Pink Floyd – Lanchester Arts Festival 1972

 

Pink Floyd – Lanchester Arts Festival 1972

by Pete Clemons

The listening public were on the verge of seeing and hearing the release of one of the greatest albums of all times. One, on a scale that continues to touch people today. Here is an interview with the band prior to them performing in Coventry at the Lanchester Arts Festival of 1972.........

The Pink Floyd's current repertoire, which they'll be performing at Lanchester, includes just one old number in the whole two hours which, as Roger Waters says, is quite a breakthrough for them.

They have plenty of oldies to choose from - but they'll probably be ending their set with either 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' or 'Careful With That Axe Eugene' - the two pieces from their old repertoire that they most enjoy playing still.

As he said when he was spoken to during December, when the group were rehearsing and getting material together for the tour: 'The old stuff is being phased out, but there are still a couple of them that are still fun to play - the two that spring to mind are 'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun' and 'Careful With That Axe Eugene'. But the first half hopefully won't be a great kind of epic.....you know 'Atom Heart Mother' and 'Echoes' are both kind of odyssies. Epic sound poems I think we are coming down to earth a bit. I hope we are - getting a little less involved with flights of fancy.

Last week after the start of their tour Roger was asked how things had gone. 'At the first gig we had a terrible technical disaster during the first half of the set, which is 50 minutes long and is one whole new piece, and we couldn't finish it. The tape we were using just wouldn't play on to the end; but I think that's been sorted out now'.

The new piece seems to have worked out as he had hoped, in coming down to earth a bit. Its about the pressures that come to bear on people working inside the rock and roll business - dealing with things like travelling, and the wearing effects that has on you, and in more general terms, with the passing and the wasting of it, money and authority - the church and violence.

'It is' he says, 'more theatrical than anything we've ever done before, more into the whole theatre/circus thing. And in concept it's more literal, not as abstract as the things we've done before. It's more mental - we've gone mental'.

There're using a lot of specially made tapes with this first half of the set, and of course the quadrophenia sound system, as long as the hall they play is suitable for it. It's hardly surprising that technical disasters happen, but even when they do, the people seem to relate to what the music is saying. Roger had heard a report from one guy who'd seen the concert in Brighton, and apparently he hadn't really realised they hadn't been able to finish the piece, and he'd been moved and frightened by it.

The second half of the set includes 'Echoes' and I think 'One of These Days' plus the oldie.

And finally, another point of interest will be to see how they've coped with controlling their volume. When Roger spoke in a December interview he said 'The whole thing is getting completely insane , and that's another thing we've done. I'm happy to say, we've got quieter'. It'll be interesting to see if the Floyd can be effective without being ear-shattering, because if they can do it, other bands might just follow their lead.