Roger Waters, the co-founder of rock group Pink Floyd, expressed his anger after canceling two planned concerts in Krakow, Poland, on Sunday because of statements deemed favorable to Russia about the war in Ukraine.
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Krakow’s city council is also scheduled to vote this week on a motion to declare Roger Waters “persona non grata.” One of the city council members, Lukasz Wantuch, called on the city’s residents to boycott his concerts.
In an open letter in early September, the British musician wrote that the West should stop supplying Ukraine with weapons and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of tolerating “extreme nationalism”, urging an end to “this deadly war”.
Concert organizer Live Nation Polska said on Twitter on Saturday that concerts planned for April 2023 at the city’s main sports arena had been cancelled, but did not provide details.
Roger Waters, currently on tour in the US, took to Facebook to deny Polish media claims his band had quit and accused Mr Wanduch of ‘severe censorship’ of his work.
“Lukas Wanduch knew nothing about my story (which included) my life, at some personal sacrifice, in the service of human rights,” the singer-songwriter said.
Paraphrasing the lyrics of 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 concerned to “work towards peace through negotiations rather than escalating the situation to even worse consequences”.
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