The city of Frankfurt has canceled the concert by ex-Pink Floyd Roger Waters planned for May 28th and has described him as the “best-known anti-Semite in the world”. Underlying the annulment is in fact the well-known pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel positions of the 79-year-old musician, who has repeatedly made controversial statements on the issue, comparing the Tel Aviv government to South African apartheid and also to Nazism. In the past, Waters has also caused controversy at concerts for releasing pig-shaped balloons with the Star of David printed on them.
Alongside allegations of hatred of Israel, the artist has also been criticized for some remarks on the war in Ukraine, most notably when he defended Vladimir Putin before the UN Security Council, saying he condemned “the invasion but also those who caused it”.
Polly Samson, co-author of some Pink Floyd lyrics and wife of former bandmate David Gilmour, also recently took a stand against Roger Waters: “Unfortunately, Roger Waters, you are anti-Semitic to the core. You are also a Putin apologist and a liar, a thief, a hypocrite, a tax evader and lipsynchist, a misogynist, a pathological envious man, a megalomaniac. We’re done with your bullshit,” Samson tweeted. Waters responded by accusing her of “misjudgments,” and Gilmour (who hasn’t had good blood for years) intervened by responding that what his wife says is “all true and verifiable.”
The cancellation of the Frankfurt concert was welcomed by the city’s Jewish community. The Central Council of Jews in Germany also stated that the decision “shows that anti-Semitism in art and culture must not be tolerated” and called on it to regard this cancellation as “a signal for all other venues of Roger’s Deutschland-Tour Waters”. .
The former Pink Floyd is expected in Italy at the end of March. His “Roger Waters this is not a drill tour” will stop in our country on six dates: on March 27th, 28th, 31st and April 1st in Milan and on April 28th and 29th in Bologna.