I was one of the so called “spoiled
and rich” Golden Circle ticket holders. In one newspaper I read that
people were annoyed that the “real fans” did not get to the front of
the stage because of these tickets. I have to say that this weekend was
extremely expensive in my terms but once I knew Pink Floyd were playing
and that the only way to get in front of the stage was through “Gold
Circle” tickets, it was clear for me that I had to do this... I paid a
lot for the hospitality element (Hyde Park Marquee) but I didn’t use
any of it because I spent all of the time except one quick break
directly in front of the stage.
We went as a group of four (which
allowed us to have one quick break in between with the other two
guarding our places – until the last third of the concert it was not
too difficult to get back in again): My wife and myself as well as my
brother in law and his wife and we had a perfect view from the very
first row on the right side right in front of the stage. Two of us were
in the front row (mostly our wives) and the other two standing behind
(other than Pink Floyd of course where we swapped around).
I only came because of Pink Floyd
but I have to admit that I enjoyed the concert as a whole, even
clapping to Robbie Williams whose music I do not usually like, but one
has to admit that he does perform very well on stage.
I had my handheld organizer with
me and on it was a “set list” as suggested and posted by the BBC which
was 95% accurate so I could really countdown to see the Floyd. I always
wanted to see “The Who” but I have to admit by the time of their gig I
was so nervous in anticipation of the “Main” act (Floyd of course) that
I hardly listened. I had a fairly good idea about what songs they would
be playing from the various pre-show reports and interviews (not too
much was a surprise), the only thing I wasn’t sure about was whether
they would play three or four songs because of very conflicting reports.
Then, finally they came on stage
– a moment I had been waiting for more than 20 years (I am 37 years so
I just missed out on seeing the united Floyd play together ... I
obviously saw them on their Division Bell tour a couple of times (as
well as the Wall concert in Berlin and Roger Waters solo), but I never
had seen them before in their “original” line up (with the exception of
Syd of course).
Breathe was a beautiful start.
You could see how excited Roger was to play together with his old band
mates again. He was also very nervous I guess as he was moving around
much more than you usually expect from him. What I found interesting is
how much Roger left David the centre piece with regards to the singing:
For Breathe as well as Money, Roger sang but – importantly - not into
the microphone leaving the centre of attention to David ... Roger only
really started singing more in the forefront mid-part through ‘Wish you
were here’ – you did actually note when he went to the microphone and
sang his part.
Money was in a way very fitting
for the tune of the event and in the lack of being able to play “Shine
on you crazy diamond” as a reference to Syd due to the limited time
available it was no surprise that they decided to play “Wish you were
here”. In both songs they were brilliant with only very small errors
that are negligible considering the amount of time they haven’t played
together.
After three songs I was a bit
nervous as I was dreading that they left out “Comfortably Numb” (the
perfect reunion song) ... but then: there it was. It was, in my
opinion, the highlight of the whole concert. With clearly defined roles
in terms of singing between Roger and David this song was exactly the
way I wanted to hear it. It gave both – Roger and David (obviously in
addition to Nick and Rick) – time to shine and the guitar solo of David
at the end – as always – was just impeccable.
The end of the show was extremely
moving: seeing them together as a band - shoulder to shoulder was just
exceptional. David then gave Rick a little “hug” and I personally think
they all enjoyed it.
So, what will the future hold?
I don’t know if Floyd will ever
work on an album or tour again but if this concert has done something
it certainly has made this unlikely event more promising. One has to
give a lot of respect to Roger: You could see his excitement playing
with the band again, he left a lot of the vocal parts to David and he
even stated how glad he was to do this again. This is, in my opinion,
more than an apology – especially for a personality like Roger and I
sincerely hope that David and Rick will pick up on this as well as the
success of this performance to revitalize their “active duties”. I have
no doubt that Nick would be in for it as he has continued to maintain
acceptable relationships with all band members – including Roger.
As a summary this was a day I
will never forget and I saw Floyd performing together in a way that was
incredible and gave me a sense of almost “being part of history in the
making”...
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