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Readers of a certain age may recall seeing Pink Floyd At Pompeii as part of a series of all-nighter screenings featuring various rock docs in the mid-70s – events frequently accompanied by a large alcohol intake beforehand. Inevitably, as the movies in the dark and warmth of the cinema ticked by, and the booze and the wee hours took their toll, falling asleep was often the outcome.
Happily there’s no danger of nodding off in front of this extended edition of Floyd’s historic performance exhumed from their archives. With the 85-minute feature film version and a 60-minute edit, lovingly restored from the original 35mm negative, and audio remixed by Steven Wilson in Dolby Atmos, 5.1 and stereo, this 54-year-old concert now boasts crisp audio that nicely complements the improved visuals. Vinyl fans will also covet the two-LP soundtrack accompanying this release.
Taking place in a deserted amphitheatre in October 1971 with roadies and director Adrian Maben’s camera crew looking on, the group roam through a memorable set including A Saucerful Of Secrets, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Careful With That Axe, Eugene and a truly vibrant rendition of Echoes from Meddle – which the band had only finished mixing the previous month.
The performance, interspersed with studio footage and interviews, captures Floyd at a major transition in their career. While the music of Echoes has a foot in their psych/underground past, it also points to future elements they’re seen honing for The Dark Side Of The Moon, which will arrive just three months later.
Hindsight inevitably freights portions of the interviews with a degree of extra resonance. Roger Waters – seen in Abbey Road studios working on a record that would sell more than four million copies in the UK alone – scoffs at the then-media reports that rock was a dying art form, declaring, “The market in rock’n’roll is expanding at a phenomenal rate.”
Elsewhere, the ever-diplomatic Nick Mason, asked about the state of the band’s interpersonal relationships, states that all is well; but admits that the real danger to future cohesion could be “when one person finds that what he’s doing doesn’t interest him, or he feels he could do something better by himself.”
Even the amphitheatre’s oval in which the band play seems to foreshadow the famous circular projection screen that would feature in Floyd shows from 1974 onwards.
All told, this is a truly historic artefact.
Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII is out now in DVD, Blu-ray, CD and vinyl formats.
