Fact #159305
When:
Short story:
Pink Floyd debut The Wall at The Sports Arena, in Los Angeles, California, USA, at the start of a brief North American tour.Full article:
Roger Waters (Pink Floyd ) : As to the actual recording and shows, I think they were the best we did together as Pink Floyd. I'm inordinately proud of the work. It has great musical and narrative shape, good tunes and it's a well-crafted piece of rock 'n' roll theatre. Who knows, I'm only 56, but it may well turn out to be the best thing I ever did.
I put it together with Gerry Scarfe, who designed all the puppets and made the animation with me, and of course with Mark Fisher and Jonathan Park, who did all the detailed design work of the set. They designed the brick; they built the wall; they designed the man lifts that went up and down at the back so that people could actually build the thing. Mark designed the way it fell over, and Jonathan did all the engineering, Gerry's puppets and animation were half of the show.
We were all working furiously up until the first night. And first time we had the wall up across the arena with some fill on it was four days before the first show. I went and walked all the way around the top row of seats at the back of the arena. And my heart was beating furiously and I was getting shivers right up and down my spine. And I thought it was so fantastic that people could actually see and hear something from everywhere they were seated. Because after the 1977 tour I became seriously deranged - or maybe arranged - about stadium gigs. Because I do think they are awful.
Lloyd Dees (production manager) : The band seemed to be in a constant state of euphoria. In fact, during the month of rehearsals prior to the sold-out shows, the band hired our caterer to make special food for an incredible food fight which included the entire staff and band.
At one point or another, every production house in the greater LA area was involved with the undertaking of this giant theatrical event. The shows were unprecedented in their size and scope.
I am certain that there was strife within the band - the pressure was on to outdo their previous Animals tour - but it seemed well-balanced by the band’s phenomenanl shows.
Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) : There was one hitch on the first night in L.A. At the beginning, there’s an explosion. It ignited a curtain at the top of the auditorium. We carried on for a while, then there were carbon dioxide canisters going off and we put the house lights up, and stopped the show until they’d put the fire out.
Steve Pond (reviewer, Rolling Stone) : However bloated, indulgent and excessive the show may have been, it was still an enormously impressive testament to a band that doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to a lot of white blocks.
David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) : For me, the best bit of The Wall was standing on top of it. We were a few songs into the second half of the show. The band had been bricked in, the audience left to confront a vast, blank barrier. 'Is there anybody out there?' sang Roger, a tiny figure now appearing stage right. Then, a trick of the light, there I was, 30 feet up, with the heat of four enormous spotlights at my back, throwing my shadow as far as I could see over the audience.
The sensation was certainly incredible, almost out-of-body. For a few minutes, I was free of the crowd, the band, the 80-strong crew and the headphone-chatter. I didn't have to think where I should be standing for the next number, or direct the backing singers, or cue the roadies. I could simply do the part of my job that I enjoy most: playing the guitar, trying to make it a little better every night.
Rick Wright : Audiences were mesmerised. Nobody had done anything like it before, nor has there been anything like it since. In some future history of rock shows, I'm quite sure The Wall will feature as one of the most influential and unforgettable.
It was an extraordinary show to have put on and, despite everything, I enjoyed performing in it. The thing I remember most is the really odd feeling I got from playing without seeing the audience. I suppose it's the way members of an orchestra feel in the pit of a theatre or an opera house, only I wasn't used to it.
Nick Mason : What gripped me first about The Wall was the narrative idea. I often think that a thematic peg is the hardest thing to come up with for projects like ours, yet for The Wall it was complete and powerful from the beginning.
What is immensely satisfying to me now (Mar 2000) is The Wall's obvious longevity. People still talk about the shows and the CD goes on selling. Most rock music is ephemeral, but The Wall apparently isn't. That's surely some testament to the power of its ideas, the power of its music and to its power as a piece of extraordinary theatre.
(Source : not known)
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I put it together with Gerry Scarfe, who designed all the puppets and made the animation with me, and of course with Mark Fisher and Jonathan Park, who did all the detailed design work of the set. They designed the brick; they built the wall; they designed the man lifts that went up and down at the back so that people could actually build the thing. Mark designed the way it fell over, and Jonathan did all the engineering, Gerry's puppets and animation were half of the show.
We were all working furiously up until the first night. And first time we had the wall up across the arena with some fill on it was four days before the first show. I went and walked all the way around the top row of seats at the back of the arena. And my heart was beating furiously and I was getting shivers right up and down my spine. And I thought it was so fantastic that people could actually see and hear something from everywhere they were seated. Because after the 1977 tour I became seriously deranged - or maybe arranged - about stadium gigs. Because I do think they are awful.
Lloyd Dees (production manager) : The band seemed to be in a constant state of euphoria. In fact, during the month of rehearsals prior to the sold-out shows, the band hired our caterer to make special food for an incredible food fight which included the entire staff and band.
At one point or another, every production house in the greater LA area was involved with the undertaking of this giant theatrical event. The shows were unprecedented in their size and scope.
I am certain that there was strife within the band - the pressure was on to outdo their previous Animals tour - but it seemed well-balanced by the band’s phenomenanl shows.
Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) : There was one hitch on the first night in L.A. At the beginning, there’s an explosion. It ignited a curtain at the top of the auditorium. We carried on for a while, then there were carbon dioxide canisters going off and we put the house lights up, and stopped the show until they’d put the fire out.
Steve Pond (reviewer, Rolling Stone) : However bloated, indulgent and excessive the show may have been, it was still an enormously impressive testament to a band that doesn’t mind playing second fiddle to a lot of white blocks.
David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) : For me, the best bit of The Wall was standing on top of it. We were a few songs into the second half of the show. The band had been bricked in, the audience left to confront a vast, blank barrier. 'Is there anybody out there?' sang Roger, a tiny figure now appearing stage right. Then, a trick of the light, there I was, 30 feet up, with the heat of four enormous spotlights at my back, throwing my shadow as far as I could see over the audience.
The sensation was certainly incredible, almost out-of-body. For a few minutes, I was free of the crowd, the band, the 80-strong crew and the headphone-chatter. I didn't have to think where I should be standing for the next number, or direct the backing singers, or cue the roadies. I could simply do the part of my job that I enjoy most: playing the guitar, trying to make it a little better every night.
Rick Wright : Audiences were mesmerised. Nobody had done anything like it before, nor has there been anything like it since. In some future history of rock shows, I'm quite sure The Wall will feature as one of the most influential and unforgettable.
It was an extraordinary show to have put on and, despite everything, I enjoyed performing in it. The thing I remember most is the really odd feeling I got from playing without seeing the audience. I suppose it's the way members of an orchestra feel in the pit of a theatre or an opera house, only I wasn't used to it.
Nick Mason : What gripped me first about The Wall was the narrative idea. I often think that a thematic peg is the hardest thing to come up with for projects like ours, yet for The Wall it was complete and powerful from the beginning.
What is immensely satisfying to me now (Mar 2000) is The Wall's obvious longevity. People still talk about the shows and the CD goes on selling. Most rock music is ephemeral, but The Wall apparently isn't. That's surely some testament to the power of its ideas, the power of its music and to its power as a piece of extraordinary theatre.
(Source : not known)