Former Pink Floyd bandmates David Gilmour and Roger Waters thrilled fans at London’s 02 Arena yesterday (Thursday, May 12) when the two were reunited for a rendition of the Floyd’s Comfortably Numb.
NME.com reports that this marks the first occasion that the two have appeared on stage together since the Live 8 performance of 2005 (save a small charity show in front of 200 people in Oxfordshire, England last year). The show was the second of six Waters is playing at the Arena as part of his solo European tour entitled The Wall Live, which is based on the 1980/81 Pink Floyd tour of their 1979 album The Wall.
The possibility that the two would join forces for a performance of this one song was first floated last year, with the announcement that the two would team up at some point on Waters’ tour on a date that would remain up in the air, Waters detailing on his Facebook wall the exchange that led to the collaboration.
Waters and Gilmour have endured some of the most acrimonious, petty stand-offs in rock history, and while the two are likely never to be best friends, in recent years at least some of the hatchet has been buried, perhaps due to the sobering effect of the death of former bandmate Syd Barrett in 2006, and then Rick Wright in 2008.
Their appearance at the 02 together comes in the same week as the news that the Pink Floyd back catalogue is to get a thorough updating and remastering, as reported on these pages.
