Pink Floyd’s “The Wall Tour” was a very limited concert tour in 1980-1981. They only played select shows in Los Angeles, New York, London and Germany. So this was a must see show for myself.

Waters and company played the entire Wall album without any encores. Encores would have been dificult since the stage was a mess with bricks strewn all over. The playing was note perfect except for some rough sound mixing in few places which was expected being the first show of the tour. Overall it was a Pink Floyd’s fan dream come true to see the wall presented by its principle authour before he becomes too old to perform anymore. Waters seems in good form for a man of 67.

Here are some pictures and video I took at the Roger Waters production of “The Wall” (opening night) on Sept 15, 2010 at the Air Canada Centre.

Not far along my journey, I spotted a quaint little church along the road and stopped for a few pictures. The church is Anglican and a cemetery is also part of the yard. It is surrounded by farmland and I took some pictures of the rolled hay stacks which reminded me of some of Monet’s paintings. The sky was bright but was starting to become half filled with dark clouds and the sun was starting to set in the west. The interior shots were taken against the windows since the church was locked.

A friend of mine was sitting down during his work break when I took a few informal photos of him. This is my preferred way to take portraits. When I got to printing the negatives in the darkroom (and to make the image  more interesting) I took two halfs of two different shots and printed them separately, but on the same sheet of photo print paper. It gave it a split effect, thus I call this one “Split Personality”.

One of my favourite parts of The Beatles Anthology series is the 1966 visit to Japan. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit myself. And the fact that John Lennon met his future wife (Yoko Ono) only a few months after that trip, makes it somewhat interesting as well.

The best parts of The Beatles in Japan video clips are the concerts at the Budokan Hall. Watching the video you get a glimpse into an authentic Beatles concert in full colour. The performance was considered by The Beatles to be substandard as it was one of the rare concerts where they could actually hear themselves play. It was only ever officially released as a laser disc in the 1980’s (in Japan of course!) but I have seen bootlegs on VHS and DVD (plus most of the footage can be be found on youtube).

This was the last world tour The Beatles would give and it included Germany, Japan, The Philippines, and finally America. The setlist for most every show was:

Rock n Roll Music

She’s a Woman

If I Needed Someone

Day Tripper

Baby”s In Black

I Feel Fine

Yesterday

I Wanna Be Your Man

Nowhere Man

Paperback Writer

I”m Down

The only new songs to play live in ’66 were “Nowhere Man”, “If I Needed Someone”, “Day Tripper” and “Paperback Writer”. They also neglected to try to to play anything from their new album, Revolver, although “Paperback Writer” was from the same sessions.

Standards like “Rock-N-Roll Music” and “She’s A Woman” (a great version is on the Anthology 2 CD set, with George’s guitar solo sounding just a bit psychedelic) were still predominant. Or maybe they didn’t want to play anything from Revolver as I remember hearing one interview where George Harrison said they had got fed up with it by the time it was completed. However, the scene in the Anthology where they are revisiting the original master tapes of Lennon’s tone poem “Tomorrow Never Knows” (which closes the album), George, Paul and Ringo are thrilled at the re-listening.

It’s also interesting that this 66 world tour was the last gasp of world Beatlemania. “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane” were just around the corner.

Picture of 1995 Beatles from : www.riprense.com/beatlessong.htm

Instead he tried to make a point that Skydiggers music, sounding rural, was created by urban folks…an interesting point to make but it kinda fell flat and the two Skydigger’s Andy and Josh were tongue tied for some of the “juxtaposition” questions. So to whoever wrote those questions, keep it simple please…

Photo credit: Danya Hawerchuk

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhawerchuk

Visit Danya Hawerchuk’s Flickr site for some great concert photography. I like her style.

Steve Howe was also fantastic changing guitars whenever it suited a particular song (which was often). Chris Squire was on fire and Alan White gave a good solid performance. Oliver Wakeman was kept behind the keys and did his job well with a lot less of the flamboyance of his father. Obviously making sure he played the parts faithfully especially the piano bit on “South Side of the Sky”.

I have to say I walked out very satisfied knowing that YES music lives on…

Source: http://www.spinner.com

Well, it’s really a shame that the other guys didn’t contact Jon about this. But I’ve got my ticket for Nov 5th Massey Hall, because, with all due respect, Jon Anderson in Yes does not make it Yes…it’s the sum of many parts which might not include Jon (remember 1980?). I love Jon’s music and maybe the band could have even asked him if he didn’t mind but apparently, he no longer has a corporate stake in Yes, therefore he has less say in the matter. I’m interested to hear this version of the band. I am a fan of the Drama album and this is the first chance in a long time that we might get to hear some “Machine Messiah”.

Nov 4th Update: It seems that Jon has recanted his public disapproval (even though it has now been widely documented) and has made peace with the band over the decision.

This band has gone through a lot of ups and downs since being founded in 1987 by Maize and guitarist Josh Findlayson. They have been classified as roots rock which kind of reminds one of The Band and I think the comparison is fair as they incorporate a lot of country influences as well as folk and rock.

The Diggers have released 8 studio albums in 20 years. One live disc and a rerelease of demos of their second album 1992’s Restless (due to a dispute over the ownership of the master tapes). In 1995, Founding guitarist and songwriter Peter Cash split to work with his Brother Andrew as The Cash Brothers. After that, the Diggers were a trio on the 1997 CD Desmonds Hip City (augmented with session players). In 2003 they released a new album called Bittersweet Harmony in which the album title sums up the overall sound of the Diggers. In ‘04 they did some shows with the Cash Bros. I caught one of these shows on video at the Toronto Street Festival. It was a solid show of many past Digger hits plus some Cash Bros. material. It was the first time I ever caught them live and it was long overdue.

For some reasons whether members coming and going, lack of promotion or problems with record companies etc…The Skydiggers haven’t hit the big time as their contemporaries Blue Rodeo or The Tragically Hip. The Diggers are still a local hit. They are Canadian cult band that brings quality and integrity to their music. Part of me wishes them international fame. Part of me wants them to be the best kept secret. Especially, when you can still watch them in an intimate club rather than at Massey Hall.

Check out this page of photos from another WordPress blog. Look like a very intimate show in a beautiful church.

http://tanyalouiseworkman.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/skydiggers/