ROGER WATERS
SSE Hydro *****
IN the end, it was about more than just the music. Just before the encore, Roger Waters, that most politically engaged of songwriters, was applauded as he urged us to love one another and to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - and when he emphasised that the people covered by the declaration included the Palestinians, he received one of the loudest cheers of the night. It was an affecting moment in a stirring and provocative show.
The concert, part of the Us + Them world tour, was a first-class Waters career retrospective, ranging across some of Pink Floyd’s most outstanding songs - One of These Days, Welcome to the Machine, Wish You Were Here, and several tracks from their landmark album, The Dark Side of the Moon - all accompanied by superb video and projection content (Floyd, and solo Waters, have always had a peerless eye for rock as theatre) and played by a nine-piece band that included Glasgow-born saxophonist Ian Ritchie, and which replicated the Floyd sound, and Gilmour's guitar work, perfectly. The two backing singers, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig do an excellent job on the The Great Gig in the Sky.
After three songs from Waters’s 2017 studio album, Is This The Life We Really Want?, a dozen Glasgow kids came on stage, in hoods and orange jumpsuits, removing the hoods to sing Another Brick in the Wall and the jumpsuits to reveal T-shirts that read ‘Resist’. The video screen during the interval took up the theme with a succession of urgent messages: resist rattling sabres at Iran, resist the new fascism, resist throwing garbage in the ocean.
The second half began with a replica of Battersea Power Station (complete with four smoking chimneys) being lowered from the ceiling, a cue for a couple of forceful songs from the Floyd album, Animals, one of which - Pigs (Three Different Ones) - emasculated Trump endlessly (“Trump Is a Bawbag” came up on the video screen at one point). A giant inflatable pig, a Floyd trademark, sailed over the heads of the audience.
After Water's brief speech, and an absorbing encore of Comfortably Numb, confetti rained from the ceiling. The solitary word on each piece of paper - 'Resist! - neatly summed up the attitudes of the impeccably confrontational Waters. The potent theme of 'us and them' as it relates to these divisive times must have resonated with many fans as they left the arena.
RUSSELL LEADBETTER
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel