Pink Floyd were almost set for a reunion after their one-off Live 8 show, but it never happened because one member refused.
Bassist and songwriter Roger Waters went on the record about who had prevented further shows from coming together in an interview given just six years after the performance. Plans for Pink Floyd to return to the stage had not been made, but tours, residencies, and one-off shows had been offered to The Dark Side of the Moon masterminds. One member refused to get on board with the idea, though, and effectively stopped the classic four-piece of Waters, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright from performing together again.
Waters, in an interview with Classic Rock in 2011, said: “David [Gilmour] didn’t want to do anything at all. Pink Floyd is David Gilmour and Nick Mason. The two of them own the name. I know that after Live 8, David definitely didn’t want to do anything. And that’s fine, it’s okay, not a problem.”
The interviewer went on to ask if Gilmour and Waters had buried the hatchet. Waters replied: “We did. But that doesn’t mean he would want to do a tour with me.” He also expanded on whether he kept in touch with Gilmour and Mason after the shows. Wright passed away in 2008.
“I was estranged for quite some time from Nick Mason after the schism in the band, but we’re now very good friends again and I see him a lot,” Waters said. “David and I were never really good friends, and we’re not good friends now, but we’re not enemies. We have very little in common so don’t see each other socially, but there is no enmity.”
Even the Live 8 show proved difficult, according to Waters, who says Gilmour had initially turned down the chance to reunite with the bassist. He shared in an interview with Radio Bogota: “Well, because he [Geldof] asked Dave and Dave said no. On several occasions… Well, because I was the only person who could have got Dave to do it.”
Though Waters may have convinced the Pink Floyd guitarist to join the line-up, it wouldn’t end that well for the band. Waters would later suggest Gilmour “regretted” taking part in the show as it meant it was Waters’ band once again. The bassist would leave the group in 1985, giving Gilmour nine years as frontman. Though there may be some regret from Gilmour, Waters has said he would happily get back on stage with Pink Floyd if it were possible.
Waters said: “No of course not. I’d do it in a heartbeat. I don’t think Dave wants to do it all. I think he sort of regretted Live 8 a bit, so who knows. Well because it was his band and suddenly it wasn’t any more.
“Suddenly this is what it was, this is the sort of thing it actually is – it’s Dave and Roger and Nick and Rick. And he said afterwards it would have been just the same if Roger hadn’t been there, but it’s not the same.”
