Capacity: 38,000
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: LTU-Arena-Straße 1, Düsseldorf, Germany. MAP

Website: www.espritarena.de

COMMENTS

The last of three shows in Germany for the 2013 iteration of The Wall, and should be a good one. Roger performed the show here in 2011 so will be familiar to him. And it just so happens to be a very significant day in Roger's life...his 70th birthday! Next stop for the tour, Amsterdam...

The RogerWaters.com presales have begun, with advance tickets available to those who had registered their interest in particular cities. General sale tickets are now on sale through normal ticketing agents including www.Eventim.de. The public sale will also see a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour. Our thanks to Marc for sending in a scan of the Eventim "fan version" of the concert ticket - a great design! Click on the thumbnail to the right to see it 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 twenty-one of the tour, and a very significant show - threats of boycotts by the Dusseldorf Jewish Community, along with the happier celebration of Roger's 70th birthday. The former, despite much press coverage, came to nothing on the evening itself, with the 35,000 fans untroubled by any disruption.

As for Roger's very special celebration, as our friend Martin Geyer told us, there was first an 'unofficial' version of 'Happy Birthday', sang by the crowd right before 'Mother' and a second one at the very end, supported by the band:

There are now just six shows to come, with the production heading to Amsterdam for Sunday evening. If you went to this show in Dusseldorf, please let us know what you thought of the event, especially if you've been to previous shows and can compare.

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTORS, Marc & Lex

Today's concert is the only indoor concert we will see during the 2013 tour. The Esprit Arena is known territory as we also saw the show there back in 2011.

After arriving at the end of the morning in the "altstadt" of Düsseldorf, famous for its old buildings and many, many bars, we agree to sit down at a terrace because it's very hot and we like a nice cold alt beer! During the afternoon we see more and more The Wall t-shirts walking through the street and we are joined by three nice Canadian guys who especially came over to Europe to see some The Wall concerts. Always nice to experience the very good relations between Floydians all over the world!

After a couple of beers we went to the Esprit Arena by tram. We have perfect seats on the floor and the view is great. The show is great and although our friends say the sound is perfect we hear some resonance (this will not occur in the second half of the show). The band is in great shape again and as always the Germans are a very good crowd.

Before "Mother" the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" as Roger has his 70th birthday today! Roger enjoyed this a lot and looked emotional. Well, so are we! The rest of the show is perfect with a lot of highlights like "The thin ice", "Don't leave me now", "Bring the boys back home", "Comfortably numb" and "Run like hell". We all have goose bumps and agree that this show is touching us emotionally.

After the show we decide to go back to the altstadt and enjoy the great atmosphere. In a Irish pub we meet many German fans and of course this is resulting in a lot of community singing (thank you barkeeper for playing "Another brick in the wall" and "Comfortably numb" so much!!!) and instant international friendships.

In the early morning we go back to our hotel for a little bit of sleep and hope to get our voices back again soon. So, one and a half week of waiting and Dublin will be our next stop...

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Andreas Claus

I stayed at my friends' Brigitte and Michael's home, the day after Berlin in Langenfeld near Duesseldorf. Many thanks to them.

The next day after my late arrival - after a long summer night with them on the veranda of their summer house as my perfect hosts - I took an urban railway train of the area's local transport system, called 'Rheinbahn', which brought me first to the main station. From there I took a tube-tram to Esprit Arena, which usually is the place for seeing Fortuna Duesseldorf football club as the main attraction. This was a good choice, because as heard by people later, trying to reach the destination by car reached the point of getting endlessly stuck on the road...

Going from Berlin to the 600km distant Langenfeld near Duesseldorf by car myself meant also a challenge for me regarding problems with the car engine temperature rising, which I was able to resolve and it all ended up with a happy ending - at least for further travelling.

After the tube/tram arrived following a big delay, at Esprit Arena, I finally found my seat, which this time was 2nd block left subrank, 2nd row. Distance was similar like Frankfurt, but the arena was completely closed and the room itself smaller and more compact. In 2011 - this was my 2nd time - I sat very sharp right and close to stage in the pitch. So this time my angle was much better.

The show started 25 minutes later at 20:25, with the tape playing Mother (John Lennon), Masters of War (Bob Dylan), It's Been a Long Time Coming (Sam Cooke), Imagine (John Lennon), People Get Ready (The Expressions; please note I called them The Impressions incorrectly on my Frankfurt contribution) and an invisible MC announcement (in German) was played and then 'Spartacus' opened the first half.

After The Ballad of Jean Charles de Menezes and before Mother, Roger welcomed the audience with the usual longest speech section of the entire show while 'happy birthday' was chanted and frenetic shouted by the audience all over the place, followed by blessing the audience. Then he thanked the local kid's choir and mentioned that it's always a different choir for each place on the tour and only meet them first by 5:30 in the late afternoon and have them only until their part in Another Brick in The Wall pt2. Then he dedicated the concert to Jean Charles de Menezes and his family for their fight for truth and justice and also to all others of state terrorism in the whole world. Coming across like an activist was speaking to the audience... there were many hearts in the audience I guess - not to mention his former 'bleeding hearts band'. At least after the wall had fallen down - this time virtually on both ends by projections and again real in the middle - a longer than usual applause and birds whispering section followed up than in my memory of the previous shows at this point. But the official climax to express birthday wishes to the public during this show had yet to come, when the band intoned 'happy birthday' after 'outside the wall' before the show ended as usual with the 'band introduction' for the 2nd half.

That's one of the most differences compared to any other show on the tour leg! I was happy to be joining Roger's 70th birthday show. One never knows when the next one will be.

CONCERT REVIEWS and PICTURES by other BD CONTRIBUTORS

Hopefully coming soon - we welcome all contributions!