A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Benefit concerts can have both subjective and concrete objectives. Subjective objectives include raising awareness about an issue such as misery in Africa (see Live 8) and uplifting a nation after a disaster (see America: A Tribute to Heroes). Concrete objectives include raising funds (Live Aid) and influencing legislation (Live 8; Farm Aid). The popularization of benefit concerts started after the Concert For Bangladesh, organized by George Harrison in 1971 ^[1]. However, the format in which most concerts are done nowadays was only created after the occurrence of Bob Geldof’s Live Aid ^[2](CBC). The two largest benefit concerts of all time, in size, were the Live 8 and the Live Earth, both with billion of spectators^[3]. Scholars theorize that the observed increase on concert size since the Live Aid is happening because organizes strive to make their events as big as the tragedy at hand, thus hoping to gain legitimization that way^[4].

Celebrity Charity[link]

Benefit concerts are a major example of celebrity charity for they involve popular musicians; actors and actresses; and other kinds of entertainment figures volunteering to a greater cause. The efficiency of celebrity charity is explained by the theory of Catalytic Philanthropy designed by Paul Schervish. His thesis explains that it is more beneficial to a cause that celebrities do not contribute by only donating their money, but by participating in event like benefit concerts. That way stars can inspire hundreds of thousands of others to give^[5].

The presence of celebrities can motivate criticisms, but the benefits that come from it outweigh the critiques. Some argue that pop stars only take part in charity in order improve their public image. Although that is arguably one of celebrities’ possible objectives, their participation is essential to the success of the event. Celebrities not only promote catalytic philanthropy, they are also capable of producing an effect called Gedolfism, “the mobilization of pop stars and their fans behind a cause”^[6]. Therefore, because of their visibility, celebrities are used by organizers as a mean to gain support to the cause in hand.

Furthermore, the success of benefit concerts is tightly related to the quality of entertainment offered by them^{[7] [8]}. In order to gain space and legitimation on the media, benefit concerts have to have a large audience, the kind of large crowd that is attracted by the world’s most famous music stars. Bob Geldof himself responded to criticisms about the lack of African artists on the Live 8 by stating that, although those musicians produce great works, they do not sell many albums and for the sake of reaching out to as many people as possible his concert needed to include only popular artists^[9]. Finally the quality of entertainment is key to the creation of a Public Sphere where discussions about the concert’s cause can occur. The better the entertainment the most people will watch the concert and thus the more people will become aware of the cause^[10]. Furthermore, the music played in the concerts can lead spectators to interconnect and become more likely to act towards the cause. According to a theory by (Jane Bennett), when people sing in the presence of other people, and that happens in benefit concerts, they become connected to each other and are more likely to work together towards a goal^[11].

Criticisms[link]

Criticisms against benefit concerts go further than just criticizing the intentions of the celebrities involved. Some argue that benefit concerts are a wrong response for tragedies because the atmosphere involved on them is hardly one of mourning^[12]. Further criticism comes from those who argue that Geldofism turns celebrities into the only legitimate spokespeople for a cause, thus robing the NGOs of the possibilities to speak up for a cause^[13].

Critics also say that benefit concerts are just a way for the rich West to forgive itself by helping the poor and distressed. These critiques argue that concerts like the Live Aid “rob Africans of agency, reinforces Western ethnocentrism and racisms and see famine as a natural disaster rather than as a political issue”^[14].

Effectiveness[link]

Benefit concerts are a effective form of gaining support and raising funds for a cause because of the large media coverage that they usually receive^[15].In addition to the results they generate themselves, benefit concerts also generate a kind of megaphone effect. That is, larger benefit concert motivate smaller concerts and other kinds of charity initiatives ^[16].

Notable benefit concerts[link]

In chronological order, beginning with the earliest date:

• The Concert for Bangladesh (1971)

August 1, 1971. The Concert for Bangladesh took place at Madison Square Garden, New York. Conceived and produced by George Harrison. Performers included: George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Leon Russell.

• A Poke in the Eye (With A Sharp Stick) (1976)

April 1-April 3, 1976. Amnesty International staged the first in what became its long-running Secret Policeman's Ball series of events raising funds for - and awareness of - the human rights issue. The show titled A Poke in the Eye was staged at Her Majesty's Theatre in London over three consecutive nights. It was primarily a comedy gala starring Monty Python, Peter Cook, Beyond The Fringe and others. Produced by John Cleese and Martin Lewis.

• A Gift of Song: The Music for UNICEF Concert (1979)

January 9, 1979 - The A Gift of Song: The Music for UNICEF Concert was held at the United Nations General Assembly and broadcast worldwide to raise money for UNICEF and mark the International Year of the Child. Performers included ABBA, Bee Gees, Andy Gibb, Olivia Newton-John, John Denver, Earth, Wind & Fire, Rita Coolidge, Kris Kristofferson, Rod Stewart, Donna Summer. The concert was the idea of impresario Robert Stigwood, the Bee Gees, and David Frost.

• The Secret Policeman's Ball (1979)

June 27-June 30, 1979 - Amnesty International staged the third of its Secret Policeman's Ball benefits. The show titled The Secret Policeman's Ball was staged in London over four consecutive nights. In addition to the usual comedic performers from Monty Python, producer Martin Lewis secured musical performances from Pete Townshend and Tom Robinson.

• The No Nukes concerts (1979)

September, 1979 The No Nukes concerts in New York

• The Concerts for Kampuchea (1979)

December 26-December 29, 1979 - The Concerts for Kampuchea were held at the Hammersmith Odeon, benefitting the citizens of Cambodia who were victims of the tyrannical reign of dictator Pol Pot.

• The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1981)

September 9-September 12, 1981 - Amnesty International staged the fourth of its Secret Policeman's Ball benefits. The show titled The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was staged in London over four consecutive nights. This show expanded on its 1979 predecessor with appearances by multiple rock musicians including Sting, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Donovan and the first-ever benefit concert appearance by a young rock musician named Bob Geldof.

John Fekner's stencil at the Central Park Nuclear Disarmament Rally, June 12th, 1982, NYC. by John Fekner. Estate of John Fekner © 1982-2007.

• Nuclear Disarmament Rally (1982)

June 12, 1982 - In NYC, 750,000 people marched from the UN to Central Park to protest nuclear weapons — in what was probably the largest single protest in U.S. history. New York City was shut down for the day. The concert featured Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen, etc. Keith Haring created a poster for the event which was handed out free to the audience and John Fekner stencils were on the site.

• Live Aid (1985)

July 13, 1985 - The Live Aid benefit concerts - conceived and organized by Bob Geldof - took place in London and Philadelphia. Similar concerts were held in Sydney and Moscow.

• Farm Aid (1985)

September 22, 1985 - The first Farm Aid concert, organized by Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp to raise money for family farmers in the United States, was held in Champaign, Illinois. There have been 19 Farm Aid concerts as of 2007.

• Self Aid (1986)

May 17, 1986 - The Self Aid concert held in Dublin, Ireland aimed to highlight the chronic unemployment problem in Ireland at the time. Performers at the event included U2, Van Morrison and The Pogues.

• Conspiracy of Hope US Tour (1986)

June 4-June 15, 1986 The Conspiracy of Hope US tour of six rock concerts for Amnesty International. Performers included U2, Sting, Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne, The Neville Brothers and, at the final three concerts, a reunion of The Police.

• Heart Beat 86 (1986)

March 15, 1986 - The Heart Beat 86 concert was held near Birmingham England to raise money for the Birmingham Children's Hospital.

• Human Rights Now! World Tour (1988)

September 2- October 15, 1988 The Human Rights Now! World tour of rock concerts for Amnesty International

• The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert (1992)

April 20, 1992 - The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert was organized at Wembley Stadium, London, to pay homage to recently deceased Queen singer and to raise money for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, a fund for victims of AIDS. Among the performers: David Bowie, Elton John, Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Robert Plant, Liza Minnelli, Roger Daltrey, George Michael.

• America: A Tribute to Heroes (2001)

September 21, 2001 America: A Tribute to Heroes was a telethon in the style of a benefit concert organized in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon by the four major United States television networks.

• The Concert for New York City (2001)

October 20, 2001 The Concert for New York City was a benefit concert organized as a tribute to the heroes and survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York. It was initiated by Paul McCartney and produced by a team including Harvey Weinstein and Jann Wenner

• The SARS Benefit Concert (2003)

July 30, 2003, 450,000 spectators saw The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Rush, The Guess Who, and others at the largest concert in Canadian history, the The SARS Benefit Concert concert in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, held to prove that the city was safe from SARS.

• Live 8 (2005)

July 2, 2005 - Bob Geldof and Bono organised Live 8, a set of 8 concerts held in 8 cities around the world on the same day - as part of a campaign to persuade the G8 member governments to increase their fight to eradicate poverty in third-world countries.

• Live Earth (2007)

July 7, 2007 - Al Gore inspired and helped organize Live Earth. During its first year, it consisted of a series of concerts held on all 7 continents of the planet on the same day.

• A Billion Hands Concert (2008)

5 December 2008 - Anoushka Shankar and Jethro Tull held A Billion Hands Concert in Mumbai, India. All proceeds from the concert went to victims of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.^[17]

Bibliography[link]

Roger Waters
Roger Waters in The O2 Arena (London) in 2008
Background information
Birth name	George Roger Waters
Born	(1943-09-06) 6 September 1943 (age 68) Great Bookham, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Genres	Progressive rock, psychedelic rock, art rock, hard rock, opera
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, composer, producer
Instruments	Bass guitar, vocals, guitar, synthesiser, clarinet, trumpet
Years active	Since 1964
Labels	Capitol, Columbia, Sony, Harvest
Associated acts	Pink Floyd, The Bleeding Heart Band, Sigma 6
Website	roger-waters.com
Notable instruments
Fender Precision Bass Rickenbacker 4001 Martin acoustic guitars

George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter and conceptual leader. The band subsequently achieved worldwide success in the 1970s with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall. Although Waters' primary instrument in Pink Floyd was the bass guitar, he also experimented with synthesisers and tape loops and played rhythm guitars in recordings and in concerts. Amid creative differences within the group, Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and began a legal battle with the remaining members over their future use of the group's name and material. The dispute was settled out of court in 1987, and nearly eighteen years passed before he performed with Pink Floyd again. It is estimated that as of 2010, the group have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million units sold in the United States.

Waters' solo career includes three studio albums: The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984), Radio K.A.O.S. (1987) and Amused to Death (1992). In 1986, he contributed songs and a score to the soundtrack of the animated movie When the Wind Blows based on the Raymond Briggs' book of the same name. In 1990, he staged one of the largest and most elaborate rock concerts in history, The Wall – Live in Berlin, with an official attendance of 200,000. In 1996, he was inducted into the US and the UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd. He has toured extensively as a solo act since 1999 and played The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety for his world tours of 2006–2008. In 2005, he released Ça Ira, an opera in three acts translated from Étienne and Nadine Roda-Gils' libretto based on the early French Revolution. On 2 July 2005, he reunited with Pink Floyd bandmates Nick Mason, Richard Wright and David Gilmour for the Live 8 global awareness event; it was the group's first appearance with Waters in 24 years.

In 2010, he began The Wall Live, a worldwide tour that features a complete performance of The Wall. During this tour, at The O2 Arena in London on 12 May 2011, Gilmour and Mason once again appeared with Waters, Gilmour performing "Comfortably Numb", and Gilmour and Mason joining Waters for "Outside the Wall".

He has been married four times and has three children. In 2004 he became engaged to actress and filmmaker Laurie Durning; the pair married in 2012.

Early years (1943–1964)[link]

George Roger Waters was born on 6 September 1943, the younger of two boys,^[1] to Mary and Eric Fletcher Waters, in Great Bookham, Surrey.^[2] His father, the son of a coal miner and Labour Party activist, was a schoolteacher, a devout Christian, and a Communist Party member.^[3] In the early years of the Second World War, his father was a conscientious objector who drove an ambulance during the Blitz.^[3] He later changed his stance on pacifism and joined the British Army, and as an officer of the 8th Royal Fusiliers was killed at Anzio in Italy, declared missing or presumed dead on 18 February 1944,^[4] when Roger was five months old.^[5] Following her husband's death, Mary, also a teacher, moved with her two sons to Cambridge, and raised them there.^[6] His earliest memory is of the VJ Day celebrations.^[7] Mary died in 2009 at the age of 96.

Waters attended Morley Memorial Junior School in Cambridge, and later the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys (now Hills Road Sixth Form College) with Roger Barrett (later to be known as Syd),^[8] while his future musical partner, David Gilmour, lived nearby on the city's Mill Road, and attended The Perse School.^[9] At 15 Waters was chairman of the Cambridge Youth Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (YCND),^[10] having designed its publicity poster and participated in its organisation.^[11] Though he was a keen sportsman and a highly regarded member of the high school's cricket and rugby teams,^[12] his educational experience was lacking; according to Waters, "I hated every second of it, apart from games. The regime at school was a very oppressive one ... the same kids who are susceptible to bullying by other kids are also susceptible to bullying by the teachers."^[13] Whereas Waters knew Barrett and Gilmour from his youth in Cambridge, he met future Pink Floyd founder members Nick Mason and Richard Wright in London at the Regent Street Polytechnic (later the University of Westminster) school of architecture, where he enrolled in 1962,^[1] after a series of aptitude tests indicated he was well-suited to that field, though he had initially considered a career in mechanical engineering.^[14]

Subsequent personal life[link]

In 1969, Waters married his childhood girlfriend and "girl next door"^[7] Judy Trim, a successful potter; she was shown on the gatefold sleeve of the original release of Ummagumma, but excised from subsequent CD reissues.^[15] They had no children together and were divorced in 1975.^[2] She later remarried; and died on 9 January 2001.^[16] In 1976 he married Lady Carolyne Christie,^[2] the niece of the Marquess of Zetland. His marriage to Christie produced a son, Harry Waters, a musician who has played keyboards with his father's touring band since 2006,^[17] and a daughter, the model India Waters.^[18] Through Harry, he has grandchildren.^[7] Christie and Waters were divorced in 1992.^[2] In 1993 he married Priscilla Phillips;^[19] their marriage ended in 2001. In 2004 he became engaged to actress and filmmaker Laurie Durning, and the two wed on 14 January 2012.^[20]

Pink Floyd (1965–1985)[link]

Pink Floyd portal

Formation and Barrett-led period[link]

Waters performing with Pink Floyd at Leeds University in 1970

By September 1963, Waters and Mason were losing interest in their studies^[21] and they moved into the lower flat of Stanhope Gardens, owned by Mike Leonard, a part-time tutor at the Regent Street Polytechnic.^[22] Waters, Mason and Wright first played music together in the autumn of 1963,^[23] in a group formed by vocalist Keith Noble and bassist Clive Metcalfe.^[24] The group usually called themselves Sigma 6, but they also used the name the Meggadeaths.^[11] Waters played rhythm guitar and Mason played drums, Wright played on any keyboard he could arrange to use,^[25] and Noble's sister Sheilagh provided an occasional vocal accompaniment.^[23] In the early years the band performed during private functions and rehearsed in a tearoom in the basement of Regent Street Polytechnic.^[26]

When Metcalfe and Noble left to form their own group in September 1963,^[27] the remaining members asked Barrett and guitar player Bob Klose to join.^[28] By January 1964, the group became known as the Abdabs, or the Screaming Abdabs.^[28] During the autumn of 1964, the band used the names Leonard's Lodgers, Spectrum Five, and eventually, the Tea Set.^[29] Sometime during the autumn of 1965, the Tea Set began calling itself the Pink Floyd Sound, later, the Pink Floyd, and by early 1966,^[30] Pink Floyd.^[31]

By early 1966 Barrett was Pink Floyd's front-man, guitarist, and songwriter.^[32] He wrote or co-wrote all but one track of their debut LP The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, released in August 1967.^[33] Waters contributed the song "Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk" (his first sole writing credit) to the album.^[34] However, by late 1967, Barrett's deteriorating mental health and increasingly erratic behaviour,^[35] rendered him "unable or unwilling"^[36] to continue in his capacity as Pink Floyd's singer-songwriter and lead guitarist.^[33] Working with Barrett eventually proved too difficult, so in early March 1968 Pink Floyd met with managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King of Blackhill Enterprises to discuss the band's future. Barrett agreed to leave Pink Floyd, and the band "agreed to Blackhill's entitlement in perpetuity" with regard to "past activities".^[37] The band's new manager Steve O'Rourke made a formal announcement about the departure of Barrett and the arrival of David Gilmour in April 1968.^[38]

Waters-led period[link]

A live performance of The Dark Side of the Moon at Earls Court, shortly after its release in 1973. (l-r) David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Dick Parry, Roger Waters.

Filling the void left by Barrett's departure in March 1968, Waters began to chart Pink Floyd's artistic direction. He became the principal songwriter, lyricist, and co-lead vocalist (along with Gilmour, and at times, Wright), and would remain the band's dominant creative figure until his departure in 1985.^[39] He wrote the lyrics to the five Pink Floyd albums preceding his own departure, starting with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) and ending with The Final Cut (1983), while exerting progressively more creative control over the band and its music. Every Roger Waters studio album since The Dark Side of the Moon has been a concept album^[40] With lyrics written entirely by Waters, The Dark Side of the Moon was one of the most commercially successful rock albums of all time. It spent 736 straight weeks on the Billboard 200 chart until July 1988 and sold over 40 million copies worldwide. It was continuing to sell over 8,000 units every week as of 2005.^[41] According to Pink Floyd biographer Glen Povey, Dark Side is the world's second best-selling album, and the United States' 21st best-selling album of all time.^[42]

Waters produced thematic ideas that became the impetus for the Pink Floyd concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979)—written largely by Waters—and The Final Cut (1983)—written entirely by Waters.^[43] He referred or alluded to the cost of war and the loss of his father throughout his work, from "Corporal Clegg" (A Saucerful Of Secrets, 1968) and "Free Four" (Obscured By Clouds, 1972) to "Us and Them" from The Dark Side of the Moon, "When the Tigers Broke Free", first used in the feature film, The Wall (1982), later included with "The Fletcher Memorial Home" on The Final Cut, an album dedicated to his father.^[44] The theme and composition of The Wall was influenced by his upbringing in an English society depleted of men after the Second World War.^[45]

The double album The Wall was written almost entirely by Waters and is largely based on his life story,^[47] and having sold over 23 million RIAA certified units in the US as of 2010, is one of the top three best-selling albums of all-time in America, according to RIAA.^[48] Pink Floyd hired Bob Ezrin to co-produce the album, and cartoonist Gerald Scarfe to illustrate the album's sleeve art.^[49] The band embarked on The Wall Tour of LA, New York, London and Dortmund. The last band performance of The Wall was on 16 June 1981, at Earls Court London, and this was Pink Floyd's last appearance with Waters until the band's brief reunion at 2 July 2005 Live 8 concert in London's Hyde Park, 24 years later.^[50]

In March 1983, the last Waters–Gilmour–Mason collaboration, The Final Cut, was released. The album was subtitled: "A requiem for the post-war dream by Roger Waters, performed by Pink Floyd".^[51] Waters is credited with writing all the lyrics as well as all the music on the album. His lyrics to the album were critical of the Conservative Party government of the day and mention Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher by name.^[52] At the time Gilmour did not have any material for the album, so he asked Waters to delay the recording until he could write some songs, but Waters refused.^[53] According to Mason, after power struggles within the band and creative arguments about the album, Gilmour's name "disappeared" from the production credits, though he retained his pay.^[54] Rolling Stone magazine gave the album five stars, with Kurt Loder calling it "a superlative achievement"^[55] and "art rock's crowning masterpiece".^[56] Loder viewed the work as "essentially a Roger Waters solo album".^[57]

Amidst creative differences within the group, Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985, and began a legal battle with the remaining band members regarding their continued use of the name and material.^[58] In December 1985 Waters "issued a statement to EMI and CBS invoking the 'Leaving Member' clause" on his contract. In October 1986, he initiated High Court proceedings to formally dissolve the Pink Floyd partnership. In his submission to the High Court he called Pink Floyd a "spent force creatively".^[59] Gilmour and Mason opposed the application and announced their intention to continue as Pink Floyd. Waters claims to have been forced to resign much like Wright some years earlier, and he decided to leave Pink Floyd based on legal considerations, stating " ... because, if I hadn't, the financial repercussions would have wiped me out completely."^[60] In December 1987, an agreement between Waters and Pink Floyd was reached.^[58] According to Mason:

Waters was released from his contractual obligation with O'Rourke, and he retained the copyrights to The Wall concept and his trademarked inflatable pig.^[62] The Gilmour-led Pink Floyd released two studio albums: A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), and The Division Bell (1994). As of 2006, it is estimated that Pink Floyd have sold over 200 million albums worldwide,^[63] including 74.5 million RIAA certified units sold in the US.^[64]

Solo career (1984 on)[link]

1984–1996[link]

Waters performing The Wall – Live in Berlin, Germany, on 21 July 1990

The Wall – Live in Berlin, 21 July 1990

Following the release of The Final Cut, Waters embarked on a solo career that produced three concept albums and a movie soundtrack. In 1984, he released his first solo album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking, a project about a man's dreams across one night that dealt with Waters' feelings about his failed marriage to Judy Trim, sex, and the pros and cons of monogamy and family life versus "the call of the wild".^[65] In the end the character, Reg, chooses love and matrimony over promiscuity. The album featured guitarist Eric Clapton, jazz saxophonist David Sanborn, and artwork by Scarfe.^[65] Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder described The Pros And Cons of Hitch Hiking as a "strangely static, faintly hideous record",^[66] Rolling Stone rated the album a "rock bottom" one star."^[65] Years later, Mike DeGagne of Allmusic praised the album for its, "ingenious symbolism" and "brilliant use of stream of consciousness within a subconscious realm", rating it four out of five stars.^[67] Waters began touring the new album aided by Clapton, a new band, new material, and a selection of Pink Floyd favourites. Waters débuted his tour in Stockholm on 16 June 1984. Poor ticket sales plagued the tour,^[68] and some of the larger venues had to be cancelled. By his own estimate, he lost £400,000 on the tour.^[69] In March 1985, Waters went to North America to play smaller venues with the Pros and Cons Plus Some Old Pink Floyd Stuff — North America Tour 1985. The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking has been certified Gold by the RIAA.^[70]

In 1986, Waters contributed songs and a score to the soundtrack of the animated movie When the Wind Blows, based on the Raymond Briggs book of the same name. His backing band featuring Paul Carrack was credited as The Bleeding Heart Band.^[71] In 1987, Waters released Radio K.A.O.S., a concept album based on a mute man named Billy from an impoverished Welsh mining town who has the ability to physically tune into radio waves in his head. Billy first learns to communicate with a radio DJ, and eventually to control the world's computers. Angry at the state of the world in which he lives, he simulates a nuclear attack. Waters followed the release with a supporting tour also in 1987.^[72]

In November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and in July 1990 Waters staged one of the largest and most elaborate rock concerts in history,^[73] The Wall – Live in Berlin, on the vacant terrain between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate. The show reported an official attendance of 200,000, though some estimates are as much as twice that, with approximately one billion television viewers.^[74] Leonard Cheshire asked him to do the concert to raise funds for charity. Waters' group of musicians included Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams, Scorpions, and Sinéad O'Connor. Waters also used an East German symphony orchestra and choir, a Soviet marching band, and a pair of helicopters from the US 7th Airborne Command and Control Squadron. Designed by Mark Fisher, the Wall was 25 metres tall and 170 metres long and was built across the set. Scarfe's inflatable puppets were recreated on an enlarged scale, and although many rock icons received invitations to the show, Gilmour, Mason, and Wright, did not.^[75] Waters released a concert double album of the performance which has been certified platinum by RIAA.^[70]

In 1990, Waters hired manager Mark Fenwick and left EMI for a worldwide deal with Columbia. He released his third studio album, Amused to Death, in 1992. The record is heavily influenced by the events of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the Gulf War, and a critique of the notion of war becoming the subject of entertainment, particularly on television. The title was derived from the book Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. Patrick Leonard, who had also worked on A Momentary Lapse of Reason, co-produced the album. Jeff Beck played lead guitar on many of the album's tracks, which were recorded with an impressive cast of musicians at ten different recording studios.^[76] It is Waters' most critically acclaimed solo recording, garnering some comparison to his previous work with Pink Floyd.^[77] Waters described the record as a, "stunning piece of work", ranking the album with Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall as one of the best of his career.^[78] The album had one hit, the song "What God Wants, Pt. 1", which reached number 35 in the UK in September 1992 and number 5 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the US.^[79] Amused to Death was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry.^[80] Sales of Amused to Death topped out at around one million and there was no tour in support of the album. Waters would first perform material from it seven years later during his In the Flesh tour.^[81] In 1996, Waters was inducted into the US and UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd.^[82]