Legendary Pink Floyd songwriter, Roger Waters, had a heated and controversial show at the London Palladium last weekend (October 8), as he surprised audiences by reading excerpts from his yet to be released memoirs for the entire first half of the show.

The show was advertised as a Dark Side of the Moon performance as Waters, as Waters had just released The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, a re-recording of legendary Pink Floyd album that celebrated its 50 year anniversary this year. Before Waters got to performing songs from the album however, he proceeded to set up a laptop and sit behind a desk reading portions of his memoirs to the audience. The audience grew angry.

The Times wrote about the show that “One story involved a duck that came to live in the family home,” and “Another began promisingly as a memory of Floyd’s original leader, Syd Barrett, but revealed nothing more than that Barrett wrote a lot of songs and had an innocent air about him.” calling the whole fiasco a “under-rehearsed, one-man non-show”. The duck story reportedly lasted 20 minutes alone, before leading into more stories about his pets. The audience were unsurprisingly not happy with this, as many started to heckle Waters, whilst other members of the audience simply began to walk out.

In response to this, Waters angrily told those members of the audience to “f**k off”. Critics from the Telegraph described that the whole show “had an unrehearsed air, with a tension exacerbated by Waters’ school masterly demeanor, as he sternly brooked no interruption.”. The audience were understandably growing restless by the constant stories and tirades from Waters. Waters doubled down against this by telling the audience: “If you want to tell stories, tell them in your own time to your own audience in your own f*****g theater. By the way, if you can show constraint and stop shouting again.”

Fans displayed their displeasure via social media, with one person saying via X/Twitter: “Well went to watch Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon remake gig last night at London Palladium with Roger Waters and I simply have no words to describe it and not in a positive way. What an egocentric narcissist he is and to think I paid good money to watch him. Lesson learnt.” The reception online wasn’t all negative however, as one person wrote: “Roger Waters @ Palladium Dark Side of the Moon Redux. Beautiful, raw, stripped back and a true experience! Sometimes self indulgent in the first half but the essence, genius and reimagining was special”

Well went to watch Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon remake gig last night at London Palladium with Roger Waters and I simply have no words to describe it and not in a positive way. What an egocentric narcissist he is and to think I paid good money to watch him. Lesson learnt.

— lorraine burgess (@lorraineburges2) October 10, 2023

Roger Waters @ Palladium Dark Side of the Moon Redux. Beautiful, raw, stripped back and a true experience ! Sometimes self indulgent in the first half but the essence, genius and reimagining was special

— Elliott Moore (@tagomago69) October 8, 2023

Waters did indeed play music alongside his band in the second half of the show, however the first half already set the tone for some fans.