The Victoria and Albert Museum is one of my favourite London and indeed European venues for exhibitions. Over the last few years we’ve visited the History of Shoes, the excellent David Bowie and the quite brilliant You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970.
It’s also fair to say that the latest V and A spectacular is something I have been waiting for some months; I originally bought the tickets for this back in January. Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains. For better or worse, the exhibition takes a chronological view of Floyd, briefly taking a side note of the pre-Floyd days, various flirtations with Architecture and the childhood bub that was Cambridge.
After a short time however, it settles down into the story of Floyd, taking an album based trot through time, starting of course with the psycho-pop creations driven by the creative genius that was Syd Barrett and ending up with the The Endless River.
I’m not going to write a review of the exhibition; you should spend the £20 per ticket and go and see it yourself and make your own views. However, for me, this was an utterly amazing exhibition. Sound and vision, images and words, models, reproductions and genuine objects carefully and thoughtfully collected in a walk through that took me as close to five hours as makes no difference. It culminates in the only way it could with a magnificent….. we’ll you’ll see when you get there.
Personally, I am a Floyd fan and have been since the mid 1980’s, when I was about 15 or 16. Up to that time I had been a big fan of bands like Status Quo, sprinkles of 80’s Brit Pop, a little Dire Straits [who didn’t have a copy of Brothers in Arms?] as well as Hawkwind, Jethro Tull et al.
At some point I managed to get hold of a copy of the Dark Side of the Moon. The voice of Clare Torry was perhaps, at the time, the most beautiful thing I had heard.
Dark Side of the Moon was the most sophisticated album I had heard, the most complete album. Not just a collection of songs, but a complete album, a single piece of work that does not, can not, fit into the modern aesthetic for downloading or streaming single tracks. Dark Side was intended to be heard complete, not staccato.
Even today, it seems there are many people who would agree. Released in 1973 the album has not been out of the American top 200 and is still selling 7000 copies per week.
There is also, quite rightly, some serious content given over to Hipgnosis, the art and design agency that produced many iconic album covers, including most of the very finest of Floyds. One of my favourite albums, both of the music and the cover is Ummagumma with the famous Droste effect.
If you are a Floyd fan, it is a must see. If you are a music fan, it is a must see. If you are interested in how the relationships of four middle class, ENglish public school boys has changed over a period of 50 plus years, it is well worth the entry fee.
Even Joe Lydon would heartily recommend it.
Mark Daniels 