Amused to Death Tour

[moodyblue]

The Amused to Death tour that never was.
I remember at the time Roger said 'if it does well in Europe and America then i will come out and tour' or words to that effect. I have no idea of the actual facts in relation to sales of this album but it strikes me that our Rog isn't not exactly full of himself sometimes with a bit of an over inflated ego despite the fact i admire the man immensly but i have felt as the years have gone by that not only was he the loser on not touring that album but we as fans were indeed big losers to boot.
On seeing the In The Flesh tour, the best bits for me were the cuts from this album and how i would have loved to have heard more even to the point of dropping some of the Floyd cuts to hear it.
In my opinion, i feel his work on this album, the music and the story behind it rivalled The Wall in terms of direction and content and what an amazing scope he would have had with this album in turning it into a live show.
In recent years, he has come out of himself and put his ego to one side hopefully and got on with enjoying performing again but i do feel his ego got in the way and in saying 'if it doesn't sell this much then i won't tour with it', he made himself out to look like the guy who felt as an ex PF member that he expected success much like some of these premiership teams that feel they have a divine right to success but i can't help but feel we as fans really missed something.

[Dowie100]

Amused to Death would have been an amazing tour, just imagine we would have heard the whole album live and probably would have got to hear some of the outtakes from the album as well.

Well the lesson has been learned, we all need to buy 3 copies of Heartland when it comes out, He isnt getting out of touring that.

[Keith Jordan]

I am such a bad and young fan that I do not know anything about the possibility of this tour or much else about his other solo tours from before 2000!!

Anyone know where there is much info about this subject?

[J Ed]

I think he set himself some arbitrary benchmark of sales that wasnt reached
but the real issue was undoubtedly the Division Bell and inevitable tour

the lesson he learned in 1987 was that fans were more interested in a nostalgia show than a highconcept tour built round the presention of a complete new album
so even if he had toured in 1994 it might have been more like his recent PULSEstyle tours than his more adventurous 1980s tours

still, nice to imagine what might have been

[fatoldbob]

The Roger we have now is not the Roger of ten years ago. He has really gone through some self examination and put quite a bit of the ego aside.

There is a radio interview of Roger on NPR.org from the Ca Ira release that is quite revealing.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... Id=4958887

He is in a very reflective mood and has some revealing things to say about the breakup of Floyd. He even comes close to taking the brunt of the responsibility for the breakup.

I believe Roger and David will gradually thaw their relationship and be able to work together again in limited situations. They'll never make an album together, and I really don't see a tour without a new album. But I think more one-off charity concerts are in store for Pink Floyd. I can even see them each guesting occasionally on each other's tours. I don't think the final verse has been written yet.

[Keith Jordan]

Thanks! I will give that a listen.

[moodyblue]

The Roger we have now is not the Roger of ten years ago. He has really gone through some self examination and put quite a bit of the ego aside.

He is in a very reflective mood and has some revealing things to say about the breakup of Floyd. He even comes close to taking the brunt of the responsibility for the breakup.

Well that is how can i say, not before time really but why did it take him so long to realise that he couldn't live on his own cloud without coming back to earth at some point ?
At over aged 60 if this is true and i haven't listened to that interview yet, just so many wasted years and it need not have been so bitter over the years either.
I guess we all have our own life path to follow and Rogers no exception but it's just a shame really.
I can also remember him having a right go at Radio 1 around 1992 for them not playing his record and he didn't exactly mince his words. Something along the lines of ' i am possibly one of the most important songwriters this country has ever produced and i am kinda important in the music world and these wankers won't even play my record' !
Even though it were kind of true, no one likes hearing someone stroke their own ego.

[Yucateco]

I think he set himself some arbitrary benchmark of sales that wasnt reached
but the real issue was undoubtedly the Division Bell and inevitable tour

the lesson he learned in 1987 was that fans were more interested in a nostalgia show than a highconcept tour built round the presention of a complete new album
so even if he had toured in 1994 it might have been more like his recent PULSEstyle tours than his more adventurous 1980s tours

still, nice to imagine what might have been

Division Bell? AtD was released in 1992, the album DB and the tour was announced if i remember in nov/dez 1993....

[Damn!t]

On seeing the In The Flesh tour, the best bits for me were the cuts from this album and how i would have loved to have heard more even to the point of dropping some of the Floyd cuts to hear it

Exactly.
In my opinion, Rogers best solo album. Very much similar to Final Cut. The album that has to be heard from the beginning to the end, in one breath.
For me, the most powerfull tracks on his current tour are either from Amused to death or from the Final cut.
Dont know, but "earlyer" Floyd work doesent quite sound good when played by Rog and his band.
David does it a little bit better.
I guess that putting these two would be a perfect combination for a perfect gig. Imagine that.
Ah well...another live 8 performance is all i ask, and if not, i'll be happy with what happend last year.

[J Ed]

Division Bell? AtD was released in 1992, the album DB and the tour was announced if i remember in nov/dez 1993....

was it really well over a year between the 2 albums? I guess it was...
I remember waiting forever and ever for Roger to announce his tour,
then before that ever happened there were rumours of the new DaveFloyd album and suddenly all these people who didnt even know who PF were were suddenly making plans to see that tour (seriously, people couldnt name one song but had heard rumours about how BIG!!! the 87 tour was)

so youd assume Roger could have done a decent tour given all that time, before the competing band made any announcements
but i think Roger would have known Dave et al had been recording, and I think his bitterness over the 1987 experience would have influenced his decision

[Tenniru]

Here's a scenario. ATD was a big smash hit. Having had no plans, Roger immediately starts work on throwing together a tour concept/booking venues/getting the band/etc.
If it's anything like the KAOS/P&C tours and even if he had the KAOS band ready to rehearase, preperations would be finished at the same time the P*U*L*S*E tour was announced. If Roger was as business-minded as he sounded at the time, he'd cancel the venue bookings. He'd realize going against Pink Floyd, with it's #1 album and huge show, would result in absolute KAOS. He'd stay under cover until late 1994, when the initial booking of the P*U*L*S*E tour ended. He'd be moving around safely elsewhere when the closing Earl's Court gigs occured.

It'd be a bit late to promote, but he didn't appear to be interested in a promotional tour anyhow.

If he treated 1994 like 1987, we'd see a more mature KAOS-like setlist. Likely inclusions:

-All of ATD
-In The Flesh, Mother, Comfortably Numb, HDooL/ABITWII, Brain Damage/Eclipse (mini-concert standards of the 90s)
-Radio Waves, The Tide Is Turning, and The Powers That Be (most likely KAOS tracks due to how often he used them)
-Every Stranger's Eyes, The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking (most likely P&C tracks due to inclusion post-85)

And probably a few other random Floyd tracks (most of WYWH, Money, Breathe, possibly StC or If, and maybe a few KAOS tracks).

An AtD tour would have been amazing. It's an album that went far too unnoticed.

[moodyblue]

The silly bugger also took too long in delivering this album.
There were rumours around at the time of the actual album cover being three men floating dead in a cocktail glass but whether this were true who knows !
I also recall at the time that he had something ready in and around mid 1990ish but it seemed to take forever to finally be issued or did he go back and re-record some stuff or re-write some of the material ?

[Tenniru]

As soon as late 1987, Roger (and he said this himself) had gone into the studio recording some new tracks; namely most of KAOS2. By 1990, Bravery Of Being Out Of Range was written (a full acoustic version is present during the Wall In Berlin rehearsal bootleg), and by 1991 we saw What God Wants (pt. 1) at the Seville festival (or, what bootleggers called the piece at the time, Monkey Television).

I'm not sure why Roger took so long. It's possible he was just wounded and hiding from the Delicate Sound of Thunder tour for '88 and '89 and busy with The Wall In Berlin during 1990, but I have no idea what was going on in 1991.

There is most likely a near-complete unreleased KAOS sequel in Roger's vaults, finished in the 80s. It likely features a few elements of ATD (maybe even tBoBooR and WGW1), some of the scrapped songs appearing on KAOS B-Sides and the tour, and god knows what else.
You know, Roger has enough unreleased stuff (not counting released material on B-Sides, even) to release a sizable Odds And Sods album (or, in the case of KAOS2, Lifehouse).

[drafsack]

and by 1991 we saw What God Wants (pt. 1) at the Seville festival (or, what bootleggers called the piece at the time, Monkey Television).

They called it that as Roger announced that as the name of the song

[Machina]

I can't put into words how tired I am of Hearing WYWH and Comfortably Numb by either Roger or Dave/Pink Floyd