Name is Rob Peets, I used to run a popular Pink Floyd Fan site called "Set The Controls" from about 1995 until around 2002. Needless to say that in that time I would get plenty of email from fans asking about Pink Floyd and especially if and when they would reform. Of course I could never answer that question, but I always figured there was a chance, no matter how remote, that the guys could bury the hatchet and get on with it.

When I saw Waters "In the Flesh" tour I had my first real feeling of Roger being comfortable with his past and feeling at least somewhat at ease with all that had happened between him and his old band mates. Then there was the news of Rick Wright visiting Roger backstage at one of the "In the Flesh" shows and the report of the incident sounding pretty damn civilized. And then there was that odd chance meeting, which Nick Mason writes about in his book, when Roger and Nick met while on vacation. This opened a dialog between the two which hasn't stopped... at the end of the book Mason says something along the lines of, If we were ever to reform it would be for something that has meaning like Live Aid.

So, remembering what Nick wrote, several weeks ago I say to my girlfriend, "you know... this Live 8 thing could be the deal that brings Floyd back together." A week later the headlines, "Pink Floyd to Reform for Live 8!". Obviously this is a dream come true for all of us... we've been waiting for years, about 21 in total, to hear those words. To sum up my feelings when I read that headline at the time, it could only be this... "YES!"

The day before the show I said to a friend, this could go two ways... they have the four of them along with several support musicians like Jon Carin, Snowy White, basically any of the folks involved in recent Floyd/Waters related tours. Or, it could just be the four of them. Personally, I hoped for the foursome with maybe Snowy White...

So when, the following day, I saw the four of them with Tim Renwick filling in the blanks, I was blown away... and moved to tears that they were so tight! It was as if they hadn't split up, it was the show I've always wanted to see, it was Waters playing bass in the same spot with his same exaggerated gestures and Gilmour singing his heart out and playing his guitar with ease.

Nick Mason really seemed to be in great form and played most of the parts the way they were originally played, and of course Rick Wright was perfection as always. What a dream come true, for all of us.

When Waters said during the start of Wish You Were Here "we're doing this for everyone who's not here" I really took that as a personal message, it made me smile and feel completely satisfied that this was well worth the wait. I guess all we can do now is sit back and wait, we've done it before... but now the impossible has happened, the deed is done. Let's see what happens after Roger and David chat a bit more, after Nick and Roger have a few more dinners together... and who knows maybe we'll all be able to live the dream of seeing our favorite band live.

Rob Peets, ex-webmaster Pink Floyd - Set The Controls