Cover art for The Final Cut was designed by Roger Waters. Photographed by Willie Christie (brother of Roger's then wife, Carolyn). Artwork by Artful Dodgers.

There are four service medals pictured on the cover of The Final Cut album:

*Africa Star:
Was awarded for service in the North African campaign




* Defence Medal:
Was awarded for 3 years of Military Service.



* Distinguished Flying Cross:
The DFC was awarded to officers and warrant officers for an act or acts of valour, courage, or devotion to duty performed while flying in active operations against the enemy.


*1939 / 1945 Star: was awarded to all servicemen in the Service of the Crown between the declaration of war (1939) and the surrender of Japan (1945). Only one Bar was awarded on the medal "Battle of Britain": which was awarded to aircrew who had flown in active service during the period August-October 1940.

The Final Cut album is dedicated to Roger Water's father, Eric Fletcher Waters 1913-1944, who died at Anzio in 1944.

The Final Cut was recorded at Mayfair Studios, Olympic Studios, Abbey Road Studios, Eel Pie Studios, Audio International, RAK, Hookend and the Billiard Room Studios from July 1982 - December 1982.

Press Premier was held on March 23, 1983 at Madison Square Gardens, in New York City, New York.

The Final Cut went Gold and Platinum on May 23,1983 and Double Platinum on January 31, 1997.

This album was only the second record ever to feature Holophonics, a recording technique created by Hugo Zuccarelli through which quadrophonic sound could be simulated on stereo equipment by encoding into the recording process the dimensions of the human skull. For instance, the missile that launches 'Get Your Filthy Hands Off My Dessert', is said to blast off in front of the listener, pass overhead and explode behind.

The lyrics found in Gunners Dream are based on an IRA terrorist attack that took place in London July 1982. Two bombings occured that day, one in Hyde Park, one in Regents Park. In Hyde Park, as the Household Cavalry marched past a parked sedan, a bomb hidden inside exploded. Four Cavalrymen and seven horses died, 22 guards and civilians were injured. Less than two hours later, on a bandstand in Regents park, the band of the Royal Green Jackets was giving a concert when a bomb underneath the stage exploded. Six bandsmen died, 24 other bandsmen and four civilians were injured.

Roger's preoccupation with the lamentable state of the national and world political order left Pink Floyd's music transformed beyond recognition with The Final Cut, (and some parts of the Wall) for most Pink Floyd fans, while a few veteran PF fans questioned whether it even was PF music at all.

Richard Wright's departure from the Final Cut album came as a shock to many. Pink Floyd later stated that Rick had left the band during the filming of 'The Wall' movie. His replacements were Michael Kamen and Andy Brown. The reason for Rick Wright's departure has never been fully explained.

On the downbeat finale of 'Two Suns in the Sunset' Nick was replaced altogether by studio drummer Andy Newmark when it seemed that nothing Nick could do with the song would satisfy Roger.

The wind from Meddle, the footsteps, clocks and madcap laugh from Dark Side of the Moon, the radio babble and party noise from WYWH, the howling hounds from Animals, and the nightmare screams and megaphone voices from the Wall are all recycled on The Final Cut.

A Video EP accompanied the album, with promotional films for "The Gunner's Dream", "The Final Cut", "Not Now John", and "The Fletcher Memorial Home". The screenplay was written by Roger Waters and was directed by his brother-in-law Willie Chirstie. Roger's face was seen briefly, in semi-shade. David Gilmour's participation was neither asked for nor received. Waters Father in 'The Fletcher Memorial Home' video was played by Alex McAvoy, who portrayed the wicked schoolteacher in the Wall Movie.

EMI released a promo and a single from The Final Cut, "Not Now John/The Heroes Return Parts 1&2". The A-side had a frequently repeated four letter word that was later replaced with a less offensive word, something less likely to offend compilers of radio playlists.

"The Hero's Return Part 2" was basically an extra, previously unpublished verse. There was also a 12" single with the unchanged, album verse of "Not Now John".

The band's original plan had been to prepare a full- length soundtrack album, or at the very least, an LP's worth of material that had been specially written or rerecorded for the movie (the Wall) to be called 'Spare Bricks'. It seems the Falkland war changed all that as it was on its way to the studio. The spare bricks took on a life of their own and became The Final Cut. When the album was released in the spring of 1983 it was very different from what had been predicted.

Another departure from the norm was the title of the album....'The Final Cut; A Requiem for the Post War Dream' By Roger Waters .. performed by Pink Floyd.

Tentative concert dates were announced for November 1983 for touring of The Final Cut. However Gilmour and Mason were more enthusiastic about the idea than Waters who abruptly scuttled the plans. The Final Cut was never performed live by Pink Floyd.

Though the sales were unspectacular by PF standards, some people thought TFC was a great album. Some reviewers raved about it at the same time their readers rated it one of the all time worst. The album has always been at odds with itself...the perfect product of precisely what was occuring with its creators during its creation. From a literary standpoint however, if nothing else, some believe it surely qualifies as Roger's most mature accomplishment.

Quotes

"I got on a roll and started writing this piece about my father, I was on a roll and I was gone. The fact of the matter was that I was making *this* record." -Roger

"The Final Cut was strongly critical of Brittany involvement in the Falklands conflict and the high cost, in human terms, of war." - Roger

"It has a dynamic thing as well, where it affects the dynamics and you can have things that appear to your brain to be fantastically loud, but they're not moving the needles very loud at all. It's not actually a loud sound on the tape,but your brain thinks it is. The secret of this holophonic thing is that it actually fools your brain; it's not what is actually on the tape or on the record, that isn't all of it - it's actually making a reaction with your brain; it's very hard to explain but it alters how you perceive the sound." -David [Holophonics]

"It was an aftermath to The Wall, at one time it was actually, the Final Cut was, the title meaning that it was the final cut of The Wall that it was going to contain a lot of old Wall material that hadn't made it onto the album or that was a sort of finale to The Wall. So the two albums are actually rather interconnected." -Nick

"It's very very good, but it's not personally how I would see a Pink Floyd record going. The sound quality is very good, it's very very well recorded, and the string arrangements and orchestral stuff are very well done, but it's not me. Consequently, I was arguing about how to make the record, at the beginning and it was being counterproductive." -David

"It was really Roger's solo album. The rest of us just sort of drifted into it." - Nick

"It got to a point on the Final Cut that Roger didn't want to know about anyone else submitting material. There was at one time a great spirit of compromise within the group. If someone couldn't get enough of his vision on the table to convince the rest of us, it would have been dropped. 'The Wall' album, which started off unlistenable and turned into a great piece, was the last album with this spirit of compromise. With The Final Cut, Waters became impossible to deal with." - David Gilmour

"It's very very much Roger's baby, more than any one has been before and I didn't... it's not the way I'd have produced it and we did have an argument about the production on this record - several arguments, and I came off the production credits because my ideas of production weren't the way that Roger saw it being. -David

"It reached the point that I just had to say 'If you need a guitar player, give me a call and I'll come and do it.'" -David

"You can hear the mad tension running through it all" and, that the making of TFC was "absolute misery" and " a horrible time." -Roger

"Back in the seventies, we used to pretend that we were a group, I started to get very resentful because I was doing a lot more and yet we were all pretending that WE were doing it. Well we don't pretend anymore. I could work with another drummer and keyboard player very easily, and it's likely that at some point I will. The future of Pink Floyd depends very much on me." - Roger

"Well, there are those who contend it's not over, of course. But making The Final Cut was misery. We didn't work together at all. I had to do it more or less single-handed, working with Michael Kamen, my co-producer. That's one of the few things that the 'boys' and I agreed about. But no-one else would do anything on it. It sold three million copies, which wasn't a lot for the Pink Floyd. And as a consequence, Dave Gilmour went on record as saying, "There you go: I knew he was doing it wrong all along." But it's absolutely ridiculous to judge a record solely on sales. If you're going to use sales as the sole criterion, it makes Grease a better record than Graceland. Anyway, I was in a greengrocer's shop , and this woman of about forty in a fur coat came up to me. She said she thought it was the most moving record she had ever heard. Her father had also been killed in World War II, she explained. And I got back into my car with my three pounds of potatoes and drove home and thought, good enough." -Roger

"Yes, but I think the world is fooling itself if it thinks that rock bands are made up of loveable mop - tops who really get on....I mean too many people have seen "Help!", is perhaps the trouble, um....it is....um....it is a stressful occupation's not what I mean, the problem is you have these little sort of power struggles going on, you have people who set off on an enterprise, with very similar ideas on what they want to do, and what happens is success particularly changes it, and everyone starts rethinking what they want to do, or how....or you realise it's not everyone wanting to do that, one's wanting to do that....and....it's inevitable, it ends in tears. What one always hopes for and admires are people who can make those breaks in a more civilised way." -Nick

"I always made it absolutely clear to Roger that I liked being a Floyd and had every intention of remaining one.. Make no bones about it WE would carry on." - David

"You'll never fucking do it..." - Roger