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

For other works based on the Pink Floyd album, see The Wall (Pink Floyd). For the concert tour by Roger Waters, see The Wall Live (2010–2011 tour).

Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81
Live album by Pink Floyd
Released	23 March 2000
Recorded	August 1980 & June 1981, Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London, England, United Kingdom
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	105:16
Language	English
Label	UK: EMI USA: Columbia
Producer	James Guthrie
Pink Floyd live albums chronology
Pulse (1995) Is There Anybody Out There? (2000)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
NME	(5/10)
Rolling Stone

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, produced and engineered by James Guthrie, with tracks selected from the August 1980 and June 1981 performances at Earls Court in London. The album was first released in The Netherlands by EMI Records on 23 March 2000, who released a limited edition in the United Kingdom on 27 March. The general release followed on 18 April 2000 with US and Canadian distribution by Columbia Records.

The shows involved the construction of a wall on stage throughout the first half of the show. Once complete, members of the band performed in small openings in, atop, in front of, or even behind the wall. The album artwork featured the life-masks of the four band members in front of a black wall; the masks were worn by the "surrogate band" during the song "In The Flesh". "Goodbye Blue Sky" and parts of "Run Like Hell" were taken from the 17 June 1981 show, the very last performance by the four-man Pink Floyd until the 2005 Live 8 concert.

The album will be released in February 2012 in remastered form as part of the "Immersion" boxset edition of The Wall.

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 planned for the original album but removed just before release. (It remained on the lyric sheet for the original LP, but excised from future CD re-releases.) "The Last Few Bricks" was an instrumental bridge between "Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)" and "Goodbye Cruel World", and contained themes from "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"; "Don't Leave Me Now"; "Young Lust" (transposed down, from E to D); and "Empty Spaces"/"What Shall We Do Now?" It was played to allow the bricklayers 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", ending the first part of the show. This music never had an official title before the release of the live album. Fans named the track "Almost Gone" on some bootleg albums of the shows, but the official name was suggested by producer James Guthrie during the mixing of the live album. There are also two spoken tracks titled "MC:Atmos" ("Master of Ceremonies" for the first North American release). One came before "In the Flesh?" and one before the reprise "In the Flesh". These were performed by Gary Yudman, MC for the Earls Court and Nassau Coliseum shows.

The tracks differed slightly from the studio album, primarily in terms of longer intros and extended solos. Due to the constraints of vinyl records, the band had been forced to severely edit many songs for the album, removing whole sections, many of which were restored in concert. "The Show Must Go On" had an extra verse that was deleted from the original studio recording (but included in the lyric sheet, even on the latest CD releases.) "Outside the Wall" was longer, not to mention re-arranged, with mandolin, accordion, clarinet, acoustic guitars, tambourines and more natural-sounding vocal harmonies from the quartet of Joe Chemay, Jim Farber, Jim Haas, and John Joyce. (This would be the third official version of "Outside the Wall" available to the listener, following the extended orchestral version from the 1982 film.)

Is There Anybody Out There? was re-issued in the US and Canada in July 2005. James Guthrie, Joel Plante and Kim Richards supplied the label with new masters, and thus the mastering credit was changed from "Doug Sax and Gavin Lurssen" to Guthrie, Plante and Richards. 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 #1 on Billboard's Top Internet Albums charts. The disc was certified Platinum (signifying sales of half a million copies, as it is a double CD) in the US in May 2000. This was the first and only Pink Floyd album not released on LP format.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Roger Waters, all music composed by Roger Waters except where noted.

Disc one
No.	Title	Music	Vocals	Length
1.	"MC:Atmos" (August 7, 1980; includes excerpt from "We'll Meet Again")	n/a	Yudman	1:13
2.	"In the Flesh?" (August 7, 1980)		Waters	3:00
3.	"The Thin Ice" (August 7, 1980/June 13, 1981)		Gilmour, Waters	2:49
4.	"Another Brick in the Wall (Part I)" (August 7, 1980)		Waters, Gilmour	4:13
5.	"The Happiest Days of Our Lives" (August 7, 1980)		Waters, Gilmour	1:40
6.	"Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)" (August 9, 1980/June 14, 1981)		Gilmour, Waters	6:19
7.	"Mother" (June 16, 1981)		Waters, Gilmour	7:54
8.	"Goodbye Blue Sky" (June 17, 1981)		Gilmour	3:15
9.	"Empty Spaces" (June 14, 1981)		Waters	2:14
10.	"What Shall We Do Now?" (June 14, 1981)		Waters	1:40
11.	"Young Lust" (August 7, 1980)	Waters, Gilmour	Waters, Gilmour	5:17
12.	"One of My Turns" (August 7, 1980)		Waters	3:41
13.	"Don't Leave Me Now" (August 7, 1980)		Waters	4:08
14.	"Another Brick in the Wall (Part III)" (August 7, 1980)		Waters	1:15
15.	"The Last Few Bricks" (August 7, 1980/August 9, 1980)	Waters, Gilmour	Instrumental	3:26
16.	"Goodbye Cruel World" (August 9, 1980)		Waters	1:41
Total length:				53:50

Disc two
No.	Title	Music	Vocals	Length
1.	"Hey You" (June 16, 1981)		Gilmour, Waters	4:55
2.	"Is There Anybody Out There?" (August 7, 1980)		Waters, Gilmour	3:09
3.	"Nobody Home" (August 8, 1980/June 15, 1981)		Waters	3:15
4.	"Vera" (June 13, 1981)		Waters	1:27
5.	"Bring the Boys Back Home" (August 7, 1980)		Waters	1:20
6.	"Comfortably Numb" (August 9, 1980/June 15, 1981)	Gilmour, Waters	Waters, Gilmour	7:26
7.	"The Show Must Go On" (June 16, 1981)		Gilmour	2:35
8.	"MC:Atmos" (June 16, 1981)	n/a	Yudman	0:37
9.	"In the Flesh" (August 7, 1980)		Waters	4:23
10.	"Run Like Hell" (June 15, 1981/June 17, 1981)	Gilmour, Waters	Waters, Gilmour	7:05
11.	"Waiting for the Worms" (June 13, 1981)		Waters, Gilmour	4:14
12.	"Stop" (August 9, 1980)		Waters	0:30
13.	"The Trial" (August 9, 1980)	Waters, Ezrin	Waters	6:01
14.	"Outside the Wall" (August 8, 1980/August 9, 1980)		Waters	4:27
Total length:				51:31

Personnel

Pink Floyd

• David Gilmour – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, mandolin on "Outside the Wall", musical director
• Nick Mason – drums, percussion, acoustic guitar on "Outside the Wall"
• Roger Waters – bass guitar, vocals, acoustic guitar, clarinet on "Outside the Wall"
• Richard Wright – piano, organ, synthesizer, vocals, accordion on "Outside the Wall"

Additional musicians

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

Sales chart performance

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2000	UK Albums Chart	15
	The Billboard 200	19
	Billboard's Top Internet Albums	1
	Norwegian Record Charts	2

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
2000	"Young Lust"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	15

References

External links

• - Site containing transcripts of Waters' speeches before Run Like Hell