I must surely have mentioned this before somewhere on "The Charbor Chronicles", but since "The Wall" will be the topic of this particular blog entry, it surely doesn't hurt mentioning again how completely taken I was by that album earlier in my life.
There were some songs that I had known for a long, long time, such as "Comfortably Numb", and "Hey You", because they were some of the better known individual tracks from this very memorable album.
While it would certainly be fair to say that I liked those songs, my love for "The Wall" came, ironically, not with the original album by Pink Floyd, but by a video (VHS at the time, of course), that my brother had gotten me for either my birthday or, more likely, for Christmas, back in 1990. This was a video of the concert that he had held in Berlin, with a star-studded lineup. So powerful a hold on me did this concert have, and so often did I play it, that I'll admit to something else here: when I went to Berlin last year, a city with a tremendous amount history and beauty to see, a part of what was on my mind throughout the day was that Roger Waters concert! We got to see Potsdam Platz, and I just kept looking around, imagining it being dark, and filled with hundreds of thousands of fans, all looking up to see the assembled wall on the stage, and listing to some great music!
Of course, my trip to Berlin came twenty-three years too late to actually catch that concert live, although I would have loved to have been there! Having just written quite a few blog entries about Woodstock, a concert that I have claimed to have been the greatest of them all, I would certainly have to rank that one concert by Roger Waters as among the very greatest as well!
The circumstances were that the Berlin Wall had fallen the previous autumn, and German reunification, a prospect that had seemed very unlikely, if not just about impossible, up to that point, was on the horizon. So politically, Germany was at the heart of many headlines, and this time, the news was pretty good (although some feared a unified Germany). West Germany was about to win their third World Cup later in the summer, and Steffi Graf and Boris Becker were quite dominant in tennis, so Germans were at the center of the world's sports headlines, as well! And this well-publicized and well-attended concert made sure that Germany would get the triple crown by making certain it was dominant in music headlines that summer, as well!
He had been asked years before if he would ever do "The Wall" in concert again, and answered that he would if the Berlin Wall fell. And once it did, he had to make good on his promise.
I loved that concert, and watched it over and over again, becoming obsessed with it. I got my hands on a copy of the movie, as well, and similarly, watched that over and over again, too! I got very, very familiar with the studio album by Pink Floyd and, honestly, from late 1990 through much of 1991, I listened to "The Wall" over and over again. Listened to it probably too much, to the point that I almost got sick of it.
Still, the concert experience of "The Wall" was something that I felt I had missed out on, and that kind of upset me. How cool would it have been to have actually seen "The Wall"? I felt I could relate to the message on almost every level, and that, somehow, I could "get" what Roger Waters was trying to say with the album, and with the movie.
I did get to see Pink Floyd in concert in 1994, sans Roger Waters. That was a beautiful day through and through, and one of my very favorite concert memories. But no Roger Waters.
A couple of years later, I went to Cleveland, and was thrilled to see a permanent exhibit of "The Wall" there.
And finally, in 1999, I did see Roger Waters, for what was the first of quite a few times, as it turns out. And he started that show off with the first six or seven songs from "The Wall", and many people, not least of all me, were starting to get excited!
But when he announced in 2010 that he would be doing "The Wall" again as a solo tour, I really got excited! I mean, I would finally get to see the concept album in concert, like I had dreamed for so long!
In fact, I saw it twice. The first time was in Nassau Coliseum, one of the few sites that had actually hosted the original "The Wall" tour when it was Pink Floyd doing it as a band, back in 1980! I took my brother to see that as his birthday gift, and saw a second show in East Rutherford, which I took my father to go see, I believe as an early Christmas gift.
Both shows were awesome! And although I have gone to many, many shows over the course of years, it somehow felt like my concert going was rendered far more complete after seeing "The Wall" live!
I almost went again in 2012, but money was tight, and I tried to remind myself of how content and, in some ways, fulfilled I had felt in seeing the two showings that I had attended in 2010, and to be appreciative of that. It certainly helped that I had seen those two shows!
And now, Roger Waters, finally done with "The Wall" after three long years of touring, is going to put out a documentary that takes you behind the scenes, as well as continuing on many of the themes that "The Wall" addresses in general!
Here is what TIFF director Piers Handling said about it:
“Ever since The Wall was released, it has become one of the classic rock albums of all time. Its popularity continues and its message is still timely. Deeply affected by his father’s and grandfather’s deaths in the two world wars, Roger Waters has crafted a plea to tear down the walls that lead to misunderstandings and wars. This powerful performance film allows Roger to explore what The Wall still means to him as he performs it in front of tens of thousands of fans, and visits more personal places that resonate with meaning on the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.”
This is good news! I, for one, as a huge fan of that album, will want to go see it, although it does not come out until later this year, and only in Toronto initially, at that.
But sooner or later, you can bet that fans like me will find a way to see it!
This is really exciting news, and hopefully, a way to relive the concert or, for those who might not have seen it, to get a feel for what it was like!
Also, even though I knew that the tour was a huge success on many levels, I have to admit that I had no idea that it was the most lucrative rock tour in history, generating $460 million in profits! There were six different legs and, in all, 219 shows for the tour!
Here is the link to the article:
Roger Waters chronicles his record-breaking “The Wall Live Tour” in new documentary BY CHRIS COPLANON AUGUST 19, 2014:
http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/08/roger-waters-chronicles-his-record-breaking-the-wall-live-tour-in-new-documentary/
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