Fingal's Cave - A Podcast for all dedicated Pink Floyd Fans
Jun 24, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min · 8 segments
In this episode of the Fingal’s Cave Podcast, we take a deeper look into the second part of the live and studio career of Roger Waters, beginning in 1999 with his return to touring “In The Flesh”…
Mike McCartneyGuest
Adam S.Guest
Nils ZehnpfennigGuestRoger Waters returns to touring for the first time in 12 years with no new material aside from Amused to Death.
This begins the almost endless Waters touring cycle that will continue for 22 more years.
Mike, if you don't mind giving us a rundown of the SOFA, the State of Floydian Affairs, where were we before 1999?
Roger plays unquestionably his biggest show as a solo artist on July 21st, 1990, where he performs The Wall live in its entirety for the first time since 1981 with an all-star band.
That gig spawns a live album, a video release, and it feels like there's a lot of momentum for Roger to build upon as a solo artist at this time.
And throughout the late '80s and early '90s, he's also in the studio working on the sessions that would eventually spawn his 1992 solo album, Amused to Death.
The first is at the Guitar Greats Festival in Seville, Spain in October of 1991, where he debuts new material.
And the second is in April of 1992 in Los Angeles, where he plays a charity gig with Don Henley, Neil Young, and John Fogerty.
But what has changed in both of these small shows is he's starting to cater to the audience more than he has in the past.
All the song performances are done similar to the album, something he wasn't doing during the 1987 tour, for example.
He also includes Comfortably Numb in both shows, something he had never done in previous solo tours.
Uh, and it's a real salivating proposition to think about what a tour for Amused to Death might have been at that time.
Roger does few interviews to support Amused to Death, and is relatively off the radar throughout the mid to late '90s.
The Pros and Cons tour, and the Chaos tours, and their attendance issues seem to have played a big part as to why Roger didn't put on a similar tour for Amused to Death in the early '90s.
In addition, at this time, Pink Floyd is effectively relaunched and is arguably bigger than they ever were, eclipsing anything Roger would have wanted to do.
So his attitude seems to be, "Why bother?" And that brings us to '99, and I suspect part of the reason he emerges in '99 is to build up his name for the impending release of his opera, Caiira, which was mentioned in the initial press release for the tour, although it actually doesn't appear until 2005.
Roger Waters returns to touring for the first time in 12 years with no new material aside from Amused to Death.
This begins the almost endless Waters touring cycle that will continue for 22 more years.
Mike, if you don't mind giving us a rundown of the SOFA, the State of Floydian Affairs, where were we before 1999?
Roger plays unquestionably his biggest show as a solo artist on July 21st, 1990, where he performs The Wall live in its entirety for the first time since 1981 with an all-star band.
That gig spawns a live album, a video release, and it feels like there's a lot of momentum for Roger to build upon as a solo artist at this time.
And throughout the late '80s and early '90s, he's also in the studio working on the sessions that would eventually spawn his 1992 solo album, Amused to Death.
The first is at the Guitar Greats Festival in Seville, Spain in October of 1991, where he debuts new material.
And the second is in April of 1992 in Los Angeles, where he plays a charity gig with Don Henley, Neil Young, and John Fogerty.
But what has changed in both of these small shows is he's starting to cater to the audience more than he has in the past.
All the song performances are done similar to the album, something he wasn't doing during the 1987 tour, for example.
He also includes Comfortably Numb in both shows, something he had never done in previous solo tours.
Uh, and it's a real salivating proposition to think about what a tour for Amused to Death might have been at that time.
Roger does few interviews to support Amused to Death, and is relatively off the radar throughout the mid to late '90s.
The Pros and Cons tour, and the Chaos tours, and their attendance issues seem to have played a big part as to why Roger didn't put on a similar tour for Amused to Death in the early '90s.
In addition, at this time, Pink Floyd is effectively relaunched and is arguably bigger than they ever were, eclipsing anything Roger would have wanted to do.
So his attitude seems to be, "Why bother?" And that brings us to '99, and I suspect part of the reason he emerges in '99 is to build up his name for the impending release of his opera, Caiira, which was mentioned in the initial press release for the tour, although it actually doesn't appear until 2005.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.