The Wall: Live in Berlin (TV 1990)

A recording of the 1990 Berlin benefit concert in which Roger Waters leads an all star cast in performing his famous concept album.

Directors:

Ken O'Neill, Roger Waters

Writer:

Roger Waters

Stars:

Bryan Adams, The Band, Berliner Rundfunk Chor

Cast

Credited cast:
Bryan Adams
The Band
Berliner Rundfunk Chor	...	(as The East Berlin Rundfunk Choir)
Berliner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester	...	(as The East Berlin Rundfunk Orchestra)
The Bleeding Heart Band
Graham Broad
Paul Carrack	...	Himself
Leonard Cheshire	...	Introduction (as Group Captain Leonard Cheshire)
Tim Curry	...	The Prosecutor
Rick Danko	...	Himself (as The Band)
Thomas Dolby	...	The Schoolmaster
Andy Fairweather-Low
Marianne Faithfull	...	The Mother (act two)
Albert Finney	...	The Judge
James Galway

Storyline

A global television broadcast of the event in which former Pink Floyd leader singer and composer Roger Waters led an all-star cast in a mammoth benefit performance of his acclaimed concept album/concert, The Wall, in support of The War Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief. Set in Berlin, Germany less than a year after the destruction of the hated Berlin Wall, Waters was accompanied by disparate talents such as Cyndi Lauper, James Galway, Joni Mitchell and Albert Finney in the classic dark musical tale of a rock star's descent into madness and back. The performance was subsequently released as a top-selling video.

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Plot Keywords:

wall | pink floyd | progressive rock | rock music | concert film

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Details

Country:

UK Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 July 1990 (East Germany)

Also Known As:

Roger Waters: The Wall - Live in Berlin

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tribute

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min 120 min (live tv broadcast)

Sound Mix:

Stereo (DVD version) Dolby Digital (DVD version)

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

During the live TV transmission the second and third songs, "The Thin Ice" and "Another Brick in the Wall part I", were disrupted when a circuit breaker tripped. It was reset, but immediately tripped again. As part of the precautions against such events marring the video release of the concert not only was the previous day's full dress rehearsal filmed but the stage was also cleared (and as need be rebuilt) once the concert was over to allow further performances of any songs that had suffered from audio or video problems be re shot. Much of the footage of "The Thin Ice" and "Another Brick in the Wall part I", and some from "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives" used on the Video, Laserdisc and DVD releases is from these encore performances.

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Connections

Featured in Temalørdag: 80'er-generationen - Nå, No future eller X? (2001)

User Reviews

One Of The Greatest Most Bizarre Concerts In History

By the Summer of 1990 the cold war had ended thus saving mankind from the threat of thermo-nuclear conflict , the Berlin wall had been knocked down and the unification of Germany was underway and how did humanity celebrate these Earth shattering historical events ?

With a rock concert !

But it wasn't just any rock concert , it was a rock concert performed by Roger Waters and friends of their own interpretation of Water's masterpiece album THE WALL an album I fell deeply in love with a couple of years previously . Strange as it may seem I never thought about attending the concert in the flesh ( great title for a song BTW ) because the thought of travelling halfway across Europe was somewhat daunting and the thought of watching a concept album about alienation and social isolation being performed alongside 300,000 would have been too ironic even for me so I decided to watch it on television even though the signs weren't good since Phil Collins and a few other big names invited to attend snubbed the event and Waters replaced them with little known acts namely Sinead O' Connor , Bryan Adams and The Scorpions

The concert was opened by Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC who spent much of the second world war bombing Nazi Germany back to the stone age and who spent the remainder of his life as a selfless charity worker . No doubt this apt introduction revolves around the idea of reconciliation and a new way forward for Europe . Then the concert proper started which was a strange mix of the good , bad and sublime

The Good : A Russian red army band performing a rousing version of Bring The Boys Back Home with the wall in the background illuminated with photographs of war , Waters performing his own penned tracks like Another Brick In The Wall Part Three and as a fascist dictator Waiting For The Worms

The Bad: I know it's a live concert performed to a worldwide audience of tens of millions and accidents do happen but many of the early tracks were ruined by technical difficulties . Some of the guests were inappropriate like Thomas Dolby and Cyndi Lauper

The Sublime : Albert Finney and Tim curry camping it up during the prosecution sequence . The wall being demolished ion stage as Pink breaks out of his barrier of isolation

All in all ( Geddit ? ) one of the most spectacular , memorable and just plain bizarre concerts ever performed