Roger Waters says David Gilmour’s singing during Pink Floyd’s Live 8 reunion was ‘beautiful’

High praise for the legendary guitarist David Gilmour was offered by Roger Waters following their Live 8 performance.

Though the pair may not see eye to eye, the duo has been complementary to one another’s work over the years. Waters, who left Pink Floyd in 1985, would be critical of the band continuing with Gilmour as the frontman but was full of praise for their final performance as a four-piece. Waters, Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright, would reunite at Live Aid in 2005 for a twenty-minute set. Fans praised the set at the time and, twenty years later, it remains a must-watch moment for many listeners. Even Waters was impressed with the group’s efforts, saying there was a “great feeling” about the show which was aided by Gilmour’s “great” singing.

Speaking to Word Magazine, Waters said: “Just pleased. I just felt pleasure, playing the music, and hearing Rick playing his great keyboard parts which of course we know and love so much from the records. It felt good. I thought Nick played great. I thought everybody played great. Dave sang beautifully. It was a great feeling.”

The performance was so great in fact, that Waters suggested it was a moment which rekindled his love for playing to larger crowds. He added: “We have holes in our psychology and performing in front of large numbers of people who enjoy it is obviously part of the point of doing it. And so when it happens, trust me, it feels fantastic.

“It’s something I lost touch with entirely in Pink Floyd, which is why I wrote The Wall and why I left in the end. Since then I’ve started to do tours with my own band and I started to realise that I had allowed myself to let go of the past and just really enjoy – wallow – in that connection with people who know my work and appreciate it.

“We did a big tour in 02 of the Southern Hemisphere, everywhere from Seoul to Santiago. People knew every word to every song and they knew what they meant. They get it like I get Imagine.” Though the show was a success, the four-piece never played together again, an impossibility after Wright’s death in 2009.

The four were offered an allegedly lucrative sum to reunite for a tour, though Waters says the band passed on the offer. Waters confirmed: “If some other opportunity arose, I could even imagine us doing The Dark Side of the Moon again – you know, if there was a special occasion. It would be good to hear it again. Live 8 was so great.

“The day they announced the Pink Floyd were to play Live 8, I went out to dinner with a friend and an offer arrived – literally bang on the dinner table – for the four of us, the Pink Floyd, to tour again. An offer of $250 million. Guaranteed.