With all the fuss this year about Pink Floyd and incredible released remasters on the market, I thought I could fish for some old stuff too.
June 1988, still in some final exam period, some dudes and I went to Paris. Initially the exams were supposed to be done by then. Things change…but we were not going to let some exams prevent us to assist to a Pink Floyd gig. At 19, a bit of rock’n’roll attitude for f… sake! Convincing mom was quite easy being a fan herself. Going to Versailles was easy in one afternoon.
But it took many hours by night and early morning to come back from neighboring Paris since we lived in the middle of nowhere Belgium…I think there was an alphabetical order for taking exams, so we didn’t have to worry that much for arriving early at school that morning, still without stopping home for breakfast nor showers. Not quite fresh for oral exams… I had a biology exam but that teacher was a cool post hippy kind of guy who seemed quite interested in the concert after all, asking a few questions about it and I didn’t have the feeling he tried to trash me. He must have grown up with the Floyd, maybe even a fan. My friend jean-Louis had a harder time with his P.E. exam, haha.
Anyway, Versailles…yes the castles, Louis XIV and all… in the middle a Floyd concert! How the authorities and the band ever got a deal puzzles me. But then there was Venice, the Pyramids, there had been Pompei…
As in many concerts, photography is prohibited. With all due respect to Floyd… and I brought some gear. I still bought the VHS and CD’s later on (1988, remember) but I liked the challenge and still do to get my own stuff. Now I was a real rookie by then and thought nothing better than bringing a 100-300 mm zoom! Too dark zoom and the films by then…400 iso was the maximum for decent pictures. 1000 or 1600 iso films were extreme, and rarely great, touchy to use. For my next concerts, including another Pink Floyd, I had a 135mm 2.8 lens, much better.
The security guys searched everybody got me take the batteries out of the camera, didn’t spot my spare batteries luckily. For all the cheap cameras or the ones working without battery, it was either going back or dumping them on the high piles of cameras behind, with no return I suppose. Rookies but we planned ahead still. Like spare batteries, or Jean-Louis carrying the big zoom only. So when he got searched he pretended the zoom was only to be used as binocular, got searched a second time for a camera body and was let go. Obviously that staff knew nothing about cameras.
so, poorly equipped, lack of experience, some pictures turned blurry but some were OK to salvage.
David Gilmour under the spotlights, Nick Mason on drums.
Pink Floyd being Pink Floyd, the screen was showing incredible video clips! Here along with “Time” track.
Some got blurry as said earlier.
Laser shows were all the rage in the 80’s
13 times? man I'm jealous. I mostly miss the Venice gig.
cheers
Posted by: ben wilhelmi | 29 July 2012 at 06:42 PM
Iwas there,I had been working in Jersey for the summer and thought i will have that abit of my beloved Pink Floyd just a short distance away across from the channel isles,I was boat building for silva yates and had another two jobs going as well, I needed to amass as much dosh as I could because after the gig I was of down to the south of France to see a lady friend and then off to spain/gib and across to north Africa to sample some of the fabled weed.Any way were was I oh yeh what agig it was.one of the best and I saw the Floyd 13 times in all the first being at Knebworth doing The Dark Side of The Moon tour,was you there do you remember the guy off his hesd caused a delay of the gig when the Floyd refused to play until he came down from some tower that the stitfire came down,proper LSD in those days eh.Any way shine on you crazy diamonds.
Posted by: Mac | 06 July 2012 at 12:24 AM
Thanks Arron
Posted by: ben wilhelmi | 11 January 2012 at 02:19 PM
Impressive blog! -Arron
Posted by: rc helicopter | 21 December 2011 at 11:34 AM