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Home arrow 2011 WALL TOUR arrow May 17th - O2 ARENA, GREENWICH, LONDON, ENGLAND
May 17th - O2 ARENA, GREENWICH, LONDON, ENGLAND Print E-mail
02 arena
Roger Waters - The Wall Live, O2 17 May 2011

Capacity: 23,000
Concert starts: 8pm

Address of venue: Peninsula Square, London, SE10 0DX. MAP

Website: www.theo2.co.uk

 

COMMENTS

Yet another night of Roger's tour of The Wall at the O2 Arena. Following on from his shows here, the tour moves to Manchester's Evening News Arena for more nights on the UK leg of the tour.

The RogerWaters.com presales began the week starting Monday, May 31st, with advance tickets available to those who had registered their interest in particular cities. For those with a UK O2 mobile phone, there was a special presale that started on June 2nd through www.O2Blueroom.co.uk. General sale tickets went on sale on June 4th through this direct link to Ticketmaster.co.uk. The public sale will also see a limited number of VIP packages made available for each show on the tour.

SET LIST - highlight the following with your mouse to read...
FIRST HALF: In the Flesh, The Thin Ice, Another Brick in the Wall Part 1, The Happiest Days of our Lives, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, Empty Spaces, What Shall We Do Now, Young Lust, One of My Turns, Don't Leave Me Now, Another Brick in the Wall Part 3, The Last Few Bricks, Goodbye Cruel World
SECOND HALF:
Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There?, Nobody Home, Vera, Bring the Boys Back Home, Comfortably Numb, The Show Must Go On, In The Flesh, Run Like Hell, Waiting for the Worms, Stop, The Trial, Outside the Wall.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

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

Night thirty-two of the tour, and the fifth of six shows at London's O2 Arena. Of all the shows at this venue to date, the crowd seemed the most subdued and reserved, without the normal response to the show. This seemed to be noticed by the band themselves, and Roger even seemed to comment on it during the clapping segment of Run Like Hell, when he yelled out "I can't hear you!!"

Technically the show was flawless, as was the performance - as to why people didn't react as enthusiastically, it's a bit of a mystery. Hopefully the final London show will see a better reaction from the crowd, marking what will be the final time The Wall will be played in the capital. The "kid's choir" during Another Brick 2 was particularly impressive - possibly the most expressive bunch of kids Roger has used in London so far, clearly enjoying themselves and dancing with wild abandon. He's using different children each night, and the contrast is quite marked!

Causing some amusement before the show were a trio of people dressed up as schoolkids, with pretty effective (and possibly homemade?) "Pink" masks. They made for an arresting sight wandering past the restaurants and bars of the O2, and must've been particularly confusing for the non-Floyd fans there just for a bite to eat, a visit to the cinema in the complex, or visiting the dinosaur exhibition. It's with thanks to Mark Winterford that we can show you just what met the unsuspecting visitors to the Greenwich venue:

At Roger Waters concert, 17th May 2011 London's O2 Arena

The three of them - Tony, Mark and John - have been friends since primary school and all love the Floyd. They told us "The outfits certainly seemed to add fun to the evening - I lost count of the amount of folk requesting photographs of us!"

If you went to this show in London, please let us know what you thought of the event, and if anything interesting or different happened if you've been to previous shows and can compare.

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Russell Barton

Some random thoughts aboout last night's show...

So, I was really pleased not to have seen any of the video clips before I went. The opening song was particularly impressive, with the raised platform, the fireworks & the plane. Was also good to see the speed with which the wall went up, and the way that the projections immediately locked on to each new brick as it was put into place. The kids on '…part 2' were great, a couple of them were doing breakdancing & they were really interacting with the audience.

The animation was great throughout, although the old stuff did look pretty old, but in lots of cases they added stuff over the top of it or used it in a slightly different way e.g. the 2 flowers animation (Empty Spaces) was old, but they had new stems added that were snaking all over the wall. Some of the messages were a bit heavy handed, but the mention of Jean Charles de menzes, who got shot on the tube, got a round of applause.

Roger Waters - O2 London, 17th May 2011 Roger Waters - O2 London, 17th May 2011
Roger Waters - O2 London, 17th May 2011 Roger Waters - O2 London, 17th May 2011

Weirdly, one of the high points for me was 'Hey You', the one track where you couldn't actually see anyone on stage at all. I finally 'got' the point about the fact that they were all performing as normal – you could see the lights changing & spotlighting the guitar solo for example – but it just felt really powerful that we couldn't see them. Some of the projection effects of the wall falling away from you and then coming back were incredible to see on that scale – they felt 3D, almost gave you vertigo as it spiralled away. Also good was the bit where he bangs on the wall during Numb and it all goes Technicolor, and the feeling when we were all shouting 'tear down the wall' was probably better than when the wall itself actually came down, which was all over in a bit of a flash.

Criticisms? To my ear the band weren't as good as they were during Waters' last tour – Kilminster's solos were spot on, but the rest of it felt a bit flabby. This was especially noticeable when they all came out and played In The Flesh in front of the wall – the volume and power wasn't a patch on the opening version, it felt pretty weak. The sound effects were great as they moved round the arena, but sometimes they almost overwhelmed the music. And I was really hoping for Snowy White to do the solo on Nobody Home that he did in Berlin, but he didn't.

But overall it was great as you can imagine. I wish I was going again tonight!

CONCERT COMMENTS and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Trevor Atkins

I took some photos (see below) from row A of the stalls from last night's concert. The show was beyond expectations, even if I have been tracking your website for the last month !!

Roger Waters - London, 17th May 2011 Roger Waters - London, 17th May 2011 Roger Waters - London, 17th May 2011
Roger Waters - London, 17th May 2011 Roger Waters - London, 17th May 2011 Roger Waters - London, 17th May 2011

 

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Heather Fenton

We thoroughly enjoyed The Wall last night... it seemed even better than last Thursday, whether having a day to recover Roger seemed even more lively and bouncy. We spotted things we didn't notice last week (when we could tear our gaze away from Roger!) like the plane...though possibly Nick Mason had borrowed it for a spin!

The band sounded even better, Kilminster's solos were fantastic especially C Numb. Snowy and GE Smith worked really hard. Robbie's vocals were wonderful, and right at the end Jon Carin and Graham Broad did their own little jamming session - Duelling Mandolins! - and were really having fun. The costumes were brilliant...didn't they look good in uniform?!

The special effects and the messages (some very poignant) on the wall are all still relevant to this day. Jon Carin as usual playing 2 instruments at the same time (and probably singing as well!).

We had brilliant seats in the first row directly in front of Roger's microphone and of course Roger himself! Once again he gave 110 per cent, always on the go, relating directly to the audience and always with a twinkle in his eye and machine gun in hand!!!

Roger always said that he wanted to try and put some humour into the Wall as well as keeping the more serious side and with all the backdrops and grotesquely wonderful puppets as well as his own acting he certainly achieved that. We had 2 absolutely wonderful nights there and you can understand why he would not want to do anything on this scale again....he must be totally shattered. However I hope he doesn't totally call it a day....he has a brilliant band who all seem happy together and so much creativity and exudes enthusiasm when on stage. We were also told that during the interval he did not get a rest as he used to go and meet and chat to war veterans....what a lovely man.

Seeing Roger so close was absolutely brilliant.....THANK YOU ROGER SO VERY VERY MUCH!

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Joanna Little

Being a huge Roger Waters fan, it was going to be difficult to disappoint, but I was really blown away by the show. Fantastic SHOW, impressive acoustics / sound, great atmosphere. Roger - *amazing*. The kids dancing - great! Puppets and pig - excellent!

I took my 6 year old daughter and she LOVED IT! Absolutely LOVED IT. She's a huge fan also, but despite dark undertones (which I really connect with), there was something uplifting and thought provoking which we both connected with. This sounds OTT, but it was without doubt, the best night of our lives.

Roger Waters concert, O2 London, 17th May 2011 Roger Waters concert, O2 London, 17th May 2011

I'm a single mother, and it's always just been the two of us. Anyway, it was a very special evening for my daughter and I'm grateful to Roger and the team for everything. The music lives on. Thanks also to Brain Damage for keeping it alive :)

CONCERT REVIEW by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Julien Piscione

It was an amazing show, we came especially from France to see the show. We planned last year to come for this particular event.

We have choose to come to London, because this is the city where all started many year ago, and what's better to see roger in his country?

We were really happy to see the Wall, because it's a part of us, and the new visual effect are incredible. After the show, no words can express what we feel at the instant. It take few minutes to express our feeling.

After the show we decide to go to see Roger once more in paris the 1st July.

CONCERT REVIEWS and PICTURES by other BD CONTRIBUTORS

Hopefully coming soon - we welcome all contributions!

YOUR HELP NEEDED! We want to cover Roger's concerts the best we can, to share the experience with everyone, especially those who won't be able to attend the shows. We'd love to see ANY pictures, tickets scans, reviews, newspaper reports, and anything else you come across for this show - we look forward to hearing from you!

Last Updated ( Sunday, 29 May 2011 )
 
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