Thank you Dave Coleman.
Dave Coleman got his brother Peter into Pink Floyd. Peter got me into Pink Floyd.
Thinking back I can’t remember whether I first had the album or saw the film. I think Peter, Bert and I went to see Alan Parker’s The Wall sometime in 1983 at The Empire, Leicester Square, I would have been 16-17 at the time. I’ve carried the vinyl of The Wall around with me everywhere I have been as an adult since but I don’t think I would have had the good sense to have bought my own copy way back then.
I remember coming out of the surround sound cinema, Bert being non-plussed and Pete and I blown away and exhausted. Seminal moment.
In the years since I have obtained most of the Floyd catalogue, seen them live at Wembley 6 August 1988 with The Momentary Lapse Tour but never seen Roger Waters.
Until now.
Having visited Amsterdam with a friend last year we were looking for a reason to go back, this…a chance to see The wall performed live was more than reason enough.
Amsterdam Arena itself is as good a venue a football ground can be…they closed the roof and that was a first for me. Once again in the cheap seats but nowhere near as vertiginous as the O2.
The gig itself…what can you say…it’s a 70 year old Bass player who happens to be Roger Waters. Fireworks, explosions, aircraft strafing the stage, giant puppets, kids choir singing on stage, the audience being machine gunned. All hung against a backdrop of a wall which builds up and eventually comes down before your eyes.
Spectacular is an over used word but this was verb and noun.
Like one of Gerald Scarfe’s puppet creations Waters looks out on all this and pulls the strings.
I don’t know how quickly you can perform the entire double album live but it was over all too soon.
Yes, it is an incredibly navel examining narcissistic album but I don’t care. I like Waters…I like the fact that the Bass player was also both songwriter and thorn in the side of the rest of the band. I hope I can still perform European tours when I am 70 and I hope I look as good as Waters does when I am his age.
And just in case “So ya, thought ya, might like to go to the show”…
Please do. Guitar solo-tastic, Comfortably Numb and ABITW Pt.III being worth the admission fee alone it’s a great night out and his UK dates are still upcoming although you can’t hang about. Over 3 million people have now seen this show live and to put that into context about 2 million have seen the Lion King in the West End.
2013-09-14 – Roger Waters – Wembley Stadium – London –
2013-09-16 – Roger Waters – Manchester Evening News Arena – Manchester
2013-09-18 – Roger Waters – Aviva Stadium (Dublin) – Dublin
2013-09-21 – Roger Waters – Stade de France – Paris
Or even better …do the Dublin or Paris dates.
N.B For the record I’m currently neither touring Europe or as well turned out as Mr Waters.
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