Pink Floyd's Roger Waters considers performing "The Wall" on US-Mexico border

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters considers performing "The Wall" on US-Mexico border
By Pierre Bertrand
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Roger Waters, the co-founder of musical rock n' roll group Pink Floyd, said the group's cult album is more relevant now than ever before

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Roger Waters, the co-founder of musical rock n’ roll group Pink Floyd, said the group’s cult album The Wall is more relevant now given Donald Trump’s US presidency than ever before.

Waters, 73, made the comment during a rare public appearance in London to promote “Pink Floyd, Their Mortal Remains”, an exhibition which will feature memorabilia and archived footage of the band as it celebrates its 50-year career.

Waters, who was joined by drummer Nick Mason, said he was prepared to consider performing the album in concert along the US-Mexico border, where US President Trump has vowed to build a wall in an effort to fight illegal immigration and protect the United States’ sovereignty.

“But before this can happen, there will first need to be an awakening against these far-right policies,” Waters said to AFP. “The sewers are engorged by greedy and powerful men as I speak to you.”

This was not the first time Waters has taken a swipe at the US President.

In Mexico City in October, during a concert performance on Zocalo Square, Pink Floyd displayed images of the then-Republican presidential candidate with “Charade” written across the front. They appeared during a performance of the song “Pigs (Three Different Ones). Subsequent images of Trump appeared with “Joker” emblazoned on huge screens. In one image Trump appears to be doing a Nazi salute.

Roger Waters tribute to Trump 'Pig Man' in Mexico City, October 2016 https://t.co/M35Y7P79Wl via youtube</a></p>&mdash; Jonathan Astill (astilltreecare) February 9, 2017

Later that same month, Waters and Pink Floyd renewed their attack on Trump with a scathing critique during the Desert Trip music festival in Indio, California.

There, children appearing on stage wearing anti-border wall slogans sang along to one of the The Wall’s signature songs Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2.

The Wall

Like YouTube: Pink Floyd - Another Brick In The Wall, Part Two (Official Music Video) <a href="https://t.co/9CVfKnWNgF">https://t.co/9CVfKnWNgF</a></p>&mdash; Rainer mit ai (rainer_71) February 5, 2017

Pink Floyd was formed in 1965 by four Cambridge students. Throughout its 50 year musical career, the group sold more than 200 million albums around the world. The Wall, released in 1979, is often considered the group’s best and one of the best music albums of all time.

The Wall was released as double album and was initially conceived as a rock opera. Its story touches on abandonment, fascism, and self-imposed isolation in a form of a metaphorical wall.

In the early 1980s, the album was adapted into a both live-action and animated movie which would propel the album into cult status for decades to come.

Art Exhibit

The London Victoria and Albert Museum will feature a collection of 350 artefacts including letters, sketches and handwritten lyrics belonging to Pink Floyd.

Included in the exhibition will be footage of some of the band’s live performances.

The exhibition comes as the group celebrates 50 years since releasing its first single Arnold Layne. The collection is meant to showcase the group’s history and accomplishments as well those who helped the ban perform over the years.

“What you realise is that it’s literally hundreds and hundreds of people who’ve worked with us as sound engineers or road crew, technicians, inventors or graphics or whatever,” Mason told Reuters. “And to go ‘we got through a lot of work by getting help from these people’ – that’s a really nice aspect of it.”

The exhibit will start on May 31 and will last until Oct. 1.

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