Video Anthology Vol. 1: 1967-1968 (Harvested HV-001DVD)
Venue : The Barrett Years
1. UFO Club, Tottenham Court Road, London, England – January 13th, 1967: Interstellar Overdrive
2. Scene Special, UFO Club, Tottenham Court Road, London, England – January 27th, 1967: Interstellar Overdrive
3. Promotional film – March 10th, 1967: Arnold Layne
4. “Look Of Week”, BBC 1 Television Centre, London, England – May 14th, 1967: Pow R. Toc H., Astronomy Domine, interview with Roger Waters and Syd Barrett by Hans Keller
5. Pathe news reel promotional film, unknown location – July 8th, 1967: The Scarecrow
6. “American Bandstand”, Hollywood, California – November 4th, 1967: Apples And Oranges
7. UK Central Office Of Information, promotional film – December, 1967: Jugband Blues
The Belgium Promos
8. Belgium TV Special, Radio ET1, “Vision Belge”, Brussels, Belgium – February 18th & 19th, 1968: Astronomy Domine, Corporal Cleg, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Apples And Oranges, Painbox, See Emily Play, The Scarecrow
TV Appearances
9. “Baton Rouge”, ORTF 2 TV studios, Paris, France – February 20th, 1968: Astronomy Domine, Flaming, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
10. Rome International Pop Festival, Palazzo Dello Sport, Rome, Italy – May 6th, 1968: Interstellar Overdrive
11: “All My Loving”, The Tabernacle, London, England – November 3rd, 1968: Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
The Video Anthology Vol. 1 and its companion Anthology Vol. 2 are produced by manufacturers who have co-opted the Harvested label. This is appropriate since these are the first two discs of the three disc set Pink Floyd Video Anthology 1966-1983 right down to the opening bumper music “Is There Anybody Out There?” The ethics of this practice are debatable, but in my opinion I see this as liberation.
Like many people I don’t have the time, resources and technological knowledge to be a “tree”, “branch” or “leaf” in the “weeding” process and don’t have a desire to understand the calculus of the EAC FLAC etc. I admire those who understand that and can do it, but to an outsider like me it looks like an impenetrable club. It is far more convenient to simply purchase the discs and it is far more so with this material pressed onto silver discs with informative artwork. This is the second silver dvd release of Harvested efforts, the first coming out on the WOW label (WOW-062) in identical quality.
The first volume collects material from the first couple years of Pink Floyd when Syd Barrett was the focus of the band. The promotional film “Arnold Layne” was taped right off of “VH1 Classics” in 1999 when it was released to promote Echoes and is in excellent quality.
The “Look Of The Week” segment is also in great quality and begins with a disclaimer by the interview Hans Keller saying right off the bat that he doesn’t like Pink Floyd calling them “boring”, “repetitive”, “too loud” and childish and is clear he doesn’t like them. What’s more he says it right to their faces and Waters is very diplomatic, explaining they don’t have to play so loud and they weren’t raised on string quartets. Barrett looks visibly upset but keeps his cool. It is a very interesting piece.
“The Scarecrow” is an interesting clip of the band walking around a field of barley stealing the hat off of a scarecrow and falling down. The song is very catchy. The “American Bandstand” footage has the timings beneath their mimed performance and is in poor quality. This unfortunately doesn’t contain the famous interview where Barrett looked dazed and right through Dick Clark.
The “Jugland Blues” promo film is the final piece of footage and final recording with Barrett before he was booted from the band. It is appropriately psychedelic with the band playing all manner of instruments with Syd not at all looking interested. It is obvious why he was sacked soon after.
The Belgium television promo is the first glimpse of Pink Floyd with a very thin and young looking David Gilmour. The different songs show them playing in a studio, playing cricket in a park for “See Emily Play”, and miming by a fountain for “The Scarecrow” with Waters playing his bass with a violin bow. The “Baton Rouge” footage is the best of the Gilmour Pink Floyd on volume one. Shot live in the studio with the host standing on stage, the band looks and sounds very convincing.
The “All My Loving” documentary was originally aired in black and white, but this clip with Pink Floyd’s performance only aired in 2004 in color and is the source for this anthology. Hopefully someone will release the entire show some day but it is great to see Pink Floyd’s contribution. All of the material is in great condition. The “American Bandstand” clip is the worst on the title.
