Not one Pink Floyd member took the idea of a stage show lightly. It was more than just playing music that people would pay close attention to. A group of people simply sitting there wouldn’t do something like The Wall justice; this was about creating an experience that people would never forget. However, despite the fact that Roger Waters completed his greatest work on his own without the assistance of his fellow musicians in the 1990s, he acknowledged that Sinead O’Connor wasn’t the ideal replacement.
However, you will require all the assistance you can get when putting on a production of this magnitude. The rock opera’s whole idea is to tell the tale of a person who shut themselves off from society and became trapped inside their own head, but the amount of work required to construct that wall was already going to present a logistical challenge for the production team.
Remember that this production is a rock opera as well. This project has a storyline, and all compelling stories require a large cast of characters to fully realise the plot. Waters was a good fit for the role of Pink, the rogue’s gallery of rock stars he got to play, but the other actors were actually pretty good for the era.
The type of onscreen role that Tim Curry never got to play is judge in the final song, “The Trial,” with Thomas Dolby yucking it up as the teacher, who is actually pretty insane. Bryan Adams, one of the major replacements, even managed to add some respectable gritty quality to his voice for the song “Young Lust.”
When O’Connor took on the song “Mother,” she seemed like a sure thing, especially given her experience with heartbreaking material. That kind of tragedy just pours out of her voice as she sings every line of the song. This is about a mother comforting her child while subtly corrupting him.
Waters had nothing but praise for the Irish legend after she was unable to attend the Berlin final performance. He told Q, “[They] were] all brilliant.” other than Sinead O’Connor. God, oh God! I have never encountered someone so self-absorbed, unprofessional, conceited, and disagreeable. It’s frightening how far up her own ass. The lack of other “young people on the show” worried her so much. She thought that I was an old fart, just like everyone else.
Even though O’Connor’s plan to introduce a rap in the middle of the show probably wouldn’t have succeeded, hearing her take on “Mother” at least demonstrates an alternative course that The Wall could have taken. Since the majority of the show consists of everyone reliving the splendour of the production as it was recorded. Dome of the best parts occur when they deviate from the script. Such as, when they get Van Morrison to perform portions of the show.
But then, Waters will be the first person to demand an explanation from anybody connected to The Wall. It’s possible that O’Connor had the right idea at the wrong time. However, he still headed towards creating something truly unique.
