Roger Bloody Waters

[glasto-worker]

Having watched the Berlin concert a few times (at least on video, would have loved to have been there.)

The idea of real bombers and such would take it into a new level. He did do DSOM at Coachella a few years ago and I heard that it was pretty awesome. (I saw it at the Hollywood Bowl a couple times on that tour and there it was terrific).

Thank you for the kind word about the photos. I'm as proud of those shots as almost anything I've shot in years. Even my friend who went with me (who is a MUCH better photographer than I am) complimented me on them.

JT

[TheBigJT]

The Berlin Authorities would not give permission for the bombers claiming crowd safety reasons but they did permit a helicopter that let off the most enormous star burst that light up the whole crowd that stretched back for many miles - we had been unaware they had opened up the gates behind us so it was a shock to see all the extra people.The star burst was the brightest thing I have ever seen - I believe it was a eight foot long container and was dropped on a parchute .

It was over on the left hand side of the stage and I think it dropped behind the stage

So how did you get a Nikon D90 into the venue ?

[glasto-worker]

As for the camera:

I'm a Ducks (hockey) seat holder at the building, so I sort of know the drill there from going about 50 times a year. I went to one of the supervisors at the hockey game held the night before and discussed it with him. He said as long as the band said "cameras" were okay anything under a 6in lens was acceptable. So, I popped my 50mm fixed onto the body and dropped my 55mm-200mm zoom into the bottom of my bag inside a black soft case. The camera looked sort of weird, but it was well under 6in. The extras lens was 5.5 off the camera, but he just glanced and waved me in. Never even looked past the camera. I was close enough the fast 50mm took some nice shots by itself and the zoom gave me enough reach to get some faces. It worked out perfectly.

Of course as I typed this, I realized that there was time I'd have sent that sort of effort on smuggling a bottle in....now it's just a camera, I guess I'm officially old....lol

[TheBigJT]

The image tags retain which lens you were using and its f stop . { that is how I worked out which camera you were using } - you had to be close to use a 50mm.

I was good friends with Fish from Marillion and some of the early gigs was at the Hammersmith Odeon - check who has played at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMV_Hammersmith_Apollo

The backstage pass also allowed entry to the photo pit area and nine times out of ten I was the only one in that area .There was enough room to set up a few camera tripods and I got some cracking shots - for ticket holders there is no way they could get in a SLR but a few did bring in a simple compact and they would come close to the second barrier and ask one of the security to call me over and ask me to take a few shots using their compact which I was happy to do - God knows how they turned out.The Hammersmith Odeon had a backstage bar but it was right at the top of the stage { a bloody long walk } which would be packed out after the event although Derek { I knew him before he was given the nick name hence why I don't call him Fish } would not have a clue who 99% were { so nothing has changed there }

Now I did not do a survey but I reckon 90% of the ticket holders at the Berlin Concert was expecting Pink Floyd rather than Roger Waters - I gave up trying to explain things - at least my friends and I knew exactly who was playing and it was a interesting mix as to who was taken part of it.

I have a strong feeling that the tickets were Country limited so only a small percent were ever available in the UK - I still have the ticket stub and the event book so will have to hunt it out.

It was a one off as after all its unlikely they will ever re build the Berlin Wall - there was a person renting out a small pointed hammer which I used to chip away apart of the wall { bloody heavy work I can tell you as it was not normal concrete }

[glasto-worker]

The same with seeing the wall in Berlin, and coming home with a piece of the actual wall as well is awesome!