Roger Waters comes to David Gilmour's defence, slams journalist after "crappy" article

Roger Waters onstage — (Image credit: MediaNews Group/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

Roger Waters has come to the defence of his former Pink Floyd colleague David Gilmour after an article which suggested Waters had been dismissive of Gilmour's guitar playing on The Dark Side On The Moon.

The article, which appears in The New Statesman [paywalled link] under the headline "The War Within Pink Floyd" examines the recent bickering involving Waters, Gilmour, and Gilmour's long-time life partner Polly Samson, which started when Samson tweeted that Waters was "misogynistic", "sick-with-envy" and "antisemitic". It was written in the wake of the news that Waters has rerecorded The Dark Side Of The Moon as a solo album.

"There is a crappy article in The New Statesman, written, if you can call it writing, by a chap called Stuart Maconie," writes Waters. "It's the usual, shit stirring, ill-informed nonsense.

"However, there is, in the article, something upon which I need to set the record straight. When talking about a new recording I have made of DSOTM, he writes, with an unearned condescending authority, about the process or making this new recording, and I quote, 'Part of this will involve him removing, as quoted in Spain’s El Pais newspaper, Gilmour's "horrible guitar soIos."'

"Now, I don't know who he thinks he's quoting when he says GiImour's 'horrible guitar solos" but It sure as shit ain't me. I was there, I love Dave's guitar solos on DSOTM, both of them, and on WYWH and on Animals and on The Wall and on The Final Cut.

"In my, albeit biased view, Dave's solos on those albums constitute a collection of some of the very best guitar solos in the history of rock'n'roll. So, Stuart Maconie, you little prick, next time, please check your copy with the subjects of your grubby little piece, before you go to print."

Waters has previously been disparaging of Gilmour's contributions to Pink Floyd, as well as those of late keyboard player Richard Wright. In an interview with The Telegraph [paywalled link] earlier this month, he said, "They can’t write songs, they’ve nothing to say. They are not artists! They have no ideas, not a single one between them. They never have had, and that drives them crazy."

No release date for Waters' new version of The Dark Side Of The Moon has been announced.

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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.