The Fat Angel Sings

Pink Floyd in “Venice: A Concert for Europe” was a 1989 live performance by the English rock band during their “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” Tour, staged on a floating barge on the Grand Canal in Venice,

Such is the celestial splendour of Pink Floyd’s Great Gig In The Sky, it’s easy to forget that this performance – filmed in Venice in 1989 – only took place after three months of bickering with the local authorities, led to the resignation of the town’s mayor, and took place on a barge.

Backing vocalists Rachel Fury, Durga McBroom and Lorelei McBroom sing Clare Torry’s original freeform part brilliantly, much to the presumed delight of the estimated 100 million people who watched Pink Floyd in Venice: A Concert for Europe when it was broadcast worldwide.

Counted among the most extraordinary rock concerts ever held in Italy, it took place on 15t July 1989 on the traditional Redeemer festival (festa del Redentore) at the presence of some 200,000 spectators positioned on the banks and boats of the St. Mark’s basin. It was broadcast by RAI worldwide with an audience of about 100 million viewers.

Initially it was planned to set up the stage, twenty-four metres high, on the extreme tip of the island of Giudecca, but due to space availability issue it was decided to use some large rafts moored in the middle of San Marco basin, .

The announcement of the event was spread in the beginning of April 1989, triggering a bitter polemical debate in the following three months, particularly concerning the city’s decorum and the fear that the excessive volume of the music could damage its artistic heritage. The Superintendency of Cultural Heritage therefore set a limit of only 60 decibels so as not to damage the Byzantine mosaics of St. Mark’s basilica (although peaks of up to 92 decibels were recorded during the concert)

The cost of the event was financed with one billion Italian lire by RAI, who broadcast the concert worldwide, including the Soviet Union (on a delayed basis) and simultaneously in the two Germanies; the rest of the expenses (several hundred millions lire) were covered by Pink Floyd themselves. It is estimated that worldwide, the concert was watched by 100 million spectators, 27 million of them in the United States (where the event was broadcast on cable for the price of ten dollars). In Italy, the concert was seen by over 3.5 million viewers, with an audience share of 30%.

For technical reasons, due to the TV live broadcasting requirements, the availability of satellites for world-wide viewing, and commercial advertising, the concert was limited to only 90 minutes, with some songs cut from the original setlist or eliminated altogether: only 14 songs were played instead of the 23 scheduled on the original tour.

The Venice show was great fun, but it was very tense and nerve-wracking. We had a specific length of show to do; the satellite broadcasting meant we had to get it absolutely precise. We had the list of songs, and we’d shortened them, which we’d never done before. I had a big clock with a red digital read-out on the floor in front of me, and had the start time of each number on a piece of paper. If we were coming near the start time of the next number, I just had to wrap up the one we were on.

We had a really good time, but the city authorities who had agreed to provide the services of security, toilets, food, completely reneged on everything they were supposed to do, and then tried to blame all the subsequent problems on us. Lots of twaddle was written about it, even by some nice respectable journalists from The Guardian – stuff about our music disturbing the buildings; complete ****ing absolute twaddle.

David Gilmour

The closing of the concert was marked by the traditional large fireworks show of the Redeemer festival, that registered an intensity of 107 decibels, thus exceeding the limits allowed for the concert.

In the last few weeks, Pink Floyd have also released “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, “Time”, “Learning To Fly”, “The Dogs Of War”, “On The Turning Away”, “Yet Another Movie”, “Sorrow” and “Round And Round” from the Venice show.

Setlist

1. “Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Part I”
2. “Learning to Fly”
3. “Yet Another Movie”
4. “Round and Around”
5. “Sorrow” (shortened outro)
6. “The Dogs of War”
7. “On the Turning Away”
8. “Time”
9. “The Great Gig in the Sky”
10. “Wish You Were Here”
11. “Money” (shortened)
12. “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2”
13. “Comfortably Numb”
14. “Run Like Hell”