Friday 20th May 2011 - Roger Waters M.E.N. Arena

Roger Waters "The Wall" Live MEN Arena Friday 20th May 2011

An opportunity to see Roger Waters perform the classic Pink Floyd album "The Wall" in its entirety is one that cannot be missed by any Pink Floyd fan , and so we booked this as soon as we heard about it last year.

This could be the last chance to see this performed, and with promises of a spectacular stage show we got it booked. Tickets at the time were difficult to get hold of and we booked via Premier Tickets, and managed to get good seats on the arena lower tier quite near the front. The only downside was the premier price, as we paid well above the ticket face value. (we did get access to a private lounge as well for a comfortable place to sit for those pre-concert drinks.).

We stayed at the Manchester West Holiday Inn Express, costing a very reasonable £51 for the room only , and a fiver parking. The hotel is clean and comfortable and located in an area a couple of miles from the city centre, and it has its own secure car park facilities, which as  mentioned above is charged extra to the room rate at £5 per 24hrs.

A short taxi ride (about £7) and we were dropped off right outside the MEN arena around 18:30. A couple of minutes wait till the doors opened and we went in, looking over the T-shirts, mugs, programmes and other souvenirs.......we did not buy - £20 for a programme!

We headed for the Premier Lounge to while away some time as the show did not start until 20:00 (No support act). The lounge was quite small, but comfortable, and after a couple of drinks we squeezed through the assembling crowds outside the other arena bars and went to find our seats.

We took our seats in the arena, with excellent views fairly near to the front on the lower tier.

The stage was set with a part assembled white wall revealing the band set up centre stage, and a large round screen centre back stage. At just after 20:00 Roger and band took to the stage with a Spartacus spoof intro (I am Spartacus, No, I am Spartacus, (Repeat.....), reverberated around the arena! The stage then exploded with pyrotechnics as the opening bars of  "In the Flesh" erupted from the arenas sound systems.

The Pyrotechnics seemed to go on forever as Roger strutted up and down the stage amongst the cascading pyro. Once the smoke had cleared,  the projected images were seen on the large round stage screen as well as those on the parts of the wall left and right stage that had already been built. In the background we could see an army of helpers slowly begining to build the wall by adding white (cardboard?) bricks. The show went on with fantastic sound, in particular the sound of the plane dive bombing and crashing at the end of "In the flesh".  This led onto an introduction from Roger "Hello Manchester", cheers from the audience, the crying baby and the more mellow and sedate "The Thin Ice". Roger's voice  was really sounding very good, and the wailing guitar and band working well together throughout. 

It was not long then, before the familiar bars of "Another Brick in the wall pt.1" began and a large inflatable teacher dropped onto the stage, rolling into "The happiest days of our lives", a whirling helicopter noise reverberating around the arena and searchlights scanning the audience.

"Another Brick pt.2" began with the inflatable teacher moving and jiggling around, followed by an army of schoolkids to play their vocal part and run towards the 30ft high teacher pointing fingers as they sang!

The guitar solo at the end of this was particularly good (as it is on the album), but here, live, it seemed even better!

"Stand Still Laddie...... how can you have any pudding if you don`t eat your meat, if you don`t eat your meat, how can you have any pudding?"

Before long the kids had gone, and after a brief thank-you from Roger, he introduced Mother with a little reminiscing and a treat in that he would sing the track in time with a projection and soundtrack from the live shows Floyd did in the very early 80`s when they toured the wall album. "Mother, do you trust the government!" (See below the answer to that)

The remainder of the first half ran through the all familiar tracks with fantastic imagery projected on the ever growing wall. Roger himself provided good interaction with the crowd and stepping behind the wall with the band and front stage frequently via the ever narrowing gap at the centre.

The first half of the show wrapped up with a fully built wall, Roger having disappeared behind it and via the final gap during the Brick in the wall pt.3.
The slow ambience of "Goodbye Cruel world" saw the final brick put into place with Roger singing spotlight upon him, extinguished, as the brick was put into place, leaving just a complete white wall across the entire stage.

After about 20 mins or so the second half began, with both Roger and the band playing from behind the wall for the whole of "Hey-you" and "Is anybody out there", with spectacular imagery projected upon the wall.

A particular suprise was when large section left stage folded out to reveal Roger, sat inside a room within the wall on a sofa, flicking through the channels on a TV. This as you may expect was during "Nobody Home" ......... "13 channels of S*it on the TV to choose from".
The audience sang with gusto!! 

"Comfortably Numb" was perhaps one of the crowd pleaser highlights, the whole audience singing along to this track, and the guitar solo given from a platform at the top of the wall itself. Impressive stuff indeed!

The trial sections of the album began with the band now front stage, and the familar walking hammer and cartoon caricature images projected across the wall. Roger, dressed in militia uniform, megaphone in hand really conveying the feel of the album and the imagery behind him.

All too soon it was nearing the end, and the wall was demolished in an explosion of visual light and crashing crumbling (cardboard bricks)...  it looked and sounded real enough, a crescendo!

The concert at an end, Roger and the band thanked the audience many times over.

It had been both an audio and visual delight, actually surpassing our expectations, one of the best live experiences either of us had seen.

Our Gig score: 9.5/10