Original subtitles

My name is Marc Brickman and I wasthe production designer

forthe Pink FIoyd Division BellTour.

My name is Mark Fisher and I wasthe designer

ofthe Division BellTour.

I thinkthatwhatwetried to accompIish in the beginning

wasto create a...

an environment in the stadium

thatwouId accentuatethe music that Pink FIoyd pIays

and create an atmospherethatwouId reaIIyencompassthewhoIe stadium,

and thatwas reaIIythe goaI:

to makethem Iargerthan Iife.

And I thinkthefirst meeting was probabIywith Marc Brickman,

and atthat point, he'd aIready had meetingswith the band.

He cameto mewith a--

an ideato create an arch atthe end ofthe stadium,

an arch which wasto be a kind of entrancetunneI to anotherworld,

sothatthewhoIething ofthe band pIaying in this entrance

was reaIIythe big ideafor howthe showwas going to be, and...

So, we started taIking then about how it might be done.

Then the process startswith the band

and startswith theirmusic, startswith meetings about,

you know, what-- whatthey have in theirmind,

whatthey'd Iiketo accompIish.

And the processthen goes into drawings, modeIs.

Wethen move into construction, rehearsaIs, and then we go on tour.

Designing a-- a set like Division Bell

goesthrough reaIIyfourstages, I guess.

The big idea, the design, the artdesign,

the construction,

and then thefiguring out howtotouritwith thetouring crew.

Thefirststages, from the band's pointofview,

and uItimateIythe pubIic's, the most important, that'sthe idea.

What isthe big ideafrom which everything eIse is derived?

As I recaII it-- itgot settIed down prettyquickIy

tothis big arch with a smaIIerroof inside underneath

and then thetwo PAtowers

which eventuaIIy had the pigs in atthetop, offtothe sides,

and thewhoIething being about200feetwide

and the arch itseIfbeing somewhere in the region of

a hundred and twentyfeetwide and eightyfeet high.

My name's RobbieWiIIiams

and I'm the Production Directorfor the Pink FIoyd Division BellTour.

The Production Director's roIe is reaIIyto...

takethetourfrom its sortof initiaI inception with--

from through the design stage

taIking tothe designers and the musicians

aboutexactIywhattheywantto do,

checking outwhich venues we're proposing to pIay

and making surethatthe show thatgets designed

can, A: fit in tovariousvenues, obviousIyaIsofiII them,

givethefansthe scaIe of performancethat, you know,

they've grown to expectwith Pink FIoyd,

butaIso, to make sure that itcan be put up,

performed on, and dismantIed and moved tothe nextcity in time.

Itthen goes intothe more detaiIed,

"Okay, this iswhere the engineers come in

and weworkout exactIy howwe're gonna buiId it."

This iswherethe peopIe whowiII do production drawings

forcutting steeI, formaking things, come in.

And itgoes into a buiIding stage

which invoIves an ever-increasing numberofpeopIe.

So, the idea isthatthe equipment thattakesthe Iongestto set up,

which isthe staging and the stadium preparation,

you havetwo orthree sets ofthat,

which can Ieapfrog around each other.

So, atanyonetime, there'II be one stage being buiIt in one city,

one being performed upon in anothercity,

and then in the Iastcityyou're in,

there'II be one being dismantIed readyto be moved on.

And thenjustone setofthe sortof band equipment, the sound and Iights,

which does actuaIIygoto everyshow.

Ifyou were standing on the stage as a memberofthe band,

in frontofyou, out in the house,

you had the mix position, which was awonderfuI baroque structure.

It had sIiding roofs on it, it had a IeveI forthe--forthe PA mixing,

it had a IeveI forthe band guests with its own terrace

and, ofcourse, a bardownstairs with-- awet barwith refrigerators.

Behind you overyourhead, you had a roofette

which had thesefingers which had Iights on.

Furtherbehind you on thefloor wasthe big circuIarscreen

with Iights aII around it and expIosives mounted

forthe momentatthe end ofthe show when thewhoIe screen bIew up.

Each ofthethree staging teams was probabIy 12 peopIe

thatwouId be suppIemented with an armyofIocaI heIpers

and scaffoIders, and riggers,

which wouId probabIy be sortof50 or60 peopIe.

And then when the main team had arrived,

which wouId be about anotherhundred peopIe,

once again, they'd be suppIemented byanotherarmyofIocaI heIpers.

Wethen have a sound crew,

various Iighting crews thatcomefrom thevarious companies

thatsuppIythe different Iighting eIements,

the pyrotechnics crew,

speciaIistcarpenters, and engineers

thatoperatethings Iikethe mirrorbaII,

and the actuaI buiIding ofthe performance stage.

We have ateam ofsite coordinators

who aIwaystraveI ahead ofeverybodyeIse

and make surethateach city is ready

sothatwhen the staging trucks roII in,

we're readyto, you know, usethem,

and aII thevarious IocaI infrastructure

thatwe need hasto be in pIace.

Myapproach to Iighting design aIways has been to dramaticaIIy

trytoteII the story in Iighting, you know,

by using darkness as a base.

So, the Iighting design's aIways about...

aboutaccentuating the music

and peopIe can foIIow, you know, the instrumentsthatare pIaying,

and what's going on, and visuaIIy painting with Iight.

The main Iightsthatwe used in the showwere oftwo kinds.

Therewere Iightsthatcamefrom VariҗLite, which is based in DaIIas,

and Iightsthatcamefrom TeIescan which is a French company.

The TeIescan Iights were mostIy Iights

ofa kind ofthat have moving mirrors.

You have a Iight-- Iump ofIight and itsends a beam outone end

and has a mirrorthatcan be moved.

TheytypicaIIy produce averytight bright beam,

and the object is unusuaI, reIativeIyspeaking,

becausethe Iightcomes out ata rightangIe

tothe main direction ofthe object,

so you're aIwaystrying to kind ofpush it up againstthings.

AII right. The Iighting design incIuded TeIescans,

which is a French-based Iight.

We had TeIescan projectors, which-- We had five ofthose,

which were avery high-end stiII fiIm projectorthat had scroIIers

thataIIowed imagesjustgo scroIIing acrossthefrontofthe stage.

And aIso, we incorporated one ofthose projectors

as an oiI-based Iiquid Iightshow in athrowbacktothe '60s.

And we aIso had numerousVariҗLites.

probabIy-- I think in Earl's Court

therewere probabIy, I think, around 150VariҗLites.

We aIso had some speciaIIy-made DIALux,

Dave's request,

which reIeased 2500-watt HMI high-speed coIourwheeIs

that Dave used to stare into during the performance

when he's pIaying guitarsoIos.

Theywerevery incredibIy bright.

They Iook-- Big coIourwheeIs, reaIIy.

Thatwas-- Thatwas his creation.

Atthefrontofthe stage just beIowthe band'sfeet

and running across thewhoIe ofthefrontofthe arch

were a series of... units,

each containing Periaktoi,

which are mostoften found in advertising hoardings

where you seethese advertising hoardings

made up oftrianguIarprisms

which can flip round, sothey havethreefaces.

We had a bIackface,

which iswhatthe audience saw when theyfirstcame in,

a mirrorfacewhich wasthere when wewanted to use it

to dazzIethe audience with reflected Iight

and aIso athird face,

which had taken overaII ofthe paneIstogether,

overathousand individuaI channeIs ofspotIights,

PAR 56 spotIights, with very narrow beams

which we couId programme sothatwe couId make a matrixofmoving Iights,

we couId makewordsthatwouId run across Iike a giantteIecasterboard.

We couId make aII kinds ofpatterns.

So, thesethings couId roII, theywere rigged horizontaIIy.

TheycouId roII round.

And atthe cIimaxofthe show theyspin continuousIy

and you seethat reaIIycIearly in thevideo

with the Iight beams bursting out overthe audience asthey revoIved.

We aIso, atthefrontofthe stage, had athousand PAR46 Iights

thatspun, you know, and in "Run Like HeII",

thatwas aIways onethe bestcues when theywouId startspinning,

and it Iooked Iiketheworld was coming to an end.

The Iast-- ObviousIyatthe end of"Run Like HeII"

every-- itwasthe, you know, the parodyofthe rockshow

and we definiteIy hitthat numberin that.

And sothose Iights, that--thatwhoIe scene

aIwayswas--was prettystunning.

But, Iook, I keyed aII the musicians with TeIescan Iights,

sothateverybody had a key Iight,

sothat, reaIIy, theyaII popped outas a unit.

Theywere aIwaysvisibIe, peopIe couId aIways seewhowas pIaying.

ObviousIy, David had foIIowspots...

and, you know, and the singers, whenevertheydid theirbackups,

we used somefoIIowspots butthe main--

the main Iighting was reaIIythese TeIescan Iightsto keyeverybody,

sothat insidethe picture, insidetheframe,

you IiteraIIycouId paintwith Iight and foIIowthe music.

And not in aflashing way, but in a much more dramaticway,

we reaIIywere mouIding and-- and cross-fading coIour,

sothatyou-- as Iong astheystayed constant,

the musician stayed constant in the key Iight,

aII the effects around them couId happen.

With the FIoyd, the position ofthe band's on--

the members ofthe band on stage isvery important,

and I worked with PhiI TayIor tofigurethatout.

Theywere in rehearsaI

and I was going down and measuring thingswith PhiI,

going tothewarehouse wherethe equipmentwas stored,

and weworked thewhoIething out in greatdetaiI.

MainIy becausewewanted totry and keepthe band verycompact

and it's notthe kind ofband where peopIe are running around.

Whatwewanted to do was reaIIygetthem

as cIosetothe audience aswe couId.

I'm PhiI TayIor.

Myjob on thetourwasthe Pink FIoyd's backIine crewchief,

which more specificaIIy means

that I Iookafterand am responsibIe forthe band's equipmenton stage,

and even more specificaIIy, David GiImour's guitars and his equipment.

His main working guitar

formostofthe songs where he's pIaying eIectricguitar

is a red '57 Vintage Reissue Stratocaster,

which has been fitted with EMG pickups

and SPC and EXG tone controIs.

That's his main workhorse that he usesfora Iotofthe stuff.

In addition tothat, he has a coupIe of'52 TeIecasters...

with a sIightdifferenttuning, one which he usesfor"Astronomy Domine",

and onewith a bottom string tuned down

to D which he usesfor"Run Like HeII".

AIso, there are a coupIe of Iap steeI guitars,

again, with differenttunings,

which are used, forexampIe, on "One ofThese Days" and "High Hopes".

I'm AndyJackson, I was sound engineeron the PulseTour.

Myjob istotakefeeds ofaII the signaIs

from aII the instruments on stage

and so on, and bring them together into a mixing consoIe

from where I can controI the sound coIoursthere,

controI the IeveIs,

and bring itaII together intothe sound picturethatyou hear.

I haveto mention CoIin NorfieId and Dave Lohr

whoworked with me on that, doing differentaspects ofthe sound

and as ateam, we madewhatyou heard that night.

Pink FIoyd have aIways spent a Iotoftime and money

making surethatthe sound system they use is, you know, thefinest.

And there's-- There are basicaIIy two sound systemsthatwe use.

One is a basicstereo PAsystem

which is in the conventionaI positions eitherside ofthe stage.

Thiswas one ofthefirst big tours

outforthe Turbosound FIashIightsystem

which was a great heIpto us, it's averygood system.

Itwas a hugejumpforward from anything that had been around before.

In someways, itsounds Iike a big Hi-Fi.

Itdoesn't behave Iike a big Hi-Fi

but it hasthat kind ofquaIity, it's--

You don'tfeeI Iike you'refighting againstthe PA.

ItfeeIs Iike it'sverycIean, very, very neutraI.

One ofthe principIes, as best I understand it,

isthatessentiaIIy, whereveryou are in the haII

you're Iistening to one speaker cabinet, notawhoIe bunch ofthem,

sothey behaveveryweII.

TheyaIways getaveryeven sound around the haII

and itcertainIywas a great heIpto us,

itwas avery nice system toworkon.

And then theyaIso have a quad-- whattheycaII a quad sound system

which is actuaIIythreefurther stacks ofspeakers,

onewhich is in the middIe at the back behind the audience,

and then there's afurtherstack on eitherside ofthe audience.

Which actuaIIy, in someways,

is a much more intuitiveway ofthinking about it.

You thinkofthings as being in frontofyou, orbehind you,

ortothe Ieft, ortothe right.

And we couId take any particuIar source and feed it into ajoystick,

which wouId aIIow usto actuaIIy position thatsound anywhere,

oreven have itflyaround the room aswe pIeased,

which was aIways greatfun.

Which enabIesthem to pan guitarsoIos and the Iike

around the audience and aIso, tofeed the sound effects,

so ifyou've gota running man sound effect,

orwaterrunning, itcan be, you know,

aII thewayaround the outside ofthe audience,

giving afarmore sortofspatiaI effect.

David, on atrack caIIed "Keep TaIking",

used a unit--weII, made by HeiI

caIIed avoice boxwhich consists ofa poIythenetube

which is run upthe micstand, positioned nexttothe microphone,

and actuaIIy, then pIace it in theirmouth,

sothe guitarsound goesto an ampIifier,

intothevoice box itseIf, upthetube intotheirmouth,

and then by manipuIating theirmouth, the guitarsound comesfrom that,

and intothevocaI microphone.

We mixed the showon Yamaha boards.

CoIin had the drums and bass,

I had aII thetop Iine instruments,

Dave had spIitsfrom some ofthosethings

and aII thetapes and stuffforthe quads.

I thinkthe importantthing reaIIy istotryand keep itsimpIe

and concentrate on the importantthings

and the important thing isthe baIance,

can you hearthe guy you're supposed to be hearing

atthat particuIartime? You know.

Ifit's-- Ifthe guy is singing, you wanna hearthat.

If-- Ifit's a soIo, you wanna hearthat.

That'swhat importantatthattime, just keep itsimpIe.

[PhiI TayIor] Rick's keyboard rig iswhatyou wouId caII

pretty basic, in that he pIayed mainIy Hammond organ, grand piano,

and some synth stuff.

Jon's setupwas a much more compIexaffair

with a sequencer and various sound moduIes

thatenabIed him to create sound washes

and atmospherics and pIayotherspecific parts.

Guy's bass setup, firstofaII he used fourdifferentguitars,

a Precision bass, a Jazz bass, both made by Fender,

a Status bass, which was a five-string, and a Spector.

ThesewouId be pIugged into a Trace EIIiot preamp

which had different pre-sets on forthe different IeveIs

and different EQ settings ofeach bass

to enabIe his onstage sound to remain constant.

Nickand Gary both used Drum Workshop kits.

The originaI ideawas thattheysaton one riser

and Iooked Iike one big drum kit with two peopIe pIaying it,

sotheyordered the same coIour tofaciIitatethat.

However, the reaIity when we got iton stagewas

that it Iooked Iiketwo drum kits.

We used someverystate-of-the-art Iaserequipment

thatcamethrough Oxford Lasers in EngIand.

CopperVapourwasthetitIe ofthem,

which gave a much broaderbeam

and we've aII seen Iasers in manyshows before

which are usuaIIytraditionaIIy sortofgreen, orbIue, orred.

These particuIarIasers gave a particuIarlywide

and incredibIy brightorange beam.

Very high-powered Iasers, Iasers that reaIIy have onIy been used

with thistour, and theywere used to spIit isotopes,

Thatwastheirmain purpose in Iife, theycamefrom the miIitary.

Everyevening, we'd have to getcIearancefrom the FAA

when we pIayed in America,

sothatwe didn'tget in theflight path ofoncoming--

incoming pIanes at some ofthe airports

when we--when we pIayed the stadiums.

I Ioved the Iasersjust because of how beautifuI the goId coIourwas.

I thinkthe Iasers reaIIy--

using them in an architecturaI way in a manner

wherewe defined space which wasvery powerfuI.

The circuIarscreen was42 feetwide,

with a 70-miIIimetre projectorbehind the inflated backwaII,

and itwas used forprojection ofthefiIms

that Storm Thorgerson had made.

My name is Storm, Storm Thorgerson

and I am the director ofthe screen fiIms.

The FIoyd circuIarscreen,

which is usuaIIy in the middIe ofthe stage,

and easyformost peopIeto see,

is, in part, a specific FIoyd thing that I thinktheydid first.

AIso, it, I think, aIIowsfora different kind ofcomposition.

So, from the directoriaI end,

it's quite interesting towork fora circuIarscreen

and actuaIIy, whatwe do iswe puta IittIe circuIarmask

insidetheviewer on the camera, right,

whetherit's--whether we're shooting in tape orin fiIm,

sothatwhatwe see iswhatwe're gonna project.

Moving the circuIarprojection screen wastechnicaIIy

quite compIicated because itwasvery big,

and we had to arrange it

sothatwe couId open up the backwaII ofthe arch,

atthe momentthat the screen was Iifted,

sothat itcouId tipforward and get itseIfinto averticaI position.

Butoncewe'd worked out howto do it,

when itwas done each night in the show,

itwas prettysmooth because thewhoIe pointofa show Iikethis

isthat in technicaI rehearsaIs, you workthesethings out,

so bythetime itgoes on the road, they're reasonabIydebugged.

In terms ofthe projection, the projectoris a 70 miI... projector

with 70 miI fiIm spooIs and they're huge, okay?

It'sthe bestquaIityyou can get otherthan IMAX,

which theywerethinking ofdoing.

Butthatwas actuaIIy quite prohibitive.

Ifyou thinkofhow big an IMAX screen is,

you wouId neverhave seen the musicians.

The propsthatwe used on that-- onthe Division BellTour,

we had the aeropIane

which has been used over-- in Pink FIoyd shows overmanyyears.

In fact, virtuaIIyaII thetours since D¤¤ ¤i¤e oft¤e ¤¤n¤

We used two pig heads abovethe PAsystem

eitherside ofthe stage,

theywouId depIoyduring "One ofThese Days".

In the house, we had this mirrorbaII thatwas on thetop ofatower

thatzipped itseIftogether and went up 60feet

and we had a mirrorbaII on top ofit which was 20feet in diameter

which squashed down flat Iike a pancake

and Iifted up into a sphere as itwent up

and then itopened up Iike a giantflowerpetaI

with avery bright Iight inside it.

And itwas a reaIIy reIigious moment

when thisthing happened towards the end ofthe show

right in the middIe ofthe stadium. Quite ext¤ordinary.

Itwent up reaIIy high and Iit up thewhoIe stadium.

Thatwas a great, greatthing.

ObviousIy, the question ofsync...

is quite a compIex issue,

because ifyou're a musician, you can imagine

that maybe youjustwantto pIay according to yourmood,

maybe you wantto pIay, you know, sIowerorfaster

foravarie¤ofreasons.

Nothing to dowith thefiIm itseIf.

And sometimes you maywantto pIay tothefiIm.

Many, many peopIe have asked howwe kepteverything in sync in the show,

thevariousfiIms and sound effects and things Iikethat,

and the answeriswe didn't reaIIy. We did itaII by hand.

There'd betimeswhen Dave Lohr wouId be on headphones

and he'djust bewaiting fora particuIarmusicaI point

and he'd Iined histape machine up to a markand he pressed the button,

and Io and behoId, itwouId come outatthe righttime.

On "Shine On You C¤zy Diamond", David GiImourwouId wa¤h thefiIm

andjuststart pIaying ata particuIartime

and he had a coupIe of particuIarcue points he knew

and ifhewas in frontofit, he'd sIowdown a bit,

ifhewas behind it, he'd speed up.

And it meantthat, basicaIIy,

he couId keepthewhoIe song in syncwith thefiIm. Nearenough.

It mightdriftout bya second here orthere

but itdidn't matter, you were stiII seeing the picture

thatappIied tothe Iine you were hearing him sing.

ThefiIm is made ofmixes ratherthan cuts,

so it's a sIow procedure, changing graduaIIy

from one shotto another, often in sIow motion

and thatwas averydistinctdecision

notonIyto be resonantwith the music

butaIso, it meantthatthereweren't any particuIarcut points, you know,

A mix is soft.

And ifyou're in sIow motion and the mix is soft,

then you've got no hard timesto go by.

AIthough "On The Run", forexampIe, wouId befixed.

and aIso, the beginning of"Time", I thinkwasfixed,

itwouId have a cIicktrack, in fact.

ButthewhoIe business was such a numberand, you know.

it's extraordinary.

What's more interesting in the process...

iswhatwerethefiImstrying to do, ifyou Iike.

Whatarethe impIications,

which are different from othersituations,

partIy because you're making fiImsto accompanythe Iive show,

butaIso, they'reteIIing stories thatare FIoyd stories.

Sometimesthe stories are notverycIear,

sothey're more Ioose, more poetic ifyou Iike

forwantofa betterword, though that's a prettygood word.

In terms ofspecificfiIms,

"Shine On" isvery personaI

'cause it's an a¤mpt, in part, to represent Syd

and sortofreferto his abbreviated Iife story.

I mean, it's not reaI, noris it direct, it'sjust metaphoricaI

but it'svery personaI to me and tothe band

in trying to saysomething obIique and a bitsad reaIIy, forSyd.

"High Hopes" is aIsovery personaI, butthistimeto ouryouth,

and tothetown we camefrom, nameIy Cambridge,

and has Iots ofreferences in it thatareto dowith youth and memory

and aIso, to dowith the kind of distortion ofmemorythat,

you know, often when you rememberyourchiIdhood,

it's aIways as ifthingswere much biggerand more powerfuI.

And this istwo-foId. It's partIy because I thinktheyare,

¤causetheystrike you when you're younger, therefore yourbrain is--

Yourmemory is kind of, Iike, newer sowhat hits you isthefirsttime

but it's aIsotrue because you're atoddIer.

And in fact, everything from treesto aduIts, aretaIIer, bigger.

I mean, forexampIethere are the guys on stiIts

who are--who I reaIIyenjoyed

notjust because ofthe kind ofodd waytheywaIk

butaIso 'causethey're sotaII,

and thistaIInesswasjust, ifyou Iike, a simpIeway

to suggesta memory, thatthe memorywas bigger

and the same goesforthe gowns.

Rememberthe guywho waswaIking aIong

the runwayatthe oId aerodrome,

and this gown is enormous.

I mean, it's about-- it's about60foot.

It's huge and actuaIIy we had to hoId it up byairbaIIoons

because it is so big butwe painted them outafterwards.

On an ave¤ge day, wewouId go in with the back Iine atten o'cIock.

Wewerethe Iastcrewto go in.

OurgoaI wasto be ready forfouro'cIock,

when the band wouId turn up fora sound check.

The sound check itseIfwas aIways done in a pre-determined order

starting with the drums and percussion

and working through the band to David whowasthe Iast person.

The band wouId then pIaya coupIe ofnumberstogether,

make sure everything was sounding right,

turn everything on to standby, go and have some dinner.

Bythetimewe gotto the European Ieg ofthetour

which were IargeIyou¤oorvenues and wouId tend to open the--

open the doorsvery, veryearly

and Iet peopIe in at-- in the middIe ofthe afternoon,

and they--the pubIicwouId be in beforewe arrived,

and so effectiveIywe couIdn't sound checkand we didn't.

So, prettyweII the European Ieg ofthetour

was donewithouta sound check,

and bythen, we reaIIy knew the showveryweII

and we couId Iookatthe board, putthefaderstothe right position

and startthefirstsong, and we'd be prettyweII right.

and bya minute in,

we'd be absoIuteIy wherewewouId have been

ifwe'd done a sound check.

Some ofthe beststadiumsto pIay in werethe smaII coIIegetowns

where you'd pIay theirfootbaII stadium,

and they'd veryo¤n be quite Iowatthe sides

and have an open back,

and itwas aImostthe same as pIaying in afieId

and theywere IoveIyto pIay in.

Theywere reaIIy... very nice controIIed sound,

notvery reverberant.

Good--Verygood-- Some ofourbest sho¤¤were in those smaII towns.

Theworst, which is notorious wasthe...

OIympic Stadium in MontreaI,

which coincidentaIIy isthefamous

venuefor Roger spitting atthe audience

that Ied on tothe ¤llsho¤¤.

And it is a horribIevenue, it's notoriousIy horribIe.

It's got reverb...

The reverb's probabIy stiII going eightyears Iater,

it'sjust horrendous.

Wefound reaIIythe onIyway to pIaythose pIaces

wastotryand drown itout,

which is-- ¤nfortunate phiIosophy wasjustto govery Ioud,

and itactuaIIyseemed to heIp which is a shame.

We'd rathernot have donethat.

One showthatwas particuIarly exciting was in Rice...

Rice ¤niversity Stadium in Houston, Texas

wherewe had a rema¤bIe amountofrain.

And were intothe show and thetropicaI rainstorm

decided to descend on us.

And effectiveIyflooded the entire stadium.

You can't protect againstatropicaI rainstorm.

Itwas-- Itwas, you know, an inch in five minutes orsomething.

Itwas unbeIievabIe.

And a carin the carpark was struck by Iightning

and bIew upwhich waswitnessed bya PAcrew

from the surround sound PAthat was up atthe edge ofthe stadium,

and I have a photograph that I took

asthe roofabovethe stage coIIapsed

and this giganticamountofwater came down ontothe stage

so much that itjust wiped everything off.

The audience, amazingIyenough, bythe end ofit, was standing aImost

uptotheirknees in waterin the stadium.

The rain often adds sortofan e¤ra exciting eIementtothe show

and forms a bitofa bond between the audience

and the band because everybody's determined stiII to enjoythemseIves

and to enjoythe experience.

Itgottothe pointwhere one byone various pieces ofequipment

-started going off. -PeopIewouId breakdown on the stage

and then-- intothe end theywere pIaying as atrio,

withjust David and bass and drums.

And Nick Mason was Ieft

pIopping his drums in a puddIe ofwateron a snare.

Everything eIse had shutdown, gone awayyou know, I mean, IiteraIIy,

instrumentswere going down one by one, the Iighting system wentdown,

the sound system went-- everything wentdown.

I mean, itwasjust-- the band was soaking wet.

Once David's guitarpacked up thatwas it.

End-- It had to be the end ofthe show.

Therewasjust nothing Ieftthatworked.

Forme, I thinkthe big memory was actuaIIycoming to Earl's Court

and having done nearlysix months on the road

ofdoing ou¤oorshows every otherday, traveIIing,

deaIing with theweather, and aII thatthatentaiIs,

and aIso pIaying to Iargevenues ofbe¤een, I suppose,

thi¤and a hundred thousand peopIe.

Itwasvery nice to actuaIIy be inside,

outoftheweather, you couId go home at night,

wewerethereforthreeweeks, didn't haveto putthe equipmentaway...

and itwas Iike pIaying a smaII cIub to us, reaIIy,

afterthe sho¤swe'd done.

A IotofpeopIewo¤aboutgoing and pIaying Earl's Court,

because it's regarded as being a di¤cuItvenueforthe acoustics.

I haveto say, forus,

compared towherewe'd been forthe Iastsix months

itwas reIativeIyeasy. I mean, it's di¤cuIt

because it's big and it's reverberant,

butactuaIIy, it's smaIIer

and Iess reverberant than a IotofpIaceswe'd done.

So, itwasn't-- itwasn't reaIIy thatdi¤cuIt, orthat intimidating.

Britannia Row had aIso gota Iotofexperience ofthatvenue

and knew howto rig itto make itwork.

So, it--You know, fora Iot-- I supposefora IotofpeopIe,

that'swheretheygo into the biggest room they pIay,

forus itwasthe smaIIest room, so different.

I thinkwith anygroup thataretouring

when theycome back intotheir home city, it's particuIarlyspeciaI.

And this ofcoursewas because they hadn't pIayed in EngIand

on thewhoIetour.

Theycame back atthe end of 120 sho¤s

around America and Europe, orwhateveritwas.

So, yes, A: itwas a combination oftheirhomecoming,

B: it's sortofthe main prestigiousvenue in London.

Wewere abIeto break records and seII itoutfor 14 nights in a row.

And so, the generaI sortof excitementand atmosphere

surrounding thewhoIe event was particuIarlyspeciaI.

I thinkatthe Iast--the Iast note at Earl's Court,

one, ofcourse automaticaIIy having donethe showforsix months,

goes into auto mode of, '¤e've gotto packaII this equipmentaway."

Butthere is a bitofa sense of...

I suppose, Ioss, oremp¤feeIing atthe sametime,

in thatyou've been doing that everyotherdayforsix months

and suddenIythat's it, it's over.

So, it's aIways a IittIe sad atthat point, you know,

and you've buiIt up reIationships and friendships

with different peopIe and aII the thingsthatgo aIong with that

and it's... it's inevitabIy a sIightsad time,

aIthough happyto be home and have a break,

'cause it is pretty grueIIing asweII.