LIVE ANTHOLOGY

I'm not sure this DVD release is a legit one, but FNM is widely distributed German label and most of their products are easily available. In any case, this label has often provided some incredibly valuable footage from many bands and this Floyd DVD is certainly no exception. Floyd was always interested in visual arts (two film soundtracks, plus documentary sonic illustration, ballet performances, light shows), but bizarrely, outside the Pompeii movie, fairly little was released from their early career: the live disc of Umma Gumma and the 14-hour Technicolor Dream. This compilation does indeed fill this void, even if it starts with the most insufferable Floyd track, Jugband Blues, but Barrett's presence does render it essential viewing. Next up in the almost chronological selection is a splendid colour-filtered (most likely from the BBC) but partial footage of Floyd performing one of my early favourites, Set The Controls., followed by the improvised centre part of Interstellar Overdrive, where we see and hear Water's bass string picking & plucking its strings and Wright's Farsifa, the whole thing illustrated by then-state-of-the-art psychedelic video effects.. Both extracts are essential viewing, even for casual fans.

Then some live in concert footage (mostly shot from behind the band) from France shows Floyd doing two tracks, Let there Be More Lights (sung by Gilmour on chorus and Waters on verses) and Flaming. Interesting but not essential, IMHO. Umma Gumma's Sysyphus gets a small but interesting minute of exposure, but the meat of Wendy's hamburger finally comes with an outstanding version of Cymbaline (even if the sound is sometimes a bit shabby) much extended from its More version and includes Roger's gong. Also of a great interest is a film of the finale of Saucerful Of Secrets. Best not compared with Pompeii's version of 72, it has its charms. Unannounced in the early version of the DVD, there is an outstanding live (in Japan) version of Atom Heart Mother and mixed with airport and festival footage from their arrival in the Rising Sun Land. This is a fascinating piece of film and Floyd does all the AHM parts possible, obviously skipping the orchestra movement. Invaluable stuff. Eugene's Axe is a next and this is not quite as powerful as Pompeii's version, but still very worthy, even if Roger's gong is not present (he plays bass instead) and Gilmour's solo is more incisive. Again essential stuff.

Strangely enough there is almost a decade jump and the DVD finishes with a concert extract of The Wall's tour, featuring one of their emblematic tracks ever Comfortably Numb. While of course also invaluable, this track is completely out of the context of their early career, except that it logically comes in last. I have no idea whether these tracks presented here are part of bigger lumps of presentable film footage (or did FNM cut wildly?), so it might not be an exhaustive collection, but it will certainly partially fill any big apetite for Floyd image mongers.