This is going to be a long one, so prepare for a bit of a deep dive…
For many Pink Floyd fans, there has never been an official release that’s been more anticipated than Live at Pompeii. Although it’s been pressed countless times as a bootleg, it never had an official audio release until it’s inclusion on the 2016 box set The Early Years, and even that wasn’t supposed to happen. Apparently, somehow, they ended up pressing Pompeii (which they must have been remixing for something) on CD in place of a new mix of Obscured By Clouds on the Obfusc/ation set. Somehow, no one noticed the error and the set was sent into mass production. To remedy this situation, the record company sent buyers the missing copies of Obscured By Clouds, and if you happened to get a set with Pompeii, you were lucky. Then in 2017, when Obfusc/ation was released individually, Live At Pompeii was included. This version has, in my opinion, spectacular audio quality, and also includes the bonus of having an alternate take of “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”.
The Early Years box set is a fantastic Pink Floyd time capsule if you don’t mind all the problems that come with it. Aside from the mistaken inclusion of Pompeii and the omission of Obscured By Clouds, we also had the initial disappointment of the set not including a rumored 5.1 mix of Meddle. In a bizarre turn of events, it was discovered that some early copies of the set did indeed have Meddle 5.1, but that it was embedded in the coding of a DVD, and you had to really know what you were doing to extract it. To make matters worse, many of the Blu-ray discs were manufactured poorly. They began to show signs of disc rot almost immediately, which rendered them unplayable. Some replacements were issued (I was lucky to get a set with replacements myself), but not everyone got the message, and some missed out.
To this day, people still buy sealed and defective copies of The Early Years without knowing the surprise that may very well await them inside. I think most sellers are aware of the situation by now, but for 600-700 USD, they are willing to take the risk and hope the buyer doesn’t notice until the return period is up. If this all seems like a mess to you, it certainly was and still is. However, many people were willing to take the risk. Scoring the Live At Pompeii discs, especially at a time when they were only available by error in the set, was worth rolling the dice on. If you were content to have just any old version of Pompeii on CD or vinyl, however, there have been other (less official) options from pretty much immediately after the film was released in 1974.
Over the years, tons of bootleg versions of Live At Pompeii have been pressed on vinyl. When you get right down to it, the record companies have no one to blame but themselves. They knew for years how badly people wanted it, but they just didn’t put it out. Enter the bootleggers to fill the void. I have a lot of different versions that I’ve collected over the years, but most of them are so bad they don’t even bear mentioning. At least one in particular still has relevance, and I’ll dive into that here in a bit. The reality is though, that a lot of collectors don’t buy unofficial records. That’s why so many people are excited that we finally have an official, fully sanctioned release by Columbia Records. To think, it only took 53 years and the sale of the Pink Floyd catalogue to finally accomplish this feat, thought impossible for over half a century.
After all this time, what did we get? Well, we ended up with copies on vinyl, CD, Blu-ray and Multi-Channel Blu-ray. For the purposes of this article though, we’ll be focusing on the vinyl versions, or course. With something as monumental as this release, I had to get every version that they put out. So, anyone who reads this site and says I don’t support the bands or record companies can shove it. Essentially, there are two and a half different vinyl versions. The first two are the US and EU releases. The US version is pressed by Memphis Record Pressing with mastering done by GZ Media (Czech Republic), and the EU version is pressed and mastered by Record Industry (Netherlands). What’s the “half” version, then? The Japanese version is the EU version with a different hype sticker, paperwork and added obi. It’s the same record that’s been issued in the EU, just with different wrapping. Not really its own thing, but you know… collector’s gonna collect.
As is usual with this kind of thing, there is a controversy about the sound quality between the two pressings. I’ll let you guess which one has been unanimously declared the better version. Of course, if you have been collecting records for more than a few weeks, you probably know that almost all pressings that are labeled GZ or come out of the Memphis plant are pure garbage. Everything I have gotten from them, including the newest Gilmour solo album which I have extensively reviewed in the past, was surface noise city. I have yet to receive my EU market specific pressing, but I did receive my Japanese market specific version, so a comparison was in order.
US Version/New Mix Thoughts
What can I tell you about the US version? After reading some other reviews and keeping up with discussions in Floyd groups, it seems as though I got reasonably lucky with my copy. Some people reported scratches and scuffing, but mine looks pretty good physically, aside from a few faint non-feelable stray marks here and there. The discs are nice and heavy, and the labels look great. I love the artwork they used, which has been featured on many bootlegs before and probably since this one has come out. I will say both LPs looked a bit dirty (which isn’t unusual with modern pressings), so I cleaned them on the VPI vacuum as well as in the ultrasonic. They looked much better after all that, so it was finally time to give them a spin.
This new mix by Steven Wilson is certainly different than any “Pompeii” we’ve heard before, including The Early Years version. It appears to me as though casual fans and collectors seem to really like it, and people who have been collecting a bunch of different versions over the last 50 years seem to think it’s terrible. If you have only ever heard this recording on an old VHS tape, laser disc, or the DVD from 2003, prepared to have your mind completely blown. It’s going to be a night and day difference, and this is probably going to be the situation for many fans. If you’ve heard a million different fan made versions and such, you might like it or you might not. Personally, I think it’s great, and it’s different enough to catch my interest. Is it my favorite though? Well…
Just to get this out of the way, the US version of this record is not a good quality (or good sounding) pressing. Even after extensive cleaning with expensive devices that most listeners won’t have access to, these records still have surface noise. It’s not a wild amount, and I wouldn’t say it’s unbearable, but it’s not good either. For an official Pink Floyd product that people have been waiting decades for, it’s also just unacceptable. Why do they keep hiring bad plants to press discs? Why do their Blu-rays get disc rot after 3 months? Why were some of the DVDs in the Immersion Box Sets defective? Why does no other band have these problems with their releases? It’s beyond frustrating, and it shouldn’t be a shock to the record label when fans and customers turn to unofficial sources for better made, and often better sounding products.
Ignoring the problems with the actual pressing for a moment, let’s talk about the mix itself. The sound stage is very well defined. The drums and bass can certainly be heard more clearly in this mix, and the toms and cymbals in particular really come to life. At times this can border on being a little overbearing, but overall, I like this change. The guitar and keyboards don’t sound too much different to me than in previous versions, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It still doesn’t sound much like a “live” recording as we’re used to hearing and thinking about it, but that’s because there was no audience there, and it was recorded outside. This new mix still retains this “magical” feeling that even the low-fi originals had and breathes a new life into it all. If you got the US version and can’t get a hold of another vinyl option, pick up the CD or Blu-ray so that you can hear the music without the veil of surface noise. This is a sad thing, because vinyl doesn’t have to be noisy and low quality. With the CD and headphones though, at least we can be pretty much guaranteed to hear the music like the engineer intended.
European and Japanese Versions
What about the EU/JP version? It’s excellent, and I have absolutely no complaints. While the US version (and presumably the EU version) comes sealed in shrink wrap, the Japanese one does not. To me, it looks like someone opens these up, inserts the Japanese language insert and an otherwise identical “back panel” insert with Japanese IDs and bar codes, adds the obi, and then puts everything in an outer sleeve with a hype sticker on it. You would think that with all this additional handling, these records would be more likely to be scratched up, but that wasn’t the case for me. Just like my Luck and Strange Japanese market version, this one was spotless and clean. I still cleaned it using my usual methods before playing it, but it looked nice out of the package, unlike the version we got here in the US. As expected, this version was dead quiet and a real pleasure to listen to. I expect that the EU issued release will be the same.
All versions of Pink Floyd At Pompeii MCMLXXII come with very nice printed inner sleeves featuring some shots from the film, as well as a full sized “movie” type poster. Some people have been complaining that the color looks a bit washed out, but I think it looks great. Even with the fold creases, I think it’s suitable for framing, and since I have multiple copies opened up, I might actually frame one of them if I can find some room on the wall. If you got the Japanese version, it will come with a back insert, Japanese language booklet, and an obi and unique hype sticker in addition to the standard bits that are also included with the US and EU versions.
An Unofficial Option
As I mentioned before, I have a ton of unofficial pressings of Live At Pompeii, and almost none of them are worth discussing. Most are overpriced and far worse sounding than this official version, even taking the surface noise into account. The one exception to that is the Verne Records release out of France. It’s a pretty well-known thing that this particular pressing sounds excellent and is a high-quality product overall. The source for the Verne pressing is clearly The Early Years CD mix, with the exception of “Atom Heart Mother”, “Mademoiselle Knobs” and the “Pompeii” introduction bit. Those also sound excellent and fit right in with the rest of the mix, making this version an all-around excellent listening experience.
A major difference you’ll notice between the new official version and the Verne release is how “Echoes” is presented. On the official release, it’s split up into two pieces, which is how it was in the film. This is generally how the piece has been presented on bootlegs as well over the years. The Verne issue, however, puts the track back together, and we get to hear it in one absolutely seamless go. Everyone will have a different taste here, but I prefer to hear “Echoes” as one track. Aside from that, I just prefer The Early Years mix in general. Whoever took the CD and pressed it on vinyl for Verne didn’t just slap in on there. They knew what they were doing and prepared the music correctly before pressing it.
There are countless other versions out there but consider this a fair warning. Maybe they have fancy colored wax, or maybe they’ve got a fancy popup gatefold. They might be “limited edition” and be numbered, or they may be cut on a lathe in someone’s garage. I know they look cool and exotic, but most of the time, they aren’t worth your money. A ton of unofficial Pink Floyd releases are worth the time, money and effort involved in getting them, but for whatever reason, Pompeii has always seemed to be a huge disappointment. As someone who has really done some searching, I think these two, the new version and the Verne release, are the best options.
Conclusion
I think it’s pretty obvious here, but my recommendation to any collector would be to avoid the US market version and go straight for either the EU or Japanese version. The US version gets a 6/10 for packing and production (due to scratched and dirty records), and a 4/10 on the pressing. The EU/JP version gets 10/10 on packaging and 9.5/10 on pressing. Pretty close to flawless in my humble opinion. Right now, record stores in Japan are still selling copies at retail price, so now is the time to pick on up if you want one. Prices plus shipping costs from the EU and Japan to the US are about the same, so really you can take your pick for roughly the same price. Collectors will probably want one of each version, but really, the US copy just isn’t a great listen after you have heard other option. I think that eventually, the Japanese version will skyrocket in price, much like that happened with the most recent UV re-issue of The Dark Side of the Moon.
If The Early Years mix sounds better to your ears, now would be the time to seek out a copy of the Verne pressing as well. I recently saw a collector in a Floyd group ask what would happen to all the bootleg copies of Pompeii, as if they would spontaneously combust or suddenly become worthless. On the contrary. I don’t believe that prices of past issues of this record will go down at all. Collectors still like variety, and lots of people believe that some of the unofficial copies sound better than official release. Some people will just keep buying different versions to collect, no matter how bad they might sound. What I do think will happen though, is that labels are going to stop pressing new copies of Pompeii as often, since there is a readily available and modestly priced official version finally on the market.
Lots of people believe that the Verne pressing is superior, so the price will probably continue to climb on that one. I’ve got an open playing copy plus a sealed one put away myself, just in case. There is also a green version of the same record, but good luck finding a copy of that one. Even the standard black pressings are now scarce, so if you are like me and prefer a full version of “Echoes”, jump on it if you see a copy floating around. In any case, enjoy the new release, and support the band and record company by buying the official version now that it’s available. I know they don’t need the money, but the more records they sell, the more likely it is that they’ll start re-releasing old stuff. Will they learn a lesson about some versions of their product being inferior and defective? Unlikely. Anyway, good luck in the hunt!