Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.
13 May – 1 October 2017.
*****
On my Must See list for a while: finally managed a visit last week. Thoroughly enjoyed as someone who grew up when everyone but everyone owned a copy of Dark Side Of The Moon and subsequently discovered the whole back catalogue only to lose interest some time after The Wall (which I saw them play live at Earl’s Court) as the whole thing shifted toward a Roger Waters ego trip. Was busy listening to other things by the time Waters had been booted out and guitarist David Gilmour pulled them back on track (though managed to pick up live recording Pulse on CD and LD in the nineties when I was reviewing laserdiscs) but have since picked up the complete works, album by album, on CD. So, a casual fan but not a die-hard.
The exhibition is a mixed bag. Unlike the V&A’s earlier popular music exhibition David Bowie is, there aren’t lengthy dire periods to be avoided and amazing periods to celebrate, but there ARE chunks of Floyd career where there isn’t much surviving material on which to build an exhibition. Thus an early room covers the first eight albums in scant detail – including such highs as Atom Heart Mother and Meddle – so you feel the whole thing is going to be a disappointment.
However from DSOTM onwards, the show widens in scope with much to see about instruments (guitar and synth admirers will drool), composition, album sleeve design, concert theatrics, stage design, puppetry, visuals and more. I was told it would take an hour and a half to get round: I was in there for five. Then you have the spectacle of a dedicated V&A shop where, even if you buy nothing, there’s a certain pleasure in looking at expensive T-shirts and holding full price vinyl copies (the whole range is for sale) in your hands. (The shop, incidentally, is accessible without going to the exhibition.)
There are omissions surprising (nothing about the cinema film version of The Wall, no sound clips of or even reference to the legendary ageing BBC announcer referring to “Pink Floyd and his band”) and less so (no detail on Waters leaving after The Final Cut). On the plus side, unexpected gems include Syd Barrett’s actual bike on display in the first room.
The whole thing uses the same interactive sound technology as the Bowie exhibition and you’ll come out with some of the tunes lingering in your head. Recommended for the casual fan like myself. Die-hards I’m sure will love it. Newbies will probably have a very pleasant couple of hours. There’s tons of other interesting stuff in the rest of the museum too (Shakespeare’s first folio, for instance!) and a beautiful courtyard in which to relax. A day well spent.
Addenda: I realise I wrote this whole thing without mentioning (1) Nick Mason, whose skin bashing on ‘Astronomy Domine’ (not in the show) turned me on to drumming and who I suspect had more to do with this exhibition happening than anyone else in the band and (2) the late Richard Wright who, while not the driving force that Waters and later Gilmour represented was, for me, the Floyd’s great, unsung artistic talent. Now gone to play his ‘Great Gig In The Sky’. RIP. And finally (3) Wish You Were Here, which remains one of my personal favourite Floyd albums.
The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 13 May – 1 October 2017. Watch the exhibition trailer below:
This article was originally written as a post on Facebook.