Disco de Pink Floyd: “Wall Live in Berlin”

My expectations were rather muted going into this. Primarily due to the "Celebrity" cast. I also had some real concerns over sound quality since it was recorded almost 15 years ago. The sound however is flat out amazing though. Although my issues with the Celebrity cast did not disappear, the quality of the sound and enormity of the production itself made the cast of characters seem less important. The list of those performers seems really stale today, but at the time of the show, they were all "A" list. I think some complaints I've read hold little merit or were the product of lack of understanding of the original source material. Someone said the scorpions attire was in bad taste for such an event. Well folks, that was on purpose! They were the "Surrogate" band which was supposed to be representative of all of the excess in rock and roll that has at one time or another caused many of us to lose sight of the music.

Although, I've never been a Sinead O'conner fan, I thought she was a perfectly appropriate representation of the child in Pink. Her vocals were also very moving. Again, I'm not a Brian Adams fan, but his gritty voice was an excellent fit for "Young Lust". And, no he wasn't really playing guitar, or at least he wasn't wired for sound. He, like the scorpions were there simply to provide vocals and window dressing. The music was thankfully performed strictly by Roger's amazing band. Joni Mitchell's performance was flat out creepy (in a good way)perfect for "Goodbye Blue Sky". Cindi lauper was nothing but annoying. Van morrison (who I love), seemed painfully out of place in this production. I ached for the return of David Gilmour's silky voice during Van's performance of "Comfortably Numb"

And to those Floyd fans who don't think the wall should be done without the original band, I do sympathize. But the fact is, they were asked to perform, and declined. Understandably, the bad blood between the Waters & Floyd camps was too much to overcome under such short notice, even for such a meaningful event and cause. But, the bottom line is that "The Wall" is Roger's brain child. You can count both the musical & lyrical credits of other band members for the double album on one hand. The wall is the least musical of the Floyd creations due to the lack of input of those other band members. But in pure lyrical and conceptual terms, I still feel it is once of the most brilliant and important works of my generation. I still hold out hope that some day, all of the members including Roger will be able to put their egos and bitterness aside and re-unite to produce new music and tour. Until that day however, I feel very fortunate to re-live the wall experience in this powerful incarnation.

First of all, the sound for the concert is clearly cleaned up, as I heard this show when it hit the radio the first time. There were points in the radio show that were clearly unlistenable.

I know some Floyd purists won't like all of the guest stars, but they are not bad half the time. Bryan Adams works fairly effectivly, and Paul Carrack on Hey You is even better than the original. On the other hand, Cyndi Lauper on Another Brick 2 and Sinead and the Band really take away from some otherwise powerful songs.

The imagery of this show is spectacular, as it must have been for the original tour (do they have an entire concert for that?). It translates to video quite nicely, something which wasn't transmitted for the Momentary Lapse tour.

I'd say this is a nice one to get if you're a Floyd or Waters fan, but keep an open mind.

I'd have to say the concert comes out better on video and CD than it did in real life. I was lucky enough to have a great seat one of few in a crowd of 300,000 and also be lucky enough to go back stage. Maybe it was the excitement and emotion of being there in the middle of Potzdamer Platz where only 8 months before was the desolate no mans area of the old center of Berlin. Hitler's old bunker lay beneath a small mound just to the left of us, (where he decided to take his life) sitting on top was a video screen. "MMMMM" strange to sit there and see such a great concert but at the same time be overwhelmed by the history surrounding us". I took some photos of the border guards just before the concert started, they seemed as excited as we were, they all got up in a big group and waved as I took their picture, all smiles, just a little different from only a few months ago. There was another picture I managed to get backstage, it was the Mayors from east and West Berlin having dinner together for the first time, well so said the media people. So much was happening around us it was just so great to be there and to some degree the concert almost became secondary to what was there at the time. However, as Roger Waters said he would never do the "Wall" concert again until the wall came down, well he got his wish and it was just "icing on the cake". Musically it wasn't brilliant there were a number of sound problems but it didn't matter for most of us there, it was a small price to pay for the experience. The finale when those words rang out " tear down the wall" 300,000 Berliners and foreigners sang out in unison as the massive stage collapsed. It was an emotional time, especially for those of us unable to share in the joy those brave Berliners must have felt on the night of 9 November 1989. I guess this doesn't say much about the concert and Roger Waters at all but I can assure you it was absolutely fantastic, and seeing it on video was great. If u can think of all this and what it was all about at the time i.e. "The memorial fund for disaster Relief" you will appreciate it even more. NOT JUST A MUSICAL VIDEO/CD/DVD BUT A POIGNANT MOMENT IN TIME"!!!!

This concert video is one of the best I've seen. I'm writing this because some guy in an earlier review said that the only thing he would change about it is he'd have Waters sing the chorus of Comfortably Numb because he thought "that guy kinda screwed it up." Well, pal, "That guy" happens to be Van Morrison, a very highly respected singer/songwriter, and probably the most creative vocalist in that show. I didn't say best. That title might well go to Carrack of Squeeze, but Morrison is arguably the most creative. Please give him and the others a listen. You are in for a treat.

Eleven years after the original release of Pink Floyd's "The Wall", Roger Waters, former bassist and vocalist of Pink Floyd, performs a one-off show of The Wall with an all star cast, featuring Sinead O'Connor, The Band, Marianne Faithful, Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, The Band, Van Morrison, and more. Filmed and recorded live in Berlin, this video documents the show as close to the original show as it can. Songs include In The Flesh?, Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, Mother, Young Lust, Hey You, Comfortably Numb, Run Like Hell, and The Tide Is Turning, a song from Roger's solo album Radio KAOS. This is a must for anyone who never got to see The Wall live in 1980 and '81.