Thanks to John E

Ironic really that Roger Waters should have written The Wall on the theme of the rock groups alienation from the audience. As several thousand people punched the air and hollered the words to Comfortably Numb at the end of a two-hour plus set, the word which sprang to mind was not alienation but adulation.

Now 57, Roger Waters is 22 years on from The Wall, and almost 20 years from his departure as the creative hub of Pink Floyd. It is 11 years since his last album of new material and 15 years since his last UK tour.

Yet with Prog Rock no longer a dirty word, the likes of Radiohead ploughing a Floyd like experimental furrow and Floyd’s own back catalogue still dear to millions (Dark Side Of The Moon stayed on the US Billboard 200 Chart for almost 15 years, remember) these are happy times for cerebral rockers such as Waters.

The show was a thematic ramble through Floyd’s and Waters’ finer moments, the set list arranged tidily into sections from The Wall, The Final Cut, huge swathes of Wish You Were Here and Dark Side Of The Moon. Water’s great strength is the way in which he makes use of the big arena.

A quadraphonic sound system enveloped us with music and a big screen ran the width of the stage, flashing up the marching hammers and pupil mincing teacher from The Wall, the inflatable pig from Animals and all other rich Floyd imagery.

SO WHAT IS THE APPEAL OF THIS PONDEROUS WORTHY ROCK MUSIC? WELL, WHO CAN DISLIKE SUCH AN INTELLIGENT WRITER AS WATERS – A MAN WHO AT HEART, IS A PROTEST SINGER, BUT DOES IT WITH SUCH GOBSMACKING SPECTACLE AND SUCH GRANDIOSE MUSICAL SWEEP.

Manchester Evening News – Manchester, 24th June 2002