Back in early 1990 Floyd fan Tom Macneir was listening to his local rock station WMMR in Philadelphia USA, when he heard an announcement that WMMR were running a contest, with the winner receiving a 5 day trip to Berlin, Germany to see the Wall concert and a tour of the city. The contest required you to send in postcards, so that's what Tom & his wife did. In fact they sent in hundreds of them! Tom estimates they sent in an average of 20 postcards a day for two months.

Then, finally, came the day of the drawing. Tom waited as the DJ drew the winning name.

Here's how Tom recalls that moment.

"When I heard my name called, at first I didn't believe it. Then he repeated it, and the town I was from as well. I was at work at the time, and scared my co-workers with my yell of joy! My wife called me from her work, and we spent the next ten minutes yelling back and forth with happiness! Then I called the radio station, and once they confirmed that I was who I said I was, they started filling me in on all the details. By this time the concert was only a month away, and we needed to get our passports asap so we could travel. We also needed to arrange the time off at work, which wasn't as easy. My boss gave me problems about letting me off with such "short" notice, but I told him I was going regardless, and if he fired me, so be it. I'd find another job, but this concert would never happen again! He finally relented and "let" me go. A few days later we went to WMMR to pick up our plane tickets and all the other things we needed for the trip. The full package included airfare to and from, seven days, six nights in Berlin Germany at the Hotel Schweizerhof in the heart of the city and just a few blocks from the concert site. Backstage passes and VIP seats to the show were also included, as well as a tour of both east and west Berlin."

You are about to travel with Tom on his trip, as he gives us an idea through the lens of a camera, as to what the concert was like. This is an extraordinary and gigantic exhibition, never seen on the internet before and has been generously supplied exclusively to A Fleeting Glimpse.

Potzdamer Platz the day before the concert. You can see the stage in the distance.

* * Looking on

The open field was, until the wall came down, the "no mans land" between east and west Berlin where many were shot trying to cross into West Berlin and freedom.

NEXT

The Wall Berlin 1990

Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5 ~ Part 6 ~ Part 7 ~ Part 8 ~ Part 9 ~ Part 10 ~ Part 11 ~ Part 12 ~ Part 13 ~ Part 14 ~ Part 15