8mm Footage : Vienna, Austria
Filmed at Stadthalle
Vienna, Austria
February 1, 1977

Reviewed by Bleech_


Tracks

All Fragments (With Times)

Sheep 1:07
Dogs 0:28
Pigs (Three Different Ones) 3:28
Shine On You Crazy Diamond 2:14
Have a Cigar 2:27
Money 2:43
Us and Them 0:19

Cheese Factor Nil - Way too Dark to See Any Cheese
Squirm Factor 9
The Peak Those Few Clear Shots
The Abyss Those Many Dark Shots
Fashion Crimes Gilmour with a Pig on his shirt ? Now that's prophetic
Overall Picture / Sound Quality D+ / B-


First, a word from RonToon over at Harvested, the man responsible for this version seeing the light of day via VCD :

"Shot with a Super-8 sound camera (the audio is not overdubbed), on the ground pretty close to the stage. Most of the footage is dark, blurry, shaky, and the songs are all incomplete and totally cut up...but it's wonderful to watch for the brilliant bits that shine through."

Well, that pretty much says it all. This footage is dark, blurry, and almost seizure-inducing sometimes with the camera movement. You never see any stage effects (Mr. Screen, pyro, light show, etc), only the occasional relatively clear shot of Gilmour, Waters, Mason, or Snowy White (easily spotted by his Gibson and white shirt).

Now I realize this may all sound bad...but this is very likely to be as good as any footage from 1977 ever gets. Damning with faint praise, I know. One can pretty much trace the evolution of camcorder technology through these tapes...at the one end you have the super-crisp digital recordings of the recent Gilmour and Waters shows...in the middle you have the sometimes-indistinct 'Momentary Lapse of Reason' and 'Radio KAOS' shows...and at the end labeled 'crap' you have this. Although it is maddening to watch (imagine being ravenously hungry for a nice huge steak dinner, and being served some discarded fat and a couple of green beans instead), I would recommend it to any big '77 fan simply by virtue of being as good as it's ever likely to get.


'Sheep'

'Pigs (Three Different Ones)'

'Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)'

'Have a Cigar'


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