'He thinks he owns Pink Floyd': Roger Waters re-ignites feud with Dave Gilmour after 'website ban'

Roger Waters has reignited a long-running feud with ex-Pink Floyd band-mate Dave Gilmour.

The songwriter and bassist, who co-founded Pink Floyd in 1965, says he's been "banned" from the band's website and social media channels by lead guitarist Gilmour.

Gilmour joined the progressive rock band in 1967, shortly before the departure of founding member Syd Barrett in 1968.

Waters famously left Pink Floyd in 1985 and sued the remaining three members for continuing to use the name without him - but he lost.

Waters, Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason last reunited as Pink Floyd to play Bob Geldof's Live 8 benefit concert in 2005.

In a five-minute video shared on his official Twitter page, Waters says: "One and half million of you have viewed our new version of Mother, which is lovely - it really warms my heart. But it does bring up the question: why is this video not available on a website that calls itself The Pink Floyd website?"

The 76-year-old musician goes on: "Well, the answer to that is because nothing from me is on the website - I am banned by David Gilmour from the website."

Waters says Gilmour, 74, considers him to be "irrelevant".

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

1:03

Earlier this week, Waters shared a black and white video of him playing the isolation version of the track with his 360,000 followers, but it appeared nowhere on the band's official site.

Waters argues that the 30 million subscribers to the band's official webpage should all have equal access to the work of the surviving members.

However, he says that's not the case: "David thinks he owns it. I think he thinks that because I left the band in 1985, that he owns Pink Floyd, that he is Pink Floyd and I'm irrelevant and I should just keep my mouth shut."

He also questions why Gilmour's wife, writer Polly Samson, has been using the band's social media channels to promote her livestreams.

He says some of his friends have recently asked him: "'Why do we have to sit and watch Polly Samson, year after year, month after month, day after day - and the Von Trapps reading us excerpts from their novels to get us to go to sleep at night?'

Arguing that none of his work is publicised, he goes on: "We're not allowed to even mention [my projects] on the official Pink Floyd website. This is wrong. We should rise up… or, just change the name of the band to Spinal Tap and then everything will be hunky dory."

Spinal Tap are a fictional British heavy metal band, who appear in the cult 1984 mocumentary This Is Spinal Tap.

References to the band generally suggest disastrous or comedy moments for real life acts.

Waters says around a year ago he organised a meeting at a hotel airport for the surviving members, in a bid to get past what he calls an "awful impasse", but says the gathering was not a success.

Syd Barrett died in 2006, and keyboardist Rick Wright died two years later.

Drummer Mason, Waters and Gilmour are all still active musicians.

:: Listen to the Backstage podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

Waters has previously made it clear a Pink Floyd reunion is not on the cards. These latest comments will certainly have not increased the chances.

Dave Gilmour and Polly Samson have yet to respond to Waters' video. Sky News has contacted the band for comment.