Lost: Roger Waters' Pig

[7/4]

April 29, 2008

Lost: Roger Waters' Pig

By REUTERS

Filed at 5:16 p.m. ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Organizers of a major California music festival are offering a $10,000 reward and four festival tickets for life in exchange for ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters' two-story inflatable pig, which was lost on Sunday night.

Waters' signature pig was seen floating away during his closing set at the three-day Coachella Valley Arts and Music Festival, held in the desert east of Los Angeles.

The giant flying pig, part of Pink Floyd's stage show since their 1977 album "Animals" featuring the song "Pigs on the Wing," broke free from its tethers above the Coachella crowd and drifted off.

It's not the first time Waters has lost his flying pig. Back in 1977, it floated away on the second day of a photo shoot at the Battersea Power Station in London and was later recovered and used for an album cover.

Waters was a member of British rock band between 1965 and 1985. He and the band continued to use the pig as a stage prop even after he quit, and at Coachella Waters played classic Pink Floyd songs including "Mother," "Shine On You Crazy Diamond," "Have a Cigar" and "Dark Side of the Moon."

Coachella was named one of the top three festivals in the country by music magazine Billboard. Last year, the festival attracted more than 186,000 music and art lovers, and grossed $16.2 million, according to the magazine.

Anyone with information on the lost pig, should email lostpig@coachella.com.

[7/4]

An inflatable pig with environmental message floats above the Live Earth New York

concert during Pink Floyd member Roger Water's set in East Rutherford, New Jersey in this file photo from July 7, 2007.

(Mike Segar/Reuters)

A giant inflatable pig scrawled with the words 'Don't Be Led To the Slaughter'

floats over the crowd during Roger Waters' headlining set on the

third day of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., Sunday, April 27, 2008.

(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

[7/4]

Inflatable pig lost after Roger Waters' Coachella set

Tue Apr 29, 6:12 PM ET

Have you seen this pig? It's huge, inflatable, features the word "Obama" and it has lost its way in the California desert.

Organizers for the Coachella music festival announced that the gigantic blowup swine, released into the night sky during Roger Waters' headlining set Sunday, was still out there — and they want it back.

The festival is offering a $10,000 reward plus four Coachella tickets for life for the safe return of the pig, according to spokeswoman Marcee Rondan.

As tall as a two-story house and as wide as two school buses, the pig was led from lines held on the ground Sunday as Waters played a version of Pink Floyd's "Pigs" from the 1977 album "Animals." Then it just floated away.

"It wasn't really supposed to happen that way. I don't have the details," Rondan told The Associated Press.

As for safety concerns, Rondan speculated, "Because it's inflatable, as it loses air it becomes less and less dangerous."

She did not know how much it weighed.

As of Tuesday, Rondan said, the festival had not been able to contact Waters, the Pink Floyd co-founder and songwriting mastermind behind albums such as "Animals" and "The Dark Side of the Moon."

The pig displays the words "Don't be led to the slaughter" and a cartoon of Uncle Sam holding two bloody cleavers. The other side reads "Fear builds walls" and the underside reads "Obama" with a checked ballot box for U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Waters, who told the crowd "that's my pig" as it drifted off into the night, closed out the three-day festival.

Pink Floyd shows have used blowup pigs throughout the years. Rondan called Sunday's "the same prototype" as past pigs.

"People are putting search teams together to find this pig," Rondan said. "But it may float in the night sky, never to be seen again."

[Teasing the Korean]

DAMN, I thought I had Roger Waters. Tough to tell the difference.

[porcy62]

DAMN, I thought I had Roger Waters. Tough to tell the difference.

[7/4]

April 30, 2008

Inflatable pig lost during Coachella music festival is found

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 10:44 a.m. ET

INDIO, Calif. (AP) -- A giant helium-filled pig didn't drift off to hog heaven after it was released into the night sky during Roger Waters' performance at the Coachella music festival. It's been found -- in pieces.

Two couples found tattered halves of the inflatable swine in their yards, a few miles from festival grounds in the Southern California desert.

Concert organizers had offered a $10,000 reward for the pig's return. On Tuesday, pieces of the plastic carcass were examined.

''That's definitely our pig,'' producer Bill Fold said.

Susan Stoltz found a plastic heap in her driveway Monday, but said she didn't know what it was until she read about the missing pig in the Desert Sun newspaper.

''My kids are going to think I'm so cool,'' she said.

Another resident of the same neighborhood, Judy Rimmer, said she found a piece of the pig draped over a front-yard plant.

The two couples will split the cash reward, Fold said.

As tall as a two-story house and as wide as two school buses, the pig was led from lines held on the ground Sunday as Waters played a version of Pink Floyd's ''Pigs'' from the 1977 anti-capitalist album ''Animals.''

Then it just floated away.

''It wasn't really supposed to happen that way. I don't have the details,'' festival spokeswoman Marcee Rondan said.

The pig displayed the words ''Don't be led to the slaughter'' and a cartoon of Uncle Sam holding two bloody cleavers. The other side read ''Fear builds walls'' and the underside read ''Obama'' with a checked ballot box for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

[Hot Ptah]

This sort of thing never seems to happen very often at jazz concerts.

[Free For All]

Bad things happen when pigs fly.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

that "Pigs on the Wing" was a nightly collegiate lullaby when that lp came out (thank goodness for the fully automatic turntable). Usually after Doritos and a pack of double chocolate Archways.

:eye:

[Hot Ptah]

that "Pigs on the Wing" was a nightly collegiate lullaby when that lp came out (thank goodness for the fully automatic turntable). Usually after Doritos and a pack of double chocolate Archways.

:eye:

We get it.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I suppose someone shot it.

MG

[Jazzmoose]

''That's definitely our pig,'' producer Bill Fold said.

Thank goodness it wasn't someone elses two-story inflatable pig...

[Shawn]

[Shawn]

This sort of thing never seems to happen very often at jazz concerts.

True. But I'm sure there were some folks at Pharoah Sanders gigs that were so wasted they SAW giant inflatable pigs where there were none.

Edited May 1, 2008 by Shawn

[7/4]

This could be what was missing from Masada all these years.

.