The unlikely figure Pink Floyd replaced Roger Waters with: “You need to take a US Army representative

The sheer magnitude of Pink Floyd meant that when Roger Waters decided to leave the band, the rest of the group were never going to simply give up the ghost, no matter how hard the bassist and songwriter tried to convince them to. Waters would take the band to court for using the Pink Floyd name for their albums and tours, and while the other three members figuratively laughed the musician out of court, they also looked to replace him.

The truth is, when Waters left, the band became instantly more harmonious. Like when parents get divorced, the shouting seemed to stop, the tours got easier and even Richard Wright was back in the band full time on keyboards. Burt the band were missing something and they were clear that they needed to replace their comrade.

But it wasn’t in the band that they required something extra; it was on stage. So, instead of trotting across the globe with Waters in tow, the band instead decided to invest heavily in their stage production and, if you’re a band like Pink Floyd, that could only mean one thing: lasers.

Of course, the group weren’t strangers to such performance-enhancing situations. Their history as one of the forebearers of psychedelic rock meant that they had dabbled with lasers and pyrotechnics for some time, making their live shows some of the most coveted of the 20th century. So, with the need to kick things up a notch, the group decided they needed a special gold laser as part of their show.

All well and good, except that gold lasers were developed by the US Army and technically considered a weapons-grade machine. As such, the group’s lighting director Marc Brickman set about figuring out how to make it work. In truth, there was only one way forward, having the army come on tour.

“You need to take a US Army representative with you to every show,” the soldiers told Brickman, according to Paul Rappaport. Most people would not sign up for having the army come on tour. Pink Floyd had grown out of their wilder days, but it still felt strange to welcome a part of the establishment to a rock show so gleefully. The band, looking to up their game for the first tour since Waters left agreed, and the representative was present to “Double-check all of the mirrors, all of the points where they’re going to be shot. Otherwise, it’s going to be dangerous, and we’re responsible.”

The show proved ot be a necessary distraction for the band who were locked in the legal battle with Waters and cofnirmed that they could operate without, perhaps even helping to eventually settle the case in their favour. However, it could have been just a little bit bigger.

Apparently, an even grander offer was also on the table, as Rappaport continues: “The Army guy says to Brickman, ‘Listen, we’re experimenting with negative ions in the air. You guys play stadiums. If you want, we can do this thing for you where, over the stadium, we suck out all of the ions in a fast pace, and it will make a giant explosion. Do you want that?’”

“Brickman’s knees are knocking,” Rappaport continued, “and he goes, ‘Well, that sounds a little bit dangerous for the fans. Maybe I’ll just take the dangerous gold lasers and leave the next big dangerous thing to you guys.”