Pink Floyd have shared a newly restored high-resolution footage of George Greenough's iconic short film of their classic Echoes, from 1973 cult-classic surf film Crystal Voyager.
It lands as Pink Floyd get ready to release a new San Tropez Orange Marble vinyl edition of their landmark 1971 album Meddle, for this year’s National Album Day, through Sony Music on October 17.
The footage of Echoes is taken from cult-classic 1973 Australian surf film Crystal Voyager, a 1973 documentary directed by David Elfick. Searching for an appropriate soundtrack for footage which allowed the audience to see footage from inside a wave for the first time ever, surfer, photographer and filmmaker George Greenough, who wrote and narrated the film, stumbled across a record his mother had bought for him. Upon hearing the closing track, Echoes, he noted its perfectly matched 23-minute running time.
"We watched it for the first time when we were on tour in Australia and we were all blown away by it," says Nick Mason. "It was absolutely sensational. Nowadays everyone's got a GoPro fixed to their wetsuit, but at the time it was mind-blowing to see the guy with the camera strapped to his chest, going through the water tunnel.
"It did feel experimental at the time because basically we were left to our own devices, and we didn't have a producer as such. We sort of made the album ourselves, and of course that meant that the engineering staff in Abbey Road were very happy to come along and see what they could do. The great thing with Meddle is that it's the band playing for the enjoyment of it. It probably is one of the freest albums of all in terms of how we played it. It was one of those things that we really looked forward to playing.”
Greenough sought the band's permission, despite not having enough money to pay them for use of the song. An agreement was proposed, whereby Elfick and Greenough could use the song if Floyd could use the footage as background visuals for their live shows. With both parties happy, the deal was struck.
Pre-order San Tropez Orange Marble Vinyl version of Meddle.
