2006 Europe
Tour Reviews

From: Dan Hirsch

Hey there,

I was at the Berlin concert, front row. (I got there 5 hours before :-)

I'm sending some pictures so you can put them on your site. Unfortunately (but predictable) they would not let you in with professional SLR cameras, so I could only use my small camera.

The concert was great!!! I was reading the previous review for this concert, I can't agree with this guy. I thought this Dave Kilminster guy was awful. I mean, sure, he played Gilmour parts 100%, but MY GOD, he's so in love with himself. And not much of a musician. To tell the truth, I don't know why he's playing with Roger and I hope that it won't last long.

On the other hand, Snowy White was such a pleasure to watch. This guy has no "show" going on, he's just playing beautifully, and with deep soul on his amazing-sounding old Les Paul. I couldn't take my eyes off him.

Dave Kilminster was such a show-off. Maybe he's making a great impression on teenagers who just started playing guitar now, but nothing more than that.

Thanks for your site,

From: Harri Porten

Roger Waters - Dark Side of the Moon Tour
Wuhlheide, Berlin, June 8th 2006.

The concert venue was nicely located in a park in the eastern outskirts of Berlin. Concert-goers arriving via the Wuhlheide railway station had the entertaining opportunity to evade the 15 minute walk to entrance by riding a historic train through the wood.

A warm and sunny day was about end, the organizing crew was friendly and had a variety of drinks and food up for sale. Too attractive for many apparently: the flow of sausage and beer, fans forcing themselves up and down the stairs and between the benches never ebbed away during the course of the show. Disapproved by others that constantly had to make way and had their sight blocked.

The audience started to cheer when first the band and then, a few, well-timed seconds later Waters entered the stage. In The Flesh served as the usual opening and sound check song. The rest of the first half of the concert was made up of a diverse mix of songs as old as Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun and as new as Leaving Beirut. The latter was played as a sound track for a comic strip shown on the screen at the back of the stage. Unfortunately, the deep and at the same time somewhat narrow layout of the stage barred large parts of the audience from fully enjoying the projections. But clearly visible to everyone was a inflatable astronaut puppet that floated across the stage during the first part of Perfect Sense. The quadrophonic sound effects, e.g. for Sheep (personal favourite song of the concert) added to the overall good sound experience.

Despite his voice sounding rather hoarse during his announcements Waters seemed to be in good mood and performed well. In his typical fashion he occasionally walked to both ends of the stage to directly address the crowd in the respective corner. The vocals and guitar play of Dave Kilminster made him a good addition to the band. Until the guitar roadie came in for the rescue, one could see him fighting with his sound effects setup more than once, though. John Carin, supported by full bearded Harry Waters, took a break from his keyboards and played some guitar parts instead.

After the break the audience witnessed a smooth and fantastic performance of The Dark Side Of The Moon (with the real moon up in the sky behind the stage!) followed by some encore songs from The Wall with Comfortably Numb closing the concert.

All in all, the concert featured a diverse and well performed collection of music by Roger Waters. Definitely a worthwhile and memorable event for all of his fans. I had only wished for a reduced overlap with the In The Flesh and last Pink Floyd tour programs.

I also want to share my impressions on Rogers Concert in Berlin. Unfortunately I cannot agree with my 2 predecessors. The Concert was by far not as good as the concert I watched in Cologne during the ITF2002 Tour. The makeup of the stage was very conventional, the only new thing being the computerdriven background tubes with the running texts during 'Bring the boys back home'.

Roger was very political and also very talkative with the audience which was a good thing. He was very emotional when presenting 'Leaving Beirut', his accoustic version of 'Southampton Dock' was great and his anger during 'VERA/Bring the boys back home' could be felt by everyone in the audience. His band was as good as always, but I had the feeling of the whole concert somewhat uninspired. Dave Kilminster was a real catastrophe, either Roger does not pay enough for a good gituarist ;-) or he was left without a guitar player at the very last moment and had no other choice other than Kilminster. He definitely does not fit into this band.

DSOTM had been announced in the Papers as 'A performance of the special rendition of Dark Side of the Moon" it said it was to be a previously unheard "extended version" of the concept album, which Waters said he was not able to realize in the early 70's due to technical prohibitions, and it wouild be the main part of the concert. But, in fact, there was NO special rendition, and neither was there anything unheard before (except for some surround effects: Clocks, Voices...). The performance was of the standard album, nearly note for note. The solo in Money for instance, was as short as on the album and far from alternate renditions I have heard by early Pink Floyd where the guitar solo lasted sometimes as long as 5 Minutes!

AND, Roger is definitely loosing his Voice!!!! After the first part of the concert, he hardly could tell the audience about the 15 Minutes break, his voice was uncomprehensible and crackling. After which, during DSOTM he only sang Breathe, Brain Damage and Eclipse, leaving the other vocal chores mostly to Jon Carin. German Newspapers where not enthusiastic about the show writing '...a greyed and linkish english teacher seemed to be on the stage, not a rock star.' or '...the music was like "Painting by numbers'. The show was not SOLD OUT, about 1/6 of the venue remained empty.

I really must say that it looked to me that the show was done only 'for money'....I felt deceived....

From: Hans-Juergen Mueller
Roger Waters Wuhlheide, Berlin, June 8th, 2006

The Wuhlheide in Berlin is a fantastic location for an Open Air show: like an old amphitheatre! The weather was marvellous with a blue sky and an almost full moon wandering over the top of the stage, while Roger performed 'The Dark Side Of The Moon' - what an impression!

Besides the 2 parts of 'Perfect Sense,' and the new song 'Leaving Beirut.' the first part of the show included only songs from Waters' Pink Floyd era. So there were even less solo songs than during his last tour. Why? He could play a whole evening only with his solo stuff!

The show started at 7:41 pm and the sun still shown brightly, so that during the first part of the show, you could hardly see anything on the huge screen (with the exception of when he played: Leaving Beirut). But in the second part, you could see all the videos.

Roger had a few problems with his voice and sounded sometimes really hoarse. His band was really good, with the exception of a certain Dave Kilminster. He had nothing better to do than whirling around his long hair and dramatically rising the neck of his poison-green guitar. That was ridiculous! Better would have been a bit more concentration on his guitar playing! In the end, you could see (hear), that even 2 guitar players (a questionable Dave Kilminster and a great Snowy White) couldn't bring back the magic of one David Gilmour.

Interesting though, that the fantastic Andy Fairweather Low was even more in the background than on the last tour. Everything else was: Business as usual.

They played a good show that will be remembered for the new stage design. I loved especially the following songs: 'Have A Cigar', 'The Fletcher Memorial Home', 'Perfect Sense (II)', 'Sheep', a very dynamic 'Us And Them', 'Vera' and 'Bring The Boys Back Home'. Sadly enough, the best song and mainly the highlight of every show, 'Comfortably Numb' was, because of the participation of Dave Kilminster, nothing special.

After 140 minutes of music the show was finally over. All in all a good show, but for some reason I still have this question of one of the fans in my ear: 'Was this a Pink Floyd coverband with Roger Waters?' There's nothing to add to this!

MUSICIANS:

• Roger Waters Bass and Vocals
  
• Andy Fairweather Low Guitar
  
• Snowy White Guitar
  
• Dave Kilminster Guitar and Vocals
  
• Jon Carin Keyboards
  
• Harry Waters Hammond
  
• Graham Broad Drums
  
• Ian Ritchie Saxophone
  
• Katie Kissoon Vocals
  
• PP Arnold Vocals
  
• Carol Kenyon Vocals
  

SETLIST:

Part 1 (75 min.):

• In The Flesh
  
• Mother
  
• Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
  
• Shine On You Crazy Diamond (I - V)
  
• Have A Cigar
  
• Wish You Were Here
  
• Southampton Dock
  
• The Fletcher Memorial Home
  
• Perfect Sense (I)
  
• Perfect Sense (II)
  
• Leaving Beirut
  
• Sheep
  

Part 2 (65 min.):

• Speak To Me
  
• Breathe
  
• On The Run
  
• Time
  
• Breathe Reprise
  
• The Great Gig In The Sky
  
• Money
  
• Us And Them
  
• Any Colour You Like
  
• Brain Damage
  
• Eclipse
  

Encore:

• The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
  
• Another Brick In The Wall (II)
  
• Vera
  
• Bring The Boys Back Home
  
• Comfortably Numb
  

Hi, and thank-you very much for youre great site! I'd like to defend Roger here! I was at the Berlin concert, and I have to ask this question - "were you guys at the same concert?" The concert ROCKED!!

Roger was in GREAT FORM. His voice was NOT cracking or under strain, in fact, I couldnt believe just how GOOD it was, also, Dave Kilminster was the BEST! Boy, that guy can play and the same goes for ALL the band! It was a great show. The backing vocalists were amazing, I have to say, especially during "The Great Gig in the Sky." "Have a Cigar" was my highlight, and man, it ROCKED!

Perhaps you guys who are slagging Roger off are in fact fans of David Gilmour? Or, simply shouldn't have gone in the first place!!

You can't call yourselves fans, if after nearly 3 hrs of Roger and the band at their best, you can complain and slag them off this way... I have to say, how discouraging it must be for Roger and especially the great Dave Kilminster to put their all into the show and read nothing but complaints and crap.