Capacity: 35,000
Concert starts: 8:15pm

Address of venue: Batavierenweg 25, 6841 HN Arnhem, Netherlands. MAP

Website: www.gelredome.nl

COMMENTS

Roger's 2013 tour of The Wall now kicks off in The Netherlands with a return to the Gelredome, a venue The Wall was performed at three times back in 2011. Following this show, the production moves to Werchter in Belgium, which has lost the status of opening night for the tour.

Tickets went on sale Friday, March 29th at 9am UK time, and the RogerWaters.com presale started Tuesday, March 26th for those selected from the fans who have registered at tickets.rogerwaters.com and who have included this city as one that they are interested in. For the main sale of tickets, please visit Ticketmaster.nl through this link. The public sale also saw a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour. Our thanks to Frans Temme for the ticket scan to the right.

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 ONE of the tour, and a very special night for the few people there. As our friend Simon relates below, very few people bought tickets for this show - possibly due to it being a later addition to the schedule. Whatever the case, it made things even more special for the 5,400 or so who WERE there. If you were "one of the few", please let us know what you thought of the event.

CONCERT REVIEW, PICTURES and VIDEO 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. Our thanks to him for sharing his thoughts with you all via this site; his blog has much more, and is well worth regular visits!

I was surprised how quiet it was outside the venue. It was going on 6:30, and there were very few people around outside. By this time you are usually bombarded by ticket scalpers wherever you go, and the place is usually buzzing! I presumed that people were making the best of the sunshine and would arrive at the last minute. What I also remembered was that this show was actually never meant to be! When the dates were initially announced, the first show of the tour was to be Werchter in Belgium. However, a LOT later on—only a few weeks ago—they announced there would be a show before Werchter in Arnhem. The reason for this was simple. The band had been rehearsing at the venue in Arnhem and had been doing technical rehearsals with the projectors and lighting. Rehearsals starting on the past Monday were due to finish on the Wednesday, and management thought about the three full days before the first show; all the stage and equipment is set up here, why not just add, what I guess could be called, a dress rehearsal show on the Thursday and announce a new start date to the tour! By this time a lot of people had bought tickets for the “first” night of the tour, and later in the tour there was another show in Holland in Amsterdam. It made perfect sense, then, that when we all entered the venue at a little after 7:30 with less than an hour to start time, the floor and seating areas looked like this!

It was empty!! Remember I said earlier that I would never return to this venue, as it was too huge? Well this is a 34,000 capacity venue, and the woman at the box office told me they had sold 5400 tickets!! I’m not surprised there was no golden circle! It was bizarre to see such a big venue with so few people in with less than an hour to go until show time! Bizarre, but fantastic for us!

After getting over the shock of just how empty the venue was, the second thing I noticed was the projectors mounted at the rear of the venue. Unlike the 2010 and 2011 shows where they were suspended from the ceiling and a lot of the outdoor shows in 2012 where they were on top if towers in the middle of the venues, they were all now about 10 feet high along the back wall of the venue, 36 in all.

This gives a great effect when the shows is on and you look back behind you, it also casts a show of the pig onto the wall which again gives it a great effect.

My friends Philippe and Kevin decided to stand half way between the mixing desk and the stage, I was going to do the same until I saw how empty the rail was! I headed down to the middle on the rail and met up with my friend Raymond Steeg. I hadn't seen him since the 2006 Gilmour shows and it was nice to see some of the show with him. I say “some” because the place was that empty that as you can probably see from the pictures, I was running around all over the place taking shots and then returning to my place on the rail.

I have to be honest and say that I was expecting a lot more changes than there actually were. There were a few subtle ones here and there but on the most part it was the show that we've seen for the last few years with the addition of Rogers tweaks to the projections and music here and there.

The six pre show music tracks were identical, starting off with Leadbellys “Take This Hammer” and ending 18 minutes later with The Impressions “People Get Ready”. Pink was led out by the two guards and looked around at the sparse audience to the I'm Spartacus speech before being dropped onstage and then kicked onto the photographers below by Roger after donning his black leather over coat (I’m sure Roger gets huge kick out of doing this to the press guys!)

Pyros were pretty much the same but bearing in mind it was an indoor venue, I'm sure these will be stepped up for the outdoor shows like they were in 2012. The Stuka came down right on cue and crashed though the wall with fire and smoke as before.

At first I thought the crowd were a little quiet due to there not been many people but there was certainly enough people to make more noise than they were doing and all through the first half they seemed to be very subdued by the whole experience.

After In The Flesh I was buzzing, it was back!! The Wall Live was on again and all the memories from the last 3 years came flooding back, all the memories of things to come in the show, the nuances, the solos, the smiles, the smirks, damn I’d missed it, and didn't really realise how much until it was bang in front of my face again! It was a great feeling knowing this was the first show of many and all the shows I had yet to see but most of all all the people I’d be meeting up with again and the memories we’d be creating. I missed having Kami by my side a lot, as good as the experience was last night it still felt as though a certain someone was missing.

After In The Flesh when they start projecting the fallen loved ones on the bricks it was immediately noticeable how much better the projections were. They were almost 3D! the images were so much brighter and there was so much more detail in the images.I’d heard from my friend Shane (who’s in charge of the Pyros) before the gig that  would be blown away by the new projectors. He wasn't wrong at all, as they were now mounted at the rear of the venue they had to be a lot more powerful to throw the images onto the bricks and still be seen at the outdoor shows when it was still daylight at the start of the shows (Although tomorrow nights show in Werchter which is an outdoor one doesn't start until 10:00pm!) Philippe just reminded me that it was so cool to be able to actually read all the text on the fallen loved one images that were projected onto the wall at the Intermission, something that's always looked a little out of focus to me, well not anymore!

My camera was still a touch out of focus below but you can see the clarity of the images compared to the past years.

There was a slightly different start to Another Brick with Graham doing a lot more drum rolls at the beginning. The “new” Jean Charles De Menezes track is still present and nothings really changed on that. Again, I have to say I was just continuously looking for changes in the projected images but they just weren't there!

One thing I did notice is that the bricks look to be a lot more refined of a fit together than they were, there were very few gaps that let any light through whatsoever, maybe it was as they were all new and it was the early stages of the tour, we’ll see how they go together as the tour goes on I guess.

Dave K mentioned a couple of days ago that Roger had said to the guys that he thought they sounded the best they had ever done and I have to agree with that, the sound in the venue was incredible and the band were ever so tight playing together.

Hey You again showed you just how bright the new projectors were, the projected bricks on the wall the full length had much more detail in them and were so much brighter. Robbie's voice sounded as good as every and Snowy absolutely nailed his 20 seconds long note during the track. When Is There Anybody Out There was half way through I turned around and walked to the rail right in front of the hotel,it really was that simple to do, there was no pushing, no crowd to fight through just lots and lots of space and I had the whole rail to myself until 30 seconds after the room came down out of the wall and the rest of the people realised and joined me!

I headed back to the middle as the room went up and again took my place on the rail. One thing they have changed back is the way the wall breaks as Roger hits it during Comfy Numb. I was never a fan of what they did to this late on in 2011 and 2012. They changed the way it broke up and made the rocks a lot bigger and rather than shatter outwards it all seems to fall down towards the floor. They’ve changed this back now and the shattered rocks are smaller and whilst they still fall downwards a little it as a lot better effect now that it did last year, I'm hoping they don't mess with it again!

Dave's solo on Comfy was again absolutely flawless, it just never ceases to amaze me how powerful it sounds and how insanely loud it gets. Dave, please mess up just once so it’ll give me something to write about!:)

Run Like Hell, If it isn't broke then don't fix it! It was never broke yet Roger continues to fix it and it just gets better and better. The brighter images make the 3D pop out a lot more and the silhouette of the pig on the wall looks great. Although the crowd had started to get into the show a little more, even after a couple of mic problems for Roger shouting the Thank You and trying to get everyone to clap in unison they just didn't get into it as much as I’d hoped for. Roger has a nice new shiny machine gun! He’s still not back to the adlibbing talk at the beginning which I miss a lot but he has certainly been practising his video synching and moving the same as the green screen images that were shot in New York last year and are projected on the sides of the wall trying to make it look like its a live feed!

Dave’s guitar sound sounded great but he did look to be having a couple of problems, continually turning around and trying to adjust his amp during the first couple of minutes of the track. I’m guessing its just opening night niggles and I’m pretty sure these will be al ironed out within the first couple of gigs.

Oh how I’ve missed having a little Wall wind!! It wasn't till I had my camera up to my eye ready to snap a picture of the falling wall and I felt the air rush past my face that I remembered just how good it felt! It's good to be back:) The wall fall still looks as good projected onto the sides of the wall and the live LIVE feed is still used for the guys as they come out and perform Outside The Wall, Harry for some reason looking very Australian wearing his Tilley hat!

All in all it was a fantastic show, very unique and as I said earlier, it was more like a select few had been invited to a dress rehearsal and for the people that realised this it felt like our own personal show. This show is a MUST see, it's the last time you’re going to get to see it so if you haven't bought a ticket yet or are wondering whether to go then DO IT!!

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Ralph Plug

You’d be hard pressed to leave an integral performance of Pink Floyd’s The Wall and not be impressed. Not only by the music, which is of course excellent, but perhaps even more by the sheer spectacle of the show and the ultimately very left-wing, anti-war statement that it is, or at least has become over the years. Because The Wall, both as a concept (the idea of building a huge wall between the audience and the band famously sprouted when Waters spat a fan in the face out of annoyance) and a narrative, is as relevant today as it was back in 1979.

Having grown up on a healthy diet of Pink Floyd and the 1990 performance of The Wall in Berlin, I thought I knew what to expect when I went to the show in 2011, but nothing can truly prepare you for something like this particular performance. It’s big, bold and in parts more than a little disconcerting, and as such, a rollercoaster of emotions. Last night, just like in 2011, I found myself torn between shock and awe, even though, this time, I knew full well what I was getting myself into.

From the opening chants of “I’m Spartacus!” echoing through the hall, you’re in for a treat either way. Roger Waters’ twenty-first century version of his magnum opus is so ridiculously grand and over the top that it almost numbs the senses. Militaristic bannermen patrol the stage during In the Flesh?, as pyros set the stage alight, the sound of gunfire blazes left and right and the Stuka dive bomber flies into the wall. During the course of the concert, there is so much happening all over the stage, that it becomes nearly impossible to see everything the first time. There’s the aforementioned Stuka, the big schoolmaster puppet, Mother looming over the stage, the group of local school children during Another Brick In The Wall (Part II), the flying, inflatable pig floating over the audience; it’s almost overwhelming.

And then there’s the wall itself, slowly being built during the course of the first half of the concert, blocking the band from the audience’s view brick by brick, until nothing is left but a massive white brick wall. Luckily for us, the wall also functions as a screen on which pictures and videos are being projected. It’s a vehicle for the narrative, with the famous marching hammers during Waiting for the Worms, the fucking flowers during What Shall We Do Now? or the The Trial scene, and it’s testament to the quality of Gerald Scarfe’s animations that everything holds up so phenomenally well on this biggest of big screens. That same wall, meanwhile, is also a vessel for Waters’ more political, anti-war statement, and nowhere is this more apparent than during Run Like Hell, as the audience, cheered on by Waters, happily claps along with the music whilst images of Hitler and Bush are being displayed, and the leaked footage from the Baghdad airstrike, during which Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen, amongst seven other people, were infamously shot when their cameras were mistaken for weapons.

We are invited to clap along and we happily oblige, because we’re there to be entertained, are we not? It’s brilliant entertainment indeed, but it’s also amazing and masterfully executed satire. The Wall can be, and oftentimes is, a grim and dark place, sometimes bordering on the lugubrious. It has evolved from a story of individual isolation and into a mirror through which we are confronted with mankind’s dark side, and Waters pulls absolutely no punches here. By the time the wall comes down and the band rejoins on stage for the encore Outside the Wall, you really feel you have just come back out of a truly hopeless place. The Wall is an utter monstrosity, a feast for the senses and both a brilliant and horrifying experience. It’s also a damn good show, and, just like in 2011, the most impressive thing I have ever seen on stage.

Our thanks to Ralph, who allowed us to share this review which also appears on the SoundsFromTheDarkSide blog.

CONCERT PICTURES and COMMENTS by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Jan Marten Hoogebeen

It was a great show. I was there twice in 2011 and there are some changes now. Most important: they are now projecting live footage on the wall. Footage of Roger, Dave (Kilminster) and Snowy White and others playing and singing. Great addition!!

CONCERT REVIEWS and PICTURES by other BD CONTRIBUTORS

Hopefully coming soon - we welcome all contributions!