In brief: Mark Fisher

Further to your obituary of Mark Fisher (28 June), he will be remembered for breaking new ground with rock shows, and moving on from the ghastly video screen with a picture of the performer into things that added so much more to the experience, writes Nick Mason, Pink Floyd drummer.

He worked with us initially on the Animals tour in 1977. He was involved in things like the giant inflatables. The puppets came a bit later, part of The Wall scenario.

The original 1980 show was groundbreaking. Between them, Mark and Jonathan Park designed not only The Wall but the whole system of how it could be erected within a short space of time and how it could then be knocked down. That was fantastic, a real piece of design and engineering. The Wall is still brilliant today, making use of all the latest technology, but the thinking and the principles are the same. Mark managed to convince every other performer to bring more production values to their shows. Even the boy bands are doing it now.

Mark did beautiful, lovely drawings. I’ve got quite a lot of them from different tours. He was the easiest person to work with, full of ideas, very diplomatic, very good-humoured. In rock and roll, as in most of show business, there are lots of people with big egos who are confrontational and difficult. Mark was just the opposite and good enough that he would rarely lose an argument on how something should be done. He was always good company, someone who would be very nice to find backstage at mealtime. What was noticeable is that there was a man designing the grandest, most over the top stage things, yet he had the most self-effacing demeanour. He was very British. His dry sense of humour was legendary. When he got the OBE a few years ago, I remember him saying: “it stands for ‘Other Buggers’ Efforts’.”