Nearly fifteen years ago, Pink Floyd played a set of dates at London's Earls Court to conclude the Division Bell tour. Tote Leotta was there on October 15th, the third full show they played during the 15 night run, and here's Tote's memories of that evening:

This was my first and only time I have seen my favourite band live in concert. After years of watching their live shows on tape, hearing how good they are and buying almost their entire back catalogue, I couldn't believe I was finally there at Earls Court in London. Walking in the arena, we entered just by the stage right, and I remember how strange I felt, almost a surreal feeling, mixed with excitement and apprehension, as well as gob smacked by the size of the venue and the enormous stage.

After 15 minutes or so, everything went dark, the crowd started cheering and I had some rather large butterflies in my stomach, then the first notes of Gilmour's guitar built in a crescendo. Suddenly the stage explodes in light and the band sound like they are jamming very loudly, but its actually Astronomy Domine; it was so loud that the vocals were almost inaudible, it still sounded great though.

From then on, they go through most of the Division and Momentary era, with The Turning Away and Sorrow sounding brilliant. Where we were seated stage right, half way down the arena, you could still feel the heat of the lights, they looked fantastic, the strobes in particular were so bright that I saw people looking away from the stage, though, I remember feeling disappointed that there was no circular screen.

The first half ended with One of These Days, the lights went crazy, Gilmour and the band sounded excellent and I remember having Rick Wright in my eyeline all night long, and thinking how much work rate he puts in which gets unnoticed, he simply worked his socks off that night and his keyboards sounded really good and loud. It was Gilmour's Strat though which actually hurt my ears, especially during the On the Turning Away solo, my ear drums were distorting and remember thinking that the whole set was a touch too loud, even for me. At the end of One Of These Days the pyros came to life and the heat felt was quite alarming, god knows how the band coped on stage.

After 20 minutes, the band reappeared, I missed the start of it as I got stuck in the queue for the loo, 'scuse the pun. It was Shine On and to my surprise, I saw the giant circular screen floating down from the top of the stage, finally resting just over the band. It was magical.

Now it was classic after classic, from Dark Side, The Wall and Wish You Were Here. The sound wasn't as loud and there was no distortion from the main stage PA, so Gilmour's vocals could be heard a lot better by now. During Another Brick, most of the crowd actually got up and had a boogie, which was a bit strange.

For the encore we were treated to the usual Wish You Were Here, Comfy Numb and Run Like Hell; obviously the giant mirror ball coming down from the heavens was a treat, but for me, seeing it live, it felt a bit of a tacky gimmick. On Run Like Hell the band and stage exploded into a superb finale, and as the final chords played out, I remember thinking that I can't believe it's all over and wish they could start the gig all over again. Oh what a night... to this day, I still remember everything. Pink Floyd, u da best, Rick, we all miss you...