Roger Waters - Tour 2006
12 June Iceland Reykjavik - Egilsholl Arena

jce, A Fleeting Glimpse's long time senior UK correspondent, was fortunate enough to spend three days in Iceland finding out what it's like backstage, and on tour with Roger Waters & the band. Exclusive to A Fleeting Glimpse, you can read his brilliant show review, and wonderful stories of 3 days in Iceland.

3 Days in Iceland. Part 1 - Show Review
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The gig was held in a sports arena on the outskirts of Reykjavik, which isn't that big a place. It's on a peninsular which only has one road in or out and this resulted in problems for people getting there - the press said that 7,000 cars tried, and many were abandoned as the occupants walked to get to the show. This chaos meant that the show started 25 minutes late to ensure that all 15,000 people could get in for the show, and apparently that's 5% of the population of Iceland! Leaving was also somewhat time consuming.

Starting with In The Flesh is still one of the best starts to a show that I've seen, and this one was perhaps one of the best, although this time I was rather closer than I have ever been and really felt the heat of the fire flashes at the beginning. The band seems very tight even with a the new members. Roger certainly is the showman and seems to relish the bombastic nature of In the Flesh - sometimes I wonder if not too much. Sitting down for Mother the show slowed and Carol Kenyon took centre stage. I like this new way of using the female voice for the Mother parts of the song and it works extremely well. Set the Controls sees Ian Ritchie's first appearance and I think he's the best sax player so far of all the 4 recent tours and tonight's Set The Controls was perfect.

The sound, although VERY loud, was crisp and well balanced. No problem at all with it and the range was amazing. This being an indoor gig there were no wind problems and I'm always amazed that if Roger can get this kind of set up then why don't other bands?

The crowd, which contained an amazing number of young kids were, in my opinion, just right - appreciative and loud in the right places but very quiet and attentive during the songs, especially the quiet ones. There was a lot of respect in the audience not just for the band but for each other. I saw no pushing, crushing or drunkenness and this was the best audience I've seen since the Sydney shows in 2002.

The Wish You Were Here section was again performed faultlessly although I didn't think that Have a Cigar works that well with Rogers voice, but it's a great opportunity for the guitar and keyboard sections to really show how good they are. Dave's guitar work was especially well done. The girls voices really add to Shine On in a way that I cant really explain, but I thought it makes it sound much more of a lament that it is. The acoustic of Wish was met with loud applause then silence so that the words hung throughout the arena with a very quiet clap along at the end. This song produced the loudest applause so far and a huge smile from Roger.

One thing I did notice that this tour Roger has added in tracks from WYWH and Animals that he hasn't done in the past few tours meaning that he has essentially played all of DSOTM, WYWH and Animals as a solo artist as well as The Wall in Berlin, and Pros and Cons in 84/85 - does this mean that we might get a full rendition of ATD or The Final Cut next time?

Soton Dock and Fletcher were done to almost silence and were very moving. Although I love these tracks I think that following Wish they take the show down just that too much which is why Gunners has been dropped - this down section was lasting too long. I thought that both songs were done in a less angry way than the album and its almost as if time has made them more of a sigh of hopelessness than an angry refrain against war. Dave's guitar work in this is fantastic and overall I thought he more than handles Gilmour's parts with aplomb.

Perfect Sense is really PP Arnold's song with Roger taking more than a back seat. During the beginning section from the film 2001, the inflatable powered spaceman made his appearance at the back of the crowd over a black curtain that had been set up to stop the light coming in. He then did some aerobatics over the crowd spotlighted from both towers at the rear of the audience before Roger started singing and handing over to PP who as usual blew the crowd away with a PERFECT recital of the track. A change from the previous tours is that PP comes to the front of the stage to perform. As the audience went wild, Roger applauded her and then went over for a big hug, before Part 2 where he takes the singing role over again, but PP still steals this part as well through the backing vocals.

Introducing the new song, Leaving Beirut is a great idea as it puts the song in context as being very personal and clearly an important element in his life. I wasn't looking forward to this track live as I think the recorded version isn't much more than a poor demo, but the live performance really impressed me and splitting the song into Roger singing and the narration being represented by storyboards on the screen is an inspired idea. The filling of the spaces by the musicians and girls voices adds depth and makes this one of the highlights of the show. The girls section is almost a revised Great Gig but somewhat sadder. The part with the comments about Bush was greeted by huge applause and cheering. Clearly Icelanders have a similar view as the rest of the world. Dave's solo was sublime and could've gone on much longer for me. As I've said from being a track I disliked, this live version is the clear highlight of the first half (other than Perfect Sense of course)

The baaing echoed around the arena as that amazing keyboard riff kicked in for a stunning version of Sheep. A track I've long wanted to hear live and it didn't disappoint. That 77 anger in the voice was there and showed in his closing comments as he was almost horse. I guess that's why it's at the end of the first set? I couldn't find any fault in this version and it's the best one I've heard of the live recordings from this tour. A full Animals show would just be amazing. During the revised Psalm the words are supposed to flash across the back of the stage but someone messed up and they were totally out of synch which was quiet funny as they'd speed up then slow down and back to too fast again LOL

And that was just the first half!

"Now before we do Dark Side Of The Moon I want to introduce to the stage a very old friend of mine and an ex-colleague of mine, please welcome Nick Mason" started the second half of a full playing of Dark Side of the Moon as the heart beats started resounding around the arena. Both Nick and Graham stayed on and the dual drumming certainly added to the piece with each having different playing styles. For me though I would've preferred just Nick as I think that Graham is a bit too harsh a player although he's better on this tour than previously. No faults at all in the whole album - just amazing and coming in almost exactly the same length. Personally I detest Money being played outside the suite but within it, it works so well and is the only time that it should be played. Nice to hear it as it should be rather than the butchering its had over the years.

Throughout the piece new films are projected onto Mr Screen that has now appeared from behind the larger rectangular screen of recent years - these do add to the show and are almost constant and heavily feature the rainbow, but I was disappointed that the film for Us and Them has been changed as the slow procession over Westminster Bridge was very effective.

At the end for the curtain call, Roger was very appreciative of Nick and they performed some sort of surreal "thank you", "no thank you", "NO, thank you" routine

Nick came back on for the encore of excerpts from The Wall. At the start of Brick, Roger shouts "You" and points to his right but the spotlight lights up in the centre of the crowd where someone raised their hand to hear Roger turn and say laughingly "alright YOU, yes YOU, stand still laddie". So that bit definitely isn't a tape! Brick was well received and was to me was OK, but Roger's voice was beginning to show the strain and it turned into the normal happy clappy crowd favourite, although the guitar solo was spot on, if not too much like Dave - I've always liked Doyle's versions

The odd inclusion of Vera I think is merely to facilitate the right entry into Bring The Boys Back Home which reinforces Rogers anti war message even further and is a clear attempt to hammer home the point. I wonder how the show will go down in the US? Vera is a lovely song and works well and this performance was great, made by the keyboards and is very powerful especially at the words are flashed in red across the screen at the back, and as the song finishes Roger shouted "TOMORROW!"

The obligatory ending of Comfortably Numb follows well and just as on the album. Its fantastic to hear the tracks follow as they should without the usual disjointed starts of previous tours. Its always jarred on me taking certain songs out of context in the live environment.

Huge cheers and the crowd filtered out into the daylight that was streaming in through the cracks in the fire doors. A beautiful red sun sat low in the sky as the traffic jam to leave the area slowly moved back to the city.

So a show that ranks very highly in all the Roger shows I've seen especially as I didn't go with the best view of what the show would be like. But I was so pleasantly pleased at the end as, for me it's the best of all the recent 99,2000,02 tours. I'd come to understand and like Leaving Beirut and fallen back in love with Dark Side of the Moon and the Wall and finally got to hear Sheep live.

If you go to one show this year then this tour should be it. Don't hesitate, it's amazing. Take in the show and ignore any tattle about lip synching. There has always been tape effects - heart beats, cash registers, clocks, children singing, so what's the difference?

The show is visually and aurally as perfect as Roger has ever got to, and finally I think he is beginning to put his message into a more coherent form.

Set List

In The Flesh, Mother, Set The Controls For the Heart Of The Sun, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Southampton Dock, The Fletcher Memorial Home, Perfect Sense parts 1 and 2, Leaving Beirut, Sheep.

SECOND HALF: Dark Side of the Moon.

ENCORE: The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall (Pt 2), Vera, Bring the Boys back Home, Comfortably Numb.

PART 2 - BEHIND THE SCENES

Articles & Media

Ticket scan thanks to jce

Ticket scan thanks to thorby

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