PINK FLOYD’S ROGER Waters has lashed out after two upcoming concerts in Krakow in Poland were scrapped following criticism from city councillors over his stance on the war in Ukraine.
The city council is scheduled to debate a motion this week that would declare Waters a “persona non grata” and one councillor, Lukasz Wantuch, had urged city residents to boycott the Waters concerts.
Waters wrote an open letter earlier this month saying the West should stop providing arms to Ukraine, accusing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of allowing “extreme nationalism” in Ukraine and urging him to “put an end to this deadly war”.
Live Nation Polska said on Twitter that the concerts, which had been scheduled for April next year at the city’s Tauron Arena, had been “cancelled” but did not give any more details.
HEY! ŁUKASZ WANTUCH, "LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE!"
— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) September 25, 2022
Correction Roger Waters didn’t cancel Krakow Gigs.
To Nadeem Badshah at @guardiannews
And Anna Piatkowska at @gaz_krakowska
Read more: https://t.co/905kN3I53x pic.twitter.com/TvGgOaAp5Q
Waters on Facebook denied Polish media reports that his team had pulled out but criticised Wantuch, accusing him of “draconian censoring of my work”.
“Lukasz Wantuch seems to know nothing of my history of working, all my life, at some personal cost, in the service of human rights,” Waters said.
Paraphrasing the words of his hit single “Another Brick in the Wall”, Waters also wrote: “Hey! Lukasz Wantuch! ‘Leave them Kids Alone!’”.
He said he had only wanted to urge the countries involved “to work towards a negotiated peace rather than escalate matters towards a bitter end”.
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