Pink Floyd Momentarily Reunites

Gilmour and Waters played together again

Over the weekend, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Roger Waters reunited to perform four songs at an English benefit that raised money for young Palestinian refugees, marking the first time the two played in public since 2005's Live 8 concert. Gilmour and Waters have had an acrimonious relationship since they first split up in the '80s, but the co-organizer of the benefit, Bella Freud, tells Rolling Stone that the two were in high spirits at the show, which suggests the two might have finally buried the hatchet. "David arrived first and then Roger came on and I saw Roger give David a hug," she says. "It was really lovely."

While the reunion was unannounced, there were plenty of preparations going into the event. Gilmour and Waters geared up for their short set by sound checking "To Know Him Is to Love Him," "Comfortably Numb" and "Wish You Were Here." "There were about 30 people milling about," Freud says. "Everyone was just stunned." Freud also says she tried to get Gilmour and Waters to perform together at a Hoping benefit show last year, but scheduling conflicts prevented it from taking place. "There was the possibility of something happening," she says. "David said he would do something and I asked Roger and he said, 'I would definitely be up for it,' but he was away."

Gilmour and Waters were originally planning to play three songs. But one attendee, British financier Arpad Busson, was so taken with the performance, he donated £50,000 to get them to play "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2." "Some other people were also saying they'd give £200,000 for them to play one more song," Freud adds. "People were crying — really! I know it sounds corny, but it was magic. David and Roger — they looked so happy up there and they made something so beautiful happen."

As Rolling Stone previously reported, Waters has said he asked Gilmour to join 30th anniversary tour for The Wall, but Gilmour was "uninterested" in the offer.

Additionally, Gilmour is going to play guitar at one of Waters' Wall shows

So here's what happened. Last year, 'The Hoping Foundation' a charity that supports Palestinian refugee kids, (www.hopingfoundation.org) put on a fund raiser at Ronnie Scott's Club in London, the idea of which was to raise money by auctioning karaoke performances by various celebrities. David was there as a supporter and was moved to perform an impromptu rendition of George Gershwin's 'Summertime?' which he performed aided and abetted by supermodel Kate Moss.

In the wake of that evening, someone, I think it was David himself, came up with this 'Wouldn't it be funny', idea. What if he (David that is) were to sing the old Teddy Bears song 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' with me (Roger that is), what with us having been so famously at each other's throats for years and years. Get it!!!! Anyway he E-mailed me with this suggestion and I loved it, so then it was just a question of juggling dates and deciding to do 'Wish You Were Here' and 'Comfortably Numb' to round out our little set. Or so I thought, until he sent me a number of very musical and eloquent demos of how we could do the song in two-part harmony. I listened with a sinking heart, knowing that David, with his superior vocal skills, could sing either part standing on his head, whilst I would have to search for a different key and then struggle through hours and hours of routining a performance that lay way outside my vocal comfort zone. To my eternal shame I bottled out and told Dave I would happily do 'Wish You Were Here' and 'C. Numb', but that 'To Know him is to Love him' was beyond me.

Some weeks passed with David cajoling me from time to time, telling me how easy it would be, but I clung resolutely to my fear of failure until one day he made one final entreaty. I quote "If you do 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' for The Hoping Foundation Gig, I'll come and do 'C. Numb' on one of your Wall shows". Well! You could have knocked me down with a feather. How fucking cool! I was blown away. How could I refuse such an offer. I couldn't, there was no way. Generosity trumped fear. And so explaining that I would probably be shite, but if he didn't mind I didn't, I agreed and the rest is history. We did it, and it was fucking great. End of story. Or possibly beginning.

Roger

PS. Just heard from David, he will decide in due course which gig he wants to do, it will be a surprise!

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38207130/ns/today-entertainment/

that's nice

i was there. it was great. kevin shields was awesome.

Kevin Shields should just show up at every reunion gig now.