My recent American tour, from which the live performances on these CDs have been chosen, was naturally faithful to my present requirements.

I have increasingly found myself directly addressing audiences, reaching out to them, if you like, in ways I hadn't attempted before, or at least certainly hadn't in the bad old days where I'd hidden behind any prop or device to sheild myself from the responsibilities, and ultimately from the rewards of that relationship. This was not something I'd deliberately planned. It simply began to develope on the '99 In The Flesh tour and went on from there . The size of the venues, and my physical proximity to the audiences which they allowed, obviously encouraged this adjustment, but I also think it indicates some fundamental change in my attitude towards what I do, as well as a change in my attitude towards what I want to get out of it.

Much of this has to do with understanding, or I should rather say, feeling, the truly reciprocal nature of the arrangements between me and my audiences.

There's a bond established between us, one which is very precious, and one from which I now derive tremendous pleasure. At best, a kind of communion occurs in which all present are equally involved.

On these recent tours we - the band and I - came together every night just before we went on stage to perform a short ritual. It was a bracer really, but also a kind of mantra.
We'd form a circle, join hands, and shout "Genuine Love!" I know that may sound a little corny, but all of us meant it.

If what subsequently occurred wasn't about love - mutual affection, respect and trust - then it really easn't about anything, so it was a pledge that we renewed every night.

That the pledge worked I'm quite certain was reflected in our performances, as well as in the audiences' warmth and enthusiasm which was often overwhelming.

I hope and beleive that the live material on the CDs ably expresses the quality and success of the shows, as well as giving a fresh lick to some old songs.

These fresh licks are provided by a great band whose personnel, except for the addition of a third singer, was the same for both tours.

Familiarity in this case bred a spirit of close co-operation, and a set of relationships secure enough to generate the confidence everyone requires if they are to offer input, and to exchange ideas.

Cetainly, there's a discipline rooted in the songs themselves, but from within this context everybody was able to bring something of him/herself to them.

The running order for the CDs closely follows the tour's performance programme: my favorite songs; placed alongside one another, on the basis of how good they sound together. There are some omissions of course, most conspicuously from the Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall. Dark Side Of The Moon has been performed almost ad infinitum by another band and a double CD of live performances from The Wall shows was released recently.

It seemed pointless to replicate the bulk of this material. Instead, I chose representative songs from these two works using the above criteria and placed them alongside rather obscure pieces from my back catalogue.

In doing so, it was exciting, though perhaps not entirely surprising since they are all part of my oeuvre, and of my continuing narrative, to discover that the songs sounded homogeneous together no matter what order I placed them in.

It has also been exciting to put out two CDs on which songs from my solo career, especially those from Amused To Death, sit so comfortably alongside better known stuff from my earlier catalogue.

It has always been my view that anyone who owns Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall needs Amused To Death to complete both the set and the narrative.

"Each Small Candle" the only new song on the CDs, also forms part of that narrative. When I first wrote it, I had an idea that it would be the central piece of a new work, for which I've already written some other songs.

Now, I'm not quite so sure. I seem to be considering even more personal and individual issues although, as in the new song, they all have to do with love in one form or another. It's work in progress, and as such, subject to change.

Creativity is largely a process of discovery, and whatever I'm trying to get at generally becomes clearer and more defined as I go on.

I'm certain, however, that what eventually emerges will be the next stage in the continuum of which In The Flesh, both the tours, the CDs and the DVD, are merely the most recent.

Roger Waters talking to Nick Sedgwick

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