Roger Waters Radio K.A.O.S 1987

Production Design: Mark Fisher, Jonathan Park and Roger Waters
Set Design and effects: Mark Fisher and Jonathan Park
Lighting Design: Abigail Rosen
Production Director: Andrew Zweck
Production Manager: David Russell
Graphic Design: Kate Hepburn, Pearce Marchbank

Mark Fisher writes:
The formal separation between Roger Waters and Pink Floyd took place in 1985.  In 1986 the remaining members of the band (Dave Gilmour, Nick Mason and Rick Wright) recorded “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” without Waters.  The album was released under the Pink Floyd brand name, and they planned a stadium tour for the following year.  In the spring of 1987 Fisher and Park turned down an invitation from the band to work with Marc Brickman on the production design of the new show, because they were already working with Waters on “Radio K.A.O.S”.  His much smaller arena tour opened in the USA in August, only four weeks before “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” opened in Canada.  The battle for ticket sales between the two tours was fierce, and it was inevitably won by the show that bore the original brand name.  Waters ruefully reflected that he was competing with himself.

The architecture of the Radio K.A.O.S stage was similar to the stage for "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking".  A black backdrop extended the full width of the stage, masking a 9m square rear projection screen.  An 8m diameter circular hole in the backdrop framed the screen.  It was surrounded by circular truss supporting Vari*Lites.  The assembly replicated the well known Pink Floyd circular screen motif, but at must lower cost.  The screen and backdrop were located upstage of the band above a 2.5m high ‘chicken run’ that concealed all the backline technicians.  A single 35mm cine projector with an 18Kw lamp-house was placed on a platform in the seats behind the stage.  The top deck of the chicken run was accessed by staircases at each end, providing a strutting ground for Waters.  A green monochrome telecaster message board was mounted on the downstage edge of the chicken run and stretched the full width between the stairs.  At the stage left end of the chicken run, a radio DJ booth was home to Jim Ladd, (an LA broadcaster whose carefully crafted rock music programs reflected his lonely opposition to format radio).  As part of the conceit of the show, he ‘broadcast’ between the songs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_K.A.O.S.