Knebworth '90
Recorded at Knebworth Park
Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England
June 30, 1990

Floyd freaks were given the rarest of rare treats during the summer of 1990 as not one, but *two* mega-concerts aired on the radio and/or television, only one of which (the separately-reviewed Roger Waters celebrity stroke fest 'The Wall Live In Berlin') was officially made available in it's entirety. Pink Floyd's concert at Knebworth -- the last performance of the Gilmour-led incarnation for nearly four years -- was only made available in tiny pieces on a multi-tape overseas video compilation and on a domestic compact disc release (the now-out-of-print double live CD simply titled 'Knebworth'). For those that wish to relive the experience pretty much as it happened, this VOIO (sourced from MTV's coverage of the event) is pretty much your only recourse.

Performing before a soaked audience of 125,000 as the closing act of a daylong charity concert featuring the cream of the rock elite (and Tears For Fears), Pink Floyd served up an hour-long version of their played-to-death-and-back 1987-89 set list during a miserable-looking windy downpour that refused to let up. This may sound rather grim, granted, but there is still enough energy in the band to crank out a couple of memorable highlights here, and even enjoy themselves on a couple of occasions. Sure, this wasn't the greatest Pink Floyd gig ever, but it certainly is one of the most cinematic.

As noted previously, all of the Knebworth VOIO footage comes from MTV who (amazingly) broadcast most of this event shortly after it was staged. While the network did an admirable job capturing the Pink Floyd portion of the event, there were some strange editing choices in their coverage that defy explanation. While it wasn't much of a surprise that MTV would drop a couple of songs to make room for commercial breaks, the songs they *did* leave in were shown in rearranged form. Thus, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" leads us straight on into "Sorrow" before we double back to "Wish You Were Here" and then leap forward to the ending one-two-punch of (all together now!) "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell." If this isn't remarkable enough, the fact that MTV dropped "Money" from the televised set in favor of all ten glorious minutes of "Sorrow" is nothing short of astounding. Bless their scumfucking corporate hearts.

Truthfully, I don't care what the reason was for it's inclusion, but "Sorrow" really *smokes* here, and the band knows it, too. The song is complemented perfectly by the wind-driven, billowing gusts of hellish orange smoke and driving rain and ranks for me as the definitive televised performance of the song to date (and reason on it's own to go out and grab this sucker). Unfortunately, the only song that even comes within hailing distance of this peak is a comparatively by-numbers run-through of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (with guest saxophonist Candy Dulfer), which is heightened by lots of close-ups and wide stage shots that would have looked pretty nice if they had been included on the godforsaken 'Delicate Sound Of Thunder' video. As for the rest of the set list - well, it's certainly watchable and definitely not BAD by any sense of the word, but definitely on a lower level of execution than what's been discussed in this thread over the previous four days.

'Shine On You Crazy Diamond'	'Sorrow'
'Wish You Were Here'	'Run Like Hell'