THE WALL - LIVE IN BERLIN

You guys are being a bit cruel rating this as a one-star stinker to be avoided at all costs. OK, it's true that for a serious Pink Floyd fan - and especially for those loving The Wall album above anything else (don't count me in) - this is a hard one to swallow. I have nothing negative to say about the idea itself: Roger Waters performing The Wall in Berlin, one year after the tearing of the Berlin Wall, with a large cast of guest singers and players from the pop fame. I remember watching it from the TV and it was a spectacular event. Technically the playing and the stage-show worked very seamlessly all through the massive opus. The negative side of it, I think, is not the rather overblown cast in itself, but some vocal performances that really test the nerves of the Pink Floyd loyals, or anyone's nerves, for that matter. They are the reason I'm not giving a third star.

SCORPIONS are a fit choice for 'In The Flesh' numbers. CYNDI LAUPER's 'Another Brick #2' is absolutely irritating! SINEAD O'CONNOR's 'Mother' is otherwise beautiful but marred by the backing vocals of the old farts who areTHE BAND members. JONI MITCHELL is good in 'Good Bye Blue Sky', and also BRYAN ADAMS fits well to 'Young Lust'. The speaking role ("oh my God what a fabulous room!" etc) of a whore meeting Pink is horribly overacted by JERRY HALL. Waters in his leading role re-enters the stage many times throughout the story and he's doing it allright.

The second part opens with PAUL CARRACK (e.g. Mike + The Mechanics) singing 'Hey You'. That's one of the most succesful numbers here. In all the second part/disc has less guest vocalists than the first one, and thus works more safely. The Military Orchestra of the Soviet appear on 'Bring the Boys Back Home'. The multi-charasteristic 'Trial' sequence has UTE LEMPER as Pink's poisonous wife, MARIANNE FAITHFULL as his mother and THOMAS DOLBY as the schoolmaster. They all give their best, remaining very faithful to the original album's 'Trial'. The original minor epilogue 'Outside The Wall' is replaced by 'The Tide Is Turning' (a Radio K.A.O.S. song) gathering the guest vocalists together.

It goes without saying that this product cannot take the place of PINK FLOYD's The Wall (studio album, live album or the film), nor is it actually recommended to a Floyd fan, but it was a memorable event where rock and Europe's history met. "Tear down the Wall!"