Roger Waters shouted profanities at fans as they started walking out during the Pink Floyd rocker’s performance in London on Sunday night.
It was the first concert since the release of The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, Waters' re-imagining of Pink Floyd’s 1973 classic. Fans were eagerly awaiting the live debut of material from the album, but many in attendance were disappointed when they unexpectedly watched the singer read from his unreleased autobiography for roughly an hour.
According to the Daily Mail, Waters “read out pages of notes about his pets, including a duck called Donald, which he discussed for 20 minutes - leaving audience members stunned.” Another report noted that the singer spent time "ranting" about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Meanwhile, The Times reported that another anecdote “began promisingly as a memory of Floyd’s original leader, Syd Barrett, but revealed nothing more than that Barrett wrote a lot of songs and had an innocent air about him.”
When some members of the audience began talking among themselves, Waters became agitated.
“If you want to tell stories, tell them in your own time to your own audience in your own f*cking theatre,” the rocker declared. “By the way, if you can, show constraint and stop shouting again.”
Later, when some fans began to leave, Waters told them to “f*ck off.”
Roger Waters Eventually Performed 'Redux' in Full
After his hour-long spoken-word segment, Waters performed a pair of songs, “The Bar” and “Mother.” There was then a 20-minute intermission, followed by a short film chronicling the creation of The Dark Side of the Moon Redux. After this, Waters delivered the album’s 11 songs in order.
Some of the frustration surrounding Waters' show could be chalked up to simple miscommunication. Pink Floyd news site Brian Damage noted that the performance was always promoted as being split into two halves: the first portion referred to as "Other Stuff" while the second being The Dark Side of the Moon Redux performed in full.
To that end, there were still plenty of fans who seemed pleased by the experience. Those audience members who didn't walk out gave the Pink Floyd co-founder a standing ovation at the end of the show.