A tour which inspired The Wall left Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters feeling “seriously deranged”.
The bassist confirmed the tour had left him feeling dreadful, and he shared a particularly “awful” part of the show, which appears to have nearly pushed him over the edge. Dismissing stadium gigs, Waters shared how the experiences of the 1977 Pink Floyd tour inspired him to write The Wall. The double album is now considered one of the best in the band’s discography, but it appears to have been sparked by a mental strain on Waters. The bassist has been clear on his disdain for touring stadium shows in the past, and shared as much in an interview where he explained how a show left him “deranged” and inspired.
He shared with Q Magazine in 1987: “Because after the 1977 tour I became seriously deranged, or maybe arranged, about stadium gigs. Because I do think they are awful. They are about statistics.
“For the public, it seems to me, the enjoyment comes from two things. I think it’s partly that they are in the presence of the legend – whether it’s Bruce Springsteen or another proven brand name doesn’t really matter so long as it’s the presence of someone you can identify as being ‘legendary’.
“There’s also the statistical thing of being able to say, Yeah, there were 85,000 of us here: you couldn’t move. You couldn’t get to the bar. We all had to piss standing up, crushed together. It was fucking great!”
Waters went on to say the talk of statistics was not just in the crowd, but backstage too as the group were worrying about t-shirt sales, ticketing, and smaller details which was detracting from the performance.
He added: “And, of course, onstage and backstage all that’s going on is, Do you know how much we’ve grossed, boys, how many T-shirts we’ve sold? That’s absolutely it. That’s all it’s about – money.
“And you go down in the Guinness Book Of Records for having played before the biggest audiences ever blah-blah-blah. And… oh dear, fuck that, I mean, alright, I can understand that motivation. But I don’t like it.”
Waters has predominantly stuck to arena shows on his most recent tours, though he did reunite with Pink Floyd for a Live 8 charity show. The songwriter enjoyed success as a solo artist also, with his Amused to Death release dubbed the best post-The Wall album of any Pink Floyd member.
A post to Reddit saw fans share their love for the album, with many considering it an unofficial continuation of Pink Floyd’s sound. One user wrote:”It’s my favourite solo Pink Floyd album, albeit a tad long.”
But another user suggested it was too short, and wanted to hear “more of the story” it was creating. Another added: “It’s good, but it’s very Roger. Take that how you want. I would recommend every Pink Floyd fan give it one spin.”
A third added: “It’s Roger’s best solo work, yeah, maybe take out just a couple of songs. I really didn’t know it until the ‘in the flesh” live album came out, and then I bought it, I recommend it listening all the way through on headphones.”
Other users suggested another release from Waters could be slightly better than Amused to Death.
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