Two exciting Pink Floyd stories have cropped up for fans of all of their eras: a standalone release of their restored Pulse Blu-ray for 2022, and a dozen unheard live shows from 1971 available to hear now.
Pulse, originally released in 1995, chronicled the British band's Division Bell Tour of Europe the previous year. While the album was culled from multiple performances, the accompanying video release was taken from a performance at Earls Court in London on October 20, 1994. There, Pink Floyd (then comprised of founding members David Gilmour on vocals and guitar, Richard Wright on keyboards and Nick Mason on drums, alongside touring bassist Guy Pratt and a few other live musicians) performed a career-spanning selection of works alongside a full performance of 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon. In 2019, the program was restored and re-edited from the original footage by Aubrey Powell/Hipgnosis for The Later Years box set.
It's that program that will be available on the new package, available on both Blu-ray and DVD and slated for release February 18. With it comes a host of high-definition bonus material, including music video edits, projections from the original concerts, documentary footage and more. As a special treat for collectors, the set (featuring slightly updated versions of Storm Thorgerson and Peter Curzon's original DVD artwork, and photographs overseen by Powell and Rupert Truman/StormStudios) features a new version of the infamous blinking LED eye that came with the original album package - this time powered by an easily replaceable pair of AAA batteries.
For fans of more vintage Pink Floyd - namely works with original bassist Roger Waters still in the fold - the band has quietly issued a dozen live shows to streaming and download services, presumably for European Union copyright purposes. (Works that have not seen release 50 years from their recording automatically enter the public domain on the continent.) Recorded at various venues between February 1970 and March 1972, the sets find the group from before the recording of their sixth album Atom Heart Mother all the way to early versions of The Dark Side of the Moon, which the group took on the road through 1972 before recording and releasing it the following year.
Full specs for Pulse and titles and links to the concerts are all below.
PULSE (Restored & Re-Edited) (Pink Floyd Music/Sony Music, 2022)
2 Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD
2 DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD
DVD/Blu-ray 1: The Concert Film (originally released as Columbia Music Video 24V-50121, 1995)
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V, VII)
- Learning to Fly
- High Hopes
- Take It Back
- Coming Back to Life
- Sorrow
- Keep Talking
- Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)
- One of These Days
The Dark Side of the Moon - Speak to Me
- Breathe (in the Air)
- On the Run
- Time
- The Great Gig in the Sky
- Money
- Us and Them
- Any Colour You Like
- Brain Damage
- Eclipse
Encores - Wish You Were Here
- Comfortably Numb
- Run Like Hell
All tracks recorded live at Earls Court, London, England - 10/20/1994
DVD/Blu-ray 2: Bonus Material
Music Videos (BD 48/24, DVD 48/16)
- Take It Back (1994)
- High Hopes (1994)
- Marooned (2014)
Pulse Tour Rehearsal (1994) (BD 96/24, DVD 48/16)
- A Great Day for Freedom (Version 1)
- A Great Day for Freedom (Version 2)
- Lost for Words
Concert Screen Films (1994) (BD 96/24, DVD 48/16)
- Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-IV, VII)
- Speak to Me
- Time
- The Great Gig in the Sky
- Money
- Us and Them (Black & White)
- Us and Them (Colour)
- Brain Damage + Eclipse (North American Dates)
- Brain Damage + Eclipse (European Dates)
- Brain Damage + Eclipse (Earls Court, London Dates)
Documentaries & Additional Material (BD 48/24, DVD 48/16)
- The Division Bell album cover photography (Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK) (1994)
- Pulse TV Ad (1995)
- The Division Bell airships (1994)
- Behind the Scenes Interviews with the Lead Technicians for the Division Bell Tour
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction (1996) (BD 48/24, DVD 48/16)
- Wish You Were Here (with Billy Corgan)
Audio-Only Live Recordings (BD & DVD 96/24)
- One of These Days (Live in Hanover 1994)
- Astronomy Domine (Live in Miami 1994)
They Came in Peace, Live, Leeds University 1970 Washington University 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
Live at Grosser Saal, Musikhalle, Hamburg, West Germany 25 Feb 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
Mauerspechte Berlin Sportspalast, Live 5 June 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
Live, Lyon 12 June 1971, Tokyo 16 March 1972 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
Live in Rome Palaeur 20 June 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
Amsterdamse Bos Free Concert 26 June 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
Live in Montreux 18 & 19 Sept 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Live 23 Sept 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
KB Hallen, Copenhagen, Vol. II, Live 23 Sept 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
Over Bradford Pigs on the Groove, Bradford University, Live 10 Oct 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
Embryo, San Diego, Live 17 Oct 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
The Screaming Abdabs Quebec City, Live 10 Nov 1971 (Pink Floyd Music) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify)
ed says
In the headline, you need to decide whether to treat Pink Floyd as a singular or plural subject. "Announce" indicates a plural subject, but "Does Not Announce" indicates singular. Just sayin'. 😉
Michael Rogers says
It's too bad the '71 shows that can be downloaded are only available as MP3 garbage. Would have purchased if they were in FLAC format.
Alistair Burns says
They are on Qobuz in FLAC CD quality allegedly but don't sound that great and looking at around GBP 150 to buy them all.
RWQuinn says
Seven digital us as well for purchase
Michael DeMattei says
I think they were only posted to preserve copyrights, so quality wasn't a concern.
Tamefox says
Having bought Pulse I then later bought the upgraded c600kb/s dvd for better sound quality - before I investigated bit rates and then realised why the dvd sounded so shit.
Given that CDs are 1.44Mb/s the dvd was an outright con.
So, unless the Blu-ray is uncompressed 24/192 it's just more of the same crap. None of the release articles I've seen mention sound quality or spec.
So, will someone please enlighten us? MQA would be a bonus too.