The Wall Tattoo

Finally!
Yesterday I got to complete my own wall and my wonderful "The Wall" tattoo. It is to be found on my right leg, and I have now three images that is working into each other. I have been posting picures of the first two before, but here they are one more time. Let's start with the hammers! I got the hammers a few years ago, and when I got that tattoo, I knew I wanted at least one more. It took me a few year, but I completed the tattoo in 6 months.

The hammer tattoo was the first "The Wall" tattoo

As I just wrote, as soon as I got this tattoo, I knew I wanted more, and I had a few ideas, but they never came to life before the summer 2012. I called the place where I got the hammer tattoo, and asked if they had the posibility to tattoo a new piece on my leg. I wanted the same guy who tattooed the hammers and Dark side of the moon. Even though he had his summer vacation, he wanted to tattoo my next piece. He works in Bergen city at a tattoo shop called Let's Buzz. They are great, so I'm always feeling safe when my skin is in his hands!

The flowers from "Empty Spaces" were my tattoo number two (on the leg!)

Look how great they are built together!

After this tattoo, I knew I had to complete my wall, and I was planning on doing it sometime before one year was gone. And then came the news about Roger Waters are coming back to Europe to performe "The Wall" one last time, so then I wanted to complete the tattoo in good time before the shows started! I know, you can get an appointment easily, but since I don't live near Bergen, I have to plan when to get my next one. I don't go to Bergen every week or every month, but I knew I was going home to my parents for christmas, and what do you know!? They could complete the tattoo a few days before christmas. So yesterday was the day! I wanted to tattoo the screaming face that comes out of the wall, screaming during "What shall we do now". I've seen a few tattoos of that image, and very few of them vere great! Some vere ok, but mostly I didn't like them. If my tattoo guy couldn't make it exactly like I wanted it, I'd rather put in som writing or a image of Pink. 

But he could do it! He was great, and he vere able to make it even better then I ever hoped it would be! 

The sceaming face (and the family dog)

How it's built into the old tattoos!

This is just a close up picture to see the detail of the soliders marching! Great touch! Here, the plastic is still on, but I will post some better photos of it later! 

Merry christmas to me!

121212 concert Roger Waters

Once again, I am late with my blog, but I just had to write about the brilliant 121212 concert!
I saw it online when it was broadcasted, but since I live i Norway, the concert started around 01.30 AM, and I had to work the days after, so I never found the time before now! Thank you christmas vacation! This is a big passion, and I love to write and share my knowledge or speculations about the wonderful band!

From the show

The concert started of with The Boss, aka Bruce Springsteen. I am a big fan of him as well, so I had to watch! I saw him live summer 2012, and I have grown up with his music. But he's not the one I want to write about here! After the Boss finished his show, there were some talking, and THEN. My man stepped out on the stage! As everytime I see the man step on the stage, I get tears in my eyes. It feels so strong, and that is most likely because I am his biggest fan.

He started with "In the flesh" followed by "The happiest days of our lives", "Another brick in the wall pt.2", "The Ballad of Jean Charles DeMenezes" - (or wathever he decided to call it!), "Money", "Us and them" and he ended the show with "Comfortably numb". During this song, Eddie Vedder was singing during the chorus.
GREAT setlist! And what a great crew Roger brought on stage! There were so many familliar faces on stage! Of course my good friend David Kilminster with his lovely guitar Rose. It was great to see him, and he did such a great performance! So proud of him.

David during the show

Me, David and Rose in 2011

Other than him, I've met Ian Ritchie (sax), Snowy White (guitar), Robbie Wycoff (vocals), Harry Waters (piano/hammond). Great group of people. There were almost the entire band who's been travelling with Waters during "The Wall" tour. Graham Broad (drums), Jon Carin (keyboards), Jon Joice (background vocals). There were also three other background vocalists that I've never seen before. Some of it sounded great, but I reckon that the mic's were turned up too high. During "Money" the bacground vocals were not good.. But things like that happens.

Me & Robbie Wycoff

Me & Snowy White

All in all it was a good show. I really enjoyed it, and thought it was a good setlist. If I were able to choose a few songs he were to play, I would have chosen some old songs and a 'new' like "Perfect sense". But that's never gonna happen, I'm sure for the rest of Roger's career in live music, he will play songs from "The Wall" and if he were to play anything else, it would be something from "Dark side of the moon" or maaaaybe "Animals".
I was born WAY TOO LATE to experience some of the songs from the earliest albums! It's good to have all the albums so I can enjoy it, even though it's not live. But a cd is better than no music at all.

Just a few words about mister Eddie Vedder. He did a great job singing David Gilmours vocals! No one will ever do a better job than Gilmour, but it was still good. And it was quite exiting listening to a new version, and I did enjoy it! I have been watching the show a few times. Great great show!

Roger Waters & Eddie Vedder

So here it is, one more time...

Hava a wonderful evening all you wonderful Pink Floyd fans

Pink Floyd christmas

Well, I've been working in prac, at uni and at work for six weeks, so I've been a bad blogger, but hey!
Now I got my christmas vacation!! So exited.
It's been a few stressfull weeks, so I am ready to lower my shoulders, eat loads of christmas food, drink loads of Hansa christmas soda, eat loads of christmas chocolate and last but not least, listen to loads of the best music ever made!! Pink Floyd always help me to relax, so I will need the music and I will enjoy it!

Great posing!

I am sure that the music that I have been listening to the most this year, must be Pink Floyd. I've been to 3 Roger Waters The Wall concerts in Australia, I have had a few Pink Floyd parties, I've been listening/watching The Wall concert a thousand times, and that is not even a joke! I've also been listening through all the albums, I have been watching some very good documentaries and I've been reading books. All in all, I spent almost every single day this year, like any other year, with some Pink Floyd influence!

Roger Waters The Wall live in Brisbane, Australia

You might think that I am crazy.. Over the rainbow I AM crazy. The music is my lifestyle, and it will be for many years to come. Most likely, the music will be my lifestyle for the rest of my life. Can't imagine a life without the greatest music of all times!
So thank you to Roger Waters, Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Richard Wright & David Gilmour for making the world a better place with your wonderful music.
The thing about this lifestyle, which I love, is that I know for sure that there are people like me out there in the great, big world!

So this was just a few words from me before I'm going home to my parents tomorrow to celebrate a wonderful christmas time!
If I don't get the time to write again before christmas, I want to wish you all a wonderful christmas with lots of joy and happiness! Shine on all you crazy people!!

Hammers, Hammers, Hammers

The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking

This is a album request I got from my friend Chris!

"The pros and cons of hitch hiking" is Roger Waters first solo album. It is a concept album from 1984 and it is filled with 12 great songs! About ten years earlier, Roger had two ideas for a new concept album. The ideas was "The Wall" and the other was "The pros and cons of hitc hiking". The band perfered "The Wall" because of the story and the lyrics, so "The pros..." was forgotten for a while. I must confess that this is not the album that I am listening the most to, but I still think it's great! It is an album that my parents bought many years ago, so I've seen it and listen to it many times. Last time I was listening to it, was actually when I was visiting my parents. So it is an album that reminds me about my wonderful parents. They bought the cd many years ago and there are two different kinds of the album cover. You have the originale and then you have the cencored album cover. It is quite silly I reckon, since it is a drawn picture of a naked women who is hitch hiking, and her butt is cencored.

The original cover

The censored cover

When the album was released, Roger Waters went on a tour where he brought along Eric Clapton as a lead guitar player. -I'm thinking of all the lucky people who got to see two legends at one and the same concert! I am a fan of Clapton as well, but no one tops Waters, so it must be great see those legends performe Roger Waters music!! On his secound tour after the album was released, he had to bring another guitar palyer named Jay Stapley.

Roger Waters and Eric Clapton 

Gerald Scarfe and Roger Waters are good friends, so Roger wanted Geraly to do the animation and drawings for this album as well, and so he did. Gerald did create charicatures of all the members in the tour. He draw Roger and called him Rog, and he had a long nose, like a dog. Later Gerald created a charicatur og Rog, making him look like a dog and called him Reg. Reg was the mascot on the tour, and was in the animations on the shows. He became the main characer of the show.

Reg

Back to the songs on this album! As I said, there are 12 songs on this album. The songs are named after what thime the story is 'happening' so the songs go from 4:30 AM to 5:11 AM. The titles of the songs are called by the time and then the title comes up, like most people knows it.
4:30 AM (Apparently they were travelling abroad)
4:33 AM (Running shoes)
So this is an example of how the titles are. I think it is brilliant! Though I never use to calle the songs by the 'time' but I use the names. But this is an album that I rarely discuss with other fans, so I am not sure if it's normal to call the song by the whole name, just the 'time or just the title behind the time.

The pros and cons of hitch hiking

The story of the songs I am not too confident about, but I'll try to explain how I think it might be, and how I read that other people may see it!
It starts with a couple, lying in bed at night, and they wakes up because the man had a nightmare. In the second song, they are falling back to sleep and the man is dreaming that he and his wife are driving through Europe somewhere and then they pick up two hitch-hikers. One of them is a beautiful girl and the other is a terrorist. Then I think both the wife and the terrorist are gone, and he takes the girl for a ride and is about to seduce her when his fear conqures his lust.
Then suddenly he is back in suburbia and is attaced bu some terrorists. The next songs is about this man having certain need that his wife wont fulfill, and later she is falling in love with another guy, and they are going in different ways. Later the man is the hitcher, and is asked if he want a lift in a truck, but he is later thrown out.
Than things are only getting worse. He is now at a truckstop, getting sympathy from someone who works there. Then he woke up. He suddenly feels at one with the world. He turn around in his bed, touches his wife's hair and thinks that he love her.

Roger Waters

Compicated? Yes! At least, that is what I reckon is a ok explination on what is happening in the album. There is a man who is sleeping and dreaming loads of scary, unpleasant and weird stuff, before he wakes up in the middle of the night to see if his wife still are there.

Gerald Scarfe and Roger Waters having a laugh

Well, that's all I got to say about this album for now. It's getting late, so I will be listening to this album until I'm falling asleep. Wishing you all a wonderful night, and a great week to come.

Shine on

Here you go! The full album. 

Enjoy