The Wall Live in Berlin 1990: A Staged Demolition for History

Roger Waters put on “The Wall” in Berlin on July 21, 1990, less than a year after the actual wall fell. It was his way of turning a stadium-sized rock opera into a global celebration of freedom—and also a massive charity event for the Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief. The show was staged at Potsdamer Platz, a former no-man’s-land between East and West, and used 500 tons of styrofoam bricks to build a 25-meter wall that was symbolically torn down at the end.

The guest list was a who’s-who of rock and opera. Cyndi Lauper sang “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2,” Van Morrison took on “Comfortably Numb,” and the Scorpions ripped through “In the Flesh.” Ute Lemper handled all the female vocals, Marianne Faithfull did “The Thin Ice,” and Sinead O’Connor performed “Mother” before being almost booed off stage (she had recently torn up a photo of the Pope). The Band, Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, and Paul Carrack also showed up. Waters himself sang the lead, but noticeably absent were his former Pink Floyd bandmates—David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright declined to participate.