Capacity: 10,000

Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Slotspark, Augustenborg, Als, Denmark.  MAP

Website: http://www.sonderborghus.dk/

Tickets for this concert went on sale on November 25th, through the venue, Billetnet.dk, and other normal agents.

Our thanks to Benny Møller Christensen for sending over the ticket scan, shown to the right, to Morten Jessen for the poster shown below, and to Jens for his help with venue details.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played!

One of the most unusual venues on the whole of the tour, the concert was held on the lawn in front of a rather grand looking house. A great show, with nice, calm weather, highlighting the lighting and other effects. 

Next stop on the tour is the grass-covered Bercy arena in the French capital, Paris.

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributer, Lars Rasmussen

Beautiful weather and the scenery with the view over the sea and castle and a full moon, too. Expectations couldn´t have been much higher.

I think the set list has been covered elsewhere so I won´t go into detail about it (except to say that I love it). The concert in itself was great though a technical problem with Snowy´s guitar ruined the solo in "Mother" and the general volume was a bit too low for the first part of the concert. That was fixed for "Dark Side of the Moon" though.

Apart for those minor details I still think that the concert has only been surpassed at the 2006 leg of the tour at the Roskilde Festival where I was lucky enough to have tickets as well.

I love this music.

CONCERT REVIEW and picture - by BD contributer, Alex Fishlock

I went with some Floyd hating Jazz fans, who had never seen a Waters/Floyd/Gilmour concert, and were apprehensive about such a long day to see Roger Waters play. We drove for 3.5 hours from Copenhagen right across Denmark to the South east Island of Als. It is a very beautiful area, with small roads.

The final few miles were at a snail’s pace, as the roads were small, and the place was teaming with mostly 40-year old men in Pink Floyd T-shirts. Surprisingly (for me as a Brit) there were loads of kids in pushchairs. The location of the show was in the grounds of a large house in the small village of Augustenborg.

The stage was set up in front of the house, and the crowd in front of that, standing on the main lawn. The gardens were bordered on one side by a small harbour. Many small boats had gathered and were having barbeques most having a perfect view of the stage, and only 10 metres or so from the side speakers. Copious alcohol was on site, so the venue was humming in a very Danish-festival way.

Much of the audience stood, with only very limited seating at the sides. There was a raised platform for wheelchair users, which was in full view of the stage. We stood right in front of this, and sat on the front of the platform once the show started. Great location. Wheelchair users definitely got served well.

The set list was the same as all the other shows. The first half was a variable show, a lot of the anti-war/political stuff didn’t go down that well, and I think really Roger should stay away from performing this, as really, it’s not very enjoyable. However the first half did have some fantastic highs, especially Set the controls, and Sheep.

The crowd sang along loudly to Shine On. The inflatable pig came out mid Sheep, hovered over the audience for much of the excellent playing, and during the last few bars, was released into a clear, cloudless, full-moon sky. I had never seen an outdoor show with the pig, and it was pretty amazing to see in such clear bright sky. Not much wind about, the lift off did grab the crowd a lot, and the buzz during the break after Sheep was clear.

The second half was an absolute blinder. The audience were either in awe, and just gazed, or sang along enthusiastically. We could clearly see that during Great Gig, and Any Colour You Like, the whole crowd was transfixed. The surround sound really kicked in, and gorgeous waves of sound swirled around us. Dark Side is a particularly good album to see being played live, and this was a very good location for it, and the crowd obviously reacted well to it. The singing during Great Gig was amazing, and the lasers during the end of Dark Side worked well as there wasn’t much wind to move the smoke away.

The encore was also fantastic, Another Brick was belted out, as was Comfortably Numb, both with large audience participation. Roger made a short speech at the end about how Norway (the night before) and this Danish crowd were fantastic, and that he thought the mid-European shows were not so good.

The show was over, and the gridlocked roads of the tiny villages of Als beckoned. Finally arriving back home at 4am, we were knackered, and my Jazz-loving, Floyd-hating Danish friends were surprised to realise that they'd enjoyed themselves...

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributer, Tony Millward

This was a special concert for me. Of the 3 times of have seen RW (Pros and Cons with Clapton, Radio KAOS and now 2007) and the three and a bit times with Floyd (all post Waters, including the famous 5 second concert at Earls Court), I can say without a doubt this was the best. But that is not why it was special. This was the first time I have taken my son to a rock concert; something my own father never did for me. He is 10 years old, with no special love for music. Of course he hears the constant bombardment of music I play around the house, and for some strange reason claims that Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick is his favourite album, so it seems that all the Porcupine Tree and King Crimson has sunk in a bit.

I was always nervous about Roger Waters decision to play an outdoor concert in Denmark in early May. Spring starts later in Denmark than in many other places, normally it starts mid April rather than early March, so the chances were good that it would be cold / raining / generally crappy. Someone up there must like RW and the Danish public, as the weather was glorious, very little wind, the sun was out, and more importantly, there was a clear sky and a full moon. Good planning somebody within the RWs organisation. You could look at the moon on the back screen during DSOTM, and then the real thing as it slowly ascended above the tree line. Magical in a rather hippish way.

Having heard bootlegs, sorry ROIO's, from early concerts on the tour, I knew what to expect, but still I was surprised by how fresh it all sounded. The band was just fantastic, that is really what I think (Sorry), but for me the real hero was Ian Ritchie. All is forgiven for co-producing the worse sounding RW album ever Ian. Right from the start where the sax was used quite cleverly in In the Flesh, to all the other sax solos, the man was magnificent.

I must admit I do not completely agree with the other Brit who wrote a review of the same concert, I do not think there was a problem with the political stuff and the Danish audience. To say that RW should stay away from the political songs is rather limiting what he can play. Waters is not Waters without politics. With Leaving Beirut he is writing straight forward harsh lyrics about what he sees as a great evil in the world today, the same way he did with the Final cut and Thatcher / the Falkland conflict. Think about it, there are not many others (with the size of fan base RW has) doing it so forcefully, and neither was there in the early 80's. The man should be encouraged, not discourage. The Bonos / Stipes of this world, great lyric writers that they are, are not known for writing straight forward comprehensable lyrics in the same way as Waters is. Leaving Beirut has evolved into a great song through the last two tours, and was a highlight of the evening along with Set the controls and Sheep.

DSOTM was indescribable, so I will not try, apart from saying that hearing  it live for the first time made me realise what an amazing diverse piece of music it is. Unique.

Anyway, Louis (named after the great Mr Reed) loved his first concert, and I am sure it will not be his last. For me, as I stated earlier the best RW / Floyd experience I have had, and up there in the top few concerts I have been to. One final thing, the sound, yes it was a little low, or should I say it was not painfully loud, but you could hear every word sung (or lip-synced) and clearly distinguish all the instruments and hear some of the more subtle changes/additions in arrangement (the above stated sax on In the flesh). It was by far the best sound I have ever heard, indoor or outdoor.

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributer, Thomas Ulrik Larsen

It was almost like a trip to a master class. Having been part of Pink Floyd Project for the past four years working with Waters’ words and music is virtually part of the daily fabric for me. The entire band (10 musicians/singers) had secured tickets for the show, and having witnessed Waters’ fine performance at last years’ Roskilde Festival we all knew that we were in for a great night of music.

The setting was beautifully romantic: The Augustenborg Castle surrounded by forests, fields and waters (no pun intended) looked like something out of a forgotten Bergmann movie as the setting sun put an end to a warm and lovely spring day.

Members of our band bumped into many people in the audience who had attended our previous tours round Denmark, and they were as excited as we were about the upcoming show. The concert itself started out a little late, but Roger and his band was greeted with thunderous applause and full attention from the capacity crowd (10.000 or 13.000 dependíng on who you ask). Even though the show was sold out, the place didn’t feel uncomfortably packed, and the whole vibe was very relaxed. No one even cared that a few of us took the occasional leak in a bush.

You know the set list and so did we. The same song list as Waters played at the Roskilde Festival last summer. But who’s really to argue? For my money, it’s a shame that Roger’s solo work doesn’t take up more space in the show.

What impressed me the most was Waters’ amazing ability of putting so much vitality and emotion into songs that are so old that many of them predate at least a third of the audience by more than a decade. That really speaks volumes about Waters’ dedication and the strength of the material. Waters himself is an odd, wiry, slightly awkward performer, but once you get past his schoolmaster-cum-benevolent-policeman demeanour, you can’t help but warm to him. He’s enjoying himself and so are we. The band members, on the other hand, all seem so deeply buried in their work that you barely see a hint of a smile (except for the boyish and consistently fantastic Graham Broad). This is hard work, no doubt about it.

Waters’ set list is by now well honed and, of course, well picked. Most of the songs featured his vocals on the original recordings, and his decision to take the lead on Time, Have A Cigar  and Wish You Were Here made the melodies seem woody and strained. But strained vocals are of course a Waters trademark and all the other strained classics (Sheep, In the flesh, Fletcher and Bring the boys back home) still sound like a howl from hell when Waters’ lets rip.

David Kilminster plays with ever more authority and I found him far more convincing this time around than I did a year ago. His vocals on Money are almost buried by the ever present female vocal group. During the show I couldn’t help thinking it’s a shame Waters doesn’t let the melodies stand out more. All those vocal doublings, triplings, siblings…

Dark Side Of The Moon (and did we mention the near-full moon that hovered over Augustenborg?) was interesting to watch and hear. It’s a piece that stands up incredibly well as a whole, and the jam sections really make sense in a live setting.

The Wall encores were lovely except for a speedy Another Brick, but that was all forgotten when Comfortably Numb filled the air.

The next morning I found myself in front of a microphone discussing the Waters show on Denmark’s national radio. I recall that Waters said “It’s like the past 20 years doesn’t mean anything” when Gilmour, Mason and Wright toured the world’s sports arenas in the late 80’s and nobody seemed to care who Roger Waters was. Thankfully, that isn’t the case today. We all recognize Waters’ work and it continues to inspire and provoke. And we all listen up and pay attention. No need for spitting into the audience. Roger Waters clearly embraced us all this time, and we gladly hugged him back.