I noted with great interest the mention of Pink Floyd – The Wall film memorabilia in Record Collector (Most Wanted, RC 449). I was an extra in the film, and was involved (along with friends) in the Fascist rally scenes.
The school I attended ran a careers advice service. I was there with my then-girlfriend, who was seeking advice. Loitering outside in rather scruffy attire, I was approached by a man who said, “I’m looking for people like you.” I thought I had done something wrong and was somehow in trouble. He went on to explain that they had secured a day’s work for several hundred young people as an extra in a film. I said that I was interested and when he said it was The Wall by Pink Floyd, I was thrilled and asked if I could bring some mates who were also Pink Floyd fans. The answer was yes. I invited them over and they crashed on my bedroom floor for the night before heading off together in the morning.
We set out from Stanford-Le-Hope, Essex, at 8am along with several hundred other teenagers. Worryingly, the recruits included a number of “Tilbury Skinheads”. As our buses pulled away, the kids in the back seat of the bus ahead kicked out the rear window and hung a swastika from it. I turned to my mates, exclaiming, “Oh shit, what have we let ourselves in for!”
Thankfully the majority of the rest of the day was uneventful. We all participated in the crowd scenes and spotted Dave Gilmour taking an avid interest in proceedings. The most memorable period was filming In The Flesh. I was given a Hammer armband to wear for the filming (which I still have). We were college students and not averse to smoking a little weed, and thought it hilarious that the line in the song referring to the “one smoking a joint” coincided with an actor being forcibly ejected from our row in the crowd.
Unfortunately for the actors in this scene, the kids took these ejections rather too seriously, resulting in several limping back to their seats for the inevitable further takes. The producer was forced to remind us that it was not a real fascist rally but acting. We also wore the masks for Run Like Hell (I was unable to retain that, sadly). During the lunch break I briefly met Bob Geldof and said “Hi” to him as we passed him while he was waiting at a burger van! Shooting overran and the natives became restless whilst waiting for the payroll to arrive. During this time many of them started throwing fireworks into the middle of the crowd (it was not long before firework night). One went down the back of a girl in front of me. Luckily, she was wearing several layers of clothing and was not burned. Another incident was the collapse of some lighting. This nearly took my cousin out. She was compensated for a pair of torn jeans and a scratch to her thigh. Finally we were paid – around £30. A princely sum for a student circa 1981! Anyway, I have fond (and troubled) memories from my day as an extra in The Wall.
When the film came out we watched it together in the hope of seeing ourselves on celluloid. We managed to pick out the backs of our heads!
When The Floyd played The Wall live in the early 80s, I desperately tried to get tickets, to no avail. I finally saw it live, over 30 years after my work in the film, when Roger took it to the O2, London in 2011.
Could you give me an idea of the rarity and value of my armband please? Richard Noller, by email
Clearly this is a scarce prop, never mass-produced (though, gulp, someone is hand-crafting replicas and selling them on eBay). Bonhams’ final price for the hammer and mask featured in RC was £1,125. We’d guess the armband is worth around £600, but because it’s such an iconic item, it may fetch more. IM
