Product Details

• Actors: David Gilmour, Nick Mason, Richard Wright, Guy Pratt, Dick Parry
• Directors: David Mallet
• Producers: David Gilmour, Elizabeth Flowers, James Guthrie, Lana Topham, Stephen O'Rourke
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony
• VHS Release Date: June 13, 1995
• Run Time: 145 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (693 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303477259
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,878 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

At long last Pink Floyd: Pulse has arrived on DVD, and Floyd fans already know it's a major cause to celebrate. The original VHS release was a milestone bestseller, but it seemed to take forever for the DVD to arrive, with numerous delays while Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and long-time Floyd producer James Guthrie labored to restore, re-edit, and remix this legendary concert video in 5.1-channel Dolby Surround Sound. The resulting two-disc set was well worth the wait: While the limitations of the original video source are still evident in the sometimes-hazy image quality (Gilmour would later admit the concert should have been captured on film), Floyd fans will unanimously agree that Pulse has never looked or sounded better, and only the absence of group co-founder Roger Waters prevents this from being the ultimate document of Pink Floyd in performance. (Even without Waters, it's easily one of the group's most impressive stage productions.) Gracefully directed with minimal intrusion by veteran music video and concert director David Mallet, and shot on video during Pink Floyd's two-week stint at London's Earls Court Exhibition Centre in October 1994, this 145-minute performance (from Floyd's Division Bell tour) is a sonic marvel to behold. Under a massive arch festooned with then-state-of-the-art laser, lighting, and projection systems, the 1987 incarnation of Pink Floyd (Gilmour, keyboardist Richard Wright, and drummer Nick Mason) and their stellar supporting band kicks off with "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" (a loving tribute to Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett), followed by four tracks from The Division Bell, two from 1987's A Momentary Lapse of Reason, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" from 1979's magnum opus The Wall, and leading into intermission with an absolutely stunning performance of "One of These Days," the timeless opening track from 1971's Meddle.

The centerpiece of Disc 2 is a near-perfect performance of 1974's Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety--reason enough to make this a must-have DVD for even the most casual Floyd admirers. And while no one will ever re-create the sheer magnificence of Clare Torry's original tour de force vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky," it's safe to say that backup singers Sam Brown, Claudia Fontaine, and Durga McBroom deliver the next best thing, in addition to seamless contributions throughout the concert. After the closing heartbeat of "Eclipse," the concert ends with encore performances of "Wish You Were Here," "Comfortably Numb," and a no-holds-barred, pyrotechnically explosive rendition of The Wall's "Run Like Hell," all showcasing Gilmour's guitar mastery with frequent close-ups of his picking and fret-work as seen throughout the concert. (Like Gilmour, Mason and Wright were never dynamic onstage, and that's true here as well, but their technical precision is fully evident, and while guitarist Tim Renwick and saxophonist Dick Parry are each given moments to shine, bassist Guy Pratt is a worthy substitution for Waters, especially when vocally sparring with Gilmour on "Run Like Hell.")

With beautiful packaging, an 8-page booklet, and menu designs by long-time Floyd associate Storm Thorgerson, the DVDs offer an abundance of bonus features including "Bootlegging the Bootleggers," featuring surprisingly good-quality "boot" video performances of "What Do You Want From Me?," "On the Turning Away," "Poles Apart," and "Marooned." The surreal round-ratio screen films seen throughout the concert can all be viewed independently (still in round format, and several offered in both original and alternate versions). Music videos for "Learning to Fly" and "Take It Back" are included on Disc 1, along with "Tour Stuff" including maps, itineraries, and stage plans for the 1994 tour. "Say Goodbye to Life as We Know It" is a playful backstage video (mostly involving the production staff's ongoing quest for a good pint of beer), and after delivering a heartfelt introduction to Pink Floyd's 1996 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with Roger Waters and Syd Barrett acknowledged by Gilmour), Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan joins Gilmour and Wright for a moving acoustic performance of "Wish You Were Here" (directed at Waters, perhaps?). Additional features include album cover art, a photo gallery, and the concert-only audio choice between a 448kbps audio bitstream or a higher-quality 640kbps stream for higher-quality DVD players. The system set-up feature ensures that audiophiles will achieve optimum speaker performance in keeping with Pink Floyd's exacting technical standards. In tandem with the superior concert presentation, these features make Pulse one of the best--if not the best--music DVDs of 2006, guaranteed to satisfy Floyd fans for many years to come. --Jeff Shannon

More from Pink Floyd and David Gilmour

Pulse (CD)	Is There Anybody Out There?/The Wall Live Pink Floyd 1980-81	Pink Floyd--The Wall 25th Anniversary (DVD)
The Division Bell, Pink Floyd	Delicate Sound of Thunder, Pink Floyd	A Momentary Lapse of Reason, Pink Floyd
Live 8 on DVD--Featuring Pink Floyd	Pink Floyd--Live at Pompeii (Director's Cut) (DVD), Pink Floyd	On an Island, David Gilmour

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 121 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars REALLY TEN STARS BUT FIVE IS ALL THEY'D LET ME PICK!, December 7, 1999

By 

Marie Groh - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pink Floyd - Pulse [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It's hard to find words for what I experience when viewing this video. My husband and I watched it for the first time together and afterwords we agreed we'd have to watch it again to be sure that what we saw was real. This may be a BIT exagerated - but not much! The visuals on this film are extaordinary! The light show is amazing and so well choreographed! The sound is SO good and the musical quality SO superb that I have actually begun to PREFER many of the cuts to the studio versions! I've fallen in love with David Gilmore whose smile makes him look little boyish and sweet. The newly added Floyd musicians look like they cannot BELIEVE who they are on stage with and are having the time of their lives. 145 minutes of SHEER bliss from the first note to the very last! THREE SONGS for an encore - you cannot believe it when it happens! You imagine what you would have thought being at this concert and even getting ONE encore song - when they come out with THREE you are blown away - and they are lavishly done! I don't understand some of the reviewers saying that Gilmore seemed bored and unhappy to be there - seems to me that he is either concentrating on the current guitar lick or smiling at one of the other band members -trust me - he smiles a LOT in this video. I could go on and on but I won't. Let me just say that having already purchased this video I will be one of the first to put out more money the DAY this one comes out on DVD - as soon as we heard that it was scheduled for release on DVD in early 2000 we went out and bought a DVD player - THAT'S how much we loved this concert! My ONLY regret is that I missed it live and it was only 2 hours away from where I live! SIGH... well THAT won't happen again. For someone who wasn't sure she would like the Floyd without Roger - I have become one of their biggest fans! It also renewed my interest in the Division Bell which I had previously not given much time to. Now I am a devotee of that CD as well. Ok - now buy it! OR wait for the DVD! Enjoy.

211 of 240 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars David Gilmour Explains the Delay of Pulse on DVD, March 30, 2006

By 

goatswood (Goatswood, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pink Floyd - Pulse (DVD)

Why was the Pink Floyd Pulse DVD release delayed yet again? Hear the truth from David Gilmour himself.

David Gilmour Speaks! from the May 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine (Vol. 27/No. 5), "Shine On" an interview by Alan Di Perna. The following is a full quote from the interview concerning the Pulse DVD release (pp.96-98):

"GW: Speaking of live shows, why is the Pulse DVD coming out later this year, some 12 years after the Division Bell tour?

GILMOUR: It was out on VHS long ago. We had a lot of technical problems converting it to DVD. It was shot on video rather than film, which I now think was a mistake: it doesn't look very good when you enlarge it on a big screen television, which everyone seems to have these days. We'd been investigating all sorts of ways to digitally enhance the footage.

By the time we'd surmounted all the problems, it was way too late to make our November or December ['05] deadline. I didn't see any point in putting it out at the same time as my album (On An Island), so I asked that we put the release back until September".


Nuff Said.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pulse - Beats At The Speed Of LIFE, March 28, 2001

By 

Karl Laframboise (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pink Floyd - Pulse [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Like most Floyd fans, I enjoyed Delicate Sound of Thunder as a satisfying live Floyd concert video...but then came "PULSE".... and made DSoT pale in comparison. From the opening "Shine On..." to the explosive closing of "Run Like Hell" your visual and auditory senses are assaulted with essentially the best of "Division Bell", a small taste of "The Wall" and "Wish You Were Here"..but the cream of the concert is the complete performance of "The Dark Side of the Moon"!!!

The light and laser show that accompany the songs, as well as the inclusion of filmed shorts make the whole experience mesmerising. There are so many great moments in the video, such as Gilmore's solo in "Comfortably Numb" blares on as the lights cascade off the separating glitter ball, the computer graphic short used in "Time", the opening of "The Wall-Part 2" as well as the best rendition of "Wish You Were Here" I've heard; which begins a 3 song encore. For VHS, the quality is outstanding for both the visual as with the sound presentation.

Though I have owned the VHS taps since it was released; I will replace it with the DVD version when it eventually comes out. Highly recommended for all fans of Pink Floyd, as well as fans of great live concerts.