Capacity: 21,000
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW 2127, Australia. MAP

Website: www.allphonesarena.com.au

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall heads into Sydney to the Acer Arena - which last echoed to the sound of Roger back in 2007, during the Dark Side Of The Moon tour. UPDATE: Since the show was announced, naming rights have changed for the venue and it is now known as the Allphones Arena. Tickets still show Acer Arena, and are valid in the newly named location.

The Visa pre-sale ran from Monday July 4th at 3pm through to Thursday July 7th at 9am. An additional fee was added to tickets bought during the pre-sale period. The general sale of tickets through Ticketek began on Monday, July 11th at 9am. The public sale will also see a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour. Our thanks to Martin Geyer for the ticket scan you can see to the right.

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 ten of the tour, and the arrival at Sydney's renamed venue for the first of a pair of shows. As with some of the other Australian shows, the audience were treated to Waltzing Matilda as an extra song at the very end (as you'll see from the nice, close-up video below), and we wonder if Roger will carry this on in other countries, performing a well-known local song as an extra treat? On the subject of concluding the concert, initial reports suggest that the lack of proper encores here was met with disappointment and in some cases, even boos from sections of the audience. As most of you are aware, Roger made the decision not to do other Floyd "stuff" at the end so as not to spoil the mood created by The Wall - and indeed, after the wall itself tumbles, it would be difficult to get bricks cleared sufficiently for the band to return to the stage proper with their instruments.

Australian radio station TripleM reviewed the show, and took a few pictures from the audience (on what looks like a smartphone). They noted that: "It was Sydney's turn to experience Roger Waters' visual spectacular that is The Wall Live and he did not disappoint delivering one of the most brilliant and thoughtful rock shows ever. The visuals were incredible, the surround sound all-encompassing and the theatrics, including a fighter plane roaring over the crowd only to crash into a ball of flames, meant it was feast for the senses. Even the inflatable flying pig made an appearance towards the end of the show hovering dangerously across the audience. Above all Roger Waters poured his heart and soul into this performance, as much now as he did 33 years ago." Check out their full review here.

The interestingly titled ToneDeaf website also reviewed the show. "This was not your average rock and roll gig. This was an event and a theatrical display that moved you and opened your eyes to the political feelings of one Roger Waters. There was a sense of freedom in the hall last night. I cannot think of a rock and roll show that I have been to where the checking of tickets was so overlooked. As it was a seated gig, like in a theatre, once you had your place you would return, to be bombarded with sound and vision. The significance of the individual performers was overshadowed by the message and the immensity of The Wall and at times it was difficult to tell if we were hearing a recording or people playing. It sounded that good and it looked even better."

If you went to this show in Sydney, 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 and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, John Elliott

After seeing the show more than a few times you begin to get past the technological prowess of the show and begin to hear the musicianship more clearly. Tonight something seemed to stifle the guitarists' ability to replicate key parts of the album. Snowy completely messed up the Brick 2 solo from the beginning, and then when he attempted to correct it and get back with the rest of the band it got worse. In fact it was dreadful - almost a repeat of his disastrous Shine On intro in Brisbane in 2007. Roger messed up his small guitar part in Mother getting quite out of sync with the young "fucked up Roger" who was still getting it right after all these years, and Dave blew the C Numb solo. I still can't see why Roger persists with using him, but at least the hair flicking is getting less frequent, and he is getting slightly better actually playing the guitar on this section of the tour.

The sound was as impressive as always, even in the vast cavern that is the Acer/Allphones Arena and at the front it was crystal clear. Having chosen to see the show from further back at a few of the 2010 shows, but been at the front for most of the other 2010 and 2011 shows I saw, I decided to sit right at the front for these 2012 Oz shows and it is by far the best place to see the show. The first 5 rows or so mean you get totally enveloped by the show. You aren't a spectator, you are IN the show. Apart from seeing the nuances of Rogers theatrics through the show, the wall and the imagery seem to wrap entirely round you - and that makes the show stunning, simply stunning. There is also the feel of the wall when it comes down at the end and the dust cloud that comes with it. Again you are IN the show as the bricks tumble in front of you covering you in cardboard dust. Tonight wasn't the best fall as most of the top rows fell backwards.

For me some of the best musical bits are those that either never made the album (What Shall We do Now) or are used to fill time for wall building (Last Few Bricks). The latter really is one of the best parts of the show and even the guitarists got this one right tonight. Whilst Brick 4 is a great new song on its own, and clearly is used to make a great point, I don't like the way it breaks up the first set and question why he has included it. I much preferred the US shows without it.

I do still have serious reservations about the on stage "acting" in the third act which, for me, is played too much for real without the irony and warnings that it should illicit. The music is great, the projected imagery probably the best part of the show, but the salutes etc. just leave me cold, and I totally miss why people stand up and cheer when he "shoots" them????? At least the Oz audiences didn't fully buy into the faux Nazi iconography and elements which seemed to happen in the US.

As always the Oz audiences are quiet and stay seated for the whole show - even for Outside the Wall - which makes for a much more pleasant show as you get to hear all the great guitar and keyboard elements that can get drowned out at noisier shows. The encore of Waltzing Matilda is great, and Roger did a great job with the voices through the verses which shows that he can do it, and a shame that the Trial is still a tape. On that note there were several very obvious lip syncing mistakes tonight where he rushed to get the mic to his mouth and didn't quite make it. It's clear his voice is not what it was 33 years ago, and the use of tapes for the higher sections is forgivable.

Despite all my misgivings about parts of the show, and the bastardisation of the original story of Pink to include his modern political stance, it's still the best live show for years and will probably stand as one that won't be better for many years - unless he takes The Final Cut out on the road!

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Martin Geyer

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!