The Wall

:For the movie based on the album, see Pink Floyd The Wall (film).

Concert version

Pink Floyd performed the concert version of The Wall only a handful of times, in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Dortmund. This was due to the grandiosity of the performance, which involved constructing a giant wall across the stage between band and audience, not to mention staple Pink Floyd props such as giant screens, flying pigs and pyrotechnics.

Related Topics:
New York - Los Angeles - London - Dortmund

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The performances began with the band in full view, with the giant wall being constructed by roadies out of 420 cardboard bricks throughout the first half of the performance. In the second half, the band would be completely obscured from view behind the wall, but still playing, while extra parts were played in front of the wall by a "surrogate band" composed of Andy Brown on bass, Snowy White on guitar, Willie Wilson on drums and Peter Wood on keyboards. The surrogate band wore masks of the faces of their counterparts in the real band. While playing lead guitar on "Comfortably Numb", guitarist David Gilmour was hoisted hydraulically on to the top of the wall, where he played his famous guitar solo in full view of the crowd. The wall was eventually torn down during "The Trial", and Pink Floyd themselves joined the surrogate band in front of the wreckage of the wall to perform the finale, "Outside The Wall".

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During the performance, giant puppets of the characters Teacher, Wife and Mother, designed by Gerald Scarfe, were used, and animations by Scarfe were projected onto a circular area and onto the wall itself. Added to this, a hotel room (where much of the story is set) emerges from the wall midway through the second half.

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The large stage shows required huge equipment (including full sized cranes), and cost an extraordinary amount of money to realize. As such, the band lost money from them, with the exception of Wright, who was retained on a fixed salary for the concerts.

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The intent of the band for these concerts was to give the audience a truly theatrical experience instead of just a show where the band played the songs. As such, during many songs, Waters assumed the role of the anti-hero , "Pink", singing despondently from a hotel room (a set on the stage). To this day, these performances are considered some of the greatest rock concerts ever.

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In 2000, the best performances from these concerts were compiled into a live version of the album called Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81. The release includes two tracks ("What Shall We Do Now," "The Last Few Bricks"). The former was left off the original release due to space constraints, and the latter was a medley of the first half to let the roadies finish building the wall.

Related Topics:
2000 - Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81

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