The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking: Roger Waters Pays Tribute to 'The Wall' Stage Designer

2013/07/05

Roger Waters Pays Tribute to 'The Wall' Stage Designer

01 July 2013

Pink Floyd's Roger Waters has paid tribute to Mark Fisher who designed the iconic "The Wall" stage set in 1980.

Fisher passed away on Friday after a long battle with cancer at the age of 66.

"Mark was a great man and a great friend," Waters told TeamRock Radio (via Classic Rock ). "I remember Mick Jagger coming to see The Wall. He came straight backstage afterwards and said: 'Who did that? I want it.'"

Waters turned to Fisher for advice again in 2010 when The Wall show returned to the stage. "I called him in 2010 and he was an enormous help. I was thinking about a virtual wall and he said, 'No, you've got to build the wall just like you did. You can do it – go on mate.'"
A statement from Fisher's agency tells more about his contribution to the last two Olympic opening ceremonies:

"Mark passed away peacefully in his sleep at the Marie Curie Hospice in Hampstead with his wife Cristina at his side, after a long and difficult illness, which he suffered with stoicism and courage and his customary good humour.

"Mark's work as a set designer and artistic director has transformed the landscape of rock concerts and large scale events over the last 25 years. He was the senior designer for the Beijing Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies and was one of the three executive producers at the London 2012 Games ceremonies."

From ultimate-guitar.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

George Roger Waters

George Roger Waters (born 6 September 1943) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter and conceptual leader. The band subsequently achieved worldwide success in the 1970s with the concept albums The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall. Although Waters' primary instrument in Pink Floyd was the bass guitar, he also experimented with synthesisers and tape loops and played rhythm guitars in recordings and in concerts. Amid creative differences within the group, Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and began a legal battle with the remaining members over their future use of the group's name and material. The dispute was settled out of court in 1987, and nearly eighteen years passed before he performed with Pink Floyd again. It is estimated that as of 2010, the group have sold over 200 million albums worldwide, including 74.5 million units sold in the United States.

Waters' solo career includes three studio albums: The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984), Radio K.A.O.S. (1987) and Amused to Death (1992). In 1986, he contributed songs and a score to the soundtrack of the animated movie When the Wind Blows based on the Raymond Briggs' book of the same name. In 1990, he staged one of the largest and most elaborate rock concerts in history, The Wall – Live in Berlin, with an estimated 200,000 people in attendance. In 1996, he was inducted into the US and the UK Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pink Floyd. He has toured extensively as a solo act since 1999 and played The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety for his world tours of 2006–2008. In 2005, he released Ça Ira, an opera in three acts translated from Étienne and Nadine Roda-Gils' libretto based on the early French Revolution. On 2 July 2005, he reunited with Pink Floyd bandmates Nick Mason, Richard Wright and David Gilmour for the Live 8 global awareness event; it was the group's first appearance with Waters in 24 years.

In 2010, he began The Wall Live, a worldwide tour that features a complete performance of The Wall. During this tour, at The O2 Arena in London on 12 May 2011, Gilmour and Mason once again appeared with Waters, Gilmour performing "Comfortably Numb", and Gilmour and Mason joining Waters for "Outside the Wall".

He has been married four times and has three children. In 2004 he became engaged to actress and filmmaker Laurie Durning; the duo married in 2012.