Infinite love for Pink Floyd in Pompeii

There are loves that can be defined as eternal without any doubt. What binds the fans of Pink Floyd to the film-concert recorded in the Pompeii amphitheater in 1971 (and not only) is a passion that never vanishes, on the contrary, it is renewed and pulsates in the hearts of millions of fans.

“Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii” is a film that the director Adrian Maben wanted with determination, bringing it to the band’s skepticism and the numerous production and distribution difficulties. The story of how the film was born is told in the book published in 2016 by the Giunti, made together with my friends “The LunaTics” and with the invaluable support of the director Adrian Maben.

The film captures the images of the four Pink Floyd between October 1971 and October 1972, a crucial period of their career. In those months, the stars of Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright had aligned themselves, allowing them to compose and record one of the most significant records in the history of music, the timeless “The Dark Side of the Moon”.

I too have been kidnapped by those images, and my memory has a precise date: 10 August 1981. A little over seventeen years, at lunchtime I was in front of the TV, because “Mamma Rai” had decided to transmit a part of that film. It was a special mixer, “The sounds of our time”, signed by Aldo Bruno and Giovanni Minoli and presented none other than Gianni Minà. I still remember my enchanted eyes in front of the cathodic tube, even if the video came from a consumed film and there were obvious imperfections in the images. Obviously, it wasn’t the first time that that film was broadcast on TV. Rai had already proposed it in 1975 and, in the following years, the first private TVs often re -proposed it, perhaps at night, between a striptease and some films of dubious quality, feeding in viewers a rebellious and transgressive spirit that only rock was able to instill. Our older brothers tell us about the countless projections of the film in what were called “Chine Pop”. We are talking about a primitive, pre-MTV and pre-internet era, when to see live artists such as Pink Floyd, the Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin you didn’t have YouTube and you had to really leave the house to go to the cinema. The films were not always projected in the best theaters: your destiny was among the uncomfortable chairs of a provincial cinema, with a just sufficient sound and films that had now been consumed by the negligence of the projectionists.

We were luckier from the eighties, with the arrival of the videotapes. Many have bought the first, expensive VHS of the Pink Floyd movie in Pompeii. Some more experts had even managed to find foreign versions, the complete ones of the studio tests of “Dark Side”. If you couldn’t afford the original, there was always that acquaintance who owned two video recorders and duplicated a copy of the film. You had to reciprocate the favor: some were satisfied with the empty ribbon, others asked you for some money.

Since then the film has been transferred to all possible formats, which for my passion I have tried to recover here and there, from video-cds to laser-disc, to the obsolete supports that satisfy that alloy which affects many fans, up to the DVD edited by the same director in 2003. Only in 2016 the Pink Floyd included Pompeii’s film in the “The Early Years 1965-1972” box, which contained DVD and Blu-ray of Maben’s film with the audio Mix 5.1. That box even included a CD bonus with the audio of the film songs, inserted by mistake in the rich box.

Do we want to forget the famous bootlegs? A book would not be enough to tell how many vinyls and CDs have been produced illegally with the music played by the Pink Floyd in Pompeii, with a quality that varies from just acceptable to excellent, extracted from the official works. Apparently, the Pink Floyd, who over the years had obtained an indisputable notoriety thanks to that film, did not seem particularly interested in a version standalone of “Live at Pompeii”. Gilmour himself, recently, did not seem particularly satisfied with his 1971 images, when, young and sunny, he showed his muscles with those shots with a bare torso in the Pompeian amphitheater. When the guitarist returned in 2016 “on the scene of the crime” for the filming of his two ‘historical’ concerts in Pompeii, a black t-shirt, now regularly worn in his performances, made any hope of some fans vanish which, armed with a camera, hoped to grasp that moment.

All this, however, belongs to the memories of those who, like me, live the passion for Pink Floyd with romantic dedication. A few days ago a 4K version of the film was announced, made starting from the negative original at 35mm, which promises to be unmissable. The 2025 edition of “Pompeii” will be available on CD and double LP, while Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital Audio will also contain the Dolby Atmos mixing. For the sound, the Pink Floyd even called Steven Wilson, already in the Porcupine Tree (who in some passages of their music showed a strong Floydian influence), who had recently enchanted by remixing the album “Wet Dream” (1978) by Richard Wright, the band’s late keyboard player. Wilson edited the mixing in 5.1 and Dolby Atmos of the new “Pompeii”, promising an audio quality that is very close to the original sound of Pink Floyd in 1971.

On April 24, there is an exclusive projection to the cinema, obviously in rooms that can guarantee extraordinary images and sounds; Meanwhile, on the official Pink Floyd store it is already possible to buy the film poster of “Pink Floyd in Pompeii: McMLXXII”. I already feel the chills at the thought of being able to review the images that immortalize the grimaces of Roger Waters on the big screen while affecting the gong vigorously during “In Saucerful of Secrets “the embarrassed gaze of the shy Richard Wright as he sings and plays “Echoes “Nick Mason’s propulsive force that strikes the skin of his Ludwig on “One of These Days “ And the composure of David Gilmour while gently interprets the ending of “In Saucerful of Secrets “with the wind that breaks up his long hair.

As in the recent concerts of the three surviving members of the band, Gilmour, Mason and Waters, will be a great celebration that will bring together all the generations of fans of Pink Floyd, renewing a passion that, after more than half a century from that event in Pompeii, remains alive, button and burning like the washing of a volcano.