Roger Waters recalls moment he took over as Pink Floyd leader following Syd Barrett’s departure

Following the departure of founding member Syd Barrett, Roger Waters found himself in charge of Pink Floyd.

The bassist and songwriter would go on to write and record The Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, and Wish You Were Here with bandmates David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright. But the reigns of leadership for Waters, who would later write The Wall and The Final Cut before finally departing the group in 1985, were not exactly wanted. In an interview given by the Radio K.A.O.S. writer in 1987, Waters suggested his leadership of the group was more out of natural necessity than because of any power-hungry grab. He suggested nobody else in the group had wanted to fill the gap Barrett had left when the group decided to remove him from the band.

Waters also suggested it was around this time that the band stopped seeing one another socially, though he did name one bandmate as a solid friend. He shared: “Yes, It was straight after we had split up with Syd.

“I’m sure you would get arguments about that from the other ‘boys’, but I simply took responsibility, largely because no-one else seemed to want to do it, and that is graphically illustrated by the fact that I started to write most of the material from then on, I’m perfectly happy being a leader. In fact, I know I can be an oppressive personality because I bubble with ideas and schemes, and in a way, it was easier for the others simply to go along with me.

“We rarely used to see each other socially, although I used to get on with Nick Mason alright. For a limited time, in the early days of the group, we did mix socially. Because there is something rather appealing about a group together on the road. But that soon palls. And things like families make sure that cycle comes to an end.”

Waters would take the lead on The Wall, the band’s 1979 double album which appears to have split audiences at the time. It is now regarded as one of the band’s finest achievements, though Gilmour later suggested some material from the album has still not been released.

Gilmour said: “The idea of The Wall was so big and there was such a lot of stuff that Roger wanted to get across lyrically that there was no other way to do it, really. As it was, we had to struggle to get it on a double album.

“The only problem we had was reducing it down from a triple-album to a double-album – the length of songs and all that. Toward the end, we were actually cutting chunks out of songs to fit the time. It’s a long double-album.” It is believed “at least 10%” of The Wall has been cut and remains missing.