UNIVERSAL VIDEO PRESS RELEASE
“Pink
Floyd treat the viewer to a stunning audio-visual experience, the like
of which has not been seen outside their sell-out concerts”
“Skilfully recorded in the beautiful sun-drenched arena by day and amidst the eerily-lit scene of volcanic destruction by night”
“The music of Pink Floyd – colourful, imaginative, surrealistic and highly inventive”
“A technically perfect production”
PINK FLOYD’s legendary film, LIVE
AT POMPEII, makes its DVD debut on UNIVERSAL PICTURES on 20th October
2003. LIVE AT POMPEII – THE DIRECTOR’S CUT by director ADRIAN MABEN
contains additional new and archive footage that has never been seen
before.
LIVE AT POMPEII was filmed in
October 1971 at the ancient Roman amphitheatre, amid the ruins of
Pompeii, which lies in the shadow of the still-active volcano of Mount
Vesuvius. It catches PINK FLOYD at a pivotal moment in their career,
just before the release of their ‘Meddle’ album that broke them from an
underground cult band to a major rock group, hitting Number 3 in the UK
charts.
The band – bassist Roger Waters,
guitarist David Gilmour, keyboard player Richard Wright and drummer
Nick Mason – are seen performing ‘One Of The Days’ and ‘Echoes’ from
the ‘Meddle’ album, songs that would form the cornerstone of their
impressive live shows over the next few years. They also play classic
songs from their earlier, psychedelic past including ‘’A Saucerful Of
Secrets’, ‘Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun’ and ‘Careful With
That Axe Eugene’.
Director ADRIAN MABEN chose to
film PINK FLOYD in the deserted amphitheatre as a deliberate contrast
to the traditional in-concert rock movie. The walls of the amphitheatre
give the sound a special resonance while the volcanic antics of Mount
Vesuvius provided an awesome backdrop for the band’s experimental,
progressive music. The film also includes a never-released PINK FLOYD
song, ‘Mademoiselle Nobs’, featuring an Afghan hound on vocals (!).
LIVE AT POMPEII also includes
rare and historic footage of PINK FLOYD at work in London’s Abbey Road
Studio early in 1972, recording tracks for ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’
which would become one of the most successful rock albums ever
released. It remained in the American Billboard Top 200 continuously
from March 1973 to October 1988. To date the album has sold over 30
million copies worldwide with the total rising by around 200,000 a year.
When LIVE AT POMPEII was
premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in September 1972, ‘Dark Side Of
The Moon’ was still six months away from being released. By the time
the film went on general release in 1974, however, PINK FLOYD were
superstars. They followed the phenomenal success of ‘Dark Side Of The
Moon’ with ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975), ‘Animals’ (1977) and ‘The Wall’
(1979) that spent an extraordinary 15 weeks at the top of the American
charts. Their spectacular concerts now featured crashing airplanes,
flying pigs and giant inflatables, not to mention a 30-foot wall that
divided the band from the audience.
The band broke up after ‘The
Final Cut’ in 1983 but returned – minus Roger Waters – in 1987 with ‘A
Momentary Lapse Of Reason’ which immediately re-established them as one
of the most popular rock groups in the world – on record and on tour.
During their last world tour in 1996 they performed the whole of ‘Dark
Side Of The Moon’ as well as ‘One Of These Days’. And their
multi-million selling, career-spanning compilation a couple of years
ago was titled ‘Echoes’ – the song that bookends LIVE AT POMPEII.
LIVE AT POMPEII features space
footage from the BBC and NASA among other sources that has been
incorporated into the original film to create an additional “theme” to
the movie. There is also some black and white material of the band
(reluctantly) talking and making fun of everybody – including
themselves.
The extra features on LIVE AT
POMPEII include a 20-minute interview with ADRIAN MABEN along with an
option to run the original concert film, a photo gallery, album
graphics, lyrics, “odds ‘n’ sods” and a map and history of Pompeii.
The cover and concept for LIVE AT
POMPEII has been designed by Storm Thorgerson who has designed all Pink
Floyd’s album sleeves since 1968’s ‘ A Saucerful Of Secrets’.
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