Roger Waters: Ukraine-Russia comments, why he rerecorded Dark Side of the Moon - and Polly Samson Twitter feud

Roger Waters has re-recorded Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ without his other band members, and claimed ownership of the original album in a bizarre interview with the Daily Telegraph. The veteran rocker also described Ukraine as “not really a country at all” and “a patchy sort of vague experiment.”

The 79-year-old has also been exchanging jabs with former bandmate David Gilmour and his wife - lyricist Polly Samson - for the past week, after the latter attacked Waters on social media and accused him of anti-Semitism, which he denies.

Then on Wednesday (8 February), Waters made an unexpected virtual appearance during a UN Security Council meeting, during which he "condemned" the Russian invasion of Ukraine while simultaneously criticising the "provocateurs" he believed were to blame for prompting it.

Here’s everything you need to know.

Why has he re-recorded The Dark Side of the Moon?

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph about his forthcoming vinyl release of ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon’, Waters said he had “no idea” how to get around copyright issues for the album, which reached number two in the UK charts in 1973. He said he remade it “because not enough people recognised what it’s about” and what he “was saying then”.

“I wrote The Dark Side of the Moon,” he told the paper. “Let’s get rid of all this ‘we’ crap! Of course we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project and I wrote it. So… blah!”

But Waters’ issues with his former band and its members stretch back years, after he left Pink Floyd in 1985, launching unsuccessful legal action against the other members to stop them using the band’s name without him.

In 2020, Waters accused David Gilmour of banning him from using Pink Floyd’s website to promote his work, bemoaning what he claimed was a lack of access to the band’s millions of social media followers, saying he wished the accounts would feature his recently released, socially-distanced version of the song, ‘Mother’.

He said at the time: “Nothing from me is on the website. I am banned by David Gilmour from the website. David thinks he owns it. I think he thinks because I left the band in 1985 that he owns Pink Floyd, that he is Pink Floyd and that I’m irrelevant and that I should keep my mouth shut.”

What has he said about Ukraine?

In the same Daily Telegraph interview, Waters also said: “The Ukraine… is a deeply divided country. In fact, it’s not really a country at all, it’s only been there since Khrushchev, 1956. So it’s a patchy sort of vague experiment.” He added that he is “very happy with Barbados”, a former British colony, which became an independent state in the Commonwealth in 1966 and then became a republic two years ago.

Asked for an example of a time he has changed his mind due to the evidence, he said: “Yes, an article I wrote about three months ago calling Vladimir Putin a gangster… That may have been unfair. It may be that he’s leading his country to the benefit of all of the people of Russia.”

At the Security Council meeting on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine, Waters said he was representing “the feelings of countless brothers and sisters all over the world”. Reflecting on the war, he called for a ceasefire and said: “The invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation was illegal. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

But he also said: “the Russian invasion of Ukraine was not unprovoked. So I also condemn the provocateurs in the strongest possible terms.” In the Daily Telegraph interview, Waters said the idea that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “unprovoked” was “f***ing insane”, claiming that “Nazis” are “in control of the [Ukrainian] government.”

Following the address, the Ukrainian security council delegate Sergiy Kyslytsya criticised Waters as just a “brick in the wall of Russian disinformation and propaganda,” reminding the room that Pink Floyd were banned in the Soviet Union after they condemned the country for invading Afghanistan in 1979.

He added: “It is ironic, if not hypocritical that Mr Waters attempts now to whitewash another invasion. How sad for his former fans to see him accepting the role of just ‘a brick in the wall’, the wall of Russian disinformation and propaganda.”

Has he been anti-Semitic?

Over the last week, the 79-year-old has traded barbs with former bandmate David Gilmour and the guitarist’s wife, lyricist Polly Samson, after the latter attacked Waters on social media and accused him of anti-Semitism and being a Putin apologist, which Waters denies. Gilmour added that his wife’s words were “demonstrably true.”

A statement from Waters on Monday (6 February) said he was “aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes entirely” and that he was “taking advice as to his position”.

In 2020, Waters said there had been “rumblings and grumblings” from fans unhappy about watching Polly Samson, novelist and wife of Gilmour, “year after year, month after month, day after day” on Pink Floyd’s social media channels.