Good news for Pink Floyd fans, as it was announced that Roger Waters' The Wall will be broadcast in more than 300 U.S. movie theaters this fall. "The Wall" has been rightly hailed as one of the greatest touring shows in the history of rock music and, even if you weren't able to get out and check out the Floyd bassist play his massive concept album live, you'll get the second best thing by seeing the whole thing live on a big screen with a proper surround-sound system. If you want to get warmed up before the September 29 viewing, check out Pink Floyd live in the form of these five previously released concert videos, from oldest to newest.
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
One would think that a band that featured live shows as grandiose as Pink Floyd's—it's not called a "Pink Floyd laser light show" for nothing—would have thought to release more concert videos during its existence. Of the few concert videos released while the band was in its original form, perhaps the most classic was Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii, featuring the band playing before a massive crowd of zero people. Perhaps the band was having a laugh when they decided to recorded a full show in a historic Roman coliseum (in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius). No...the ancient building wasn't equipped with laser lights. Most of the songs come from the band's then-recent albums A Saucerful of Secrets and Meddle, but later rereleases would include footage of the band in-studio working on The Dark Side of The Moon.
The Wall: Live In Berlin (1990)
One of the biggest misconceptions about Pink Floyd's The Wall is that it was directly about the wall that separated East and West Berlin during the height of the Cold War. The original lineup of Pink Floyd had long since folded by the time the Berlin Wall folded, but Waters (now touring as a solo performer) was caught on tape declaring that if the Berlin Wall fell, he would resurrect the massive stageshow in city that provided the barrier's name. Four months later, it fell. He teamed with architect Mark Fisher to create a huge stage in the "no-man's land" between East and West Berlin, and brought on collaborators such as The Band, Van Morrison and Joni Mitchell to recreate the Floyd album in its entirety. The show was massive, attracting at least 350,000 onlookers, and possibly up to 100,000 more.
PULSE (1994)
Roger Waters tends to get most of the attention as the "main" guy in Pink Floyd, which isn't entirely fair. David Gilmour and Nick Mason have continued a successful career for more than 30 years, and although we weren't huge fans of 2014's The Endless River, we're not going to hide our appreciation for 1994's The Division Bell. Therefore it's well worth checking out PULSE, a 1995 live album from the non-Waters members of Floyd, airing out both classics and new tracks from Division Bell during a '90s tour stop at Earls Court in London. Even if you're bored by the B-sides that make up most of the first 20 songs of the set (shame on you...it's a Pink Floyd show...not a Tom Petty show), you'll get your hoots as the band closes strong with "Wish You Were Here," "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell."
In The Flesh Live (2000)
Roger Waters has grown tired of being asked in Pink Floyd will ever get back together...he's made it pretty clear he has no intention to do so, claiming that the past is in the past. That said, he's also made quite a career of touring on the "The Wall" more than 30 years after it was released, and he doesn't pretend that Floyd's discography is dead to him. Around the time that In The Flesh Live was released, the bassist was talking up the iconic status of the albums Dark Side of The Moon and The Wall...and also argued that his 1992 solo release Amused to Death deserved to be considered among those two in terms of quality. Regardless of what your thoughts on that matter are, he released a 24-song live album/video that focused on songs from those three albums, with a few previously unreleased tracks thrown in for good measure.
Live 8 (2005)
Live 8 is one of the biggest concert events in history, featuring performances from a slew of superstars the world over. If you had to choose just one act that deserved more attention than any other however, you would have to agree that the decision from Waters, Mason, Gilmour and Richard Wright to perform together for the first time in more than 20 years was huge...arguably the only true Pink Floyd performance in the last 30 years. The group's brief set, featuring hits such as "Money," "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb," can be found among the live performances featured on the DVD that was later released from the day's events. Waters, despite the charitable nature of the event, probably regrets the appearance as it opened the door for all those annoying questions from fans and reporters for years to come.
