Antwerp Sports Paleis
From: Dirk Gysels
In 1977, the band returned to Antwerp. They were now playing in the' Sportpaleis'
for an audience of about 15000 enthusiastic fans.
After 25 years, Roger has returned to the 'Sportpaleis.' The concert was
fabulous. His musical and lyrical universe is the best rock and roll has ever
created. At 58, Roger looks amazingly young. Is it because of the timelessness of his
music?
Roger's setlist was the same as on other recent concerts. The encore,
'Flickering Flame' proves that Roger is still at the height of his
creative abilities. I must say I prefer the 'naked' demo version of Flickering
Flame to the more orchestrated version he was singing, but it is a beautiful
song... To me, it is also a pity that he is not doing any song from Radio KAOS which
to me is a superb album... But these are merely minor complaints. Thank you Roger
for those three glorious hours.
In the sixties, next to Amsterdam, Antwerp was one of the continental capitals of
flower power. In 1966, an obscure English band gave a free concert in a Hippy
bar in the center of town. The name of the band: Pink Floyd.
Dirk Gysels
Also great salutes go to his band, and sometimes we forget the crew as well : Thanks
!!!!! Dear Roger, if you read this; Don't wait so long until you come back!!! Already
since this morning, I am counting the days of to see you back again in Begium live!!!
Greetings from the Flanders of Belgium.
Luc Perneel ( Fans please mail with me ,just real fans!!!)
Second of all, I'm going to shout.... WHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOHOHOHOHOHHOHOHO ... cause it was fun like hell yesterday! And last but not least: I'm going to offer you all the details I remember now (and details there were for sure!)
Informative note: this was my first concert ever of any band or artist (except for some festivals), and I doubt if any future concert will ever beat this one (of course one will, namely Roger Waters World Tour 2003/2004, but let's write first and dream later) !
There was no warm-up band, but this was compensated with my first meeting with Simon Wimpenny, the In the Flesh 2002 specialist who is doing a world tour too it seems. When I was a kid, they asked "what would you like to be when you're grown up?" in school very often... I never knew what to answer, but now I know: "I wanna be a Simon!". Anyway, really nice guy, he confirmed my suspicions about the size of the screen... I thought it was too small cause I had expected too much of it, but it was really smaller then normal yesterday! Well, let that be as it may, it was big enough for me! Also, on Simon, I saw the Flickering Flame t-shirts like from the website for the first time in person... nice work, guys!
Anyway, there was a concert going on as well, let's talk about that now!
Einz Zwei Drei, WHOOOM !!! IN THE FLESH, one of my favorites, was amazing...the hammers were cool, they looked much better then on the internet clips... not one complaint about it!
... drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ... helicopter noises, the quality of the sound system comes out, some spotlights gliding over the audience... a nice version of THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES, one of my favorites, began to play... great version... followed of course by ANOTHER BRICK part 2, also one of my favorites, which was sounded just like the studio album version, but Shine on would compensate that later in the evening fortunately! Too bad about those possible lost solo's though!
Next was MOTHER, again one of my favorites by the way, and except for the sound on Rogers guitar that fell out for about 2 seconds, it was super!
Number 4 and 5: GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OF MY DESERT and SOUTHAMPTON DOCK, two more favorites... very nice lighting effects in the beginning, same for the music! Great tracks, great performance. What else can I say?
PIGS ON THE WING, one of my favorites, was supported with a film of the inflatable pig on the screen, and sounded nice as always! Simple song, simply amazing!
I know I've been pissing on Chester a few times, shouting for Doyle to come back, and now I still haven't typed one word about him... yet! Never thought I would say this, but the man was great yesterday. Some people say he screws up DOGS, well... can't remember him doing that. Only the vocals were not as good as Carin's, but DOGS, one of my favorites, rocked and Chester was great in it! As you've probably read before, he's... loud! Great, but loud!
Talking about vocals, I began to realize after a few songs that Rogers voice was astonishing! He's been practicing a lot, if you ask me! Really in good shape, yesterday!
SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN was nice. This favorite of mine was played with an old Pink Floyd film on the background, great stuff!
SHINE ON YOU CRAZY DIAMOND, a favorite of mine too, was great too! Why does everybody complain about Snowy on this one? The man was great, believe me!
zzzzk! trr! ping! elevator noises, unfortunately not as long as on the original album, introduced my favorite WELCOME TO THE MACHINE, nice version, went a bit faster then usual, I think. Not sure about that.
One of the biggest surprises to me was that WISH YOU WERE HERE, having been one of my favorites once, was great too. I heard the one from the album In The Flesh, and that version sucked. Live and with Chester though, it sounded much better!
Closing the first set was the second part of SHINE ON, very very very good and a favorite of mine!
A break for 20 minutes, time for a toilet and to meet Simon again!
BREATH, TIME and MONEY, 3 of my favorites, opened the second set, all being great! As you've all probably read, Andy's solo on MONEY was very very loud! especially Time was great, although some people claim it sucks!
My favorite of pro's and con's, EVERY STRANGERS EYES, brought a double surprise: no lip synchronization to start with (but I'd already read that somewhere), but the guitar was much better on it then in 2000 (or was it just cause it was live? don't think so)
Then, the songs of my favorite album were played, starting with PERFECT SENSE. PP Arnold was great of course, same for about everything about the song! It seemed that they fastened the rhythm of BRAVERY OF BEING OUT OF RANGE a bit, didn't like that though! It was just great, not very great! Didn't like some vocals parts about it too, but I'm glad that I heard the song live anyway! ITS A MIRACLE and AMUSED TO DEATH, to close with, were as great as in 2000! Nice projections, with the monkey watching tv and zapping. Damn, why didn't they do WATCHING TV or LATE HOME TONIGHT?
BRAIN DAMAGE started different from the 2000 version (actually, it was better this year!), it was as great as ECLIPSE. By then, I began to realise that the concert was almost over... WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA??!!!
And then, time for COMFORTABLY NUMB! A favorite of about everyone, I guess, cause people started to run from their seats to the stage and sang along a bit. It seemed the Belgians weren't very wild yesterday, but on this one, almost everyone stood and shouted! Great version, great solo's, great great great!
The lights went of, the band left. The lights went on, the band returned. Roger introduced his 'new' song: FLICKERING FLAME, so young and already a favorite of mine! A nephew of mine had expected something more like RUN LIKE HELL for the encore, but I was more pleased with FLICKERING FLAME. Too bad that I haven't heard EACH SMALL CANDLE now, but that's one of the few complaints about this great night! FLICKERING FLAME sounds much much better live, for me!
The show was over, bought some posters on the way back (t-shirts were too expensive),
and then drove back to reality... great evening, hurry up and come back soon,
Roger!
PP Arnold Layne, Antwerp
We had a seat right near the stage, so we had a very good view. The show started right on time, 20:30 local time, and I was very excited. When the band started to play, I thought, this is so perfect, this impossible. I have heard the CD (In the Flesh) a lot of times, but this was so much better.
They started with old Pink Floyd songs. I must say, it sounded perfect, and Snowy White is such a very very very good guitar player. I was surprised how they were playing during the show, you can see how much fun they have on stage. The show kept getting better and they were playing better and better. They played 3 hours with a short break.
After the break they played some other Pink Floyd songs, and little by little they began playing Roger's solo music. I got goose-flesh on my skin listening to those songs, the girls at the back had voices like an angels, I thought I was in heaven. Then at last they played a new song (one that I had never heard before).
You know every good concert is too short, that's what they say about live shows. The 3 hours came
and went but left you wanting more. So I am also going to the concert in England (at the Wembley
arena 27-06-02)
Best regards
Jos
IT WAS GREAT!!!! There was a lot of people in the building. And for me... it was like a dream to hear songs from the Wall and Dark side of the Moon by Roger Waters himself. You know, Antwerp is a city of Diamond so, when I heard the song "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" about remembering Syd Barrett, it was the right place to hear it, I felt some really strong emotions.
If I could say something to Roger Waters, I would say: Get Syd Barrett back and make peace again with David Gilmour. And give us just one more, if only for the last time, a new Pink Floyd music album to close the band in peace. That is what most all fans want I think. JUST ONE MORE IN PEACE. Those are the words that are running through my mind just after the Roger Waters concert in Antwerp.
The new song Flickering Flame was very good, now that I heard it live. It was the closing song of the concert. That was the only different song of that concert from that of the CD. Normally, the encore would have been the song: Each Small Candle. I heard the song "Flickering Flame" on the new album; "The Solo Years Volume I." But live... that song was very very good. Oh yes... I like the vocals; Katie Kissoon and PP Arnold, the other one was a different one I dont know, but she was also great.
For my last words: I left that venue a very happy person to have seen
Roger Waters LIVE!! I live in Antwerp, just a few streets from the Sportpaleis where Roger
Waters Performed. I was a lucky man.
Greetings to all of you from
Daniel Huysmans (Belgium)
