We had safely arrived in Melbourne a couple of days earlier and today was another big one! As in Sydney, I had arranged a pre-show meet up at a pub (Phoenix) but early in the day I received a call to say that we had to be at rehearsals at 5.00pm which was earlier than I anticipated and presented a problem! The pub meet was set up for 4.30pm and it was a 15 minute walk from the pub to rehearsals. This meant I only had around 15 minutes to meet & greet anybody who showed up before I had to leave. The only thing I could do was to leave my apologies with the few that had already gathered, to pass on to anyone that came later. I'm told around 25 people eventually turned up, I never got to meet any of them (Except the few early arrivals) and now offer a direct apology to those I missed. (I think you will agree I had a pretty good excuse not to stay at the pub!)

So at 4.45pm I set off with Chris (my wife) and we had a hurried walk across to the venue. There we were almost immediately shown in by security and were met by a really outgoing and nice guy who goes by the name of Chris Lamb.

Chris Lamb & Myself

Now it turns out that Chris is Roger's Production Manager and a close personal friend of his. As soon as Chris clapped eyes on me, he shouted in a loud American accent "Hey, I know you don't I". I could only assume he recognised me from Sydney! He then put his arm around my shoulder and explained that Roger had asked him to look after us as he was too busy to meet us again because of rehearsals. Although I had an inkling that there may have been a second chance to meet Roger, I never realized just how close I had come!

Chris then took Chris (my wife) & myself around the stadium as Roger & the band were warming up on stage. He invited us to ask any questions about the show we wanted, so I got stuck in!

Some info gleaned was:

1) There are 65 guitars used in each show.

2) The oil slide effect that are used in the show (as video I think) was actually done by using the old fashioned method of squeezing printers ink between 2 pieces of glass and sticking the whole mess into a projector. The ink heats up with the warmth of the projector and the ink 'pops' making the 60's lava lamp effect. The whole thing is then put on video and used in the show. (Little did Chris know that I actually used this effect with an oil slide that I projected on Pink Floyd at Middle Earth in 1967!)

3) The technical term for the mirror ball that is used in the show is a 'thingy'! Chris told us this as we walked back stage and I was within 10 foot of Roger again although he couldn't see me.

4) According to Chris, Roger's band are 'lot better musicians than Pink Floyd ever were". He said "let's face it, Pink Floyd were just a bunch of college kids, these guys are professional musicians" I thought of a million things to say but kept quite!

We were then shown all around the back of the stage, Chris even opened the door that Roger uses for us so we could see Roger (see right), even though it was only his back! Some of the crew were working on equipment back stage and we were greeted with smiles and nods from all.

We were then taken to the mixing desk and introduced to the sound engineer, whose name I have forgotten! As we were introduced to him Chris said that he was normally Madonna's and Paul McCartney's sound man.

After getting a few pics of Chris and myself together, Chris sat us down, about 1 block of seats back from the stage. I had previously been told by security that no photo's were allowed but by accident a few shots were taken and can now be seen here!

We the sat down and watched something really really special. I was treated to my own personal Roger Waters show! Well, that's how it felt to me. There were only a handful of other people there and most of them were crew, so it really was an intimate experience. It was then that I realized that my life dream had come true and the tears welled in my eyes.

I sat in awe for 1 hour and 45 minutes watching and listening to Roger and the band going through various songs. It was brilliant hearing Harry saying to Roger "What should I do during this bit Dad"!

From time to time Roger would leave the stage and come into the audience area to check out the sound from various spots. It was on one such walkabout that Roger spotted us and waved across the floor to us! I was blown away!

If I had had a small video camera with me I would have a video of MONEY and it would have run for around 2m 32s and it would be pretty jerky and fade to black towards the end but at least I would have it wouldn't I? : ~}

Just as well I didn't record BRAIN DAMAGE or I may have heard Harry talking at the end of a 1m 49s clip.

But BEST OF ALL. It's a good job I didn't record FLICKERING FLAME or else we all could have heard Roger talking about the 2nd Sydney Show and giving technical music instructions! The clip might have gone for 2m 5s as well.

Sadly, it all ended too soon. However there was still the show to come. Once again, I am not going to review the show but I do want to say thank you to all the fans who greeted me when I entered the floor of the arena. I was suddenly surrounded by friends and well wishers who were congratulating me for my site! Hundreds of people were looking at me thinking I must be somebody well known or something! I had my 15 minutes of fame and I thank all who were involved for that. :~}

There was one last unplanned surprise. At both the Sydney & Melbourne shows I took with me a contraption called a 'skyliner'. It's a small 'twirly thing' that looks like a small version of the rattles the English use at football games. Only this thing doesn't make a noise, instead it spins out LED messages! In between each number (and sometimes during, if I wasn't obscuring anybody's view) I would spin out a message to the band. The first message I twirled on both nights was 'UFO 1967' (which was also emblazoned across my T-Shirts, one of which Roger had seen me wear). I KNOW Roger saw this. But the best was when I spun out the word SMILE and Snowy White who had his head down playing and looking rather glum, looked up, saw the word SMILE and a large grin spread across his face to the delight of the crowd who saw what was going down!

Well there you have it. This was a truly amazing 8 days for me. Probably the most exciting days of my life. Thanks for just being here reading this, it makes the effort of running my site truly worthwhile.