THE WALL - LIVE IN BERLIN

"The Wall - Live In Berlin" is the debut live album of Roger Waters as a solo artist. It was recorded by Roger Waters and was taken from a live show made with numerous guest artists. As its name indicates, it was based on the eleventh Pink Floyd studio album "The Wall", released in 1979. As we know, "The Wall" was an album largely written by Roger Waters during his years as a Pink Floyd member. The live show was held in Berlin on 21 July 1990, to commemorate a very important historical world event, the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred eight months before. A live album of this concert was released in September 1990, and a video of the concert was also commercially released precisely in the same year.

Personally, I have the two versions of this live show, the CD and the DVD versions. So, I'm going to make two reviews of this live show. However, as they cross itself one with another and are completely linked, I'm going to make both reviews as one being a complement of the other. So, in this review I'm going to write more about the music and the protagonists of this show, saving for the DVD the place and the concept of it. So, if you want you can read both reviews.

Initially, Roger Waters tried to get great and very well known guest musicians like Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and Eric Clapton but or they were either unavailable or turned it down. By the other hand, if both, Rod Stewart who was to sing "Young Lust" and Joe Cocker were originally confirmed to appear, when the original planned concert date was modified, the new date found both them unavailable too. On the other side, it seems that Roger Waters also stated that David Gilmour could play guitar on the show. However, either because Roger Waters never have invited David Gilmour, or he declined that invitation, soon it became clear that David Gilmour wasn't going to participate on the concert too.

So, in the end, Roger Waters had to bring some other guest artists, the artists that were available, including Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Garth Hudson of The Band, The Hooters, Van Morrison, Sinead O'Connor, Cindy Lauper, Marianne Faithfull, Scorpions, Joni Mitchell, Paul Carrack, Thomas Dolby and Bryan Adams, along with the actors Albert Finney, Jerry Hall, Tim Curry and Ute Lemper. Leonard Cheshire opened the live concert by blowing a World War II whistle.

Besides them, Roger Waters had the following band, The Bleeding Heart Band: Joe Chemay, Jim Farber, Jim Haas and John Joyce (backing vocals), Rick DiFonzo and Snowy White (lead guitars), Andy Fairweather Low (guitar and bass), Nick Glenny Smith (keyboards), Peter Wood (keyboards) and Graham Broad (drums). The concert also featured The East Berlin Radio Orchestra, The East Berlin Radio Choir and The Military Orchestra of the Soviet Army.

The music here is very faithful to the original Pink Floyd's album. It's true that here we don't have the real Pink Floyd band, but the various artists on this live show performed the songs along with Roger Waters each lending their own touch of understanding to his lyrics. The sound is incredible good with the added choir and the orchestra unfolding the rock written songs into the beautiful melodies that I and my friends could hear so many years ago. As we listened to the album, obviously a conceptual piece and it was shown here in all its beauty but still having that edge. The final result is a very powerful live album and where the sound editing is very good and beautiful. This is truly a classic piece, really.

Great was also the performance of the many musicians on stage. The two guitarists of The Bleeding Heart Band held up well the solos throughout the concert, even if both of them could not certainly compete with David Gilmour, just like the keyboardist and the drummer could not compete with Richard Wright and Nick Mason, still, they all managed to do a very decent work without trying to copy the peculiar style of the Pink Floyd members. In general, all guest artists are competent too. The Rundfunk Orchestra and choir helped creating a very solid accompaniment from the beginning to the end, especially throughout the most delicate passages. The Marching band of the Combined Soviet Forces in Germany lent a hand as well and made the musical atmosphere of the concert to be particularly powerful and glorious.

Conclusion: "The Wall" is a great album and it's also, in my humble opinion, one of the best conceptual albums ever made. It's also one of the most known progressive rock albums in the world, helping Pink Floyd to be the most known progressive rock band in the world. It's true that "The Wall - Live In Berlin" is far from to be a perfect album, especially due to the choice of several guest artists, which wasn't perhaps the best. But, we must understand this isn't properly a normal live album from a band. We have to consider this album celebrates a very important and significant moment in the history of those days. The criticism "The Wall - Live In Berlin" isn't a true team effort is, for me, irrelevant. Besides, we know that "The Wall" represents very much to Roger Waters and that "The Wall" was almost a personal bet of him and represents, in a certain way, his little baby. Concluding, and despite some weak points, "The Wall - Live In Berlin" remains, for me, an excellent live album with some great musical moments. So, I really can recommend it to all people.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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