MTN Sun Dome
From: Charles Whittaker
The concert varied only slightly from the brilliant DVD of the American concert.
The concert opened with great cannons of flame at the opening of "In the flesh", and throughout the show
there was much more animation of the projected backdrop, rather than just the slow transitions between
stills.
Roger took two encores, the last being a song which he told the audience they were the first to hear played
"live".
Other than the last song (The Flickering Flame) which replaced Each small Candle, the set was almost identical.
There was no doubt that Roger was very at ease and comfortable at the start of histour and seemed to
enjoy his first two concerts kicking of his world tour.
There was an intimacy of his connection with the audience that took us back to the old days of Floyd before
the grand stadium events that eventually led to Rogers disillusionment and his eventual leaving of the band.
Both South African concerts were sell outs and only had around 20,000 in the audience.
The band has also changed, with Doyle Bramhall II replaced by Chester Kamen, and Doyle's lovely wife
Susannah Melvoin replaced by Linda Lewis.
A surprising change was in the Keyboard section where Jon Carin is replaced by Rogers son Harry Waters.
This was a tough act to follow but the young Waters is obviously a chip off the old dad's block and his
handling of the keyboards was excellent.
Snowy Whites change from Gibson "LES PAUL" to Fender Strat made a refreshing change in sound.
The inimitable Andy Fairweather Low of course gave his usual low key but splendid performance.
Graham Broad has also changed from TAMA drums to DW and continues to be the metronome of the group.
But what can you say about Roger Waters, only that it is great to see him back "IN THE FLESH"; back and
better than ever.
We only hope that this will not be a farewell tour.
Good Luck for the rest of your tour Roger, may you achieve what your heart desires.
The music of Roger Waters is quite well know in South Africa judging by the attendance at the two
concerts, and by the amount of crowd interaction in the songs and music.
In attendance were kids who could not have been alive when Pink Floyd were in their heyday, but the
majority of fans there were the "baldies" and "over 40's".
I was on a natural high for the rest of the weekend. This show is awesome, the best I have ever seen, and I have attended all the big name stars that have played South Africa, from Queen,U2 to the Rolling Stones, musically they don't come close to Mr. Roger Waters. In fact he is a music genius. This was pure rock as art.
My one wish now is that I one day in the future I will have the opportunity to see Mr. Waters in concert again.
I wish Roger and the highly professional musicians in the band a very successful world tour.
Best regards,
Paul Drotsky
Johannesburg
South Africa
The venue at the Northcliff Dome is a superb indoor theatre for an event as well orchestrated as the Roger Waters concert. The arena was packed to it's approximately 15 000 capacity. With an older audience in attendance I think it would be fair to say that the majority of the fans were expecting the bulk of the material to be his earlier works with Floyd. Also remembering that "The Wall" has a special significance in this country because of the use of "Another Brick in the Wall part 2" as protest material during the student riots of the late seventies and the subsequent banning of the album as a result of this. What is clear is that there was a real air of anticipation in the air and from the moment you stepped into the arena and saw the pig you had no doubt as to what you were about to experience.
At 8:20 the house lights dimmed and the band made their entrance. Roger took his place above the members and the familiar ein, swein, drein rang in the air. It was awesome, a truly spectacular start, with bursts of sound and light that only seeing the concert can do justice to. On the lighter side we nearly didn't see anything when Roger nearly went down as he tripped on his climb up to the top of the stage. I'm sure he enjoyed the moment.
Sticking faithfully to the format of the album it was a very slick, professional performance by all the band members. With a few changes to his personnel, his son Harry, a trained classical pianist, who replaces John Carin, joins Roger for the first time on tour. On guitar and vocals is Chester Kamen who replaces Doyle Bramell II and is every bit as outstanding and lastly Linda Lewis who replaces Doyle's wife Susannah Melvoin.
Having viewed the DVD some days after the actual show, Roger has stuck faithfully to the format of the live performance reflected in the Oregon recording, from the lighting to on stage screen back drops. It could honestly be the same show. I have two disappointments; On the rendition of Each Small Candle the acoustic sequence of Andy Fairweather Low's guitar did not come through at all well. The second was, as I gather from the web site, the first live performance of his new song Flickering Flame in Cape Town. He did not play this in Johannesburg which for whatever the reason is a pity, maybe someone can tell us why.
The girls were brilliant and of course the solo by PP Arnold in Perfect Sense was every bit as good as the albums and DVD project her to be.
For myself being a huge fan of Rogers solo career, I found the second half of the show to be exceptional. My particular favourites were Amused to Death, It's a Miracle, and Each Small Candle. I look forward to the release of his studio album hopefully later this year. The evening was certainly an experience I'll keep with me for some time to come and should he return I'll be back for more.
For those who still have the opportunity to see the show, don't miss it,
otherwise send me in your place.
Where I have been lucky is the fact that I was standing right at the front - there were three rows of people between me and the front barricade. I could see the expression on every band members face, and bald spot and grey hair.
What really struck me was that the band enjoyed the show as much as the audience. For each one of them it was no issue about who they are and how famous they are and they never "expected" any applause from the fans. When the people erupted in applause I could see that the band appreciated it. They are really down to earth - and also the interaction between the band members showed that they were having a good time. I think the band was there to enjoy themselves and make incredible music - the rest just followed.
I tell you, you miss a lot of detail if you are not close. How many people noticed that during "Dogs" they were sitting around a table playing cards ? I am not a musician and what impressed me was all the guitars that they had stacked up behind them, and changed about every song.
I tell you the show was unbelievable - all I can say is thank you.
ROGER WATERS IN SOUTH AFRICA
If you told me three years ago that I would have seen Roger Waters live
three times I would have been "amused to death". Unbelievably, that is
exactly what has happened. After traveling to Baltimore in September 1999
to see him for the first time, all I had to do this time was travel to Cape
Town (which probably cost me just as much as Baltimore) and Johannesburg
(where I live).
All the shows were fairly similar with just a few songs different (still too many Floyd tracks and not enough solo material). Being the first show of the tour, the Cape Town show was understandably the loosest. New guitarist Chester Kamen did most of the solo work, but if truth be told missed a few crucial notes (particulary during Dogs) but improved during the second set and ended off very strongly with the Comfortably Numb solo with Snowy. I elected to be seated at the Velodrome and was very impressed with the sound. Never before have I experienced quadrophenic sound live in SA. You could clearly hear all the sound effects and occasionally found yourself turning around to see who's dog was barking.
The second set was better once the band had warmed up and once they concentrated on Roger's solo works. Probably less stress on the band to have to sound like Floyd. Rogers voice was slightly strained and he said very little. Visuals were similar to the US show, but I particularly enjoyed seeing the rare Floyd footage during Set The Controls. The star of the show again for me was the amazing vocals of PP Arnold during Perfect Sense. For an encore Roger performed a new track called Flickering Flame. The performance was slightly rusty as would be expected from a new song that has not been performed live before. All in all a solid and professional opening to a world tour.
For the Joburg show I elected to go to the Golden Circle. Never again. I was close enough to see the performers faces but had to contend with sound coming from the monitors. These would have been fine if I did not have people singing lyrics and guitar solos louder than the band. Why do people insist on singing if they do not know the lyrics??? We also had a few people who were passing out during Shine On (the ninth song). Why would anyone pay R300 just to pass out during the first set??? As a result I did not really enjoy the first set. For the second set we moved to the back of the Golden Circle where the sound was excellent. The Dome is a notoriously bad venue for sound but as always with Roger we had quality. The band was tighter with less errors. Snowy White took over more of the solo duties and man can he play. His solos were smooth as liquid. Rogers voice was stronger and highlights were PP Arnold, Snowy White and Graham Broad's percussion solo. Same set list as Cape Town with the exception of the encore which was Each Small Candle. The backdrop to the song had the lyrics and was a very striking end to the show.
A fully packed show and absolutely loved by all. South Africans have never experienced shows of this magnitude both aurally and visually.
Two great shows - phenomenal band and professionally performed. Personally
I think the band missed guitarist Doyle Bramhall and keyboradist Jon Carin
which just seemed tighter, but having said that I did see them in the US
after they had performed a number of shows, so I am sure that the fans who
will see the show in South America and Europe will see them get better and
tighter.
Rui de Sousa, 15th March 2002
I live in Durban, about 600 Kms away from Johannesburg and even further from Cape Town. My wife, 2 children aged 16 and 14, and I travelled to Johannesburg on Friday to see the show. My wife had phoned the headmaster of the children's school and informed him that they would not be at school on Friday as they were going to be attending a Rock Concert in Johannesburg.
We had a bad moment in the traffic, I was about to abandon my car to get into the Dome, and managed to get to our seats at 07:50. (Close). Fortunately the show was delayed as the organisers realised that there were still hundreds of people outside.
The show. After waiting 32 years my expectations were considerable. I was not disappointed. The opening "In the flesh" at 20:20 until the final note at 23:37 were spectacular. My son in particular at 16 was mesmerised. He has been listening to Pink Floyd and Roger Waters all his life and would not have missed it for anything.
It was worth the travelling and the wait.
Thank you Roger Waters, the members of the band and the magicians behind the
scenes for making my wife's and my dream come true and giving my children
an experience they will never forget.
Nick, Lesley, Jamie and Caitlin Douglas
