What did Pink Floyd play at their closing gig with Roger Waters?

6 September 2023, 17:57

The founding member of the influential British prog band give up after 1983’s The Closing Reduce – however what was the ultimate present he performed with the Floyd?

The historical past of Pink Floyd is filled with twists and turns – significantly in terms of the line-up. Members got here and went throughout the band’s lifetime, usually in controversial circumstances that dwell on to this present day.

The British prog rock giants had been fashioned within the early Sixties when bassist Roger Waters and drummer Nick Mason met at London Polytechnic, nevertheless it was the arrival of frontman Syd Barrett in 1965 that modified their fortunes.

The unique line-up of Barrett, Waters, Mason and keyboard participant Rick Wright made an influential psychedelic album: 1967’s The Piper At The Gates Of Daybreak. Nonetheless, by the point of the next yr’s A Saucerful Of Secrets and techniques, Barrett’s psychological well being had grow to be a priority, that means his contributions had been restricted.

Syd’s issues had been attributed to over-use of LSD and his erratic behaviour meant that by April 1968 he was now not a member – he would get replaced by guitarist David Gilmour and the “basic” Pink Floyd line-up was created.

The quartet of Waters, Gilmour, Wright and Mason would create a number of the most enduring music of the period; from 1971’s Meddle, the vastly profitable Darkish Aspect Of The Moon (1973) and Want You Had been Right here (1975) to the suite of songs on Animals (1977).

Nonetheless, throughout the making of the formidable idea album The Wall in 1979, the connection between Rick Wright and the remainder of the band deteriorated. Friction between Waters and Wright got here to a head and the keyboard participant give up – however was employed as a session musician for the following dwell dates.

The ultimate present with Roger Waters as a full-time member of Pink Floyd was on the finish of the Wall tour, on seventeenth June 1981 at London’s Earls Courtroom. A closing string of 5 dates on the enviornment had been partly supposed to produce footage for the movie model of The Wall, which was in manufacturing by director Alan Parker.

Pink Floyd – Earls Courtroom, London seventeenth June 1981 setlist

Half 1

• Within the Flesh?
• The Skinny Ice
• One other Brick within the Wall, Half 1
• The Happiest Days of Our Lives
• One other Brick within the Wall, Half 2
• Mom
• Goodbye Blue Sky
• Empty Areas
• What Shall We Do Now?
• Younger Lust
• One in all My Turns
• Do not Go away Me Now
• One other Brick within the Wall, Half 3
• The Final Few Bricks
• Goodbye Merciless World

Half 2

• Hey You
• Is There Anyone Out There?
• No one House
• Vera
• Deliver the Boys Again House
• Comfortably Numb
• The Present Should Go On
• Within the Flesh
• Run Like Hell
• Ready for the Worms
• Cease
• The Trial
• Exterior the Wall

After the album The Closing Reduce was launched in March 1983, no touring plans had been introduced for the band, and each Waters and Gilmour introduced they had been engaged on solo tasks.

So, for various years, The Closing Reduce was The Closing Pink Floyd Album. In 1985, Waters resigned as a member of the group, and took the others to court docket to cease any future use of the Pink Floyd, claiming that the band was a “spent power”.

Waters was unsuccessful in placing a cease to Gilmour and Mason’s plan to revive Pink Floyd in 1987, with the album A Momentary Lapse Of Motive. The authorized battle continued for some time, with Waters threatening to sue promoters for utilizing the Pink Floyd title and claiming the usage of an inflatable pig within the band’s reveals was a breach of copyright.

The authorized points had been later labored out and Gilmour and Mason issuing two extra albums underneath the title – The Division Bell (1994) and The Countless River (2014) – however the expertise soured the connection between Gilmour and Waters, with many feedback showing within the press that confirmed the cut up had prompted a deep rift.

It was one thing of a shock, then, in 2015 when the line-up of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason reunited for the epic Dwell 8 present at London’s Hyde Park. A profit present designed to assist world poverty and the follow-up to 1985’s iconic Dwell Help present, it was organiser Bob Geldof’s concept to contact Gilmour with a view to performing. After the guitarist declined, Geldof contacted Mason, who was nonetheless on good phrases with Waters. With Waters on board, it was right down to the bassist to contact Gilmour and an settlement was reached.

Throughout the quick set, Waters claimed that the expertise was “fairly emotional” and that “We’re doing this for everybody who’s not right here, and significantly in fact for Syd.”

Pink Floyd – Dwell 8, Hyde Park 2nd July 2005

• Breathe (Within the Air)
• Breathe (Reprise)
• Cash
• Want You Had been Right here
• Comfortably Numb

Whereas the reunion ignited rumours that Pink Floyd would play extra reveals, Gilmour mentioned that rehearsals for Dwell 8 had satisfied him “it wasn’t one thing I needed to be doing a number of.” And, certainly, the rancour between Roger Waters and David Gilmour nonetheless hasn’t gone away.

In 2023, Waters announce that he was re-recording the basic Darkish Aspect Of The Moon, telling the Each day Telegraph: “I wrote The Darkish Aspect Of The Moon. Let’s do away with all this ‘we’ cr*p! After all, we had been a band, there have been 4 of us, all of us contributed – nevertheless it’s my challenge and I wrote it. So… blah!”