Capacity: 50,000
Concert starts: 8pm (gates open at 5pm)

Address of venue: Piata Constitutiei, Bucharest, Romania. MAP

Website: www.strazibucuresti.ro

COMMENTS

Roger's tour of The Wall arrives in Romania, and quite a special venue. Piata Constitutiei (Romanian for "Constitution Square"), also known as Palace Square, is one of the largest squares in the centre of Bucharest, Romania. The square stands face-to-face with the Palace of the Parliament (biggest building in Europe).

The RogerWaters.com presales have taken place, with advance tickets available to those who had registered their interest in particular cities. General sale tickets are available through MyTicket.ro and other official agents (exact dates and outlets can be found via Roger's website). The public sale will also see a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour. Our thanks to Bogdan Bobocea for the ticket scan shown to the right - this is for the "Golden Ring" area of the audience. Further thanks to Bogdan for the poster too; just click the picture to see it much larger...

To tie in with the concert in Bucharest, one of the sponsors erected a large brick advertising the show in one of the main squares of Bucharest. Our thanks for Bogdan Bobocea - yet again - for sending in the three pictures below of the brick! Just click the thumbnails to see them in more detail...

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!

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 seventeen of the tour, being held in a very unusual and quite prestigeous venue in the heart of Bucharest. Just ten shows remain to come on the 2013 tour... If you went to this show in Romania, 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, Simon Wimpenny

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

Bucharest……WOW!……………

I headed out of the hotel around 11am initially planning to come back later on before the show, however I took everything I needed with me just in case I didn't make it back. The walk to the venue took about an hour, having never been to Romania before I was amazed how stunning some of the building were. Not just the official building but also some of the houses too.

I'd seen a picture of a promotional "brick" on Matt's website and wanted to go take a few picture of it first. It was a mile or so in the opposite direction to the venue but just as I was looking on the map to figure out which was to go I spotted another one in the middle of the road! As I got near the area where the gig was I could tell something was happening, even at noon there were guards and security everywhere, there were even people lining up outside the venue gate to get in! There were half a dozen press there too at the side of the street.

    

 

I was fortunate to be able to go into the venue today to watch the stage build up and the sound check, I had nowhere to be and no one to meet really so could spend some time relaxing and watching everything get put together. Well that's a lie, I did have a couple of friends who were coming to the show, Thomas from Austria and Marek from Prague. I'd arranged to meet up with Thomas at a restaurant close by at 4pm but I let him know earlier I may be a little late.

I was stunned when I walked in and saw the setting for the show, as big as the wall was it was dwarfed in comparison to what was around it! The buildings around the stage were in a crescent shape and towered up above the wall and the stage. Then directly opposite the stage as you looked across was the heaviest building in the world.

The area around the stage and between the fence at the back was immense too. There was a section of about 1500 seats directly in front of the stage, then an area that would be the golden circle, then a standing area, a raised seating area with about 4500 seats and then a huge lawn area. Then at the back of the lawn area was THE biggest building I've ever seen and one that's the heaviest in the world, and second biggest (only to the Pentagon in DC) Palace of Parliament.

It took me a few minutes to take in everything that was around me, it was simply a stunning setting to have a show and the wall just sat right in there, probably the best "venue" I've ever been too.

I took a wander around and went from corner to corner of the place. I got to see a lot of things that most people don't get to see and had my camera with me so was able to snap picture anywhere and everywhere. The "fixed" section of the wall was already built but due to the wind they hadn't built any of the loose brick sections yet. The seats were all set up but there were fences still to be added, the stage had all the equipment on but the pyros were still to be done, again due to the weather, it was still a little cloudy but the sun was breaking through and it looked like another hour and it would be clear skies.

The Stuka was still on the ground in the flight box and I know they usually do a test run around 3pm for it so I thought I'd hang around the rest of the day and get to see that happen. The lower part all along the bottom of the wall still had to have the black cloth attached, this was a great time to take a few pictures of something that's not usually seen. Even though the scaffolding behind the end parts of the wall is metal and heavy, when you add all the facade of the brick on it become a real wind trap and need the whole construction holding down firmly to the ground. This is done by using large plastic square containers that are filled with water. They are placed on the floor section of the scaffolding to hold it all in place and prevent any movement at all. This system is also used on the projection towers, these have to be rock solid and as you can imagine, half an inch of movement at the projection tower become 6” of movement for the projections projected on a wall a few hundred feet away! As you can see on the pictures below, they even use pallets filled with bricks to ensure the whole thing isn't going to move at all!

    

The guys who look after the Stuka unpacked it out of the box and assembled it on the floor in front of the wall; it's amazing to see how much work it takes to set the line up, make sure it's taught enough, then lower the line down, mount the plane, pull it along on the ground as far as it’ll go with a rope, then get a rope fed down from the guys in the cherry picker up by the top of the crane and then they pull it up the rest of the way, they do all this twice as they do a test run first which is timed and then do it all over again to get it back up ready for show time. They also build the wall up enough for the plane to knock down a few bricks when it goes through on the test run.

   

   

   

The sun was out by now and the skies were clear and blue, didn't look like there's was going to be any worries about the weather tonight at all. I headed around the back of the stage to look at the Pyros. At the outdoor shows there are usually a lot more pyros than the indoor venues. As your watching the show you’ll pyros shooting up from what looks like the roof. These are actually all shot up from the floor behind the actual stage. they are set up in a curve shape around the back with barriers to stop people going anywhere near. The pig is also inflated well in advance and parked up around the back of the stage.

Pyros ready at the rear of the stage:

On the right side end of the wall at a few of the shows there's been a large mural painted as like an end stop for the wall, tonight was one of those nights and there was a guy on a hydraulic lift with spray cans doing his stuff.

  

You don't realise how much more has to be done for the outdoor shows than the indoor ones, a simple thing like providing power for the show show is a huge ordeal and it's not so simple as running power lines like in an indoor venue, you have to have huge generators to provide it! There were seven of the huge generators trailed around the back of the stage for this show.

I took a walk out of the venue at the back just to take the few shots below to get the stage and the building in the same picture.

 

As I came back into the venue, Roger and the band arrived. They weren't staying in Bucharest but had been staying in Budapest and flew straight in from there for the sound check and were then heading out to stay in Sofia straight after the show. The band usually stay in one place as long as they can, if the venue is close enough to fly in and fly back then they will base themselves in one place for as long as they can and only move on when travelling to the next show becomes a little too far.

   

They usually always do the same sound check too, a bit of In The Flesh, Run Like Hell, Mother and Goodbye Blue Sky. They then practice Another Brick with the kids, Roger and Kip and John who look after the kids and teach them the moves and what they should be doing. The kids don't get a rehearsal until the day of the show and the sound check, they have however beforehand seen a video that John's made explaining what they should be doing and when. Earlier in the day they had been playing the airplane sound effects that they use at the end of In The Flesh, they had really cranked it up though and it was totally deafening to hear. The video clip below doesn't do it justice at all, it sounded incredible:

After the soundcheck I headed up to the restaurant to meet up with Thomas and his girlfriend Carolyn, he had flown down for three days and the same as me, had never been to Romania before and really liked it. It was his and Carolyn's anniversary of being together for one year today and he had bought MMMMM tickets for valentines day. She had only seen the show once before and enjoyed it and was looking forward to seeing the outdoor show. By this time I realised I wouldn't be going back to the hotel so we sat for an hour and a half chatting and having drinks. I'd had a message from Marek that he was going to try come to meet us but later heard he had a problem finding the place.

The three of us headed down to the venue around 7pm, Thomas was in the golden circle and I was in the seats in front of the stage tonight, 16th row dead centre...... yup you guessed it, right on the aisle:)

The gates had been opened while we were having a drink and the place had filled up a lot, there were people up on the balconies at the palace behind us and some braves souls up on the rooftops of the building at either side!

     

 

   

The seats in front of the stage were the equivalent of around $300 each, the golden circle about $150, the standing $100 and the lawn about $60, this is Romania, its cheap and poverty stricken, the whole of the lawn area sells out first, then the standing then the golden circle. It's a very limited market for the $300 seats here and its usually not the “real” fans that buy these. All of the areas were packed out, ticket sales were reported to be 40,000 but were confirmed to be 50,000 in the press the next day.

I was surprised by how dark it was at 8:30 when the show started, however we were a lot further south than we had been for Sweden so the projections looked great, very bright and visible even with just the projected white bricks before the show.

The crowd roared at the opening to In The Flesh, the projections looking as bright and clear as ever and the added effect of the searchlights from the stage projecting onto the facade of the Palace! At the end of In The Flesh It took maybe 20 seconds for the clapping and cheering of the crowd at the rear on the lawn to reach us at the front. This was really noticeable as Roger tried to do his speech for Mother, he started to speak and then the cheering was heard as he was a couple of lines into it and he had to stop and thanked the crowd. Can anyone decipher what the word is below in black writing that's over the letter C in Capitalism ? if so please let me know.

  

The sound was incredibly clear and loud, not as loud as it had been when they were sound checking the airplane effects earlier in day but it was certainly loud enough to be heard at the Palace! Roger was blown away by the crowd, a couple of times thanking them both in English and Romanian, also commenting to them how he had never been and played in Romania and what a fantastic welcome they had given them. I've meant to post before about the video footage right on the end of either side the wall during Spare Bricks, the video of the rabbits is still there as are all the other things but watch the very left side for two guys doing underwater boxing! and the very right side for the guy mounted on a horse that dives into a huge tank of water, funny stuff.

As I said earlier, the crowd in the front seats were not your usual crowd and this was evident by most of the shouting and cheering coming from the golden circle and beyond. Everyone in the seats stay seated for the show and even for the intermission! No one really got that it was a chance to go pee and get food and drink and everyone remained in their seats. I remember this happening in Lodz, Poland in 2011. I’m not sure if the translation of the word “intermission” doesn't come across or they just think its all part of the show, but they all just stayed seated and don't move but it was strange.

Pictures below of the crowd at intermission:

Second half of the show was probably one of the best I’ve heard music wise, I didn't hear a single fault or glitch the whole time. Dave totally nailed Comfy Numb as always and if there was any criticism at all then I'd says Robbie's vocals seemed off a little tonight, just didn't seem like he was hitting the notes with as much ease as normal, he seemed to be struggling a little.

Shadow Dave on the Palace:         Shadow Robbie on the Palace:

 

The wall came down great, one huge fall but with a large piece of it left hanging at one side for a good 30 seconds before the mechanical hammers that run up inside the bricks were raised up again and knocked the bricks forward. Due to there being a pretty large gap between the front row and the stage and it coming down in one huge piece, most of the bricks ended up on the floor between the stage and the barrier and not ON the stage. Again, Roger thanked the Romanian crowd for been such a fantastic audience and this was met with another huge cheer that took several seconds to come from the back of the venue.

This was such a unique show, just for the venue alone, out of the three shows I was planning to do in Easter Europe and the one that I actually ended up doing I couldn't be happier, I'd have sacrificed a few more shows just to have seen this one alone! The funny thing is, until I got to the venue I just thought it was a regular outdoor show, I had no idea what sort of setting this was and in a way that made it so much more special. It's certainly a show that I'll never forget and one that I wish we had arranged for a lot of us to come and see and get together at!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Bogdan Ionescu

We arrived in Bucharest around noon after we had a 500km trip during very "English" weather, but the sun showed up and very quick dried the rain away.

There were a lot of people, including myself, wearing Roger Waters or Pink Floyd shirts and I rapidly thought we are a big "family" waiting for the show. We also had a glimpse of the pigge in the back of the stage and the enormous wall which was erected in Constitutiei Square just in front of the Palace of the Parliament, one of Romania's best known landmarks and the second biggest administrative building in the world, after the Pentagon. A few minutes after 17:00 we were allowed to enter our "golden ring" area but the security was extremely tight, no luggage, food, umbrellas, cameras etc were allowed, so we had to drop out our pocket cameras and take the photos only with the cellphones.

We stood just in front of the huge wall and we enjoyed a great sight especially during Nobody Home and as the piggie was right above us. The show began 30 minutes late probably because it wasn't enough dark for the projections. The plane at the end of In The Flesh crashed right on time, the Romanian kids from Brick II were nice, the crowd went very loud after the verse "Mother should I trust the government?" as we could read on the wall in our language "La dracu, nu" - the approximately translation of "No f*cking way". Roger struggled a bit with our "beautiful language" (as he stated) for his speech before Mother, he thanked the kids and the crowd. As I stood very close to the wall at this show I could read some of the bricks of the fallen loved ones during the intermission, the words were very deep and I could see Roger's dad (killed in Anzio during WWII) brick too, it was just in front of me.

The second part of the show went well, the crowd was again very loud during Comfortably Numb, Run Like Hell and as they ripped the piggie off. Soon the wall came down, and the show was over.

For sure it was my best Wall concert I went to, it was the only time when I stood so near to the stage and to Roger and it was the only time when one of any Pink Floyd member added our country to the tour.

The rest of the night went well, soon it started a heavy rain and we went to drink a couple of beers and discuss the amazing show we just witnessed. People said it was the biggest and finest show ever held in our country, equalled perhaps only by Michael Jackson's Dangerous concert held back in 1992. Romanian media sources said there were more than 50.000 people in Constitutiei Square in the evening of August 28th and I am sure all of us will remember Roger's Wall for the rest of our lives. As for me, I look forward for the last show I am going to see in Belgrade, September 1st.

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Mihnea

CONCERT REVIEWS and PICTURES by other BD CONTRIBUTORS

Hopefully coming soon - we welcome all contributions!