The Wall Tour (1980–1981)


The Wall Tour was a concert tour by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd throughout 1980–1981 in support of their concept album The Wall.
The tour was relatively small compared to previous tours for a major release, with only 31 shows performed across four venues. Concerts were performed only in England, the United States and Germany. The tour was notable for its extensive use of stage theatrics, most notably a giant wall constructed across the stage to convey the sense of alienation present in both the album, and Roger Waters' personal feelings at the time.
This was the last tour of Pink Floyd with Roger Waters, before his departure in 1985. 17 June 1981 was the last concert of the tour, and the band's last full concert with Waters.

History

"I was struck by the thought that there was a huge wall, that you couldn't see, between me and the audience," explained Roger Waters. "Then I drew it and started to talk to people about it. And they thought I was mad, because my original idea was to start building a wall at the beginning of the show and, when it's finished, they can't see you or hear you any more, and then the show is over."
The shows involved pyrotechnics, most prominently featuring a model Stuka aeroplane flown over the audience towards the beginning of each performance, crashing and exploding as it hit the wall. This stunt caused a mishap during the first night of the tour, when it set the stage curtains on fire. The stadium had to be evacuated, but following the revelation of the surrogate band, Waters had difficulty convincing the audience that the fire was not also part of the performance. No serious injuries occurred.
Unlike prior tours, The Wall required precise timing and staging. For "Comfortably Numb", while Waters sang his opening verse, Gilmour waited in darkness at the top of the wall, standing on a flight case on casters, held steady by a technician, both precariously balanced atop a hydraulic platform. On cue, bright blue and white lights would suddenly illuminate him. At the very end of each concert, the wall would be dramatically torn down, controlled carefully by tipping mechanisms in order to prevent the front rows of the audience from being harmed.
The tour's costs were estimated to have reached US$1.5 million even before the first performance. The New York Times stated in its 2 March 1980 edition: "The Wall show remains a milestone in rock history though and there's no point in denying it. Never again will one be able to accept the technical clumsiness, distorted sound and meagre visuals of most arena rock concerts as inevitable." It concluded, "The Wall show will be the touchstone against which all future rock spectacles must be measured."
Nick Mason explained:
The concert was performed just 31 times in four cities: Los Angeles, Uniondale, Dortmund and London. The primary 'tour' consisted of 18 shows in L.A., Uniondale and London in 1980, but the band performed a further eight shows in Dortmund and five more shows at Earl's Court for filming, with the intention of integrating the shows into the upcoming movie
The London shows are documented on the album Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81.
David Gilmour and Mason attempted to convince Waters to expand the show for a more lucrative, large-scale stadium tour, but because of the nature of the material Waters balked at this.
On tour, relations between Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Richard Wright were at an all-time low: their four Winnebagos were parked in a circle with the doors facing away from the centre; an isolated Waters used his own vehicle to arrive at each venue and stayed in separate hotels from Gilmour, Mason and Wright. Despite having left the band upon completion of the album, Wright agreed to complete the tour as a salaried musician, and consequently ended up being the only member of the group who made any money from the venture. "I did not just want to walk out on this great thing I'd been working on," he recalled. "I just decided I'd go out and play my best, possibly with the hope that, if it worked out, decision to have me out could have been reverted."

Concert film

The idea to include live concert footage of any significant length for The Wall film was dropped shortly before the final shows took place. There are conflicting statements regarding the professionally filmed footage. It had been widely believed that 'the wrong type of film' had been used and the results were dark and murky. Mark Fisher, partly responsible for designing the show said the footage was: 'very dark and horrible and boring and should be burned'. Alan Parker himself said: ' five blown opportunities'. These rumours were partially scotched when the Channel 4 documentary 'Behind the Wall' used perfectly clear master videotape footage from the Earls Court 1980 concerts, as well as pristine film footage from the Earls Court 1981 concerts. 27 February, 6-7-8-9 August 1980 concerts were shot on videotape, while 13-14-15-16-17 June 1981 were shot on Eastman 125T film stock, using Panavision Panaflex Gold cameras. These cameras can be seen in various photographs from the June 1981 leg. Attempts to brighten up the show for the film were successful, however the ISO for the filming was too low, thus Parker deeming the footage "a waste". David Gilmour has stated in an interview that only three tracks were captured on film:
However, this is referring to the studio productions for the 1982 movie; shortly before the June 1981 leg ended, the band had come to the realization that they would need close-ups of the musicians on-stage. To solve this, they recreated the Earls Court concert stage at Pinewood Studios for the sole purpose of shooting close-ups. They did several takes of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"; "Another Brick in The Wall pt. 2"; "Mother"; and "Hey You". The reason that they chose to do the close-ups in a studio as opposed to the live shows is due to the fact that they didn't want the cameras on the stage to distract the audience. The close-ups presented in official teasers from 1981 are from the studio session.
In an interview with Chris Salewicz during the Radio KAOS tour in 1987, Waters claims that attempts to put it out were shut down, as it doesn't do the original concerts justice.
Roger Waters said on an episode of In the Studio with Redbeard which devoted two parts to the making of The Wall that "the London shows in 1980/81 were filmed and he had all of the footage and was thinking of putting it together to be released. However felt extremely reluctant to release the concerts on the video cassette format". He also would have to refer to the shows as a document of what went on.
In the December 2009 issue of Mojo, Roger Waters revealed that he had 'discovered a whole load of new footage of The Wall shows' and was busy 'editing it'. He explained that he assumed the cameramen decided to shoot more than they were asked to as they had the cameras and "nobody bothered". Waters has stated that the film was shot on 70mm, however this is false; it was shot on 35mm film and the negatives were printed as 70mm.
In Rolling Stone magazine, Waters expresses that the footage would "undoubtedly" be released to the public.
During Waters' tour of The Wall in 2010 footage of Waters performing his vocal parts in "Mother", labelled as being filmed in Earls Court in 1980, was projected onto the incomplete wall. The first verse comes from the studio session in 1981, and the second verse comes from 7 August 1980.
DVD of The Wall Immersion Box Set includes the professionally shot 35mm footage of "The Happiest Days of Our Lives" at Earls Court, 1981, with mixed footage from 13 to 17 June. The footage seen on the bootleg Divided We Fall by Harvested DVD is from 6–9 August 1980, while the audio is soundboard from 8 August in the first set, and 9 August in the second set.

Personnel

;Pink Floyd:
  • David Gilmour – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, mandolin on "Outside the Wall", musical director
  • Nick Mason – drums, percussion, acoustic guitar on "Outside the Wall"
  • Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar on "Mother", clarinet on "Outside the Wall"
  • Richard Wright – piano, organ, synthesiser, accordion on "Outside The Wall"
;Additional artists:
  • Andy Bown – bass guitar, acoustic guitar on "Outside the Wall"
  • Snowy White – guitars
  • Andy Roberts – guitars
  • Willie Wilson – drums, percussion
  • Clive Brooks – drums, percussion
  • Peter Wood – keyboards, acoustic guitar on "Outside the Wall"
  • Joe Chemay – backing vocals
  • Stan Farber – backing vocals
  • Jim Haas – backing vocals
  • John Joyce – backing vocals
  • Gary Yudman – MC
  • Cynthia Fox – MC
  • Jim Ladd – MC
  • Ace Young – MC
  • Willi Thomczyk – MC

    Set list

The tour set lists comprised the entire album, The Wall, and a songs that was not included on the original album; "What Shall We Do Now?", as well as an extra verse in "The Show Must Go On", and the then-untitled instrumental "The Last Few Bricks".
First set
  1. "In the Flesh?"
  2. "The Thin Ice"
  3. "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1"
  4. "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"
  5. "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2"
  6. "Mother"
  7. "Goodbye Blue Sky"
  8. "Empty Spaces"
  9. "What Shall We Do Now?"
  10. "Young Lust"
  11. "One of My Turns"
  12. "Don't Leave Me Now"
  13. "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3"
  14. "The Last Few Bricks"
  15. "Goodbye Cruel World"
Second set
  2. "Hey You"
  3. "Is There Anybody Out There?"
  4. "Nobody Home"
  5. "Vera"
  6. "Bring the Boys Back Home"
  7. "Comfortably Numb"
  8. "The Show Must Go On"
  9. "In the Flesh"
  10. "Run Like Hell"
  11. "Waiting for the Worms"
  12. "Stop"
  13. "The Trial"
  14. "Outside the Wall"

    Tour dates

Date CityCountryVenueAttendance
13 FebruaryDortmundWest GermanyWestfalenhallen132,000
14 FebruaryDortmundWest GermanyWestfalenhallen132,000
15 FebruaryDortmundWest GermanyWestfalenhallen132,000
16 FebruaryDortmundWest GermanyWestfalenhallen132,000
17 FebruaryDortmundWest GermanyWestfalenhallen132,000
18 FebruaryDortmundWest GermanyWestfalenhallen132,000
19 FebruaryDortmundWest GermanyWestfalenhallen132,000
20 FebruaryDortmundWest GermanyWestfalenhallen132,000
13 JuneLondonEnglandEarls Court Exhibition Centre100,000
14 JuneLondonEnglandEarls Court Exhibition Centre100,000
15 JuneLondonEnglandEarls Court Exhibition Centre100,000
16 JuneLondonEnglandEarls Court Exhibition Centre100,000
17 JuneLondonEnglandEarls Court Exhibition Centre100,000