Hello / intro - Patmos LSD Question - long post

[petey twofinger]

perhaps i did not title this properly as i want to introduce myself before just asking for help so maybe if you dont give a f*ck about me , skip all the intro as i say HI for a few paragraphs , and introduce myself .

warning : the following may contain lots of words , sentences with incorrect grammar spelling and punctuation - so if this infuriates you please leave AND refrain from commenting . i am a deeply flawed human being . i do not use a cell phone or own one , i tend to not be in a rush or hurry all of the time , i am handicapped and i sit at this terminal most of my life as i am suffer imobilizing chronic pain .

i know i sound like i am hostile , perhaps i am , i tend to attract verbal beat downs and troll attacks constantly when i am on line the amount of negativity i can generate is incredible .

Hello there , this is my first post . RW was my first concert , i had just lost my father , it was pros and cons tour in chicago on some black dove blotter . Since that incredibly moving experience where i was shaken to my core i have not missed a RW tour . things got pretty hairy on a 1/4 oz of shrooms at the kaos tour leading to recurring nuke nightmares i had for 15 years . i am a massive PF/RW/SB who also appreciates DG (especially on an island) from time to time when he isnt making himself look like a pompous asshole trillionaire nose in the air coke head . i am however "all good" with the band breaking up , i feel every thing went as it should of ideally giving us the competitive spirit , the material that exists , and also the live shows i was able to see . at the same turn i have extra empathy for RW as i feel he truly deserved to be the one selling out the arenas , as no matter how many killowatts of lights and laser you rent out , its NOT pink floyd , and technically it was not actually pink floyd since SYDS departure but i digress . as a fan who has digested all of the material , including the solo albums its tough for me to attend these events and hear comments as most people do not know much but there is always the one guy in the group who is the designated floyd guy but he tends to get a lot of his facts half correct and imaginatively fill in the blanks . not that i am a pro tech or expert , i pay attention , i have read a lot , and most of all i have a strong connection with the music , that over time i have to admit over doing it and NOT listening to any pink floyd unless it was on the radio post 1988 till present day . i simply wore all of it out . i still love it and revist some of it , but its often connected with so much emotional baggage that its tough for me . i was in the middle of absorbing the wall when my dad passed . talk about "perfect timing" ...


i am a bit older now , as i was 16 for my first show i do not carry on so much a few bottles of cider or a glass of wine here and there is typically more then enough for me as i have grown up quite a bit . i have broadened my musical horizons quite a bit , but i still hold this band in the highest esteem , even over the beatles . i mean come on , pink floyd is number one , lets face it .

i got pretty sick last year with panic attacks from some medication and it messed me up for a long time . thru that process i made a series of videos that i am fairly proud of called " acid casualties" although the name is more sensationalist . the SB episode now live on vimeo , but the peter greene , skip spence , rocky ericson , vince taylor are all alive and well on youtube . i am guessing that some of you maybe a few may have seen one of these things , but i also must say that series is over and done with - see episode six .

for the syd B episode i removed the comments and then removed the video as i could not take being attacked every day , the same thing kind of happened with the peter green episode as fans tend to not watch the video or at the first sentence were they disagree they lay into me and i don't play nice with youtube negativity when the person speaking does not have a single upload .


so thats me , HI ! hello to all

i am a huge fan of rogers work , i have consumed all of it , all of the solo albums pretty much , not that i know it all or am an expert i am just thrilled to be here as tonight we are going to us and them , me and my kid , i have cought every tour since pros and cons , and i was so lucky in that when he brought the wall out that was on my birthday so that was really cool coincidence . my birthday also lines up with a very extremely significant date in PF history but i dont like mentioning the exact day .

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

so ... the reason i am here . a while back , maybe last year i saw this video on youtube , it was two people , rogers age , they were friends of his , these two folks a man and a woman , nigel and jenny perhaps ? they reiterated this tale of their journey to the island of patmos with roger where he consumed lsd . their claim in this video was that at one point in the night , roger was seated and they were all speaking , asking him questions , when they asked him "do you want to be famous" he replierd " yes , yes i do . " at that moment a beam of light came thru the window and hit him square in the forehead . the folks who made this claim also mentioned they were not tripping or high at all . the island of Patmos , now i may be incorrect but they mentioned it was the island of " john of Revelations fame " so i seem to remember this detail but i could be incorrect on the actual island .

now i have snooped around with google and youtube search i simply can not find the video ... i have found references to RW / lsd / patmos , the scorpion under the bed and the new your traffic trip indecent as well but no " beam of light " .

this was one of those incredible stories that most folks would right off as horse pucky but if you watch this video these people are convinced they are telling the truth , it seemed legit and i simply have to find this video so i can show my kid . i was hoping to get this handled before the show tonight but ...


thanks in advance and i am NOT sorry if i type alot, i DO have bad grammar and punctuation , i could care less about that . if that angers you please do not ever click on anything associated with me . i speak and type a lot . folks that are in a huge hurry , do not assume i can respond or assist you quickly or by using emoticons , abbreviations hand signals semaphore or carrier pigeons .

ok go ahead and lay into me .

this is a music forum , so i know the drill .

[twcc]

Welcome aboard

Interesting post. Well, Patmos is a real location and a google search brings up an interesting story that was published in a reputable UK newspaper -

https://www.ft.com/content/01d137aa-5be ... 144feab49a

Hopefully, the link will work for non-UK users.

Maybe noteworthy is the piece was published on April Fools Day in 2011 (but I guess that may just be a coincidence).

Keep strong and take care

[petey twofinger]

hey thank you very much for the response , unfortunately i can not afford to pay to subscribe to view the link you provided . i am super curious what that link leads to .

the show "us and them " concert was spectacularly wonderfu;l . apart from the new guys vocals being a bit un DGish , and the back up singers having there way with great gig in thre sky i would say it was one of the top RW shows i have attended . the sound was incredibly good , the band did a wonderful job , at times i wondered how much backing tracks are being used as it had a "exactly like the album" but louder , better with some extra sugar on top effects and presence , like the loud bursts in the title song " us and them , where so powerfully moving and intense .

he has so many tricks up his sleeve this time around even a person with hdddddd would not get board . all of them worked very well i thought , but i missed the low frequency when the monolith rises at the end of machine .

tea time went with pig masks , it was champagne and he lifted his mask to the synth note of the lead mimicking the filter in the note which made me loose it . they used some video effects on the jumbotron ( video echo perhaps) on the pig mask close ups which i thought wasnt very nice .... ( like what if someone was on shrooms )

over all left wanting more . i could have went for 3-5 more tunes but leaving with less being more is understandable and it certainly wasnt a short sheet . i would say if you are on the fence for this one as you saw his wall ytour , absolutely go , do not miss this may be his finest hour . it just worked so extremely well with the effects and how good the band sounds with this new setup i have to say i felt it was a top shelf show , maybe even my all time favortie RW experience . i laughed a lot . i sang , but also the messages where almost a bit much i will say that . he certainly has not lost his spark to attempt to get a point thru . ha .

met some great folks tailgating , talked about music before and after the show . wonderful conversation , lots of weed being consumed , didnt notice too many drunkos but there was some un-warrented hippie dancing going on and sing along stuff that i suppose you just cant avoid , thankfully none in our direct area . that can ruin it , if those types are in front of us and they get really carried away and spilling shit and singing out of tune ...

thank you roger waters , your father would have been very proud of you .

[twcc]

Here's a grab -

Oh no. Roger Waters isn’t hungry. “I’d like some gravadlax, and that’s all I’d like, thank you,” he says having inspected the Berkeley hotel’s three-course menu, which he then briskly pushes away as if rejecting an autograph request.

The waiter wonders if we’d like an aperitif. “Beer?” I pipe up, having read somewhere that the Pink Floyd founder is an ale drinker. But, no, it turns out he isn’t, not any more. If he were drinking at lunch, he might have a bottle of lager. But not today; a lime cordial will be fine.

My hopes of a long convivial lunch are dashed. Well, a long lunch anyway. Conviviality has never been a trait widely associated with Waters, writer of brooding songs on the wretchedness of the human condition and perpetrator of rock’s most titanic feud when he fell out with the rest of Pink Floyd in the 1980s. He’s currently restaging The Wall, the Floyd’s Waters-penned, semi-autobiographical concept album about a rock star who feels alienated, goes mad and becomes a fascist demagogue. Since its release in 1979 the album has sold more than 25m copies and led to one of the most famous live tours in rock history, involving a 40ft wall being constructed between the audience and the band – a remarkable exercise in stadium rock theatrics, like Bertolt Brecht with guitar solos.

Our venue is a private room in the Berkeley, a swish Knightsbridge hotel that he favours when he’s visiting London from his New York home. We face each other at a large round table laid out with elaborate formality, alone but for two service staff who periodically ghost through the door. Waters, 67, is tall, dressed in black and has leonine white hair and grey stubble. When one of the waiters lingers, standing behind the rock star in the manner of a footman attending an 18th-century aristocrat, there’s a flash of irascibility.

“If you’re bringing something in, that would be great; otherwise would you mind not standing there, it’s slightly alarming,” Waters says. The hotel employee explains, in a defensive tone, that he’s waiting for us to order from the wine list – “I need to do some service” – before beating a retreat clutching said wine list, leaving a faint tang of resentment hanging in the air.

Waters has a reputation for being overbearing. Nick Mason, Pink Floyd’s drummer, wrote in his autobiography: “Once he sees a confrontation as necessary he is so grimly committed to winning that he throws everything into the fray – and his everything can be pretty scary.” Gerald Scarfe, The Wall’s illustrator, has described Waters (admiringly) as a “megalomaniac”.

His self-belief certainly seems immense. During the meal he has occasion to compare himself with Shakespeare, Woody Guthrie and Richard Dawkins. Yet there’s another side to Waters, which emerges with a mischievous grin that often sneaks over his features, bringing an amused, lopsided look to his long face. This Waters is relaxed and discursive: convivial, even.

“There’s nothing I like more than lunch,” he says when I remark on his lack of appetite. “Particularly with my beloved. Nothing better than lunch with the beloved; hopefully, sun and a little bit of sea, somewhere foreign. And then sex in the afternoon, perfect.” Out comes the mischievous smile.

Right, I say, wrongfooted by this unexpected insight into Waters’s life with his fourth wife Laurie. So, um, food-wise, nothing too heavy then for these lunches, no big roasts? “No, I like that too, the English family roast thing. Roast chicken with proper bread sauce is very, very good. I also like big family lunches where it’s hot. I used to spend a lot of time in Greece. That sort of big Greek or Italian family lunch with kids down one end, adults at the other, and it goes on for five or six hours.”

Talk of sex emboldens me to ask about drugs. It was on the Greek isle of Patmos, in the 1960s, that Waters had one of his few LSD experiences. “There was nothing culinary about that trip, as I recall. That was when acid came out of proper laboratories and was beyond powerful. In later years people would talk, not least my kids, about dropping acid and going off and doing things and I’d go, ‘No, that’s not what I’m talking about.’” He chuckles. “There was no question of ‘going’ anywhere or ‘doing’ anything. The idea of standing would have been completely wrong. So I stopped all that quite quickly.” There is a gurgle as the waiter, who has crept back in again, pours sparkling water into his glass.

Hallucinogens play a tragic part in the Pink Floyd story. The band formed in 1965 in London, but its core members grew up in Cambridge. Waters’ school friend Syd Barrett was the leader of the group, overseeing their 1967 debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. But Barrett’s heavy LSD use triggered a mental breakdown and he was ejected from the band in 1968.

It was widely assumed the leaderless Pink Floyd would fold. Yet Waters, Nick Mason and keyboardist Richard Wright recruited another Cambridge native, David Gilmour, to replace Barrett on lead guitar and continued to record albums. Progress was haphazard but they gradually found their feet. Waters identifies 1971’s underappreciated but atmospheric Meddle as the turning point. The most driven member of the band, he was vital in keeping Pink Floyd going after Barrett’s departure and gradually assumed creative control.

During his years as Pink Floyd’s helmsman, from The Dark Side of the Moon in 1973 to The Final Cut in 1983, they became one of the biggest bands in rock history. Barrett may be portrayed as the band’s doomed genius, a psychedelic Icarus, but it was intense, single-minded Roger Waters who made Pink Floyd fly.

Our food arrives. Waters has ordered what must be one of the most expensive pieces of gravadlax in history (£75!) but leaves his exorbitant slice of fish untouched as he talks about The Wall’s return. He is on the European leg of a tour that began in North America last year, where it was one of 2010’s highest-grossing concert tours, taking more than $89m. “It has been incredible, it couldn’t have been more successful,” he says. The album, which was also made into a film starring Bob Geldof, tells the story of Pink, loosely based on Waters himself. Pink’s father dies in the second world war, as did Waters’s father Eric. Pink’s marriage collapses, like Waters’s turbulent first marriage to the potter Judy Trim did in 1975. Pink’s breakdown into isolation and self-loathing as a result of rock stardom mirrors Waters’ experiences. It was inspired by his disillusionment playing huge stadium shows with Pink Floyd, climaxing in a notorious occasion in Montreal in 1977 when he spat at a disruptive fan.

It must be odd, I suggest as Waters cuts into his gravadlax, to revisit an album made under such emotionally oppressive circumstances. The personal aspects have faded, he says: “I’m happy to be an actor in a historical document.” He loves singing the profoundly pessimistic couplet “Day after day, love turns grey/ Like the skin of a dying man”, from “One of My Turns”, a song inspired by the break-up of his marriage. “I love it,” he reiterates, forking salmon into his mouth. My fork pauses over my suddenly less attractive grey-fleshed halibut.

The Wall is also haunted by his father’s death in the battle of Anzio in Italy in 1944, when Waters was just a few months old. The theme of war is prominent in the new staging. Audiences are encouraged to send in photos of loved ones who have died in conflicts, which are projected during the show. In the US, Waters invited wounded veterans to join him backstage during the interval. The staging caused controversy last year when the Anti-Defamation League, a pro-Israel pressure group, took exception to another aspect of the show. “They read something in Rolling Stone about the star of David being juxtaposed against a dollar sign and said this was bringing out the worst racial stereotype of the grasping Jew. They were sort of accusing me of being Shakespeare, I suppose, which is fine.” He chuckles. It takes me a moment to realise he means The Merchant of Venice.

Brought up in a socialist household by his teacher mother, Mary, Waters is more outspoken than the average rock grandee. “Power resides in ideas,” he says. What sort of ideas, I ask, growing accustomed to my role as Boswell to his Johnson. “Economists are important. So are radical free thinkers in theology.” Like who? “Richard Dawkins is the name that springs to mind, he’s about the most radical. I myself am a radical atheist and I propound my views from time to time, when I suggest that it is not God’s will that you become a Muslim, it’s an accident of birth, it’s geography.”

Can rock music change the world? “Insofar as it ever was able to, it still can. I would like to think I am no less effective than Woody Guthrie was. I may be overblowing my claims.”

Our plates are cleared away and coffee ordered: white with sugar for Waters.

The Wall marked the beginning of the end for Pink Floyd’s classic line-up. Waters’ bandmates chafed at being bossed about, and they ruptured after 1983’s The Final Cut. A vicious falling-out ensued as Waters unsuccessfully tried to prevent Gilmour, Mason and Wright from operating as Pink Floyd.

However, in 2005 the band reunited at the Live 8 charity concert, and relations appear to have thawed. With Wright’s death in 2008, there are only three of them left. “Nick [Mason] and I have become close friends again, which is great. He was always my friend in Pink Floyd. So the fact we fell apart and lost contact for many years was a shame.” He is more guarded about Gilmour but things have improved enough for the guitarist to play a cameo on “Comfortably Numb” at a forthcoming Wall concert. “Yeah. So he says. That’ll be great. I look forward to that,” Waters says in a measured way, stirring his coffee.

Has he become less controlling as he has got older? “No,” he says emphatically. “No. That’s the way the work got done. I am the director. I always was. It’s like you don’t say Scorsese is such a controlling character, or Bertolucci or whoever it may be – you go, ‘Oh, didn’t they make good movies.’ And they do it because they’re controlling. Sometimes it becomes problematic if you have a thing called a ‘group’ and one person is controlling it because he’s doing all the work.

“So, no, I haven’t become less controlling. I’m much happier now because I’m not pretending to work in a group. That’s not to say I don’t work with a group of people.” He reels off a list of names of people working on the Wall tour. “We’re a real close-knit team, we’re like a family, it’s fantastic. What I haven’t got is, like, somebody who thinks [he adopts a gormless voice], ‘I’m in the band too, why is he telling me what to do?’ Just because he knows more than you do and he’s the writer and it’s his thing, that’s the way it is.”

Waters has released four solo albums since leaving Pink Floyd. None has come close to matching Floyd’s success, though he says 1992’s magnificently ambitious Amused to Death is “one of the things I’m proudest of in my life”. Was there was a chemistry in the band that he hasn’t managed to repeat? “It was great, yeah. That was extremely lucky for all of us and we made some fantastic work together.” He takes a sip of coffee. “I have to say, and this might just be an opinion and I might be wrong – no, I probably shouldn’t say this.” Please feel free to, I say.

“All right, I will. The work I’ve done since I left the Floyd is all way more successful than the work they’ve done since they left the Floyd. That’s just a personal opinion. They may have sold more, I’m not sure what the figures are.”

Though he can’t resist the jab, Waters strikes me as far less prickly than either the Floyd’s turbulent history or The Wall’s tortured subject matter might suggest. Despite the relative lack of food, our lunch has unfolded at a leisurely rate. As our coffee cups are removed, and I divert the eye-watering bill from his room charge to my debit card, he talks about the time a scheduling quirk left him playing a solo tour in the US at the same time as his erstwhile Pink Floyd bandmates. It was 1987. He was playing middling-sized venues holding about 1,500. Meanwhile the Waters-less Pink Floyd were popping up like bad memories at all the same cities playing huge stadiums holding many tens of thousands. “That,” he says, mischievous smile reappearing, “was character-forming.”

[petey twofinger]

thanks very much for taking the time to share this link , however i was able to find this and two more refrences to patmos and the lsd trip . the video i am looking for must not exsist anymore . i believe it could have even been a syd barrett video , i could be wrong . it was one year ago , i pasted it to my facebook , i think so i am going to ask someone more qualified to do a search there .


in the mean time , Catch the roger waters us and them tour .

it could be his best tour yet .

we were able to see a scecond show in mi wi , which was a last minute hectic run , due to traffic , it took us 2.5 hours plus to get to the venue , which is a shame . we missed the first floyd set which was my favorite chunk of the show .

[Kerry King]

in the mean time , Catch the roger waters us and them tour .

No thanks. After reading that interview it's quite obvious that Waters is one of Them. I'm still one of Us.

[twcc]

^^^
Just for the records, that interview was not printed as a tie-in for the current tour but was from 2011

[pink_chris]

Here you go!