Roger-Waters_gallery_primary
Originally published by L.S. Media. May 11th 2011.
L.S. Media Rating *****
The Wall is one of those seminal albums from the last 50 years that seems to have transcended the idea of music and theatre being a separate entity. Its main writer, Roger Waters and the guys that made up one of Britain’s most loved rock bands, Pink Floyd, are so ingrained in its effect on the national psyche that it continues to sell in massive numbers and fans of the band continue to hold onto copies of their vinyl and tape even in the face of downloads.
The trouble with The Wall is, as a piece of work it’s so expensive to put on properly and although there are some very good tribute bands that have tried, none of them really capture the mood enough to show the despair and gradually decline of a rock star, burned out with drugs and too many memories.
Such was the outpouring of fan surprise when Roger announced that for the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990, he would be performing the whole album, that ticket sales at each of the venues were bombarded like no other rock gig before it.
The event opened with the strains of the final moments of the Hollywood epic and one of the finest made by Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus. As the voice of Laurence Olivier resonates around the o2 Arena offering a pardon to those who identify the man known as Spartacus, the proclamation of each one of one of the slaves rings out “I am Spartacus”, “I am Spartacus”, looking at the individual faces of those seated it was possible to see the majority of these people moved to join in silently mouthing the same refrain.
With the spoken word dying down, the cacophony erupted with the opening of a gig that by all accounts will go down in the annals of rock history with In the Flesh and The Thin Ice. When The Wall was last performed to British audiences, the technology that created the show, although stunning in its design and sheer workman like manner was forgotten as the audiences that will see this show over the next couple of weeks were bombarded on all sides by new production techniques that had the crowd gasp and cheer at every image they saw projected and displayed as the wall got ever higher and more and more dwarfed the musicians in stage.
Each song that came and went during a night of high theatre was greeted enthusiastically and with more and more volume. Roger was moved to say he had been handed a note before the start of the evening where they calculated to day the last time The Wall was played in all its glory in London and at a shade of just under thirty years Roger introduced the song Mother and joining him on stage or rather as a film projection was the young Roger from that gig and in beautifully shot black and white. Roger even kidded the audience that he was always noted for being a grumpy man back then but today he was so happy to be playing in front of such a wonderful audience.
Roger played each song perfectly and was accompanied by some great talent in the shape of David Kilminster, the exceptional Snowy White and Graham Broad on stage, with the aforementioned Dave Kilminster nailing perfectly the guitar part on Comfortably Numb with elegant panache.
The night carried on, every song delivered with panache and with the thought that there are so many people that will have waited all their lives to see this show, however those that attended will not have gone home disappointed. In thirty years of attending gigs, it is quite a pleasure to be able to say that this gig, in one word was perfect.
Ian D. Hall