Roger Waters - Wall: Live in Berlin 1990

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• WATERS ROGER THE WALL - LIVE IN BERLIN (2CD)

Free Music Notes for Wall: Live in Berlin 1990

Free Music Review: An incredible live performance
Hit: 5 Stars

I and my friend Michael from Frankfurt went immediately to the left side of the wall at the front, as the area immediately in front of the wall stage area was already completely packed with people. There we waited through the rest of the beautiful afternoon, basking in the warm sun-shine and visiting with neighboring Pink Floyd fans from around the world. I left once to buy more t-shirts and discovered just how huge the crowd was. I was lucky to find my way back at all, and you really had to be good at making your own paths through the hundreds of thousands of people sitting and standing around.

The show was not to begin till it got dark but the festive atmosphere and watching all the people (and reading our programs of course) were more than enough to keep us from getting bored. But also on stage, to entertain the crowd were various bands. Among them, The Chieftains from Ireland, and the reunion of The Band, who played all of their old great hits. They were really great! (I'd love to have a tape of their performance if anyone can get me one, and also an audience tape of The Wall concert itself!) I wonder why their music wasn't a part of The Wall concert album? It was rather disheartening that most of the crowd were too young to remember The Band and didn't know their music, or appreciate the significance of their reunion after so many years after having disbanded. Many of course did, and we all danced to their hits.

Water was scarce, and in demand at first until you knew where to get it. Restrooms were positioned throughout the rear and up the sides, but for many it was a real trek and a long wait in line. The wait for t-shirts and programs was really unbelievable, at least an hour! First aid tents were set up at the back as were booths with umbrellas to protect you from the sun.

At one point during the afternoon as a band played on-stage, some neighbors pointed to a section high in the scaffolding above the stage amidst the wall near the top center, and shared their binoculars with me. Indeed there was Mr. Waters looking out over the crowd with his wife (I guess) in tow and smiling from ear to ear, dancing to the music atop the scaffolding.

Finally 10 PM came and went, but it still was not completely dark yet. I was amazed how late the sunset. About 9 PM, Michael and I had made our move from the side front of the wall, and skirted through the thronging masses of people toward the center and up front nearer to the stage. We got as far as one or two hundred meters from the stage and the front. We waited there until it was really dark. Then the Mayor of Berlin made a speech after which he welcomed Leonard Cheshire, (the founder of The Memorial Fund For Disaster Relief which is what charity the show was to benefit) who began the show with a toot of his whistle.

Electricity filled the air as did the fireworks carrying mini parachutes (I'll pay for one if anyone has commandeered and extra for a souvenir, let me know), as the Scorpions limo drove up onto the stage and across the front of the wall. Then the "surrogate band" began the show with "In The Flesh" which was really fantastic. Then, as we all know, "The Thin Ice" began and the sound went out. This technical glitch didn't put a damper on the show at all. Roger apologized, saying they would try to do it again later in the show. You could only empathize with him at how he must have felt. He's such a perfectionist and putting a show together of this magnitude was amazing in itself. During "Another Brick In the Wall Part's 1 & 2", and "The Happiest Days of Our Lives," the Teacher, immense and ominous was inflated above and over the wall, as video clips of The Wall movie and stills were flashed across the circular screen high above and behind the stage. (The spectacle was thrilling, though it might have been much more enjoyable without Cyndi Lauper's vocals! )

Russian soldiers began building The Wall brick by brick to fill the gaps, and although the musicians were great, Mr. Gilmour's guitar was missed throughout! Guitarists, Rick DiFonzo and Snowy White were more than adequate however and gave outstanding performances, even at times outshining those of Dave Gilmour!

Then again, during Sinead O'Connors vocals on "Mother," the power on the sound went out. Again the glitch was only a mild hindrance of the overall event and it was soon overcome and the song continued. In the wall, on the right and left sides, were huge video screens where close ups of the stage show were shown for those not close enough to see well And again, halfway back towards the rear of the crowd, mounted upon huge light towers were more mammoth video screens and speakers for those at the back of the unbelievably immense crowd of 500,000 people! Everything possible was done to allow everybody to enjoy the show as much as possible!

Joni Mitchell's rendition of "Goodbye Blue Sky' was surprisingly good and sung with great feeling. Though throughout the first half of the show, it was very strange to see and hear my favorite music performed by strangers. The changes, made for great entertainment and comparisons. However, when I heard Roger's voice during "Empty Spaces," I knew Pink was there to oversee it all.

Then Brian Adams sang "Young Lust" and did a fantastic job. When "One of My Turns" began, the wall lit up with pictures and effects and I looked up to the apartment, inset into the wall to see Roger singing. I was just below him a few hundred yards into the crowd. God, seeing and hearing him sent goose-bumps through me! New videos and pictures were done especially for the show and were shown and projected as Roger continued with "Don't Leave Me Now." All the while, bricks continued to be laid building the wall. Now, the wall almost completely blocking off the back of the stage, the orchestra in the background adding extra music and effects not heard on the original Wall production. After "Another Brick in the Wall Part 3," and at the end of "Good-bye Cruel World," the last brick was laid and the wall completely closed off the musicians from the audience.

During all of this first half, the cranes and lifts were in constant motion, hoisting huge clumps bricks, and moving lights and cameras. It was all so complex, with so many things going on at once! And because of so much sensory stimuli going on at once, it was hard to keep track of it all. No video can even possibly come close to capturing this event. The atmosphere, filled with excitement was contagious. There was an electricity in the air you could actually feel! You had to have been there and have witnessed it all to even minimally understand and experience all the nuance, symmetry and multimedia frenzy. There was so much sensory input and brain candy happening at once that no-one attending the show could even assimilate it all, let alone anything on video.

During the intermission, we were reminde

Wall: Live in Berlin 1990 Poster

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