11th May 2008 marks a year since I travelled to London to see Roger Waters at Earl's Court. Earl's Court doesn't seem to get the musical attention of the O2 Arena these days. In my humble opinion, the O2 is more comfortable, has better viewing angles but is not as central as Earls' Court is. Roger is playing the UK again but the O2 this time around - proof in point. Switching back to 2007, I was heading up to my A-level exams and had booked this well in advance with high hopes for a show. Having see Jet, The Feeling and Bob Dylan within the past six months, I was looking forward to my first big show. When people ask whom my favourite band are, I give two answers. One is my current favourite and then the overall one. The current one at the moment is MGMT or The Raconteurs whereas the overall is always Pink Floyd, very English music about very English things. Seeing Roger Waters (original member and bassist of the band) was the best chance I'd ever have of seeing the music live. I missed David Gilmour's On An Island tour - hopefully he will tour again some day and I will be sure not to miss it!
The concert sticks in my mind as just fantastic. Unlike Bob Dylan (whom I saw just a few weeks previously), it was a proper show with excellent music (loud!), banter with the audience, pyrotechnics, flying pigs and topical films for each song. Being Roger Waters, it wouldn't be a show without some political statements. Being a 'newbie' to concerts, I wasted time taking photos, without the knowledge that it's better to go for videos for best memories. I did manage to snap this shot from the song 'Leaving Beirut'. Controversial I think you may say.
Roger played the same playlist with any variation but this suited me fine. An eclectic mix of a few solo songs, a sample from every period of Floyd's history and of course - Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety. I loved the record before but my appreciation has increased even more since watching the whole thing. It's not an album you can dip in and out of. To appreciate it as a work of art, you need to listen to the whole thing as a story. It's timeless and sounds (to me) excellent and relevant today. The instruments of On The Run and Any Colour You Like were songs that were really brought alive in concert compared the album versions. The epic opening to Time simply builds up the audience until the song kicks in and everyone went wild. The encore of Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2 and Comfortably Numb were a great roundup to the show. David Gilmour's guitar work and vocals were sorely missed the most on Comfortably Numb and Money. Roger's guitarists did a very good job but it was missing something. I'm unsure if having multiple guitarists for a epic solo works.
All in all, I've got great memories and will hopefully see Roger, David GIlmour or even Pink Floyd again some day. I've seen Roger on his 'Dark Side Of The Moon Live' tour and would only see him again if he does something different - The Wall maybe or Wish You Were Here? Speculation continues to rise about a reunited Pink Floyd and if Gilmour can brought around, I will be one of the first in line for tickets.
You are reading the site of Seb Payne - an undergraduate Computer Science student from the