Capacity: 18000
Concert starts: 8pm 

Address of venue: 800 Griffiths Way, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 6G1. MAP

Website: www.rogersarena.ca

COMMENTS

Roger's 2010 tour of The Wall nears its end, and returns to Canada, the scene of the opening show, and a destination dotted through the tour schedule. Just two more shows this year after this concert.

Since tickets went on sale for this concert, the name of the venue changed from the GM/General Motors Place, to the (more apt!) Rogers Arena, on July 6th 2010. We've therefore updated all references to the venue on this site to the new name. Many thanks to Pete Allan who sent over the ticket scan to the right - as you can see, the ticket also bears the old name for the venue...

The RogerWaters.com presales began starting Wednesday, May 5th. Starting May 3rd, American Express Cardmembers could get advance tickets, with seating available to Gold Card, Platinum Card and Centurion members. US fans could also get early access to tickets via iTunes beginning Thursday, May 6th, by purchasing the 1982 film The Wall from iTunes by April 26th. For both the American Express and iTunes presales, please note that the presale offers were available in select markets and ticket quantities were limited.

General sale tickets went on sale on Monday, May 10, via Ticketmaster.com, Ticketmaster.ca and LiveNation.com. The public sale also saw a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour. Use of our links to Ticketmaster gives much needed assistance with site hosting costs without any additional cost to yourself - and we appreciate it!

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

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

Just a handful of shows left now in 2010, with the production improving all the time, but no doubt with the band and crew all looking forward to a well deserved rest! If you went to this show, please let us know what you thought of the event, and if anything interesting or different happened if you've been to previous shows and can compare.

The Vancouver Sun were at the show, and they have posted their review of the evening. They noted that "if there was one thing Waters seemed to have put on hold Friday night for his sold-out 30th-anniversary performance of the album, it was his own ego.

"If anything, the whole show was more about The Wall -- the album, the idea and the 40-foot prop -- and less about Waters' re-appropriation of the work on a solo level, which he has done countless times.

"But it didn't mean the spectacle would be any less gargantuan than it was 30 years ago, when Waters finally built the wall he had conceptualized to stand between his band and the audiences he had grown to despise.

"Opening to the classic thunderous riff of In The Flesh?, Waters sauntered onstage, arms raised in a V, fireworks blazing, red hammer flags raised high, airplane sound effects circling the stadium before a life-sized airplane prop flew into the stage, exploding into a ball of fire.

"That classic "surround sound" effect and the visual displays? Spectacular.

"Backed by a stellar cast that included longtime partner and guitarist Snowy White, Floyd and Waters' touring keyboardist Jon Carin, and vocalist Robbie Wycoff filling in where Gilmour would have sung, Waters' revamped version of The Wall came alive, as vivid as the day it was created.

"Through it all, Waters didn't seem so much the centre of attention as the old friend telling you a painful story most already know by heart.

"I can't believe it's been so long," he said before Mother, which featured an old piece of footage from an Earl's Court show in 1980 that Waters would sing along with. Memories.

"That is the real lesson behind The Wall: It's a warning against conformity, fascism and the politics of war and greed (Goodbye Blue Sky featured crosses and corporate logos being dropped like bombs by animated warplanes), all wrapped in a tale of personal despair and redemption, which first comes in the form of Young Lust and Don't Leave Me Now, and culminates with the final brick being set after Goodbye Cruel World, completing the wall."

The Province were also there, and their reporter started from a viewpoint of not being particularly keen on the album for many years. "But it has certainly grown into an impressive production. Stage bordered in giant blocks. Eight banner-waving storm troopers, a load of pyro in the first five minutes. Oh yeah. A Messerschmitt crashed stage left in a massive fireball!

"Add in the photos of dead soldiers playing across the multiple screens from Waters' father to those soldiers and civilians in the present Iraq and Afghan conflicts and many, many more and that point is driven home.

"As blocks kept being added to the structure, Waters engaged the audience as he duetted “Mother” with his “poor miserable f-ed up Roger at Earls Court in 1980.” Very cool, as were the 10-metre-tall puppets based on Gerald Scarfe's drawings for The Wall movie. About the only thing missing was that it took both former Thin Lizzy axeman Snowy White and Saturday Night Live bandleader GE Smith and singer Robbie Wycloff to be David Gilmour."

CONCERT REVIEW, PICTURES and VIDEO by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Simon Wimpenny

We headed down to the venue around 7:15 and took our seats early on; we were sat to the right side of the stage tonight. I hadn't sat in this section for a while so was looking forward to seeing it from here. Before we took our seats I snapped a picture of Kami with Brent who told us they had raised about $5000 for the battered women's charity with all the tips they had collected at the shows!

I knew as soon as the lights went down that the crowd were going to be good tonight, they were straight on their feet and cheering before Roger had come out onstage, normally it takes Roger to appear onstage before they start to cheer! By the time the pyros went off during the end of In The Flesh you could hardly hear yourself think due to the cheering, it was fantastic! It was fantastic to see the plane crashing right overhead again and even better now they have made the wire steeper and added more bricks for it to crash into!

The kids were great tonight too, about 4 or 5 of them stepped forward of the rest of the group and did their own dance moves, still not as good as Chicago but they were better than a lot of the previous shows.

At the beginning of Mother the crowd went crazy, stopping Roger from introducing it for a good minute or so.

Roger also commented on to people who were stood front row and wearing the number 1 t-shirts that my friend Jim had made online. Roger commented that they had shorts on that were the same as he wore at the original shows and then added he had no idea why he wore that shirt!

Due to us being right at the side we weren't able to see Mr Screen after part of the wall had been built up; it was great watching the crowds reactions to things appearing on the screen like the Fucking Flowers scene and the scene during What Shall We Do Now.

Kami went to the bathroom at intermission and I went to get a slice of the worst dried up old pizza I'd ever had! I have to say that the security, floor, crowd control and bathrooms were the worst I've ever seen at a venue!!

Second half started to go by real quick, Hey You, Anybody Out There, Nobody Home, Vera all seemed to go by real quick tonight. It was during the second In The Flesh that the crowd started to go wild again and it was the beginning of Run Like Hell where you could see just how into it they were!

I think the right hand side of the stage really is the best place to see the second half of the show, seeing the band onstage in front of you and seeing all the instruments come up out of the stage can't really be seen any better from anywhere else! You're slightly elevated and above the stage and there's very few people in front of you.

The wall came down real well tonight, they have started to remove a few of the clamps at the side of the wall so a bit more comes down! I wonder if Roger started watching it and noticed it wasn't as good as it used to be? I guess a lot of it depends on the layout of the side seating blocks at the venues as well.

The crowd REALLY went crazy as the band came back onstage to perform Outside The Wall, the video clip below is about half of the cheering that went on and its over a minute long, I'd guess they didn't stop for at least two and a half minutes before Roger was able to talk! He then said and did something new that he hasn't done at any show before, see the video clip below:

Make sure you check out Simon's blog at SimonWimpenny.blogspot.com where you'll find full details of all his travels, along with more pictures and videos.

CONCERT REVIEWS and PICTURES by other BD CONTRIBUTORS

Hopefully coming soon - we welcome all contributions!

YOUR HELP NEEDED! We want to cover Roger's concerts the best we can, to share the experience with everyone, especially those who won't be able to attend the shows. We'd love to see ANY pictures, tickets scans, reviews, newspaper reports, and anything else you come across for this show - we look forward to hearing from you!