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When rock music met ancient archeology: the
enduring power of Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii
The 1972 concert film Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii, back in
cinemas this week, remains one of the most unique
concert documentaries ever recorded by a rock band.
The movie captured the band on the brink of international
stardom, released seven months before their breakout
album Dark Side of the Moon, which would go on to sell
50 million copies and spend 778 weeks on the Billboard
charts.
The film was the first time a rock concert took place in the
ruins of an archaeological site. This intermingling of art
and archaeology would change the way many thought of
Pompeii.
The amphitheatre of Pompeii
The amphitheatre of Pompeii has quite a history as a
venue for spectacles.
Constructed around 70 BCE, it was one of the first
permanent constructed amphitheatres in Italy, designed
to hold up to 20,000 spectators.
From graffiti and advertisements, we know it was used in
antiquity for gladiatorial fights and displays and hunts of
wild beasts and athletic contests.
Famously we are told by Roman historian Tactius in 59
CE a deadly brawl occurred between Pompeiians and
residents of the nearby town of Nuceria during games,
resulting in a ten-year ban on gladiatorial contests at the
venue. The amphitheatre was destroyed by the eruption
of Vesuvius in 79 CE.
There is a long tradition of authors, artists, filmmakers
and designers taking inspiration from the site and its
destruction. A 13-year-old Mozart's visit to the Temple of
Isis at the site inspired The Magic Flute in 1791.
In the rock music era, Pompeii has inspired numerous
artists, especially around themes of death and longing.
Cities in Dust (1985) by Siouxsie and the Banshees was
perhaps the most famous until Bastille's 2013 hit
Pompeii. In The Decemberists' Cocoon (2002), the
destruction of Pompeii acts as a metaphor for the guilt
and loss in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
Since 2016, the amphitheatre has hosted concerts ? with
audiences this time. Appropriately, one of the first was a
performance by Pink Floyd's guitarist David Gilmour. His
show over two nights in July 2016 took place 45 years
after first playing at the site.
But how did Pink Floyd come to play at Pompeii in 1972?
Rethinking rock concert movies
It was the peak era of rock concert documentaries.
Woodstock (1970) and The Rolling Stone's Gimme
Shelter (1970), and other documentaries of the era, placed the cameras in the audience, giving the
cinema-goer the same perspective as the concert
audience.
As a concept, it was getting stale.
Filmmaker Adrian Maben had been interested in
combining art with Pink Floyd's music. He initially pitched
a film of the band's music over montages of paintings by
artists such as Rene Magritte. The band rejected the
idea.
Maben returned to them after a holiday in Naples,
realising the ambience of Pompeii suited the band's
music. A performance without an audience provided the
antithesis of the era's concert films.
The performance would become iconic, particularly the
scenes of Roger Waters banging a large gong on the
upper wall of the amphitheatre, and the cameras panning
past the band's black road case to reveal the band in the
ancient arena.
It was as far away from Woodstock as possible.
The performance was filmed over six days in October
1971 in the ancient amphitheatre, with the band playing
three songs in the ancient venue: Echoes, A Saucerful of
Secrets, and One of These Days.
Ancient history professor Ugo Carputi of the University of
Naples, a Pink Floyd fan, had persuaded authorities to
allow the band to film and to close the site for the
duration of filming. Besides the film crew, the band's road
crew ? and a few children who snuck in to watch ? the
venue was closed to the public.
In addition to the performance, the four band members
were filmed walking over the volcanic mud around
Boscoreale, and their performances in the film both were
interspersed with images of antiquities from Pompeii.
The movie itself was fleshed out with studio
performances in a Paris TV studio and rehearsals at
Abbey Road Studios.
Marrying art and music
Famously the Pink Floyd film blends images of antiquities
from the Naples Archaeological Museum with the band's
performances.
Roman frescoes and mosaics are highlighted during
particular songs. Profiles of bronze statues meld with the
faces of band members, linking past and present.
Later scenes have the band backdropped by images of
frescoes from the famed Villa of the Mysteries and of the
plaster casts of eruption victims.
The band's musical themes of death and mystery link
with ancient imagery, and it would have been the first
time many audience members had seen these
masterpieces of Roman art.
The Memento mori mosaic features significantly during the
performance of the song Careful with that Axe, Eugene. Naples
National Archaeological Museum/Wikimedia Commons
Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii marked a brave experiment in
rock concert movies.
Watching it more than 50 years later, it is a timepiece of
early 70s rock and a remarkable document of a band on
the brink of fame.
Because of their progressive rock sound, sonic
experimentation and philosophical lyrics, it was often said
by Pink Floyd's fans that they were "the first band in
space". They even eventually had a cassette of their
music played in space.
But many are not aware of their earlier roots in the dust
of ancient Pompeii. The re-release of the film gives an
opportunity to enjoy the site's unlikely role in music
history.
Pink Floyd at Pompeii ? MCMLXXII is in cinemas from
Thursday.
https://theconversation.com/when-rock-music-met-ancient-archeology-t
he-enduring-power-of-pink-floyd-live-at-pompeii-252744
