| Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii | |
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DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Adrian Maben |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | Pink Floyd |
| Music by | Pink Floyd |
| Cinematography |
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| Editing by | Jose Pinheiro |
| Distributed by | Universal Home Video |
| Release date(s) | September 1972 |
| Running time | 60 min. (1972) 80 min. (1974) 92 min. (director's cut) |
| Language | English |
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii is a 1972 film featuring Pink Floyd performing six songs in the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy. It was directed by Adrian Maben and recorded in the month of October using studio-quality 24-track recorders without a live audience.[1]
The performances of "Echoes", "A Saucerful of Secrets", and "One of These Days" were filmed from October 4, 1971 to October 7, 1971.[2] The remaining songs were filmed in a Paris studio, along with additional front projection footage for insertion into the Pompeii performances.[3] The sequences in Paris were filmed in late 1971/early 1972, and can be distinguished by the absence of Richard Wright's beard. This version was released in cinemas in September 1972 and is also included on the DVD edition as an extra feature.
In August 1974, another version was released combining the original film with supposed recording sessions of The Dark Side of the Moon at Abbey Road Studios. These sessions were actually staged for the film,[4] as the recording of the album had been completed when these sessions were filmed in January 1973 and the band was mixing the album at the time.
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The original release, running for one hour, only featured the live footage. A second version had additional footage of the band as they recorded their album The Dark Side of the Moon, as well as interviews conducted off-camera by Maben, and footage of the band eating and talking at the Abbey Road Studios cafeteria. This version ran for 80 minutes. The Director's Cut is a 2003 DVD re-release running 92 minutes. In addition to the concert and interview footage, it includes more overlaid imagery including footage from the Apollo space program and computer-generated images of space and Pompeii, and overall has a busier, "updated" feel. The original 4:3 aspect footage is presented in "fake widescreen" in this version. The DVD contains the original one-hour release in the "features" section.
Also Known as:
The rap group the Beastie Boys made a music video for their song "Gratitude" that appears to be an homage to the film. In addition to copying its directorial style of slow horizontal tracking shots, the video shows the band's speaker cabinets labeled "Pink Floyd London", just as Pink Floyd's speaker cabinets are labeled in the film. The video ends with a message that reads, "THIS VIDEO IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO DIED AT POMPEII."
The video for the 2003 song "Minerva" by American rock band Deftones is similarly an homage to the Pompeii performances in the film, featuring the same slow horizontal tracking shots and ancient setting.
Wolfmother's video for their song "Mind's Eye" is an homage to the film.
The American rock band Korn filmed a similar show, Korn Live: The Encounter, in June 2010 to promote their ninth studio album, Korn III: Remember Who You Are. The show took place in a crop circle in Bakersfield, California, and had no audience beyond the crew workers.