(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Fri 21 November 2025 20:42, UK
When Pink Floyd first started to see major stadiums, Roger Waters was the real conceptualist behind their stage show.
There needed to be more than a bunch of guys onstage playing the best music that they could, and by the time they hit on The Wall, those few shows playing the entire album are still one of the most grandiose stage sets that anyone has ever put together. Waters needed to make sure the band outdid themselves all the time, but it also could have been to get away from the stagnant form of rock and roll shows.
While the band weren’t shock rockers by any means, Waters at least understood where those stage lunatics were getting a lot of their ideas from. Alice Cooper knew that there needed to be something more than a bunch of guys sitting out onstage and giving it their all, and since Waters had written an entire rock opera around a disillusioned rock and roll star, it was only natural to build the whole thing from the ground up.
It cost a hefty chunk of change to put everything on, but it’s not like the results didn’t speak for themselves. The idea of seeing David Gilmour playing atop the wall was the kind of visual no one would have forgotten, and even if it got more than a little bit uncomfortable with all of the Nazi-adjacent performances when Pink starts hallucinating, it’s easy to admire the craftsmanship on display putting everything together.
Anyone else would have called this over-the-top, but Waters wouldn’t have had it any other way. The whole point of their albums was about pushing the envelope more and more when they started making records like Dark Side of the Moon, and given the nature of the record, he knew that the audience deserved a little better than watching a band like The Rolling Stones play their hearts out.
The Stones are still considered one of the greatest rock and roll bands that ever lived, but it makes sense why Waters would have had a few problems with their stage setup, saying, “The Stones’ music has never been very interesting, with a capital I. You know. It’s been fucking good, it’s been great. I was an incredible Stones fan. I still am, actually. I still think some of the stuff that they do is really good. I just think their shows are a joke, all those fucking people crammed into those big stadiums, I think they’re just as much of a joke for them as they were for us.”
Then again, comparing a Pink Floyd show to a Rolling Stones concert makes about as much sense as comparing apples to a 747. They were clearly going for a different vibe when they met their audiences, and when looking at what Mick Jagger lays down every single time he plays, it’s not like he wasn’t willing to give 110% whenever he ran across the stage.
It wasn’t as story-driven as what Waters was trying to say every single time he performed, but it’s not like The Stones couldn’t learn from what Waters was doing. There was no point in them trying to make their own take on a lavish concept album, but when looking at the massive changes in lighting and the massive onstage screens, they’re at least working from the same colour palette that Waters has been working with since his first solo stadium shows.
Even if Waters was unimpressed with what The Stones brought to the table, do you really think that has any effect on the millions of people going to see them to this day? Some of them are simply willing to pay tribute to the band that soundtracked their childhood, but there’s no way to see someone like Jagger make his way across the stage and not be entertained by the amount of energy he has.
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