| Waters, Roger - Palais Omnisports de Bercy, Paris, France |
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| Notes |
| Recorded at the Palais Omnisports de Bercy, Paris, France. Very good audience recording. From the info file: Roger Waters Palais Omnisports de Bercy Paris, France July 6, 1984 'Paris 6.7.84' - label unknown Disc One: 1. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun 8:37 2. Money 8:11 3. If 3:48 4. Welcome To The Machine 8:16 5. Have A Cigar 6:30 6. Wish You Were Here 6:26 7. Pigs On The Wing 1:44 8. In The Flesh 4:23 9. Nobody Home 4:47 10. Hey You 4:51 11. The Gunners Dream 7:16 64:49 Disc Two: 1. 4:30 AM (Apparently They Were Travelling Abroad) 3:28 2. 4:33 AM (Running Shoes) 4:17 3. 4:37 AM (Arabs With Knives And West German Skies) 3:20 4. 4:39 AM (For The First Time Today - Part 2) 3:13 5. 4:41 AM (Sexual Revolution) 5:31 6. 4:47 AM (The Remains Of Our Love) 3:42 7. 4:50 AM (Go Fishing) 7:06 8. 4:56 AM (For The First Time Today - Part 1) 1:32 9. 4:58 AM (Dunroamin, Duncarin, Dunlivin) 3:07 10. 5:01 AM (The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking) 6:17 11. 5:06 AM (Every Strangers Eyes) 4:58 12. 5:11 AM (The Moment Of Clarity) 3:13 13. Brain Damage/Eclipse 5:58 55:43 Source: Audience CD Reference: Paris 6.7.84 LP Reference: Comments: The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking: World Tour Tour Dates 16,17.6.84 Johanneshovs Isstadion, Sandstuvägen, Stockholm, Sweden 19.6.84 Sportpaleis Ahoy, Rotterdam, Netherlands 21,22.6.84 Earls Court Exhibition Hall, Earls Court, London, England (no encore was performed at the first show) 26,27.6.84 National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, West Midlands, England 3.7.84 Hallenstadion, Zurich, Switzerland 6.7.84 Palais Omnisports de Bercy, Paris, France 17-19.7.84 Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, Connecticut, USA 20-22.7.84 Brendan Byrne Meadowlands Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA 24.7.84 Spectrum Theatre, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA 26.7.84 Rosemont Horizon, Chicago, Illinois, USA 28,29.7.84 Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 31.7.84 The Forum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking After the Animals tour of 1977, Waters began writing two separate pieces of work. In 1979 the band was given a choice to record one of these pieces, The Wall or The Pros And Cons Of Hitch-hiking. They chose The Wall because it was considered the less personal of the two and seemed the better one to work with, although Gilmour said the demos of the two concepts sounded very similar and obviously needed a lot of work. Gilmour also claimed that they had not discounted doing Pros and Cons at a later date, but as it turned out after The Final Cut, Waters was inclined to work on this album as a solo artist. Recording for the album took place February and December 1983 in London, using Olympic Studios, Eel Pie Studios and Waters own Billiard Room, the studio were his demos are constructed. The album is a sexual fantasy and the album takes the format of a 42 minute dream, which is the length of the album. As Waters himself explains in a 1984 interview, 'Within the context of these dreams, the subconscious is weighing up the pros and cons of living with one woman within the framework of a family ... against the call of the wild, if you like' Waters was to soon to learn the problems of going solo. MTV failed to adequately promote him, partly because of his refusal to answer any questions concerning Pink Floyd when interviewed before the first Earls Court concert in 1984. Not only was the interview not shown on MTV, but they all but ignored the three promo clips from the album. Perhaps this was a factor in the poor public reaction to the first single, the title track to the album, which was widely released. Although MTV did air a short documentary of Waters in 1985, his further reluctance in dealing with MTV was to hurt him in the future when they were to give a lot more attention to Gilmour's Pink Floyd during the 1987 battle. In addition, Waters found that he kept his anonymity during the Pink Floyd years better than he imagined: 'I thought that ... people did kind of identify me with quite a lot of the work that went into the Floyd. Particularly in terms of the shows, but they didn't.' The album was to get some publicity but not in the way Waters had wanted. The front cover picture of model Linzi Drew hitch-hiking naked was condemned by many feminist groups. It was considered sexist with some claiming it even advertised rape. Many posters advertising the album were ripped down and destroyed by protesters. A censored cover even appeared on Japanese albums and reissue American albums. The censoring takes the form of a black box over the model's bottom. Waters second wife Carolyne, to whom the album is dedicated, knew Eric Clapton's wife, Patti Boyd Harrison Clapton. There is a story from a friend of Clapton, that he agreed to work on the album and tour after a drinking session with Waters. Regardless, Waters played Clapton some demos and, despite criticism of those around him, including his manager, Clapton played on the album and 1984 tour after long wanting to play anonymously in another person's band. By the end of the 1984 tour, however, Clapton said, according to Rolling Stone magazine, that he was tired of the tour because 'of the rigidity of it ... I was feeling a bit stifled.' But Waters was soon to work with Clapton again with Waters co-writing the opening theme to the movie 'The Hit', the score for which Clapton was responsible for. The live show was designed by Mark Fisher and Jonathon Park, with the aid of film-makers Nicholas Roeg and Bernard Rose, plus animation from Gerald Scarfe. The stage was set up like a bedroom in which the dream takes place, with a working TV that shows old movies before the show and at the interval. The back screen was 30 metres across and 9 metres high, designed for 3 x 35mm projectors. The show was not as complicated as people think according to Jonathon Park. The only problem was synchronising the three projectors together, off which the click track for the performers and the sound effects was produced. A description of the tour set is described in REG 15 Waters US record company, CBS, did not support the 1985 concerts as they felt he had nothing to promote and what they really wanted was a new Pink Floyd record. Waters reasons for this tour was the favourable reaction he got during the USA leg of the 1984 tour where he only played 10 concerts in 6 cities. Even without Eric Clapton, the 16 concerts did reasonably well, with a special show being the New York concert of March 28 1985 as the world's first holophonic (that is, directional sound) broadcast. Because of the expense of the shows, Waters lost more than $700,000 during the Pros And Cons tour. Apparently, the backdrop film itself cost $400,000. A film on the concept was proposed, and it was in 1987 that a press release for the Radio KAOS album claimed a film adaptation of the Pros And Cons had been completed, though nothing has been heard since. Roger Waters Interview w/Chris Salewicz, June 1987 CS: Your first record after Pink Floyd was The Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking. How did that sell? RW: The record sold six hundred thousand copies. But the Hitchhiker tour sold appallingly in Europe. Even in London I had to use almost all the money in advertising to get people to buy tickets. I cancelled loads of shows. And my budget was based on selling out loads of shows. So I was about four hundred grand down at the end. CS: You say you felt very satisfied after completing Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall. But do you generally feel reasonably pleased with what you've done? RW: I think Radio KAOS is some of the best stuff I've ever done. Pros And Cons was bitty. The Wall I was very happy with. The Final Cut was absolutely misery to make, although I listened to it of late and I rather like a lot of it. But I don't like my singing on it. You can hear the mad tension running through it all. If you're trying to express something and being prevented from doing it because you're so uptight...It was a horrible time. We were all fighting like cats and dogs. We were finally realising - or accepting, if you like - that there was no band. It was really being thrust upon us that we were not a band and had not been in accord for a long time. Not since 1975, when we made Wish You Were Here. Even then there were big disagreements about content and how to put the record together. CS: When did you realise it was finally the end? RW: Well, there are those who contend it's not over, of course (laughs wryly). But making The Final Cut was misery. We didn't work together at all. I had to do it more or less single-handed, working with Michael Kamen, my co-producer. That's one of the few things that the 'boys' and I agreed about. But no-one alse would do anything on it. It sold three million copies, which wasn't a lot for the Pink Floyd. And as a consequence, Dave Gilmour went on record as saying, 'There you go: I knew he was doing it wrong all along.' But it's absolutely ridiculous to judge a record solely on sales. If you're going to use sales as the sole criterion, it makes Grease a better record than Graceland. Anyway, I was in a greengrocer's shop , and this woman of about forty in a fur coat came up to me. She said she thought it was the most moving record she had ever heard. Her father had also been killed in World War II, she explained. And I got back into my car with my three pounds of potatoes and drove home and thought, good enough. From 'An inteview with Mark Fischer' by Alastair McLean: Alastair: I saw The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking show at the N.E.C. Birmingham in 1984, again a brilliant show, how long did it take you to design this set? Mark: I can't remember, but not very long. It was a simple show, the real effort went into making the very expensive $400,000.00 film directed by Nick Roeg, and Gerald Scarfe etc. Alastair: Technically speaking, was this show more or less complex than The Wall shows? Mark: It was a very simple show. The only technical problem was synchronizing three 35mm projectors with the SMPTE on the multi-track tape recorders. The three projectors at the end of The Wall had run wild of the sound, though in synch with each other. The Pros and Cons projectors eventually ran in synch with each other and with the multi-tracks slaved to them. Doreen Chanter backing vocals Eric Clapton guitar Mel Collins saxophone Michael Kamen keyboards Katie Kissoon backing vocals Andy Newmark drums Tim Renwick guitar; bass guitar Chris Stainton keyboards; bass guitar Roger Waters bass guitar; vocals Quality: VG ***YEAH, MY FATHER WAS KILLED IN THE WAR.*** |