The happiest days of my life professional#

Pink and his two friends go down to a railway track to lay bullets on the rails and watch them explode under the passing train. He described this in an interview with Tommy Vance of BBC Radio One. 'The Happiest Days of Our Lives' concerns Pink's youth, attending a school run by strict and often violent teachers who treat the pupils with contempt.Īccording to Waters, the lyrics were a reflection of his own negative experience in school. The Wall tells the story of Pink, an embittered and alienated rock star in retreat from society and personal relationships. Additionally, the song is slightly faster, and the bass is noticeably louder compared to the album version. Before the cut in the middle for the Schoolmaster to mock Pink, somewhat quiet hysterical laughter is heard, extremely similar to the Schoolmaster's voice. Alan Parker made shots of it, but it didn't work out, so they used Alex McAvoy, who played the schoolteacher, to do the scene instead. According to Gerald Scarfe, there was supposed to be a puppet of the teacher at the end of the tunnel in the film. In the film based on the album, the sound at the beginning of the song is depicted as coming from a train entering a large tunnel, rather than a helicopter, as heard on the album. Because of this segue, many radio stations play one right after the other, and subsequent Floyd compilation albums (both Echoes and A Foot in the Door) use this song as the extended intro to 'Another Brick in the Wall'. 2' with a loud, high-pitched scream by Roger Waters, similar to one of the band's earlier works: ' Careful with That Axe, Eugene'. On the album, 'The Happiest Days of Our Lives' segues into 'Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2', the key shifts from D minor to the relative major, F major, with dramatic drum rolls and harmony vocals. During the transition to ' Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. The bass and guitar figure heard during the verses, G to A, is similar to the one in ' Waiting for the Worms', a song that appears much later in the album.

The lead instrument is an electric guitar with an added delay effect, playing roots (mostly D, G and A over a melody in D minor). Waters's lead vocal is treated with a reverse echo. The song is approximately one minute, 46 seconds in length, beginning with 24 seconds of a helicopter sound effect, followed by the schoolmaster shouting, 'You! Yes, you! Stand still, laddie!' performed by Roger Waters. ' The Happiest Days of Our Lives' is a song by Pink Floyd. We won’t send you too much! Click here.1979 song by Pink Floyd 'The Happiest Days of Our Lives' Our Mailing List will keep you up to date with Compton Players productions. Pity about that pacing but perhaps it picked up on subsequent nights. The set had a nice line in post-war, dull brown paint, and sparse furniture and Fittings, and costumes were good. Sometimes actors were left on stage waiting for the next line which couldn’t arrive until the other actor did. Actors need to come on stage swiftly, on cue, as others leave, almost overlapping, but this rarely happened. Lauren Adams and Holly Lucas were also impressive and smaller parts were nicely characterised.īut – and it is a big but – this was farce and needed comic timing and fast pace and the pacing simply wasn’t there. Young pupil Hopcroft Minor was played with good timing and real acting skill by 12-year-old Cameron Pearce. Chris Billingham and Shane Lambourne did well as the double-act twin schoolmasters, and caretaker Rainbow was played for successful comic effect by Charlie East. Mary Warrington played the girls’ headmistress with a fair mixture of self-importance and bombasity, and Helen Saxton gave a strong portrayal of the hyperactive Miss Gossage, with only a couple of ‘Grenfellisms’ (and they may even have been subconscious). The acting was very good from all the cast, with Eric Saxton as a natural, old-style headmaster who formed his own character with never a (visible) backward glance at Alastair Sim. Cue much distress, many misunderstandings, some courting – both serious and frivolous – and plenty of comic characters.Ĭompton’s production got off to a rather slow start, with the actors appearing to tread gently, tentatively into their roles on this first night and it did slow the action down. A bomb-damaged girls’ schools means that pupils and staff must be housed elsewhere, but a Government mix up sends them off to a boys’ school. It is 1948, war is over but austerity reigns.

The happiest days of my life professional#

Countless productions have followed, both professional and amateur, and performing it is OK if you are careful not to attempt to imitate the inimitable Margaret Rutherford, Alastair Sim and Joyce Grenfell from the movie. Author John Dighton wrote the play and then part-wrote the screenplay for the very successful film version in 1950.

This comedy was first performed at the Apollo Theatre, London, in 1948.