pink Floyd related item I could get my hands on. I would spend entire weekends going to every record store in Boston and Cambridge, buying anything and everything I could find. Then eBay opened up a global Pink Floyd market to me and I spiraled out of control. Financial necessity forced me to liquidate a large portion of my collection a few years back and I don’t buy any more stuff, but I’ve still got many prized Floyd items as well as all kinds of CDs, bootlegs, and other rare recorded material. I also still avidly follow anything pertaining to Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Syd Barrett, Rick Wright and, more than anything, Roger Waters.

By far, my favorite member of Pink Floyd is Roger Waters. As far as I’m concerned, when Roger Waters left Pink Floyd, Pink Floyd ceased to legitimately exist as Pink Floyd. Of course, I bought Momentary Lapse of Reason and The Division Bell when they were released. And how could any self-respecting pothead Masshole miss The Division Bell tour when it came to Foxboro Stadium? But those albums didn’t FEEL like Pink Floyd, and I think Roger was being too polite when he called Momentary Lapse of Reason “a pretty fair forgery.” In addition, while David Gilmour and Rick Wright solo records are just plain cheesy and self-indulgent (and don’t get me started on Nick Mason’s wtf-inducing record Fictitious Sports), Roger was always trying to create a larger musical narrative. As a matter of fact, the political and social commentary of Amused To Death is probably more relevant now than it was in 1992.

I saw Roger in 1999, twice in 2000, and twice in 2007 when he was touring Dark Side of the Moon. What’s his next move? On Monday April 12th, 2010 at 2:00pm EST [editor’s note: which is less than an hour from the time this is being posted, though Klaus actually wrote this last week], Roger Waters will be formally announcing a 2010 tour (update: NOW ANNOUNCED) of his epic masterpiece The Wall on his newly designed official website roger-waters.com. For years there has been speculation that this tour would happen eventually, and then a few months ago Roger’s official website went from having Roger Waters content to simply having a Sony Logo on it. I had a feeling then that a redesign was in the works, and that the redesign would no doubt unveil some pretty awesome news.

In the meantime, if you DO want to see a pretty decent forgery of Pink Floyd, check out The Machine on Saturday June 19th on their Rocks Off Boat Cruise. I mean, they’re no Australian Pink Floyd, but they’re still good!

UPDATE: Dates announced.

Klaus hopes he doesn’t sound like this guy….