LIVE AT POMPEII

Very good live album. Immaculate performances from a very experienced and well drilled band very consistent with David's Floyd since '87. His vocal sounded a little rough early on but he warmed up and sang well. Naturally the guitar performances (the star of the show) shone.

He acknowledges the return to Pompeii, the liner notes mention his is the first for a few thousand years. More difficult than getting to Carnegie Hall, no?

The set list is his usual (mainly) DSOTM and afterward favourites speckled with numbers from his last two albums. Thought Today, quite the AOR funk number sounded just fine as DG ran quite a variety of styles to the appreciative 2000 or so member audience. The Pompeii choir was quiet the contributor on WYWH. They got the words right anyway. Sorrow was stunning as he let the old whammy bar do it's work and rock Vesuvius in the back ground. Shine On utilizes guitar delay for a change. Another Brick must have been left to Roger to play on his concerts; no airing here. Funny it might have been mildly ironic in this venerated ruins. Not to worry, the past is revisited in a killer One OF These Days. The band blazes on this one. Money sounded like it lost a little too much tempo, not just dynamics, after the last guitar solo. Comfortably Numb delvers the scorched earth Pink Floyd practice of recent years - no surprises (unlike the near unplugged version at the Festival Hall years ago). I was at that concert but was there a release of it? There was a DVD of on afterward. Oh well, that was years ago. Looking ahead to Pompeii it's a very enjoyable and I suspect un-retouched listen.

Well produced and the audience given a role unlike the PULSE live album. Or the PF performance for that matter.

Possibly the reader / listener / audient / consumer may be better off with the video performances; the Blu Ray should cover everything and more and have a suitable audio standard (better than DVD mpeg 4 anyway). There are various releases but the 2 CD set (70 something minutes apiece) makes the experience well worth while. I was a little disappointed to find the formts split - I'd been enjoying the CD / DVD versions and had hoped this practice may continue.

While by itself it's an excellent edition it does not really add much to Remember That Night or the Gdansk live album. PF / DG fans will be up for this one, a casual listener will also enjoy it even if they are not so compelled by personality and historic significance. 3 1/2 rounded to four as this band does so well led by that stunning guitar work.

Review # 77. This live album was recorded at the Pompeii amphitheater and it was the first public performance there since AD 79. (Don't forget that Pink Floyd's Live in Pompeii had no audience). This was a truly historical moment, and those who were able to be there that night must feel extremely lucky. Now, as for the album itself; it is available on double CD, double vinyl, digital format, and as DVD and Blue Ray as well. (The concert was filmed of course). It was recorded on July 2016, and it was released on September 2017. The live album includes some of Pink Floyd's famous songs, mixed with songs from Gilmour's solo works. (The tour that included the Pompeii concerts was promoting Rattle that Lock album). The songs are all very well performed, Gilmour's guitar sounds great once more, the production is - of course - excellent, and despite that Gilmour's voice is not what it used to be, it's not a big problem. After all, what are the studios for? If I could recommend one version, I would say to buy the DVD or the Blue Ray version, especially if you own some system with good sound quality. That way, you will be able to enjoy the music, but also watch that spectacular concert. I don't want to write many things here, because everybody knows who David Gilmour is, everybody knows his contribution to music, and I don't believe that I am the one who can judge. I don't think that this is a "must have" album, but personally speaking, I have it, I listen to it from time to time, and I am pleased with it. 4.0 stars

The first time David Gilmour played in the ruins of Pompeii was for the classic 1972 Pink Floyd concert documentary filmed by Adrian Maben, in an empty amphitheater to an invisible crowd of 1st century Roman ghosts. The lack of an actual audience made it an oddly haunting and intimate gig, but those days are long gone: nowadays the superstar guitarist is more accustomed to selling out the largest arenas on Earth, and his return to Pompeii in July of 2016 was the biggest thing to hit the ancient city since Mount Vesuvius blew its top in AD79.

Don't expect the same pyroclastic fireworks this time around however, despite all the laser-beam stage lighting on display. Like the volcano itself, the creative impulses behind this spectacle were mostly dormant, thanks in part to the constraints imposed by a hefty production budget. Nothing in such an expensive show could safely be left to chance: the live sound had to be studio-perfect, and the musicianship flawless (as would be expected, from one of rock music's premier elder-statesmen). But to achieve those aims the entire event was practically embalmed under an admirably slick, all-too impersonal surplus of professionalism.

The set-list included the usual Floydian chestnuts ("Comfortably Numb"; "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" etc), intermixed with a homeopathic selection of cuts from Gilmour's then-current solo effort "Rattle That Lock", an album of music almost designed not to leave any lasting impression. Expect no surprises whatsoever: even the ecstatic singing in "The Great Gig in the Sky" is an almost verbatim wail-for-wail copy of Clare Torry's original on "The Dark Side of the Moon", although the added male accompaniment provides a nice contrast.

The crowd of 3,000 fans in attendance (Gilmour deserves credit for insisting on playing smaller heritage sites on this tour) apparently didn't want anything more: notice how the first hint of pre-recorded radio static sends them into a Pavlovian frenzy, anticipating the opening notes of "Wish You Were Here". The song morphs into an emotional sing-along homage to Richard Wright, following a more explicit dedication to the departed Floyd keyboard wizard in "A Boat Lies Waiting". But that bittersweet moment is spoiled by a somewhat tone-deaf transition to the more acerbic crowd-pleaser "Money", which if you think about it might have sent the wrong message (the "Time/Breathe Reprise" medley would have been more appropriate).

After the outstanding "Live in Gdańsk" concert from 2008, my expectations for this set were (of course) rewarded with an inevitable sense of mild disappointment. Gilmour hasn't yet reached the same nadir of other Golden Age proggers reduced to playing the cruise ship and casino circuit, but there's a discouraging sense of corporate obligation surrounding his return to Pompeii, an unintended but tangible echo of that familiar dystopian chorus: "Welcome...to the Machine."