Let’s start back at the beginning, how did Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii come to me? It was the winter of 2001 (post-9/11), my birthday had arrived. My mom got me some birthday money. I remember watching clips of the movie during the promo of Pink Floyd’s compilation of their 2-CD set, Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd. Which not only featured snippets from the movie, but their 1970 KQED performance, Delicate Sound of Thunder, the rehearsals in 1967 with Syd Barrett doing ‘Interstellar Overdrive’, a rare promo from 1968 of ‘It Would Be So Nice’, and a music video of ‘High Hopes’ from The Division Bell.
Watching clips of their performance of Pompeii in 1971, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. I went to First Colony Mall, and went to a music store which I can’t remember the name of, but I went into the store and bought the VHS of Live at Pompeii. So, there I was, during my time as a sophomore in high school, putting the cassette into the VCR and just being blown away, start to finish of the early Floyd at their best.
From the heart-beating turned eerie synthesisers, the images of the ruins in Pompeii, the roadies setting up the gear in the empty Amphitheater, are ways for the movie to begin in three minutes. Adrian Maben and his film crew zoom in on the Floyd with its Kubrick-like scenery as the first part of ‘Echoes’ from their groundbreaking 1971 release of Meddle, sets up the quietness and dark imagery of space floating across our galaxy.
I couldn’t believe how magical the early Floyd was during their time as an underground band before they hit pay dirt with Dark Side of the Moon. The monuments of ancient Pompeii, mud volcanoes bubbling, the Floyd walking across the landscape, you feel as if you’re walking in a dream. Then, comes the incredible jam section Gilmour handles on his guitar, Waters’ funky bass riff, Wright’s organ, and Mason’s intensive drum patterns, you can’t get much better than that.
Let’s not forget the band in 1972 working hard in Abbey Road studios on what was to become the granddaddy of all granddaddies with Dark Side released in March of 1973. From Roger twerking around the VCS3 for ‘On the Run’, Gilmour working on a solo for ‘Brain Damage’, Wright’s jazzy section for ‘Us and Them’, and the band having breakfast at the canteen. Who couldn’t forget Mason wanting to ice cream and apple pie without the crust. And a dosage of eggs, sausage, chips, beans, and a tea.
Then comes the sinister, eerie turned eruptive powder-keg of the volcanic nightmare on ‘Careful with that Axe, Eugene’. With its bass setting up the temperature levels, Roger’s eerie whispers, Gilmour’s wailing improvisation on his vocals, as soon as Roger lays out this massive scream, the roar coming from Steven Wilson’s remix beats out the 2016 remix that was featured in The Early Years box set released nearly ten years ago.
I was completely spellbound from what Steven has done, he had brought the mix into the full by adding in that punch into the sound. It is stunning, magical, and puts you right in the middle of the Amphitheater in the hottest part of the Italian sun, watching the band bringing in all of the power into their music when it comes to the 11-minute avant-garde turned melancholic wonders of ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’.
Fiercer with Nick playing this loop on the drum kit, Richard pounding the piano like crazy, David creating this eerie effect, and Roger hitting the gong like a madman which has become the snapshot of him, pounding away in the hot sun. It definitely beats out both the studio version from their second album in 1968 and the Ummagumma version in 1969 as ‘Celestial Voices’ reaches its climax as Gilmour’s vocalisations brings it down to a T.
Then, its Nick Mason’s time to shine on through the spotlight with his incredible drum patterns behind ‘One of These Days’. From the moment Roger’s bass plays through a delay unit of the Binson Echorec, set to repeat quarter-note triplets, you know things have just got hot with Mason wearing his purple butterfly shirt, going through the cymbals, drum sections, and the spooky call from Rick’s keyboards.
Mason is on fire, not only he plays so damn well, he keeps the tempo’s going. There is a moment where drops his drumstick, but doesn’t drop the beat. He gets another stick to keep the train going. While Syd was the crucial figure, Roger the heartbeat, Gilmour the otherworldly sense of time and space, Wright the magic, and Nick the pulsating mind of Floyd. Nick doesn’t get enough credit he deserves to keep the flows going.
Onto the last three tracks; ‘Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun’, inspired by the Chinese poetry from the Tang dynasty (Poems of the late ‘Tang, translated by Welsh Scholar A.C. Graham) and from Michael Moorcock’s 1965 novel The Fireclown, is one of the pieces that refuses to die. You see Wright playing this intense middle-eastern effect with the background imagery of mosaics and paintings in effect, going into the nods of Tangerine Dream’s Ohr years that come to mind.
Even though they won’t admit it, Floyd were true pioneers of taking listeners into outer space when it comes to their earlier work. Then, it’s a 12-bar blues with Roger on guitar, David on Harmonica, and a female Borzoi named Nobs with a bit of novelty entitled ‘Mademoiselle Nobs’, adds in her howling sound of the blues to bring it all home with the climatic second part of ‘Echoes’.
The high-pitch effect Gilmour uses on his guitar to create the cries, sets up the desertry landscape and Wright returning back to the “ping” effect on the piano through a Leslie speaker and his organ solo, gives us a moment that all good things must come to an end as the camera zooms out revealing a sign of relief and hope to set return back to where it all began nearly 55 years ago.
This was a movie like no other. How can you not take your eye with something wonderful and impressive the way Pink Floyd brought it to a whole other level. Yes, they achieved success alongside Dark Side, but Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall, but the early years from Piper to Obscured by Clouds needs a lot of recognition to prove that they weren’t just a prog-rock band, but a band who took us across the infinite worlds that is out there, waiting for us to discover.
And now with Steven Wilson’s mix of Pompeii, you don’t get much better than that. Let’s hope he tackles the earlier albums such as The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma, More, Atom Heart Mother, Meddle, and Obscured by Clouds. If you want to explore the Floyd as an underground band, then look no further. Live at Pompeii is worth exploring.
