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 Roger Waters 2006 June 22nd - MONASTERY GROUNDS, LATRUN, NEVE SHALOM, ISRAEL
COMMENTS A crowd of 50,000 greeted Roger and the band for this very historic occasion. Showing their love of the music, the fans sang themselves hoarse to every song, revelling in the moment. Certainly, the band were clearly playing very well, and seemed struck by the sense of occasion. At one point, Roger said to the crowd: "Thank you so much for coming to Neve Shalom, the village of peace. It means a great deal to them, and also to me. I may be speaking out of turn, but I believe that me, and the rest of world, need this generation of Israelis to TEAR DOWN THE WALLS and to make peace with their neighbours." This was naturally met with huge applause! Reckoned to be the best show of the tour to date, it's going to be difficult for them to top this. The tour moves to Moscow, where they will be performing just by Red Square tomorrow night. EXCLUSIVE PICTURES OF ROGER'S VISIT TO "THE WALL", AND REPORT, COURTESY OF WAR ON WANTCLICK HERE FOR THE PICTURE GALLERY FOR THIS SHOWThere are a few places to go for video reports and more pictures:
SHOW BACKGROUNDUPDATE - 17th April: The venue has now moved, to Neve Shalom at the foot of the Latrun monastery, on the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is a village of Israeli-Palestinian co-existence. Roger stated that he decided to move the show, in order to "show solidarity with the voices of reason of Israelis and Palestinians seeking a non-violent way for a just peace between the two peoples". The show will take place on a chickpea field! UPDATE - 16th June: The show is being broadcast live on local radio. It will be aired on 88FM and also Reshet Bet, which is part of the Israeli Broadcasting Authority. 88FM is a commercial station, and Reshet Bet is non-commercial. Reshet Bet will be broadcasting the whole show, starting at 21:05 until midnight, with 5 minutes of news breaks every round hour. 88FM are broadcasting from 20:30, until midnight, without interruptions. Same announcer's name on both stations, so we assume it will be the same feed. Neither station are permitted to air the show on the Internet, as this would break their contract (this info thanks to Howard at Neve Shalom). As a warm-up, they are bringing on some Israeli/Arab performers, as an act of solidarity. This whole show has got a bit of a political tone since it was moved from Tel Aviv to Latrun. So, if you listen to the feed and hear something Arabic, don't worry - you are listening to the start of the show! Our thanks to Asaf Carmeli for the information. In an interesting interview on the Neve Shalom - Wahat al-Salam website, on May 18th 2006, concert promoter Shuki Weiss is asked how the show came about in such a setting. "My story with Roger Waters goes back 19 years - that was the time we first talked about doing a concert in Israel. And, for more than ten years we have been talking about Neve Shalom as the location. One of the dates we considered was Israel’s 40th anniversary..." Weiss was asked why NSWAS? "Waters’ has always been interested in humanitarian causes, coexistence, and the like. So I had to find him something suitable. NSWAS is my one true example of coexistence, unfortunately, so I told him about it and he said that’s where he wanted to appear. This was the original plan when we talked about the concert last year. But we thought it would be in 2007. "Then, in January this year he decided to do a short tour this year instead, and said he could come to Israel in June. The problem was, the fields around Neve Shalom had already been planted, and it didn’t seem practical to do it there at such short notice, so we decided on Hayarkon Park. Instead of doing the performance in Neve Shalom, he said he would just give his press conference there. Then he looked at the matter more deeply and decided to move the concert to Neve Shalom after all."
"It was a significant step for Waters to move the concert to Neve Shalom, and it is going to leave a very positive message. It’s good that there are artists like him. He knows very well that it would have been much cheaper to do the concert in Tel Aviv and that moving it to Neve Shalom is going to cut deeply into his earnings. Many artists talk a lot about human rights issues - but when it comes to their wallet, they aren’t willing to give a penny. Waters isn’t a talker - he’s a doer - he doesn’t even intend to do interviews while in Israel. The only place he will speak, if at all, is in Neve Shalom." The full interview can be read at NSWAS.org.
For a selection of nice pictures
from the concert, such as the following (that you can see there in a
larger size) make sure you visit the Neve Shalom - Wahat al-Salam website.  © 2006 Neve Shalom - Wahat al-Salam SHOW REVIEWBy BD contributor, Renate from the Snowy White Fan ClubHere is my concert review for Israel, got it posted quite late, but I find that the concert still feels like some kind of wonderful dream. I spent 5 days in Israel. There I had a room in Wahat al Salam and I saw the stage and I could hear some sound from my place. We had lovely weather. Cars with thousands of fans blocked the roads for miles. So the parkings was still almost empty as I walked down to the concert area. An hour before the music began, the area was already filling up as people attempted to find a place as close to the stage as possible. With the pressure from the back, which seemed to be getting stronger all the time, I found myself in the second row. Leading Israeli musicians David Broza and Micha Sheetrit, as well as the popular rock band Mashina, performed ahead of Roger's Band. Most of the crowd was still sat down. Every time there was a break in the background music, the restless audience cheered enthusiastically hoping for Roger Waters to begin his show. The crew brought us cups with water, which we were happy about, because there was no leg room and it was very hot in the crowd. The sun went down first, then by the time the music stopped and the lights were dimmed, the area was full to the brim with cheering fans eager with anticipation. "Shalom! - Are you ready? - eins…zwei…drei…" The band opened with In the Flesh and there the fans jumped up and sang along to the songs. Then they screamed: "Roger Waters!… Roger Waters!… Roger Waters!… Roger Waters!…" and also "Snowy!… Snowy!… Snowy!… Snowy!…" In the air a helicopter turned big circles around the concert area. Wish You Were Here is one of my favorite songs, which I really enjoyed. I felt as though I had gone back in a time machine. Roger's Leaving Beirut was another milestone. Lots of folk were still rocking, but lots of them were just standing there with their mouths open, too. During Sheep I thought there was a herd of sheep next to me and it sounds same the whole night. Anyway the song sounded good. The helicopter circled around still. A giant cheer went up to Roger Waters as he spoke to the audience "Thank you so much for coming to Neve Shalom, the village of peace ….." The concert continued with Speak To Me, which was great to hear live. Then, there was the last song of the encore - Comfortably Numb. It was after Snowy went into the acoustic solo bit, which I really enjoyed. I mean, just him and his guitar, that was great. Probably one of the most memorable moments of the concert for me. Roger Waters is still good for a highly enjoyable evening, with great music and a tremendous amount of fun. All the best for your coming shows, Roger. Cars with thousands of fans blocked the roads for miles again. The car's headlights highlit the way as I walked back up the Monastery Ground back to my room. At the very end of my trip in the cafe ‹wahat as salam› another highlight, they gave me the concert poster as a souvenir.
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