With Roger Waters' 2006 summer tour of Europe just over a month away, yet another date has been added to the schedule.
The tour promises a complete
run-through of the 1973 Pink Floyd classic, Dark Side Of The Moon, as
the second half of the show. The first half is a mix of Floyd classics
and Roger's solo material. Elaborate staging is promised, complete with
projections, and a full, 360 degree quadrophonic sound system.
With a population that has a high
concentration of Waters/Floyd fans, the beautiful island of Malta will
be playing host to Roger on July 10th. It won't be the first time that
Roger's music has been heard in public on the island, the musician
having premiered recorded pieces from Ca Ira there as part of the EU
Accension celebrations on May 1st, 2004, accompanied by a huge
firework, light and laser display in the Grand Harbour.
This will be the first time, however, that any past or present member of Pink Floyd will have performed there.
We are just waiting for ticketing
details for this show, and as soon as we have them, we will update the
relevent show page in our Roger Waters 2006 Tour Room - which has details of all the European and North American shows, including relevent websites, maps to the venues, and more.
Our thanks (as ever) to Roger's manager for his help...
The guitarist for Roger's tour is
Dave Kilminster, a highly regarded musician who has worked with people
like Keith Emerson. Randy over at OutsideTheWall.net has told us about the chat he had with Dave. Here's an extract from Randy's interview, that he wanted to share with us:
Now on to Roger and the tour. How were you chosen to be part of this wonderful band? Have you met Roger beforehand?
Roger's guys were basically
putting out calls to friends and colleagues looking for a guitarist,
and my manager Martin Darvill received a call from Snowy White. At that
time I had a short American tour booked with Keith so I wasn't going to
try for it, but about two days later I received an email from Keith's
manager telling me that the tour was cancelled!!! So, I recorded a demo
CD of me playing and singing
some Floyd tunes, and was asked along to an audition... And that was
the first time I met Roger...at the audition... Scary stuff!!! He was
great though!!!
What kind of influence did Roger and Pink Floyd have on you as a musician?
The beauty of simplicity...
David Gilmour is widely
praised as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, how will you put
your own spin on some of his licks, and does it surprise you that Roger
often uses 3 to 4 guitarists to play Davids parts?
Well, Roger likes to hear the
parts played as close as possible to the original recordings, so I'm
not sure what I'll get away with yet!!! Although saying that, I think
the fans will probably want to hear it just like the records too...
Hence the reason for all the guitarists on stage, so that they (we!!)
can cover all the multiple overdubs!!! Money' for example has three
rhythm guitar parts all played at the same
time...
What do you think of Davids new work and did you get a chance to see him on his tour?
I haven't heard it yet!!!! I have
about thirty or forty unopened CDs at home at the moment... Hopefully I
can catch up with what's going on when I'm on tour?!!
Roger's lyric writing is noted
as some of the best in Rock history, how does his lyrics effect you and
what is your favorite work lyrically by him or with Pink Floyd?
God there's so many great ones to
chose from... 'Time' is resounding quite loudly with me at the
moment... I feel that there was about ten years of my life that I
basically totally wasted...
Other then Roger, who are you most looking forward to working with on this tour?
The backing singers!!!!
Seriously, I love to hear great harmonies...probably due to my sordid
past singing in a Barbershop quartet when I was young!!! Something like
'Shine On... ' is going to sound just incredible!
What song will you have to practice the most, or have you mastered them all?
Actually I'm still waiting for
the final set list!!! Although if 'Have a Cigar' is in there I'm gonna
have to practice the vocals on that, as it's not a style of singing
I've ever tried before.
Have you ever had the chance
to see a Pink Floyd concert and if so what did you think of the
spectacle and how excited are you to be part of Rogers shows?
I've never actually seen them in
the flesh, but of course I've seen the DVD's.. It's definitely the most
impressive stage show I've ever seen!!! And from what I can gather from
the management Roger is going overboard with the visuals on this
tour... It's going to look AMAZING!!!! I wish I could say I was excited
though, but at the moment I'm still at the 'mildly terrified' stage!!!
Will you be contributing any vocals on the tour?
I'm doing all of Mr Gilmours parts...Guitars AND vocals!!
What are some of your favorite venues that you have played at, and where are you most looking forward to playing on this tour?
The Sun Plaza in Tokyo is a
wonderful venue... And I once played outside in the grounds of an old
castle in Vigevano, Italy... That was lovely...The Hammersmith Odeon,
where I use to go when I was younger.. It was very cool to play
there!!! God, so many incredible venues... I've been very, very lucky.
For this upcoming tour I'm very much looking forward to Hyde
Park...just because all my family and
friends will be there...That's going to be a very special evening for
me.
Our thanks to Randy for sharing this with us. Be sure to check out the full interview on his site.
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