Pink Floyd in Pompeii - another surprise on our Italy voyage

The UK rock band Pink Floyd has been an important part of my life - notably because I was ASsistant to the Producer of The Wall, Berlin 1990. Having played a role in the performance of The Wall at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin just months after the fall of the actual Berlin Wall, it was fascinating that I had missed all discussion of the Pink Floyd live gig in Pompeii in 1972.

When we walked through the entrance of Pompeii's amphitheatre, I could hear Pink Floyd's music and snippets of interviews coming from the underground passageways. Just a few days earlier, Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets had performed in the amphitheatre and there was an exhibition of images from both that and the 1972 gig.

It was fascinating to see Roger Waters (who I had known quite well through the early 1990s) as a younger man both singing and talking in film footage.

Although Pink Floyd had never been one of my favourite bands, I love much of their music and particularly some of their iconic tunes from The Wall. It was a surprising blast from the past in the historic centre of Pompeii.

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Hilary Seabrook - writer, podcaster, musician

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