The return of “Pink Floyd – Live at Pompeii”: a unique experience

For many of us, the memory of “Pink Floyd – Live at Pompeii “ It is deeply “analog”. We grew up by devouring – literally – our copies in VHS of the film, so consumed by the passages in the video recorder that it is almost illegible. The luckiest even saw him in the cinema, in the seventies, when the film, already ruined by the many projections, was often cut into several points due to irreparable breaks. Thus were lost precious seconds, fragments impossible to recover.
It was the years of Cinepopof the film reviews that circulated a handful of films in a circuit of fans. The menu almost always included “Woodstock“a concert by the Emerson Lake & Palmer, the Dutch festival “Stamping Ground“ of 1970 (there were also the Floyd)some rare pearls of the Beatles and Rolling Stones, and little else. Among these, the film shot in Pompeii by Adrian Maben occupied a place of honor, and in Italy he achieved considerable success.
In 2003 we had the good fortune to attend the “digital” debut of the film, thanks to the DVD that returned audio and video quality to our faded memories.

The new restored version

Attend the preview of the new restored version of “Live at Pompeii “ It was an intense emotion, a privilege made possible by Lana Topham, the official archivist of Pink Floyd and director of the restoration project. In recent years, Topham has given us authentic archive gems, precious testimonies of the band’s past. But, in the chaos of the vast caveau of Pink Floyd, finding something specific is like looking for a needle in a haystack. For years, the original films of Maben’s film seemed vanished into thin air. I imagine his surprise when, recently, he found five metal boxes, without labels, which kept an intact copy of the film. Nick Mason says that the band entrusted Topham the archive, with the aim of cataloging the material and deciding how to enhance it. A titanic feat, made even more difficult by the disorder in which it was preserved: warehouses, deposits, crashed boxes of ribbons, photos, coils.

“Since 1994 I have been looking for the original films of ‘unabatedPink Floyd at Pompeii‘“ He recently told the archivist. “The discovery of the original negative in 35 mm from 1972 was a very special moment. The new restored version has the first time the complete assembly of 90 minutes, combining the 60 -minute performance with the additional segments shot in the Abbey Road Studios shortly after”. From that moment the digital restoration of the film began, accompanied by that of the sound, entrusted to the expert ears of Steven Wilson – great lover of Pink Floyd and already curator of the album remix “Wet Dream “ by Richard Wright, published in 2023.

The projection of “Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii”, supported by the 4K quality of the images and by an immersive audio in Dolby Atmos, is an experience that I recommend to everyone, not only to the fans of the band but also to those who do not know it so well. Personally I think I saw him hundreds of times, but never like yesterday morning, at the Milanese preview, I lived something so different, so powerful. Why this new “Live at Pompeii “ It’s really another thing.
The restoration is surprising: the definition of the images is impeccable, the colors balanced with skill, everything was preserved for future memory with a rare elegance. And the audio is no different: the Dolby Atmos, signed Wilson (also his 5.1 version), is simply amazing.

(Almost) unpublished details

During the projection, I caught details that I had never noticed even in the DVD version. Small things, perhaps insignificant for many, but that for a Floydian maniac like me they make all the difference in the world. The images are so clear that, during “Echoes “you can even count every dottino of David Gilmour’s beard. In the same song, I noticed a Lonely Planet guide on the Farfisa Compact Duo (those with the blue and orange cover), probably on Italy. In another scene, always on Wright’s keyboard, you can clearly see a hat used in those days and next to the key with a showy keychain of the hotel room in Pompeii!

I had never noticed even those sheets glued to Rick’s keyboard. Notes? Texts? Annotations for sound effects? It should be remembered that Rick was also responsible for the azimuth co-orderinator, used by the band in the concerts to rotate the sound in the room: their invention, centuries before Surround.
Before the vocal performance of “In Saucerful of Secrets “you can see Gilmour nervously chewing the patent of the guitar. Will you have swallowed it? Then there are the different periods of the filming and magical transformations on the face of Richard Wright: in Pompeii (October 1971), he has a long beard; in Paris (December 1971), short; In London (October 1972), it is shaved! Trichological Mysteries …
Fun very fun reviewing Nick Mason losing the wand during “One of These Days “ And to resume another without stopping playing: Olympic gold medal for best launchers of the world. His look? Unforgettable: hat, scarf and, in two different scenes, T -shirt and sweatshirt with the same butterfly design. If you see some fans with a similar shirt around … yes, it is acute flyite.
Thanks to the subtitles, it was hilarious to listen to Roger Waters while “massacre” the manager Steve O’Rourke during the shooting in the Abbey Road Studios. And what about the scene in which Gilmour, intent on recording “Brain Damage “it’s barefoot … indeed, in leather slippers! And yes, even his dark socks are seen. When you say to be comfortable …
The moment with “Mademoiselle Nobs “the dog that accompanies the band in an improvised jam, has torn more than a smile between the audience. Maybe not everyone knew the film, but every fan of Pink Floyd knows exactly what to expect from that scene.

The album coming

At the end of the projection, applause, long and warm applause, spontaneously started. A sincere tribute to the incredible work of the entire restoration team. I am sure that the most passionate fans will buy the double vinyl, the double CD and the blu-ray. Not for collecting for itself, but because each format has something to offer.
And there will not even be lacking in the cinema, between 24 and 30 April. Why “Live at Pompeii “ On the big screen, with that creepy audio, it is something unique, unrepeatable. An experience that will remain in the heart forever.

Below a photogallery with the images of the film