Roger Waters, co-founder of the rock group Pink Floyd, expressed his fury on Sunday after the cancellation of two concerts scheduled in Krakow, Poland, for his statements considered complacent with Russia, regarding the war in Ukraine.
The Krakow City Council will also vote this week on a motion declaring Roger Waters “persona non grata”. One of the city councillors, Lukasz Wantuch, called on the townspeople to boycott his concerts.
In an open letter in early September, the British musician wrote that the West should stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of tolerating “extreme nationalism” before urging him to end “this deadly war.”
The concert organizer, Live Nation Polska, said on Twitter on Saturday that the concerts, which were scheduled to take place in April 2023 at the city’s main sports hall, had been cancelled, but provided no details.
“Working for a negotiated peace”
Roger Waters, currently on tour in the US, denied on Facebook Polish media claims that his band had quit and lashed out at Wantuch, accusing him of “draconian censorship” of his work.
“Lukasz Wantuch seems to know nothing of my history (which consisted) of working all my life, at the cost of certain personal sacrifices, in the service of human rights,” declared the singer-songwriter.
Paraphrasing the lyrics of Pink Floyd’s greatest hit Another brick in the wall, Waters added, “Hey! Lukasz Wantuch! ‘Leave the kids alone!'” He said that he only wanted to ask the countries involved “to work for a negotiated peace instead of escalating the situation to an even worse outcome.”
Source: BFM TV
