Pink Floyd tribute band reverses cancellation of Israel shows
Despite Roger Waters, attack, UK Pink Floyd Experience also invites Israeli cover band to join them at three concerts around Israel.
By AMY SPIROUpdated: DECEMBER 19, 2018 05:13UK Pink Floyd Experience(photo credit: EGOEAST PRODUCTIONS)
Ten days after canceling their upcoming tour of Israel, the UK Pink Floyd Experience announced that they will in fact be performing in the Holy Land.EGOeast Productions said on Tuesday that the tribute band will be performing its three concerts as originally scheduled, on January 4 in Beersheba, January 5 in Tel Aviv and January 6 in Haifa.Earlier this month, the UK-based cover band canceled after Roger Waters – the original Pink Floyd lead singer and an outspoken BDS activist – slammed them on Facebook.“It was a terrible situation, their lives were threatened, they were very scared, they deleted their Facebook page,” said Ziv Rubinstein, one of the producers from EGOeast. “But we know the people who are in the band, and we know they are people who love Israel, who have appeared here in the past. We talked to them and spoke to their heart.”In a statement on its website on Tuesday, the band said it enjoyed a “wonderful reception” when it was in Israel in 2017, and was happy to be invited back.“Our decision to accept the invitations to play in Israel were completely non-political and neither endorses nor criticizes anyone’s political views in this situation,” the band wrote. “We deeply regret the upset caused by all of this. It was far from our intention to stir up all this anger and hatred when the opposite was what was intended. In hindsight, it was very naive to think our motives would not be misunderstood and misrepresented.”The band said profits from its tour here “will go to the charity UNICEF.”Rubinstein told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday that the production company “tried to explain to them that at the end of the day, we’re talking about art, and we’re talking about music, and they have a big fan base here.” He said the band took “a brave step” in rescheduling the shows, knowing that “they will face attacks again.”And to make a statement, the UK Pink Floyd Experience has invited Echoes – the Israeli Pink Floyd cover band – to join them at all three shows “so that there will be Israelis on stage – so that the audience won’t think for a second they wanted to cancel over that,” said Rubinstein.Earlier this month, Waters slammed the group on Facebook, writing that singing his songs in Israel would be “an act of unconscionable malice and disrespect.” Within a few hours, the band posted on Facebook that its Israel shows were canceled, and then deleted its Facebook page entirely as attacks began to roll in.
The next day, Waters posted on Facebook celebrating the cancellation, and claiming that the band’s David Power told him he found the situation in Israel “intolerable” and was joining the BDS movement.However, Power commented on the post, and said he was clear in his note to Waters that “my concern was for my colleagues and the abuse and threats they were receiving as a result of your initial post... We do not support either side in this, we were simply hoping to bring music to the people.”“We succeeded in making a little history in this world of boycotting Israel,” said Rubinstein. “We won.”
