Rogers Waters is doing his best to piss off his fans [Updated!]
If you’ve managed to see any of the shows on Roger Waters’ This is Not a Drill tour, you’ll know that it’s awfully political. Which is fine–except for the fact that the evils and war criminals he calls out don’t include people like Vladimir Putin. In fact, among all the politicians that get skewered, I can’t remember a single mention of Putin and his war crimes in Ukraine. Not. One.
Now we heard that he’s canceled some shows in Poland. The cancelations appear to be related to since stance against Ukrainians, a nation that has been illegally invaded by Russia. This puts him in the same company as North Korea, Belarus, and China.
Gigs in Krakow scheduled for next April have been called off without reason. Then again, city councilors are set to vote on a resolution basically declaring Waters is an asshole. Okay, they’re actually voting to express “indignation” over his position on Ukraine.
Wait. So this is Ukraine’s fault?
This seems to come as the result of a letter Waters wrote to Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska earlier this month, blaming “extreme nationalists” in Ukraine for the war, saying that they “set your country on the path to this disastrous war.”
Oh, yes. He also blames NATO for provoking Russia into invading Ukraine. And he’s criticizing the West for sending arms to Ukraine so it can defend itself.
I vote with the councilors of Krakow.
UPDATE: Waters denies that he’s canceled the shows.
Hi Alan,
Thanks for bringing focus to what Roger Waters is up to in terms of his public political statements. While I love his music, I can’t get past his messed up mindset…I can’t add my vote in Poland but I did vote with my wallet and refused to buy a ticket to his show in Vancouver.
Mike
Yes yes, let’s all fall in line here.
(I don’t think Waters is a leading political philosopher but God forbid he should have a thought or opinion that is not a cliche about supporting the Ukrainian ‘good guys’ against the Russian ‘bad guys’.)
Asshole indeed!
Its funny that you believe that Ukraine and the US are at no fault whatsoever and Russia is the sole bad actor in this.
You should really stick to music news and keep your political opinion to yourself.
In all fairness… This whole tour is a couple years old. It was meant to be played in 2020. You’d be daft to think that in the couple months leading up to finally being able to do the tour, they could re-do all the production involved in the show.
A better plan would be to understand that, then extrapolate the message that the whole show provides, and realize that the whole message behind the show couldn’t be more true for today.
Or… are we all so useless that we can’t understand what a show is saying without the words “Fuck Putin” literally being shown in front of our faces?
There were so many incredible messages put forward from his show. If you can’t take them and apply them to daily life, you probably aren’t meant to understand political viewpoints, anyway.