Roskilde Festival

Ticket scan - thanks to Dave S

Capacity: 50,000
Roger's set starts: 8:30pm

Address of venue: Dyrskuepladsen, Darupvej, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark. MAP

Website: www.roskilde-festival.dk

And so to the hugely popular Roskilde Festival. Such events are a double-edged sword - you have people who have turned up for other artists and therefore know little of (in this case) the headliner Roger's music. This can be interesting to watch, as often they show that initial intrigue that we've all felt before falling under the spell of the Floyd's music! You also have people JUST there for Roger - and get a little bored waiting through supporting bands.

As ever, Roger rewarded their patience with a great show. Nothing out of the ordinary - the same set list, and little change in the stage setup - but musicians playing really well together, to the delight of the crowds.

A few days break for the band, before arriving in Rotterdam on Friday. In the meantime, a selection of images from the show can be seen at the TV2 website - click "Se Også" for some nice shots!

All pictures below from the concert, thanks to Erling Laursen

SHOW REVIEW

By Brain Damage contributor, Christian Pedersen from pinkfloyd.dk

I went to see Roger perform at Roskilde yesterday and it was truely amazing! Roger looked very energetic and quite enthusiastic about being there, and that made that show rock from the second that we heard the words "...eins, zwei, drei...".

I had been in a queue for hours, actually Franz Ferdinand was playing at the same venue just before that, and you could really feel the great anticipation from the many fans wearing all sorts of Dark Side T-shirts.

When I got in, I managed to get myself way in front of the right side of what is known as"The Orange Stage", which proved to be one of the best spots. On several occasions Roger was only a few feet away from me and I managed to get some great pics of it. Fantastic to see him, he really looked great :-)

The set was excellent. Dark Side, of course, was great, although I really missed the slide guitar during Breathe and such, but anyway, the fill-in's - White and Kilminster did it okay. But none of them have the skills of a Gilmour. Jon Carin sang well, made a mistake in Us And Them, otherwise really good. Sheep, Another Brick and Perfect Sense were some of the other highlights. PP Arnold knows her stuff! In recent times I have become more aware of Amused to Death - really a great record.

I couldn't stop thinking, that I was somehow cheating on David going to this show, 'cause I really missed him there, and compared to his show in Albert Hall, this one maybe didn't sound as good, as far as Breathe, Dark Side in general, Shine On and Comfortably Numb is concerned. It simply doesn't sound as good without him.

But maybe you just can't compare them. However in many ways this show was better. He really gave an excellent performance, especially the Wall tracks were raving! Thank you Roger!

SHOW REVIEW

By Brain Damage contributor, Alex Ahlstrand

Roskilde festival in Denmark is at the present time the oldest running festival of them all. The city of Roskilde first saw the grassy fields of dyrskuepladsen (the animal fairgrounds) filled with people in the summer of 1971. Then only a 15,000 attended what was then known as “Sound Festival”. Since then the festival has reoccurred without interruption and with an astounding array of international and local artists and performers and always housing at least 90,000 attendants in the vast grass plains that surround the festival ground. Roskilde Festival is internationally know to be one of (if not THE best) rock music festival of the world.

Anyone who is or has been important to rock and contemporary music has attended the festival over the years, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, U2, Aerosmith, Nirvana, Brian Wilson, Guns and Roses to name a few but the festival has never been visited by the Pink Floyd (unless you count Gary Wallis who was misfortunate enough to bang drums for Danish plastic-pop group Aqua in 2001, two weeks prior to the bands break-up).

I spoke to long-time functionaries about the lack of Floyd at the festival. It was printed in the press that the band had been on wish-lists for many years (including holding the nr.1 spot in 1974) but the band never made it out because…

“They always requested that they wanted to use their own stage”, instead of the legendary orange canopy stage. “The Floyd has nearly been booked at least 4 times over the years, but each time it ended by the band not appearing!” And all because of the stage and the stage show.

I myself was incredibly amazed to find out that Roger was booked for the festival back in February and it also gave me a slight feeling of scepticism since I know how the band works in terms of lighting and sound. Would Roger actually play a full set or would he be forced to cut it down in length to suit the normal show schedule? Would he be able to fulfil the ominous task of performing “Dark Side of the Moon”, without compromising?

Could Roger recreate this musical masterpiece without compromising?

My source at the festival soon eased my mind with two pieces of information which laid my doubts to rest: Roger and the festival had agreed that Rogers tour crew would be allowed to set up an additional set of surround speakers around the stage so that the show would be (or rather contain) quadraphonic sound!

Second: Roger had full playing time! I bless the man who agreed to this!

Sunday the 2nd – Live 8+1 8.30pm (1 hour to show time)

Franz Ferdinand is finishing their encore as we enter the ground around Orange Stage. I gaze upon the new speakers that now are placed around the ground. We find a suitable place on a platform at the far back of the grounds where we have perfect view of the enormous mass of people which have gathered in front of the canopy stage. The sun is slowly setting from yet another hot day! There are people everywhere. I would guess that some 50,000+ have come down to see the show. From kids aging 15 and up to rockers old enough to be my grandparents. The crowd is packed, the mood is good, the sun dims, a sweet smell of hashish pass by me as the stage suddenly begins to hum. “In the flesh?” is underway. I see Roger walk on to the stage in a massive roar of applause. I can almost detect surprise in his eyes! Not even I thought so many would show up. Roger says hello and good evening, picks up his bass and asks “Are you ready?” EIN ZEIW DREI OGO! And like shot from a canon we are propelled back through music history.

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 and Sheep. One gem after the other, in a necklace of musical perfection.

People around me have never looked happier. We all stand there smiling and singing. The crowd freaks out every time the surround sound kicks in. People turn their heads as if looking for the source of the sound. Roger sings “Leaving Beirut” and receive a massive applause after singing “Oh George! Oh George! That Texas education must have fucked you up when you were very small”

All too quick the first set ends and the band go off stage for the first performance intermission I’ve seen at the festival so far! I scuttle off to empty my bladder and fetch a cold beer.

The remaining half of the show is basically a blur for me and that has nothing to do with the beer I drank. If the first half of the set was emotional then the second set left me complete out-of-breath. I’m not a particularly emotional person but I realised that I began to cry as Roger finally bid us farewell with Comfortably Numb. Perhaps I should summarize it: “Perfect!”

I’ve visited Roskilde Festival for 11 years now and I have NEVER experienced anything like this. Roger Waters performed a show so perfect that only the most pessimistic nitpickers would object to the brilliance of the performance. I have decided to forgive Roger for calling himself “the creative genius of Pink Floyd”, because it so seems the man is right.

And one final note: A film crew was running around the festival ground with big cameras during the concert and they were NOT from the festival!!!

SHOW REVIEW

By Brain Damage contributor, Thorbjørn Morsing

On the last day of a week long festival with sublime weather and equally sublime bands, it was finally time for the high point of the festival. A total of ten extra speakers had been added to the already massive sound rig at the Orange Stage, just because a certain gentleman insists on using quadrophonic sound.

After two and a half hours of waiting it was finally time. The stage went dark and a synth hum started, followed by the famous countdown in german: "Ein, swei, drei, Alle!!!" and then on with 'In The Flesh' with fire and giant sparks. That definately determinded the standard of the show. He went on with his usual setlist with no surprises, but that is perfect, because it is a very well balanced setlist with a little bit of everything.

It was great to hear 'Set The Controls' , 'Have A Cigar' and especially 'Sheep' which started hilariously with lots of sheep noises. 'Leaving Beirut' was very very beautiful with it's highly emotional story and strong message, accompanied by an amazing series of comics on the screens. And it seemed that all of Roskilde agreed with his political point of view and his hatred of Bush and Blair.

And to hear all of Dark Side was a real treat, and Jon Carin and Dave Kilminster did a fine job sharing Gilmours vocals.

The only thing I missed was David. Snowy White and Dave Kilminster are great guitarists, but they simply do not play with the same feeling as Mr. Gilmour. But that does not cloud the fact that it was an amazing show, and I am utterly grateful that I was there.

SHOW REVIEW

By Brain Damage contributor, Erling Laursen

This was a hot day. Sun was burning down, and it felt like there was a very, very long way to the dark side of the moon. However that was the schedule for the evening. After a pretty great day with Arctic Monkeys, Strokes and Franz Ferdinand it got closer to my primary target: To watch Roger again. Orange stage is beautiful (old Rolling Stones tent), and it’s one of the easiest places in the world to go close to the stage, if you wanna try that to a concert like this. Actually I left just after Franz Ferdinand, joined the queue – and walked straight into the middle of the stage in 4’th row.

Roger came in with his band – naturally starting up with “In the flesh”. The surrogate band played excellent, and the speakers which were placed extra in the morning had a great influence: Some of us really turned around to see the seagulls during “Southampton docks” – off course they were not there – it was only sound – and what a sound.

Usually it’s hard to get a real concert feeling during a festival. Normally it’s not a “Roger Waters fanclub”, but a lot of different people – making them much harder to catch. But I bet that within the first 50 rows almost everyone knew the songs – making it the biggest sing-a-long I’ve heard to a Pink Floyd / any members – concert. It was loud, noisy and very fun – and Roger certainly looked pleased.

After approx 1,5 hours we had head a lot of Roger Waters songs – and also a great deal of Pink Floyd. I was wondering if he changed the show. So far almost every group on the festival played for 1 hour / maybe 10 minutes longer – and yet after much longer time we still hadn’t heard “Dark side” – which was the announced concert. So Roger said “We are gonna take a small 10 minutes break, and then we’ll come back to play Dark Side for you” …. YYYYEEEAAAHHHH. – Great !!!

Dark side were played pretty close to the record – but supplied with a lot of lights and film clips. Nice and easy – and very impressing.

After this I guess most of us felt “This was it” – however once again they came back to do 5 numbers as encore – among these naturally a very potent version of “Comfortably numb”.

Great concert?? No…. much bigger. This was excellent. Naturally I too miss the combination of Waters and Gilmour, however I felt that for once a good “surrogate” voice was found. Kilminster really sounded good, and as he also played a great guitar it ended up as one of the better concerts I’ve seen – and surely the best ever on a festival. Thanks Roger. Come back next year to do The Wall – and maybe bring Dave with you ??

SHOW REVIEW

By Brain Damage contributor, Poul Billstrøm

Roskilde Festival was so great. 80,000 lovely, peaceful and happy people - and perfect weather. Great to be back 30 years later.

During these four days, it seemed like everyone was looking forward to Sunday evening for Roger's show, - young and old alike.

Right, first time I saw there were completely filled up in front of the stage and at the rear of us, who were lucky to get a fine place in the middle of us all.

Same set list, and what a SHOW. It was like two and a half hours lift-off. And with the perfect Q-sound effects, .... I didn't need any joints for to fly.

Roger really enjoyed the performance, and it was so great, when the audience became the school choir at ABITW II . That turned Roger on even more. It looked like he wanted to do an extra extra song, when he finally said thank you Roskilde .........!

This SHOW was more fantastic, than MSG/NY (both shows) and Providence 2000, Copenhagen and London 2002. ( ..... - I forgot to miss Nick Mason)

Thank you, Roger. You made my happiest day of my life.