Roger Waters would ‘do something like Pink Floyd’s Live 8 gig in a heartbeat’ but says there would be ‘difficulties’

Though their appearance at Live 8 would be Pink Floyd‘s last performance together, bassist Roger Waters remained open to a reunion.

The founding member would confirm he would have signed on for something similar to the twenty-minute set the band played at the charity event, but anything else would have “difficulties” attached. Waters spoke highly not just of the show but of fellow bandmates David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright in interviews to follow the show. A reunion may no longer be possible given Wright’s death, but Waters had hoped to get back on stage with his ex-bandmates for another show. The band turned down a lucrative $250million offer to tour together, but a one-off show was an agreeable middle ground. Waters suggested he would be open to reuniting with Gilmour, Mason, and Wright at the time, though the opportunity never arose.

Even if the band were to get back together, Waters suggested there would be some difficulties that could make a performance impossible. He told Word Magazine: “I would do something else (like Live 8) in a heartbeat — but if it was for anything more than a few songs, then I think there would be difficulties.”

Not only had Waters been interested in further reunion events, he said the Live 8 show was a fantastic experience. He added: “Oh it was terrific. I really loved it. I hope we do it again. It was more than good.

“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.” No such plan came to be and the band has yet to perform since their twenty-minute set at Live 8.

But Waters says it would need to be another “good reason” to get back together if they were to take to the stage. He added: “A good reason. I don’t know. Something with a political or charitable connection. 

“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.”

Waters did not reveal why the offer was turned down but it may have something to do with the lack of a charitable angle associated with the performance. The bassist has toured as a solo artist in the years since Pink Floyd’s Live 8 reunion, as has Gilmour.

The Live 8 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.”