Snowy White interview excerpts concerning Pink Floyd

[The Piper]

Excerpts from an interview with Snowy White


T is the interviewer
S is Snowy White
K is Kumar Harada who plays in Snowy White's Blues Agency


T : Right. You toured with Pink Floyd on the Animals Tour
and on the Wall Tour. How did you get that? How did
that come about?
S : They phoned up. The Managers, well no in fact he didn't
call up, he tried to call me and he couldn't get hold of
me and then somebody I knew who managed Kate Bush who
lived in my street said "The Manager of Pink Floyd's been
trying to get hold of you maybe you should give them a
ring," so I did, and he said they're just finishing an
album and they want another guitar and they decided they
needed another guitar player for all their live gigs - do
you fancy doing the job? And so I said yeh - so I went
along and did it.
T : Did you play on their studio albums or was it only live,
because there is a rumour about you playing a bit?
S : I like these rumours!
T : On Animals, but it only appeared on the USA 8 track
cartridge.
S : That's exactly right!
T : Argg' that's settled that for you!
S : It's a bit of music that plays as the cartridge turns
over I think - turns round you know - you know those 8
track cartridges? Remember those?
K : Oh yeh yeh yeh yeh - you told me, I remember that!
S : They didn't use it 'cos they had more time on the 8
track, so they used that piece of music and I just
happened to do a bit of guitar on it, that's all. Pig's
on the Wing that's what it's called!
T : You played on Rick Wright's album. Did that come from
your work with Floyd or was that prior to Floyd?
S : That came from, that was, that was after the Animals Tour
and Rick was doing a solo album and said I'm going to the
South of France for a couple of months to do a solo album
fancy coming down? Yeh.



T : Rogers Waters The Wall in Berlin how did you get
involved?
S : He phoned me up and said I'm doing this
T : You get a lot of phone calls don't you?
S : No. There few and far between actually. Well, no I get
a lot more these days. I keep changing my number you see
that's what I do now, I don't tell anybody. But he
called me up and said I'm doing this Wall Show in Berlin
and would like you in the basic Band. I said okay. I
would like to do it - its for charity and everything.
I like working with Roger he
is good. He is very intense and means what he does.
T : Did it take long to learn the score or was it just a case
of re-learning from when you played The Wall before?
S : Yeh, I just almost did what I did ten years previously,
so I knew it really. We had a lot of rehearsing. Had
about a months' rehearsal in England then we had two
weeks rehearsal in Berlin. So we had time to get it all
together.
T : Fine. Did you panic when the power went down?
S : No I never panic - nothing to do with me. What can you
do, powers gone down, what can you do. I felt really
sorry for everybody,. I thought the show was going to
fall apart and I started to feel really sorry for
everybody especially Roger who had worked so hard you
know but its one of those things isn't it?
T : How long was it down for?
S : Seemed about three years. Really it must have been about
five minutes. It wasn't too bad but the problem was we
had a satellite slot that was going out live and also it
was all done to sync tapes and we had click tracks in
headphones and count ins and cues and things. And they
all disappeared. But we couldn't pick it up - we
couldn't stop and start from where we had stopped. We
had to start from where we would have been and carry on.
T : So that's why it cuts in like that?
S : Yeh - oh yeh!
T : The live thing it played and then cut in and then on the
actual video they had...
S : What the one you can buy in the shops?
T : Yes
S : Oh its all mended. So after the show. When everybody
had gone home at two o'clock in the morning, we went and
did the first half again. All night.
T : So that's why the video fits.
S : Yes. Missed the party everything. Working hard we were.
Four o'clock in the morning, staggered into the hotel and
had to catch a plane the next morning, so that was it.
That's Show Business you see. Had to cover it.
T : The best part for us was Comfortably Numb when you were
right on the top of the wall.
S : Oh that, yeh - that was fun.
T : What was the best part for you and what was the best
memory of the night - apart from doing it again?
S : I suppose that's the bit that I can remember the most
being up there but it was all a pleasant memory actually.
The two weeks out there was a very pleasant memory. The
weather was always good and there was a lot of people
working hard together building the show up and there was
a lot to do and it was interesting and had to rehearse
with all the guest stars and on the night - I mean we had
been through it so many times, on the night we just went
through it with lots of people out there so it wasn't
like particularly special because we had just been
through it beforehand. I have just got a very nice
memory of all of it really.
T : Could you tell how many people there was out there?
S : No I could see there were a lot
T : Yes, its difficult from the sort of camera angle.
S : The cameras even on the amended video you still can't get
an idea of exactly how big it was - the scale of it was
gross. Even on a big screen. Shame really.
T : What that the biggest gig you ever did - ever done?
S : What - the amount of people?
T : Umm, Well not counting the sort of the television
audience.
S : I guess so, we did some big ones with the Floyd. I think
the biggest one we did then was 90,000 in the Baseball
Stadium in Cleveland. So this was obviously a lot
bigger.