Past souls and Pink Floyd: the concept behind ‘Live at Pompeii’
It’s hard to pinpoint precisely why rock music and bands such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and The Who became as big as they did. What was it about that genre that spoke to people on such a global scale? In a way where people flocked to shops to buy tickets, screamed at the sight of their favourite artists and camped outside to secure tickets to gigs? The energy? The rebellion? The untouchable nature or rockstars? Whatever it was, the movement was infectious.
Where rock bands went, the crowds followed. Bands constantly played large gigs to roaring crowds, completely taking the world by storm in the process. If people thought that rock music was loud, they hadn’t heard anything until they’ve stood in a crowd of people listening to it.
Led Zeppelin once broke the record for the biggest crowd in history when they performed at Tampa Stadium. It was the fastest sellout of the stadium in history, as the band completely annihilated previous records as fans began queueing for tickets early, pushing each other to try and secure the best seats.
“At 11am, we issued announcements telling people not to come to the stadium because of traffic jams,” said Gerry Baron, who was working on promotions for the stadium, “At noon, we announced we were closing the ticket office at three. We stayed open until ten and sold out.”
Of course, not every rock band is as conventional in their approach to a live show. Pink Floyd was one of the most ambitious live bands out there, to the point that it became a lot more than just the music and was all about creating an entire spectacle. Using lights and various effects, Pink Floyd took fans to a whole other planet with their music and gigs and missed so much that their tribute band is one of the most revered out there, as people still yearn for Pink Floyd shows.
Of course, a lot of Pink Floyd songs aren’t audience-friendly. While some people love an elongated prog rock song, others aren’t as excited about listening to a 20-minute track in a live setting. Not only that, but Pink Floyd was also always excited by the prospect of doing something magic musically that had never been done before. They managed to achieve this with the gig Live at Pompeii.
Pompeii was destroyed thousands of years ago thanks to an erupting volcano. The people of the city were unable to escape, and since then, the city has been one cased in ruins. Pink Floyd decided to hold a gig there and film it, one where the only audience would be the crew, the band and the memories of those who couldn’t make it out of Pompeii.
The band opened with ‘Echoes Part 1’, which is a ballad over 20 minutes long. Opening with this could be a bold choice at a show with a fully packed audience, but there was no risk of controversy in Pompeii. The band played a range of songs throughout the show, some of which they might have never played at other shows.
During the gig, they also used effects to create images of volcanos and lava on the stage backdrop. The whole thing was incredibly put together and still holds up as one of the most mesmerising shows ever recorded.
