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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.
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Syd Barrett - Under Review DVD |
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Written by Matt
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Saturday, 28 January 2006 |
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Released in the UK on 23rd January,
the "Syd Barrett - Under Review" DVD is an hour-long look at the
musical history of the former Pink Floyd frontman. On the Chrome Dreams
label, it promises "rare performance footage never before on DVD" - a
boast common to many DVDs coming out these days.
We've taken a good look at this
new release, taking a look through the marketing talk so that we can
let you know our views on it.
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| Syd Barrett - Under Review DVD |
The documentary is a mix of
footage of Syd with the other Floyds, in performance, in the studio and
live, along with refreshingly knowledgeable and interesting commentary
from contributors such as authors Chris Welch and David Parker, Uncut
Magazine’s features editor Nigel Williamson, journalist Malcolm Dome,
and perhaps most interestingly, (albeit frustratingly brief), former
Soft Machine bassist who backed Syd on Madcap Laughs, Hugh Hopper.
The footage used is a mixture of
the common and not so common - Look Of The Week, the UFO club, single
promos and American Bandstand footage, for example - and most will be
familiar to the Barrett era collector. There's also a fairly lengthly
sequence from the recently unearthed Jugband Blues promo: a nice
addition for those who've not seen it. However, there is nothing new to
surprise the Barrett collector.
Having said that, it is notable
for the inclusion of footage showing Pink Anderson playing guitar -
footage I don't recall seeing elsewhere.
The documentary is well-written;
not earth-shattering, with no new revelations, but evenly paced and
avoids some of the more sensationalist stories found elsewhere. The
focus is definitely on the music, but without going into the minutae of
chord structures and sequences as have blighted certain other DVDs
released over the last year or so...
Picture quality is fine, if
blighted by a little motion blur when any of the "talking heads" move
rapidly. In 4:3, letterboxed format which seemed to be defeating the
purpose - either pick one screen format or the other! Some of the
footage, incidentally, is presented in 16:9 when it shouldn't. The most
obvious example comes early on with the Arnold Layne video which looks
decidedly squished!
It is worth noting that some of
the footage is of fairly poor audio and visual quality - in some cases,
poorer than is freely available in the collectors circles these days.
Sound quality of the commentary
is very good, in just a stereo mix. With the nature of the footage
used, and available soundtracks, a surround mix would be an irrelevent
fudge, so this is not missed.
In terms of extras, there's a
section devoted to a brief biog of each contributor, a very brief
one-screen promo for other Floyd released from Chrome Dreams, and a
quiz that is billed as "The Hardest Syd Barrett Quiz In The World
Ever", and is suitably tricky. All these items are silent.
There's also a four minute
interview with Gary Lucas, who recorded the long lost (and recently
rediscovered) Last Minute Put Together Blues Band recording from the
Cambridge Corn Exchange in 1972. Whilst not a Stars gig, it does
include Syd on guitar duties. Permission is currently being sought for
this to be officially released, and frustratingly, we hear nothing from
this tape.
Overall, an interesting and well
put together look at Syd's brief but absorbing and much revered musical
career. Very little new material or views for the hard-core fan who has
collected all the available footage, but for the person seeking a good
overview, this is worth a try. It is worth pointing out that this is an
independent production, not approved or authorised by the band or
record company, but unlike other recent titles released under the same
strictures, this doesn't strike one as a cynical exercise designed
purely for money-making purposes.
If you wish to purchase this title, orders are being taken over at Amazon.com (USA/Canada), Amazon UK, and Amazon Germany.
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