On July 21, 1990, the show "The Wall" was held on the "Berlin Wall".
The grandiose and extravaganza show took place at "Potsdamer Platz", close to what eight months earlier, was still the "Berlin Wall".
As will be recalled, the wall fell on November 9, 1989, in a groundbreaking event that became a symbol of the fall of communist regimes in those years and was the signal for the end of the Cold War. Following the fall of the Wall, East and West Germany were united in 1990, and United Berlin returned to be the capital of Germany.
The show was held in front of about 350,000 viewers and was broadcast live to 52 countries around the world, including Israel.
During the show, the record for the largest number of spectators for a paid show was broken, when after all the tickets for the show were sold, the production allowed the gates to open and another 100,000 spectators to enter the grounds without the purchase of tickets.
After the end of the "Pink Floyd" tour in 1981, Roger Waters announced that he would not perform "the Wall" live again, but he was taking the opportunity of the fall of the Berlin Wall, to breathe "new spirit" into the 1979 masterpiece.
The same "new spirit" also blew a new song from "Scorpions". The song "Wind of Change" was written by Klaus Meine, lead singer of "Scorpions", in 1989, following the band's visit to Moscow, during which the band witnessed with their own eyes the gradual disintegration of the Soviet Union. The song that speaks of the winds of change at that time, which culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall, became a symbol of German unification.
Thus, it is no wonder that the same German "Scorpions" was chosen by Waters to open the show in a storm with the performance of the opening song of "the Wall" "In the Flesh?".
Among the artists who accompanied Waters on this mighty show are Cyndi Lauper, Sinéad O'Connor, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Marianne Faithfull, Snowy White, Thomas Dolby, Bryan Adams, and more.
In terms of scenery and pyrotechnics, the 1990 show matched the band's original show two decades earlier, only bigger and more powerful. The production included larger bricks, larger inflatable dolls, and even a larger audience from each show on the original Pink Floyd tour. The wall stretched over 170 meters and rose to a height of 25 meters. It was built near the "Brandenburg Gate", right on "Potzdamer Platz", which was the no-man's land between East and West Germany.
The process of setting up the stage was not simple at all, as, beyond the fact that it was a bombastic and formidable show on any scale, the production team did not know if the area was still mined with mines. Therefore, before the construction of the stage, a thorough "cleaning" of the area was carried out to make sure that no remains of ammunition and mines remained.
Needless to say, Waters did not invite his bandmates, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright to the show.
And another small trivia detail, "Rush's" drummer Neil Peart, noted in a 2013 interview with "Classic Rock" magazine, that he tried to contact Waters to be part of the show, but Waters refused.
And here's the full show as it aired live:
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