DVD Full of Secrets - Volume 1, A
A Pigs on the Wing Production
POTWDVD011

If the various Pink Floyd video anthologies could be thought of as 'Greatest Hits' albums, the two DVD Full of Secrets discs from POTW could be considered the obligatory 'Odds and Sods' album along the lines of 'Relics' or Nirvana's 'Incesticide' or....the Who's 'Odds and Sods'. They make an interesting, if inessential to all but the die-hard completist, companion piece.

The electronic press kit for the Back Catalogue consists of what seems like the same commercial run over and over again for 9 minutes with a few minor variations. People of various nationalites stroll around an art gallery and exclaim over large framed versions of the album covers in various languages. The Japanese discuss 'Wish You Were Here', an Indian gentleman is (naturally) interested in 'Atom Heart Mother', an American couple argue briefly about 'Relics', etc etc. By the third time it repeats, you will scramble madly for the FFWD button.

Fellow reviewer ash` already handled the 'High Hopes' backdrop with considerable style and aplomb while reviewing 'Video Anthology - Volume 2'. One warning however, the artist and title information remains onscreen the entire time.

Nick Mason's chummy 1998 appearance on the Letterman show comes up next, to promote his book for car fetishists, 'At the Limit'. Very little of interest here unless you're into speedy cars. Letterman quizzes dear old Nick about what the band is doing and whether they're together or broken up (Nick is seemingly as clueless on this matter as Letterman is), makes a requisite drug joke or two, and chats about cars that no one but people like Nick Mason or David Letterman can afford in the first place. Sadly, Nick either never thinks to crack a joke about Letterman's many speeding tickets, or he's too busy thinking dirty thoughts about overhead camshafts to bother.

The promotional video for 'PULSE' is the sort of affair one sees running on the TV system in stores like Sam Goody or On Cue...consisting entirely of brief clips of the second half of said video, segued by the wavy EKG lines and blinky eye of the 'Speak to Me' backdrop. Nothing to see here.

The electronic press kit for the 'Dark Side of the Moon' 30th anniversary SACD rerelease/rereremaster would be a treasure if 'Classic Albums : Dark Side of the Moon' hadn't already come out by now...while the interviews and footage are different from those on that DVD, the substance of them is largely the same. If not for the DVD release of the aforementioned documentary, the unique interview snippets, backdrop film clips, and small chunks of audio and video from 1972 and 1973 would make this essential viewing. As it stands now, it's largely for completists and other supernerds.

What is 'The Essential Pink Floyd Collection' you ask ? The bane of late-night basic cable viewers everywhere : an infomercial. Featuring clips of 'Live at Pompeii', 'The Wall', 'London '66-67' and, astoundingly, the little-seen promo clip for 'Sysyphus' synched to mid-era Pink Floyd music, this 'Echoes'-era curiosity offers viewers the chance to buy 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'Wish You Were Here', 'Animals', 'The Wall', 'Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd ', and, curiously enough, 'Atom Heart Mother' at the bargain price of 3 payments of $39.95. Very little of interest to be seen here, short of clips from 'Arnold Layne'-era promo films, ever-so-brief clips from 'The Wall' at Earl's Court, and for some sick reason, footage of 'Us and Them' synched to 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Learning to Fly' over photos of the band from 1972. Included in this limited-time offer are posters of 'Wish You Were Here', 'Echoes', and 'Momentary Lapse of Reason' (not included with this set). Did we mention the free keychain ? It is, in the end, worth viewing just for the howlingly-odd spectacle of Mr. Infomercial Voice urging us to buy 'ATOM HEART MUTHERRR!' to the strains of 'Fat Old Sun'. It's guaranteed to be the only place you'll ever see the words 'Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast' or hear 'Atom Heart Mother Suite' appear on television, at any rate. Maybe one day the 1994 QVC tape will surface.

As many of you anoraks may already know, Volkswagon sponsored the European portion of PF's 1994 World Tour. This synergy of British progressive rock and Nazi engineering yielded the promotional video 'Volkswagon presents Pink Floyd'. Hans Dusseldorf, our friendly neighborhood narrator, speaks in German over the by-now-obligatory clips from 'Live at Pompeii' and 'The Delicate Sound of Thunder', and the also-obligatory album covers (which, amusingly enough, mixes 'Atom Heart Mother' and 'Ummagumma' with such bootleg releases 'Dogs and Sheeps' and 'Thunder and Lightning'. Das research ist gut, jah?) For those of us who know every blessed note of every song, this can be a bit disorienting as the tape speed is completely off on some of these clips. 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)' is played far faster than it should be, and 'Time' sounds as though it is being sung by the Maestro of Love, Barry White. Tour information zooms along the bottom of the screen, and the 'Presented by Volkswagon' logo flashes briefly at the end. So for all of you in Europe who enjoyed the Volkswagon-sponsored leg of this tour, you can't say National Socialism never did anything for you.

The promo video for Luther Wright and the Wrongs cover of 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)' is predictable enough, though amusing the first time. Luther zips on down the highway on his motorcycle, Generic Video Babe in tow, surrounded by other leather-clad bikers. This occasionally intercuts with a group of bored students sitting at their desks in the corner of some (possibly foreign) field somewhere, as their dorky instructor enthusiastically shows them a banjo. It all climaxes with a gigantic hoedown in said field, Luther nodding his approval as a young woman saws a fiddle (and plays it hot). Luther then rides off into the sunset and life goes on, dull as before. I can understand why they'd do a video for this particular song, but it's easily the least interesting of the whole 'Rebuild the Wall' project. Ho hum.

The EPK for 'David Gilmour in Concert' consists of interview footage of ol' David 'Huggy Bear' Gilmour himself explaining how the aforementioned acoustic performance came about, and how he picked the various musicians (such as cellist Caroline Dale, the woo-woo choir, and Chucho 'Bouncing Betty' Merchan) and why he chose to play the various bits he did. Mixed liberally with clips from the concert, naturally. No major revelations here, but fans of the video may enjoy it. Three observations before I stop, though :

* I am curious to know if Gilmour ever plays that banjo hanging on the wall behind him.

* At some point between 'VH1 Legends : Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett' and this interview, surgeons were able to successfully reattach Dave's eyebrows

* One can't help but notice Michael Kamen, two years from the heart attack that would claim his life, did not look in the best of health here. Rest in Peace, dude.

So in the end is this worth the effort to track down ? If you're shopping for the Pink Floyd fan who has everything but wants more, sure. The track selection of this and its' sister disc (creatively titled 'A DVD Full of Secrets - Volume 2') may be a bit esoteric for the casual fan or newbies to the VoIO scene, but for the hardcore geeks this weird amalgam of interview and promotional material (as well as stuff that doesn't categorize easily) makes an acceptable companion disc to the Pink Floyd Video Anthology. Think of it as sort of a bootleg DVD version of 'Relics' or, more appropriately, Frank Zappa's 'Mystery Disc'

'Back Catalogue' A Peek into Vernon Fitch's Living Room	'Late Show with David Letterman' Stupid Drummer Tricks
'The Essential Pink Floyd Collection' From the Ronco Record Club	'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)' I know how she feels.