Here's an old e-mail I found the other day, sent to friends back home when I was living in Bangkok.
'
Roger Waters' live in concert- probably around 2002 ...
I'd never really come across the fabled "ticket system" in any broad sense before. But queuing-up with my fellow partners in crime, mouth dry and gasping for a beer, it was a pretty frustrating situation to be in. Basically, it involves joining a queue to buy a book of vouchers and then joining another queue to use said vouchers to "get the beers in". It took about forty-five minutes all told but I did come away with four cans of Singha beer (and a rip-off three hundred and fifty baht lighter).
Before I could find somewhere to sit and join my fellow compadres before the night's joy began, I was yelled at by a very attractive blonde woman, sitting at one of the many tacky plastic tables with Singha beer parasols. She was sitting in a small group(three other equally attractive women and one guy), I walked towards her ...
"Wow ... that's like sooooo cool !!", said yelling woman.
"That's like, definitely, the best band ever !!", her friend said - equally attractive but just as loud.
"Umm, sorry ?", I said.
To be honest I really didn't have a clue what she was talking about. I stood there and rather unskilfully placed my beers on the table (one fell on my foot, another fell on the floor and started to roll away) - I picked one up and opened it, foam spewed out and hit my face and T-shirt. It was then that I realised what had caused this minor commotion as I wiped beer from my clothing.
"Jon Anderson's like the coolest ... you're English right ?"
"Umm, yeah, something like that ..."
"Is that an original T-shirt ?"
"Have you seen them live ?"
Above the general noise and hubbub the bloke was mumbling some disagreement, something about Jon Anderson not letting the band play anything from the ‘Drama’ album. He certainly didn't sound as far-out as his companions but then again he wasn't as attractive.
Going to a Roger Waters concert in Bangkok I didn't really think much about going flat-out "Thai"-Dye ... nice funky blue and white trousers only bought from the Khao San Road that day and my (almost) matching red and blue T-shirt with the 'Yes’ logo plastered across it ... We ended up having a pretty decent chat. They were well-informed on all things Prog aside from the spaced-out first impression (but maybe that's just a contradiction in terms, crappity smack I don't know). But before it got too heavy ("Did the Greek Prog Rock movement of '73-'75 really have any quantifiable influence on the brief Southampton Prog Rock revival of '84-'85 ?" - discuss ) it was time to go inside ...
The service afforded by the Thai's was first class. Thanks to much help, I was shown my seat and after my discussion with the west-coast 'heads' outside I was obviously surprised to find myself sitting next to an elderly Chinaman. But no, wonders never cease in the world of Prog, apparently "Uncle Chang" has been following Pink Floyd since the early seventies, has all their albums and all of Roger Waters' stuff too. But before that conversation could kick-off (God only knows what realms it would have taken me) the lights dimmed and the show began ...
Superb stuff. As I expected, Mr Waters’ backing band was first class. His set was pretty eclectic too ... He started (not unsurprisingly) with '
In The Flesh', standing alone on an elevated platform at the back of the stage (this being his only real ego-trip, I didn't see him spit on anyone throughout the entire gig). He moved through excerpts from '
The Wall' onto '
Dogs' and '
Pigs on a Wing - part II', some solo stuff and onto a blinding rendition of '
Set the Controls from the Heart of the Sun' complete with sax solo. I remember a radio interview with him years ago (around the time of ‘Radio Kaos’) and he said that if anybody ever asked him to play the older stuff again he would tell them to "crappity smack Off" - he's obviously mellowed since then.
Having completed the "beer mission" one more time I went back in for set two. More solo stuff now - '
Bravery ...' and '
Amused to Death', he unfortunately only played '
Every Stranger's Eyes' from '
Pros and Cons' but it was a top-notch rendition nonetheless ... more stuff from '
Dark Side ...' and he finally ended with the surprise encore of '
Comfortably Numb' where he obliged the lead guitarist by letting him onto "Roger's Platform" at the back of the stage ... loads of visual projections, 3D surround sound and some great Gerald Scarfe cartoons made it a blissed-out night of Prog excellence .... (he even said "thank you" to us for coming)
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