Pink Floyd's live version of their 1979 classic The Wall entitled Is There Anybody Out There?: The Wall Live 1980-81 was released in April of 2000.
The double live album was released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the band's masterpiece double album The Wall. The album was originally slated for release in late 1999 but producer James Guthrie (who co-produced the original album) had to literally bake the master tapes to get the sticky glue off after the master tapes had been sitting in storage for years. Also, the band had problems with their US record companies. The band had just inked a new deal with Capitol/EMI worldwide for distribution to their catalog and were set to release but Columbia/Sony for the US and Canada were initially against the album but reluctantly agreed to release the album as the band's final album with Sony in the US and Canada after the band switched labels which were licensed the music (the band have the final say on what gets released and not released).
Is There Anybody Out There? was recorded at London's Earls Court Arena during the band's performances of The Wall in August of 1980 and June of 1981, the shows were a bona fide spectacle. More than anything, Is There Anybody Out There? captures the volume, the bombast and the grandeur of these famed performances with remarkable accuracy.
These performances are astonishingly faithful to the band's studio versions although the band does get to stretch out on In the Flesh(pt. 1), The Thin Ice, Another Brick in the Wall(pt. 1), Another Brick in the Wall(pt. 2), Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, Young Lust, Hey You, Comfortably Numb, The Show Must Go On, In the Flesh(pt. 2), Run Like Hell and Outside the Wall with either extra guitar solos from David Gilmour showing why he is one of rock's greatest guitarists or extra keyboard solos from keyboard player Rick Wright (who passed away September 15, 2008 and was playing The Wall shows as a paid musician after Waters fired him) or extra verses or extended musical pieces.
The other tracks Empty Spaces, One of My Turns, Don't Leave Me Now, Another Brick in the Wall(pt. 3), Is There Anybody Out There?, Nobody Home, Vera, Bring the Boys Back Home, Waiting For the Worms, Stop! and The Trial were arguably better than its studio counterparts although remained faithful to them.
Although they were kicked out in 1979 and 1982 respectively by Roger Waters due to his uncontrollable ego, co-founders keyboard player Rick Wright (God bless his soul) and drummer Nick Mason played better than on the studio version of The Wall, especially Rick whose Hammond Organ work buries that of its studio counterpart. Roger Waters didn't play much bass on this live album as he perfectly recreated the role of Pink and left Andy Bown to play bass in his place. David Gilmour's musical arrangements and guitar and vocals were spot on as well (Roger's performance of The Wall without his ex-colleagues in 1990 was pathetic).
Run Like Hell is classic with Roger Waters' classic intro and Gilmour and Waters trading vocal lines.
This live Wall album also includes two unreleased tracks. "What Shall We Do Now" was left off the original release due to space constraints and "The Last Few Bricks" was a reprise of Happiest Days, Young Lust and Empty Spaces as an instrumental for wall builders to catch up to the band.
Also, Storm Thorgerson's artwork of the four Floyd member face masks is striking (he also fell out with Waters originally during Animals) and the booklets have recollections from the four Floyd members plus road crew and stage designers with some cool pictures of the band on stage.
This live album did well for a "from the vault" release hitting #19 on the Billboard album charts and #1 on the Internet Album Sales chart and went Platinum here in the States within a month of its release. This live album has zero overdubs and is up there as one of the greatest live albums I ever heard next to Pink Floyd's Pulse, Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won or The Song Remains the Same 2007 re-issue, Rush's Rush in Rio, Queen's Queen Rock Montreal, David Gilmour's Live in Gdansk, The Who's Live at Leeds (especially the 2001 reissue), Genesis' Seconds Out and Supertramp's Paris among many others.
Highly recommended!
Pink Floyd's live version of their 1979 classic The Wall entitled Is There Anybody Out There? : The Wall Live 1980-81 was released in April of 2000. The double live album was released to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the band's masterpiece double album The Wall. The album was originally slated for release in late 1999 but producer James Guthrie (who co-produced the original album) had to literally bake the master tapes to get the sticky glue off after the master tapes had been sitting in storage for years. Also, the band had problems with their US record companies. The band had just inked a new deal with Capitol/EMI worldwide for distribution to their catalog and were set to release but Columbia/Sony for the US and Canada were initially against the album but reluctantly agreed to release the album as the band's final album with Sony in the US and Canada after the band switched labels which were licensed the music (the band have the final say on what gets released and not released). Is There Anybody Out There? was recorded at London's Earls Court Arena during the band's performances of The Wall in August of 1980 and June of 1981, the shows were a bona fide spectacle. More than anything, Is There Anybody Out There? captures the volume, the bombast and the grandeur of these famed performances with remarkable accuracy. These performances are astonishingly faithful to the band's studio versions although the band does get to stretch out on In the Flesh(pt. 1), The Thin Ice, Another Brick in the Wall(pt. 1), Another Brick in the Wall(pt. 2), Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, Young Lust, Hey You, Comfortably Numb, The Show Must Go On, In the Flesh(pt. 2), Run Like Hell and Outside the Wall with either extra guitar solos from David Gilmour showing why he is one of rock's greatest guitarists or extra keyboard solos from keyboard player Rick Wright (who passed away September 15, 2008 and was playing The Wall shows as a paid musician after Waters fired him) or extra verses or extended musical pieces. The other tracks Empty Spaces, One of My Turns, Don't Leave Me Now, Another Brick in the Wall(pt. 3), Is There Anybody Out There? , Nobody Home, Vera, Bring the Boys Back Home, Waiting For the Worms, Stop! and The Trial were arguably better than its studio counterparts although remained faithful to them. Although they were kicked out in 1979 and 1982 respectively by Roger Waters due to his uncontrollable ego, co-founders keyboard player Rick Wright (God bless his soul) and drummer Nick Mason played better than on the studio version of The Wall, especially Rick whose Hammond Organ work buries that of its studio counterpart. Roger Waters didn't play much bass on this live album as he perfectly recreated the role of Pink and left Andy Bown to play bass in his place. David Gilmour's musical arrangements and guitar and vocals were spot on as well (Roger's performance of The Wall without his ex-colleagues in 1990 was pathetic). Run Like Hell is classic with Roger Waters' classic intro and Gilmour and Waters trading vocal lines. This live Wall album also includes two unreleased tracks. "What Shall We Do Now" was left off the original release due to space constraints and "The Last Few Bricks" was a reprise of Happiest Days, Young Lust and Empty Spaces as an instrumental for wall builders to catch up to the band. Also, Storm Thorgerson's artwork of the four Floyd member face masks is striking (he also fell out with Waters originally during Animals) and the booklets have recollections from the four Floyd members plus road crew and stage designers with some cool pictures of the band on stage. This live album did well for a "from the vault" release hitting #19 on the Billboard album charts and #1 on the Internet Album Sales chart and went Platinum here in the States within a month of its release. This live album has zero overdubs and is up there as one of the greatest live albums I ever heard next to Pink Floyd's Pulse, Led Zeppelin's How the West Was Won or The Song Remains the Same 2007 re-issue, Rush's Rush in Rio, Queen's Queen Rock Montreal, David Gilmour's Live in Gdansk, The Who's Live at Leeds (especially the 2001 reissue), Genesis' Seconds Out and Supertramp's Paris among many others. Highly recommended!