Why did Waters spit on the guy in the crowd?

Why did Waters spit on the guy in the crowd at the concert?

On the "Animals In the Flesh" tour , Roger Waters spit on a crazed fan in Montreal, Canada. The fan was screaming his head off in the middle of a song and trying to claw his way across the barrier that separated the band from the audience. Apalled by this action, Roger wondered what it would be like if there was a real, live wall separating him from the crazy fans. Inspired, Waters began to create his magnum opus.

Yeah it was Rogers frustration really, stemming from the fact the audience wanted something totally different from that what the band wanted to give.

Lots of crazed fans there for the "space trip" ect.

Rog felt the music wasn't getting across....and he snapped.

Ok that answers, you question about the spit incident. However, what about the line " who let all this rif-raf into the room?" Now, we all it applied to the minorities like queer, Jew etc.etc. Why did he do that? Did he habor some kind of hate against these people? Was he so insecure with himself, he had to lash out at these types of people??!?! Why dind't he just mention that the rif-raf, were the over excited members of the audience, who were drunks and didn't know how to behave themselves, rather than attack the minorities, who were maybe were not the rif-rafs, and did not cause harm in anyway, and probably got his message. He said in a interview, he wanted everyone to run away from the minorities. I know he claims time and time again, he is not racist nor is he prejudice...but was it some young boy, rebel fantasy or is he trying haboring some kind of hate for these people in his heart? (of course he can't admit it, he will probably lose a large amount of fans.)

If you listen to the RoIO of that particular performance, you can understand why Rog was pissed. The crowd was noisy and obnoxious throughout the show. Had I been there, I'd probably have punched out a few of those idiots myself.

Sue, calm down. It was only "theater".

Welcome, BTW.

Thanks. I'm calm. But I understand that "The Wall" was partly based on his personal life and views, so I was just curious, as to whether he really had feelings like that in his heart. He sort of took out his anger on these types of people.

Yes, I saw in program charting the making of the Wall Roger said the Nazi element ect was satire.

He said I hope the audience got it or it must have seemed F***ing awful.

There are many posts and several threads here that deal with that subject. If you run a good search, you'll find lots of discussion about it.

I suppose there is. But I don't really want to take the time to see what people have put down as their views. I just thought maybe someone could answer it -- now. Anyway, is Roger Waters going on tour sometime this year around the US, particularly around the North-East, New England - Mid-Atlantic area. I guess the only person who knows the real answer is the author himself.

There's an excellent article here at APFFN, from Marcel Daoust, who attended the show where the 'spitting accident' took place, which might clarify your questions a bit.

Wow ! Very interesting article. But husband went to two Pink Floyd concerts back in the 80's in Philly. They used to play at the JFK stadium here. He was in the front row as well. However, he said no one really ever complained. The shows were spectacular. I guess sometimes it depends on venues and timing and I guess they work with different people in different cities. I recently saw Def Leppard in concert...at a small venue, the sound was totally distorted. They are really nice guys as people....but I don't know if they lost it!!! They didn't sound as in tune as I thought would have. Now I saw the Fleetwood Mac tour, and I thought that was wonderful. Mick can still play thouse drums, as if he was a young kid..so full of energy!!! I saw Radiohead play recently and they are the type of band that should play at small venues, they thought they could entertain a huge crowd at the tweeter Center in Camden, NJ but the people who were in the lawn part of the crowd, could not hear a thing nor see them. The huge screens that were supposed to show them to the whole crown were not on and when it did come on, it was just facing the piano keyboard not Thom or the rest of the guys.
So the bottomline is, those French-Canadian were the basis for his anger towards minorities. However, that still does not explain why he didn't say against the French- Canadians. INstead he chose to act Jews and queers, which may not have even been in the audience.

I type too fast...I meant to say that does not explain why he attacked Jews and queers in the audience.

tjamls

A very interesting article indeed, and I thank you for sharing it with us all. At first I thought Waters was out of his mind and just being a complete dick about whatever happened, but I hate to say the kid deserved it, but he kind of did. I still don't think it was right to spit on the guy.