Capacity: 10,000

Concert starts: 9pm

Address of venue: 4 Boulevard des Arènes, 30000 Nîmes, France. MAP

Website: www.arenes-nimes.com

COMMENTS

Another interesting venue for David's Rattle That Lock tour, an incredibly well preserved Roman amphitheatre, situated in the French city of Nîmes. Built around AD 70, it was remodelled in 1863 to serve as a bullring. With an oval-shaped arena floor, the pair of shows here will be in front of 10,000 each night.

Tickets for this concert went on sale on Friday, February 5th, at 10am CET. Tickets are restricted to 4 per person. You can order tickets through GDP.fr, or via the ticket hotline which is +33 892 392 192 (France only) or +33 149 975 191 (International).

Our thanks to Phil Austin for sending in the scan of his ticket, which 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!

Tonight's show was the second consecutive concert by David held in the Roman Amphitheatre in the French city of Nimes. A dry concert - just about, as there was the odd spot of rain here and there, with the cloud cover building at various points. Yesterday's show, of course, did feature a small amount of rain, particularly around In Any Tongue.

Unlike yesterday, the arena was a thing of peace in the morning, with little to no activity from any of the crew. The load-in and set up had been done yesterday, the lights and sound were all sorted, so there was little to do but wait for soundcheck. A number of fans decided to tour the arena today, as a way to kill time. The main square was busy most of the day, and the start of the evening, with a vast array of Gilmour, Floyd, Waters and other similar t-shirts on display as people chatted, ate, drank, and enjoyed various Floyd "greatest hits" courtesy of one of the bars in the square. A very festive yet chilled atmosphere, as people got ready for the evening's entertainment - the second of the pair of shows at the arena, one of the main highlights of the Festival de Nimes, along with Muse, who'd performed a few days before. 

As shows go, it was very similar to last night's experience...suffice it to say, but each show at the moment seems to have the band playing better and better, with a freedom, confidence and pleasure which comes across massively in the music. The performances feel so fresh, and each night, one is left with the feeling that it would be impossible to top that night. But, top it they are at the moment!

The set was unchanged from last night - some were hoping for the little variances that are apparent from being lucky enough to see more than one show on the tour, but nevertheless everyone clearly had a great time. Again, the smokers were out in force, making the Strictly FX team surely feel a little redundant in their artificial smoke effect efforts?

The sound quality was top notch throughout; Colin Norfield would presumably have kept things exactly as their were once he'd done his initial tweaking yesterday night to balance the sound with the addition of an audience - this dramatically affects the sound, with clothing for example changing the nature of the acoustics.

A great show - and now just three shows left of the summer tour of Europe (one night in France, and two nights in Belgium). The Rattle That Lock tour is now almost wrapped up, with the five nights in London in late September concluding matters. 

That's our view, but we'd love to know in more detail how the concert went from people in the best position to report back. So, did you go? Let us know what YOU thought!

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Phil and Kate Austin

I love Pink Floyd, and hence David Gilmour. My wife loves France, and I’ve sort of got her into Rattle That Lock! So with David Gilmour in France, it was a very easy sell – especially seeing the fantastic Arènes de Nîmes venue.

Wandering around the venue earlier, we couldn’t wait to get inside! Having prime seats, the best in the house according to our seating guide, we settled in and waited with everyone else. The stated start time of 9pm came and went, presumably because not everyone appeared to be seated (security checks?); we didn’t care, we soaked up the atmosphere, excited! The Mexican Wave was enjoyable, nothing like a bit of bonding with a great crowd.

9.30pm, and its kick off! 5am starts things, its already starting to go dark, the stage effects lending to the atmosphere. Rattle That Lock is next, followed by Faces of Stone – 2 of 3 new stand-out tracks for me – really loving the extended solos on both, much better live I think. Then to the first PF song, What Do You Want From Me, jolly good! DG track The Blue is next – not keen on this one; HOWEVER, hearing it live changed my mind! Pleasantly surprised by The Great Gig In The Sky, shame it wasn’t linked up with Time, cracking effort by the backing singers. Next up, A Boat Lies Waiting, we both chilled and again took in the Arena, a great choice indeed. Back to PF tracks Wish You Were Here and Money, what more can you say, other than fantastic. The penultimate song for the first half is my 3rd RTL track stand-out, In Any Tongue – I really like this one, especially the video. The first half wraps up with High Hopes – wow, DG really is in top form along with the band.

Some notes: I’ve got a French couple to my right, and the lady is absolutely bonkers – very, very enthusiastic – excellent! This made me laugh; 25 minutes in, we smell the first of many “special ciggies” ;-) Stretching our legs, we chat to an English guy in front of us; this was his 5th gig of the tour, and was lucky enough to go to Pompeii – jealous! He added he’d been to 271 PF concerts, very cool. I got into PF just after The Division Bell tour, so I never had chance to see them. The band change is really working, they are very tight – applause and thanks to DG. Oh yes, Matt from Brain Damage is about 50 seats away from us, not sure if that’s to the left or right!

The second half starts; with One Of These Days, minus Pigs, very entertaining – DG proving his instrumental skills. Followed by Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Fat Old Sun (really hooked on this), and Coming Back To Life – fab. The solo on FOS was turned up more than at RAH last year (someone, at RAH, actually shouted “turn it up and play it again”!!), still think the solo should be louder! DG track On An Island, we both like this one a lot, it reminds us of Greek holidays we enjoy (we tied the knot in Cyprus). Then to The Girl In The Yellow Dress and Today – TGITYD was played at RAH last year, and I don’t think it worked well with the crowd; being in France, it worked REALLY well. Once Today gets going, it’s a bit of a foot stomper, or maybe that’s just me! PF tracks Sorrow and Run Like Hell follow – both signifying Time is running out on this marvellous experience, sorry, couldn’t help it. Love Sorrow, very atmospheric effects and great sound; and Run Like Hell had the band break out the sunglasses, great move guys and gals. The crowd go wild after the second half concludes.

Mr Screen entertains, as the crowd chant and clap for more… Sure enough, the band comes back to play Time/Breathe (reprise) and Comfortably Numb. Just about everybody seemed to sing along, near us anyway! Both fab selections, CN making very good use of the lighting and sound setup – mind-blowingly fantastic.

Like a lot of the crowd, we didn’t want it to end, but unfortunately it had to. DG and band really pulled out all the stops and made the entire evening a very memorable one, something my wife (Kate) and I will never forget. It’s funny, after seeing DG at RAH last September, I posted on Facebook that I’d probably never see a gig to top it – I was wrong, Arènes de Nîmes topped it completely. It was a stunning venue, backed a fantastic band, with great sound and lighting.

Despite an earlier forecast, the weather was very pleasant, and the moon made an appearance – presumably to witness the musical spectacular. While it was interesting getting to our seats, it took minutes to exit the venue (a tour of the Arènes the following day further acknowledge the clever Romans).

Great gig, great venue, great crowd – I’ve got to give it 10 out of 10. #stunning #amazing #never_forget_nimes

P.S. We purchased drinks, presented in Festival de Nîmes glasses, but they got damaged heading home. Does any reader who attended have one for sale? Any price paid, contact me This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Guino Patrice "Rockerparis"

Rockerparis has contributed concert pictures previously here on Brain Damage, and here's a nice selection of shots from the Arenes de Nimes concert on this night...

YOUR HELP NEEDED! We want to cover David'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!