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’.