Review of Pink Floyd: Meddle

Introduction

Pink Floyd are one of the archetypal English rock bands, believed by many to be at the forefront of the Progressive Rock movement of the 70`s. Formed in London by Syd Barrett and his friend Roger Waters, the band initially had some success within the emerging psychedelic movement. Barrett was having increasing personal problems, however, that led the band to add guitarist Dave Gilmour to the lineup in order to cover for the now sporadic contributions from their lead man. When Barrett left, Waters effectively took over the musical direction of the band and Meddle, their fourth studio album as a quartet sans Barrett, is hailed by members of the band as being the first real Pink Floyd album and the stepping stone to where they wanted to be musically.

This hour length documentary serves two purposes. The first half traces the history of the band up to the point of Meddle, the second half dealing with the album itself and the recording of it. Contributions come from the likes of Norman Smith (Pink Floyd producer), Hugh Hoppner (bassist with Soft Machine), Pete Banks (founder member of Yes) and various authors/journalists.

Video

Nice mix of still, live/video footage and talking heads. Some good footage of the Floyd in the studio and some excerpts from Live At Pompei.

Audio

Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 soundtrack with no subtitling.

Features

The Remarkable Roger Barrett - a ten minute feature on Syd Barrett using some of the same talking heads…

Pink Floyd Quiz - I got 15 out of 25…

Conclusion

I`m not a Floyd expert by any means. I got into them when I first heard Learning To Fly, a song that is still my all-time favourite Floyd track (which I doubt will endear me to the hardcore fans). Over the last five or six years though, I`ve started to look back over some of the older catalogue and now love the likes of Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, The Wall and The Final Cut, the latter an underrated album in my opinion.

Upon buying Echoes after being mesmerised by the Live 8 reunion, short but satisfying as it was, I was introduced to some of their earlier stuff and couldn`t really get into a lot of it bar the likes of See Emily Play and Arnold Layne. That in mind, there`s still a large section of Floyd music I`ve not really been exposed to.

This documentary is a nice intro to both the story and some of the earlier stuff. I quite enjoyed this short trip through early Floyd, and despite the fact I`m unlikely to rush out and buy Meddle, I have a greater appreciation of the album and where it`s placed in the development of the band. For the most part the talking heads seem to have a good knowledge of the subject in hand and, as ever in this series, the tone is respectful.

Overall this is probably too lightweight for hardcore Floyd fans but perfect for someone with only a passing acquaintance to the band and their music.