 Released by Eagle Vision, August 2003
The thirtieth anniversary
celebrations of Pink Floyd's most celebrated album continue unabated,
with the release on DVD and VHS of a documentary that was produced by
Eagle Vision for broadcast on the BBC in the UK, earlier this year.
At the time, many UK fans were
flabbergasted at the quality of the programme, and the depth of rare
material included. Naturally, fans worldwide were somewhat dismayed at
missing a milestone in Floyd visual entertainment; for a band who has
always taken pride in the quality of the images, there is scandalously
little video footage - legitimate or otherwise - in comparison to many
of their peers.
Hopefully this review will
provide a few tasters for you of what is included on what is a definate
essential purchase. If you saw the original BBC broadcast, let me
assure you that you will want this title in your collection - there's a
lot more to take your breath away!
Opening the DVD case, which
features a nicely designed cover, depicting pyramids at dusk (front)
and at night (back), you then get the disc itself, with another new
stained glass window DSOTM image, and a four page insert with a
selection of pictures from the history of the album. All of the artwork
on this DVD has been specially designed by Storm Thorgerson, which
makes it an even nicer overall package.
Slip the disc in, and
you get some nicely designed, animated menus, which feature the sound
of a radio, with someone searching for a station not playing a Floyd
tune! They have no success, tuning in and out of a succession of such
stations...
The
picture is presented throughout in very clear, very crisp anamorphic
widescreen, with no sign of any digital or film artifacts intruding
into the picture. Obviously some of the rare footage included has the
odd mark or negative scratch, but that is a fault of the original, not
this top quality transfer. The sound too, is excellent. Sadly not in
5.1 surround, the Dolby Digital 2.0 is clear and dynamic.
The main feature covers the
genesis of the album - the events and music which lead up to it, the
influences, and also the result of recording an album like this. All
the members of the band are interviewed in depth - Roger, David,
Richard and Nick, with all of them apart from Nick also recreating
certain key songs and moments on a variety of instruments. Outside of
the band, others are interviewed too - including Alan Parsons, the
original engineer, who demonstrates things at length, and Chris Thomas,
who mixed the album.
The
documentary is full of great surprises, culled we suspect from Nick's
extensive archives mainly. Things kick off in great style with the
original studio rehearsals of Breathe, followed by David picking out
the song on a guitar in his studio, Richard demonstrating certain key
chords, Alan Parsons showing how David's double tracked vocals were
created, and ending with audio and video of the end of Breathe and the
start of On The Run (then called "The Travel Sequence" or "Travel")
from the very first live performance (Brighton, England on 20th January
1972)!
This sets the scene for the rest of the album, with
plenty of lovely present-day recreations of songs or parts of songs, by
David, Roger and Richard, alongside original demos of the tracks,
dusted off for us to hear. It is also fascinating to see the
intricacies of the recording process, and the number of layers of
instrumentation involved in the overall "sound" of the album.
You
also get a chance to see two key individuals - Roger "The Hat"
Manifold, who provides various comments and the crazed laughter, and
Abbey Road doorman Gerry O'Driscoll, who provided the closing words on
the album:
An astonishing forty-nine minutes
- but that isn't all! There's a full set of extras included too - stuff
that was either edited out or didn't really fit within the documentary.
It provides a number of superb performances - Roger's acoustic Brain
Damage, David's solo in Money, Richard's Us & Them chord sequences,
David's acoustic Breathe onboard the Astoria, and so on.
Roger's
original demo of Time sounds so much like Space Oddity era Bowie, and
also features the original "Lying supine in the sunshine, let the grass
grow in your brain..." lyric. The final extra, "Gerry Has The Last
Word" finishes the DVD in the same way as the album, with Mr
O'Driscoll's full "there is no Dark Side Of The Moon..." quote, heard
for the first time, and repeated twice.
A fitting end.
If you cannot resist this essential title - and who could blame you? - it can be ordered
through these special links, at time of writing this, with the bonus of a discount on the normal price! US/International, UK, Canada, France, or Germany. Buying any item through our Amazon links helps this site - and we appreciate it!
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