Omnibus : Pink Floyd - Behind the Wall
Aired by the BBC, November 1994

This documentary was made to promote the 2000 release of 'Is There Anybody Out There? - The Wall Live.' Very few surprises here for anyone who's ever read/viewed/heard anything at all about Pink Floyd in their entire lives, but some of the interviews are well worth it.

Highlights : The live concert footage - ohyeah baby. Bob Geldof and the dueling cab ride story. Waters gleefully saying 'I fucking hate Pink Floyd.'
Dubious Highlight : The Floyd finally speak about firing Rick Wright. None of them can hide the lingering emotional scars: Mason looks sympathetic; Gilmour looks troubled; Wright looks nervous; and Waters looks dismissive...at first. Watch his hands, though. If he winds that ring around his finger any faster it'll go spinning across the room.
Lowlights : 'Who are these people and why won't they shut up?' Pooey on Mary Anne Hobbs and Robert Sandall. I wanted to hear Andy Bown or Gary Yudman, not someone whose closest brush with the band was probably touching the free Division Bell tickets they gave away to their radio listeners.
Nightmare Fodder : Waters' imitation of the stage-crawling fan. If the music thing ever goes bust for him, our Rog has a ready-made career playing the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Wrinkle Factor : eeeEEEeeeeeEEEEeEEeEeEEEeEEEeeeEeeeeeeK.....!!!!! The years between this show and the '94 doc have not been kind.
Band Distinctions :
Roger Waters - He's in top form here; alternately the Floyd's bossy oldest child, then a big goofy spaz. Most revealing comment: from behind The Wall, he defies the audience to 'shout through this, you bastards! You can't hurt us now.' Hm. I never knew getting paid to do what you love for a living caused physical pain... *remembers creepy afr-w posts * Ah. Um. Okay, point taken.
David Gilmour - He's unusually tense, hinting at The Wall's lasting emotional strife (I get the same vibe from all the band, actually, in varying degrees). Unfortunately the angst is reflected in the purgatorial interview lighting. Yikes. Kudos to him for committing the doc's first f-word, though.
Nick Mason - In every single Omnibus, Mason looks like Winnie-the-Pooh just up from hibernation. He's even more lethargic in this one though, looking bored to tears at telling the same old stories but politely trying not to show it. Try a little harder next time, Nicky.
Rick Wright - Wow. Wright always looks nervous in interviews, but this one takes the cake. He's so tense here you could bounce quarters off him. Still, it must have taken some amount of guts to talk about this painful personal stuff in front of millions of strangers, so he gets the gold star for that.
Live Wall Footage :

Oh my my. Gorgeous isn't the word. After the migraine-y Nassau and Earl's Court voios, these clips are like a warm bath after a hard day. Some highlights:

'In the Flesh?' - Even up close, those life masks were really good. Great synch between Waters and Andy Bown on the vocals, too.

'The Happiest Days of Our Lives' - On the voios it's hard to get a feeling of the full scale of the inflatable puppets, but here - well-lit and shot from all angles - they're absolutely huge. The Teacher puppet is actually freakin' scary.

'Young Lust' - Gilmour and Waters share a microphone, swapping spit in perfect crystal-clarity. Waters gawps at the camera, then starts a political debate with an ant crossing the stage floor while Gilmour sings the verse.

'Hey You' - Another good glimpse of the show's massive scale. We get a band's-eye view of the start of the second act - namely, a big fat eyeful of Wall - and it is indeed one huge mammajamma.

'Comfortably Numb' - Much clearer than the bootlegs...I wish they'd included a wide shot though. The only bonus: Waters' abrupt 'fuck this, I'm going for a pint' departure from stage just as Gilmour sings 'you are receding...'

'The Trial' - The Wall's collapse in the voios is pretty anticlimactic, but here, it's filmed at stage-and-audience-level. Yikes. No wonder the musicians were shitting themselves while the bricks thundered all around their tender little heads.

'Outside the Wall' - Love that barbershop quartet. Go woo-woo boys!

Lasting Impression : Loved it. I really wish Waters would release the rest of the live stuff, though. I'd buy a 'Wall Concert' dvd in a nanosecond. Especially if there were goodies, like a multi-angle function and a commentary...(are you listening, Mark Fenwick?) So Roger, if you're out there, please let go of your end of the bone and release the tapes. Please? We'll be your friend if you do. All the cool kids are doing it. Pretty pretty please with sugar and jam.
Grade : A

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