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Home arrow Latest News arrow Roger Waters talks about gig with David Gilmour, including future appearance!
Roger Waters talks about gig with David Gilmour, including future appearance! Print E-mail
Written by Matt   
Thursday, 15 July 2010

Roger Waters at Hoping Foundation gig - pic: Polly SamsonLate last night (UK time) Roger Waters added a posting to his Facebook page, which gave some fascinating background to the historic concert with David that took place on Saturday. Following last year's Hoping show that David did with Kate Moss, the idea was hatched to do something interesting. As Roger puts it: "What if he (David that is) were to sing the old Teddy Bears song 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' with me (Roger that is), what with us having been so famously at each other's throats for years and years. Get it!!!!"

The impetus and planning then started, culminating in the show in Oxfordshire at the weekend. However, as you'll read below, where we post the entire passage Roger has written for all those not yet on Facebook, it is not the end of the story, but "possibly [the] beginning", as David used as a bargaining chip the following: "If you do 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' for The Hoping Foundation Gig, I'll come and do 'C. Numb' on one of your Wall shows!" Cue one stunned Roger, and now the fans, all of us wondering which concert David will end up performing at (and no, he doesn't know himself which one yet!).

And now, read Roger's passage in full:

So here's what happened. Last year, 'The Hoping Foundation' a charity that supports Palestinian refugee kids, (www.hopingfoundation.org) put on a fund raiser at Ronnie Scott's Club in London, the idea of which was to raise money by auctioning karaoke performances by various celebrities. David was there as a supporter and was moved to perform an impromptu rendition of George Gershwin's 'Summertime?' which he performed aided and abetted by supermodel Kate Moss.

In the wake of that evening, someone, I think it was David himself, came up with this 'Wouldn't it be funny', idea. What if he (David that is) were to sing the old Teddy Bears song 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' with me (Roger that is), what with us having been so famously at each other's throats for years and years. Get it!!!! Anyway he E-mailed me with this suggestion and I loved it, so then it was just a question of juggling dates and deciding to do 'Wish You Were Here' and 'Comfortably Numb' to round out our little set. Or so I thought, until he sent me a number of very musical and eloquent demos of how we could do the song in two-part harmony. I listened with a sinking heart, knowing that David, with his superior vocal skills, could sing either part standing on his head, whilst I would have to search for a different key and then struggle through hours and hours of routining a performance that lay way outside my vocal comfort zone. To my eternal shame I bottled out and told Dave I would happily do 'Wish You Were Here' and 'C. Numb', but that 'To Know him is to Love him' was beyond me.

Some weeks passed with David cajoling me from time to time, telling me how easy it would be, but I clung resolutely to my fear of failure until one day he made one final entreaty. I quote "If you do 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' for The Hoping Foundation Gig, I'll come and do 'C. Numb' on one of your Wall shows". Well! You could have knocked me down with a feather. How fucking cool! I was blown away. How could I refuse such an offer. I couldn't, there was no way. Generosity trumped fear. And so explaining that I would probably be shite, but if he didn't mind I didn't, I agreed and the rest is history. We did it, and it was fucking great. End of story. Or possibly beginning.

Roger

PS. Just heard from David, he will decide in due course which gig he wants to do, it will be a surprise!

 
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