Roger Waters most recent album, The Lockdown Sessions, is to be released on vinyl and CD though Sony Music on June 2, according to Loudersound.
The album, which collates six songs recorded and shared during the Covid-19 lockdown, was originally released digitally at the end of last year.
The album features recorded-at-home takes on five Pink Floyd songs, Mother and Vera from 1979’s The Wall, Two Suns in the Sunset and The Gunners Dream from 1983's The Final Cut, plus his recently-released new 'dark' version of Comfortably Numb. The album also includes Waters' solo track The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range, which originally featured on his 1992 album Amused To Death. Waters originally shared each of these tracks with fans via YouTube or social media.
At the time of the digital release, Waters' commented: “Our Us and Them Tour lasted three years... At every gig we did an encore after the main show closed with Comfortably Numb… the encore was always Mother... I can’t remember why I decided to start doing other songs?...
“Anyway, at some point after the end of the tour… I started thinking, 'It could make an interesting album, all those encores'…'The Encores'. 'Yeah, has a nice ring to it!' Then… I’m in England doing the Ginger Baker tribute gig one Tuesday night at the Hammersmith Odeon with Eric Clapton and…the following Saturday marching from The Australian Embassy to Parliament Square to make a speech in support of Julian Assange, when bugger me, Covid… Schlummmm! For me it was Friday March 13th 2020. Lockdown! So much for the 'Encores' project. Unless…
Roger Waters Announces Live Concert Broadcast and Cinema Event.
Roger Waters has announced a live broadcast and cinema event of his May 25 concert at the O2 Arena in Prague, Czech Republic.
Trafalgar Releasing will air the concert — which is part of Waters' ongoing This Is Not a Drill tour — in more than 1,500 cinemas across more than 50 countries. Tickets go on sale on April 25. You can see the whole list of participating cinemas on the film's website. (UCR)
Waters launched his This Is Not a Drill tour in July 2022 after two years of COVID-related delays. The Pink Floyd co-founder opened the show with a cheeky message projected onto the screens above the stage: "If you don't agree with Roger's politics, you might do well to fuck off to the bar right now." The rest of the show dutifully condemns the actions of various world leaders, including President Joe Biden, whom he deems a "war criminal."
When asked by the German newspaper Berliner Zeitung why he refuses to hold back such polarizing political statements, Waters replied, "Because I am who I am. If I wasn't this person who has strong political convictions, I wouldn't have written The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Amused to Death and all the other stuff."