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Pink Floyd's Roger Waters will be performing at Auckland's Vector Arena - Source: Getty Images
Breakfast presenter Corin Dann on why he wants to thank Pink Floyd's Roger Waters for bringing The Wall tour to Auckland.
Four old and dear mates are coming up from Christchurch to stay this weekend. We are all off on Monday to see Roger Waters' classic concert The Wall at Vector Arena.
It's a weekend I've been building up to (with some apprehension ) for a long time, as Pink Floyd's The Wall holds a very special emotional place for my mates and I. Here's why.
On October 6 1990 my best friend Brett Dimmock died suddenly in a tragic car accident. I was 16 at the time and had known Brett like a brother since I was 4.
He was an awesome friend to many, many people and it was an horrendous shock to his wonderful family and our little South Christchurch community.
The innocence of youth seemed to be shattered overnight and I was crushed.
But then in the days after the accident as we floundered around trying to deal with our grief, a tiny fragment of relief arrived in the form of a song.
A song called Comfortably Numb from Pink Floyd's masterpiece The Wall.
It turns out by some freaky coincidence that Brett had told someone a couple of weeks prior to his death that if he died he wanted Comfortably Numb played at his funeral.
To be honest I think most of us were pretty unfamiliar with the song. I certainly was.
However we were soon brought up to speed. And wow! What a song. The unbelievable guitar solos, the dark moody verses, the soaring dream like chorus. Just epic.
No wonder Brett used to put his head up next to the speaker at parties and listen to it at full volume.
And I reckon the funeral directors understood the power of the song too.
Maybe one of them was a Floyd fan because at the funeral home on that sunny spring day Comfortably Numb seemed to be fare cranking out of the sound system.
The song of course was now to us forever 'Brett's song' and it went where we did.
We sung it in bands and at parties, learned every note of the guitar solos and hung the lyrics on 'our' walls.
When guitar magazines talked up Dave Gilmour's technical guitar genius in the song we celebrated and when Roger Waters played it during his tribute to the end of the Berlin Wall, we soared with pride.
But actually getting to see the Wall performed live ourselves? No, that seemed too much. That was not something we dared dream of.
We'd heard the stories about how much financial trouble the original tour had created in 1981. It practically broke up the band. Building up a giant Wall throughout the performance every night was a pretty outrageous and expensive idea.
Surely it would cost too much to come to New Zealand, wouldn't it ? There was no chance.
Well, imagine our surprise then when Roger Waters (the creative genius behind the album) announced last year he was bringing The Wall to Auckland.
Some dreams it seems do come true.
And so I just want to say thanks, Roger for going to the effort to bring The Wall all the way to little old New Zealand.
Thank you for giving four of my mates from Christchurch a welcome escape from their earthquake bullshit.
And most importantly thank you for your wonderful song that for over 20 years has helped keep the memory of our mate Brett alive.
To read more Corin Dann opinion click here