from today's Timesonline
*http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-444341,00.html*
>
> *It's a short trip from Pink Floyd to hunting pink
> Roger Waters
> *
>
>
> My father died when I was five months old. Killed, like his father
> before him, in a world war.
> Three years ago, a family heirloom was handed down to me which, until
> then, I never knew existed. It is a small diary, kept by my father, in
> his 16th year. This modest volume, as anyone who has lost a father
> when young will understand, is one of my most treasured possessions.
> I have always felt passionately about the hunting issue, but the
> discovery of the diary helped me to understand why it is so important
> to me. The entry for January 1, 1931, for example, is particularly
> poignant. It begins:
> "The New Year's Eve Dance finished at 3am and Ken and I went into
> their house for some coffee. Verna and I went to the hunt at
> Romaldkirk. Lovely day. Hounds put on railway line, set up a hare and
> ran it west."
> My father was a man of high principle, just like his father before
> him. My grandfather was a coal miner in the drift mines of Co Durham,
> and later became Labour agent for Bradford. My father was a committed
> Christian, but also a dedicated communist. You could not fail to be a
> communist in Bradford during the 1930s -- when some children had
> neither shoes nor clogs, but rags about their feet.
> My father and my grandfather shared a love of the British landscape
> and of the countryside and its traditions.
> They gave their lives protecting those traditions; my grandfather in
> the trenches of the first world war and my father at Anzio, fighting
> the tyranny of Nazi Germany. I find it ironic that Hitler banned
> foxhunting in 1939.
> I am filled with the sense that I am heir to their passion, and hope I
> have inherited what I admire about them as men.
> I may be better known as the former frontman of Pink Floyd, but I have
> always felt as passionate about the countryside as I have about music.
> Whenever I have worked abroad, whether touring during my time with
> Pink Floyd or in the years since, the British countryside and its
> landscape have been a recurring source of inspiration and strength.
> That is why I am appearing in concert on Wednesday at the Albert Hall
> in support of the Countryside Alliance. After the Berlin Wall came
> down, I stood in front of 350,000 people in the Potsdamer Platz and
> performed The Wall. In many ways, the Whip Craic fundraising concert
> this week is just as symbolic.
> That is why I have also chosen this occasion to perform for the first
> time in public the overture from my forthcoming opera about the French
> revolution, Ca Ira. This is a project that has engaged me for more
> than a decade, and I have put as much of my soul into it as I did for
> my Pink Floyd work.
> For anyone who doesn't know, the Countryside Alliance encourages the
> conservation of wildlife and defends the traditions of country life.
> One such tradition is hunting with dogs.
> In my own childhood, I would attend the Christmas meet of the local
> hunt. I remember watching its progress across farmland and thinking
> what a spectacular sight it was.
> I was especially struck by the other hunt followers on their bicycles
> or in their Ford Populars with their Thermos flasks, ruddy complexions
> and infectious enthusiasm.
> When I was young, I was also forever rescuing wounded animals and
> nursing them back to health and freedom. I was determined that when I
> grew up I was going to become a vet.
> Although things turned out very differently, I mention this only to
> illustrate that the pro-hunting fraternity is informed by a love of
> animals, not the reverse. My view is that hunting with dogs is not
> only morally correct, but also a natural expression of man's nature as
> an omnivore.
> I know there are other musicians who would disagree with me. But I am
> not the only contemporary musician to support the Countryside
> Alliance. Jon Lord from Deep Purple, for one, will also be appearing
> on stage this Wednesday.
> It may be that we are part of a minority. If that is the case, I would
> expect parliament to protect our rights, as it should any minority.
> It would be a grave mistake for the government to impose legislation
> on the rural community, which would create a bitter divide between
> town and country in a nation already battling with a sense of loss --
> loss of empire, loss of self-respect and loss of national identity.
> There is some deep part of the Englishness in me that compels me to
> stand and be counted.
*http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-444341,00.html*
>
> *It's a short trip from Pink Floyd to hunting pink
> Roger Waters
> *
>
>
> My father died when I was five months old. Killed, like his father
> before him, in a world war.
> Three years ago, a family heirloom was handed down to me which, until
> then, I never knew existed. It is a small diary, kept by my father, in
> his 16th year. This modest volume, as anyone who has lost a father
> when young will understand, is one of my most treasured possessions.
> I have always felt passionately about the hunting issue, but the
> discovery of the diary helped me to understand why it is so important
> to me. The entry for January 1, 1931, for example, is particularly
> poignant. It begins:
> "The New Year's Eve Dance finished at 3am and Ken and I went into
> their house for some coffee. Verna and I went to the hunt at
> Romaldkirk. Lovely day. Hounds put on railway line, set up a hare and
> ran it west."
> My father was a man of high principle, just like his father before
> him. My grandfather was a coal miner in the drift mines of Co Durham,
> and later became Labour agent for Bradford. My father was a committed
> Christian, but also a dedicated communist. You could not fail to be a
> communist in Bradford during the 1930s -- when some children had
> neither shoes nor clogs, but rags about their feet.
> My father and my grandfather shared a love of the British landscape
> and of the countryside and its traditions.
> They gave their lives protecting those traditions; my grandfather in
> the trenches of the first world war and my father at Anzio, fighting
> the tyranny of Nazi Germany. I find it ironic that Hitler banned
> foxhunting in 1939.
> I am filled with the sense that I am heir to their passion, and hope I
> have inherited what I admire about them as men.
> I may be better known as the former frontman of Pink Floyd, but I have
> always felt as passionate about the countryside as I have about music.
> Whenever I have worked abroad, whether touring during my time with
> Pink Floyd or in the years since, the British countryside and its
> landscape have been a recurring source of inspiration and strength.
> That is why I am appearing in concert on Wednesday at the Albert Hall
> in support of the Countryside Alliance. After the Berlin Wall came
> down, I stood in front of 350,000 people in the Potsdamer Platz and
> performed The Wall. In many ways, the Whip Craic fundraising concert
> this week is just as symbolic.
> That is why I have also chosen this occasion to perform for the first
> time in public the overture from my forthcoming opera about the French
> revolution, Ca Ira. This is a project that has engaged me for more
> than a decade, and I have put as much of my soul into it as I did for
> my Pink Floyd work.
> For anyone who doesn't know, the Countryside Alliance encourages the
> conservation of wildlife and defends the traditions of country life.
> One such tradition is hunting with dogs.
> In my own childhood, I would attend the Christmas meet of the local
> hunt. I remember watching its progress across farmland and thinking
> what a spectacular sight it was.
> I was especially struck by the other hunt followers on their bicycles
> or in their Ford Populars with their Thermos flasks, ruddy complexions
> and infectious enthusiasm.
> When I was young, I was also forever rescuing wounded animals and
> nursing them back to health and freedom. I was determined that when I
> grew up I was going to become a vet.
> Although things turned out very differently, I mention this only to
> illustrate that the pro-hunting fraternity is informed by a love of
> animals, not the reverse. My view is that hunting with dogs is not
> only morally correct, but also a natural expression of man's nature as
> an omnivore.
> I know there are other musicians who would disagree with me. But I am
> not the only contemporary musician to support the Countryside
> Alliance. Jon Lord from Deep Purple, for one, will also be appearing
> on stage this Wednesday.
> It may be that we are part of a minority. If that is the case, I would
> expect parliament to protect our rights, as it should any minority.
> It would be a grave mistake for the government to impose legislation
> on the rural community, which would create a bitter divide between
> town and country in a nation already battling with a sense of loss --
> loss of empire, loss of self-respect and loss of national identity.
> There is some deep part of the Englishness in me that compels me to
> stand and be counted.
