Roger Waters says he accepted the invitation to play Desert Trip festival in California back in 2016 because it was time to be “Pink Floyd for a night.”
He played twice at the event, organised by Coachella boss Paul Tollett, delivering a set of classic tracks billed as The Best Of Pink Floyd. But he’s suggested he was surprised that The Who appeared on the all-star bill. Waters tells AP in the video below: “It was very cool. It was quite an honour to be included.
I did Coachella in 2008 and ever since, Paul said, ‘You’ve got to come back.’ But a festival in the spring never seemed quite right. “I met him again in Nashville when I was doing my opera there and he said, ‘What if we do something in the autumn, just a one-off?’ I never expected anything to come of it.” Discussing the bill he says: “Rolling Stones, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Neil Young – and somehow The Who popped into the equation. Which is fantastic. I love The Who.”
Townshend first witnessed the Floyd perform live way back in 1967, back during the Syd Barrett era when they were lighting up the London psychedelic scene that was quickly becoming the envy of the world.
“On January 6, 1967, I missed one of the only Who shows of my career through drug abuse,” Townshend writes in 2012 autobiography Who I Am: “Syd Barrett was wonderful,” he recalls of Pink Floyd, adding: “And so were the rest of them. I fell in love with the band and the club itself.”
Townshend’s admiration for Pink Floyd grew to such an extent that he returned to The UFO the very next day along with Eric Clapton, who he’d dragged along to see Floyd with him, and both were blown in equal measure. “Syd, who walked on stage (off his head on acid), played a single chord and made it last about an hour using an electronic echo machine called a Binson,” he explained. “When he did start to play again he was truly inspiring.”
