Radio K.A.O.S.

For other uses, see Radio KAOS.

Radio K.A.O.S.
Studio album by Roger Waters
Released	15 June 1987
Recorded	October–December 1986
Genre	Rock
Length	41:24
Label	EMI (UK), Columbia Records (US)
Producer	Roger Waters, Ian Ritchie and Nick Griffiths
Roger Waters chronology
When the Wind Blows (1986) Radio K.A.O.S. (1987) The Wall - Live in Berlin (1990)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	(B)
Rolling Stone	(favorable)

Radio K.A.O.S. is a 1987 concept album by former Pink Floyd bassist, singer songwriter Roger Waters. It is his second solo album.

Storyline

The concept is based around a 23-year-old disabled man from Wales named Billy.

Billy uses a wheelchair and is thought to be mentally a vegetable. However, Billy is highly intelligent but has no way of expressing himself. Billy has a twin brother Benny who is a coal miner. Billy lives with Benny, Benny's wife Molly, and their children. Unfortunately, Benny has lost his job in the mines due to the "market forces". One night, Benny and Billy are out on a pub crawl when they pass a shop full of TV screens broadcasting Margaret Thatcher's "mocking condescension". Benny vents his anger on this shop and steals a cordless phone. Next, in theatrical fashion, Benny poses on a footbridge in protest to the closures; the same night, a taxi driver is killed by a concrete block dropped from a similar bridge (Track 2 "Who Needs Information). The police question Benny, who hides the phone in Billy's wheelchair. Benny is taken to prison, and Molly, unable to cope, sends Billy to live with his uncle David in L.A.. Billy is gifted and can hear radio waves in his head ("Radio Waves" track 1), so he begins to explore the cordless phone, recognising its similarity to a radio. He experiments with the phone and is able to access computers and speech synthesisers, he learns to speak through them. He calls a radio station in L.A. named Radio KAOS (hence the album title) and tells them of his life story about his brother being in jail ("Me or Him" track 3), about his sister-in-law not being able to cope and sending him to L.A. to live with his uncle Dave ("Sunset Strip" track 5), and about the closures of the mines ("Powers that Be" track 4). Billy eventually hacks in to a military satellite and fools the world in to thinking nuclear ICBMs are about to be detonated at major cities all over the world whilst deactivating the military's power to retaliate ("Home" track 6 and "Four Minutes" track 7). The album concludes with a song about how everyone, in thinking they were about to die, realises that the fear and competitiveness peddled by the mass media is much less important than their love for family and the larger community. ("The Tide is Turning" track 8).

The album is dedicated "to all those who find themselves at the violent end of monetarism."

Track listing

All songs written by Roger Waters.

1. "Radio Waves" – 4:58
2. "Who Needs Information" – 5:55
3. "Me or Him" – 5:23
4. "The Powers That Be" – 4:36
5. "Sunset Strip" – 4:45
6. "Home" – 6:00
7. "Four Minutes" – 4:00
8. "The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)" – 5:43

There are three other songs that were written for this album, but were only played live or released on singles. "Going to Live in L.A." told of how Benny was sent to jail, his sister-in-law Molly could not cope and so sent Billy to live with his uncle Dave. "Molly's Song" (part of which is reprised on "Four Minutes" on the album) is Billy's tale of how he can hack in to government satellites to watch over Molly, his sister-in-law back in Wales. "Get Back to Radio" was the first song written for the album, but lyrically it did not relate to the story of Billy.

Personnel

• Roger Waters – vocals, guitars, bass guitar, shakuhachi, keyboards
• Graham Broad – percussion, drums
• Mel Collins – saxophones
• Nick Glennie-Smith – DX7 and Emu on "Powers That Be"
• Matt Irving – Hammond organ on "Powers That Be"
• John Linwood – drums on "Powers That Be"
• Andy Fairweather Low – electric guitars
• Suzanne Rhatigan – main background vocals on "Radio Waves", "Me or Him", "Sunset Strip" and "The Tide Is Turning"
• Ian Ritchie – piano, keyboards, tenor saxophone, Fairlight programming, drum programming
• Jay Stapley – electric guitars
• John Phirkell – trumpet
• Peter Thoms – trombone
• Katie Kissoon, Doreen Chanter, Madeline Bell, Steve Langer & Vicki Brown) – background vocals on "Who Needs Information", "Powers That Be" and "Radio Waves"

Guest Appearance

• Clare Torry – vocals on "Home" and "Four Minutes"
• Paul Carrack – vocals on "The Powers That Be"

Technical

• Paul Batchelor – assistant engineer
• Noel Davis – choir master
• Nick Griffiths – producer
• Kate Hepburn – cover design
• Eric Jones – choir arrangement
• Chris Sheldon – engineer
• Kevin Whyte – assistant engineer

Tour

Main article: Radio K.A.O.S. (tour)

The KAOS tour lasted from mid August 1987 to the end of November of the same year. It was entirely in North America except for the final two shows from Wembley, England. The tour was the largest of Waters' career and featured extravagant staging, props and video. The entirety of the concert was treated as a KAOS radio special; KAOS on the Road and featured Jim Ladd in between many songs; introducing them, conversing with Billy or simply complimenting Roger and the band on their performance. The screen used for the tour featured various video footage of Roger, Jim and various other actors playing out aspects of the songs. It also featured animations and real footage of what the songs represented. The concert was 'interrupted' by Billy at one point each night and he played the video to the début Pink Floyd single Arnold Layne. Prior to each show commencing, Jim Ladd took calls from people in a special booth and these calls were then answered by Roger. The person in each booth was usually chosen via a competition on local radio stations, keeping in the theme of the concert. The set-list occasionally included the entire Radio KAOS album, as well as popular Waters-composed Pink Floyd songs and typically lasted more than two and a half hours.

Production

• The working title for the album was "Home", and Waters has said in interviews that he considers the song "Home" to express the central theme of the album.
• Waters was on the list of artists considered for Live Aid, but ended up being cut (Pink Floyd bandmate David Gilmour played, but only as the guitarist for Bryan Ferry). Watching the event on television, Waters was so inspired that he wrote "The Tide Is Turning", without knowing what album it would end up on.
• The closing song "The Tide Is Turning" was only added as a supposed "happy ending" by Waters when EMI told him that the album was too bleak to sell.
• The producer of the album, Ian Ritchie, is currently ( 2006, 2007 and 2008 ) part of Roger's touring band playing saxophone.
• Some CD presses are labelled with an incorrect Patent date of 1967 which should read 1987. Coincidentally 1967 is the year that Pink Floyd released their first album: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
• The voice of Billy was generated by the BBC microcomputer program Speech!, written by David Hoskins the year before.

Charts

Album - UK

Year	Position
1987	25

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1987	The Billboard 200	50