Waters interviewed on Jools Holland's show
Written by Matt   
Friday, 25 November 2005

Roger Waters, as part of his exhaustive publicity work to promote his opera, Ça Ira, was interviewed on the well-respected, late night UK music TV show, Later With Jools Holland, last night (25th November).

Roger Waters on Jools Holland
Roger Waters on Jools Holland
Roger Waters on Jools Holland
Recorded on Tuesday (22nd November) at the BBC's London studios, the interview was reasonably brief, lasting five minutes, but interesting, nonetheless. It focused on the inevitable topics of the opera, and the Live 8 Pink Floyd reunion.

One particularly interesting bit was shown half way through, when a clip of the 1967 "Tomorrow's World" sequence was shown. This was longer than has been seen in recent years, and included extra moments of the improvisational music the band created to accompany Mike Leonard's light projections.

The interview started with Jools waxing lyrical about Ça Ira, and drawing parallels to the present day. Roger: "Oh yes, France in flames in the suburbs, yes..." He talked of the genesis of the project, and the personnel involved - both on the recording, and at the recent Rome shows.

Jools then asked if it was easier, or harder, working with an 80 piece orchestra than working with Pink Floyd, to which Roger replied that Pink Floyd was always "an absolute doddle!"

Roger dismisses the differences between the classical world and rock world, stating that "music is music... any musician's brief is to try and create an emotional response in whoever's listening to it, and express our truth. And whether you do that with a palette of a symphony orchestra, and a bunch of singers, or with a pop group, doesn't seem to me to make much of a difference."

To wrap things up, Jools asked the inevitable:

Jools: Is there any likelihood of Pink Floyd getting back together again?
Roger: I mean, I see no reason why we shouldn't; as I say, it was enormously enjoyable that day [Live 8] and uh...
Jools: Did the others enjoy it as well?
Roger: Yeah I think so, yeah, um... yeah, they did enjoy it. I don't think so, I KNOW they enjoyed it!
Jools: So you did enjoy it, so the gauntlet's gone down, um, this studio is available for you...
Roger: It was like, yeah, it was a bit like slipping on an old glove. No, I seriously... the first day we rehearsed, y'know we sort of wandered in and started playing Breathe or something and it, it immediately felt kind of comfortable. It was good, it was fun.

Our thanks to Gem and Gary Holderness at the BBC, for their help with this story.