18/2/2007 Will Forever be Remembered - Cause I Was There

1992 - Bon Jovi

1995 - Deep Purple

1995 - 2006 - Several Other Gigs i went to

18 - 2 - 2007 : The Best Ever I was waiting for this day since a long long time . Having secured the passes very early ( Rs 1000 only cause Iron Maiden Bangalore , March 2007 is also on cards so had to spend appropriately ) , I couldnt sleep much the night before in anticipation. The day had finally arrived. How big of a Pink FLoyd fan i am ??? Trust me , you dont want to know ( or see 1 post below just to get an idea :D ) .Reached the venue which I was familiar with having hosted many big acts in the past ... MMRDA Grounds , Bandra. Went with a friend to experience the whole thing cause a large group might spoil the experience.

As soon as i reached the venue , the anticipation was in the air along with the smells I hadnt smell in a long time if you know what i mean ;) ... The venue was filling up fast
with youngsters with Pink Floyd / DSOTM tees , Oldies who knew whats it all about , people like me who are somewhere in between and a lot of foreigners who will never get to see
such a gig so cheap :DAs the sounds of Neil Young and Chuck Berry classics were being played ,people were waiting patiently for Roger & his band to come to stage. After a lot of waiting , came the image of a good old wodden radio player on the huge screen with a bottle of whisky and glass

7.10 pm : a hand with a cig moves to tune the radio to sounds of Elvis , Ella Fitzgerald and then onto 'In the Flesh' and there he was , Roger Waters with his band already dissing the first notes with the lights low and the roar of the thousands of people happy to see their dreams come true finally. As soon as the song finished , 'Mother' sounded oh so sweet next. Then onto a song which sadly many dont know , appreciate - 'Set the controls for heart of the sun... One of my favourite PF tracks ever. The perfect song to light the joint/cig :D , or just close your eyes and feel the unknown and be free ,Roger did a great vocal on this comparable to some live performances ive heard. There was no gong but still , the song was done excellently.

Till now the visuals were ok and then came One of the special songs 'Shine on you crazy diamond' & the screen was bright with the radiant energy of the late great Syd Barret looking straight at us and lot of old SYd photos and also of the band during the awesome decade of 60 & 70. 'Have a Cigar' was next and the hands flew in unision for the first time and a lot of smoke in the air :D. Next up was 'Wish you were here' , one of the most famous PF songs so you knew the crowd will be into this as soon as the acoustic note was played. The crowd sang and sang , every note perfectly around me atleast. The song brings back memories of all those special people
who have graced our lives but are no longer there for whatever reason and the mixed emotions can be overwhelming ( atleast for me but I didnt cry just so you know :P).

'Southampton dock/Fletcher memorium'with the backdrop of visuals of the times toughest for humanity with wold leaders was something you could just look on and wonder - How come we still see this on TV nowdays.'Perfect Sense' was a song i wasnt much aware of so it passed by quicly on to the brilliant 'Leaving Beirut' with Roger telling a little history of the song and it was a great narrative to listen to with lot of bush ,tony bashing and the crowd was loving it :D.

Another one of my favourite 'Sheep' was done next and somewhere in between the song ... the moment had arrived. The Pig flew .. slowly moving upwards ... the huge pink Pig soared above all over the crowd in the front with lots of sentences on it ... 2 of em most striking 1) Sarv Jaati Ek ( Every Caste is the same ) 2) Impach Bush now on the ass of the Piggy :D... and then for what Roger almost got into trouble in the US ... Th Pig was released in the air to the roar of the crowd as it soared higher and higher into the clear mumbai sky and that was when the 1st half of the show ended. Then the band took a small break to return to perform one of my favourite albums of all time ...Dark Side of the Moon ( DSOTM) .

The quadrophonic sound arrangement till now was only roaring to guns , planes but I knew the real experience of the sound will be felt as soon as DSOTM will be performed.The Sattelite on the screen moved closer , closer right towards us and the crazy mixture of sound samples from all around was building into a release of the 'Speak to me / Breathe in the air 'to which the crowd gave the largest roar in agreement. people started moving side to side , cell phones in hand waving hands in unision ... a sight to behold. 'On the run' had the best visuals of the day with all the psychedelia in full flow ( acid trips , pills , liquid bubbles etc ).'Time' sounded amazing with all the clocks , bells ringing real loud to the soothing mid portions of the chorus. 'Great gig in the sky' was played to the amazing vocals of the backup singer who i must say did an awesome
rendition of the original ... may i say as beautifully with anger as on the album. The sounds of coins , cash register on 'Money' sounded great and suddenly you felt like rich greedy royalty.The saxophone sound was to be heard in person to admire the great artist behind it. then came to one of those song you can just listen to over & over again and never get tired - 'US & them'. It sounded so good that i just closed my eyes to feel the inital part and then as the chorus began , hands went up in the air in unity. 'Any Colour you Like' played while people were just recovering from the earlier song and then moved into 'Brain Damage' with the sounds of the lunatic laughs and another massive roar as Roger sang the line Dark side of the moon.'Eclipse' was played with all the anger , passion , emotions of all sorts to the fact that the entire DSOTM set done non stop and the sattelite finally moved away on the screen.

For people who knew the setlist for the show , they knew there was more but ROger almost created ruffles when he said Thank you , good night at around 9 - 9.15. But soon the anguish of many was overcome with 'The Happiest days of our lives' with the helicopter sounds among the thumping bass and drums and the little famous piece of narration into 'Another brick in the wall - part 2 )... the crowd sang loudest with passion and support of the lyrics than you will ever hear. 'Vera Lynn' on the screen and Mr Waters vocal sounded the best on this on the night.'Bring the boys back home' the small little request was played the loudest with fireball explosions on stage and the perfect theatrical piece. As loud as it was , then the short silence was replaced by the last song 'Comfortable numb', an unbeleivable 6 minutes of life you would want to last for much longer.And suddenly you realise its over ... the band graciously bowed down to the audience in applause , claps in appreciation of giving one of the best experiences a person can have in their lives.

Mobile network jammed up , we leave the place ... walking a couple of kilometers as there were no autos , taxis to have dinner and a lot of drinks to end the night you never wanted to end.
Being in India , we dont get to experience great international bands , performances... thats why the review was so personal and the experiences shared mutual with many others.The scene is improving to many gigs lined up in the future and lets hope to have such evenings more in the future for the sake of keeping good music alive and get the exposure it deserves.