LISTEN: Roger Waters talks Pink Floyd exhibition, getting caned and new solo album
Roger Waters and Nick Mason joined forces in London yesterday to introduce the upcoming Pink Floyd exhibition at The V&A Museum.
Running from Saturday 13th May to Sunday 1st October 2017, The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains celebrates the 50th anniversary of the band’s seminal debut album ‘The Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ and inaugural single ‘Arnold Layne’.
The extensive retrospective boasts over 350 artefacts, some of them never-seen, spanning well over half a century including hand-written lyrics, musical instruments, letters, original artwork and stage props.
Speaking exclusively to Planet Rock’s Paul Anthony backstage, Roger revealed his favourite items in the exhibition are two artefacts that partially inspired ‘Another Brick in the Wall’.
Roger told Paul: “The thing that I like that Po (Pink Floyd’s creative director Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell, formerly of Hipgnosis) found was from my old school, which was the county school in Cambridge, Cambridge High School for Boys, which is now a sixth form college where they kept some stuff - cos Syd (Barrett) was there and Storm (Thorgerson) was there.
“One of the things they kept was the punishment book and the cane that they used to hit us with as kids. I think it’s cool that that’s going to be in the exhibition.”
Speaking about appearing with Nick Mason, Roger insisted “we’re not strangers”, explaining: “We’ve been on stage, when I did The Wall (tour) a couple of years ago he came on stage with me in The O2. I did a Darkside (of The Moon) tour a few years ago and he came and played a few gigs. We’re not strangers Nick and I, we’ve maintained our friendship.”
Having spent much of 2017 holed up in the studio with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Roger also unveiled the title of his upcoming solo album.
“We’re right in the middle of mixing it,” he told Paul. “I think it’s coming out on the 19th May interestingly enough, which is the week after this (exhibition) opens. I even have a title for it now, it’s ‘Is This The Life We Really Want?’, so it’s pointed in many ways.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Roger reflected upon the Pink Floyd’s groundbreaking Games for May concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1967, explained how he hasn’t even seen some of the items and promised that it’s all very “Lewis Carroll, like a very deep rabbit hole that we hope people immerse themselves in and enjoy.”
Listen to it here:
You can buy tickets to The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains from Planet Rock Tickets now.