Capacity: 15,000
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Xaver-Fuhr-Straße 150, 68163 Mannheim, Germany. MAP

Website: www.saparena.de

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall starts a run of dates in Germany to conclude the European tour (with a side visit to Switzerland in a couple of days time).

The RogerWaters.com presales began the week starting Monday, May 31st, with advance tickets available to those who had registered their interest in particular cities. General sale tickets went on sale on June 4th through normal ticketing agents including www.GetGo.de. It is understood that all tickets have now been sold for this show, but it is worth checking with the official agents if you still need a ticket, as quite often "production tickets" are released close to the concert itself. The public sale will also see a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour.

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!

Night forty-two of the tour, and one of the most eventful shows of the whole run. Apparently, according to our friend Simon Wimpenny, they used the wrong video at the beginning of Mother and Roger wasn't happy (understandably)!

Dave Kilminster followed this up by revealing some other notable aspects of this particular show. "Actually [there were] a few things last night... one of the lifts didn't work on the front stage, and there was a COMPLETELY new ending to Brick II..."

Having heard the new ending, it is quite astonishingly different; the solo has been totally changed, and this is followed by a very unusual instrumental (keyboard) coda that eventually returns the song to its normal conclusion with the tube train, and the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. The following video has the new version in full:

The show also found Roger in quite a talkative mood, discussing previous German shows, including the original Wall shows, and the 1990 staging at the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.

If you went to this show in Mannheim, 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.

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Hans-Juergen

Today (June 3rd) was finally the first german show of Roger Waters The Wall. Together with Hannes from Austria and Uli and his wife Jenny, I've been to the first of 2 sold out shows in the SAP-Arena in Mannheim.

After a short travel of about an hour we parked our car in a housing area nearby to avoid additional parking costs and the well known traffic jam in Mannheim at the end of the concert.

My expectations for this evening were really big and I can't really believe, that more than 30 years have already passed since this very special February 15th, 1981 in Dortmund. Because of videos, reviews and comments I had a clear image of the things to come and hoped to become intoxicated for almost 2 hours (without alcohol or other drugs!).

The runthrough of the show is pretty well known and so I won't talk about this isssue. But from the very start of the show, it was clear that the technical side of it took several quantum leaps in the last 30 years and you could see open mouths all over the place. Also the sound was crystal clear and had a real 3D feeling.

I've been in row 8 about the middle of the wall and some of the visual effects during the show almost "hit" my body. Because of the short distance, it was sometimes impossible for me to see everything on the the wall and to follow Roger with my eyes. So for a better understanding of the whole piece of art will be the show in Duesseldorf, that I will attend on June 18th, when I will be seated a little bit more in the back of the arena.

An obviously well-tempered Waters did his statement for eternity. Who could top this event? It's no more a concert, it's a show with a top performance of everybody involved. Not only in terms of the music, but also in terms of sound, stage and visuals. A gigantic machinery that reached the goal exactly, but also emerged emotions. Not only because of the "good old times", but also becauce of the actual references of the show.

Waters did it (again): He rouses his audience and provides his message loud and clear. A wonderful idea was the "Fallen Loved Ones"! He projects not only pictures, but also names, birthdays and dates of death. Very impressive! And what could you say about the video during "Vera"? The girl, that sees her father again and her stunned reaction: These pictures will burn into your brain and you won't forget them!

To sum it up: A technically brilliant and even more emotional evening with a Roger in best form, who fixed the standards for all shows to come in astronomical and unreachable heights.

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!