Roger Waters has released ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ EP.
The Pink Floyd legend – who co-founded the legendary prog rock group and was co-lead vocalist from 1968 until 1983 – released a more sombre version of the band’s 1979 classic ‘Comfortably Numb’ last month, and he’s followed that up with a collection of their classics and his solo recordings, recorded at home amid the COVID-19 shut down of 2020 through to 2022.
‘Comfortably Number 22′ was recorded during Waters’ US leg of his ‘This Is Not A Drill Tour’ earlier this year.
The EP also includes a recording of Floyd’s ‘Mother’ and ‘Vera’ from ‘The Wall’, ‘Two Suns In The Sunset’ and ‘The Gunner’s Dream’ from ‘The Final Cut’, plus ‘The Bravery of Being Out Of Range’ from his much-lauded 1992 solo LP ‘Amused To Death’.
In a statement, the 79-year-old musician said of the origin of the project: “Our Us and Them Tour lasted three years…At every gig we did an encore after the main show closed with Comfortably Numb…the encore was always Mother…I can’t remember why I decided to start doing other songs?…Anyway, at some point after the end of the tour…I started thinking, ‘It could make an interesting album, all those encores’…”The Encores”. ‘Yeah, has a nice ring to it!’ Then…I’m in England doing the Ginger Baker tribute gig one Tuesday night at the Hammersmith Odeon with Eric Clapton and…the following Saturday marching from The Australian Embassy to Parliament Square to make a speech in support of Julian Assange, when bugger me, Covid…Schlummmm! For me it was Friday March 13th 2020. Lockdown! So much for the “Encores” project. Unless…
“We’ve tacked C. Numb on the end of the collection, as an appropriate exclamation point in closing this circle of love.”
The ‘This Is Not A Drill Tour’ will come to Europe in 2023 with 40 shows across 14 European countries, starting in Lisbon on March 17, 2023 at the Altice Arena.
Stream and download ‘The Lockdown Sessions’ on all major platforms via rogerwaters.lnk.to/lockdown-sessions.