Roger Waters: The Wall [Blu-ray] [2015]

23 years after his last studio album, it's fair to say Roger Waters has had a creative crisis of confidence ; revisiting former glories, and touring the world in a sizable recreation of his best work, Waters - pushing 70 - presents a film of his most ambitious live show yet. You can argue that the world doesn't need a third live album of Pink Floyd's "The Wall", but this makes his 1990 Berlin staging redundant, and the Pink Floyd 1980 live album doesn't have any visual release. First and foremost, it's a film built around a narrative bookend of Waters visiting the grave of his father and fallen relatives who were murdered in war. With this thematic element, the film shows how little the world has progressed in the past 100 years.There are complaints that you can't watch the concert on its own, but to be honest, chapter stops are sympathetic to just pressing "next" every few songs or so. It sounds great. It looks fabulous - with editing and angles far far more superior to most concert films I have ever seen. It's one of the most effective, definitive rock films there is.We stand on the edge of a form of history. Today history will be made. Tomorrow it will be a memory, and only the recordings remain. Is this the end? It feels some kind of final. More so than the “Dark Side Of The Moon” tour of 2006-2008, the only place Waters could realistically go after that was up “The Wall”. Waters and his band quietly take the stage and perform a two hour rock opera. What a dreadful ugly word that is. Unlike so many 'concept' albums, “The Wall” is surprisingly good and (mostly) free of self-indulgent misery and meaningless wiffle. As a spectacle, “The Wall” is brave, stupid, outlandish, chillingly effective, and utterly preposterous. As Waters and his huge eleven piece band recreate the album faithfully with only three minor exceptions : “Another Brick In The Wall” has two extra verses : his band perform “What Shall We Do Now?” which was excised from the original studio record due to the limitations of a vinyl LP : and “The Last Few Bricks” - a instrumental reprise of the main motifs of the show that was prepared for the original 1980-1981 live shows – is added. Aside from these minor elements, it is an utterly accurate reproduction of the original, and often self-indulgent, 1979 record. You can easily see where the £38,000,000 went ; it's all there on stage.Here, much like one would experience seeing the Mona Lisa, The Vatican, or the Grand Canyon, it is here, before your eyes, the way it was meant to be experienced, as a hundred foot high wall that stretches as far as eye can see inside an anonymous stadium. Here it works. Here, it all makes perfect sense.Even his band contains long standing members of past Pink Floyd lineups : Snowy White, who joined the band as live guitarist in 1976, and Jon Carin, who joined Floyd in 1987, are part of the experience. Certainly it feels as near to Pink Floyd as you can reasonably get these days, an authentic and realistic facsimile. It feels near enough the same, even if July 2005 is a very long time ago now. The imagery is designed now to be both classic and contemporary – the interpolation of now and then, of huge, blown up old 8mm film matched with modern imagery of political figures, of imagery of war, and making the unsubtle point : War is a business, humans are machines, we are all flawed and human, and the off-balance-sheet cost of rampant commercial activity is human misery.But what is “The Wall”? Is it art for people who don't like art? The huge presentation is utterly unlike anything else on the planet : the stadium wrapped in an enormous Wall that is slowly constructed around the stage during the show, aided by 200 or so foot of projected video, a life size Ju-87 Stuka bomber that strafes the stage, and huge marionettes of key figures in the songs narratives (such as the cliched Teacher, the oppressive Mother, the harridan Wife, the symbolic Pig) that impose themselves, 40 foot tall over the audience.”The Wall” is a kind of sensory overload, where there is almost too much happening at any one time to capture and process all of it. At any given point there might be multiple seperate projections, a band playing, a huge inflatable looming over the crowd, and a wall being built. At times, it is fiercely effective on an emotional level : the huge montage of tearful reunions of children and their fathers returning from home from war is heart-rending, and then, followed with the rampaging “Bring The Boys Back Home” screams with no subtlelty that a child without a father is a price not worth paying.As a huge pig hovers overhead, and Waters lives out his rock star fantasies, I suppose, this must be what it is like to have seen Hitler, with showmanship and flags, and a huge crowd. Orchestrated, immaculately timed and choreographed, and with lots of pre-recorded video that Waters mimes to (so it looks live, even when it isn't), it's some kind of combination of rock show and abstract theatre, tightly packed with imagery that is dense and literate (you are never far from a historical quote, news footage, or an image of a dictator), and darkly funny.As The Wall crumbles, the sound explodes around us, and without really thinking, I suppose, this is an event, a moment to think and to feel, and then, perhaps to realise that the spectacle itself is an entertaiment, be it a tortured artist, a bleeding heart, or a war : for war is entertainment too, and we are amused to death. On a screen for your bemusement in a faithful, and effective concert film that truly expresses the grand madness of modern life. One of the finest concert films of all time.

If your a Roger waters fan or even a floyd fan this is a must

There are live shows, there are big live shows and then there is The Wall. This is a completely unique concert experience, both in terms of sheer scale and the way in which it is presented. If you were (like me) fortunate enough to witness the show in person, you will know what I mean. I saw people awestruck, I saw people crying one minute and rocking out the next. This is music with a message, a hard hitting assault on the senses. The concept of the original album has been taken from a more personal, introspective standpoint to a far more universal one and by and large it works well and connects.Truth be told, no home viewing experience could hope to recreate such an extravaganza. This release, however, gives it a damn good go. The picture quality is pristine and some of the viewing angles are very impressive and help to give the viewer a sense of the scale of the whole thing. The first track alone (In The Flesh?) will blow your mind with explosions, planes, lights and whizzing sound effects. Talking of sound - the quality of the sound on this release is probably the best I have ever heard from a concert DVD/Blu Ray. Floyd/Waters releases have always been a boon in surround sound due to the nature of the material and this is no exception. It is a completely immersive experience and there are some verrryyy deep bass moments that get the sofa shaking. Hopefully, your neighbours like The Wall too!Now, onto perhaps the most controversial aspect of this release - the interludes during which Roger makes a journey to various sites of personal significance in Europe. Being completely honest, it would have been nice to have a concert only option on the disc, especially for repeated viewings. But that is Waters - he is an artist and will present things as he sees fit, not necessarily how fans may see fit. Some will say this is arrogance, others will say it is artistic integrity. Whatever your view, it would be a hard hearted person not to be moved to some degree in the story as it unfolds. It offers insight into what makes Waters tick and is a fascinating journey in its own right. Contrary to other comments, it does not interrupt the concert at every turn - the first and last quarters of the concert are played complete and without interruption. A couple of the interludes are rather jarring, particularly those before Vera and Comfortably Numb but the truth of the matter is that we still have what is the one of the greatest concerts ever presented with sky high production standards. Nothing, IMO, can spoil that.