Fact #163851
When:
Short story:
Pink Floyd play in the Concert For Berlin on Platz Der Republik, West Berlin, West Germany, Europe.
Full article:
Peter Schwenkow (promoter) : Berlin was a divided city with a wall running through the middle, and there had never been an event here for more than 20,000 people, so I wanted to do something special.
The year before the Pink Floyd concert, I created the Concert For Berlin for which I got David Bowie (June 6, 1987, Platz Der Republik) and Michael Jackson, and the following year we had Pink Floyd, Genesis and Bruce Hornsby And The Range.
The David Bowie concert was a huge success because on the other side of the wall, people were dancing and yelling. We had a radio station in Berlin RIAZ (Radio In American Sector), it was the pop station in Berlin, but with a clear political goal – you could hear it all over the former GDR.
This was one of the very few moments in those days … because this was the condition sine qua non … David Bowie and Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd accepted a live broadcast of their concerts into the GDR. This is why the reaction was so strong.
I had my first CNN interview, because people on the other side of the wall were chanting "The wall has to fall!" It made the front pages of every German newspaper.
So the next year I went on sale with the Pink Floyd concert but East Berlin put huge pressure on the West Berlin authorities, Bonn was still the capital of Germany, Europe. They said, 'If you do that concert in that place, which is in front of the old German parliament, the Reichstag, we cannot guarantee that we will not have dead people. It was huge pressure.
The former senator for the environment who was in charge of giving me permission, said he could not give me permission. So I said, "Well, I have already sold 20,000 tickets."
So then he agreed to let me do it but with huge restrictions. They had to make a soundcheck and we had to restrict the size of the PA. So they came to check it on the evening before the concert, but as soon as we got the permission and the authorities had left, we brought in another fifteen trucks and put in the full PA. The next day we shook every window in East Berlin, Germany, Europe. That was my revenge. Those were the days.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, Sept 2010)
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The year before the Pink Floyd concert, I created the Concert For Berlin for which I got David Bowie (June 6, 1987, Platz Der Republik) and Michael Jackson, and the following year we had Pink Floyd, Genesis and Bruce Hornsby And The Range.
The David Bowie concert was a huge success because on the other side of the wall, people were dancing and yelling. We had a radio station in Berlin RIAZ (Radio In American Sector), it was the pop station in Berlin, but with a clear political goal – you could hear it all over the former GDR.
This was one of the very few moments in those days … because this was the condition sine qua non … David Bowie and Michael Jackson and Pink Floyd accepted a live broadcast of their concerts into the GDR. This is why the reaction was so strong.
I had my first CNN interview, because people on the other side of the wall were chanting "The wall has to fall!" It made the front pages of every German newspaper.
So the next year I went on sale with the Pink Floyd concert but East Berlin put huge pressure on the West Berlin authorities, Bonn was still the capital of Germany, Europe. They said, 'If you do that concert in that place, which is in front of the old German parliament, the Reichstag, we cannot guarantee that we will not have dead people. It was huge pressure.
The former senator for the environment who was in charge of giving me permission, said he could not give me permission. So I said, "Well, I have already sold 20,000 tickets."
So then he agreed to let me do it but with huge restrictions. They had to make a soundcheck and we had to restrict the size of the PA. So they came to check it on the evening before the concert, but as soon as we got the permission and the authorities had left, we brought in another fifteen trucks and put in the full PA. The next day we shook every window in East Berlin, Germany, Europe. That was my revenge. Those were the days.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Audience magazine, Sept 2010)