RETROSPECTIVES

This stunning 2-DVD set is an extensive and comprehensive musical analysis of the long and interesting career of the band, hosted by Tommy Vance and Graham McTavish. It is divided into four sections, spanning the time from the early Barretts years to the reunion during the Live 8 concert. It contains interviews with the band members, comments by journalists, producers and musicians and a lots of video material, from clips to rare live live footage.

DVD 1, 1965-1970: In the very first part we can enjoy exciting footage from the songs Arnold Layne, Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive, Rick Wright reveals "that Sgt. Pepper changed my attitude", we witness the mental downfall of Syd Barrett and the welcoming of David Gilmour who appears in a clip playing Astronomy Domine. Other interesting clips are Rome Goes Pop 1968 featuring Interstellar Overdrive and BBC 1969 At My Living with Set The Controls For The Heart Of The sun, I have never seen this amazing footage! Nick Mason describes Ummagumma as "a failured experiment but interesting".

DVD 1, 1970-1976: There is a lot of atention for the making of the controversial album Atom heart Mother with comments by the band members, the musicians and a quite cynical Ron Geesin ("the brass section tend to sound undisciplined"). The video footage is from the Bath Festival 1970. The next album Meddle is named "a hallmark of the Pink Floyd sound" and Pink Floyd At Pompeii "a kind of anti-Woodstock film because of the absence of an audience". The story about Dark Side Of The Moon is mainly known because of the Classic Album footage and about Wish You Were Here is the role of Rick Wrigh remarkable and we can see Venice 1989 video footage.

DVD 2, 1977-1983: The album Animals is described as "the first of 3 masterminded by Roger Waters" and "it is forever linked with the flying pig story". An almost gigling Roger Waters mentions that "a man with a rifle should have shot the flying pig down when it was going wrong but he was on his lunch when it happened". We can enjoy rare video clips of Pigs On The Wing and Tommy Vance mentiones that "this was the finest hour of the Hipgnosis-Floyd partnership" and "the backseat role for Rick Wright in those days". The view on The Wall is extensive with lots of interesting comments by journalist Chris Welch who wrote the book Learning To Fly about Pink Floyd ("Not an easy album to get into but people who do became fanatical about it"), Roger Waters ("The idea of The Wall came from 10 years of touring in big stadiums, very alienating"), producer Bob Ezrin ("The psychological terror in the studio was so overwhelming") and Gilmour ("In The Wall on stage was no room for improvisation, it was 100 % concentration, musically it was no fun" and "I had to go to Roger and say give Alan Parker what it says in his contract otherwise we will have a meeting of theshareholders and out vote you!"). There is a good analysis if the huge world hit Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 and Rick Wright has to leave because of his problems with the bitter Roger Waters. The album The Final Cut is described as "a Roger Waters solo album" and we even see that the name of David Gilmour was deleted as a co-writer on the album! Gilmour says that "pieces of The Final Cut were rejected for The Wall".

DVD 2, 1984-2005: It starts with the battle between Waters and the other band members Mason and Gimour who teamed up again with Wright to go on with Pink Floyd. The release of A Momentary Lapse Of Reason is desribed as "it demonstrated there was stil plenty of life in the band". Tommy Vance: "the presentation of the album was world class" (we can enjoy the video clip Signs Of Life) and "Delicate Sound Of Thudner was too clinical". There is a short look on Roger Waters solo with some rare video footage and the final part of this DVD is dedicated to The Division Bell (including awesome live footage of that tour) and finally the Pink Floyd reunion during Live 8, "Pink Floyd was the absolute highlight" and "It was an emotional tribute to Syd Barrett", full circle!

BEWARE! ?. Of unsprupulous others who make DVD documentaries with 'INDEPENDENT EDITORIAL CONTROL'. They contain the same old clips seen in legitimate 'docos' interspersed with 'nobody' talkiing heads and cover bands playing floyd numbers because the makers of these DVD's have no legal access to actual pink floyd material.

These DVD's overlap dramatically, using the same material over and over, mostly Syd era stuff, even when the title of the DVD refers to later albums or periods, the same Syd era stuff is trotted out to fill space.

If you must buy any of these DVDs then buy one of the more 'general' ones that covers the whole history and then STOP there. Look for the 2 disk releases ? they are the better ones, or the Inside Pink Floyd volumes 1&2.

AVOID those titles as individual album reviews in particular as these are generally the worst. These DVD;s contain nothing new for the Floyd aficionado. Especially avoid the 4 disk sets as these contain the sam amount as the 2 disk sets, simply spread out on to 4 shorter disks.

You have been warned! Don't waste your money