I was reading something the other day that included a racist rant given by Eric Clapton at a concert in Birmingham in 1976. I was struck by the similarity to In the Flesh (reprise) - the language, the statements, the entire feel.
Do we have any foreigners in the audience tonight? If so, please put up your hands … So where are you? Well wherever you all are, I think you should all just leave. Not just leave the hall, leave our country … I don’t want you here, in the room or in my country. Listen to me, man! I think we should send them all back. Stop Britain from becoming a black colony. Get the foreigners out. Get the wogs out. Get the coons out. Keep Britain white … The black wogs and coons and Arabs and fcking Jamaicans don’t belong here, we don’t want them here. This is England, this is a white country, we don’t want any black wogs and coons living here. We need to make clear to them they are not welcome. England is for white people, man … This is Great Britain, a white country, what is happening to us, for fck’s sake? … Throw the wogs out! Keep Britain white!
I know that a number of white British rock artists (Clapton and Bowie) among them expressed attitudes like the above that supported groups like the National Front at the time, and other artists were in opposition (Rock against Racism). Given Roger Waters’ political positions, I can’t really imagine him leaning to the far right.
So that fascist alter-ego is a fictional representation of Pink’s internal conflict (and maybe a desire for control that escapes him in real life), but I just wondered if it had a more “real-world” inspiration …