Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81

Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980-81 is an album released by Pink Floyd in 2000. It is a live rendition of The Wall, recorded by James Guthrie, with different songs taken from various performances from the years 1980 and 1981. Many of the performances were in Earl's Court in London.

The shows actually involved the construction of a wall on stage, throughout the first half of the show. Once it was finished, members of the band performed in small openings in the wall, atop the wall, in front of the wall, or even behind the wall.

The album artwork featured the life-masks of the four members of Pink Floyd at the time, which were worn by the "surrogate band" during "In the Flesh?".

Background
Is There Anybody out There? contains live versions of all the original songs along with two additional songs: "What Shall We Do Now?" and "The Last Few Bricks". "What Shall We Do Now?" was actually planned for the original album, but removed just before release. "The Last Few Bricks", on the other hand, was an instrumental bridge between "Another Brick In The Wall (Part III)" and "Goodbye Cruel World" which contained themes from "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives", "Don't Leave Me Now", "Young Lust", and "Empty Spaces"/"What Shall We Do Now?", and was played onstage to allow the bricklayers to lay a considerable number of bricks missing to almost completely seal off the stage before Roger Waters appeared in the last one-brick-wide space in the wall to sing "Goodbye Cruel World", and end the first part of the show. Interestingly, before the release of the live album, this bridge never had an official title. Fans called the track "Almost Gone" on some bootleg albums of the shows, but the official name -- "The Last Few Bricks" -- was not used at the shows in 1980-1981, and instead was suggested to Roger Waters by producer James Guthrie during the mixing of the live album. There are also two spoken tracks both titled "MC: Atmos" or "Master of Ceremonies" depending on the release, one occurring before "In the Flesh?" at the beginning of the album, and one before the reprise "In the Flesh", midway through the second half. These are performed by Gary Yudman, who was the MC for the Earls Court shows in 1980 and 1981 (he also MC'd the Nassau Coliseum performances of The Wall).

The release of this double album met some criticism, some critics claiming it is too rigidly structured for a live album, and might be viewed merely as an inferior version of the studio recording; others claim it is an excellent presentation of the live shows as they were, and an excellent piece of recording and production.

The tracks slightly differed from the album. "In the Flesh?" and "In the Flesh" had an extended intro. "The Thin Ice" and "Run Like Hell" had a longer intro and ending. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" had extended solos and a longer ending. "Mother" had an extended intro, a longer guitar solo section and an extended outro. "Young Lust" had an extended intro and an extra Hammond Organ solo after David Gilmour's guitar solo. "Hey You" had its guitar solo extended. "Comfortably Numb" had a longer ending solo and big finish. "The Show Must Go On" had an extra verse that was deleted from the original studio recording. "Outside the Wall" was longer live than studio.

In July of 2005, Is There Anybody Out There? was re-issued in the US and Canada due to Columbia Records losing the production masters. James Guthrie and Joel Plante supplied the label with new masters, and thus the mastering credit was changed from Doug Sax to Guthrie & Plante. The booklet features some songwriting updates and mentions that the MC: Atmos on disc one used a sample of We'll Meet Again by Vera Lynn.

The album reached #19 on The Billboard 200 and went Platinum (1 million copies sold) in the US in May of 2000.

This was the first (and only) Pink Floyd album which was not released on LP format. A limited edition vinyl picture disc was published a few months later, but it only included a few songs from the setlist.

Accuracy Of Recording

 * During the Wall shows, Roger Waters made a few remarks about both the inflatable pig and the audience itself before "Run Like Hell". What is heard on the live album is actually a mix of two different dates: June 15th 1981, and June 17th 1981, both at Earl's Court, London.
 * At some shows, the "MC: Atmos" sections also included the announcement that people in the audience standing on their seats would be shot.
 * During the actual shows, the keyboards were mixed louder than on the live album, so that there was a clear balance between the keyboards and the guitars. In the official release, the keyboards are lower in the mix.

Disc One

 * 1) "Master of Ceremonies" (on original North American 2000 CD release) or "MC: Atmos" on the European release and the North American 2005 re-issue – 1:13
 * 2) "In The Flesh?" – 3:00
 * 3) "The Thin Ice" – 2:49
 * 4) "Another Brick In The Wall (Part I)" – 4:13
 * 5) "The Happiest Days Of Our Lives" – 1:40
 * 6) "Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)" – 6:19
 * 7) "Mother" – 7:54
 * 8) "Goodbye Blue Sky" – 3:15
 * 9) "Empty Spaces" – 2:14
 * 10) "What Shall We Do Now?" – 1:40
 * 11) "Young Lust" (Waters/Gilmour) – 5:17
 * 12) "One Of My Turns" – 3:41
 * 13) "Don't Leave Me Now" – 4:08
 * 14) "Another Brick In The Wall (Part III)" – 1:15
 * 15) "The Last Few Bricks" (Waters/Gilmour) – 3:26
 * 16) "Goodbye Cruel World" – 1:41

All songs by Roger Waters except as indicated

Disc Two

 * 1) "Hey You" – 4:55
 * 2) "Is There Anybody Out There?" – 3:09
 * 3) "Nobody Home" – 3:15
 * 4) "Vera" – 1:27
 * 5) "Bring the Boys Back Home" – 1:20
 * 6) "Comfortably Numb" (Gilmour/Waters) – 7:26
 * 7) "The Show Must Go On" – 2:35
 * 8) "Master of Ceremonies" (on original North American 2000 CD release) or "MC: Atmos" on the European release and the North American 2005 re-issue – 0:37
 * 9) "In The Flesh" – 4:23
 * 10) "Run Like Hell" (Gilmour/Waters) – 7:05
 * 11) "Waiting For The Worms" – 4:14
 * 12) "Stop" – 0:32
 * 13) "The Trial" (Waters/Ezrin) – 6:01
 * 14) "Outside The Wall" – 4:27

All songs by Roger Waters except as indicated

Personnel
with
 * David Gilmour: Guitars, vocals, mandolin on "Outside the Wall"
 * Roger Waters - Bass guitar, guitar, vocals, clarinet on "Outside the Wall"
 * Rick Wright - keyboards, accordion on "Outside the Wall", vocals
 * Nick Mason - drums, percussion, acoustic guitar on "Outside the Wall"


 * Snowy White - guitars (1980 shows)
 * Willie Wilson - drums, percussion
 * Andy Bown - bass guitar, acoustic guitar on "Outside the Wall"
 * Peter Wood - keyboards, acoustic guitar on "Outside the Wall"
 * Gary Yudman - MC
 * Andy Roberts - guitars (1981 shows)
 * Stan Farber - backing vocals
 * Joe Chemay - backing vocals
 * Jim Haas - backing vocals
 * John Joyce - backing vocals