Dusty.. did you watch Pink Floyd today?

[Mr MidFi]

I didn't get to see the PF set, and like Dusty I'll probably wait for the DVD. But I have to say something about the coverage on VH1 and MTV earlier in the day.

I have been watching television for 40 years now, and I have seen quite a bit of it. And this was, far and away, the worst coverage of any live event I have ever witnessed. It was astoundingly bad. A complete failure on every level. Everyone associated with this production should be dismissed and/or put to death at once.

[ForeverAutumn]

I didn't get to see the PF set, and like Dusty I'll probably wait for the DVD. But I have to say something about the coverage on VH1 and MTV earlier in the day.

I have been watching television for 40 years now, and I have seen quite a bit of it. And this was, far and away, the worst coverage of any live event I have ever witnessed. It was astoundingly bad. A complete failure on every level. Everyone associated with this production should be dismissed and/or put to death at once.

That's too bad about the poor coverage. I watched a lot of the event on CTV which is a Canadian network. I was really impressed with their coverage and thought that it was some of the best coverage I've seen of a live event of this size. They started their coverage at 7:00 in morning, even though the Canadian event didn't begin until 11:00. Once it started, they showed most of the Canadian show just North of Toronto and fed into some of the other countries during breaks between the performances. I watched the PF show live on the internet. But CTV also showed two of the tunes. In fact, they were showing PF's first song on TV while I was watching them perform their last song live on the net.

Then they did a five hour recap of all the days highlights from all the shows, starting at 8:00pm. I wasn't able to watch all of this (I taped it for viewing later), but what I saw was really well done.

And as for the PF show...I had the computer on the London show and spent my afternoon checking every 15 minutes to see who was up next so that I wouldn't miss them. As exciting as it was to see Waters on stage with the rest of the boys, I wasn't so impressed with his performance. Aside from the historical significance, I really didn't feel that he added that much to the overall performance of the band. Maybe my expectations were too high. I was so excited about this performance from the day that I heard about it that maybe I was just expecting too much. Watching it on a 1/4 of my 13" moniter probably didn't do anything to add to the experience either.

[Mr MidFi]

Mark Caro, the media critic for the Chicago Tribune, speculated that a troop of chimpanzees on ritalin had seized control of the production booth. It was that bad.

[shokhead]

They sounded old.

[Hawkeye]

They sounded old.

Well they ARE old. But they still sounded good to me. Plus it was nice, for a change, to see Gilmour and Waters at least acting civil towards each other.

[-Jar-]

I dunno, I watched it again. I think the main thing is this: I've listened to a good portion of music that has been recorded, both live and in the studio, under the name "Pink Floyd" since Roger left. To me, there's always been something missing. I really don't think of it as the same band that recorded THE WALL and ANIMALS, etc..

This past weekend, I felt like I was hearing Pink Floyd. Maybe Roger didn't really add anything to it, I don't know. Maybe it's psychological. But it was just very moving see this those 4, yes old, guys up on stage together.

Hard to explain.

-jar

[C-Z]

Thanks for the download, kc.

It was great to see them together again

I hope Waters was really sick, cause his voice was gone. Surprised me after In The Flesh.

Not even one closeup of Wright - what's up with that? Except for him being in a shot of someone else in the background seemingly accidently, zero.

I thought Gilmour sounded good.

CZ

[-Jar-]

Not even one closeup of Wright - what's up with that?

I noticed that too, it's like the guys running the camera didn't even know he was a member of the band.

[Davey]

Mark Caro, the media critic for the Chicago Tribune, speculated that a troop of chimpanzees on ritalin had seized control of the production booth. It was that bad.

Some of the girl chimpanzees they get to host are pretty cute, though

No way do I wanna sound like I'm defending the terrible job MTV/VH1/ABC did of presenting this, but they were apparently prevented from showing more than just clips of the performances by agreement with AOL. Seems like if they had any integrity, they would've just declined. Or at least tried to do a more professional job. But I guess we aren''t really their target audience anymore, are we

Just for the record, I thought it was fun to see the full Floyd again, but couldn't they have picked some songs that weren't so overplayed? Is that really what most fans wanna hear? People wonder why radio has gotten so bad these days, with the same few songs over and over and over, but then major acts get up and do the same thing. Duh.

[shokhead]

FM has gone the way AM was in the 60's.

[Mr MidFi]

Just for the record, I thought it was fun to see the full Floyd again, but couldn't they have picked some songs that weren't so overplayed? Is that really what most fans wanna hear? People wonder why radio has gotten so bad these days, with the same few songs over and over and over, but then major acts get up and do the same thing. Duh.

Agreed. One of These Days would have been an excellent choice. Run Like Hell would have gotten the crowd going, and it would have been interesting with Waters and Gilmour trading vocals back and forth. Pigs might have gone more political than organizers wanted (especially in the third verse), but I would have loved it. And any PF appearance should close with Brain Damage/Eclipse, just on general principles.

Actually I wouldn't have minded one song from the Waterless Floyd catalog, plus something from Amused to Death...just to foil the critics who complain of "rehashing the oldies." On the Turning Away would have been appropriate for the occasion, as would most of A2D.