All language subtitles for PINK FLOYD - Stage++

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.