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GUTHRIE Rick did some great playing on that album, whether or not people remember it. Some fantastic Hammond parts.

WRIGHT My therapist is still convinced I’m extremely angry about the whole thing. I think it was nasty. This is my band as much as it’s his. But the fact that Dave and Nick and Roger fell out immediately afterward kind of helped me deal with the fact that I’d left the band. But I don’t like the way it was done. I still feel it was wrong. Hopefully one day I’ll sit down with Roger and he might say, “Yes, it was unfair.”

WATERS No, it was absolutely the right thing to do.

The Wall was completed in Los Angeles. Evidence of Waters’ contributions are all over its packaging, including in the cover credits, which list both Waters and Gerald Scarfe as the designers. Music credits on the original release include three producers (including Waters), one co-producer, four engineers, three writers, two orchestra arrangers, six backing vocalists, a sound equipment man and the fourth form music class of Islington Green School. The names of Rick Wright and Nick Mason are nowhere to be seen.

WRIGHT I’d forgotten about that. Nick was left off as well? I wonder why. But by that time I’d left the band and sort of given up.

MASON I wasn’t too happy. It was rectified on later pressings, I think.

GERALD SCARFE I think Roger had a strong idea of what the Wall cover should look like— completely white with bricks on it. I did a little drawing while we were staying together in France that had all the little characters from [the song] “The Trial” poking out of the wall.

MASON There were a number of playbacks [for the record label]. One of the executives from CBS was absolutely appalled. He went back to the company and said, “This is terrible rubbish. What are we going to do?” Of course, it all turned out fine.

GUTHRIE The official playback was at CBS Records in Central City. I went in a couple hours early with a quarter-inch tape to set up the sound system in their conference room. By the time we got to the bit where the Stukas [dive bombers] swooped down, it was so loud that it blew the right speaker. So we hunted the entire building for an office that was big enough and that had a sound system that was even halfway decent. We eventually found one and took all the furniture out, threw in a load of cushions, turned the lights off and just played the album.

WRIGHT The playback was a very difficult, strange time. I think I was emotionally numb.

GILMOUR It was a magic moment, I thought, Yep, we’ve pretty well nailed it.

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