Pink Floyd at its best/Pink Floyd's Wright dead at 65

Pink Floyd's Wright dead at 65

45 minutes ago

LONDON (AFP) — Pink Floyd founding member and keyboard player Richard Wright died Monday at the age of 65 after battling cancer, his spokesman said.

Wright wrote and sang several numbers from classic albums of the British progressive rock band, including "Dark Side of the Moon" and "Wish You Were Here."

"The family of Richard Wright, founder member of Pink Floyd, announce with great sadness, that Richard died today after a short struggle with cancer," said the spokesman.

"The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this difficult time."

I had the great pleasure of seeing this tour when it came to Foxboro Stadium in 1994. It was the most powerful performance I have ever seen and I have seen most of the greats. It is not often you go to a concert, see a great band play at its greatest level along with the most incredible lighting effects and sound all balled up into one masterful show. All other shows now seem ordinary to me compared to this!

The video does its best to live up to the show by limiting the editing of the performance. When your talking about Pink Floyd there is little need to edit. It's actually just the opposite.

How do you get all the incredible effects such as the lasers:
A 70 mm cine projector and two copper vapour lasers, never seen outside a research lab before,onto a video tape for T.V. viewing?

Fireworks, video shots, Fly overs from a plane and a Floyd blimp. How do you get the WORLDS ONLY stadium size surround sound systems sound onto a T.V. screen? These are the many things the video lacks. There was so much more to capture.

Pink Floyd was using newly invented gold lasers yet to be seen or even licensed in the North America's. A stage so huge it has a staff of 160 technicians and crew over looking the movement of three separate stages(four days to build, six hours to break down) that took about five days to move and rebuild. It was incredible to see in person. To get the idea just how huge it was by watching the video, you have to look at the size of the people in the band when they do one of the many back of the room type video shots. Only then will you have an idea how huge.

The shows director/co-designer is the famous Marc Brickman, who has clients like Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen on his list, works with a team of ten techs going through hundreds of lighting cues in one night with over four hundred lights.Try getting that on your T.V.

In this concert footage, the original members of Pink Floyd are only missing Roger Waters who plays the Bass and writes a lot of the material Floyd has produced. A genius in his own right. All other members ( Gilmore,Mason, and Wright) are performing in the video along with a great supporting cast of Three back-up singers, Keyboard player, Sax player. Tim Renwick on guitars, Gary Wallis , who is surrounded by a circle of percussion instruments, and Guy Pratt who does an excellent job of handling Waters replacement on Bass. Many times a frettless Bass! That says a lot about his ability

The sound of the video is not bad at all for vhs. It sounds great if you put the audio out through your sound system. I would not bother to watch this on a T.V. smaller then a 25 in. or listen through a mono T.V. speaker. It's not what Pink Floyd and this video is about.

The video was recorded at The Royal Albert Hall in England on the last leg of the tour. David Gilmore, who handles nearly all the lead vocals , is noticeably hoarse at times on the high notes.

There are Twenty-two songs on the video both old and new and yes plenty of the "Dark Side of The Moon".
Show ends with an incredible array of lights and explosions with a final thank you to Roger Waters for his allowing of his music.

Overall, I recommend this video for viewing at peak volumes if possible. If you never seen Pink Floyd and are interested in what the talk is all about. See this video!!
Runs approx. 145
Directed by David Mallet