Written by Brain Damage contributor
(Originally appeared in Brain Damage Magazine issue 38)
A WALL GOES UP AT THE NASSAU COLISEUM
It was in December 1979 that The
Wall album was released, and shortly after when rumours began
circulating of an upcoming tour. However, this U.S. tour would be
vastly different as it would only take place in two cities, Los Angeles
and New York. Pink Floyd would play only seven nights at the LA Sports
Arena and five nights at New York's Nassau Coliseum. Some weeks later
on a chilly Winter night I found myself at home listening to WNEW-FM,
as I usually did back then. Suddenly two DJs began talking about a
phone call they just received. The call was from a Floyd fan who said
he obtained a copy of the next morning's NY Times newspaper. He went on
to say that it contained a full page advert for The Wall concerts
bearing a headline "On Sale Today at 8am"! I knew I had to act
immediately!
I telephoned my good friend Bob,
also a big Floyd fan, and convinced him that we must get to our local
Ticketmaster at once. He agreed. When we arrived there was already a
car parked with four people in it trying to keep warm. A few minutes
after I parked, a guy from the other car came over and knocked on my
window. He asked that Bob and I sign a list that they had started,
which we gladly did. With that we secured spots 5 and 6 in what I knew
would be a very long line by morning. Feeling more at ease, we settled
in for a cold night. Needless to say, we had to keep the car running
the entire time to keep us from freezing to death.
The morning seemed to arrive
quickly, and sure enough a line of about 200 people accumulated before
8am. The clock struck eight, the line began to move and within two
minutes Bob and I were purchasing tickets to what would become one of
the most historic rock tours ever! Only three of the five shows were on
sale then, so we secured tickets to two of them. A few days later the
tickets for the other two shows went on sale. Only this time the New
York and New Jersey metro area was blocked out of the sale to allow
fans from Virginia to Maine a crack at these scarce tickets. All that
remained was to wait for the last week of February to arrive.
On February 25th, we arrived in
the parking lot at 7pm, one hour prior to showtime. While walking from
the car to the Coliseum, the first thing I noticed was all the
out-of-town license plates. Some from as far away as Colorado! I knew
that thousands of fans from all across the country, and overseas I'm
sure, were desperate to see these concerts. This was confirmed by the
huge number of people canvassing the parking lot asking everyone "Have
you got an extra ticket to sell?"
Once inside the Coliseum my eyes
were immediately drawn to the enormous stage centered between two
partially built sections of a wall. These two sections pertruded out
from the seating on both sides of the stage and would eventually be
joined together, brick by brick, to form one giant wall across the
entire Coliseum, obscuring the band from its audience. Bob and I made
our way to the 5th row where we had two aisle seats directly in front
of David Gilmour's microphone. At 8pm sharp the lights went out and a
local DJ, Gary Yudman, took the stage. He read a list of do's and
don'ts (the usual warnings of no flash cameras, fireworks, etc.). Right
at the end of his message, the surrogate band (consisting of backing
musicians) led by Roger Waters broke into the powerful opening "In the
Flesh?".
Pink Floyd, with surrogate band
in tow, proceeded to give us a beautifully played note-for-note
rendition of sides one and two of the double album. It was only during
Another Brick Part 2 and Mother that we were treated to a little
jamming. Also, during these two songs, gigantic inflatables of a school
teacher and mother were dangling in front of the wall. Throughout this
set, the band gave us all the pyrotechnics and film footage we had
grown accustomed to. The large round screen was used for the films, and
even the flying plane was brought back to crash into the wall. All
during the first half, the roadies were slowly building the wall. We
were now at the end of side two and the band were completely hidden
behind the wall save one brick-sized opening. It was from this "window"
in the wall that Waters sang Goodbye Cruel World. One final brick was
placed in the opening, bringing the first half of the concert to a
close.
After a twenty minute
intermission, which I used to buy a T-Shirt and program, the second
half of the show was underway. The band played Hey You while completely
hidden behind the wall. A few bricks were then removed so as to give us
a peak at Dave while he played Is There Anybody Out There?. Following
that, a small portion of the bricks were were unfolded to reveal a
living room setting on a platform, on which Waters sat in a chair
facing a working television. From there he sang Nobody Home. After the
next two songs were sung by Waters to a host of wartime film footage
projected on the wall, we had arrived at the point that everyone had
been waiting for. We were about to hear Floyd's greatest hit,
Comfortably Numb! But the most spectacular and highest point of the
concert surely had to be Dave's first verse and guitar solo which he
performed on the very top of the wall.
After a quick rendition of the
next song, the band took a short pause to re-group and allow for Gary
Yudman, the concert MC, to return to the stage. He again rattled off
the same do's and don'ts to replay his role at the beginning of the
show. Only this time he read them in a deep robotic voice. Within
seconds of his finish, the band started up again to the opening chords
of In the Flesh. Now the entire band were in front of the wall (now
used as a large screen for their films).
Waters introduced the next song,
Run Like Hell, and dedicated it "to all the paranoid people in the
audience". During Waiting For the Worms, the best animation sequence
was used - the infamous "marching hammers"! After the next short song,
The Trial sequence began with Waters singing before a host of animation
clips projected on the wall behind him. At the end of the song, with
the chants of "tear down the wall" echoing throughout the venue, the
wall fell. It was knocked over by the roadies with the bricks falling
harmlessly between the stage and the audience. The group, led by Roger
Waters, paraded in front of the remains of the wall while playing
Outside the Wall.
I'm glad that I was "one of the
few" fortunate fans to have witnessed two of these historic concerts.
All that remains to be said is that the last week of February 1980 will
live in my mind forever.
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