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So Roger released the "Amused To Death" album in 1992, not touring for it or anything, and then he just seemed to disappear until his return with the In The Flesh tour in 1999. I've found very little information on what he was doing during those seven years, and very few pictures exist. Have been wondering this for at least two years, but never got around to asking it.
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I think he spent a good amount of that time working on his opera, Ca Ira (?), recording it and staging it. Once he completed it, he did a rock tour. By that time, it was clear the Gilmour led Floyd was unlikely to re-form with a big tour, so he had an opening in the Floyd-tour space.
One issue though - he didn't premiere the opera until late 2005, ie after his ITF tour, about half a year before his DSOTM tour.
But I remember a couple of interviews from that 1992-99 period where he did indeed mention the opera as well as being grumpy about ATD not doing as well as he'd hoped and contemplating whether he'd even ever tour again because of that.
(And for completeness' sake, David was getting increasingly grumpy in interviews during this time whenever he was asked about when PF would next record/tour, creating the opening in the PF tour space for Waters you mentioned.)
I remember reading an interview Waters gave just before ATD came out.
He said he'd written three key albums - DSOTM, The Wall, and ATD. He seemed to be claiming they made up a holy trilogy of albums that collectively said all he had to say.
The general response to ATD was pretty much 'meh'. I guess if he genuinely thought he'd made a masterpiece, that would have killed his motivation to keep plodding on?
Oh, I remember that as well. That was his story around that time and even afterwards.
Well, yeah, he wasn't getting the attention he expected, didn't actually tour for it, either, though (back then you toured to drum up album sales). And then he was a bit grumpy to do anything until he was approached about a tour. And in fairness, he did hit a sweet spot time-wise. Everybody expected PF to do something again, but when 7 years had passed and Gilmour was increasingly openly dismissive about more Floyd, there was more interest in a Waters tour than there would have been five years prior. Was certainly the case for me, too. I jumped on getting tickets when the European leg was announced, and would not have been interested in seeing Roger live a few years before.
Amused to death was his best solo album by far
Nah. Pros n Cons
Nah, KAOS
Nah…ITTLWRW
Nah, Music from The Body
David Gilmour did invite him to play Dark Side at the last Earl's Court show in 1994 (or the show recorded for Pulse - was that the same show?), he apparently replied stating that he was retired. I guess, maybe, if they were at a stage where they could be diplomatic with each other they didn't want fans thinking it'd lead to a potential reunion. I don't know.
More than likely he was focusing on writing his opera and maybe one of the potential follow ups to Amused to Death.
The Opera.. Ira Cara .. totally forgot about that . It didn't get released until 2005 ish though?
It's strange that he didn't tour Amused to Death as well.
Finance. He struggled to sell tickets for the Kaos tour and he wasn't yet leveraging his position as a personality outside the Pink Floyd brand.
And the show that was PULSE was not the last show. Probably done on purpose just in case something went wrong.
Well, the Division Bell tour ended with 15 shows a Earl's Court, I'm sure several, if not all of these shows were recorded, just to be sure they had enough material to piece together a "best of" set.
ATD 1992
I’ve often wondered the same thing. This drought between 92-99 was when I really got into Punk Floyd and Waters, so I was deeply plugged in to things back then. And there was nothing as far as Roger Waters was concerned. The theory was floated that his voice was shot and that he was done. There was a lot of talk too that he had lost interest in touring, due to the lack of intimacy. That first round of shows in ‘99 were quite small venues, and every year after that they increased until he became damn near as big of an act as Pink Floyd. I wish I had some answers for those 7 years, but I don’t.
I got into Floyd and Roger during the same time period. I remember in the early days of the internet, 1995 or so, I had somehow believed that Roger had an email address that was Imtheonethatspink@sourgrapes.net or something like that. I sent an email to Roger at that address letting him know he had plenty of fans in Phoenix and we really wanted him to tour. He never replied of course lol. It turned out that I was able to see him several times in the coming decades. 2000, 2006, 2012, 2016, 2022. Looking back now, I think maybe he was waiting out Dave, Rick and Nick to see what they were going to do. Kind of what's the point of touring if Pink Floyd is going to tour because he can't compete with that. Once it was obvious that Dave was done, Roger jumped in to fill the vacuum.
he did lost boys calling lol
Living his best life in Romsey Hampshire
Locked away working on his social graces
Committing war crimes in yugoslavia
He was probably masterba*ing, that's why there aren't any pictures. It's a very personal thing!
Well he certainly has caused mass debate on this sub…
I thought he was snow skiing in Switzerland and binging on young Swedish groupies