Roger Water’s “In The Flesh” CD set rolled in today, making it the second time in a row that Fabmart blew my socks off with timely delivery. Not bad.

The album is *really* nice, but what struck me were the liner notes. Here, read this extract:

“Anyone who is familiar with my work and with the comments I’ve made during the course of my career will know that I have an antipathy towards football stadium rock shows.

These arenas are perfect for sports, political rallies, and Billy Graham-style revival meetings….I mean, they suit God and football, but I don’t think their scale is appropriate for rock’n roll which has always worked at its best in circumstances which allow for a much greater degree of intimacy, and contact, between the performers and their audiences.

There’s something about playing before 90,000 people that brings out the worst in everyone. In the performers, it can’t help but to encourage and exaggerate the puerile, attention-seeking part of our personality which is more concerned with power and status.

Audiences for their part get sidetracked by the scale of the event, and the last thing to be properly celebrated is the music.”

Roger, if that is how you feel about it, I am afraid you are *not* going to be a happy man in Bangalore on the 13th! If my guess is right, you are going to be facing an audience of between 30,000 to 45,000 fans for whom this show is going to be a milestone event in their lives!

On the other hand, Bangalore rock audiences tend to be highly supportive and wildly enthusiastic. And don’t be surprised to have tens of thousands of backing singers at the show, with perfect lyrics and rythm! And luckily, Bangalore Palace is not a stadium but more of an arena.

The album pretty accurately follows [WARNING:Spoiler ahead] the set list Roger has been following on this tour, which means that I now have a pretty good idea what we can expect – which suits me just fine. I like being prepared with lyrics, chords and tabs. It helps fill in the gaps – you know, the way the LOTR fanatics do seeing the movie, having read the book.

Still no decisions on vacation destination, though a trip to Germany is now officially ruled out (which upset Anjali greatly). We sat and discussed things this evening, and despite Anjali’s objections will probably choose either Kodaikanal or Ooty.