In Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII – the newly restored version of the 1972 film directed by Adrian Maben – a clip of the band recording what would become The Dark Side of the Moon at Abbey Road Studios has been unearthed from the depths of the Floyd archives.
Perhaps most interesting are the band’s thoughts on the criticisms they were receiving at the time – that they depended too much on their gear and new technologies.
In the clip, David Gilmour can be seen saying, “I don’t think equipment could take over. We do rely on it a lot. I mean, we couldn’t do what we do as we do it without it. We could still do a good, entertaining, musical show, I suppose, without it. But all those things are down to how you control them and whether you’re controlling them, not the other way around.”
Roger Waters, on the other hand, ponders, “It’s a danger that we could become slaves of all our equipment, and in the past, we have been.” However, he clarifies that it’s just a question of using the tools “that are available, when they’re available.”
“More and more now, there’s all kinds of electronic goodies which are available (for) people like us to use.”
And in true Waters fashion, he doubles down on his argument, asserting, “It’s like saying, ‘Give a man a Les Paul guitar, and he becomes Eric Clapton,’ and it’s not true. ‘And give a man an amplifier and a synthesizer, and he doesn’t become whoever.’ He doesn’t become us.”
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii was filmed in October 1971 and captures a band finally finding their footing after years of experimentation in the wake of the departure of their founder, Syd Barrett.
The movie has now been meticulously hand-restored, frame by frame, after being discovered in five dubiously labeled cans in the band’s own archive. Under its updated title, Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXIIit is set to be released in cinemas worldwide starting April 24.
David Gilmour later returned to the Amphitheatre of Pompeii in 2016, where, for two nights only, he performed for just 3,000 lucky concertgoers – with a Live at Pompeii album and concert film released in 2017.
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