Article by Robert on u-spaces@yahoogroups.com
After having performed together last weekend for just the second time since a bitter split in the early 1980s, Pink Floyd principals Roger Waters and David Gilmour are planning to collaborate again on stage at least once more.
The recent reunion and the upcoming appearance stem from the 2009 edition of the Hoping Foundation Benefit, which raises funds for young Palestinian refugees. According to a post on Waters' Facebook page, Gilmour was at last year's event only "as a supporter" but "was moved to perform an impromptu rendition" of George Gershwin's "Summertime."
Afterward, Waters says Gilmour emailed him with a tongue-in-cheek offer for them to collaborate at the 2010 benefit on the Teddy Bears' "To Know Him Is To Love Him," in a nod to the pair's famously rough-and-tumble relationship. Waters says he "loved" the idea, and the duo agreed to also round out their set with the Pink Floyd classics "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb."
The only trouble: Gilmour began sending Waters "a number of very musical and eloquent demos of how we could do the song in two-part harmony." Waters then got cold feet and told Gilmour performing the song in that fashion was "way outside my vocal comfort zone," to his "eternal shame."
According to Waters, Gilmour then made him a better offer. If Waters would agree to perform "To Know Him Is To Love Him" at the Hoping Foundation Benefit, Gilmour would guest on "Comfortably Numb" at a to-be-determined show on Waters' upcoming tour featuring Pink Floyd's "The Wall" being performed in its entirety.
"You could have knocked me down with a feather," Waters says. "How f*cking cool! I was blown away. How could I refuse such an offer. I couldn't, there was no way. Generosity trumped fear. And so explaining that I would probably be sh*te, but if he didn't mind I didn't, I agreed and the rest is history. We did it, and it was f*cking great. End of story. Or possibly beginning."
The plan is for Gilmour's appearance to be a surprise, adds Waters, whose The Wall tour begins Sept. 15 in Toronto and has been one of the top sellers in a disastrous summer for the U.S. concert business.
Waters and Gilmour, along with original Pink Floyd colleagues Nick Mason and Rick Wright, first reunited for the first time in more than 24 years at the Live 8 concert in London on July 2, 2005.
Good news indeed!
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