Roger Waters – The Wall: Live in Berlin Review

Those left disappointed with Roger Waters: The Wall would do well to turn to this performance from Berlin. What made the 2014 documentary valuable to fans of Pink Floyd was the narrative weave, which may alienate those who want a straight-shooting concert film without the groan-inducing commentaries from Roger Waters. Media literacy has taken a dive in the last few years. Between the rise of generative artificial intelligence filth and the ugly conversations and uncredited theft ChatGPT churns out, the least of our worries should be what a post-Pink Floyd Waters has in mind for The Wall. He went on to destroy The Dark Side of the Moon with a comical Redux version, proving once and for all he could not have been the sole creative behind it. His love for The Wall, though, remains clear decades on from this Live in Berlin performance. It has remained more popular, but not better than, his solo efforts. 

Given the context of the Berlin Wall’s fall before Waters’ performance, the continued presence of a David Gilmour-led Pink Floyd, and the three-year break Waters had from solo releases, The Wall: Live in Berlin has much to live up to. The Wall is an ever-bankable project. Its meanings are so broad that it will never lose them. But then it is not enough to continue rehashing The Wall, not least as a solo performance. There are just too many moving parts to consider, and not until 2014 did Waters effectively showcase the storytelling style which has cemented The Wall as one of the great Pink Floyd records. It still lacks the emotional punch Waters kept promising, and a way of overhauling that seemed to be involving more musicians. Cyndi Lauper and Bryan Adams are bold choices, not because they are ambitious artists but because they are so ill-fitting for the project. Lauper has a great vocal range at least. 

Adams can barely make it through a song without a binary opposite. To give him Empty Spaces is like giving car keys to a dog. Waters is thankfully on hand to lead most of the songs, to beat Adams into shape, and allow Sinead O’Connor, The Band, and Joni Mitchell to cement their own, modernised purpose onto those building bricks. The Wall: Live in Berlin is a rather fluid project thanks to the inclusion of these extra musicians. Van Morrison features on a monumental version of Comfortably Numb, but despite these additional artists, Waters remains an excellent core for the performance. New depths to Goodbye Blue Sky are found through a haunting Mitchell cover, with James Galway helping tremendously.  

For those unconvinced by studio versions of The Wall, this live version captures the spirit not just of the political message but of live performance. It sets a high bar for both Pink Floyd and its members when it comes to live releases. Live at Pompeii may have hoovered up acclaim but The Wall: Live in Berlin is staggering. Nobody Home and Comfortably Numb are standout moments. Live environments give every song that emotional bolster, but a piece like Bring the Boys Back Home is dangerously close to caving into its heartfelt clarity. It still sounds like an aching cry for peace and, like many of the songs featured on this Waters live album, adapts the static of the studio into a truly moving and often exciting piece of work.