Pink Floyd's Live In Pompeii: Psychedelic Destruction

A bizarre concept for a concert video, Pink Floyd's Live at Pompeii features no audience, six songs, and only a glimpse of some of the work the band is most noted for. In spite of the fact that Pompeii would be followed by the watershed album Dark Side of the Moon in 1973, Pink Floyd wouldn't release another concert video until 1991.

One is struck, watching this film, that someone, somewhere, really had the realization that this band was on the verge of something big. Although fairly well known, prior to DSotM, the Floyd was largely a cult act that focused on Psychedelic and Progressive Rock and was generally ignored by the mainstream media.

However, Pompeii is a something of a big budget film, with signs of quality and dedication throughout. The multiple cameras gave the directors a vast number of choices in what to show for each song. In addition to the live performance, the band is followed around during the course of work on the forthcoming album, and we are treated to some early versions of various Dark Side tracks.

The setting for the live performance is an eerie amphitheatre located in Pompeii, Italy, the city that was destroyed by Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The recording was made on October 4, 1971 and is a straight run of a short, but fairly typical Floyd show of the time, with the exception of "Mademoiselle Nobs," a track never played before or since, and only available on this video. Various tracks have images from Pompeii and the region interspersed throughout the band's playing, which lends a creepy feel to some of it.

There are some video flaws that seem to be artifacts of the transfer from film (like scratches here and there,) but the picture is clear (shrouding mists not withstanding) and the sound is excellent.

Pink Floyd was, at the time, David Gilmour (guitars, vocals,) Roger Waters (bass, vocals,) Richard Wright (keyboards, vocals) and Nick Mason (drums.) The film was directed by Marc Laurore, Hans Thorner and Leonardo Pescarolo. Art Director Jose Pinheiro deserves special mention for his contributions to the movie.


Songs

Echoes

The film begins with the camera poised high above the amphitheatre with the band and mixing board visible far below. As Wright's keyboard "ping" pierces the silence, the camera slowly tracks down and brings the group into closer image. A nice effect, which is repeated at the end of the track (and the movie -- "Echoes" is split into two parts) with the camera going in the other direction. Although the theme of the 18 minute track is nautical, the directors pull in images of Pompeii statuary, architecture and surroundings with good effect, although the best bits of the video are the band jamming away.

Careful With That Axe, Eugene

Opens with a chilling image of a mosaic skull from Pompeii, which fades out into the band playing in the relative darkness of night with minimal lighting. The remainder of the song features cuts between the band playing and walking around the ruins of the city. Waters' scream midway through is nicely backed by images of volcanic violence.

A Saucerful of Secrets

More of a tonal exploration than a song, this translates to video quite effectively, showcasing Mason's phenomenal drumming, supplemented by Waters on percussion, Wright pounding on his keyboards, and Gilmour providing some ethereal drops on guitar. Although it probably sounds like noise to most people, it's actually a fairly complex work and it's interesting to see how it is all meted out. The images of Waters ringing the gong while shadowed by the sun are classic.

One of These Days

Recorded in the early evening, the bass heavy track visually focuses on Mason, almost to the exclusion of everyone else, but that's okay because this is a stunning drum track, accented by Waters' thumpy bass, Wright's G3 organ and some elegant guitar bits by Gilmour. There's some slow motion video in the middle (around Mason's "vocal") that's always annoyed me, but otherwise, a great video, if you like the drums.

Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun

With night settled in, bright lights highlight the band as they run through this song from A Saucerful of Secrets. Of all the tracks, I think that this one fits the setting best, with eerie lyrics, a haunting melody and very ethnic drumming. The directors merge in some beautiful Roman artwork that accent the piece nicely, even when it's overlaid behind the band like a blue screen.

Mademoiselle Nobs

A mutated version of "Seamus," which appeared on Meddle, this short blues number uses an Irish Wolfhound to provide the vocal. Yep, they've got a dog singing on here. Only the Floyd could carry that one off.


The Making of Dark Side of the Moon

Between most of the tracks, there are scenes of the band eating lunch (not particularly interesting!) some interview bits, and the members recording parts of the forthcoming Dark Side of the Moon. As a long time Floyd fan, one of my biggest disappointments is Gilmour's guitar accenting for "Brain Damage," as none of it made it to the album, in spite of the fact that he's got some killer material in there.


Conclusion

This is, without a doubt, one of the greatest concert films of all time, if this is the sort of music that you're into. The performances are spot on, song selection great, and the setting and images of long dead Pompeii only serve to heighten the impact of early Pink Floyd music.

The one downside is that the video goes in and out of print (I got mine about five years ago) and is still not available on DVD. CD bootlegs of the audio have been released, the best of which is the Harvested release titled Pompeii.