Interruptions are taking me away from football this week
On Wednesday, after a call from my friend Chris at 8.42 a.m, we went out to Bray film studios, near Windsor.
Sunny afternoon, lovely part of the country, all very English, very hip, very laidback. Stop at the gate at 12.50pm, have three names ticked off, drive in, get out, go into an aircraft hangar where about 150 chairs are set up in front of two drum kits and a lot of equipment.
The group have been here for three weeks and now friends & family will see the dress rehearsal.
We sit in the front row and Roger Waters comes on at 1p.m. and plays his Dark Side of the Moon world tour show.
An eight-piece rock band, plus three backing singers, films, graphics, psychedelic light show, lyrics of a new song projected above the stage, quadraphonic sound effects.
We are sitting in front of guitarists Snowy White and Dave Kilminster, who are thirty feet away.
In the intermission, at 2.25, I talk to a guy behind the mixing desk.
“When does the tour start?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Where are you tomorrow?”
“Lisbon.”
Chris has vacated his seat for the second half, so a blond youth of 23 asks if he can sit next to me. He is promoting the group’s show in Iceland on June 12.
They play Dark Side of the Moon with Nick Mason on drums and at 3.50 p.m. Roger says, “Thanks for coming. It was important for us to play for an audience before we get on a plane to Lisbon and do it for real.”
On Thursday we discover that Nick Mason then drove to the Royal Albert Hall and played with Dave Gilmour and Rick Wright ! The other Pink Floyd.
It’s not Nick’s fault that Roger and Dave don’t speak. But Nick is not touring.
On Roger’s website I see that the Lisbon gig – Rock In Rio Festival comes to Portugal – is tonight, Friday.
My pal Chris is a builder/soundman who was once a singer in a rock band. They used to play Another Brick In The Wall and Chris admits that for years he used to sing “dark star chasm.”
The proper lyric is :
“We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone.”
MYLES PALMER lives in England, where he writes about music and soccer. He can be reached at: myles@db10.freeserve.co.uk