The Bleeding Heart Band

The Bleeding Heart Band was the name Roger Waters gave his backing band for a brief period of his post-Pink Floyd solo career.^[1]

Although Waters released The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking in 1984,^[1] and toured as a solo artist promoting that album (with an unnamed supporting band), he was still a member of Pink Floyd, and did not leave the group until late 1985.

His first music as an ex-member of Pink Floyd was several contributions to the soundtrack to When the Wind Blows.^[1] It was for this soundtrack album that the band moniker "The Bleeding Heart Band" first appeared.^[1]

Personnel

The original personnel, from the soundtrack to When the Wind Blows:^[2]

• Roger Waters: Bass guitar, acoustic guitar, vocals
• Jay Stapley: Guitar.
• Snowy White: Guitar.
• John Gordon: Bass guitar.
• Matt Irving: Keyboards, organ.
• Nick Glennie-Smith: Piano, organ.
• John Linwood: Linn programming
• Freddie Krc: Drums, percussion.
• Mel Collins: Saxophone.
• Clare Torry: Vocals
• Paul Carrack: Keyboards, vocals

The band's membership would change variously as Waters went on to record the Radio K.A.O.S. album, and then mount the tour.

• Roger Waters - vocals, bass guitar and acoustic guitar.
• Andy Fairweather-Low - Guitar, bass guitar and backing vocals.
• Jay Stapley - Lead guitar and backing vocals.
• Paul Carrack - keyboards and vocals.
• Graham Broad - drums and percussion.
• Mel Collins - Saxophone.
• Doreen Chanter - Backing vocals.
• Katie Kissoon - Backing vocals.
• Clare Torry - lead vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky" on just two shows of the tour.

The Wall, Berlin 1990

When The Wall was performed in Berlin in 1990 to raise money for the charity Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief,^[1] the show featured an enormous number of international artists, as well as Roger Waters and The Bleeding Heart Band, which acted as the house band for the evening, and provided the music for the extra vocalists.^[1]

The Bleeding Heart Band also had a few extra members, such as Rick DiFonzo on guitar, and Peter Wood on keyboards.^[1] Also present was the vocal quartet of Joe Chemay, Jim Farber, Jim Haas, and John Joyce, reprising their role from the studio album and the Pink Floyd Wall performances.^[1] Whether the four were considered official members of The Bleeding Heart Band is unknown.

Later years

Seemingly, the Wall performance in 1990 was The Bleeding Heart Band's last hurrah. For whatever reason, since 1999's In the Flesh tour, Roger Waters has abandoned the Bleeding Heart Band name, even though several of the members (such as Broad, Fairweather-Low, or backing vocalist Katie Kissoon) are part of his current unnamed band. For his The Wall Live tour, Roger introduced them as the Bleeding Heart Band once again.

References

External links

• The Wall Live in Berlin
• Peter Wood Info
• Info on The Wall in Berlin
• Trivia from IMDB
• The Bleeding Heart Band discography at Discogs