Disco de Pink Floyd: “Pulse [DVD]”

Why was the Pink Floyd Pulse DVD release delayed yet again? Hear the truth from David Gilmour himself.

David Gilmour Speaks! from the May 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine (Vol. 27/No. 5), "Shine On" an interview by Alan Di Perna. The following is a full quote from the interview concerning the Pulse DVD release (pp.96-98):

"GW: Speaking of live shows, why is the Pulse DVD coming out later this year, some 12 years after the Division Bell tour?

GILMOUR: It was out on VHS long ago. We had a lot of technical problems converting it to DVD. It was shot on video rather than film, which I now think was a mistake: it doesn't look very good when you enlarge it on a big screen television, which everyone seems to have these days. We'd been investigating all sorts of ways to digitally enhance the footage.

By the time we'd surmounted all the problems, it was way too late to make our November or December ['05] deadline. I didn't see any point in putting it out at the same time as my album (On An Island), so I asked that we put the release back until September".

Nuff Said.

I was fortunate enough to have seen The Division Bell Concert in Philadelphia and was completely enthalled by the experience. Sitting some 100 yds away from the stage it's tough to completely appreciate the musicians on stage..and that's where PULSE come in.

David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Rick Wright & Co. are in top form playing back home in London. The Pink Floyd concert experience is brilliantly captured here. The performers, the light show, video screen and especially the music all come through with excellent clarity.

The complete version of Dark Side Of The Moon is re-created and still sounds wonderful. If you've got a great sound system even more so better....Pink Floyd is still very much alive.

First of all Pink Floyd is my all-time favorite band. David Gilmour is a genius, amazing artist, singer, and musician. "Pulse" is the culmination of ALL of what makes Pink Floyd so spectacular. Their music is awesome but their live show is SIMPLY THE BEST YOU WILL EVER SEE! It has the most impressive lighting (complete with lasers), and special effects of any concert I've been to! (I've seen at least 50 popular bands.) Hats off to Marc Brickman, the lighting designer as well as the director, David Mallet and everyone involved in this great video production! Also, the giant screen which plays video footage is definitely worth mentioning; however, I'll save all the other numerous surprises for you to enjoy as you watch this!

What impresses me the most about Pink Floyd is they keep getting better! I saw this concert live and it's their tour for the awesome "Division Bell" CD; which is my favorite of all their work! That says alot looking at their enormous portfolio through the years!

The approximate running time is 145 minutes; and you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time! This video is a must own if you are a Pink Floyd fan and if you can only afford one--this is it! It has all their old great ones like "Money", "Breathe", "Us and Them", "Comfortably Numb" and "Wish You Were Here" plus their newer ones from "THE DIVISION BELL": the great "High Hopes", "Coming Back to Life", "Take it Back" and "Keep Talking."

I hope they "keep talking" because I'll always be listening!

Alright my friends: Stop screaming reviews without viewing the actual 2 DVD Set to release next July 10. I already have it and I'm going to post a complete review for you:

First of all, let me say ya the long awaited Pulse DVD is well worth the wait. When a DVD is good enough you feel the need for more and more, that's what happened to me with Pulse after first experienced complete, including extras.

I don't think it's useful to write about the concert, isn't it?. Everybody knows it and all I have to say it's a stunning and landmark performance, better than Pulse CD. The band is inspired, the music sounds like heaven, and the marriage between stage-lights-screen and the band is beyond perfection.

So let's review about the DVD:

It's presented on 4:3 aspect, remastered and re-edited. That's true, I can notice several differences with the VHS footage, and I think they were right. The remastering is quite amazing, colours are rich, strong and brilliant. Some cameras show a cleaner angles than other ones, and from the worst ones you can notice some pixelations and softness (I think impossible to remove given the nature of the filming tapes, for Video at that time). Hands down for the direction: AT LAST YOU WON'T FIND A MTV CLICHED DVD!!!!. When you want to see the band playing...you see the band playing without distracting artefacts as the stupid and annoying 100 camera changes per second. The filming is elegant, and it's according to the music played. Also the cameras allow you, unlike Pompeii, to have a wide vision of the band, instrument, stage, venue, etc. Simply fantastic work and a lesson for every music DVD director.

The sound is the holy grail of the DVD. Outstanding, impressive, awesome. You actually feel like being there. It does sound live, and you can clearly notice the instruments, voices and sound effects!. Listen to that Gilmour solo on Comfortably Numb is the quintessential DVD experience. Loss for words, really the sound left me speechless.

Now why Am I giving this 4 stars?. Because of the lack of interesting extras. First of all, the screenfilms looks amazing...but they were put into a circled format, I mean, you can watch them like if you were watching the real screen on stage. What a pity!, I wish I had a full screen format of every film, especially High Hopes, the best ever Pink Floyd video. The sound of the screenfilms are from the concert.

The Say Goodbye... docummentary is quite short (15 minutes) and uninspired, boring. Nothing to take care about. I wish I watched revealing interviews, high quality footage (the footage used is rather poor), rearshals, etc.

The Bootlegs section is the most dissapointing stuff from the set: low quality audience mix from 3-4 cameras each song. After watching and listening to the magnificence of the main concert, watching and listening to the bootlegs is pretty much like a suicide. They should have put high quality audio of those songs instead, I know they have them!. Also there's no Astronomy Domine, sorry friends.

The Booklet is rather small, but nice.

Overall, the main concert is the reason alone to buy this DVD. I strongly believe that the extras on Classic Albums: Dark Side Of The Moon were more instructive and useful than the extras presented here. Except for the studio videos, the rest is forgettable. Anyway, the presentation of the main concert and the watching and listening experience is uplifting.

Unless we'll get the long awaited and asked Pink Floyd The Wall Live DVD (Roger still has the tapes hidden in his closet with dust!) this is the holy grail of Pink Floyd DVD's. High Hopes

It's clear from this that Pink Floyd was not at all a destroyed band, but one very much alive. The video allows for a close-up glimpse of the band in addition to the light display, that might be lost to the audience at the actual concert. For that it may even surpass the concertgoing experience for those who prefer a more intimate musical experience.

At times it may seem that the younger touring musicians are more "into it" than the band, but then Pink Floyd has always been more reserved than some. The Floyd members show their passion in subtler ways. If anybody in the band has a tendency to be visibly animated, surprisingly enough (or is it?) it's the softspoken keyboardist Richard Wright, who reacts very clearly to the music.

"But if I have the audio CD, should I buy this too?"

Absolutely! Even though most of the tracks are similar in style, on some the combination of light and sound heightens the experience. Also, the video-only tracks are well worth hearing. But perhaps the most stunning difference is in "Sorrow". While the CD version takes a more mournful, softer approach, the video version is a hard-rocking tune that draws the most passionate playing out of all three members. If David Gilmour and Nick Mason are on fire, then Richard Wright is positively explosive on this song. Letting loose with a screaming, uncharacteristically aggressive Hammond assault, one almost wonders if the keys will survive such a performance (especially given the fire in his eyes!).

The only thing at all lacking on the VHS was the picture quality, which although good, is not up to modern standards of clarity. The long awaited upcoming DVD will rectify this.

Ps: Count me in too!, please release The Wall Live DVD in 2006. There's a petition which more than 5,200 fans have signed in!. We know there's a lot of footage both from Earls Court 1980,} and 1981, and Nassau Coliseum 1980. Also there's a documentary from behind the wall out there!. Even on the official site we can watch footage from The Wall Live concerts!. Please let it happen