Underplayed Gems

Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)

Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii poster
Directed by
Adrian Maben, Steve O'Rourke
Genre
concert film, music documentary film
Country
Germany, United Kingdom, France, Belgium
Runtime
1h 25m
Rated
PG
Rating
8.0 of 10 from 228 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

Pink Floyd performs a set of their early 1970s songs in the empty ancient Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii Italy. The film captures the band playing their music with no audience present and includes additional footage of them working in a studio.

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What happens

Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii is a 1972 concert film directed by Adrian Maben with the English rock band Pink Floyd performing at the ancient Roman amphitheatre in Pompeii, Italy. The band performed a typical live set from the era, but there was no audience beyond the basic film crew. The main footage in and around the amphitheatre was filmed over four days in October 1971, using the band's regular touring equipment, including a mobile 8-track recorder from Paris (before being bumped up to 16-track in post-production). Additional footage filmed in a Paris television studio the following December was added for the original 1972 release. The film was then re-released in 1974 with additional studio material of the band working on The Dark Side of the Moon, and interviews at Abbey Road Studios. The film has subsequently been released on video numerous times, and in 2002, a director's cut was released on DVD, which combined the original footage from 1971 with more contemporary shots of space and the area around Pompeii, assembled by Maben. In April 2025, a 4K restoration, Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, was shown in cinemas by Trafalgar Releasing and Sony Music Vision, and released on home media shortly after. This was followed by an album with the remixed songs and outtakes, which was released on 2 May 2025 and topped the music charts in several countries. A number of bands have taken inspiration from the film in creating their own videos, or filming concerts without an audience. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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