Remastered reissue of Pink Floyd’s iconic 1972 film, Live at Pompeii.
Originally released in 1972, this film has had numerous edits and reissues over the last half century. The core of the film was filmed in the Roman Amphitheatre in Pompeii over four days in October 1971. It’s a ‘live’ set up, although there is no audience. The film makes no attempt to hide the camera and PA crew.
Additional footage was filmed in a Paris TV studio and Abbey Road studios in London. This includes rehearsals of the, at that time, unreleased Dark Side of the Moon, interviews and general footage of the band having dinner in the studio. A Directors Cut of the film in 2002 added footage of the band wandering around Pompeii, scaling volcanoes and similar types of ‘B-roll’ footage.
This version has been restored using the latest technology and the sound remastered by the incredible Steven Wilson.
Whilst I’ve seen the film several times before, the experience is undoubtedly enhanced by being on a big screen with surround sound. This is my first visit to an IMax screen and it was quite spectacular, although I’m struggling to see how it was significantly different from watching on a bog standard cinema screen. Perhaps the fact that you can’t add too many bells and whistles to a fifty year old film accounts for that.
For me, a long-time fan of Pink Floyd, the film is a reminder of what an amazing back catalogue the band had laid down before things went ballistic with the release of ‘Dark Side of the Moon’.
The set list includes ‘Echoes’, ‘Set the Contols for the Heart of the Sun’, ”Careful with that Axe Eugene’ and the mesmerising ‘One of these Days’. There’s also a blues improvisation, ‘Mademoiselle Nobs’, that features Dave Gilmore playing a harmonica and a dog howling in protest.
It’s amazing to see the band creating sounds years ahead of their time with what we would consider today to be primitive instruments. Seeing Rick Wright balancing a lit cigarette on the top of a Stienway grand piano was more confirmation that these were very different times.
This was Pink Floyd at their very best. Sadly over the next few albums, some major personal disputes started to develop, eventually ending in an incredibly acrimonious split with tensions still festering now. While the interviews show a band at their creative prime, with the benefit of hindsight, you can see the very early seeds of discontent starting to sprout
Whilst I’ve seen the film before, the big screen experience certainly adds to the film. Although people coming in late with torches to find their seats was annoying. Especially the couple that disturbed us before realising they were in the wrong cinema.
I appreciate that I have obscure music tastes at times, but the sheer magnitude of the beast that was Pink Floyd had lulled me into the false impression that almost everyone that likes rock music loves this band. The journey home put that myth to bed, with our mate Becks moaning all the way home, in disbelief that the band were so huge, claiming it was the worst film he had ever seen and bizarrely stating ‘They’re no Tigers of Pan Tang’. Bloody Philistine.
The film will be out on DVD and Blu-Ray in May and the soundtrack will be released on vinyl and CD at the same time. This will be the first time the soundtrack has been released officially.