Қанатты шошқалар: Pink Floyd тарихы мен сахнадағы символы

Inflatable flying pigs used as props by the rock band

Inflatable flying pigs were one of the staple props of Pink Floyd's live shows. The first balloon was a sow, with a male pig balloon later introduced in their 1987 tour. Pigs appeared numerous times in concerts by the band, promoting concerts and record releases, and on the cover of their 1977 album Animals. The image rights for the pigs passed to Roger Waters when he split from the rest of the group, though the pigs continued to be used by both Pink Floyd and Roger Waters in their gigs after his departure.

The original Pink Floyd pig, a 40 feet (12 m), helium filled balloon, was designed by Roger Waters and built in December 1976 by the artist Jeffrey Shaw with help of design team Hipgnosis, in preparation for shooting the cover of the Animals album. Plans were made to fly it over Battersea Power Station for a three day photo shoot, with a marksman standing by to shoot the pig down if it broke free. On the first day, poor weather and delays meant the pig was not launched, and the marksman was told he was not needed. On the second day, 3 December 1976, the marksman was again not present because no one had told him to return. A gust of wind tore the pig loose. It disappeared from sight within five minutes, and was spotted by airline pilots at thirty thousand feet in the air. The pig that was originally floated above Battersea Power Station was called "Algie".

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 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 has been used by bootleggers to identify which date a recording of the Wall tour was made. At the Berlin concert, it was only the head and it had fangs and red eyes.

For the 1987–1989 tour, the band added testicles to the pig, which David Gilmour has said was an attempt to get around Roger Waters having the image rights for the pig. Likewise, during the concert in Dallas, TX on 2 May 2008, and Houston, TX on 4 May, the pig floated away. During a concert in Chicago on 8 June 2012 at Wrigley Field, the pig crashed into the crowd behind home plate and was ripped to pieces by the crowd. During his Us + Them tour in 2017, the pig had a message printed on it reading "PIGGY BANK OF WAR" and underneath printed "BOMBS AND DEATH COME FROM HERE" with an arrow pointed toward the pig's rear. During Waters' This Is Not a Drill tour in 2022, the pig was printed with "FUCK THE POOR" on one side and "STEAL FROM THE POOR GIVE TO THE RICH" on the other side and was decorated with various images such as drones, coffins, and fighter jets. The pig was flown during the intermission and the first few numbers of the second set; its eyes were covered by a mask representing the Meta logo and were illuminated red during the performances of "In the Flesh" and "Run Like Hell."

An inflatable pig can be seen floating above Battersea Power Station in the 2010 movie Nanny McPhee Returns as the nanny and children make a motorcycle trip to London to locate the children's father. An inflatable pig can also be seen floating outside Battersea Power Station in the 2006 movie Children of Men. During the "Isles of Wonder" short film shot by Danny Boyle and shown as part of the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the camera zooms down the length of the Thames River, from a small spring in the countryside all the way to the Olympic venue. During the fly by, a pig can be seen floating above the Battersea Power Station. The pig can be seen floating about the neighbourhood in the video game The Sims 2. An inflatable pig can be seen floating above Battersea Power Station in the Zwift cycling app. A large toy sheep above a power plant reminiscent of the Battersea Power Station is shown on the cover of The Orb album Evil 39. A floating pig can be seen in the "Roger Waters – Comfortably Numb 2022" video, released 18 November 2022.