YOUR REVIEWS of Live in Gdansk - Post them here!

[ulano]

ulano what did you think of the screens when you were at the concert?

I was so excited, but I think it was good idea after all, it was easier to see all details

[swanning_it]

I'm not so keen as many of you. In fact I'm a little disappointed.

The concert DVD was odd. I know it is a Gilmour concert, but there were 2 mainstay Floyd members (David and Richard) as well as someone who's virtually a Floyd member (Dick Parry) and of course a Floyd session muso (Guy Pratt), so I though perhaps a bit more Pink Floyd stuff would have been nice. From the 22 concert songs, only 15 make the DVD , and the missing tracks are all Floyd. Another annoying thing (for me) was no encore! The encore is an integral part of the concert and it's not on the DVD (hopefully it was at the concert). I also missed the backing singers! I enjoy watching them and they're usually more pleasing on the eye than David .

The 2nd DVD is OK, but session stuff I might have a glance at once and then it's shelved. I agree with some of the other comments, that it would have been nice to either have the two DVDs with the WHOLE concert (preferable) or have one DVD and drop the price (and trinkets just aren't my thing either, so they are neither here nor there to me). Sorry David, but I'm disappointed and I'll think twice before spending money on another DG DVD.

On the bright side though, given Richards sad passing recently, it was really good to see him sing so much more than I've ever "clearly" heard before! He was by nature a quiet guy (or at least that's the impression I've got) and he's usually hardly heard, so I thought that was nice and for me, that in itself made "Live at Gdansk" worth the cash!

Another thing I noticed, was how young the audience was! As I got this set for my 46th birthday, I was a little surprised at how many late teens, early twenties kids were there. I thought I was one of the "younger" Floyd fans. Just shows that PF music has wide appeal and has spanned the generations eh!

Ian

[thehumanzoo]

In general, I really enjoyed Live in Gdansk, but it was just all left cold for me by the bizarre marketting ploy around the release. In the end, I went for the basic 2CD version because I did not want to have to shell out a load more cash for the concert version, particularly when I already have Remember that Night on DVD, which is an almost identical track listing and has a similar amount of other material. It is a bit of a shame that the bonus material on the second DVD and CD5 is now harder to get hold of, but, even as a pretty avid collector of all the officially released stuff, I have to think if I really want to own so many different versions of On an Island tracks.

In terms of the song performances, I have to say that they are pretty flawless and almost makes some of the later Floyd live albums almost redundant releases. I suppose that the basic idea was to repeat the traditional Floyd way in concerts of playing the new material first and going back to some old favourites during the second half of the performance. In this case, I would point this out as the biggest failing of the CD. As much as some may rave about On an Island, I'm sure that most would accept that it is not perhaps the strongest release ever, and would have been better suited to have a few older, better known tracks intersperced between these new tracks. I do like the prescence of the orchestra though, even if (like most orchestral parts in pop music) for much of the time they are only playing filler: it does add depth to the music, makes On an Island more interesting and "High Hopes", "Comfortably Numb" and "A Great Day for Freedom" are really stunning sound spectacles. In fact, an overall amazing job has been done on the production of this album. I am actually amazed that the sound quality of every new Floyd release (or rerelease in some cases) does get better year by year. (Fingers crossed for some official 70's live material in 5.1!)

Going back to the music, it is great to hear the music so tight, yet incredibly relaxed. As seems the general concensus, "Echoes" is absolutely amazing, and everyone must hear this. In fact, throughout, the sadness of Rick Wright's death is incredibly haunting, as this is one of the best keyboard outings that I have an audio copy of anywhere in the Floyd catalogue. For that, "A Great Day for Freedom" and "High Hopes" alone, this is an amazing release.

Fortunately, I have seen much of the DVD footage on various television programmes. I suppose it was good, but really not essential. Can anyone honestly say that they really wanted On an Island in a 5.1 surround mix?

I have also heard the fifth CD from a friend. Again, it is fairly good, but I am glad that I did not shell out the extra cash on it - not necessary having got the 2CD version and Remember that Night. The one-off performance of "On the Turning Away" was a nice touch, but there are much better versions of it around.

I do, however, have a slight conspiricy that "The Great Gig in the Sky" is now the only track performed on that tour that has not been released in any format. Will this mean that there will be yet another whoring of this tour just to release that extra track?

Overall, a superb album, shame the marketting and management created hype slightly ruins what is magnificent musicianship and production of the highest quality.

[Hogtown]

Good review thehumanzoo. I am no fan of On an Island. But I am still happy I went for the five discs...in fact, the image quality is better than Remember that Night.

But, your point about reselling the same old stuff to us over and over again is right. I may buy into your conspiracy and another release with The Great Gig in the Sky on it (not really, but I am a bit jaded about now having bought On an Island a third time, and I really don't like it - but when I eventually get a 5.1 system, I will have something to play on it).