100 Concerts / Concert #7

Headline Act: Roger Waters

Touring Album: The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking

Opening Act: none

Date: April 13, 1985

Venue: The Hollywood Sportatorium. Hollywood, FL

Ticket price: $15.00

“The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh, by the way, which one’s Pink?” 
– "Have A Cigar" (1975)

Early Floyd: Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Richard Wright

Most music fans assume the question above was a dig at fat-cat record company execs who were too busy counting their millions to learn or care about the musicians who made them rich. But perhaps the query was directed inward at the members of Pink Floyd who struggled to determine the answer to the real question: "Whose band is it anyway?"

In their formative years, Pink Floyd was unquestionably Syd Barrett’s band. Wearing their LSD on their sleeves, The Floyd's psychedelic multimedia performances influenced many other artists in the late ‘60s London club scene. But it was all too much, too soon, and too intense for Barrett who took an infamous drug-fueled cliff dive into the abyss of Insanity and Schizophrenia. It was a one-way ticket for Syd who lived a hazy, mysterious existence until his death in 2006.

David Gilmour (2nd from left) replaced Syd Barrett

As Barrett slipped away, David Gilmour joined the band.  Though he was a talented guitarist and singer, he would prove to be no match for bassist Roger Waters, the eventual Alpha Dog of the group. Waters flexed his considerable creative muscles over most of the band’s post-Barrett career. 

Despite their differences in musical direction and personalities, Waters and Gilmour led the band through the writing and recording of the legendary "The Dark Side Of The Moon” (1974), the haunting Barrett-inspired  “Wish You Were Here”(1975), and the caustic “Animals” (1977). By the time “The Wall” (1979) and “The Final Cut” (1983) were released, the band was in shambles. Waters was the band's creative pacesetter, plowing ahead as his bandmates struggled with drugs, divorce, and other issues. "The Final Cut" was essentially a Waters solo album. Throughout the band’s roller coaster of enormous success and bitter personality clashes, one thing was constant - Roger Waters was Pink.

Inevitably, Waters left the band. Despite his protests and legal wrangling, the rest of the group (Gilmour, keyboardist Rick Wright, drummer Nick Mason, and several session musicians) recorded and toured with “A Momentary Lapse Of Reason” (1987) and “The Division Bell” (1994).

Mr. Pink, before Steve Buscemi

Once he was post-Floyd, Waters released “The Pros And Cons Of Hiitchhiking” (1984), a complicated album, never intended to be radio-friendly. Told in "real time", the songs (with their time-stamped titles) weave a story of life on the road as seen through the eyes of one man. "Pros And Cons"' is a microcosm of much of Waters' songwriting: mysterious, angry, humorous, beautiful, and dark.

I had not digested this album properly by March of 1985, but being a Pink Floyd fan I was intrigued to see Waters perform.  The 1982 Alan Parker film of “The Wall” was a favorite Midnight Movie at our local AMC theatre (“Stop that dog!”). My group of friends and I spent many non-sober hours trying to make sense of "The Wall"s themes and lyrics. Though my pre-college Floydian knowledge was incomplete, we knew we were in store for a great show from Waters.  Eric Clapton was the guitarist on the album and for the U.K. portion of the tour, but we were not as fortunate, instead Andy Fairweather-Low handled Slowhand’s duties. Also in Waters' touring band was saxophonist Mel Collins, who has played with The Rolling Stones, Dire Straits, Bad Company, The Alan Parsons Project and others.

Waters' alter-ego, "Reg", from the "Pros & Cons" album art

The first of the concert's two sets was all Pink Floyd material, and the crowd ate it up. In the second set, Waters did something I had not witnessed before, and very few times since. He played his album.  Not a few songs or a 5-song sampling. He played the entire f-in' album. To pull this off you have to be an established act. You have to be ultra-confident in the message and style of your material. And you have to not give a shit whether or not you are boring the audience.  Roger Waters had huge balls. He was Pink, after all.

It was a stunning performance of an expertly crafted piece of music, marked by dramatic highs and lows.  This show solidified me further as a Floyd fan and was the first of three memorable shows I have been fortunate enough to see Roger Waters play.

The original "Pros And Cons" album art seen here featured the bare behind of a blonde woman, hitch hiking by the side of a road.  This image ignited a controversy as some people accused the record company of advertising rape. Columbia Records eventually released a censored version of the cover with a black rectangle covering the model's best assets. By today's standards of pop culture (virtually R-rated primetime sitcoms and X-rated pop & hip-hop songs), this album cover seems as innocent as the married Lucy and Ricky Ricardo having separate beds on "I Love Lucy", it's almost Puritanical!

Unofficial setlist: (Set 1) Welcome To the Machine, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Money, If, Wish You Were Here, Pigs on the Wing (part 1), Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Desert, Southampton Dock, The Gunner's Dream, In The Flesh, Nobody Home, Have A Cigar, Another Brick in the Wall Part 1, The Happiest Days Of  Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall Part 2,  (Set 2) 4:30 AM (Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad), 4:33 AM (Running Shoes), 4:37 AM (Arabs with Knives and West German Skies), 4:39 AM (For the First Time Today, Part 2), 4:41 AM (Sexual Revolution), 4:47 AM (The Remains of Our Love), 4:50 AM (Go Fishing), 4:56 AM (For the First Time Today, Part 1),4:58 AM (Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin), 5:01 AM (The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking, Part 10), 5:06 AM (Every Stranger's Eyes), 5:11 AM (The Moment of Clarity) (Encore) Brain Damage / Eclipse