From giant inflatable pigs to the ancient surroundings of a Pompeii amphitheatre, Pink Floyd, a group who always recognised the power of live performance, and Roger Waters, remains particularly skilled in translating his old band’s expansive studio explorations into captivating real-world performances.
Live performance is the bread and butter of any rock outfit worth their salt, but back in the psychedelic age of the 1960s, more and more groups were following in the footsteps of The Beatles, resigning themselves exclusively to the studio. After all, you can achieve sounds and experiments within the confines of a recording studio that would be virtually impossible to translate onto the stage, particularly back in the 1960s.
With an unending penchant for mind-expanding psychedelic experimentation, you could certainly forgive Pink Floyd if they decided to become a studio-only band, particularly during the Roger Waters years. After all, records like The Dark Side of the Moon altered the musical landscape forever, impacting virtually every concept album and experimental work which arrived after it, but capturing that same spirit in a live show would be an impossibility for most bands. Luckily, Pink Floyd weren’t most bands.
Rather than putting on a lacklustre tour of that iconic record, or simply not touring at all, Floyd dedicated themselves to perfecting a truly spectacular live show, which helped set the standard for virtually every other outfit of their ilk. Despite their seemingly unending arguments and ‘musical differences’, the group seemed to gel onstage like no other, and Roger Waters has maintained that unparalleled knack for live performance, even after his acrimonious departure from Pink Floyd all those decades ago.
That departure was, of course, triggered by the intense conflict between himself and David Gilmour – in fact, even in recent years, the pair have still been at each other’s throats. Waters can at least appreciate the mastery of the songs the pair worked on together. Perhaps most notably, the collaborative effort ‘Wish You Were Here’, from the 1975 album of the same name, still holds a very special place in the songwriter’s heart.
“I kind of love ‘Wish You Were Here’,” Waters shared during an Instagram Q&A back in 2024, highlighting the beloved effort as his favourite track to play live. Seemingly, this enduring appreciation is down to the crowd’s reactions to the song. “Only because I can almost stop singing and, almost wherever I am in the world, particularly the last verse – I ask them, actually. I say, ‘Sing with me’,” the songwriter smiled.
“Then I kind of shut up and let ’em get on with it.” That group karaoke effect is particularly tied to the last verse of the iconic track, according to Waters. “I love hearing audiences sing that back at me,” he concluded.
The effect of having thousands upon thousands of people sing the words you wrote decades ago back to you, word-perfect, is an otherworldly privilege which is only afforded to a select few songwriters, but the novelty of that experience still hasn’t worn off in Roger Waters’ case. Similarly, the appeal of a timeless classic like ‘Wish You Were Here’ doesn’t show any signs of slipping away anytime soon, either.
