my last post about Pink Floyd. Time, as in the track “Time” on which this video clip was played on, to consider buying all those new EMI releases of their albums with old unreleased tracks!
David Gilmour.
David Gilmour.
Sparks and bursts of fire were squirting in rhythm. Everybody knows the old about there are 2 categories of people: those who have blablah’ed and those who haven’t”. Well this applies to attending a Floyd Gig!
March 1989 in Belgium, Pink Floyd made the incredible honor to visit us. The concert took place in a an open field. Much more quiet atmosphere than Woodstock of course even if dozens of thousands were attending. The audience is wide here, from teens to grandparents. Fans dating from the mid sixties. Everybody was seated on the ground, not missing a bit of the show, some people crying softly.
In Versailles, June 1988, at a previous Floyd gig, 100.000 people! we had been standing up for a while. There had some movement near me, a girl from our group had fainted of pure emotion. Her boyfriend didn’t notice or didn’t want to because when he was notified by one of us, he hardly looked down, just said “later…” and kept staring and listening at the gig. No way this guy was going to miss a second of the show! Of course the girl took it badly when she woke up on her own, realised she was not worth a few seconds of Pink Floyd. The guy must have thought there were plenty of other girls on this Earth, but not many Pink Floyd gigs…finally he was a smart philosopher, wasn’t he? By the way none of us helped her either… but then we were not even dating her so why bother? Facing the Floyd, I defy any gentleman to keep his manners haha
the laser show was breathtaking.
Burst of fire on stage.
Nick mason on drums, Nick Wright on keyboards.
The Pig, a big balloon floating over the audience. The eyes were powerful light spots.
David Gilmour.
I had sneaked my camera, a great Minolta X700 and a 135mm 2.8 and a 50mm 1.7 lenses all hidden in my thick leather jacket sleeves, some Fuji 1600 asa films in my cowboy boots. Security was there but body search was limited. By then 1600 asa was a magic and maximum number for color films. I dream of shooting the same gigs with a Nikon D3 at 25000 asa, or even 102.000! The D4 to come is announced at more than 200.000 though quality is not that great at that extreme setting.
March 1989, my second Floyd concert. Man, I would have done the complete tour in Europe and over. Too bad I was stuck in the Air Force… even if you can fly high in both, I don’t think the Air Force would have agreed to give me free time.
a detail from the screen. I nearly missed that picture. I had dropped my camera, convinced the light was too low, not worth giving a try. A friend in our group, Jean-Louis whispered, insisted “Just take it, fucking hell!!!!” So I did…luckily.
Nick Mason drumming…
David Gilmour.
the famous pig from the Battersea power plant picture on “Animals”. That huge balloon was dangling overhead the audience.
Nick Wright, RIP, at the keyboards (middle).
Werchter 1989, Pink Floyd on show. The screen showing a videoclip, I forgot which track, “Time” I bet?
David Gilmour, right, and the fabulous choir, not sure if Clair Tori was in there, but they were just fabulous, especially on “the Great Gig in the Sky”.
Why a venerable and splendid Dakota, out of all the airplanes….? Great choice anyway.
The Pig, the famous pig. Not as big as the Battersea one but big enough when hovering over the audience. DCA spots from the eyes!
a bed and a dummy passed over us and crashed on stage with flames and loud noises.
Leica M6, Delta 100 films
A few more pictures from the Pink Floyd Versailles concert in 1988. As said in a previous post, I was too much of a rookie without proper equipment to bring good pictures. At the time, “A Momentarily Lapse of Reason” was their lastest album.
but then Pink Floyd came again in Wechter, Belgium, March 1989. Yes yes Pink Floyd in Belgium, on parity with Pompei, the great Pyramids, Venice…! By then I knew a bit more about the difficult lights to deal with in concerts. So I took a bright lens, a 135mm 2.8 instead of a 100-300 mm 5.6, went early and closer to the stage and suddenly the results got much more acceptable, see below.
David Gilmour.
The huge screen showing a stunning video clip alongside “Time” track.
Gilmour on the left, Nick Mason drumming.
More soon.
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
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