DVD Full of Secrets - Volume 2, A
A Pigs on the Wing Production
POTWDVD016

As with the previous volume, 'A DVD Full of Secrets - Volume 1', this disc is a mishmash of promotional materials and the sorts of things one finds running on record store closed-circuit TV systems, and ideally functions like the promo/documentary-filled bonus discs one gets with Hollywood films on DVDs. Let's get on with it, shall we ?

The electronic press kit for 'Echoes' is an 18-minute white-knuckle thrill ride of old promo clips, zooming/panning album covers and band pictures set to tunes from the album, and old interview snippets from our intrepid heroes on well-trodden topics. The only real thing of value here for the collector are the derisive snickers at the occasional mismatched footage (such as 'Us and Them' featuring...the flying pig ?), some nice (but by-now-familiar) shots of Mr. Pig floating around Battersea Power Station, and maddening clips from The Wall at Earl's Court. I should note that they do not look overly dark at ALL, even when the slightly-flickery films are running, thankyouverymuchRogerFuckingWaters.

The American TV ad for 'Echoes' shows us a number we can call to order the album over the billionth recycling of clips from 'Live at Pompeii', 'PULSE', and 'London 66-67', set to the wrong music. Sheer sonic alchemy indeed. The other television spots just play off of the cover concept as best they can.

The record company evidently felt that Rick Wright's all-but-invisible 1996 solo effort 'Broken China' deserved a ten-minute electronic press kit. Little of the usual clip recycling is to be found here, just interviews with Wright (sitting in his garden under the watchful eye of a statue of Botticelli's Venus) about the album's concept, Anthony Moore on the lyrics (no garden for him, just a streetcorner), and Storm Thorgerson on the artwork. Rick reveals that he was originally going to make the album instrumental, and we get stock footage of people walking down the street. Nothing much to see here really, but given the almost-total lack of media exposure for the album, solo Wright fans should enjoy it. One observation : man, 'Breakthrough' sounded way better on 'David Gilmour in Concert' than it did with Sinead O'Connor. She probably tinks dis is wrong.

Continuing our brief interlude into solo Wright territory is the video for 'Night of a Thousand Furry Toys', directed by Storm Thorgerson and apparently not aired anywhere in the known universe. With its` theme sort of following a baby's-eye-view of birth and babyhood in artsy (but slowly dissolving) soft focus, this little-seen video is nothing amazing, but it certainly rises above the majority of MTV-style Pink Floyd videos from 1980-1994. Though you may scratch your head wondering why Rick Wright is singing in delivery rooms and nurseries, and ponder why Anthony Moore sees fit to menace reclining babies while lipsynching, it's an interesting little curiosity.

Eleven minutes of the 'PULSE' electronic press kit follows, in which the boys give the same standard-issue replies to the same standard-issue questions, individually from what appears to be their private offices and as a group from a small movie theater. Don't get your hopes up for an MST3K-style video revue from Gilmour, Mason and Wright though. Only two notable observations here :

* Nick's interviews take place in front of the contraption from the cover of 'Relics'

* Sometime between October of 1994 and June 1995, David Gilmour's hair began retreating like the French Army, but somehow he manages to look slimmer and healthier than he did in the decade previous. This retreat would tragically claim the life of his eyebrows years later, though.

'Pink Floyd in Europe' is a sort of raw-feed abbreviated version of MTV Europe's 1994 tour special (also imaginitively titled 'Pink Floyd in Europe'), but with the excess fat trimmed off. Rather than chipper hostess Pip Dann and smooth segues, we simply get clips of the interviewee's answers preceded by title cards. Watch for Rick Wright making fun of European audiences' habit of clapping ("They like to provide rhythm even when we don't have rhythm") and guitar tech Adey Wilson's lament that the perspex under the woo-woo girls is "cunningly screened off". Highlights include un-segued slightly longer clips of 'What Do You Want From Me', 'Keep Talking', and 'Learning to Fly' than are seen on the MTV Europe version.

This is followed by the television commercial for 'PULSE', in which a hapless man swallows a flying LED light and barfs out an owl. Seriously. After that is a 'trailer' for 'PULSE', consisting entirely of a narrator reciting tour statistics (honestly, is the worth of a tour determined by the number of cities and trucks involved?) over clips of the video itself. Could have used Mr. Movie Voice.

At last we finally delve into something a little more interesting on the electronic press kit front with 'The Division Bell's EPK. While the question-and-answer portions are by-the-numbers (and honestly, after several EPKs with the same questions and answers, tiresome by now), we are treated to at least a couple of entertaining quotes from Gilmour as well as some super-neat glimpses at the beginning of the tour. We're treated to a generous portion of 'High Hopes' from the rehearsals at an airplane hangar in Tampa, followed by interview footage in which a relaxed-looking Gilmour dismisses 'A Momentary Lapse or Reason' as "crash-bangy and loud, and out to impress" (which may explain why most of 'The Division Bell' sounds like sonic Ambien) and Nick Mason declares "we wanted to get away from the big black box". Gilmour continues his entertaining streak by declaring 'The Division Bell' to be "true to the Pink Floyd spirit....whatever the hell that is...*I* don't know what it is...". Then we move to Tampa while the stage is being set up, the band is rehearsing a bit, and Robbie Williams drops by to explain some of the technical aspects to us. Marc Brickman shows up briefly (in Lennon shades that make him look quite a bit like Sherman from 'Rocky and Bullwinkle') to comment on the rain and to declare that people think the band's stage is "a comforting design". Ooookay. A brief look at some of the fans present on opening night (ranging from reasonably pleasant people in their thirties, to stupid stoners, to people speaking en espanol) and some clips from that night's renditions of 'Astronomy Domine', 'Keep Talking', and 'Run Like Hell' follow. At the end, the Division Bell Blimp launches to the strains of 'Wearing the Inside Out'. As far as the various electronic press kits and long-form promos go, this one outshines the rest.

This high note is soured, however, by the dismal promo clip for 'Take It Back', which ash` reviewed while standing on his head and tapping out the alphabet backwards in morse code in 'Video Anthology 2'. Like the 'High Hopes' clip on Volume 1, this one has the omnipresent artist/title/album info in the lower left.

The television ads for 'The Division Bell' collect scenes from the 'High Hopes' backdrop to a medley of tracks from the album. If this doesn't fill your heart with joy, then you are perfectly normal.

We end the disc with a long-form promotional clip for 'The Wall - Live in Berlin's VHS release which focuses mostly on the cavalcade of B-list guest stars, and is declared a 'celebration of life and peace' by the narrator. Whether it actually puts anyone in the mood to celebrate is debatable.

So, there you have it. Just like the first volume of 'A DVD Full of Secrets', this collection serves more as an eclectic mix of promotional items and other curious artifacts which better serves to round out your VoIO collection than to start it. If you're looking for a stocking stuffer for the collector who has everything, these will suffice. Just don't watch them all in a row, or your head will want to explode from the strain of all those repeated questions.

'Electronic Press Kit - Broken China' "I wrote the lyrics for Rick and now I have no home"	'Night of a Thousand Furry Toys' The release party for Broken China
'Electronic Press Kit - PULSE' One of these men is not hungry	'Electronic Press Kit - The Division Bell' "The ace of spades!!! The ace of spades!!!"