5 April Sydney Australia Entertainment Centre
Video!
Flickering
Flame
(15 seconds)
MP3
Mother (Brilliant 5m 10s full version)
Show Pics courtesy of Tim Hallam, Dion
Johnson &
me! I headed over to the Glasgow Arms in the afternoon
to say Hi to Colin and all the other Floyd freaks, which was
pretty enjoyable in itself. Colin was, understandably,
beaming about his imminent meeting with Roger. I collected
some "Flickering Flame" posters (and a few beers) and headed
off to meet up with my concert going mates. As has been the pattern, the show started right on time.
I never could have imagined how good Floyd would sound live,
through that mind blowing quadraphonic orgasmo-sound. The
songs were pretty much the same as In The Flesh, but as I
said, it was a million times more moving and magical when it
was live. Roger's voice was really very good (I still think he may
have lip sinked a part or two). His classic aggressive bass
playing was out in full force. Roger certainly appeared to
enjoy himself, at times walking to each side of the stage to
rally the crowd (in perfect sense) or just to wave. He did
seem like he was going through the motions once or twice,
but I couldn't really see his facial expressions. I don't know how the Sydney
crowd compared to those of the past few weeks, but I thought
it had an awesome vibe through it. Roger got standing
ovations to CN and one or two others (I think I stood for
most songs!!!). Thunderous applause to everything else, not
surprising when it's been well over ten years since any
Floyd was here. The visuals were tasteful and appropriate. The video to
Money was very cool. The Memorial to Private Bill Hubbard at
the end of Amused to Death was quite moving. That's about all I can say. I was so immersed in the
music that I didn't really take mental notes of the various
details. If you are lucky enough to have tickets, you are
sure to enjoy it. We all agreed it was the best show we have
ever / and probably will ever see. He is certainly one of
the greats. THANKS ROGER. Thanks to Pete
Molloy
An
awesome evening!
The
band sounded quite fantastic. I've always been a member of
the "without Gilmour it doesn't sound right" camp, but I
think the band were quite faithful to the originals, and did
a fantastic job. Of particular note was Harry Waters, who
did an excellent job with both the Floyd classics (including
the last part of Shine On) and Roger's solo stuff. The
guitar solos were more faithful to the originals than the
versions on ITF, and I was quite surprised to find myself
grinning like an idiot during the Comfortably Numb duelling
guitar solos (I had always thought it would suck without
Gilmour). I also grinned like an idiot during the drum solo
at the beginning of Time, bloody awesome sound. Shivers!
Flickering Flame was very well done, and in my opinion, is a
much
nicer song than Each Small Candle. I was very pleased to see
Roger do that one.
 What
can I say ?Waters thumped out Floyd classics with power and
authority. With such a rigorous set list one might have
thought he might have just been going through the motions by
now - but no, he and most of the band, were loving every
minute of it. Through the opening crashes of ‘In the
Flesh’ to an emotional rendition of ‘Mother’,
I lived the dream of hearing live those songs – you
know - the ones that kind of change your life forever. Could the second half of the show get any better than the first was the question. The answer (imo): It did! Maybe because it didn’t feel like Messrs Gilmour, Wright and Mason were missing so much (as it did in the first half, particularly during ‘Shine On’) – not that I was expecting to see/hear Floyd as such (it was great that this was a different band and they played like this band and not as a poor imitation of the others) - but some pieces (or parts of pieces) are so filled with the original artists personality that it’s ‘just not the same without them.’
My only disappointments were: Snowy White (as usual he
doesn’t appear interested, doesn’t play as if
he’s interested, and after 25 years still hasn’t
learned how to play ‘Floyd’ style), Chester’s
guitar – a little too ‘dirty’, but Chester is
a fine replacement for the brilliant Bramhall. The rest of
the band: brilliant. And Roger – well he was at the top
of his game, vocals, guitar, even on the bass too!! Off to
bed now. Might just put on my ‘In the Flesh’ CD to
gear me up for tomorrow night’s show. |
Second
half highlight (imo) – ‘Perfect Sense’. PP
Arnold – WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The set followed the usual
list, except ‘Set the Controls..’ was played
before ‘Shine On’ (if I remember correctly) and
with ‘Flickering Flame’ as the encore.
 Shine on You Crazy Diamond in it's entirety 1-9 was
wonderfully perfect.. Dog's was incredible . Roger sang on
Every Strangers Eye beautifully and even the high notes he
sang it.His distinctive Bass Sound was great . The sound was
fantastic every note was heard perfectly ,Quad Sound
!Chester Kamen is a real find , played Dogs wonderfully also
Shine on 6-9 the guitar part after the drowning of the Wind
noise was played just like the record. Harry Waters is a
great syth player ! Some of the sounds he got from that syth
was just amazing . Just listen in the middle of Dogs you
know what I mean . Snowy White played Shine on literally to
the record just a great guitar player . |
|
The In The Flesh concert last night (Friday 5 April) was
great. Not just really good great, but absolutely bloody
fantastic Having not seen Pink Floyd or Roger Waters live before, I had no idea what to expect. We were seated about half an hour before the show. We were about two thirds of the way back, so we were a fair way back, but close enough to be able to see everything. By the time the show started, I had worked myself up to a very high level of excitement. When Roger appeared I was clapping and cheering along with everyone else, with a very large smile on my face.
- - Rogers entrance made me smile. It was quite cool with him walking along towards the centre of the screen in the dark, raising his arms and encouraging the crowd to go mad. - - I quite liked the images which increased in size almost unnoticeably (I first saw it in Mother). It wasn't anything special, I just liked it. It was also a bit of a recurring theme. - - Fluid dynamics are great. I was fascinated by the
coloured dribbly projections. I think I'll get a coloured
dribbly projector - - Set the Controls was just tops. It was possibly my favourite song of the whole show. It makes for an excellent live piece of music. - - The projections of the stills with pictures of televisions, but moving pictures showing on the televisions was a nice effect. The film showed during The Bravery of Being out of Range seemed to be of the Vietnam war though, not the Gulf War, which it seems the song is referring to. - - The sun shaped mirror bally type thing was cool. The object in itself was of no great interest, but the light sparkling around the room kept me entertained. - - Comfortably Numb was LOUD. - - The music, of course, was brilliant, and I loved every second of it. All simple things, but then I'm a simple person. I can't wait to hear some recordings of this show. Roger Waters in Sydney, 5/4/02 recordings will be something quite special, because it's _my_ show. Wally Crocker |
really really good great. The pre- show meeting was good,
with about 10 or so Echoesians turning up and a number of
other fans. It seems that Echoes is full of a top bunch of
blokes and lasses. I'm sure Col will put a few pictures up
on his website when he gets back.
The smile remained on my face for the whole of the show. A
few points why:
for my house.
Please send all material to col@pinkfloydz.com
|
Tim Hallam with a pensive Roger Waters
|
Sydney Morning Herald 8 Apr 2002 Beat Magazine With thanks to Chris Burrows |
(Above) With thanks to Andrew
Mackay
Escape Frames
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