3 October 1978 « Rockestra recording », Abbey Road Studios 3, London, England
To record Rockestra Theme and So Glad To See You Here for his album «Back to the egg», Paul McCartney is joined by Hank Marvin, from The Shadows, Pete Townshend of The Who, Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, John Bonham and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Ronnie Lane and Kenny Jones of The (Small) Faces, Tony Ashton of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, and Speedy Acquaye, Tony Carr, Ray Cooper, Morris Pert, Howie Casey, Tony Dorsey, Steve Howard and Thaddeus Richard.
Paul hire da film crew, using five 35mm Panavision cameras, with the director Barry Chattington. An 40-minute programme, called «Rockestra» remains unreleased, save for a brief 15-minute excerpt, which is screened at the Back To The Egg launch party on Monday June 11, 1979. We can see many sequence with David Gilmour.
Paul McCartney:
« I asked the fellow who was going to film (Barry Chattington), if he could film it like they film wild life. You know, they sit back off wild life and just observe it and they just let it go on with its own thing and when you try and film our session it’s a bit like the same sort of thing. If everyone notices the cameras and lights, they all freeze up and won’t talk naturally and they all get embarrassed. So they (the cameramen) put all the cameras behind a big wall and no one could see the cameras and a lot of them didn’t even know it was being filmed. John Bonham had no idea it was filmed … in fact he is suing us!»
«The Beatles Diary, Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970–2001», Keith Badman
5 December 1978 « Old Grey Whistle Test », BBC One TV, Londres, Angleterre
The song There is no Way out there is broadcasted.
22 November 1979 « Old Grey Whistle Test », BBC TV, London, England
An animated movie directed by « FilmFinders » company for Hey You.
26 March 1979 « Making a Living », Channel Four, London, England
An episode that uses the music of Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Bob Dylan and Beethoven. Images of mining, children working in the mines, cloth and coal images.
29 November 1979 « Top of the Pops», BBC TV, London, England
First broadcasting for the promo video of Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2).
Gerald Scarfe:
«Roger called me from France to say that their single, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, had gone to Number One: if i could put a video together to accompany it in three days, they could get that on to the BBC as well»
«The making of Pink Floyd the Wall», Gerald Scarfe.
30 November 1979 « Die Mauer Kinder », German TV
First broadcasting of this German documentary about «The Wall» with an interview with Gilmour.
« The 30-second TV spot was particularly noteworthy, according to Cooke, because it was commissioned by the group themselves. It utilizes an animated version of the characters in the records, drawn by Gerald Scarf, whose captivating illustrations also grace the album. A strong indication of Columbia's campaign to broaden the appeal of the group was the screening of the clip on Saturday Night Live » .
« CBS Marketing Campaign Brings Pink Floyd LP Home » Billboard, August 1979
16 December 1979 « Chorus », Antenne 2, Paris, France
A bad critic by Antoine de Caunes about « The Wall »
26 December 1979 « Journal Télévisé - Édition de 13h », TF1, Paris, France
Patrice Drevet talks about their last LP. « The Wall »
Early 1980 « Interview w/. David Gilmour », MTV TV, New York, USA
A two-minutes interview with David Gilmour for MTV.
August 1980 Earl’s Court Exhibition Hall, London, England
« The Lost Documentary » is a 23 minute documentary based around The Wall live shows, it features the unloading of the touring equipment as it arrives at the Earls Court venue in 1980, and goes on to show Roger at sound check, and a general walk about during the set up of the August London shows. Roger is also seen at the beginning explaining how he only see the tour making it to 3 or 4 cities and maybe a film. The film director/editor then was Howard Lamden. Howard has edited the footage he filmed so it does not infringe copyright and although he could have added the music of the Floyd he feels it would be morally wrong to do so. The director of the « Lost Documentary » shot one to many concerts at Earl’s Court. According the Fitch and Mahon's book, the director had serious trouble trying to assemble a complete edit of The Wall show, since many parts were missing the action, or were out of sync.
«Filmed in and around Earls Court arena, the footage included the two-hour concert as well as the unloading of equipment and mounting of the elaborate production, performed with visual aids projected on huge screens, giant inflatable characters and gigantic foam bricks. This show was not only a groundbreaking example of a modern multi-media experience but also the last time the band's original members played together. It was the final production of the 'The Wall,' which Pink Floyd performed 30 times on stages in Los Angeles, New York, Dortmund (Germany) and London.
Lamden started work on the documentary in January 1981 and it took him about six months to complete, working part-time. When he was done, he sent the documentary, shot on 3/4-inch videotape, to Pink Floyd. “At the time, these guys had so much money that they could've done anything” says Lamden, who names The Band as one of his favorite rock groups. Lamden wasn't sure whether some of the documentary footage was intended to be used as part of a larger project, such as the movie 'The Wall' (originally released in 1982), but when he didn't hear anything, he filed it in his archives, to use for his own reel and to get other jobs. “This documentary was one of the best things I ever did” he says, referring to its linear progression of the 'load-in,' which begins with trucks of equipment rolling into the arena and the crew unloading giant aluminum stage pieces. “I wanted to build an organic story, to tell it as it was” The 25-minute film documents the stage construction and engineering of the concert through behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the engineer, architect, sound and monitor mixers, as well as other crew members, roadies and fans. Around the 20th anniversary of 'The Wall' in 1999, Lamden received a phone call from James Guthrie, sound engineer for 'The Wall' shows, who wondered if Lamden still had a copy of the documentary. 'There was so much infighting [among band members] that source material was lost,' Lamden says. 'I never lost the documentary. They lost it. I had my copy, a pristine copy.
Lamden also owned the copyright, and seriously began to consider releasing the documentary. When Lamden read an article in a UK publication that discussed the 'lost' Pink Floyd documentary and credited the wrong people for directing and editing it, he realized that 'this was an important piece of work, and a lot of people had heard rumors about it.'
To prepare it for release, Lamden changed the title from 'Another Brick in the Wall' to 'The Lost Documentary' and took out the 12-minute version of 'Another Brick in the Wall,' which had accompanied the original documentary. The two-hour concert also had to be omitted for copyright reasons. He copyrighted his work with the Library of Congress in December 2003, alerted Roger Waters to his intentions for release, found investors, built a Web site and cut a trailer. “I went through all the proper channels” he says. “I wanted to make money but I wasn't going to do it and not feel good about it” Negotiations are currently under way between Lamden and Waters to release the full concert with the documentary on DVD».
Mal Hyams:
«I was fortunate enough to have a tenancy at Earls Court which expired at Midnight. I was asked if the band could rehearse, given the hall was contractually still mine. I had no objection. I rushed home, picked up my "steam powered VHS" and filmed what I could. It's been hidden away for 27 years, I recently got the tape out, had a quick edit and posted»
7 August 1980 Earl’s Court Exhibition Hall , London, England
8mm tape with only extracts and a pretty shaky captation
8 August 1980 Earl’s Court Exhibition Hall , London, England
Other 8mm footage with only extracts and a pretty shaky picture. Part of the bootleg of August 9, 1980 interceded images of August 8 including Run like Hell and Hey You. This shows two things: first, several Earl's Court shows (all?) were filmed, and then that the bootleg of 9 August 1980 comes from a pre-finalized edit.
Roger Waters :
« It was filmed in 1980 and 1981 in London. I've got all that, and i'm putting it together. I don't want to sell it really; not because i don't want anybody to see it ... I'm not quite sure why i don't want to. But it is there and at some point it will be available for anybody who didn't see it. I've always been very reluctant to release it. Well, i've never cut it or anything but i am thinking about it now. But i've always been reluctant because it was a very strong, theatrical experience for the people who were there. But on videotape, it will be a king of historical document. It can't possibly be The Event, because you needed to be there with another 12 000 people with the quadrophonic sound and with theairplane going ... But, nevertheless, for people like you who never saw it and who are fans of the musicand are interested, it would be a very interesting document. I wouldn't call it a performance, but a record of the vent so you can at least see what happened - but you will never to be able to have "been there", if you know what i mean ... » .
«In Studio w/. Roger Waters », US Network Radio, 1989.
16.02.1981 WestfallenHalle, Dortmund, Germany
In an interview with Waters at the eve of the launch of « The Wall » tour, Roger says he has found 8 mm extracts filmed by a Danish amateur cameraman. Before the scuttling of the «Harvested» label, Its members were working on it. They have put their hands on the 10 cans for a total of 3:17 minutes filmed from a tripod in the center of the room. Rolf Ossenberg, famous Pink Floyd collector, has recorded all the Dortmund’s shows in 8mm. Just before his brutal death, the community has begun the digital transfert. It seems this project has been definitely shelved.
June 1981 Earl's Court Exhibition Hall, London, England
Planned to appear in the film, the band reacted the show specifically in order of Alan Parker and Michael Seresin (his assistant) could film some sequences for the future film. Nevertheless, some difficulties due to the very low luminosity of the concert and the change of artistic direction caused the group and the director to leave the film behind.
But contrary to what Gilmour said, the whole concert was captured as revealed by Roger Waters in an interview with « Mojo » in December 1999, indicating that the cameraman filmed «much more than he was asked ». In 2010, during the set-up of Waters' « The Wall » tour, the bassist projected a DVD to his staff the original concert, which indicates the existence of a complete testimony of this show. Some excerpts also featured in the 2010 EPK. Finally, only a short excerpt of The Happiest Days of our Lives was officially released on the « Immersion » boxset dedicated to « The Wall »
David Gilmour :
« The '81 shows were put on for the film, but by the time we got to do them they'd already decided they didn't want to use very much. About 20 minutes were shot - for example, Hey You, where the camera was behind the wall focusing on us, then it went up and over the wall onto the audience. That's a great bit of footage. But only three tracks were filmed ».
« Behind the Wall », Record Collector, March 2000.
Roger Waters :
« I have consistently stamped on any moves to get that video out because it does not do justice to what was a very theatrical event ».
« Interview w/. Roger Waters », Unknow TV source, 1987.
Nick Mason :
« (…) The problem with The Wall Shows is, we did do some filming, but not the complete thing. Rogers now done a version, which in have to say is terrific, the video element of that is sensational. The big question is, how many versions you can put out without people beginning to get a bit suspicious. We certainly review any thing of that whether we thing its good and interesting enough»
«Build series», AOL.com, September 2016
