Christian Wakeford. Hopefully this is the first and only time the MP for Bury South gets mentioned on this site, but in a very real way he’s the key to tonight’s gig.
The former piece of Tory scum (my site, I’ll call him what I like) turned Starmer acolyte in what passes for opposition these days, stood up in the House Of Commons last week and used his Parliamentary privilege to try and stop Roger Waters from playing his Manchester show on this tour.
I don’t have that privilege, but basically he repeated a Trope about Waters being anti-semitic and flying pigs about with the Star of David on last week in Germany. It wasn’t true.
And it has pissed Roger Waters off, absolutely royally.
Mid-way through his first set here, Waters sits in “The Bar” (his piano corner of the stage) and he rants and raves. Rightly. His polemic, essentially is that they’ve hurt him with these lies, but he won’t stop fighting injustice, unfairness, and for those oppressed.
And if that sounds a bit weighty for a rock n roll show, then, well, tough. Before he’d come on – with a quite astonishing band – the big screen (and in 32 years of gig going I’ve never seen a video screen used better) had flashed up this message: “if you’re one of those people who says ‘I love Floyd but I’m not keen on Roger’s politics, then you’d best fuck off to the bar’. You’ve been warned. Like the name of the tour says: this is not a drill.
It had started relatively sedately. A wonderful “Comfortably Numb” with Waters unseen. The screen lifts to reveal the almost 80-year-old man who has been busily boiling piss of all those who deserve to be outraged, and all of a sudden, this is an event. It crackles, there’s a palpable danger in the air as “Another Brick In The Wall” hits, full of sloganeering, before “The Powers That Be” launches a laser-guided attack on the ruling classes. It’s astonishing how much vitriol there is here. It’s a sight to behold.
“The Bar” itself, was Dylan-esque. The delivery, the playing, the vibe, after that he says simply: “we’re gonna drift off now to a time when I played my rock n roll in another band.
And the next 25 minutes or so is incredible. “Have A Cigar” has a solo from Dave Kilminster that is right up there, “Wish You Were Here” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” are as good as it gets, and are a bewildering assault on the senses as they flash up moving passages about Syd Barrett, or about Waters suffering a nervous breakdown, and he’s not finished. The Orwellian “Sheep” is spat out, while a giant sheep floats about the arena.
It’s joined in part two by an inflatable pig, emblazoned on one side with “Take From The Poor, Give To The Rich” and on the other “Fuck The Poor” (the neo-liberals would think he meant it and was one of them, wouldn’t you Wakeford?)
The music is as incendiary. “Run Like Hell”, “Is This The Life You Really Want?” (which takes acerbic to new levels and was very nearly punk rock in attitude) before “Money” is sung by Jonathan Wilson; the other guitarist, and he duets on “Us And Them” with Waters. The guitar solo is even better than that in the first half, and “Brain Damage” is just about the best thing they play.
He becomes emotional again as he takes the applause after de facto set closer “Eclipse” (“it took me 60 years to get here, let me bask in the love ….”.) but there are still a couple more. “Two Suns In The Sunset” before a trip back to “The Bar” and a moving passage about his wife, his late brother and father (he never knew his dad, with Waters Snr perishing in WW2 at the very hands of the people he was supposedly “glorifying” last week). Its gorgeous too, as is the version of “Outside The Wall” as the band and Waters walk off, together. The camera follows them into the dressing room where Waters sings the last line and everything goes dark.
As it does, you reflect not on the fantastic songs, the superb musicians, but on the human beings. The human being who has fought against inequality all his life but who is accused of all kinds of things (not for nothing did he bring up Jeremy Corbyn in one of his on-stage talks) but who, when all is said and done is an artist who has been making wonderful art for nearly 60 years.
Roger Waters shows are never “just” gigs. They are audio-visual, sensory overloads, but this one felt more important, this one felt like catharsis. It was a middle finger to Christian Wakeford and the likes, and it felt like it was just what Roger Waters needed.
