What was the first band to perform in the ruins of Pompeii?
Rock and roll was a genre always destined to be played in an arena. The early pioneers may not have envisioned their music being played anywhere outside of a sockhop, but the minute that artists like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles came along, their allure was simply too big to be contained in a sweaty club for that much longer. Things needed to get more grandiose, and what was a better way to perform on a large scale than going back to the ruins of Pompeii to perform a show?
Then again, looking at how Pompeii is constructed, it doesn’t feel like it should be used for some extravagant musical venue. After all, these were the ruins from the fateful day when Mt Vesuvius erupted and reduced everything to ash, so even before someone plays a note of music, they already have to feel the ghosts of the past on the grounds that have been silent for years.
At the same time, that kind of ambience helps give a concert a lot of character. While it might be easy to forget about the history and lean into the performance, the silence around everything operates as another instrument in the band half the time, almost counting as much as a guitar lick or vocal might in a rock and roll context.
Still, the idea of playing in a venue of this magnitude was still a fresh idea when Pink Floyd decided to become the first band to tackle it. And when they arrived with a camera crew to play to an empty amphitheatre, they came out of it with some of the most intense concert footage any rock and roll band has ever laid down.
Why did Pink Floyd choose to play in Pompeii?
Looking at Floyd’s history of making unorthodox career moves, playing to no one was an inspired choice. Since there was already a certain spirit captured on the grounds, playing to no one while they assault their instruments is even more profound to watch, giving each member space to fill in the sound rather than playing off the crowd or worrying about making every track flow without the audience getting bored.
Although all of the material was taken from pre-existing songs, the versions of ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’ and ‘Echoes’ on the live DVD are enough to rival the ones on the record. Since the band were still finding out what they wanted to be at that stage, this was a chance for them to open up more and play the types of arrangements they had grown accustomed to over the years.
Even when the tune was already perfect on record, seeing certain elements added in is still a treat. That guttural scream that Roger Waters lets out during ‘Careful With That Axe Eugene’ is made even more powerful, and when the band gets to the end of ‘A Saucerful of Secrets’, cutting to Waters banging a gong at the end is one of the most cinematic pieces of rock and roll history.
And that was only a blip on the radar for Floyd at this juncture, eventually working in footage on the live DVD devoted to them working on Dark Side of the Moon in the studio. Most people would have found the concept of playing in an empty amphitheatre laughable at the time, but given the storied history of the grounds of Pompeii, it’s fitting that Pink Floyd made something equally as groundbreaking to match it.
