Roger Waters - The Wall: Live in Berlin, 1990

A miss version of The Wall without Pink Floyd

Roger Waters' The Wall in Berlin was released in September of 1990.
This performance of The Wall was first recorded on July 21, 1990 and I heard the original radio broadcast.
Although this is a live album, portions of it were taken from a re-do of the show after the original performance and the previous night's dress rehearsal. The original radio broadcast had the microphones all messing up and the power going out during The Thin Ice and Mother.
Initially, in a July, 1989 radio interview, Roger initially thought of having ex-bandmates David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright play with him. Even David went through lawyers to get the OK to do it when asked at the Knebworth 1990 show backstage but then Roger shot down his ex-bandmates' offer in early July of 1990 (hypocritical of Roger at the time). Then, Roger tried to get artists like Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart and Peter Gabriel (this would have been superb IMHO) for the performance. Unfortunately, those artists were either unavailable or wanted money so in the end he got some good artists (The Scorpions (whom were excellent on In the Flesh), Joni Mitchell (pretty good on Goodbye Blue Sky), Bryan Adams (his Young Lust was not bad), Paul Carrack (he did Hey You very well)) and some very bad artists (Van Morrison and The Band (sans Robbie Robertson which is sacrilege) (they destroyed David Gilmour's parts on Comfortably Numb), Cyndi Lauper (her duetting with Roger on Another Brick in the Wall (pt. 2) was atrocious), Ute Lemper (tolerable on The Thin Ice but Mariah Carey-esquely annoying on The Trial), Sinead O' Connor (awful here on Mother but ironically was good on Rick Wright's Broken China) and Jerry Hall (her as the groupie was unnecessary)) for the performance.
Whilst original Wall show stalwarts Snowy White and Peter Wood plus Andy Fairweather-Low and Graham Broad were good, Rick DiFonso desecrated David Gilmour's solos thinking he was Eddie Van Halen (enough of the divebomb things with guitar Rick Van Halen DiFonso).
Fortunately, Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 (released in 2000) does great live justice to The Wall as it is the classic Floyd lineup performing The Wall (and there are videos filmed from those shows). If I were you, I'd spend my money on Is There Anybody Out There?.
Grab The Wall in Berlin ONLY if you are a collector. November 13, 2007

Wonderful rendition of The Wall

Who else can pull off all these complicated songs live and still sound great than the original songwriter of The Wall. Roger Waters did a great job on this concert. Every artist performing did a wonderful job on their part, except for Van Morrison. I don't think Comfortable Numb was a good song for him to perform. Rick DiFonzo did a great job recreating David Gilmour's solos, and Snowy White is always great. All musicians were on the top of their game in this concert. Roger even brought an orchestra, choir, and the Soviet Union's marching band to recreate this rock opera. It is so over the top, that it's unbelievable. Waters really outdid himself in this concert. I recommend this to any Pink Floyd, or Roger Waters fans. July 31, 2007

one of the worst live cds

How can anyone even give this thing one star? ever heard of Live in the FLesh? one of the best live cd's EVER? from anyone? this thing flat blows, you can hardly hear it, it sounds like it was recorded from some bootlegger in the back row. and none of the songs mesh for beans. just a flat out waste of payola. The Flesh, the one and only. waiting for the new tours output of a cd/dvd hope its as good as FLesh but I dunno Doyle pretty much about stole the show in FLesh and he is not playing guitar on current tour. but the ladies are singing backup again so hoping for the best! May 10, 2007

Roger at his finest work

First about the video then about the CD:

I first saw this video about three months ago when i found it at my local CD/Video bargain place for a buck! I was blown away at the superb way this work, already a master in itself was presented for the show. I kinda wish i would of seen this version (the stage production) first before i saw the movie. the live stage production was easier to follow. i love the music of course and had to have the CD. All of the different artist doing the songs from the best album ever. All of the performances are outstanding!!!! It all fits like a good ole pair of your favorite comfy worn jeans. Buy this CD and the DVD you will be amazed. PS: I loved it so much i purchased the DVD right here on Amazon for a Christmas gift to my dearest friends. March 9, 2007

Was at the show and the DVD is a good reproduction

While nothing will ever come close to the experience of being there, the DVD did a pretty good job of capturing the moment. As snap shot in history, the summer of 1990. The Belin wall had just come down the previous November. On July 1st, for the first time since the wall went up, East and West Belin could freely cross the "Wall", Check Point Charlie was out of a job. This concert took place in Potsdam Platz, only months earlier, this was no man's land. You could be shot for being there. On this night in July, the world was finally at peace (Iraq would invade Kuwait two weeks later), I was standing in a crowd with Germans, English, French and countless other nationalities. We were all there taking in one of he greatest stages ever contructed for a concert. Roger Waters did it proud, to compare it to Pink Floyd's the Wall conerts (which I saw in Nassua Colisium in 1979) would be unfair. This concert was more than just the music and show, it was about a time in history. "Tear Down The Wall!!" it was already coming down. To watch the DVD, brings these memories streaming back and in these troubled times, is comforting to know that at one time peace was achieved. June 23, 2006

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