Capacity: 20,000
Concert starts: 9pm

Address of venue: Parque das Nações, Lisbon. MAP

Website: www.pavilhaoatlantico.pt

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall kicks off in Europe, with Portugal the opening country for the extravaganza.

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 at the start of June from the official website for the venue - www.pavilhaoatlantico.pt. 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 one of the European tour, and the fun starts in earnest with a cracking return to the stage for the band. It's clear that work has been undertaken to spruce things up and make little changes here and there, rather than keep it very much the same as the North American shows. If you went to this show in Lisbon, or indeed are going to the second 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 following picture (click to get the larger version) comes courtesy of Gamas, who has sent in a large number of shots of the concert. More can be seen below!

The Portuguese site Blitz has a full report and photo gallery, and calls it a 'triumphant first night' for the tour. They note that 'often hyped for its political overtones, The Wall is now, according to Roger Waters, "more universal than the original [production]". Despite the acclaim of "Another Brick In The Wall" (with 15 children from a cultural association of Cova da Moura, dancing and interacting with one of the Gerald Scarfe inflatables), "Mother," "Comfortably Numb" or "Run Like Hell" is tricky to choose the highlights of a show that flows very naturally and can be so impressive, visually.

'"When I wrote [this record] people would not comply in the same way," Waters said at the farewell. "But all these years much has changed and we could not be happier to be here tonight." He seemed sincere, emotive and thrilled. Mission more than accomplished.'

CONCERT COMMENTS and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Simon Wimpenny

Okay--so all the band are now dressed in black suits, black shirts, and ties. While they all look smart on stage, it also looks really uncomfortable to wear! There are a couple of minor changes in the first half projections but nothing huge. All the flag bearers have hard black helmets. Two of them come out to the front of the stage to throw pink on stage and then get on stage to hand Roger his coat and sunglasses. Band is very tight for the first night, but the star of the show so far is Robbie; his voice is fantastic!! He must have done some vocal practice or exercises. It sounds awesome!

So the band have new uniforms for the second half of the show! All the band are wearing all black with dark sunglasses and black French style beret's!!

Have to say that it looks great now the two guys have both got black Les Pauls! Dave's other new guitar is a Rasmus, he played both new ones a few times during the second half, have to say I didn't think Dave's Rasmus sounded as good as his Telecasters at the beginning of Run Like Hell, just didn't sound as loud and as raw! Maybe it'll get better.

The hotel room that pops out of the wall has changed quite a bit, it's now all white with no Tropicana sign, there's a cityscape lit up on the back of the wall and there's a new “euro” style bed in place of the old looking one. From memory the chair's different too but could be mistaken. Roger also has a telephone prop now that he uses during the line “when I try to get through, On the telephone to you, there'll be nobody home”

During the swirly graphics for Comfy Numb Roger now stands on the podium on the left and “freezes” for at least a minute while Dave K is playing his solo. He also now doesn't thump the wall with his fists to crack all the bricks up but head butted it tonight!!

There's a few new graphics during Run Like Hell and a few things written on the wall, I didn't take my regular camera tonight just my blackberry as I wanted to enjoy the show, and I did. Will take a few pics at the gig tomorrow of the new graphics.

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 PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Gamas

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Anneli Andersson

Lisbon. It's the first show on the European tour.

There was a magic feeling among the audience before the concert started. Everybody seemed curious, tense, wondering what was to come. Would it be as good as the Dark Side of the Moon? Could anything be better? Well, Roger welcomed the audience reminding he also started the 2006 The Dark Side of the Moon tour at Rock in Rio festival in Lisbon. So, what place could possibly be better? To me and my daughter, it could only get better. At the Rock in Rio festival, she was only 16 and fainted during the first half. I remember carrying her out of the festival area hearing the heartbeat and the band start playing my favorite tunes... Now she's 21 and knows how to stand on her own feet :) And she's was definitely keeping the average age of the audience down!

The songs were played in the same order as on the album. Very few tunes differs from the original and "The Wall" is used for projections. Wonderful projections! Some from the film. Music, technology, message, everything with total perfectionism. I was afraid I had too high expectations ending up seeing The Dark Side of the Moon 6 times. But no, this was above my imagination. Was it better than The Dark Side of the Moon? I would say it cannot be compared. It's a totally different show.

I went to see the second show as well the following night. This time I had a seat ticket close to the stage. I would say you get a better view seeing this show from distance. Sitting too close you miss some of the effects and projections. However, all friends out there, enjoy!

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, António Domingos Pereira

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Manuel Mariño Reino

CONCERT REVIEWS by other BD CONTRIBUTORS

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!