Music label BMG drops Roger Waters following CAA exposé and controversial comments

Germany-based music rights company BMG has reportedly ended its relationship with the former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters. The move comes shortly after an exposé published by Campaign Against Antisemitism went viral in the autumn.

It is understood that the contract between BMG and Mr Waters was originally signed in 2016. The musician was due to re-record and release a newer version of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon in 2023. The contract, however, was cancelled and Mr Waters subsequently released the album with Cooking Vinyl, a UK-based label.

According to Mr Waters, the contract was cancelled due to alleged ‘pro-Israel pressures’ on BMG’s parent company, Bertelsmann. 

In September last year, Campaign Against Antisemitism published The Dark Side of Roger Waters, a documentary which reveals disturbing e-mails that were gathered during an investigation into allegations of antisemitism against the rockstar, as well as interviews with his former associates. 

Mr Waters’ views on Jews have long been of concern to the Jewish community, with a number of well-documented controversies.

Mr Waters has always insisted that he is not an antisemite, but our investigation revealed e-mails from Mr Waters in which he proposed writing “Dirty k***” on the inflatable pig habitually floated above his concerts and suggested “bombing” audiences with confetti in the shape of swastikas, Stars of David, dollar signs and other symbols.

The documentary also includes interviews with Norbert Statchel, Mr Waters’ former saxophonist, and legendary music producer Bob Ezrin, who produced The Wall, as well as hits for talent from U2 to Kiss to Taylor Swift.

Among various incidents, Mr Stachel says that Mr Waters lost his temper over vegetarian food at a restaurant and demanded that waiters “Take away the Jew food”, that Mr Waters mocked Mr Stachel’s grandmother who was murdered in the Holocaust, and that a colleague warned him not to react if he wanted to keep his job.

Mr Ezrin recounts an incident in which Mr Waters sung him an impromptu ditty about then agent Bryan Morrison, the last couplet of which ended with words to the effect of “Cos Morri is a f***ing Jew”.

Following the initial release of the documentary, we heard from Marc Brickman, a lighting director and former associate of Mr Waters. 

We interviewed Mr Brickman, in which explained the conversations around the “dirty k*ke” e-mail and how he demanded to know why, if the purpose was to confront hateful phrases, it was only a racist epithet that targets Jews that was due to be included on the pig and no other offensive terms.

In the interview, he also reveals that the reason that the swastika confetti idea never materialised was only because nobody would make it, and that he was called out by Mr Waters for expressing his reservations.

These incidents and others that he recounts – including the proposed inclusion of an image of “a menacing Hasidic Jewish boy” alongside “an angelic Palestinian girl” – drew Mr Brickman to the conclusion that Mr Waters’ “definition of antisemitism is totally different than anyone else’s”.

Mr Waters was due to perform at the London Palladium on 8th and 9th October last year. Leading up to the performances, we orchestrated a number of activities to protest these performances, including delivering thousands of letters from members of the public to the theatre, parking an advertisement outside the theatre to raise awareness of Mr Waters’ record, driving a van around London drawing attention to the controversy, and picketing the venue.

The documentary’s investigation was led by John Ware, the BBC Panorama veteran and one of the UK’s foremost television investigative journalists, who has worked on exposés whose focus has ranged from IRA terrorism to antisemitism under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party.

The full documentary, and the follow-up film, can be viewed at antisemitism.org/rogerwaters.