Pink Floyd – Pro-Shot In Europe 1969-1972

Bonus Tracks:  Atom Heart Mother (Grosser Saal, Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany – February 25th, 1971).  A Saucerful Of Secrets (Stadthalle, Offenbach, West Germany – February 26th, 1971).  French TV Documentary for making soundtrack of La Vallee.  I’m A Believer (Top Of The Pops, September 1974.  Robert Wyatt with Nick Mason on drums) 

Pink Floyd Pro-Shot In Europe 1969-1972 is a silver pressed DVD with some impressive footage. but it presents some of the best professionally filmed film documents of one of the most important formative years of the band, stretching from Ummagumma to right before the release of Dark Side Of The Moon.  This has four shows on the main part of the disc and four bonus extra fragments.  It begins with excerpts from the Actuel Festival in Belgium on October 25th, 1969 making its first appearance on pressed DVD.  This is the famous festival appearance when Frank Zappa jammed with the band on “Interstellar Overdrive.”

Unfortunately no footage of that has surfaced, but what is present on this disc are fragments of “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” in black and white and “Careful With That Axe, Eugene,” half in color and the second half in black and white.  This comes from the rare documentary Music Powerdirected by Jerome Laperrousaz.  It is a four hour documentary released in  May, 1970 and played in French cinemas in the 1970’s.  Some describe the film as rubbish but others praise it as being better than the Woodstock documentary.  It is a shame the film is not available on DVD.  This release presents all of the Pink Floyd footage that is currently available and it is claimed that more exists but is being hoarded by a collector. 

The second piece come from the Kralingen Pop Festival on June 28th, 1970.  These clips are taken from the seldom seen documentary of the event called Love And Music (aka Rock Fieber and Stamping Ground) released in 1971.  The color footage includes edited versions “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” and “A Saucerful Of Secrets.”  The former includes a brief snippet of the beginning of the song and of the brief, energetic middle.   There are great close ups of the band on stage with an emphasis on Mason’s drumming during the first track.  The second track includes only the “Celestial Voices” section of the song and includes shots of people in the audience playing in giant bubbles on a pool and the sun rising over the hills in the background creating an awesome atmosphere. 

The third is pristine color footage from the Abbaye de Royaumont, Royaumont, France on June 15th, 1971.  Making its silver DVD debut, this was shot for the French television station ORTF2 TV and broadcast on July 12 on “Cinq Grand Sur La Deux.”   It includes the first couple minutes of “Cymbaline” (up to the footsteps in the middle) and a complete “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.”  It is remarkable how good the film is.  The camera wanders around a bit to show off the setting, a medieval Abbey.  Shots of the Gothic arches and gargoyles add to the creepy and tense atmosphere of the show.  It is a shame the first track isn’t present in its entirety and cuts off in the middle.  The second though is very heavy with Gilmour especially being emphasized.

The fourth clip contains “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” and “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” filmed at The Dome in Brighton on June 28th, 1972.  These are taken from a movie directed by Peter Clifton called Sound Of The City:  London 1964-73.   Documenting the music scene in London, it has footage of The Rolling Stones, Ike And Tina Turner, and The Faces and it received a limited release in 1981.  Unfortunately the entire film has never been released, either on VHS, laser disc or DVD, but the Pink Floyd footage has been circulating.  The quality on this release is a marked improvement over Harvested with very strong, vibrant colors and great sound.  The footage during “Set The Controls” (making it’s fourth and final appearance in this collection) includes shots of lava, the sunrise, Waters’ burning gong and the end credits. 

The bonus tracks can be found on the “next page” by highlighting “Oh,” “Ohh,” “Ohh,” and “Ohhh.”  The first, found by highlighting “Oh,” is two and a half minutes of clear color footage of “Atom Heart Mother” from Hamburg on February 25th, 1971.  It is great but frustratingly short.  The first “Ohh” has a minute and a half color film of the band in the middle of “A Saucerful Of Secrets” from the following show in Offenbach, Germany. Again, it it has excellent close ups of Gilmour attacking the guitar, Wright playing the keyboards and Waters bashing the gong, but one wishes the entire footage will surface.

The second “Ohh!” contains a fifteen minute documentary filmed at the Château d’Hérouville Studio in Pontoise, France on February 25th, 1972.  It mostly focuses upon interviewing  Barbet Schroeder about his film La Vallée.  It begins by showing the band recording in the studio with “Wots…The Deal?” playing over the soundtrack.  There is a long interview with Schroeder describing the plot and the idea behind making his trippy movie in the middle of the footage.  “When You’re In” is played as bumper music for still photographs from the production.  Finally Gilmour and Waters are interviewed in the studio speaking about the soundtrack, politics, and their new theatrical piece they are bringing to the live stage. 

The final bonus track, found by clicking on “Ohhh!” is color video tape of Robert Wyatt singing The Monkees’ “I’m A Believer” on “Top Of The Pops” from September, 1974 about year after Pink Floyd played a benefit concert for him.  Wyatt is sitting in the wheelchair singing the song while Nick Mason is playing drums on the track using his own drum kit with the wave painting on the bass drums.  Pro-Shot In Europe 1969-1972 is pressed in the NTSC format region 0 making it compatible for all DVD players.  The labels uses the same picture of Waters by the gong that is popular on many Floyd releases, and it packaged in a standard DVD plastic case.  By presenting hard to find material in the best ever quality, this DVD is worth having.