Feb. 28, 1980 review: Pink Floyd performing "The Wall" in Nassau Coliseum

 

One of the biggest I-was-there moments of all time.

Feb. 28, 1980 

Pink Floyd Turns

Long Island Concert

Into Morality Play

UNIONDALE – “Tear down the wall,” the mass of kids shouted as they mobbed the meager entrances to Nassau Coliseum here.

Scalpers were asking as much as $250 for a $15 ticket. Inside was the most elaborately conceived rock show produced – Pink Floyd’s stage rendition of their current No. 1 album, “The Wall.”

Because the staging is so complex, this concert has become a national event. It’s only going to see a dozen American performances – seven in Los Angeles earlier this month and the five here, which end tonight. Passengers on the Columbia Records press bus included writers from Boston and Detroit.

The album version of “The Wall” turned out to be the soundtrack for the stage version, with a couple additions, like a puberty scene.

Onstage, “The Wall” became much more of a morality play. The plotline followed the traumatic upbringing of a boy named Pink Floyd, who ultimately becomes a rock star.

Whenever Pink meets up with coldness, frigidity and repression, he builds himself a psychological barrier. All in all, more bricks in the wall.

The wall then becomes a symbol of alienation and despair – it separates mother from son, teacher from pupil, lover from lover, band from audience, and vice versa.

The tale was told in two acts – 55 minutes each – with the first half rummaging through a decade of Pink Floyd trickery.

There were dive-bombing airplanes and flying pigs, gorgeous quadraphonic sound effects and breathtaking screen projections.

All the time, stagehands in shirts bearing a crossed-hammers emblem erected an enormous white wall in front of the band. By intermission, it was complete. Even the peepholes were covered.

Act two struck out into new territory. No band. And the wall, on which an incredible series of Scarfe cartoons were projected.

Occasionally, the wall popped a brick or two to show something like David Gilmour playing a guitar solo or to reveal a tableau of a motel room, where Roger Waters sang to his TV set.

Finally, amplifiers were reinstalled in front of the wall. The evening’s intro was given once more. The group and the sidemen again took the stage, building the music to a climactic chant of “tear down the wall.”

The wall crumbled spectacularly, leaving a pile of rubble as a set for the band to stroll past with acoustic instruments. The moral was contained in Roger Waters’ closing line.

“After all,” he sang, “it’s not easy, banging your heart out against some poor bugger’s wall.”

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IN THE PHOTO: The Wall under construction.

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FOOTNOTE: In addition to the staging, one of the things that made this show so special was the limited run of performances. Roger Waters nixed the idea of taking it out for a big tour. They did it five more times in London in August 1980 and 13 additional shows in 1981 in London and Dortmund, Germany. And that was it.

         As noted in the review, Columbia Records brought us reviewers in from far and wide. My plus-one was my astrological twin, Jack Dumpert. We made full use of our days in Manhattan. Among our stops, the original production of “Sweeney Todd” with Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Lovett and Len Cariou as the demon barber.