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Inflatable Pink Floyd Pig s are one of the staple Prop s of their live shows. The first was a sow, but a very obviously male pig appeared in the 1980s. Pigs appeared numerous times in Concert s by the band, promoting concerts and record releases, and on the cover of their 1977 album '' Animals ''. ''ANIMALS'' '', visible between the two front chimneys of Battersea Power Station .]] The original Pink Floyd pig was designed by Roger Waters and built in December 1976 in preparation for shooting the cover of the '' Animals '' album. Plans were made to fly the forty-foot, Helium -filled Balloon over Battersea Power Station on the first day's photo-shoot, with a Marksman prepared to shoot the pig down if it broke free. However, the pig was not launched. On the second day, the marksman wasn't present because no one had told him to return, and the pig broke free due to a strong gust of wind (gaining a lot of press coverage). It disappeared from sight within five minutes, and was spotted by Airline Pilots at forty thousand feet in the air. Flights at Heathrow Airport were cancelled as the huge inflatable pig flew through the path of aircraft, eastwards from Britain, over the English Channel , finally landing on a rural farm in Kent that night. The pig was recovered and repaired for the resumption of photography for the album cover, but unfortunately the sky was cloudless and blue, thus "boring". However, the pictures of the sky from the first day were suitable; eventually, the album cover was created using a composite of photos from the first and third days. {Link without Title} The pig that was originally floated above Battersea Power Station was called " Algie ". IN THE FLESH After the album '' Animals '' was released in 1977 , Pink Floyd began their "In the Flesh" tour. During concerts, the pig appeared around the PA stacks in a cloud of black smoke during performances of " Pigs (Three Different Ones) ". The pig also went astray whilst suspended from the ceiling of the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge Louisiana in 1977. It ran back and forth over the audience during the performance on some sort of track, and at the end of its travels across the arena struck a fan in the head as it turned to go back toward the stage. ''THE WALL'' The pig also appeared during each of Pink Floyd's '' The Wall '' concerts, black instead of pink, with a crossed hammers logo on its side. Waters would occasionally refer to it directly before " Run Like Hell " (the pig appeared during the end of the previous song, " In The Flesh "). A short speech in reference to either the pig or the song was given in every show, with each speech being different; this oddity is used by Bootleggers to identify which date a recording of the Wall tour was made on. THE POST-WATERS PIG After Roger Waters left the band in 1985, following the release of '' The Final Cut '', he retained the copyright of the original design of the pig. He demanded US$800 for every time the remaining members of Pink Floyd appeared with the pig. Not wanting to pay that, they changed the pig's gender, adding Testicles . In the two post-Waters tours, the pig was used many times; but two of the pigs were lost, both during the '' A Momentary Lapse Of Reason '' tours:
During the 1994 tour, two Warthog -like pigs with protruding tongues were shown at the top of the stage side's speaker towers, sometimes just deflated, sometimes dropped on the ground after " One Of These Days ". These two pigs were nicknamed "Syd" and "Roger" after the two former bandmates. The pig made another appearance before the release of '''', when Capitol Records flew a replica of the original pig from ''Animals'' over the Capitol Tower in Hollywood , California . It took a total of 350 hours to create. One inflatable pig, badly damaged and believed to be from the 1988 manager Mike Luba from a former Pink Floyd stagehand, the 40-foot pig flew again over the Austin City Limits Music Festival audience during a cover of Floyd 's " Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)". The full story of the pig, its repair, and return to flight is detailed in this article at Austin360.com . REUNION During their Live 8 reunion with Waters, footage of the original pig, over Battersea Power Station, was shown on a giant video screen behind the band. ROGER WATERS SOLO TOURS See: Pigs On Roger Waters Solo Tours . TRIVIA
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