Roger Waters Reportedly Disappoints, Berates Audience During ‘Dark Side of the Moon Redux’ Performance at the London Palladium

Earlier this month, Roger Waters released his reimagining of Dark Side of the Moon. He wanted to inject the wisdom he had gained with age into the classic album. Then, he plotted a pair of live shows at the London Palladium in which he’d perform the album. The first of those shows took place on Sunday.

According to Brain Damage, which bills itself as a Pink Floyd news source, Waters arrived 15 minutes late. Their coverage of the first-night notes he scheduled the show in two parts. First, he planned to perform a 50-minute set of “other stuff.” Then, he would play Dark Side of the Moon Redux in full. However, things didn’t go that smoothly.

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First, Waters apparently showed up 15 minutes late for the show. Then, the first portion of the performance went on longer than planned. Before performing the album, reports indicate that Waters screened a 20-minute short film. Finally, he got into the music. However, by that time, many of the Palladium’s seats were empty.

Sources said that Waters began the show by reading bits of his upcoming memoir, Dark Side of the Moon: Memoirs of a Lanky Prick, from his laptop. A critic from The Times noted that one of these stories was about a duck who came to live in the aging rocker’s home. That went on for more than 20 minutes. “Another began promisingly as a memory of Pink Floyd’s original leader, Syd Barrett, but revealed nothing more than that Barrett wrote a lot of songs and had an innocent air about him,” the critic added.

A critic with The Telegraph said that Waters “sternly brooked no interruption” during his rambling stories. Fans heckled Waters. “Fuck off,” the rocker reportedly screamed at members of the audience.

Reports said Waters further berated the audience saying, “If you want to tell stories, tell them in your own time to your own audience in your own fucking theater.”

Photo by Brian Lima / Rogers and Cowan