Pink Floyd co-founder and bassist Roger Waters has vowed to take legal action after a planned concert in Frankfurt was cancelled by officials who branded him one of the “world’s most widely spread antisemites”.
The veteran musician was scheduled to perform at the city’s Festhalle on 28 May as part of his This Is Not A Drill European tour.
However, Frankfurt city council and the Hessian state government agreed to cancel the show in a bid to “set an example against antisemitism” last month.
Watersdenies being antisemitic and in a statement issued on Thursday has described the cancellation as a “blatant attempt to silence him”.
But a statement issued by Frankfurt City Council said: “The background to the cancellation is the persistent anti-Israel behaviour of the former Pink Floyd frontman, who is considered one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world.
“He repeatedly called for a cultural boycott of Israel and drew comparisons to the apartheid regime in South Africa, and put pressure on artists to cancel events in Israel.”
The decision was approved by the Magistrate of the City of Frankfurt on 24 February.
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The statement added: “The magistrate therefore feels called upon to set a clear signal against antisemitism that is supported by society as a whole.”
A spokesperson for Frankfurt City Council told Sky News that event organiser Messe Frankfurt will be instructed to terminate the contract with the concert agency, adding that “the letter of termination for this is currently being voted on”.
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Four days later on 28 February, Munich City Council introduced a motion to cancel a concert scheduled for 21 May at the Munich Olympiahalle.
The motion said Waters “keeps stirring up antisemitic resentment” and also accused him of “spreading conspiracy ideologies that justify Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine“.
The 79-year-old announced on Thursday that he will take legal action over the “unjustifiable decision” in a statement issued by his management.
The statement, entitled “Roger Waters fights back”, accused the authorities of having “extraordinary and prejudicial intention” to cancel the concert.
The actions of both Frankfurt and Munich officials are “unconstitutional, without justification and based on the false accusation that Roger Waters is anti-Semitic, which he is not”, it said.
Image: Waters performing in Los Angeles last September Pic: AP
“As a result of this unilateral, politically motivated action, Mr Waters has instructed his lawyers to immediately take all necessary steps to overturn this unjustifiable decision to ensure that his fundamental human right of freedom of speech is protected and that all of those who wish to see him perform, are free to do so in Frankfurt, Munich and in any other city in any other country.
“Mr Waters believes that if this blatant attempt to silence him is left unchallenged it could have serious, far-reaching consequences for artists and activists all over the world.”
Tickets for both the Frankfurt and Munich shows are still available for sale on the Roger Waters website.
Now a cross-party group of politicians on Cologne City Council are also demanding a show on 9 May should be cancelled, according to German newspaper, Algemeiner.
Image: Pink Floyd performing during Live 8 in London in 2005. L-R Dave Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. Pic: DPA
An open letter said “there must be no room for antisemitic content on our stages”.
Waters has previously condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for a ceasefire.
His views on Israel and the Ukraine war have sparked criticism including from Pink Floyd vocalist and guitarist David Gilmour.
In an interview with a German newspaper, Waters said of Vladimir Putin: “According to independent voices I listen to, he governs carefully, making decisions on the grounds of a consensus in the Russian Federation government.
He added: “I wonder: is Putin a bigger gangster than Joe Biden and all those in charge of American politics since World War II? I am not so sure. Putin didn’t invade Vietnam or Iraq? Did he?”
It is “pretty surreal”, Academy Award winner Reese Witherspoon admits, finding herself at the top of The New York Times bestsellers list.
When I meet the actress alongside her co-writer, best-selling author Harlan Coben, overnight the pair have learned that their thriller is now at number one.
He jokes: “I was texting her last night and saying you’ll now have to call yourself number one bestselling novelist, forget about Oscar winner!”
Image: Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben told Katie Spencer about their novel Gone Before Goodbye
As one of the most successful authors in the world, Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground.
Not content with running a hugely successful production company responsible for a string of hits, as well as one of the most successful book clubs in the world, she explains she felt compelled to give writing a try.
“People want you to stay in your lane… as a creative person I think it’s impossible to just choose one kind of life.
“Creativity is infinite and who I was as a creative person when I was 20 is very different from the person I am now at 49.”
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Gone Before Goodbye, a thriller about a talented surgeon who finds herself caught up in a deadly conspiracy, is the result of Witherspoon daring to put her head above the parapet.
Image: Witherspoon says she felt compelled to give writing a try
Coben admits he was “a little wary” at first.
“I don’t co-write novels but when she made the pitch and started talking about it, I was like ‘dang that’s good, we can do something with that’.”
While countless celebrities work with ghostwriters, Coben says: “I said to her from day one ‘it’s only going to be you and me in here… no third person in here, I don’t do that’. So every word you [read] comes from Reese and me.”
Image: Coben has sold over 80 million books to date, while for Witherspoon this is new ground
Witherspoon explains: “He was like ‘if we’re going to do this, it’s going to have to be at a really high level because people going to expect a lot, so our bar was really high.”
“I said to her, in the beginning, novels are like a sausage,” Coben laughs. “You might like the final taste, but you don’t want to see how it was made and Reese got to see the full sausage getting made here.”
When it came to writing, Coben says they “fell into a rhythm right away”, working together in three-hour stints, “back and forth with a yellow legal pad – what about this? What about that?”
Image: Coben says they ‘fell into a rhythm right away’
Witherspoon says it “feels really deeply personal” to have their work now in print.
“Usually, as an actor, I walk into other people’s worlds and it’s already set up… but this was creating the whole world with Harlan and just from beginning to end feels very personal.”
While the story seems an obvious fit for being adapted to the screen, perhaps with a certain blonde actress in the leading role, Coben says that was never their intention.
“The biggest, biggest mistake novelists make when you write a book is to say ‘this would make a really great movie’. A book is a book, a movie is a movie, and we both focused on wanting this to be just a great reading experience.”
Given that their collaboration is already selling in big numbers, will the pair team up again to write a second?
Witherspoon says: “Let’s just see what people think of this one first.”
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Associate professor of neurology Dr Laura Stein told Sky’s US partner NBC News: ” The most well-described risk factors include a predisposition [family history of aneurysm], high blood pressure, cigarette smoking and inflammation.”
She went on to explain that most fatal ruptured aneurysms are in the brain, killing about one in three patients.
“When it’s a blood vessel that’s in the head and it bleeds, there’s a much higher risk of having a very bad problem just because the brain is enclosed in a fixed space,” Dr Stein added.
Low-risk aneurysms are monitored by doctors for growth or abnormalities, and there are a series of potential treatment options for those considered dangerous.
Elsewhere in The Kardashians clip, Kim admitted that her ex-husband Kanye West will be in her life “no matter what” because of the four kids they share together.