Dark side of the tune: How Pink Floyd legends Roger Waters and David Gilmour’s spat over Ukraine invasion is the latest fallout in long-running feud
- Roger Waters in new row says Ukraine is ‘not really a country’ and run by ‘Nazis’
- It has sparked fresh row with Pink Floyd bandmate David Gilmour – one of many
- Pair have been warring for decades – leaving fans of British band devastated
Roger Waters and David Gilmour’s turbulent near-60 year relationship is proof that time doesn’t heal all wounds.
The two Pink Floyd powerhouses grow ever more angry with each other as the years go by – much to the upset of millions of fans who still harbour hope of a final gig or new music by one of Britain’s greatest ever bands.
Such is the animosity between the pair, Waters has now re-recorded the band’s seminal record The Dark Side Of The Moon, without the rest of Pink Floyd, insisting the 1973 album was his project all along and he wrote it all.
But despite his continuing antagonisation of Gilmour and the other surviving bandmate Nick Mason, experts believe the re-release will still mean he must share the royalties – or face a High Court case, which is familiar ground for the warring group.
Waters’ pro-Russian stance saw him make a shock virtual appearance during a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday – bizarrely with his dog – where he ‘condemned’ the invasion of Ukraine but also criticised the ‘provocateurs’ he claimed had prompted the Russian invasion. He insists the besieged nation is ‘not really a country at all’ – writing it off as a ‘patchy sort of vague experiment’.
Left to right: Laurie During, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, and Polly Samson attend a benefit evening for The Hoping Foundation on July 10, 2010 in London
Over the last week, the 79-year-old has traded barbs with former bandmate David Gilmour and even the guitarist’s wife, lyricist Polly Samson, after the latter attacked Waters on social media and accused him of antisemitism, which he denies
Over the last week, the 79-year-old has traded barbs with former bandmate David Gilmour and even the guitarist’s wife, lyricist Polly Samson, after the latter attacked Waters on social media and accused him of antisemitism, which he denies.
Samson called him ‘antisemitic to (his) rotten core’ as well as a ‘Putin apologist’ – in a post which was retweeted by her spouse.
But the feud dates back decades, almost back to when guitar hero Gilmour joined Pink Floyd in 1968, arriving shortly after enigmatic lead singer Syd Barrett was forced out over his fragile mental health and profusive use of psychedelic drugs.
Dark Side of the Loon! Roger Waters says Ukraine is ‘not really a country’ and is run by ‘Nazis’ amid row with Pink Floyd bandmate David Gilmour for being a ‘Putin apologist’
The partnership brought even greater success to the band – and multi-million fortunes to its members – but it would create an extraordinary rivalry between Waters and Gilmour about who was the driving force.
And after 17 years of infighting Waters, credited with charting the band’s artistic direction and concepts, would finally leave in 1985 before heading straight to the High Court to dissolve the band.
He sought to prevent Gilmour, Mason and late keyboard player Richard Wright from using the Pink Floyd name ever again. It was a battle he ultimately lost and later accepted was ‘wrong’ to start.
Since his departure, Roger has only performed with Nick and David back in 2005 at the Live 8 charity concert in London, and during his own performance of The Wall at The O2 arena in 2011 on a rendition of Comfortably Numb.
The lack of music over the past four decades has caused great pain to fans.
Roger founded Pink Floyd back in 1965. David joined the band two years later in 1967, and Syd left the following year due to mental health problems.
The prog rock band sold more than 250million records – but insiders admit they’ve not been on speaking terms for most of that time.
Since Waters’ acrimonious split from the group in 1985, long frustrated fans have yearned for a reunion but have been treated instead to slanging match after slanging match in the never ending feud.
Things first came to the head when Walters attempted to have the band disbanded after he quit in 1985 – labelling them a ‘spent force creatively.’
Gilmour and the rest of Floyd told him they were going to carry on, causing Waters to invoke a ‘leaving members’ clause in his contract and take the group to the High Court to dissolve them.
After an expensive two years, Waters settled with the band and resigned, going on to say that his hand had been forced by the ‘financial repercussions’ of legal proceedings.
He said later: ‘I don’t think any of us came out of the years from 1985 with any credit … It was a bad, negative time, and I regret my part in that negativity.
‘I was wrong. Of course I was. Who cares?… It’s one of the few times that the legal profession has taught me something.
Former Pink Floyd bandmates David Gilmour (left) and Roger Waters (right) have been at loggerheads online
‘Because when I went to these chaps and said, “Listen we’re broke, this isn’t Pink Floyd anymore”, they went, “What do you mean? That’s irrelevant, it is a label and it has commercial value. You can’t say it’s going to cease to exist… you obviously don’t understand English jurisprudence”.’
It was rows over their 1983 album The Final Cut brought the band’s life to an end. Waters had written the record but Gilmour asked for more time to write some songs himself. Waters then refused.
Gilmour would say later: ‘I’m certainly guilty at times of being lazy … but he wasn’t right about wanting to put some duff tracks on The Final Cut’.
Roger has amassed a staggering net worth of £247 million thanks to a hugely successful solo career, as well as his companies Roger Waters Music UK and Roger Waters Music Overseas.
In 2005, the original lineup of Roger, Richard, David and Nick reunited for the first time in 24 years for the Live 8 concert in London, three years before Richard’s death.
But Gilmour would later claim that the experience did not make him want to reform for new songs.
He said: ‘The [Live 8] rehearsals convinced me [that] it wasn’t something I wanted to be doing a lot of … There have been all sorts of farewell moments in people’s lives and careers which they have then rescinded, but I think I can fairly categorically say that there won’t be a tour or an album again that I take part in. It isn’t to do with animosity or anything like that. It’s just … I’ve been there, I’ve done it’.
For years drummer Nick Mason was in the middle – and only spoke widely on the row in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2018, where he said: ‘It would seem silly at this stage of our lives to still be fighting’.
Waters has branded Samson’s claims as ‘wildly inaccurate’ and said ‘he is taking advice on his position’
He went on: ‘I think the problem is Roger doesn’t really respect David. He feels that writing is everything, and that guitar playing and the singing are something that, I won’t say anyone can do, but that everything should be judged on the writing rather than the playing.
‘I think it rankles with Roger that he made a sort of error in a way that he left the band assuming that without him it would fold. It’s a constant irritation, really, that he’s still going back to it. I’m hesitant to get too stuck into this one, just because it’s between the two of them rather than me. I actually get along with both of them, and I think it’s really disappointing that these rather elderly gentlemen are still at loggerheads’.
But Waters and Gilmour have never taken heed of his warning – and the warring has continued, even getting worse in recent years.
In 2021, after marrying his fifth wife, Waters went to war again – this time over Pink Floyd’s website.
He said in a vlog: ‘David thinks he owns it. I think he thinks that because I left the band in 1985, that he owns Pink Floyd, that he is Pink Floyd, that I’m irrelevant and I should just keep my mouth shut.”
Dave Gilmour has backed wife Polly Samson (right) who branded Roger Waters a ‘Putin apologist’ and ‘anti-Semitic’
‘This is wrong. We should rise up. Or, just change the name of the band to Spinal Tap, and then everything will be hunky-dory’. He also said of Gilmour: ‘He’s told porky pies for 35 years’.
And Russia’s war with Ukraine has even brought them into battle. Last September, Waters was declared a ‘persona non grata’ by the Polish city of Krakow after his concerts were scrapped there over his war stance.
Waters had written an open letter that month saying the West should stop providing arms to Kyiv, accusing President Volodymyr Zelensky of allowing ‘extreme nationalism’ in Ukraine and urging him to ‘put an end to this deadly war.’
Waters was denounced by Ukraine on Wednesday after he told the United Nations Security Council that Russia’s invasion of its neighbor was ‘not unprovoked’.
The 79-year-old – who has sparked controversy with his stance on the war – was invited to address the 15-member Council by Moscow.
‘The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation was illegal. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,’ the British musician said via video.
But Waters then implied that Kyiv was to blame as well.
‘Also the Russian invasion of Ukraine was not unprovoked. So I also condemn the provocateurs in the strongest possible terms,’ he said.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN hit back, playing on the title of one of Pink Floyd’s most famous songs.
‘How sad for his former fans to see him accepting the role of just a brick in the wall, a wall of Russian disinformation and propaganda,’ said Sergiy Kyslytsya.
This week, Pink Floyd songwriter Polly Samson called Waters ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘a Putin apologist’ in a tweet. Waters responded by posting a statement on Twitter that said he ‘refutes entirely’ Samson’s accusation.
But it is the band’s millions of fans who have been most hurt by their row, only have been kept going by 20 minutes of live music at Live 8 in in 2005. But chances of any reunion are now further away than ever.
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