Tull-O-Vision

[TheLoony]

Watching Rock Legends on Tull and they say Tull was one of the first to project the band on a rear screen, called Tull-O-Vision. Who had done it before them?

I've for years wondered who had the first arena rock rear screen and who projected the band first. Two separate questions there, to decipher my own speak. Gotta think of Floyd for the first but I wasn't there so maybe you guys have more insight.

Useless music knowledge but it's so damned interesting. My sis caught me watching The Making Of Wish You Were Here and what I told her about it blew her mind. Still looking for the Animals doc, every other album from the '70's has one, why not this one?

[GuitarGeek]

Watching Rock Legends on Tull and they say Tull was one of the first to project the band on a rear screen, called Tull-O-Vision. Who had done it before them?

I've for years wondered who had the first arena rock rear screen and who projected the band first. Two separate questions there, to decipher my own speak. Gotta think of Floyd for the first but I wasn't there so maybe you guys have more insight.

Useless music knowledge but it's so damned interesting. My sis caught me watching The Making Of Wish You Were Here and what I told her about it blew her mind. Still looking for the Animals doc, every other album from the '70's has one, why not this one?

You phrased your post in a very convoluted fashion.

Pink Floyd never projected images of themselves on screens. They first started using abstract films to accompany some of the songs in 74. And of course, projections coloured liquids, slides and whatever dates back to the mid or late 60's. I think some of the early English psych bands were doing that in 66, and there's photos in oneof the Grateful Dead books I have of them doing something like that in 67 (though whether that was something they were using on a nightly basis, or if the lightshow was provided by the promoter of that particular gig, is another question).

The earliest videos i've seen sourced from video screen feeds came from around 75-76, I've got footage of Blue Oyster Cult, Kiss and a few others that are like that. I'm not sure who the first arena band to travel with their own video screen system for that purpose. I know a big deal was made of Journey doing it in the early 80's, on the Frontiers tour, but that was stadiums (supposedly, Steve Perry waited until after the big summer stadium tour was booked to let it be known the felt there was no intimacy and that he didn't want do stadiums, so the video screen setup was put forth as a compromise for him).

[GuitarGeek]

Oh and the reason there's never been an Animals documentary is probably the same reason why you never hear any of the songs of Animals on the radio: because it's not as popular as the two albums that preceded it or the one that followed it. Hence there's "no interest" from the people who usually pay for such things to happen.

[SunRunner2]

Oh and the reason there's never been an Animals documentary is probably the same reason why you never hear any of the songs of Animals on the radio: because it's not as popular as the two albums that preceded it or the one that followed it. Hence there's "no interest" from the people who usually pay for such things to happen.

Actually, Animals got a good deal of airplay on FM stations in the late 70's/early 80's, especially "Pigs", "Sheep" and "Pigs On The Wing" interim cuts. Even "Dogs" was featured on the album sides programs, usually on Sunday nights where I lived at the time. Obviously, who is going to play it these days other than Sirius/XM (but that's more of a current-state-of-radio subject matter)? I purchased the French Harvest version of Animals in solid pink, with 'Disque Rose' and 'Tirage Limite' stamped with stickers on the front cover. It was cool for impressing the fellow kiddies at parties, but the sound was not that good.

[GuitarGeek]

Actually, Animals got a good deal of airplay on FM stations in the late 70's/early 80's, especially "Pigs", "Sheep" and "Pigs On The Wing" interim cuts. Even "Dogs" was featured on the album sides programs, usually on Sunday nights where I lived at the time.

So you may say. But certainly by the mid 80's, when I first heard Animals, it most definitely wasn't being played much on FM radio. At least, not around here it wasn't. I think I remember hearing Pigs (3 Different Ones) on the radio once, I remember listening to hear if they'd censor out the F bomb (I don't think they did), and maybe I've heard it a couple times since then. Certainly, it doesn't enjoy the kind of coverage that Time, Speak To Me/Breathe, Money, Us And Them, Brain Damage/Eclipse, Wish You Were Here itself, Have A Cigar, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Comfortably Numb, Happiest Days Of Our Lives/Another Brick In The Wall pt. 2, Young Lust, Hey You or Run Like Hell get.

[SunRunner2]

^^^^
Agreed that the "Animals" cuts are not played today nearly as much as the most of the ones you alluded to above (exception: Shine On), but look at the playing time and more radio friendly formats that those songs have (radio edits also used on some of them, including AM play). Then, observe the Animals song length:

Side one
1. "Pigs on the Wing (Part 1)" 1:24
2. "Dogs" 17:04

Side two
1. "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" 11:28
2. "Sheep" 10:20
3. "Pigs on the Wing (Part 2)" 1:24

I think that 'Pigs" may have received a radio edit version but, let's face it, compared to "Money", "Wish You Were Here", "Brick", "Numb", "Cigar", "Lust" and "Run", none of the Animals cuts other than interim Pigs ditties are radio friendly in either length or content (dark and not as melody flowing for radio audience consumption). I think that Animals was never intended to be an album with radio "hits" on it; it's a dark and dank statement on life and the demise of civilizations. I used to play it quite a bit, but not anymore.

[TheLoony]

Ok, just for the record, there were two questions to begin with.

Who's the first ARENA rock band to use a rear screen projection for just images, and who was the first ARENA rock band to use that to project themselves on screen. I use the arena word in caps as I'm not thinking of smaller clubs and places like that. I wanna know who first did it on the big stage.

Hope I cleared that up.

I like Animals, whatever Roger was going off about I don't care. Floyd's '70's output just makes me feel happy when I hear it. Dark as it mostly is I get immense enjoyment from that period because I probably don't take it so seriously. If I did, knowing the lyrics, I'd probably want to hurt meself. The Wall, that's different but the rest I just take it like it is.

Knowing the rest of the story is still great which is why someone needs to do an Animals doc. We've got so many for all the other albums, come on guys, get with the program, dammit.

The doc on WYWH is fantastic. Seeing that pic of Syd and hearing his noodling as he just can't play the guitar anymore is so sad. This bands history is so fascinating and that's why I want someone to come along and do this Animals doc.

I forget which of the songs from Animals gets played somewhat regularly on the rock station here but it's a bit different, not owned by Clear Channel or the biggies. The Las Vegas radio experience, over the years, I bet has been much different from what you guys experienced.

I've got to pull the album out and figure out which song is which. They are all animals and I always forget the names of the tunes. Shouldn't be that hard but sometimes names escape me.

[moecurlythanu]

"You pig-man, pig-man! Ha ha, charade you are!"

Ring any bells?

[GuitarGeek]

Ok, just for the record, there were two questions to begin with.

Who's the first ARENA rock band to use a rear screen projection for just images, and who was the firs t ARENA rock band to use that to project themselves on screen. I use the arena word in caps as I'm not thinking of smaller clubs and places like that.I wanna know who first did it on the big stage.

Pink Floyd was probably the first to use films in an arena concert, I guess that's what your first question you're asking, in 74-75. I know they played arenas on the 75 US tour, so that might have been the first time that was done.

As for who was the first to project images of themselves on screens, again, that's hard to say because arenas had projection screen systems for sporting events before bands started using them. So you'd have to figure out who was the first to play in an arena that had such a projection system, and put it to their own use. Like I said, I've got videos of Kiss and Blue Oyster Cult from 76 that are sourced from video screen feeds. Not sure if anyone was doing that before then, other than maybe the Rolling Stones in 72 or 75.

Knowing the rest of the story is still great which is why someone needs to do an Animals doc. We've got so many for all the other albums, come on guys, get with the program, dammit.

Probably no one reckons it's worth the money you'd have to put into it. You'd have get a documentarian to agree to do the film, that's actually probably the easy part. Then you'd have to get the people who are still alive (note that at least two key players in this story are no longer with us) to agree to do interviews about that particular subject. You're basically asking Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and David Gilmour to sit down and try to remember dren that happened as much as 46 years ago (you gotta go back to at least 74 because the original versions of Dogs and Sheep actually predate Wish You Were Here!). You've got untangled whatever legal complications that would allow you to use photos, films, and music in the project. That's gonna be a pain in the mivonks by itself. All of this costs money, lots of money. And even if you're able to come up with the money, you might have trouble finding a distributor, because you're focused on a very particular period of time and a particular album that, as noted earlier, "only" made it to number 3 Stateside.

More than likely, if you want a documentary about Animals, you might have to make it yourself. It's not impossible. That's what Jeff Stein did. He was a massive Who fan, and took upon himself to talk the band into letting him making a documentary about them, which ended up being The Kids Are Alright. You might be able to pull together everything you need to do to do yourself. But it's probably going to take you a couple years, at least, to get it to happen.

But if you really want to know (Paul Harvey mode) the rest of the story (Paul Harvey mode off), there's numerous books that have been written about the band, including one by Nick Mason, that do a good job of illustrating everything.