Roger Waters' tour of Mumbai

You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then the one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

from 'Time' by Pink Floyd


I was eager to see Roger Waters perform live at the Bandra Kurla Complex in Mumbai on Sunday the 18th of Feb. Tickets ranged from Rs.1000 to Rs.3000. The concert was mainly part of 'The Dark Side of the Moon' Live Tour. Roger Waters had been touring Australia, the Middle East and South East Asia. By the time I decided to go, the Rs. 1000 tickets were already sold out.

I was disappointed and as usual while fooling around on the Internet, I came across an advertisement that mentioned something about winning tickets to the concert. I decided to try my luck and registered. I was made to answer a few questions and for the first time I took the risk of revealing my personal details like my address and telephone number on the Internet.

Three days later I find a courier at my doorstep with an acknowledgment letter and a free Rs 1000 ticket. I was overjoyed and words can't describe my emotions for those couple of minutes.
It was the first time I had ever been to a Pink Floyd concert and it was really wonderful. Typical Pink Floyd. The lighting and the fire works effects on the stage was awesome. The album art played on a huge screen behind Waters.

The theme was supposed to be a man who was having a glass of whiskey and a puff of smoke turning on the radio and tuning to a channel where he hears Roger Waters singing. The entire concert was based on this theme. Waters sang selected songs from 'The Wall' in the first half of the concert and then performed 'The Dark Side of the Moon' in its entirety in the second half.

As usual, just before the interval a huge trademark pink coloured pig with all sorts of political messages written across it took to the skies. Messages included : 'Say No to racism', 'Caste System Sucks' and right across its butt were the words 'Impeach Bush Now!!'. The lightings were awesome and quite a large crowd consisting of foreigners and Indians alike turned up. Ages ranged from 16 year olds to 60 year olds

Next day the concert made headlines on the Times Of India. it was really a memorable experience and I would be looking forward to more such concerts in the future. I only hope that the next time its the entire band rather than one band member's solo performance. And then at the end of that song, when all you can hear is the loud thump-thump thump-thump of a heartbeat, you hear the voice declare,
“There is no dark side of the moon; In fact, it is all dark.”

Note: Portions of this post had been cited from www.deeshaa.org.