Andy Roberts - The Pink Floyd Gigs

PINK FLOYD - Westfalenhalle, in Dortmund, West Germany 1980

Andy Roberts played lead guitar with PINK FLOYD during 1980 & 1981 during live performances of The Wall in Germany and then later at Earls Court, London (Andy's home town). The London dates were recorded and filmed and only recently released (2000) as 'Is Anybody Out There'.

The following are extracts from interviews ...

Spencer Leigh: I told Andy that the last time I met him was just after he joined Pink Floyd!

AR: Joined - I wish! I was playing with Roy Harper who is very pally with Dave Gilmour. Dave came to see a show that we did in London at the Dominion Theatre at the end of 1980 and it just co-incided with the time that Snowy White joined Thin Lizzy. He'd been playing the Wall with Floyd and had done all the initial shows. Luckily for me he wasn't available for some extra dates that they'd added to the end of the Wall tour, well it wasn't a tour really, they played Los Angeles, New York and London. That was it, that was all they expected to do - those 3 places. Then they got an offer they couldn't refuse, to go and play in Germany, or do Europe basically, where they set up in Germany and all of Europe came to them. And they needed a guitarist, Dave had seen me play and I was using a lots of effects pedals and stuff like that and he knew I was a reasonable bloke and so he phoned me up and offered me the job. I was very reluctant, it took me about 2 seconds before I agreed.

Credits page from the programme for the German dates: 1980

Spencer Leigh: Were the gigs of a size that you'd never played before?

AR: Yes, I've never done anything like that before. It was actually terribly interesting because, it is that classic stadium rock. It was an eye opener, I loved doing it and it was encouraging in many ways. They treated me very nicely, they paid me lots of money and they treated me like an adult.

They just respect you and let you get on with it. But the expectation is that you are going to deliver.

"The Floyd had expanded to an eight piece, so they had a surrogate band... you got The Floyd, and then Pete Woods on bass, Willy Wilson on drums, Andy Bown playing keyboards and myself on guitar.

The whole first part of the show they had to build The Wall, so it would take longer some nights than others - there were pad areas built in where Dave and I would just jam until certain sections were completed, then it was time to move on to the next bit. It had to be organised so that the last brick went in on the last note of the first half.

Because of my involvement with theatre it was interesting to see - it was a theatrical event."

From an interview with The Ptolemaic Terrascope 1992

Autographed programme for the German dates: 1980

PINK FLOYD - Earls Court, London 1981

A ticket to one of the Earl's Court shows. The whole reason they even did these concerts (they had done it originally the previous year) was because Alan Parker was making the film of The Wall, and the original idea was to have concert footage cut in. But they abandoned that later. Anyway, they did release a live CD last year called "Is There Anybody Out There?", which I'm thrilled to be on.

ANDY ROBERTS

Credits page from the programme for the Earls Court dates, London: June 1981

My backstage passes for all 5 nights, different colour for each day. There were all sorts of different passes to get through the various check points. I don't think they'd invented the phrase Access All Areas 20 years ago, but the Artist pass was the highest priority one at the time.

ANDY ROBERTS

"I was originally only hired for the German dates, so I was well chuffed to be recalled to play in my home town!"

ANDY ROBERTS

These following photos from the Earls Court gig in London are fan shots taken from amongst the audience. You can buy these and other Pink Floyd photos from www.recollections.co.uk.

Photo Credit: Pete Still / The Concert Photo Co / PeteStill@aol.com

<< BACK

PINK FLOYD - Westfalenhalle, in Dortmund, West Germany 1980
Andy Roberts played lead guitar with PINK FLOYD during 1980 & 1981 during live performances of The Wall in Germany and then later at Earls Court, London (Andy's home town). The London dates were recorded and filmed and only recently released (2000) as 'Is Anybody Out There'. The following are extracts from interviews ...
*Spencer Leigh: I told Andy that the last time I met him was just after he joined Pink Floyd!* AR: Joined - I wish! I was playing with Roy Harper who is very pally with Dave Gilmour. Dave came to see a show that we did in London at the Dominion Theatre at the end of 1980 and it just co-incided with the time that Snowy White joined Thin Lizzy. He'd been playing the Wall with Floyd and had done all the initial shows. Luckily for me he wasn't available for some extra dates that they'd added to the end of the Wall tour, well it wasn't a tour really, they played Los Angeles, New York and London. That was it, that was all they expected to do - those 3 places. Then they got an offer they couldn't refuse, to go and play in Germany, or do Europe basically, where they set up in Germany and all of Europe came to them. And they needed a guitarist, Dave had seen me play and I was using a lots of effects pedals and stuff like that and he knew I was a reasonable bloke and so he phoned me up and offered me the job. I was very reluctant, it took me about 2 seconds before I agreed.
Credits page from the programme for the German dates: 1980		*Spencer Leigh: Were the gigs of a size that you'd never played before?* AR: Yes, I've never done anything like that before. It was actually terribly interesting because, it is that classic stadium rock. It was an eye opener, I loved doing it and it was encouraging in many ways. They treated me very nicely, they paid me lots of money and they treated me like an adult. They just respect you and let you get on with it. But the expectation is that you are going to deliver.
"The Floyd had expanded to an eight piece, so they had a surrogate band... you got The Floyd, and then Pete Woods on bass, Willy Wilson on drums, Andy Bown playing keyboards and myself on guitar. The whole first part of the show they had to build The Wall, so it would take longer some nights than others - there were pad areas built in where Dave and I would just jam until certain sections were completed, then it was time to move on to the next bit. It had to be organised so that the last brick went in on the last note of the first half. Because of my involvement with theatre it was interesting to see - it was a theatrical event." *From an interview with The Ptolemaic Terrascope 1992*	Autographed programme for the German dates: 1980

PINK FLOYD - Earls Court, London 1981

	A ticket to one of the Earl's Court shows. The whole reason they even did these concerts (they had done it originally the previous year) was because Alan Parker was making the film of The Wall, and the original idea was to have concert footage cut in. But they abandoned that later. Anyway, they did release a live CD last year called "Is There Anybody Out There?", which I'm thrilled to be on. ANDY ROBERTS
	Credits page from the programme for the Earls Court dates, London: June 1981


My backstage passes for all 5 nights, different colour for each day. There were all sorts of different passes to get through the various check points. I don't think they'd invented the phrase Access All Areas 20 years ago, but the Artist pass was the highest priority one at the time. ANDY ROBERTS	*"I was originally only hired for the German dates, so I was well chuffed to be recalled to play in my home town!"* ANDY ROBERTS