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The Wall Show : July 19-22, 2000
How much were tickets?
We did not charge any admission or fee for the performances--tickets were given away free! (And believe us, this was one case where you definitely could not judge the show by the price...) The band and cast paid all the expenses and the theater donated the venue.

Why did you do it for nothing?
We didn't do it for nothing. We did it because "The Wall Show" is one of those "wildest dreams" kind of performances. As teenagers we used to say, "Wouldn't it be cool to actually play The Wall?" We never thought we would ever actually do it, at least not on this scale. But we had a chance and just had to go for it. We finally had the equipment, the MO-tivation, and, most importantly, great musicians and crew members. How often does all of this come together for the enjoyment rather than the money? Like the incomparable Will Nichols once said, "This show could never be done so well for money. It's done out of love for the material." Plus, we had a great time! Good company, great music, and a lot of onstage adrenaline rushes.

How long did you do The Wall Show?
2000 was our third year. We did shows in July 1998 and July 1999.

What were the wall "bricks" made of?
The bricks were 10.5" x 17.5" x 11" cardboard boxes painted white.

How many bricks were in the wall?
About 450.

How big was the wall?
The visible portion was 15 bricks high and 30 bricks wide, or about 13' x 45' when complete. There were also 3 to 4 columns of bricks that extend beyond each end behind the stage curtains.

How did you make sure it all fit together when building it during the show?
The wall was built before the show and then disassembled. That way, we knew all the bricks should fit if it was put together carefully.

What if the last brick didn't fit?
It never happened. But just in case, the last brick was wedge-shaped to fit easily into whatever space was left.

Wasn't the wall unstable when completely built?
Actually, the wall was surprisingly stable. The weight of the bricks held it all together very firmly. But just in case, we ran a length of clothesline across the top and tied it down.

Didn't The Wall Show have music that was different from the original release of The Wall?
Yes. The Wall Show used arrangements from the original album, movie, and tour; but mainly relied on Roger Waters' astonishing 1990 Berlin show. In some cases we mixed-and-matched portions from more than one arrangement. We performed two songs which did not appear on the original release of The Wall: "When The Tigers Broke Free" from the movie, and "What Shall We Do Now?" from the Berlin show. Interestingly, the lyrics for "What Shall We Do Now?" are included on the original release of The Wall. And like the Berlin show, we did not perform "Outside The Wall". Here's a breakdown for the hardcore fans:

Track Album Movie Tour Berlin
When The Tigers Broke Free   x    
In The Flesh?       x
The Thin Ice     x x
Another Brick In The Wall (Pt. I) x     x
The Happiest Days Of Our Lives       x
Another Brick In The Wall (Pt. II)       x
Mother       x
Goodbye Blue Sky x x    
Empty Spaces       x
What Shall We Do Now?       x
Young Lust       x
One Of My Turns x      
Don't Leave Me Now x      
Another Brick In The Wall (Pt. III)       x
Goodbye Cruel World       x
Hey You x     x
Is There Anybody Out There?       x
Nobody Home       x
Vera x      
Bring The Boys Back Home       x
Comfortably Numb x      
The Show Must Go On     x  
In The Flesh       x
Run Like Hell x     x
Waiting For The Worms x      
Stop x      
The Trial x x    

Did you use MIDI sequences or recorded music during the show?
Yes. We did not have the resources to bring in the orchestra, backup vocalists, choir and full roster of musicians that are needed to perform The Wall, so we used MIDI and digital audio to fill the gaps. But all of the music was either performed live or recorded by us. We did not use any original music from Pink Floyd or Roger Waters.

How long did it take you to create the sequences and digital audio?
The MIDI sequences were created over a period of about five years and the digital audio was mostly done in the six months before the 1998 show. Obviously, we did not work at the music eight hours a day for five solid years, but rather worked as time allowed. Contrary to popular belief, we do have lives away from The Wall Show! (Well, most of us do anyway...)

What kind of MIDI and digital audio equipment did you use?
All of the MIDI sequences were created using Twelve Tone's Cakewalk Pro Audio. The digital audio was created in a roundabout way. The tracks were first recorded on a Tascam 238 Syncaset, then mixed and sampled into WAV files which were finally imported into Cakewalk. Cakewalk can combine and play both the MIDI sequences and the digital audio tracks. In 1998, we ran the entire musical portion of the show from a Hitachi P-133 laptop computer. The 1999 and 2000 shows used a Dell PII-400 desktop computer. The sound library was an original Roland SC-55 SoundCanvas, a most extraordinary piece of equipment, IMHO. The SoundCanvas is basically 16 separate synths (called channels) in one unit. Each of the 16 channels can be individually edited for instrument type, volume, pan, reverb and chorus effects, not to mention editing the sound using attack, sustain, decay and other filters. This means we could use channel 1 for a piano sound, 2 for organ, 3 for french horn, etc., etc., on up to 16. (Well, for The Wall Show it was actually 15 because we use channel 16 to control other MIDI equipment.) In this way, we could build an orchestra or just about any other musical combination we needed.

How did the band stay in synch with the MIDI and audio tracks?
We used a click track. We ran a special monitor mix of the music and the click track to headphones on stage and we wore them as necessary to get our cues. Our drummer Rich, of course, wore his the whole time.

Was the band really still playing behind the wall?
Yes. The Bleeding Heart Band performed live throughout the entire show, even during the parts when the audience could not see us behind the wall.
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