Pink Floyd’s seminal 1972 live film Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii has been cleaned up and restored for a new cinematic release. Shot in the ruins of Pompeii’s amphitheatre, with additional footage recorded at Paris’s Studio Europasonor, the film looks – and sounds – better than ever, thanks in no small part to a newly remixed soundtrack overseen by modern-day progfather Steven Wilson. Here, Wilson tells MOJO’s Jim Irvin about his boyhood conversion to Floyd and the dream commission that saw him get his hands on the soundtrack to the film…
“Pink Floyd have always been my favourite band. My dad had brainwashed me playing The Dark Side Of The Moon, but I didn’t know that other side of the group – the early, psychedelic, improvisational aspect – before I saw Pink Floyd At Pompeii. I was about 12 or 13 years old, it was at the Odeon in Chesham, on a double bill with T. Rex, Born To Boogie, which became another of my lifelong obsessions. To see the Floyd playing that music, in that location, all looking the epitome of detached, intellectual cool, left a deep, deep impression on me. I later bought it on VHS and DVD, and have seen it many times since. I’ve always had a copy on my shelf. Remixing the soundtrack was a dream commission.
“It’s actually a very basic recording. The live performance is captured on four mono feeds – drums in mono, guitars, bass and keyboards in mono – then the vocals. They did go to Paris and do some overdubs, new vocals, added little bits to do with the sound design and the sound effects, but 85 per cent of the time they’re an instrumental band on four tracks, so there wasn’t a massive amount of scope, in terms of what I’d normally do. But remember, they’re playing outside, there wouldn’t have been a lot of ambience.
Grantchester Meadows revisited: Arch Floyd head Steven Wilson
“If you’d been watching, it would have been a very dry, up-front sound, not a lot of reverb. Like they’re in the desert. So I went for that. I gather it was a seat-of-the-pants recording. There’s a lot of distortion on some tracks, lots of level fluctuations as the engineer had yanked the fader down, or whatever. So a lot of my work was cleaning it up. And I tried to be very aware of what was on the screen. When Roger starts playing the cymbal on the left and walks across to the gong on the right, that’s what my mix does, takes its cue from the pictures, as it should.
“The reason the Floyd remain timeless is because, essentially, at the heart of what they do is simplicity, atmosphere and texture. There is a magic, an alchemy to it. If ever you needed a poster child for why you don’t have to be the most amazing musicians, if you can find some kind of alchemy together, have good ideas and keep it simple, Pompeii is it.
“And it totally suits the band. The Who at Pompeii without an audience may not have worked. But the cool, detached Floyd don’t play up to the audience anyway. It’s almost like you’re watching a dream of Pink Floyd play live. Like they’re playing in a cloud. It’s perfect for them.
“The soundtrack’s coming out as an album. So I’ve mixed a Pink Floyd record! The 12-year-old me at the Chesham Odeon would have barely been able to conceive that. I know how critical Floyd fans can be, so I’m a little wary of the reaction, but I’ve done what I think is the right thing with the material and tried to approach it from the perspective of the superfan, which I am.”
Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII is in cinemas now. The soundtrack, newly remixed by Steven Wilson, is out May 2 on Legacy. READ MOJO’S REVIEW!
"This film is full of surprises. Bare-chested David never happened again, for one thing..."
Get the latest issue of MOJO to read the full story behind the making of Pink Floyd At Pompeii. Plus! Pulp’s first interview in 23 years, Nick Drake unheard, David Johansen remembered, Smokey Robinson reinvents soul, Alison Krauss, Peter Murphy, Small Faces, Billy Nomates, Chip Taylor, Viagra Boys, Hüsker Dü, all back to Billy Idol’s place and more! More info HERE!
Photos: Kevin Westenberg/Getty/Jeff Hochberg