Roger Waters
b. 9 September 1944, Great Bookham, Cambridge, England. Waters career as co-founder of the Pink Floyd enabled him to be part of one of the most successful rock bands of all time. His astonishing peaks during a career of 17 years were DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and THE WALL. Waters’ lyrics often attempted to exorcise his personal anguish of the death his father during World War II. They also addressed his increasing conflict with the pressures of rock stardom and the alienation with the audience. The introspective nature of these lyrics often led to accusations of indulgence, which in part led to the break-up on the Pink Floyd in 1983. His first official solo album (he had previously recorded an album in 1970 with Ron Geesin as a soundtrack to the film The Body), was the crudely packaged THE PROS & CONS OF HITCH HIKING, which showed a departure from the bitter lyrics he had recently produced with the Pink Floyd. Eric Clapton guested on the album. Waters wrote and performed the soundtrack to the Raymond Briggs animated anti-nuclear film, WHEN THE WIND BLOWS in 1986. RADIO K.A.O.S. followed in 1987 together with the excellent single ‘The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)’. During this time Waters was in bitter litigation with other members of his former group as he unsuccessfully tried to stop them using the Pink Floyd name. In 1990, as part of a project in aid of the Leonard Cheshire Memorial Fund For Disaster Relief, Waters masterminded a massive performance of THE WALL by the remains of the Berlin Wall. This ambitious event was televised around the world and featured a host of star guests including performances by Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, Sinead O'Connor and Joni Mitchell, plus actors Albert Finney and Tim Curry. Time, if nothing else, has still to find a way of healing the rift between Waters and the the remaining members of the Pink Floyd.