Functioning after the fact as a kind of visual counterpart to their legendary BBC Radio performances that were recorded around the same time period, this one-hour PBS broadcast originating from San Francisco TV station KQED is one of the most widely-circulated (and best quality) Pink Floyd VOIOs in existence.

Depending on where your particular copy originates (or on what format), the first few minutes of the opening track -- a ghostly, four-man performance of "Atom Heart Mother" -- may be missing, but even if this is the case, it's a small price to pay for the wonderful performance that survives. After starting off with blissful sweeps over endless miles of geometrically precise fields, dry scrub land, and tranquil ocean fronts, we fade to David Gilmour and Richard Wright singing the wordless vocals of the song with the rest of the band performing around them in a darkened empty studio.

This excellent performance of "Atom Heart Mother" sets the tone for the rest of the program -- the camera is tight-in at all times, offering numerous close-ups of each band member in a fashion every bit as intimate as the officially-released 'Live At Pompeii' movie. "Cymbaline" quickly follows (see comments in 'Video Anthology - Volume 1'), and it's kind of interesting to see the face of the old David Gilmour lurking just under that of the young Gilmour (watch closely when he sings "it's hiiiiiiigh time!" and tell me you don't for a second see a man 23 years older belting out a track from 'The Division Bell').

Bookended by footage of rustling foilage and burbling streams, the peaceful "Grantchester Meadows" is perhaps the most winningly "magical" part of the entire performance, as it presents Waters and Gilmour duetting on vocals and acoustic guitars (with a brief pullback to include Richard Wright futzing around with the ol' Binson Echorec during the middle section).

As noted briefly in "The Abyss" section, the lone crime of the KQED footage rests with some badly done (and painfully obvious) image treatment during the final few tracks, in particular "Green Is The Colour." After a promisingly blissful start in which the screen is filled with little fluffy clouds floating around the big blue sky, things go downhill mighty fast. I have no problem with cool production effects, but watching "Green …" made my eyes want to cross as everything on the screen has some lime-green double image of itself a slight bit to the right. Sorry, folks -- this is *not* psychedelic, it's cheesy.

The effects also half-torpedo the obligatory "Careful With That Axe, Eugene," which features a real close-up of The Octave being played. Neat-o! Marvel briefly at it's simple brilliance while you can, because fat blue blobs will soon appear to suck your soul away. Even without these color-shifting blobs obliterating the picture, this isn't exactly the greatest version of "Eugene" ever performed. If anything, I'd recommend viewing it for the way-creepy faces that Roger Waters makes throughout the song as he hisses, whistles and screams the "lyrics."

A gong-intensive run through "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun" closes out the set in appropriately meditative fashion, though we have to walk through a blizzard of percussion to get there -- Nick Mason closely resembles like Animal The Muppet for a few seconds in the middle of this workout, while Roger Waters is banging the gong so hard he nearly breaks his mallet. Then it's more dreary drippy blue blobs during Rick's eerie keyboard bit before the song tails off and we watch the sun slowly disappearing into the Pacific Ocean while the credits (including mentions of "DAVID GILMORE" and "GREEN IS THE COLOR") glide on by.

Maybe I'm being a little too nasty towards what were probably earth-shaking television special effects thirty-two years ago, but when watching the video that follows this one and realizing that it works just as well with no visual effects whatsoever, you'll see why I grouse about this one. Despite the silly blobs, 'An Hour With Pink Floyd' is still definitely worthy of investigation -- but at the same time, I have to say that after the first three songs (which are excellent), the rest of the material pales considerably alongside the versions saved for posterity below.

'Atom Heart Mother'	'Cymbaline'	'Grantchester Meadows'
'Green is the Colour'	'Careful With That Axe, Eugene'	'Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun'

Screen Captures are from Harvested's 'KQED'