Reviews: Performance

Roger Waters' concert

A giant aircraft-like pig flew above the audience on Roger Water's Monday debut in Shanghai. On the pink pig was written in Chinese: "You can rewrite history, but you can never change it" a sign of Waters' strong concern for politics and history.

Though not as much talked-about as the Rolling Stones' show at the Shanghai Grand Stage last year, Waters' concert titled Dark Side of the Moon at the same venue saw an obvious increase in Chinese audiences.

Wu Baolei, 32, English teacher in Fudan University, said it felt like a dream to see Waters' live performance, which he called "the cream of Western rock".

Waters presented classic songs from his Pink Floyd period. Wish You Were Here and other hits got the most feedback from the audience. The encore Another Brick in the Wall turned the whole stadium on.

There were also new songs, like Leaving Beirut, in which Waters recalled his traveling in the Middle East when he was 17 and questioned what the West was doing there.

For the visual part, an important element of his performance, Waters adapted newly-edited films showing US President George Bush, Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Waters will give another concert in Hong Kong tomorrow, before leaving for India to continue his five-month world tour.

Mu Qian

(China Daily 02/14/2007 page20)