Today's edition of The Times newspaper in the UK includes a nice cover feature with a new illustration by (Times cartoonist) Gerald Scarfe on the front of the "Playlist" supplement (click thumbnail, right). The feature includes an interview with Roger Waters on the forthcoming Wall tour.

"My fiancée [the actress Laurie Durning] sowed the seed and I started gnawing on it. But I didn't want to go out and whine about how miserable I was as a young man." Instead, as the Times notes, developing the antiwar subtext of the original work, The Wall becomes an allegory for today's world: "Nations are subject to history in the same way that an individual is, and that includes collective fear. To talk about the evil ones, as [George W.] Bush did, places certain countries and cultures outside a wall that defines national and ideological boundaries. So I've worked that into the meaning of the show."

His enthusiasm for the tour is clear: "I'm no longer as judgmental of myself or of others. As a consequence, I like being on stage. I mean, there are 20,000 people out there and they all think you're great! I like to make eye contact with the audience, to make loud rock'n'roll noises and see a crowd enjoy it."

On the other side of the Atlantic, Roger appears in the June 10th edition of Rolling Stone (again, click thumbnail). Finding him in a production studio in Manhattan, RS ask him about the staging of the new show, the new band, and also talks about the success of the tour.