Capacity: 12,500

Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, B40 1NT.  MAP

Website: http://www.necgroup.co.uk/

Tickets for this concert are on sale now, through the venue, Ticketmaster, Ticketrush.co.uk, LiveNation.co.uk and other normal agents.

Our thanks to BD regular Kevan Porter for the ticket scan for this show, seen here to the right.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played!

The second of Roger's UK 2007 shows took place in the fairly drab setting of Birmingham's NEC. A huge complex of halls, exhibition space, and car parks, it is efficiently run if a little unexciting.

This lack of excitement seemed to rub off onto the crowd, who seemed very subdued in the first half. Indeed, faced with this, and a sea of empty chairs at the front of stage right, Roger walked over to this area early on and called out "Is there anybody out there?"

The lack of crowd feedback (typical British reserve, or the heat that affected certain parts of the arena?) appeared to fuel the band, and they audibly stepped up a gear, particularly in the second half. By the close of Dark Side, the crowd were on their feet, and Roger looked a very happy man.

Whilst the whole band was a tight unit, playing so well, particular praise is due to Ian Ritchie and Dave Kilminster. Both played with a huge amount of energy and passion, Dave in particular putting his all into some great guitar work.

One thing that many overlook is the contribution Roger's bass playing makes to the overall sound of the band - especially as he seemed to be playing so well. From where my seat was, I was fortunate enough to be able to keep a close eye on him, and his deft and solid performance really propels the music along.

Indeed, during the vocal part of Great Gig, he was in the shadows towards the back of the stage, playing some wonderfully evocative, subtle touches that went largely unnoticed.

A show that seemed to fly by (much like the bat that was loose, swooping above stage right!), a show that the band obviously love playing, a show that audiences hugely enjoy, and a show that deserves to be released on DVD. How about it, Roger?

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributer, Kevan Porter

The second night of Roger's trip around the UK and so different from the first! Not the set, or the set list (that won't change as it's listed in the programme). It was the audience that were different.

Whereas the Manchester crowd were continually vocal in their appreciation, the audience at the NEC last night maintained a respectful 'quietness' during the numbers and only whooped and hollered between songs, although that did change a bit towards the end. Mind you, great if you were bootlegging the gig!

The other notable difference was the sound quality. I thought the MEN sound was good, at the NEC it was 'clearly' fantastic. From my position in the front row of block E and dead central to the stage, the separation of the surround sound was literally amazing.

Every sound effect was clear and had its own space, including some of the 'whoos' and 'whas' from the backing singers.

Again, Roger seemed to be enjoying every minute of it, lapping up the applause and the obvious hero worship, and who can blame him, this really is a wonderful show.

I didn't get a chance to speak to any of the crew about the filming this time, but, again, there were plenty of cameras filming the action so lets hope there is a future DVD release - it would surely be worth it!

CONCERT PICTURES - courtesy of BD contributer, Warren Byrne

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributer, Neil Farmer

The atmosphere was lacking a bit, but once started around us in the tiered area to the side of the stage - the support was 110%. The performance took me back 20 or so years to the great days of PF, some of the music lacked a bit of the subtle PF touches - but overall Roger Waters lead a great peformance from all the artistes - with great visual effects - that screen at the back of the stage defied belief it was so clear. It may have taken a long time to build up, but the overall performance had the audience on their feet by the end - and a concert worth every penny. Only down side - £15 for a program - even though it is of high quality.

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributers, Warren & Dawn Byrne

Well, there was nothing about this concert I can criticise. It was a passionate, thrilling and emotional night. Not too loud but not too quiet either. The first half was a good trip down memory lane with the likes of Perfect Sense, Wish You Were Here and Sheep getting a good airing. The pig was fantastic and we seen a spaceman come out of nowhere.

Then into Dark Side...as the pulse started to signal the start of the second half, our bodies shook at every beat and it all seemed to be over too soon.

The encore consisted of Another Brick... Bring The Boys...and the finale, well it had to be Comfortably Numb. A perfect end to a great night. Some reviews talk of Waters lip syncing, I seen no evidence of this and I was only 3 rows from the front. I felt I could reach out and touch him.

The best part of the night has to be my wife, who bought me the tickets and was not a fan, until she seen this concert. In her words, she is now 'converted'.

The other good thing to see was the age range, from kids to the more 'mature' grown up. An absolutely brilliant night and one I shall never forget.

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributer, Ian McKenzie

It's twenty six years since I saw my first concert at the NEC Arena and I remember the excitement of going to this new venue at the time. Those twenty six years have certainly taken their toll on the place, as it's looking very shabby these days. You'd think at £8 to park your car, they'd be able to spend a bit more money on the arena. The heat inside the place was over-bearing too (and that was before the fireworks, flares and explosions started!). Anyway, on to the concert itself:

Overall it was very entertaining with great visual effects, props and superb (and often very loud!) quality sound. I can just about get my head around how the floating astronaut was operated, but can't understand how a couple of small fans underneath the (30ft?) inflatable pig can be utilised to expertly guide it around over the heads of the audience (the roof of the NEC Arena is not particularly high!). I have to say that, after seeing a number of Floyd and David Gilmour concerts over the years, I did think that the stage lighting for this concert was a little disappointing, though anything more elaborate would have probably detracted from the interesting images shown on the large screen at the back of the stage.

Roger was certainly enjoying himself (even more than he was at Live 8!!) and he covered all of the stage and he visually interacted with the audience throughout the whole of the show (this certainly made up for the last time I saw him at Earl's Court in 1984, when he was fairly miserable and refused to do an encore!)

His bass playing was very good and his singing was the best I've heard him do live. He did perform a fair amount of the lead vocals including SOYCD, Have a Cigar and Time. The vocals that weren't sung by Roger were shared by various members of the band.

For myself, the highlights of these were PP Arnold singing the choruses of Mother and also Andy Fairweather-Low & Jon Carin sharing the vocals (and acoustic guitars) for the Comfortably Numb choruses. Throughout the show, all of the guitar playing was very good but it did seem odd watching the 'rock guitar' antics of Dave Kilminster......kind of like watching a young Jimmy Page playing David Gilmour. The only two vocal performances that didn't quite work for me were Dave Kilminster singing Money and Jon Carin singing Us and Them, otherwise it all seemed to work very well. The drumming throughout the night was good too, though I thought the rototoms at the beginning of Time were a bit over-enthusiastic.

Oddly enough, the first time that most people got out of their seats was at the end Perfect Sense, Pt 2.

It would have been nice to have heard a few more of Roger's solo songs, rather than just the old Floyd favourites.

After the interval DSOTM obviously went down well with the audience, though a large number of people were still trying to get back to their seats as Breathe was coming to an end.  The volume was definitely turned up to 'eleven' (plus a bit more) for On the Run.  Any Colour You Like really rocked and then I finally got to see Brain Damage and Eclipse live for the first time in three attempts (the first one being the cancelled RW encore from '84 and the other being the infamous 'collapsed seats' concert at Earl's Court in '94).

There was generally a great atmosphere for the encores, including a large proportion of the crowd singing along to Vera (which kind of made up for the fact that not that many folks seemed to join in with the usual sing-a-long favourite of WYWH).

So, in conclusion I think it was a great concert, though I do admit that I did kind of miss seeing the three members of the present Floyd line-up on the stage playing those great songs.  IMHO, the best songs on the night were STCFTHOTS, Have a Cigar, Sheep, ACYL, BD and Eclipse.

CONCERT PICTURES - courtesy of BD contributer, Joe McGuire

CONCERT REVIEW - by BD contributer, Leigh Pilgrim

If you were to ask any 24 year old today what the highlight of their year was, you would not expect them to say "seeing Roger Waters in concert playing the entire Dark Side of the Moon".

I have been a fan ever since 1994 when DG opened the mirror ball during Comfortably Numb. However there is nothing better than seeing the genius writer behind all the songs play the music in front of your eyes. This was a special treat for my Dad also, it was a birthday present to him, which he was really pleased for!

I wont repeat the other reviews as they all say what a brilliant night it was, and indeed it was! My heart was pounding from start to finish, it was an amazing experience, something which I will never forget.

Only two negatives, one, Snowy White was not loud enough, and two, SOYCD, the first guitar solo was missed off.

This is by far the best I've seen though and not likely to change. DSOTM was performed brilliantly, and there were a couple of emotional times when references to Syd were made, the songs were sung so well.

DSOTM was written in the 70's, and its a shock that it still has the same affect today as it did over 30 years ago!!. Nothing has changed, which makes this album as important today as it was when first released.

It's all beginning to make "Perfect Sense"...