Capacity: 21,000
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Manchester Evening News Arena, Victoria Station, Manchester, M3 1AR, England. MAP

Website: http://www.men-arena.com

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall arrives in Manchester for the first of two nights in the MEN Arena.

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 go on sale on June 4th through this direct link to Ticketmaster.co.uk. 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 thirty-four of the tour, and the production arrives in the north of England for two nights in Manchester. A lively crowd tonight, of whom Roger said that they were the best audience since Mexico in December 2010!

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. To see a great selection of pictures from throughout the concert, taken from a nice close position, check out BD contributor Martin Hunt's pictures, which can be viewed through this direct link for the first chunk of them, and this link for the pictures of the final part of the concert. Thanks Martin!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Simon Wimpenny

Met up with good friends Justin, Jason and Dave Moran whom I'd last seen at the Atlanta show and we all then headed down to the venue for the show. We had front row tickets tonight right in front of Dave K on the aisle and I was so looking forward to seeing how the crowd were tonight. On the Dark Side tour Roger played the Echo arena in Liverpool and it was THE best show of the tour due to the crowd, however, Liverpool wasn't on the tour schedule this time around so a lot of the Liverpool fans were travelling over for the gigs tonight and tomorrow.

From the second the pyros went up at the beginning of In The Flesh we knew the crowd were gonna be great, even the first 30 seconds they were a lot louder than any of the six nights in London!

Roger and the band looked so so happy when they heard how the crowd were, I know for a fact that they love an enthusiastic crowd as much we do!

For most of the first half Kami and I stood up the whole time, a lot of people behind stood up but I'd say it was probably 50/50 with standing and seating crowd, one thing WAS evident though, the crowd were into singing the lyrics!

The first half seemed to fly by (always the sign of a good show). In the USA when Roger usually sings the line "13 channels of shit on the TV" he held the mic out for the crowd to sing. Tonight was the first time on the whole of the European tour that he had done this, I turned to Kami as soon as this happened and told her this, something that Roger later made reference to at the end of the show.

Run Like Hell was amazing, never seen as many people clapping and having fun at a show since the show in Philly last year. Even GE Smith was smiling!

The wall came down in two sections tonight and every brick fell forward of the stage! we got a great amount of “wall wind” and the roadies had to work twice as hard to clear the stage in time for the band to come on for Outside The Wall.

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 REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Ken Tierney

Gonna cause a bit of a stare this, I think, but here goes: to all the fans who are going to see this show, my opinion only, of course, but it's nowhere as good as the Dark Side tour. I have seen Floyd and Roger's shows, Aussie Floyd, Brit Floyd, and the two shows of The Wall in the 80s, so was expecting something really special. Don't get me wrong - great show and visuals etc., fantastic but the truth is seen it all before, getting a bit fed up of seeing the pig trot out and wow, so what? Got giant inflatables that have been updated, but the real downside is there wasn't enough of it, for the price I paid. £55 last time to see Roger's Dark Side show and that was fantastic, but this £85.00 wasn't a patch on it. Maybe it's because I have seen it all before, the only major difference apart from new visuals was Roger actually spoke. All they did last time was hide behind a surrogate band and say goodbye, so there you go. But guess what? As a true Floyd fan, I am going to see the show again in Birmingham. You see it's like following your football team when they are not doing so good, you still go with the hope it's gonna be better next time, but really do need new material. Roger, and Dave should get back together to please us older generation because I know it will be the ones who have never seen a Floyd show who will be thinking this concert is the greatest thing they have ever seen.

Do you agree with Ken's review? Let us know your thoughts on the show!

CONCERT REVIEW RESPONSE and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Joe McGuire

Ken does have a point when thinking about hearing Comfortably Numb for nth time, but who else plays it like Waters / Gilmour?

Yes the show has songs we have all heard before but it's an awesome show not to be found anywhere else.

Unfortunately I am too young to have seen the 1980 walls but I was at the wall in Berlin which was much much bigger. To me the guest artists never quite hit the spot which is evident in the DVD, something Roger has to put up with, but being there it wasn't an issue.

This new incarnation, with the exception of some wee bits was Wall perfect, although I always seem to expect DG sound which will never be the case without him.

On attending 4 shows however, they seemed to get better every time, although my first was the best, if that makes sense :s

Ken will enjoy his Birmingham show if he just sits back & sops it all up & appreciates what he is witnessing. Like reading a book more than once, you take more in each time.

Without Mason, Waters, Wright & Gilmour playing together, nothing will be as good as it once was & sadly this can never be.

Chin up Ken, you are going to another Wall gig :)

CONCERT REVIEW and VIDEO by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Byron Lewis

The Machester 20th gig at the MEN. The last few gigs I've caught of Roger were some way back so to take a seat in the centre of the third row immediately elevates it to premier league status, and to be pretty close to the Mother intro where he introduced the f*cked up Roger from the past pointed to what must be his regret. We'd just witnessed prime time coverage of the brief reunion across all media and it must have played some part in that speech, why else would he reflect on the past?

I caught these images on me camera which only records for the best part of a minute, so for continuity I've spliced in the original soundtrack - it's pretty obvious which is which:

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Matt Eyre

Just wanted to send some photographs from the STUNNING show at the Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester on Friday 20th May.

This was the fourth time I have seen THE WALL performed. Went to Earls Court in London twice when Pink Floyd performed it, then went to Berlin in 1990 for Rogers show, but this 2011 show was absolutely spectacular!!

Never seen Roger enjoy himself so much.

Have got to try and get tickets for the 28th June show back at the same venue.

CONCERT REVIEW and VIDEO by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Grant Smith [submitted March 2012]

Last year, as part of our European Holiday, we went to see Roger Waters perform the Pink Floyd classic album - The Wall - Live! at the M.E.N Arena in Manchester. By an amazing chance, through some contacts that I met via his Facebook page, I also got to meet Roger Waters in person, as well as his Lead Guitarist - Dave Kilminster!

I also got to meet some of the lighting technicians & got to check out their Tour Bus! I have compiled a Photo Montage of the Radio Hauraki interview, where I talk about the Manchester concert - I hope you enjoy it! It includes photos before, during & after the concert.

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!