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 WOW - it's now the 27th YEAR of Brain Damage, your Pink Floyd, David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Richard Wright and Roger Waters news resource!
Marking the 50th anniversary of Pink Floyd's iconic 1975 album, a range of Wish You Were Here 50 celebratory editions: deluxe box set, blu-ray, 3LP set, 2CD set and coloured vinyl single LPs came out at the end of last year. Full details here. The LA 1975 concert, recorded by Mike Millard and remastered by Steven Wilson, came out as a standalone item on 4LP for Record Store Day, and 2CD across most of the world.
The stunningly restored and remixed Pink Floyd At Pompeii MCMLXXII on Blu-ray, 2CD, 2LP, DVD, and digital was also released in 2025 - and is NOT to be missed. As is the 4K UltraHD edition out now!
Also last year, celebrating the concerts to coincide with David Gilmour's album, Luck and Strange, cinema/IMAX screenings, and a book, 2Blu-ray, 3DVD, 4LP, 2CD and deluxe box set options were also released and are getting very high praise.
The Nick Mason's Saucerful Of Secrets 2024 Set The Controls tour revealed a band in even better form than the 2022/23 shows which managed to exceed everyone's hopes and expectations! Our sincerest hopes are that they continue, but in the meantime, there's their RSD release, and the earlier live recording from London's Roundhouse on Blu-ray, DVD/2CD, and 2LP which is really excellent.
Of course, Roger Waters read three extracts from his memoirs in October 2023 at the London Palladium, so it might not be too much longer before that is published...he's also working on his new album based around The Bar - we'll let you know as soon as we get all the info! Before all that though is the release of Roger Waters This Is Not A Drill Live In Prague on 4LP vinyl, Blu-ray, DVD, 2CD and digital which is out now.
HOW TO HELP THE SITE: If you want to contribute anything - such as concert reviews, articles or pictures - we'd love to hear from you; please email us. A sincere note of thanks to those who use our affiliate links to Ticketmaster.com, Ticketmaster.co.uk, Seetickets.com, Eventim UK, the various Amazon stores (as an Amazon Associate we earn commission from qualifying purchases); Apple Music; Zavvi.com; HMV.com; and to those kind souls who make a Paypal donation toward running costs.
All these give much-needed help with things such as site hosting fees, and we really appreciate it. We get no funding, so every penny/cent helps keep the site running. Thanks! Finally, we use cookies to enhance your experience - but we use these purely to remember the size and width settings if you change these. External links may have their own cookies. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. VERY BEST WISHES
- your friends at Brain Damage
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David Gilmour on the big screen - reviewed |
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Written by Matt
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Wednesday, 17 May 2006 |
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Tuesday night saw a rather unusual David Gilmour event. Big Screen Concerts
aired, for one night only, a special recording of David's BBC concert
recording at London's Mermaid Theatre on March 7th, augmented by the
EPK for the album, presented in surround sound in movie theatres across
the US.
The performance was the first
public outing for a selection of tracks from his (then brand new)
album, On An Island, alongside Pink Floyd classics.
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| David Gilmour movie theatre screening |
With thanks to Dave, a BD regular, we can report back in full for all those who weren't able to see this special screening:
Tuesday evening I attended
David's "On An Island" movie at the Regal Sawgrass Stadium 23 in
Sunrise, Florida. Show time was 8:00 p.m. I had arrived a bit early and
with nothing else to do entered the theater at about 7:30. First one
there. Didn't expect much of a crowd - if it wasn't for Brain Damage,
I'd never have known about this event.
The theater was fabulous - huge
comfy recliners, steep stadium seating. Digital projector (for this
event) and very good digital surround sound. A few minutes later, I was
joined by the first of the crowd ...which grew steadily thru 8:00 p.m.
when I'd estimate about 80% capacity. The first couple dozen or so to
the show were offered a quite lovely "On An Island" poster (on stiff
posterboard measuring 17" high by 11" wide) by, apparently, a staff
member of the local classic rock radio station. Essentially the same
image as the album cover in a vertical format, the poster quite
remarkably contains no advertising logos or embellishments of any kind,
and is very suitable for framing if one were so inclined.
While we waited, I was impressed
by the total lack of any pre-show screen adverts or trailers. They
really seemed to be aiming for an other than movie-theater like
experience. At 8:00 the lights dimmed an the film began. We were
treated to the video version of "On an Island" playing over some studio
footage from the Astoria and Abbey Road. Than a bit of interviews with
David on the recording of the album started, interspersed with more
sounds from the album. Clips of "On An Island", "The Blue", "Take A
Breath" and "This Heaven" were highlighted in what seemed to be a solid
(and effective) advertisement for his latest album. Much of this bit
seemed familiar, having been previously featured on his web site, but
the huge screen and surround sound made the repeat material quite
palatable. David comments how he's never felt comfortable writing
lyrics and how he hopes Polly's are inspired by his music (what I take
as an interesting acknowledgement of his post-Waters material's
greatest weakness).
Finally the concert proper began;
identified as the March 7 premier at the Mermaid Theatre in London
filmed by the BBC. I'm guessing we got the second takes of the early
songs ("Castellorizon" followed by the retakes of "On an Island" and
"The Blue") as they sounded lovely. "Take A Breath" and "Smile" were
followed by "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" which was just AWESOME in this
version - which rocked much harder than his 2001 Meltdown Festival
version (as seen on the In Concert DVD) but had the very similar quiet
acoustic lyric sections. Wright seemed to be having a blast.
After "Shine On" David takes a
moment to welcome the small crowd and introduce his band (Phil
Manzanera on guitar, Steve DiStanislao on drums, Jon Carin on almost
everything, Guy "Didn't They Do Well" Pratt on bass, the amazing Dick
Parry on a pair of saxophones, and some guy named Richard Wright who
Gilmour remarked "plays keyboards and sings a bit, too". Wright on
cue(!), the band launches into "Wearing the Inside Out". I really like
this version -- with the male band members singing the opposing lyrics
instead of the girls -- and Wright seems to relish it.
Next came "High Hopes" (no
bathroom break necessary) and I have to agree, the extended acoustic
ending was perfectly executed. It's just a film, but I'm really
enjoying it, and wondering how I'm going to get my hands on these
alternate Floyd arrangements for my collection.
"High Hopes" than gives way to
"Comfortably Numb" and I think to myself it is rather odd that this
track is being played so early in the set. However, I'm ecstatic to see
and hear Richard Wright pick up Roger's vocals and do them, in his
unique way, very well. Except for Live 8, this is the best run through
of this song I've heard since 1981. Don't get me wrong, Gilmour nailed
this tune during the '94 Floyd tour and his guitar solos then were out
of this world ... but [Guy Pratt/Jon Carin??]'s version of Roger's
vocals left MUCH to be desired, and Richard is a much more natural fit
in lieu of Roger. It's good to hear him doing so much singing lately.
David's solo was a bit short but a fine tune nonetheless.
At the conclusion of "Numb" Dave
offered the audience his goodbye's and walked off. The film crowd
erupted in a standing ovation and my theater crowd just sat and waited
(it's only 9:20 p.m.). But then the credits started to roll (no
encore?) and still no one in my theater got up.
Eventually it became obvious the
film was done, less than 90 minutes in and after no longer than an hour
into the "concert". The theater stayed dark and no one got up as the
credits finished. Someone asked "Think they'll play it again?" but when
it became clear this wouldn't happen we finally all got up and headed
out. Apart from the surprisingly short run time, it was a nice
presentation, and I hope it makes it to DVD some day. Seems like the
editing and mastering is already done, so this shouldn't be too
difficult. However, as a Yank, I'm not sure of that process when the
recording is done by the BBC.
Our thanks to Dave for the
review. To our knowledge, there are NO plans for a DVD release, or for
airings on any other dates/in any other countries. Should this change,
we will of course let you know!
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