Columbia Recording artist and Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters will tour the United States for the first time in 12 years, it has been announced. Waters’ “In The Flesh” tour opens in Milwaukee,Wisconsin, on July 23, 1999 and is the rock legend’s first tour, anywhere in the world, since the1987 “Radio K.A.O.S.” trek. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer last performed live, in 1993, for Don Henley at the concert for Walden Woods.

Material for Waters’ shows will present a full cross-section of his music drawing primarily from the repertoire of songs penned for Pink Floyd as well as selections culled from his solo albums including “Amused To Death.” Waters cofounded the groundbreaking Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett in 1966 and became the group’s sonic architect upon Barrett’s departure, creating such undeniable classics as “The Dark Side Of The Moon,” “The Wall,” “Animals,” “Wish You Were Here,” and “Final Cut.”

Having spent much of the past seven years working on “Ca Ira” (pronounced “sa-ira”), an opera in English and French, Waters felt the desire to re-enter the live arena, reconnect with his fans, and experience the thrill of performing his classic songs live “In The Flesh.”

Waters (guitar, vocals, and bass) will tour with a full band of top-flight musicians featuring Andy Fairweather-Low (guitar), Doyle Bramhall II (guitar and vocals), Graham Broad (drums), Jon Carin (keyboards) and Katie Kissoon (backing vocals).

Fairweather-Low has toured and/or recorded with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Stevie Nicks, and Kate Bush, among others; he has worked with Waters since the 1984 “Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking” tour.

Bramhall is a Texas blues-funk guitarist who’s been playing professionally since he was 15; as a teenager, Bramhall was one of the few musicians the late Stevie Ray Vaughan would invite to sit in with him and, at 19, was invited to join Jimmie Vaughan’s Fabulous Thunderbirds. The drummer for Procol Harum, Broad has played with Bill Wyman & the Rhythm Kings and can be heard on Roger Water’s “Amused To Death” album.

Carin has played keyboards for The Who, Pete Townshend, Bryan Ferry and others. Kissoon has sung with Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, George Harrison, and the Pet Shop Boys among others. It is anticipated that the Roger Waters “In The Flesh” Tour will resume with a series of West Coast dates in Spring 2000.

“Ca Ira” will debut early in the new millennium.