Nella capitale ci fu il primo grande festival rock europeo
Rome Pop Festival 1968
All’”International European Pop Festival” presero parte moltissimi artisti, tra i quali i Pink Floyd, i Byrds, Captain Beefheart, Donovan.
http://assante.blogautore.repubblica.it/2008/05/31/?ref=hpsbsx
Si, io infatti ho il bootleg dei Pink Floyd datato “6 maggio 1968”
Questa la titletrack:
E questa l’intervista trascritta:
[ITALIAN PRESENTER: Arisaltiamo tra un po’. E’ un tecnico che si è dimenticato un piccolo particolare.]
[DUTCH COMMENTATOR: Opnamen van het eerste internationale popfestival van 4 tot 8 mei jongstleden gehouden te rome.
In deze uitzending muziek van Pink Floyd, The Nice and the Byrds en bovendien interviews met Roger Waters van Pink Floyd
en Roger McGuinn van the Byrds. Dit zijn de Engelse Pink Floyd.]
[ITALIAN PRESENTER: We start with the Pink Floyd.]
[ROGER: This song is called ‘Astronomy Domine’.]
Astronomy Domine
[ROGER: Thank you, thank you.]
[DUTCH COMMENTATOR: …Dit zijn de Pink Floyd. Een engelse viermansgroep. Bezetting: orgel, gitaar, bas en drums.
De titel van het nummer dat u gehoord hebt is Astronomy Domine, een nummer dat ook te vinden is op hun tot nog toe enige
langspeelplaat ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’. De geluidskwaliteit van deze met behulp van de italiaanse radio onder nogal
gebrekkige omstandigheden door ons zelf gemaakte opnamen is natuurlijk niet te vergelijken met de plaatopnamen van dit soort
muziek, waaraan vaak maanden aan wordt gewerkt. In Rome hadden we ook een gesprek met de basgitarist en zanger van deze groep
‘Roger Waters’]
ROGER: I would say that Rome is an absurd place to organize a pop festival you know. If it would’ve been me I would
never have picked Rome you know. Ah… Anyway you know it’s not you know, it’s not a sort of pop-pop festival,
if you see what I mean you know. If I was organizing a pop festival in England and wanted to make money and draw big
crouds you know, I’d have on ah… well all the people have sold alot of records in England this you know is
Engelbert Humperdink and old people like that you know, and those are the people who should really be playing in a
pop festival. If the … wants to fill the place, now if he doesn’t. If he wants to cated to a minority audience then,
well I’m certainly in Rome, this evenings alot of groups anyway where I don’t know about the italian groups or their
association, but anyway the groups in the first half, really a minority, well The Move possibly not,
but The Nice and us are certainly a minority appeal you know, and we should be playing in much smaller clubs
where there aren’t these bloody television lights shining you know. We couldn’t use our lightshow at all, it was obvious
as soon as we arrived. We decided not to use it because we were gonna have a real hassle within.]
[INTERVIEWER: Yes, like you think there is a new kind of, let’s call it experimental or progressive pop music emerging
which appeals to a certain, a little bit older public than usual public?]
[ROGER: Yeah, there is.]
[INTERVIEWER: And which is especially on LPs?]
[ROGER: Yeah, definetely.]
[ROGER: …called ‘Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun’.]
ITALIAN ANNOUNCER: We will start jumping again in a while. A stage-technician has forgotten a little detail
(meaning he has forgotten to plug some instruments to the mixer)]
[DUTCH COMMENTATOR: Recordings of the first international popfestival last 4-8 may held in Rome. During this broadcast
music from Pink Floyd, The Nice and the Byrds and also interviews with Roger Waters of Pink Foyd and Roger McGuinn of
the Byrds. This is the english pink Floyd.]
[DUTCH COMMENTATOR: This is the Pink Floyd. An english 4-man band. Consists of: organ, guitar, bass and drums. The title
of the song just heard is Astronomy Domine, a song you can find on their up to now only record [lp]
‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’. The soundquality of these under difficult circumstances with the help of the italian radio
made recordings are not to be compared with the studio recordings of this kind of music, worked on for several months.
In Rome we talked with the bassguitarist and singer of this band ‘Roger Waters’]
[DUTCH COMMENTATOR: Rome indeed was an absurd place to organize a popfestival, according to Roger Waters.
The financial flop of the festival is already known. Bands like Pink Floyd and also the Nice, to be heard later on,
are no hitparade bands. You will find this music on LP’s bought by a relative small, but expert audience.
Is there in this way developing a progressive kind of popmusic? ‘Certainly’, Roger Waters says,
'The festival in Rome was a POP festival, but you have pop and you have POP. When you want to earn some money with
popmusic, you have to invite people like Engelbert Humperdinck. Next a track from the new album of Pink Floyd,
released june 1 in England. Song of the Sun or something like that, didn’t catch the title completely.]
Ecco alcune immagini proprio del “Pop Festival” tratte da un mio esclusivo DVD:
DAVID
ROGER
NICK
RICHARD
