Pink Floyd - 1980 - Tearing Down The Coliseum Wall

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Pink Floyd
1980
Tearing Down The Coliseum Wall

The Godfather Box – G.R. BOX 05

Pink Floyd played five sold out nights at the Nassau Coliseum on the short but expensive
Wall tour in 1980 and 1981. All five were taped from the audience with the final night on
February 28th being the most popular show to appear on silver releases.

On Tearing Down The Wall the Godfather label present the three rare middle shows,
February 25th, 26th & 27th. The February 26th show was included on the four disc set
on Sigma Your Favorite Disguise (Sigma 23), but the second and fourth concerts from the
New York shows are making their silver pressed debuts in this box set.

The New York concerts were heavily promoted on metropolitan radio, creating a media
blitz. All the shows were sold out within five hours. Scalpers were fetching as much as
$100 for orchestra seats. At one of the shows 150 fans destroyed the glass in the box
office and ran into the Coliseum, blending in with the crowd.

Newspapers published serious articles about the spectacle, offering mixed opinions.
Martha Hume in the Daily News wrote that “cannot figure out just what people see in a
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menopausal British rock band that seems to be contemplating the Guyana solution as
the nearest exit from life.”

On the other hand, John Rockwell, reviewing the shows in the New York Times, opined
that “The Wall show remains a milestone in rock history though and there’s no point in
denying it. Never again will one be able to accept the technical clumsiness, distorted
sound and meager visuals of most arena rock concerts as inevitable” and concluded that
the Wall show will be the “touchstone against which all future rock spectacles must be
measured.”

After the final gig the band hosted a party attended by Carly Simon, Mark Knopfler and
other luminaries. Andy Warhol, when asked if he liked the concert, replied “I always felt
that the Velvet Underground was a good psychedelic group.”

With all the attention being paid to Pink Floyd with the recent release of the big
“immersion” and “deluxe” versions of their catalog, it’s also an opportunity to discover
more of the unofficial tapes in circulation. And as good as the February 28th show is
(and sounds), it’s nice to hear the other New York shows in the best available sound
quality.

The packaging is also excellent. It includes a mini tour program, liner notes, and a button
commemorating the gigs. Tearing Down The Coliseum wall is the most impressive Pink
Floyd release since Behind The Wall (Stonehenge Records STBX 022/23/24) came out in
1993, which contained the Feb. 28th show along with the Los Angeles rehearsals and
Roger Waters live tracks from the early nineties.

February 25, 1980

Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY

101. MC: Atmosphere

102. In The Flesh
103. The Thin Ice
104. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1
105. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
106. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2
107. Mother
108. Goodbye Blue Sky
109. Empty Spaces
110. What Shall We Do Now?
111. Young Lust
112. One Of My Turns
113. Don't Leave Me Now
114. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3
115. The Last Few Bricks
116. Goodbye Cruel World
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201. Hey You
202. Is There Anybody Out There?
203. Nobody Home
204. Vera
205. Bring The Boys Back Home
206. Comfortably Numb
207. The Show Must Go On
208. MC: Atmosphere
209. In The Flesh
210. Run Like Hell
211. Waiting For The Worms
212. Stop
213. The Trial
214. Outside The Wall

Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/5LFWFnCeVH0

The sound quality for the second New York show is very good to borderline excellent.
There is slight damage to the source tape at the beginning and slight cuts in “Another
Brick In The Wall Part 2.” Except for some conversations by the recorder, it captures the
music very well with an emphasis on the lower end.

In fact, one funny moment occurs during “Nobody Home.” About two and a half minutes
into the song a female security guard asks our taper, “Is that a pipe you’ve got there?”
The taper ignores her, so she asks him again. He responds, “No, it’s a microphone.”
Despite the admission she lets him continue to tape.

The February 25th show begins with Gary Yudman’s little speech. In addition to the
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usual statements, he adds: “I do have a couple of ‘good luck’ telegrams you might be
interested in hearing from. We have a telegram from President Carter. It says, ‘You guys
blow my mind. Stop. Rosalyn too. Stop. Rosalyn ooo. Stop. Ooo, oo, Rosalyn. Stop.’
Signed Lover of the Year. We have one from Bob Dylan. From Bob Dylan it says, ‘You
can call me Bobby, and you can call me Zimmy, and you can call me absent, cause I won’t
be there.’ Let me see, uh, we have one from Neil Young. It says, ‘My, my, hey, hey, hope
your show goes well today.'”

The opening is very energetic with the highlight “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2,” the
first real hit from the album. The audience become so enthusiastic that someone throws
fireworks on she stage at the very beginning of “Goodbye Blue Sky.” Roger and the band
keep their cool thankfully (unlike their visit to Madison Square Garden in 1977) and
continue the song without incident.

“You having a good time? Goody, goody, goody!” Waters says before introducing “Young
Lust.” Both Gilmour and Wright on keyboards sound like they’re having much fun in this
track. But something seems wrong with Waters’ microphone during “Don’t Leave Me
Now.” His vocals sound much heavier and he’s out of sync with the music.

The first half ends with the instrumental “Last Few Brick.” The piece goes on longer than
usual because the road crew weren’t finished assembling the wall. Wright continues the
piece with a spacey bit of keyboards reminiscent of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and
Gilmour uses an echo effect on his guitar giving it a Queen sounding timbre. Waters
sings the gentle “Goodbye Cruel World” before they take a twenty minute intermission.

The audience are a typical noisy Long Island audience excited to see the band play in the
Coliseum for the first time in five years. So much so that Rogers takes the
unprecedented step (for a Wall show) to addressing the audience before they start the
second half. He tells them “I’m sure there are a lot of people here who want to listen to
the quiet bits. So if you could shout and holler in the loud bits and keep quiet in the
quiet bits. That would be wonderful. That’s all I gotta say. We’ll have a good time and
enjoy the second half.” (Similar sentiments to what he said in the Garden on the last
tour).

“Comfortably Numb” is the obvious highlight of the second half. Before “Run Like Hell”
Waters asks the audience, “Do you our pig? Yeah! He’s not a very nice pig, but he’s a BIG
pig! This next tune, I’d like to dedicate to all the paranoids in the audience. I’m sure
there’s a few in the house, and it’s called ‘Run Like Hell.'” It starts off with several strange
grunts as Waters shouts “DISCO!”

Richard Wright plays a very loud organ in “Waiting For The Worms” and the Long Island
give a loud approval to the trial and the wall’s destruction. During “Outside The Wall”
Waters uses poor clarinet embouchure and hits two nasty screeches.

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“Thank you, good night” he said to a rapidly cheering audience after the triumphant
second night in New York.

February 26, 1980

Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY

301. MC: Atmosphere

302. In The Flesh
303. The Thin Ice
304. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1
305. The Happiest Days Of Our Live
306. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2
307. Mother
308. Goodbye Blue Sky
309. Empty Spaces
310. What Shall We Do Now?
311. Young Lust
312. One Of My Turns
313. Don't Leave Me Now
314. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3
315. The Last Few Bricks
316. Goodbye Cruel World

401. Hey You

402. Is There Anybody Out There?
403. Nobody Home
404. Vera
405. Bring The Boys Back Home
406. Comfortably Numb
407. The Show Must Go On
408. MC: Atmosphere
409. In The Flesh
410. Run Like Hell
411. Waiting For The Worms
412. Stop
413. The Trial
414. Outside The Wall

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Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/eQYmGPXURUc

The third night in New York was released several years ago on silver on Your Favorite
Disguise, a four disc set by Sigma which includes the superior sounding February 28th
show. Plomerus speculated that was a two source edit given the fluctuations in the
sound found throughout the show.

Godfather use only one source. They use the superior recording which, according to the
source, was recorded on the middle right hand side of the stage with a “Nakamichi 550
using (2) Nak 700 shotguns w/nak700 omni blend” mics. It picks up all the detail from
the stage and with a gorgeous mix with the audience reaction producing a beautiful live
sound.

There are cuts at the beginning of each half, cutting off much of Gary Yudman’s initial
atmos and the first ten seconds of “Hey You.” Sigma is slightly more complete because
they have these bits, but Godfather sounds much better and engaging.

The band are tight and the audience are even more loud and demonstrative than the
previous. In “Another Brick In The Wall Part I” Wright really tickles the ivory on the piano
and plays the same spacy keyboard interlude found in “Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Parts 6-9.” The psychedelia sound scape is rudely interrupted by the helicopter and the
Scottish school teacher.

It builds up nicely to “Another Brick In The Wall Part 2,” motivating the audience to dance
in the aisle (so it seems). The audience are particularly vocal during the performance of
“Mother.” Waters’ lines about “Mother, should I run for president?” draws cheers since
February 1980 was the start of the presidential primaries. (New Hampshire held their
elections this night with incumbent president Jimmy Carter beating Edward Kennedy for
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the Democratic vote and Ronald Reagan beating George H.W. Bush for the Republican).

The next line “Mother, should I trust the government” draws an even louder response, as
loud as Bob Dylan received for the line “Sometimes even the president of America must
sometimes stand naked” in “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” during his 1974 tour with
The Band. The cheering, and the elections in November, illustrate the frustration with
Carter’s presidency.

After “What Shall We Do Now?” Waters give a curt “This is called ‘Young Lust.'” The rest of
the first half continues without incident.

“Hey You” draws a big cheer, as does the glimpse of New York television in “Nobody
Home.” The highlight of the show, and perhaps of the entire box, is this performance of
“Comfortably Numb.” Everything sounds very strong in the mix including an additional,
faint guitar melody. Waters’ vocals are biting and Gilmour’s sound very sweet and
convincing.

Before “Run Like Hell” Waters asks, “Do you like our pig? We like him. He hasn’t got a lot
of class but there’s a lot of him.” He gives his dedication to “all the paranoids in the
audience” and yells at the pig “Home, piggy, go home. Raus!! Schnell! (German for “OUT!
QUICKLY!”)

There is a malfunction with the backing tape on “The Trial.” It takes a few embarrassing
seconds to correct (seconds which feel like hours). Waters’ PA also malfunctions for a bit,
really messing up the track. But “Outside The Wall” goes off much better than the
previous night and, overall, another great show for New York.

February 27, 1980

Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY

501. MC: Atmosphere

502. In The Flesh
503. The Thin Ice
504. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1
505. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
506. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2
507. Mother
508. Goodbye Blue Sky
509. Empty Spaces
510. What Shall We Do Now?
511. Young Lust
512. One Of My Turns
513. Don't Leave Me Now

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514. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3
515. The Last Few Bricks
516. Goodbye Cruel World

601. Hey You

602. Is There Anybody Out There?
603. Nobody Home
604. Vera
605. Bring The Boys Home
606. Comfortably Numb
607. The Show Must Go On
608. MC: Atmosphere
609. In The Flesh
610. Run Like Hell
611. Waiting For The Worms
612. Stop
613. The Trial
614. Outside The Wall

Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/GlsFNtzRt38

Wednesday, February 27 is the fourth and penultimate night of the New York concerts.
This concert was filmed for potential use in The Wall film. It has never been released
officially, not even in the new The Wall – Immersion box coming out in February 2012
(thirty-two years and one day after this performance). But it has been released
unofficially, most recently on U.S. Wall (No Label).

Three unique audience tapes exist and are in circulation for this concert. Godfather use
the first of the three. It is the most complete of the three, having no cuts during the
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performance. It is good sounding but muffled and fuzzy at points. The beginning is
worse, but it clears up by the middle of the show.

Of the three shows in the box, this is the most “average.” It is good, but lacks the
excitement, energy or inventiveness of the others. Perhaps the band were self-conscious
before the cameras?

The audience obviously loves the performance, and become loud during “Another Brick
In The Wall Part 2.” Gilmour misses the cue for the guitar solo, but Mason keeps the
beat going for an extra measure until the guitarist can figure out what to do.

“Mother,” as usual during these New York shows, receives a lot of applause in response
to the words with the biggest reactions to the lines about trusting the government.
Gilmour plays a strange little “mandolin” over the main melody.

Before “Young Lust” Waters asks “you having a good time so far? Oh good. That’s
absolutely marvelous” in a sarcastic tone. The audience are very quiet during “One Of
My Turns,” concentrating on the narrative.

At the start of the second half of the show they play “Hey You,” Gilmour has a laughing
fit while singing the track. “Is There Anybody Out There?” the radio picks up a New York
Islanders hockey game, drawing slight cheers (this is when they were actually good).

The same game is picked up before “Nobody Home.” Tuning into local radio was a
gimmick from the In The Flesh tour in 1977 and it works very well in metropolitan areas
with many radio stations.

Before “Run Like Hell” Waters shouts: “Do you like our pig? He’s not a very nice pig, but
he’s a big pig. There’s more to our pig than meets the eye. Go home pig, go on, fuck off!”
The audience laughs hard as Waters continues, “Puffed up, overblown, pork-eyed garlic
fat thing, go on, go. This next tune I’d like to dedicate to all the paranoid folk, in the
audience tonight, of whom I’m sure there are many.”

“Waiting For The Worms” builds up tremendous amounts of excitement in the audience.
“The Trial” goes off without a hitch (unlike the previous night), and Waters hits some
screeches on his clarinet on “Outside The Wall.”

The tape ends with several minutes of the audience leaving the coliseum to the post-
concert music piped in over the PA system including the Glenn Miller recordings of
“Pennsylvania 6-5000” and “In The Mood.”

Overall this is a very enjoyable performance which lacks a bit of the excitement of the
others nights in this collection, but is very tight.

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Tearing Down The Coliseum Wall is a tremendous release by Godfather for the art
design and mastering of the tapes. Although the February 28th show is the definitive
New York Wall show is not included (it’s been out many times before and Godfather
wants to tread new ground), all these shows have very good sound and are very exciting
to hear. And the packaging makes this one of the most beautiful releases of the year.

Watch Video At: https://youtu.be/d4txZKQF9dw

BONUS:

February 24, 1980

Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY

101. MC: Atmosphere

102. In The Flesh
103. The Thin Ice
104. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1
105. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
106. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2
107. Mother
108. Goodbye Blue Sky
109. Empty Spaces
110. What Shall We Do Now?
111. Young Lust
112. One Of My Turns
113. Don't Leave Me Now
114. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3
115. The Last Few Bricks
116. Goodbye Cruel World
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201. Hey You
202. Is There Anybody Out There?
203. Nobody Home
204. Vera
205. Bring The Boys Home
206. Comfortably Numb
207. The Show Must Go On
208. MC: Atmosphere
209. In The Flesh
210. Run Like Hell
211. Waiting For The Worms
212. Stop
213. The Trial
214. Outside The Wall

February 28, 1980

Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale, NY

101. MC: Atmosphere

102. In The Flesh
103. The Thin Ice
104. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 1
105. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
106. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2
107. Mother
108. Goodbye Blue Sky
109. Empty Spaces
110. What Shall We Do Now?
111. Young Lust
112. One Of My Turns
113. Don't Leave Me Now
114. Another Brick In The Wall, Part 3
115. The Last Few Bricks
116. Goodbye Cruel World

201. Hey You

202. Is There Anybody Out There?
203. Nobody Home
204. Vera
205. Bring The Boys Home
206. Comfortably Numb
207. The Show Must Go On
208. MC: Atmosphere
209. In The Flesh
210. Run Like Hell
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211. Waiting For The Worms
212. Stop
213. The Trial
214. Outside The Wall

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