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 because of his statements deemed complacent vis-à-vis Russia, concerning the war in Ukraine.
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The Krakow city council must also vote this week on a motion declaring Roger Waters “persona non grata”. One of the city council members, 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 arms to Ukraine and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of tolerating “extreme nationalism” before urging him to put a end to “this deadly war”.
The concert organizer, Live Nation Polska, said on Saturday on Twitter that the concerts, which had been scheduled for April 2023 in the city’s major sports hall, had been canceled, but did not provide details.
Roger Waters, currently on tour in the United States, denied on Facebook Polish media claims that his band had quit and lashed out at Mr Wantuch, accusing him of ‘draconian censorship’ of his work.
“Lukasz Wantuch seems to know nothing of my story (which consisted) of working all my life, at the cost of certain personal sacrifices, in the service of human rights,” said the singer-songwriter.
Paraphrasing the lyrics to Pink Floyd’s smash hit “Another Brick in the Wall,” Waters added, “Hey! Lukasz Wantuch! +leave the kids alone!+»
He said he only wanted to call on the countries involved “to work towards a negotiated peace rather than escalating the situation to an even worse outcome.”