Who leaked the pro-shot 1980 The Wall videos?

[ILuvHoney]

As I am sure almost everybody in here knows, footage from the 1980 Nassau Coliseum and Earls Court performances from The Wall tour have been available on the bootleg market for many years, and the bootlegs are sourced from VHS copies who suffer from generation loss and have pretty poor quality. As I assume most of you also know, these were pro-shot by the band's crew and originate from the much talked about vault of Roger Waters.

However, a thing I have wondered about for years is how these concert films made it to the bootleg market in the first place. How many people received an original copy of the films, and who made the VHS copies and leaked them to the bootleg market? Considering that the decision to not release any footage from the tour was taken, and that the 1980 footage (unlike the yet unseen 1981 footage) as far as I understand was made for internal use and official release of them was not even considered, I would assume that they did not make many copies and only distributed them to more than a trusted few? How did this footage manage to get out to the bootleg market?

Are there any theories about how this happened? I would assume that Roger himself would have no interest in leaking fourth-generation VHS tapes of footage that he has the master tapes of to the black market, so who could have done this and how/why?

[rontoon]

IIRC, I was the one who initially shared the Nassau Coliseum footage on a wide scale. I also used a low gen source for the Earls Crt show which was transferred from tape to a standalone DVD recorder at the time. This was used for Divided We Fall and just a couple of years ago I made a clone and shared it with someone working on The Wall project. I suspect that most decent copies originated from that DVD. I also suspect that a 2nd or 3rd gen VHS tape was used to make the DVD so the master was "stepped on" at least twice.

Good luck tracing it back any further than that as I still won't reveal my source. I shared it but I doubt that you'll ever discover who leaked it originally.

[MrFender]

Waiting on the Rontoon tell all memior to come out someday.

[ILuvHoney]

Thank you for this information. I understand that the leaker probably does not want to reveal his or her identity, and fishing too much would probably be a bit rude, but may I at least ask you if there is a specific reason why you can't reveal the source for your tape? Did you get it from somebody who is associated with Pink Floyd or Roger Waters' management crew, and for whom it would pose problems if it was revealed that he/she leaked it? And do you know just the source for your x-gen VHS, or do you know who leaked the footage originally as well? Can you at least give yes-no answers to these questions, or is that too much too ask?

[stonytokes]

Many thanks for sharing these with the world. I can't count the hours of viewing pleasure I've experienced as a result.

[DaveTheRave]

The person who leaked it, if still alive, would probably want to remain anonymous to avoid any fallout.

[mulle]

It’s about time Roger leaks it.

[ILuvHoney]

Yeah, I agree about that! But hopefully the master and not another 3rd+ gen VHS tape!

[rontoon]

The strange thing about this forum is that I can't seem to figure out how to quote replies to a post to answer questions.

The specific reason I can't reveal the source is simple, they asked me not to. They are a collector and have no connection to the band.

I don't remember my source for the VHS Nassau Coliseum footage. That was more than 30 years ago. If I knew the gen of the tape I would have shared that info. My guess would be a first or second gen dub from the master. I ended up making about 2 dozen VHS copies from my tape at a professional transfer facility in Chicago, shared them all and then put my tape away.

[ILuvHoney]

OK, but thank you very much for sharing this info!

[Skinny12]

Hi Ron, here you find the Quote option!

Best Nils

[rontoon]

Hi Ron, here you find the Quote option!

Best Nils

Not on COMMENTS replying to a post. When I click on the 3 dots all I get is a FLAG option.

[Skinny12]

This is true, you cannot quote a comment…

[rontoon]

This is true, you cannot quote a comment…

Good to know I'm not crazy! Cant "like" comments either.

[Skinny12]

Don’t want to hijack this thread but i think the comment function might be a bit „misused“ here. Comments should only show a short notice/comment about the related post but no discussion. The Quote option might be of better use for that.

Best
Nils

[ILuvHoney]

OK, good to know!

[Waldsman]

[QUOTE=rontoon;n309900]The strange thing about this forum is that I can't seem to figure out how to quote replies to a post to answer questions.



You can quote a comment. Just hit the 3 dots on post and hit quote!

Edit. Nevermind thought you guys are talking about a post.

[lvri]

At the end, is there any reason to not see an official release of these lives ?
I heard that the band, or Roger only, was not happy with the result (especially the rendering of the projection on the wall). But, not sure it's true.
Moreover, the audio live "Is there anybody out there" was never released on vinyle.vinyle.

[NuffM]

At the end, is there any reason to not see an official release of these lives ?
I heard that the band, or Roger only, was not happy with the result (especially the rendering of the projection on the wall). But, not sure it's true.
Moreover, the audio live "Is there anybody out there" was never released on vinyle.vinyle.

All Roger. David has said before that if he had access to the masters/film reels, it would have already come out. They wanted to release it in the late 80s, Roger said no. They wanted to release it to go along with the live album, Roger said no. They wanted to release it for the Immersion box, Roger said no. Roger has been saying since 87 that he would release the footage at some point and he hasn't even talked about it in a decade.

Nick has also said that he's seen the footage Roger had edited together, and says it looked great and hope that it gets released.

Fans have been demanding this release for ever. You open any Pink Floyd official post on Instagram or YouTube related to the wall and there's tons of people wanting it. Even some people on the non-Wall posts.

If you ask me, Roger is just self entitled. I'm not the Roger hater I use to be years ago, but that doesn't mean I agree with him 100% of the time.

Clarification: no, I am not defending David either. But David isn't sitting on 9 nights of pro shot material with multiple camera angles from one tour between 1967-1981.

[lvri]

Thanks for all these informations.
sad to see that all of these videos will probably stay in a vault for ever....

[ruben77]

...
sad to see that all of these videos will probably stay in a vault for ever....

I'm not so pessimistic. I somehow hope that Roger's state will see the economic value (if not the historical significance) of those videos when he dies, and decide to release the recordings.