The album came first and recording began at the Super Bear studios in France, followed by CBS in New York and finally, for the largest part, the Producers Workshop in Los Angeles. The whole process lasted from November 1978 until just before the release of the double album in November 1979.

Snowy White's role as one of the 'surrogate band' was made difficult by his commitments with Thin Lizzy. In that time period he was learning two bands material, totally different from each other, and all at once. During the PF rehearsals at LA Sports Arena, Snowy would spend mornings going through Lizzy songs, then polish up on PF's stuff before going to those rehearsals. Snowy would later perform at Roger Water's "Wall" in Berlin 1990.

The Wall toured with an additional three giant puppets the largest over 25 feet long, School Teacher, Wife, and Inflatable Mother. Also in attendance was a giant inflatable pig that dashed around madly during 'Run Like Hell'.

The sound system used was by far the best Floyd had to date, producing 106 decibels of clean sound in perfect quadraphonic arrangement.

As well as being placed either side of the stage underneath the PA, a mixture of 16 Gauss-loaded Altec 2 x 18-inch subs and (in Europe) an unspecified quantity of 2 x 15-inch Court DLB-1200 cabinets were positioned under seating blocks all the way around the perimeter of the arena. The whole arena literally started shaking. Anybody lucky enough to have been sitting over those sub-woofers must have been bouncing!

The Wall shows also incorporated a crashing Stuka dive-bomber, a circular screen onto which animations by Gerald Scarfe were projected. Also used were 35 mm projectors to throw animations onto the wall itself.

During 'The Thin Ice', an intermittent electronic crackle could be heard. Then all of a sudden, Roger shouted through the PA, "Hold it, hold it!". The color from Rick's face drained..everyone was in shock. The pyrotechnic people had guaranteed that when the plane exploded at the end of 'In The Flesh', all the flames would be out upon landing at the side of the stage. But when they raised the drape between the two stages, some of the embers from the spraying pyros had lodged in the material and caught fire. The sound that had been heard had come from the riggers in the catwalks above the stage trying to put out this fire with extinguishers. The audience was informed that the show would resume after everything was under control..however, about half the fans panicked and ran to the exits, the other half were stoned and thought it was far out and part of the act. By the time they restarted the show, one could just about see the stage as the beams of light shone through the heavy, thick smoke left behind.

The 'surrogate band' members wore perfectly formed latex Floyd masks modeled for by the genuine band at the Hollywood film studios during rehearsals.

For the first time since Piper At The Gates of Dawn Storm Thorgerson wasn't commissioned to do the album art work. Roger Waters commissioned Gerald Scarfe to do all the cover designs. Later Mr. Scarfe was to work with Waters on the animation and art for the movie The Wall.

Purchased by Britannia Row especially for "The Wall", in addition to the new Martin quad system, was the new Altec "Stanley Screamer" grid-flown system designed by Stan Miller, which was dubbed the Flying Forest because of its array of different sized constant directivity horns. Those fortunate to have witnessed any of these magical shows will remember the awesome sensurround experience of having low register vibrations firing up their spine. The influx of sensurround movies in the '70s, such as "Earthquake", had inspired Guthrie to suggest augmenting the PA with a system which would enhance the show's sound effects.

Steve Becker, a DJ at Radio Station WAQX in Syracuse, New York, found that if he played Side Two backwards, there was a message embedded just before the track 'Empty Spaces.' This message said, 'Congratulations. You have just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont.' Pink Floyd had no comment.

The Wall necessitated two custom-built stages, one in front of the other at slightly different heights, which were separated by a large black Duvetyne drape. The task of pacing the building of the wall between the two stages and isolating the band from the audience while the show was in motion was no mean feat.

David Gilmour received shared credits on 'Young Lust', 'Run like Hell', and 'Comfortably Numb' which was derived from an unused demo from his solo album.

The Wall built for the Los Angeles shows was constructed out of 420 cardboard bricks and was 31 feet high and 160 feet long. It was slowly constructed in front of the band during the first part of the show, until Roger slotted the final brick into place at the end of Goodbye Cruel World, signifying intermission. The show climaxed with collapse of the wall against a volley of explosive sound effects and smoke.

The Wall concerts sold out immediately in both US locations.

The Wall would eventually rank second only to 'Dark Side of The Moon' as Pink Floyd's all-time best seller.

During Dave's performance of Comfortably Numb he was hydraulically lifted above the wall. This scene, according to Phil Taylor, was included in the show at the express request of Roger. Dave was to appear over the top of the wall for his vocal sections and guitar solos...Phil said he must have been laughing a bit too loud because Roger quickly told him *he* would be going up with Dave. And so Phil was up there with Dave, every night, crouching beside Dave and holding on for dear life.

June 1, 1979 Pink Floyd reported to have 'handed over' their new album to EMI, their first since February 1977. Work in fact continued on the album until November. In June no one could decide whether or not it was a double or triple album.

November 16, 1979 'Another Brick in The Wall, Part Two' released, 340,000 copies were sold in the UK in five days. It took one week to reach number One and was certified platinum in January for over one million sales in the UK.

On November 30, 1979 The Wall album was released, the album was an extraordinary commercial success. EMI shipped 600,000 sets in four weeks in the UK alone. By the end of January the figure was reported to be 1,200,000 copies.

January 1980, three Philadelphia radio stations had an on-the-air battle as to who could give away the most tickets for upcoming Pink Floyd concerts. WMMR had a competition in which the winning couple would go to Los Angeles and the 50 runners-up New York. WYSP countered this with 100 seats 94 in New York and 6 in Los Angeles. Not to be outdone, WIFI jumped in with four tickets to Los Angeles but WMMR out bid them all by upping its original offer and making it four to Los Angeles instead of two and holding a "Think Pink" weekend for its listeners.

August 9, 1980 The Wall is performed for the first time on UK soil. As with previous American shows the Floyd were augmented by a four-man 'surrogate band' comprising of Andy Brown (bass), Snowy White (guitars), Willie Wilson (drums), Peter Wood (keyboards).

Rick Wright

Nick Mason

David Gilmour

Roger Waters

June 13, 1981 Willie Wilson was taken ill just before the opening show. Clive, a Floyd roadie who happened to also be a drummer, was given a crash course in the set's requirements by Nick Mason and replaced Wilson for that one show.

June 17, 1981 marked the last night of the "Wall shows" tour and, it was also the last time Roger Waters played with Pink Floyd.

Quotes

"I still think some of the music is incredibly naff, but The Wall is conceptually brilliant. At the time I thought it was Roger listing all the things that can turn a person into an isolated human being. I came to see it as as one of the luckiest people in the world issuing a catalogue of abuse and bile against people who'd never done anything to him. Roger was taking more and more of the credits. Shouldn't bitch, but one does feel unjustly done." - David

"The recording was very tense, mainly because Roger was starting to go a bit mad. This was the record when he fell out badly with Rick. Rick has a natural style, a very specific piano style, but he doesn't come up with pieces easily, or to order. Which is a problem when other people are worrying about who did what and who should get the credit. There was even talk of Roger and Dave elbowing me out and carrying on as a duo. There were points during The Wall when Roger and Dave were really carrying the thing. Rick was useless, and I wasn't very much help to anyone either." - Nick

"Generally Nick worked hard and played well on The Wall. He even worked out a way of reading music for the drums. But there was one track called Mother which he really didn't get. So I hired Jeff Porcaro to do it. And Roger latched on to this idea, the way he always did with my ideas, and began to think, is Nick really necessary?" - David

"Roger came up with the whole album on a demo, which everyone felt was potentially very good but musically very weak. Very weak indeed. Bob Ezrin, Dave and myself worked on it to make it more interesting. But Roger was going through a big ego thing at the time, saying that I wasn't putting enough in, although he was making it impossible for me to do anything. The crunch came when we all went off on holiday towards the end of the recording. A week before the holiday was up I got a call from Roger in America, saying come over immediately. Then there was this band meeting in which Roger told me he wanted me to leave the band. At first I refused. So Roger stood up and said that if I didn't agree to leave after the album was finished, he would walk out then and there and take the tapes with him. There would be no album, and no money to pay off our huge debts. So I agreed to go. I had two young kids to support. I was terrified. Now I think I made a mistake. It was Roger's bluff. But I really didn't want to work with this guy anymore." - Rick

"It's been a long time since one of our singles charted and although it's not our number one (excuse the pun!) aim, we're all well pleased." - David

"The most unnerving neurotic period of my life with possible exceptions of my divorce." - Roger Waters

"...in an all night session I re-wrote the record. I used all Roger's elements, but I rearranged their order and put them in a different form. I wrote "The Wall" out in 40 pages, like a book, telling how the songs sequed. From that the stage show grew. It wasn't so much rewriting as redirecting." - Bob Ezrin

"You can write anything you want, just don't expect a credit for it." - Roger Waters -

"Ezrin was very good in 'The Wall', because he did manage to pull the whole thing together. he's a very forceful guy. There was a lot of arguments about how it should sound between Roger and Dave, and he bridged the gap between them...." - Nick Griffiths

"The worms are symbols of negative forces within ourselves, [of] decay. The worms can only get at us because there isn't any light or whatever in our lives." -Roger Waters

"The only time I'd ever get mad at Roger on stage was when he'd be playing out of tune; we'd be in D and he was still banging away in E because he couldn't hear it. I had to tune his bass on-stage, you know. In those days there were no strobe tuners, so after every number he'd stick the head of the bass guitar over my keyboards and I'd tune it for him." - Rick

"I went and walked all the way around the top row of seats at the back of the arena. And my heart was beating furiously and I was getting shivers right up and down my spine. and I thought it was so fantastic that people could actually see and hear something from everywhere they were seated. Because after the 1977 tour I became seriously deranged - or maybe arranged - about stadium gigs. Because I do think they are awful." - Roger

"Just before the show he [Waters] decided it should be on three screens. Quite a task. A screaming hurry to do that.. We also had something went wrong with the time code and they went into rehearsal in Los Angeles and the picture and sound went out, and I tell you what happened was we were having this conversation over the phone from London with this guy in Los Angeles who was sitting in a hotel bedroom spilling film all over the floor telling him what to cut and what to look for!" - Peter Hearn