Роджер Уотерс / Roger Waters

The French version, interestingly, is noticeably different, apart from the obvious language difference. First up, the cover announces that Bryn Terfel is not the main vocalist, the duties falling to Jean-Luc Chaignaud. This instantly means we need to compare them, but interestingly, despite being in the same vocal range, comparisons seem unfair. Quite simply, both are unique and each does a fantastic job. While much of the music is the same, there are notable differences in many places. Listening to the French version after hearing the English version countless times, I found myself time and again stopping short of expected words and melodies where there were now changes, some slight, others major. This alone makes owning both worthwhile.

The few people who have heard both seem to favour the version they heard first, which poses many questions. Is it coincidence, or are they both equally good and familiarity wins out in the decision making process? For me, the French version sounds even more like an opera, but that may be a simple bias on my part as I've never been a fan of English language operas, especially translations. The French version however suffers with the loss of the children's English accents, individuals and chorus alike. On the positive side, it makes Ça Ira more 'French', which--considering its content--is a good thing. If push came to shove, however, I would happily sit on the fence! The English version I can readily sing along to. The French version I understand what is happening (because of the English version) and as such, I can just lay back and wallow in the beauty of the vocals and language.

Also worthy of note is the artwork. Both in the colours chosen and the images themselves, Nadine Roda-Gil has produced a collection of pieces that stand alone as true works of art. As soon as I saw them I was moved by their beauty and simplicity, and again found myself lamenting the rise of the compact disc (with its tiny booklet) and the insult to artwork it has brought. I already own the three available versions of Ça Ira (the third having the libretto and some artwork on CD-ROM) but will happily snap up some sort of LP version just to have a full scale print of some, if not all, of the images. With the synopsis describing the circus-ring setting, and the opera itself playing through it all, the characters in the artwork come to life, singing, dancing, and dying their way through it all.

So is it an opera? It has the music, instrumentation, and singing. It has the drama. It has, we imagine, the sets and costumes in all the over-the-top ways you expect from opera. It's easy to sing along to in places (especially if you are bilingual), rejoicing in the triumphs and crying in the defeats. It has that fullness that only opera seems to manage when you try to fill a theatre with sound. It is both frightening and delicate. Best of all, like all operas, it is moving, filling the listener with the life-blood that music is. From this humble music fan, to those who do it for a living, Roger Waters has written and recorded a magnificent opera. Better still, it's "bravissimo". Dare I say it... "Encore, Mr. Waters, Encore!"

Christopher Hughes is a staff writer for Spare Bricks.
http://sparebricks.fika.org/sbzine26/features.html

Студенты Школы Рока Пола Грина исполняют альбом "Стена"!

========================================================

XL ENT Recommended: Students from the school perform Pink Floyd's 'The Wall.' So that whole 'We don't need no education' thing makes more sense when it's kids singing it and not, say, Roger Waters. Show starts at 7 p.m. -- Joe Gross

From The Paul Green School of Rock Music Austin: This will be the debut performance of the Austin branch which opened in September 2005.

Veteran Austin guitarist Rick Carney (Jesus Christ Superfly, Gravy Boat, EMG) serves as the PGSORM Austin's Branch Manager and Musical Director. Staff members include Jason McMaster (Dangerous Toys, Broken Teeth, Watchtower), Travis Woodard (the Gene Pool), Mike Franklin (Black Irish), Ahmed Garcia (Hurlant, Anger Management) and Shannon Deane (Lucid Dementia).

The PGSORM was founded in Philadelphia in 1998. There are currently 11 branches nationwide, with two more planned for late January. Green is the inspiration for the smash hit "School of Rock" and the subject of the acclaimed documentary "Rock School".

http://www.austin360.com/event/events/Entertainment/event?...me=PreviewEvent&eventid=78433

Классический альбом Dark Side Of The Moon будет исполнен живьём
Рок-н-Ролльным шоу Classic Albums Live на подмостках Riverfront Theatre в Нью Глазго!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Forever Floyd
Classic Albums Live recreates 1973’s Dark Side of Moon concert
By STEPHEN COOKE Entertainment Reporter

Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is one of the few rock albums that no record collection is complete without, and in the eyes of many the studio record is a specific experience that can’t be duplicated.

But the rock and roll road show Classic Albums Live begs to differ.

Tonight at the Riverfront Theatre in New Glasgow at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 8 p.m. at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium, the Toronto-based production re-creates the 1973 progressive rock landmark live on stage with an eye (and ear) towards giving fans a "you are there" experience.

Show producer Craig Martin says it takes nine musicians to do on stage what the quartet of Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright and Nick Mason did in Abbey Road Studios nearly 35 years ago.

Martin is proud of the fact that every note is played live, and every aspect of Dark Side of the Moon is rendered by humans on stage with no use of samples or prerecorded material. Even the record’s famous sound effects, like the cash register on Money or the ticking clocks of Time require someone to activate them.

"Most cover bands, when they get to the alarm clocks, they just hit the play button on the tape deck," says Martin. "Everything you hear at our show is played live. When you see a Pink Floyd tribute and there are only four people on stage, they’re using pre-taped material somewhere along the line.

"That’s not live, it really upsets me. We go to great lengths to get the album right, and the audience really appreciates it."

The idea for Classic Albums Live came to Martin while he was touring with a rock band, and one night they did several songs from the Rolling Stones’ seminal ’70s epic Exile on Main St. in the same sequence as on the record.

Sensing that the crowd enjoyed hearing the Stones’ sound being treated with both passion and respect, he gathered up fellow musicians to launch a troupe that is now capable of recreating 37 different albums, from Abbey Road to Led Zeppelin II, and which tours all over North America.

"I really want to keep a credibility to the shows, and put the emphasis on the music,"" says Martin, whose musical involvement is more behind the scenes. "People come to the show and are surprised to see the musicians are all dressed in black, they don’t talk to the audience, they don’t move around on stage, they don’t pander to the audience in any way.

"It’s a very anonymous performance in some ways, but at the same time they bond with the audience in a way no other band I’ve seen has. We ignite people’s imaginations, this is the soundtrack to people’s lives. These albums sold millions of records for a reason, they contain the greatest music of our time, so we produce this music the same way an orchestra would play Bach or Beethoven or Mozart."

A scan of Martin’s website at http://www.classicalbumslive.com reveals a repertoire that includes other milestone discs like Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, The Who’s Who’s Next and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. All are titles that have been kept alive via classic rock radio and CD reissues, and are constantly being rediscovered by young listeners, especially when they learn that a current popular band like, say, Radiohead, is heavily influenced by the work of an icon like Pink Floyd.

"People who grew up with these records are bringing their kids, and the kids love the music as much as their folks did," says Martin. "I’ve gotten dozens of e-mails from parents who have bonded with their teenagers over the music we play at our concerts and they’ve found common ground in this music.

"That’s it for me right there, it’s this by-product of the experience that really validates what we’re doing. . . . They’ll be playing this music 100 years from now. They won’t be going back and playing Justin Timberlake or Jay-Z. At least I very much doubt it."

Tickets for the New Glasgow show are $24.50 at the Riverfront Theatre box office (752-4800 or 1-888-873-0777) and $26 at the door.

Tickets for the Rebecca Cohn show are $30 at the Dal Arts Centre box office, by phone at 494-3820 or toll free at 1-800-874-1669, or online at artscentre.dal.ca.

( scooke@herald.ca)

http://www.herald.ns.ca/Columnists/478101.html

Interview with designer/photographer Mark Holthusen, January 2006
Some of you were fortunate enough to be at Roger Waters' world premiere live performance of Ca Ira, in Rome in mid-November. Those that were, or those who read our concert review and looked at our gallery of pictures, will have been struck by the wonderful imagery that was projected onto the screen behind the black-clad orchestra.

The images were created by photographer Mark Holthusen, who was hired by Roger and Sony BMG Music a mere month before the show, to substitute traditional set design with projected photographic illustrations.

The screen featured over 120 images from the many taken by Mark. From concept to final production, the entire body of work was produced in a breath-taking 40 days! His striking and quite unique style brought the story to life at the concert, being the sole visual narration.

We caught up with Mark to find out more about his work on Ca Ira...

How did the collaboration between yourself and Roger come about?

That was Sony Music. I had send a portfolio to Sean Evans, the art director as Sony. He had it for quite a while. I finally called and asked if he still needed it, and he asked if he could keep in longer; that was the first time I thought something might be going on, but I had no clue Roger was involved.

How much of Roger's previous work were you familiar with? Did any of it influence your approach to the visuals?

It wasn’t a direct influence. Of course his work is part of pop-culture, and I think you would have to live in a hole not to have seen or heard of The Wall. But it didn’t really affect this job.

What was your original brief - and did it change as the project evolved?

Originally I was given a brief to shoot 15 main scenes, with a few details of things. I was given the original libretto only a few days before I flew to NY to meet with Roger.

I sat down and drew sketches of what I thought I would like to do and presented my ideas to everyone. I used those basic comps I drew up as my short list, and we were on such a short deadline I just used that as my short list.

However, as things moved forward, and we had further meetings with Roger, I think another 5 main shots were added but it still wasn’t near the 240 we produced.

Once we cast everyone and began the shoot I took close to 8000 images of our actors. Then another digital artist and I began to put together our 20 shots. Eventually, Sean, Roger and I sat in an editing room and really hashed out what this was going to look like on screen.

That’s when it started to get bigger. Sean had my library of images, Nadines’s painting, and historical images. I think they realized quickly that the 20 photographs weren’t enough!

What parts of Ca Ira did you find particularly inspiring?

Just the chance to do it really. Photographers aren’t often asked to illustrate operas - at least not that I’ve heard of. I knew this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. I really hoped I could do something no one had seen before.

What sort of direction did Roger give you? How "hands-on" was Roger during the development of the visuals?

Roger really let me go on this. In hindsight, I came up with some pretty out there ideas, but he really only directed me when I began to stray from the story. So, on the shoot, Roger was there so I could ask what was going on at any given point. No one knew this thing like Roger did; he was great to work with. You really knew you were working with someone who had been doing this for years, and he could really help and guide us through the process.

How easy was the music to conceptualize?

I found it pretty easy. I was told it was a Circus troupe performing the French revolution, which came from Nadines’s painting; I had seen those and I know my images would have to go with her paintings, so I tried as best I could to shoot work matching hers. I did it mostly with my color pallet. Overall, it really wasn’t that different from work I had been doing for myself of the last few years.

What were the different stages that lead to the final projections in Rome?

I started building all the sets in San Francisco, I put them in boxes and flew to NY to start the casting. We then shot all the talent.

At the end of each shoot I went back and continued to build the sets for the next day. I then began to put everything we had done together digitally and that took another 10 days.

Then it was off to Sony to do the final animations on everything. We did that until we left for Rome.

Did you ever feel it wouldn't get done in time?

Not in the beginning. I knew it would be a lot of work, and I had a few freak-outs, but there just wasn’t time to think about things too much - I just put my head down and worked.

I’ve tried to figure it out and the closest I can get is that we worked about 400 hours in 39 days to make this happen.

When I got back from Rome, I slept for about two weeks!

Was there a particular image or scene that you were especially pleased with the execution of?

There are a few. I really like how the slave ship scene turned out and the execution scene as well. I have had such a tough time editing this work for portfolios; in a portfolio you want around 23 photos. Editing this down to that amount has been near impossible.

Was there anything you couldn't achieve, due to either time, monetary, or technical constraints?

I don’t think so. In the grand scheme of things, there were always going to be paintings, Nadines’ drawings and video. But personally for me, I would love to have had the time to do more; we never really got to tackle the papal eidetic scene and a few others.

After watching the piece in Rome there a few things that I would have changed, but you can always do that: I never think anything is done

How did it feel to see your work come to fruition in Rome?

I watched both nights. The first night I was pretty nervous – too nervous to enjoy it. But I really enjoyed the second night. It was pretty amazing to see my work project like that. I hope I have the opportunity again to do it.

What was Roger's view of the finished body of work?

I don’t want to answer for Roger; I think I would have heard if he was unhappy. I'll leave it at that.

Your images are incredibly striking, and very theatrical. How do you achieve the imaginative, and thought-provoking, images?

I’ve been working at this for nine years now; for me, this project seems to be the culmination of that work, the time I could really put all my ideas in practice.

Also, I always tried to make my images a story, so to be given a story, and to be able to tell a narrative not in just one image but in hundreds, was a dream come true.

What's next for you?

The response to this body of work has been nothing short of amazing. There a few things based on this body of work still to be done, but I shouldn’t say too much more at this point. What I can say is that I would love to do something in a different direction; I’m thinking robot and bio technology, but we'll see.


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Our thanks to Mark for sparing the time to answer our questions. To visit his website, either click on the pictures to the right, or visit www.MarkHolthusen.com/caira/. The images on the site can be viewed as a slideshow, with Roger's music playing. It gives a good impression of what the audience in Rome experienced back in November.



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Date posted: 18 January 2006

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/interviews/mhca.html

Также появилась возможность скачать zip архив с переводом на Испанский полного Либретто Оперы (перевод - Ezequiel из Аргентины)!

- http://sigma.6.tripod.com/ca-ira.zip

Файл PDF, можно просмотреть через Adobe Acrobat

24 Января Роджер примет участие в программе на Радио BBC 2, посвящённой композитору XVIII Века - "Что Для Нас Сделал Моцарт"
===========================
Just a bit of advance notice for you - next week, Roger Waters further explores his foray into the world of classical music, by taking part in a documentary about Mozart.

In "What Mozart Did For Us", the ex-Pink Floyd frontman, who released his opera Ca Ira last year, is amongst those who give their views on the 18th century musician and composer. The documentary airs on 24th January, on BBC Radio 2, at 8:30pm GMT. It is part of BBC Radio's season celebrating Mozart, which has a host of programmes looking at the composer.

The programme can be heard on FM radio, DAB Digital radio, Freeview, NTL/Telewest/Sky Digital, or online via the BBC.co.uk website, where the show will also be available to listen to for seven days on demand, following the original broadcast.

Our thanks to Kevan Porter for his help with this story.

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Date news posted: 18 January 2006

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0601182.html

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal hints at the possibilities that rare Pink Floyd concert recordings might be on the horizon.

The recordings are part of an archive of more than 5,000 live audio and video tapes made between 1966 and 1999, and only recently discovered when Bill Sagan spent over $5 million to buy up the Bill Graham Presents collection, which was lying unwanted and uncatalogued in a warehouse. Some of the collection was even damaged by a fire.

Sagan has spent the last two and a half years carefully going through the items and cataloging them. A number of items (rare t-shirts, posters, tickets and more - including a great selection of Floyd items) can be found on the spin-off website - Wolfgang's Vault ( http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/catalog.aspx?PerformingArtistID=5541|6053|1662&aid=543157 ). Bill Graham was born Wolfgang Grajonza in Berlin, 1931, before moving to the US and eventually making his name as one of the most well-known rock promoters.

The recordings were made at rock concerts that the late Mr. Graham ran or promoted. The performances, many of which are professionally recorded and extremely high quality, were done so legally - as a bulging filing cabinet attests.

Graham's company made the recordings partly for posterity's sake, and for the patrons of the restaurant next door. Graham owned the restaurant, and didn't want to lose customers when an artist started their set. So, he installed CCTV and piped the performances through to the diners. Many were also captured on videotape at the same time.

Sagan is now working on the early stages of complex negotiations with artists, their representatives and record labels over the rights to sell the recordings on discs and as downloads. In the meantime, Sagan plans to begin "streaming" some of these recordings as audio feeds on his company's Web site, which involves little more than paying royalties to organizations that represent songwriters.

We'll keep a close eye on this and let you know if and when any of Pink Floyd's performances get a release.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0601161.html

у машины

2Corvin:

>http://www.ljplus.ru/img/s/l/sleepy_mama/Roger1
>http://www.ljplus.ru/img/s/l/sleepy_mama/Roger2
>http://www.ljplus.ru/img/s/l/sleepy_mama/Roger3

Спасибо, Корвин!

А то на Getty Images только маленькие есть;((

Недавно по одному из финских каналов показали отрывок прослушивания в группу Роджера!

============

Hi everybody,

Happy New Year 2006!

Yesterday evening (sunday 01.01.06) I was recovering from last night's
festivities and surfed through channels on tv. (Actually considering
the amount of the channels that we have in Finland you really can't call
it surfing...) Anyway, I turned to TV1 and what did I see: Roger Waters
in the studio with Snowy and some other people! The show was called
Rocket Brothers and it was a documentary of a Danish band called
Kashmir. Their lead singer and guitar player was auditioning for Roger
who was choosing musicians to his latest tour. I think the guy was pretty
good, but as we know he didn't get the job. He said that although he
would have liked to join Roger's band, it wouldn't have been his thing
because he didn't want to be anybody's copy. Obviously he meant
Gilmour. They played CN in the studio, but only the chorus and a bit of
the guitar solo. I didn't notice who the other people in the studio were
and if they were Roger's band mates.

Regards,
Laura

(из Echoes Digest)

ps Само же оригинальное соло из Comfortably Numb заняло 4-е место в хит-параде лучших гитарных соло по мнению aboutguitars.com ...

LIVE 8 DVD ANALYSIS


The official DVD of the Live 8 concerts, held in July, and featuring the historic reunion between Roger Waters and Pink Floyd, was released on November 7th.

The quality of the DVD, the proceeds of which go to charity, has impressed many people. For those who've not seen it yet, it included a nice sequence in the extras of the band in their rehearsal studio for Wish You Were Here, and of each band member talking about the reunion.

One of the things that a number of people have assumed was that the Floyd concert footage was broadly the same (if not identical) to that broadcast on the BBC.

However, our friend Dave Carlin noticed a number of differences, and ended up doing a full analysis of the band's live segment, comparing the BBC and official DVD footage and timings.

Dave looked at the timings first, where less of a difference is found.


TV version: Opening Chord of Breathe - 0:41’
DVD version: Opening Chord of Breathe - 1:02’
TV version: Total Length: 23:43’
DVD version: Total Length: 23:54’


The timings above show that although the official version is, overall, only 11 seconds longer, it is very slightly (and insignificantly) edited between Money and WYWH, and again just before the final walk off. Each edit is only several seconds. More importantly though, it does feature an extra 21 seconds of the heartbeat intro before Breathe, including “... must've been mad for f****n years...” and no voice over comments from presenters. So overall, more music and less audience cheering.

The difference though between the two versions, in terms of footage used, is significant. In total, there are over 50 different shots and angles used throughout the full 24 minutes of the official DVD release that are different to the broadcast version.

Dave synched them up and ran them on-screen, side-by-side. The majority of the time the footage is identical, but different shots and camera angles are used throughout each track. For example, there are over 21 different shots/angles within Money.

Different footage is used more frequently in the first three tracks and although Comfortably Numb does contain some different shots, there aren’t quite as many but there is a significantly longer shot held on Waters during his vocals.

Dave singled this out as an example: the full-screen, extreme close-up of the bright red Live 8 wrist band (on the TV version at approximately 4 minutes, 10 seconds) is not in the DVD version:

TV Version: 4:10’ [...good to warm my bones beside the fire...] close up of red wrist band & pale blue slide guitar [Tim Renwick’s].

DVD Version: 4:31’ [...good to warm my bones beside the fire...] close-up of David Gilmour’s black guitar.

The variations of camera shots and angles are noticeable when watching the versions independently of each other, but the full extent of the variation is much more apparent when viewing both versions side-by-side.

Our thanks to Dave for his analysis, which we hope you find interesting. For those who have yet to buy it, the 4 DVD set can be ordered through the following special Amazon links: UK/Elsewhere, US/International, Canada, France, or Germany.

http://www.brain-damage.co.uk/news/0601202.html

Radio Waves

Рецензия книги Мэйсона Inside Out (из. в мягк.обл.)
===================================================
The paperback will have a brand new chapter on the band's historic decision to re-form after so many years in order to play at the Live8 concert, including Sir Bob's intervention! Plus new, never before seen, photos of the band both onstage and backstage at the concert.

One of the most fascinating rock bands ever, Pink Floyd was formed in 1965.

After a year in the London 'underground' experimenting with revolutionary techniques like lights which matched their music, they released their first single in 1966.

Their breakthrough album, The Dark Side Of The Moon, was released in 1973 and stayed in the charts until 1982, the longest a record has ever been continuously in the charts, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time.

In 1975 they released Wish You Were Here which reached iconic status, then in 1979 The Wall went to number 1 in almost every country in the world.

The movie version of The Wall starring Bob Geldof was released in 1982, becoming a cult favorite.

In the 1980s a rift developed between the band members which culminated in law suits. Only recently have there been reconciliations which have allowed founder member Nick Mason to write his personal take on the band's history.

About the Author

Nicholas Berkeley ('Nick') Mason (born January 27, 1944 in Birmingham, England) is the drummer for Pink Floyd.

He was brought up in Hampstead, London and attended Frensham Heights boarding school, Surrey. He later studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic, where he teamed up with Roger Waters, Bob Klose and Richard Wright in 1964 to form Sigma 6.

As Floyd's recording and touring schedule grew more sporadic, Mason was left with more time to pursue his favorite hobby, auto racing. He owns and races several classic cars, and has competed successfully at the 24 hours of Le Mans. He is also a qualified pilot.

http://www.ndtv.com/ent/booksreview.asp?id=1821&bookname=Inside+Out

And if I show you my dark side
Will you still hold me tonight?

And if I open my heart to you
Show you my weak side
What would you do?
Would you sell your story to Rolling Stone?
Would you take the children away
And leave me alone?
And smile in reassurance
As you whisper down the phone?
Would you send me packing?
Or would you take me home?

Thought I oughta bare my naked feelings
Thought I oughta tear the curtain down
I held the blade in trembling hands
Prepared to make it but…
Just then the phone rang
I never had the nerve to make the final cut

Hello? Are you listening?
I think I've got it.

And now from where I stand
Upon this hill I plundered from the pool
I look around, I search the skies
I shade my eyes, so nearly blind
And I see signs of half remembered days
I hear bells that chime in strange familiar ways
I recognize...
The hope you kindle in your eyes

It's oh so easy now
As we lie here in the dark
Nothing interferes it's obvious
How to beat the tears
That threaten to snuff out
The spark of our love