Delicate Sound Of Thunder - Restored, Re-edited, Remixed

This film is comprised of footage shot from the tour promoting the "Momentary Lapse of Reason" album. While it shares the same name as the old VHS video of the same tour, all the footage has been remastered and much of the film has been re-edited to make use of alternate camera angles. It's a very different experience from the original VHS, which I mention only because the VHS is something of a collector's item. (It might have been nice to have the original cut of the film available as a bonus.) It's drawn from multiple concerts and so does not have the "you were there" documentary feel that many live videos have. The result is one of the most "cinematic" concert films I've seen, and one that would probably look great on the big screen in a revival house. The musicianship, of course, is impeccable, and it's a kick to see a relatively young David Gilmour bash out one emotional solo after another. Floyd are supported not only by backup singers and a saxophonist but also an additional keyboardist and drummer to help out Rick Wright and Nick Mason, so the stage does get a bit crowded. Animations and film clips do appear from time to time on the video screen behind the band, but there's much more of a visual emphasis on the incredible light show as support, often featuring some amazing laser work. The setlist varies between the Floyd songs heavily emphasized in classic rock rotation at the time and about half of the "Momentary Lapse" album. These versions of the songs are not rote note-for-note arrangements of the records, which might be a little jarring to fans who have memorized their copies of "Dark Side" and "Wish You Were Here." This is well-worth having if you're a Floyd fan, especially a younger fan who'd like to see the band confidently onstage as stadium rockers.

Ok, let's face it...if you're thinking of purchasing a BD of a late 80's Pink Floyd concert, you're probably squarely in the "fan" category. Consequently, I'm not going to address the quality of the show itself in this review (although it is outstanding). Instead, I'll speak to the potential purchaser of this disc who might be wondering about the quality of the video and sound. I am a huge fan of Pink Floyd and purchased this on VHS way back in the late 80's when it first came out. I remember being mesmerized by the material and elated with the opportunity to "experience" a Floyd concert through a higher grade sound system. It was my first exposure to their material outside of spinning their LP's and enjoying the experience via headphones. It was wonderful! Fast forward to now, and I have pretty much purchased every copy of Pink Floyd concert on DVD / Blu-ray, regardless of whether it was put on by Gilmour or Waters. As technology and recording capabilities have improved over time, some of the more recent releases like David Gilmour's show from Pompeii and Roger Waters "The Wall" and "Us + Them" really do an excellent job of maximizing the sound and picture possibilities in capable systems. At various points in time while watching recently produced shows, I recalled my fascination with the original experience of "Delicate Sound of Thunder" and wondered how it might stack up against the newer shows that were captured with more recent recording technologies. Finally... the opportunity to find out. Let me unequivocally state that the quality exceeded my most hopeful expectations. Keep in mind, this show was put on over 30 years ago! My how time flies. Kudos to the team that put in the effort to reintroduce this material in its current glorious form. Well done! The video of this concert cannot quite compete with the digital video recordings of some of the more recent shows put on by Waters and Gilmour. But oh my...way better than what I expected. Believe me when I say this, you'll have no complaints on the quality of picture of this show. Just don't expect it to compete with something recorded digitally in the last 4 or 5 years. That hyper detailed effect is not quite reached. But you'll never miss it! Most importantly, the sound is fantastic! If you have watched many blu-ray concerts, you know the mixing of the sound track has a huge impact on the experience. Poorly executed, you sometimes have vocals mixed too far in the background, too much bass, too little bass, etc., No worries on this one! Everything is balanced, clear and well positioned in 5.1 HD glory. Frankly, I was startled (in a good way) when I began watching this blu-ray. Again, spectacular! Thank you to the team that put this together. Your love for the material has shown through. For the discerning audiophile/videophile buyer who understands they are purchasing a copy of a show put on 30+ years ago...you are in for a treat! Particularly if you're a die hard Pink Floyd fan. It's great to be able to add this show to my collection of other Pink Floyd blu-rays. It captures another unique moment in time of the history of the band that well compliments the total body of work currently available. It is truly at the top of my list of Pink Floyd blu-rays. My highest recommendation!

An absolutely wonderful remake of the video released so many years ago. I had tears in my eyes several times while finding myself emotionally singing along to many of the great tracks that are featured here. This is the best Pink Floyd video I've ever seen- actually the best concert video of any sort for me. Turn the beautifully remastered 5.1 surround sound up loud with your big screen furnishing the only light in a dark room and it's as immersive as it gets. The sound mastering is SO good, I was hearing tones I've never known my system could play- low frequency effects in some of the parts of "On the Run" were felt as much as heard. Yes, there are a few flaws, understandably. A few scenes here and there are quite grainy, but 95% are as clean as it gets. Color saturation of the famous videos shown on the Pink Floyd circular stage screen are a bit too enhanced, but that's only in the edited-in "standalone" video potions, so it doesn't take away from the concert experience. My only disappointment is that the incredibly moving "Great Gig in the Sky" track which rightfully kept the focus on the incredibly dynamic girls' solos in the original is now riddled with changing camera shots bouncing around that distract from that one-of-a-kind performance. On the other hand, "The Dogs of War" was so powerfully rendered that I still find myself hearing it in my mind a week later. A solid 5 stars from a guy who doesn't give them often, only when something is truly exceptional.

I remember watching this back in the early nineties on VHS and listening to the double album (on cassette) incessantly in my car during my college days. Once I saw the pre-order option for this NEW Blu-Ray version, I jumped on it (note: I’m not sure what all of these old reviews are talking about; Amazon should clean them out, as this new version just came out this week). I received the disc yesterday (on release day...thank you Amazon!) and put it on in my home theater late last night, thinking I’d watch a track or two. Well, I could NOT stop watching it. The 35MM FILM transfer is marvelous to watch and the sound is unreal. The surround mix is effective and creates a real concert-like experience...and the bass is super punchy and supports the entire mix, without muddying it. I heard that Dave Gilmour supervised the remix and it shows; sounds amazing. Terrific show from top to bottom...and the songs from Momentary Lapse of Reason still hold up amongst the Floyd classics. It is certainly a different show/experience that the latest Roger Waters live Blu-Ray (which I also recommend...even if you just watch Brain Damage and Eclipse), and is a bit of a late 80’s time capsule. There are plenty of mullets and some awkward dance moves, but overall the way the show was shot is something the ‘new’ concert productions should take a note from. While there are some sweeping shots of the crowd, the director spent most of the time focused on the band and, at times, close-up shots of Gilmour’s hands during his epic solos (see the lap-steel footage on One of These Days & The Great Gig in the Sky). The staging and lighting was also revolutionary for its time and still remains effective in this presentation. Great show...if you are a Floyd or Gilmour fan, check this out...you won’t be disappointed!

After two unsuccessful attempts to buy it on Dec 23 and Jan 24 (items were never delivered!), I finally got my copy of Delicate Sound of Thunder. I'm not going to repeat what many of the fans mentioned here about the sound and image qualities of this Blu-Ray. Yes, a very good job led to an excellent result, even with the obvious limitations of the time it was filmed. Luckily, the concerts were captured on film, instead of digital, allowing the enhancement from 4x3 (like the Laserdisc edition that I own) to 16x9 (like the Blu-Ray/DVD 2019 editions). What really disappointed me was the fact that, although the description mentions the existence of FIVE bonus tracks, the copy I received has only 16 tracks and absolutely NO bonus at all. If anyone can explain this to me, I would really appreciate it. However, it is a must have item, on any music lover collection. I simply loved it!

I was at the Giants Stadium show that took place 2 months before the Nassau Coliseum shows that this release was recorded from. The set list, stage setup and personnel at both shows were the same, so watching this is like reliving history for me. It was also my first Pink Floyd show - we'd all been waiting for 8 years! It was exciting, and a night I'll never forget. I had the VHS release at one point but I no longer have a working VCR, and who wants to watch stuff in VHS quality nowadays anyway? I've been waiting for a Blu-Ray release, without having to buy the "The Later Years" set that includes a ton of stuff I already own. As an actual attendee of this tour, I can tell you that this disc captures the band exactly as they were at the time - the Gilmour years started off a lot glossier and more technically adept than the messiness of both "The Wall" and "The Final Cut" (which they didn't even tour for, as Gilmour couldn't stand to be in the same room as Waters by then). Gilmour and Waters were competing at the time for the loyalty of Floyd fans - as they pretty much have ever since - but in 1988, Gilmour's Pink Floyd had just released an album that sounded at least sort of like mid-70's Floyd (just with less personal lyrics), while Waters had just released a weird 80's pop solo album ("Radio KAOS") that sounded nothing like the band had ever done. So Gilmour was winning, and even though you can now look back and see the genesis of the New Age-y sound that Gilmour's Pink Floyd would eventually embrace before even he realized he probably should just release stuff under his own name, in 1988 this just seemed like a perfectly normal progression for the band. A little more generic, and a lot more mullets, but hey, it was the 80's. It's actually kind of surprising to watch now and see how much inspiration Gilmour and the rest of the band took from their own 1970's shows. The stage setup, for example, is almost ripped right out of the "Dark Side of the Moon" tour - and the band used this same setup, with the circular screen ringed with lights behind them - almost from then on. The flying pig from "Animals" is used during "One of These Days" - which is a little weird, but ok, fanservice! (I thought it was weird even at the time, since they didn't play a single song from that album.) There was a lot the band did to try to establish themselves as the "real" Pink Floyd, including opening with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond", which is now presented in full (for some reason it was not on the VHS release!). Almost the entire "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" album was played on this tour - including several tracks NOT included on the Blu-Ray (or earlier VHS) release! - but otherwise, there are a ton of iconic Floyd tracks here, all but one of which was written by some combination of Gilmour, Wright, Mason and Waters. So clearly, Waters did not own the band - their best period was highly collaborative, and the set list reflects that. But let's talk about that, because there are several important songs missing even from the new Blu-Ray release. This was true on VHS too, but "Welcome to the Machine" and "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" were both played at these shows and are not on the disc (as were a few other songs from "A Momentary Lapse of Reason"). I'm guessing there's some rights issue with these, but it's a little maddening. Gilmour did co-write both of these, but maybe there's a home media clause in the contract or something. On the plus side, in addition to "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" now being presented in full, "The Great Gig in the Sky" is now shown in full color, from the Nassau Coliseum shows like the rest of the disc. This was a highlight of the show! So I'm very happy to see it shown properly here. I remember being absolutely astonished at the band's rendition of "Comfortably Numb", and I felt the same watching this disc the first time tonight. For one, this was the first time they ever played it with Guy Pratt, Rick Wright et. al singing Waters' parts, and I actually prefer that! But I'm pretty sure this is also the longest ending solo that they've ever played before or since - the solo on "Pulse" is definitely about 2 minutes shorter. Gilmour improvised this solo at every show, as he still kinda does whenever he plays this song, and while in my memory the Giants Stadium solo was a little better, this one is at least just as long. It's also, as far as I know, the tour where they debuted the giant butterfly disco ball, so that was pretty awesome to see in person (no internet in those days to know what was coming in advance!), as it is on disc. I do have one other nitpick with the remaster of the video footage, and that's the contrast. It's very low. You can even see this if you look at the comparisons the band themselves posted to YouTube between the VHS and Blu-Ray release. Anyone who's been to any concert knows that spotlights are bright! And I was there on this tour and can attest to that at these specific shows. And despite the generally crappy VHS quality, that's one thing the VHS release got right. There is a lot of contrast between highlights and dark areas, and anyone under a spotlight is lit *bright*. On the new Blu-Ray, it's like somebody decided to equalize the brightness of the entire stage. So now the dark areas are brighter and the spotlights are dimmer. That gives everything kind of a flat, dull look. This is not the way this tour really looked! The BD is clearly, CLEARLY higher resolution than VHS and otherwise looks great, but it does definitely look flat and dull, which these shows definitely were not! My somewhat hopeful thought is that this was actually mastered for 4K/HDR and then downconverted for 1080p Blu-Ray, which is still SDR and with a reduced color gamut. That's probably wishful thinking, and even so, they should have re-balanced the contrast for regular HD in that case. But maybe there will eventually be a 4K release with properly bright highlights and dark areas. I'm hoping. Lastly, you may have noticed that I keep writing "these shows" - that's because the footage on the disc was filmed over 5 nights. I don't remember if this issue was there on the VHS release, but on the new edit it's often pretty obvious that audio is coming from one show while video is coming from another. For example, they'll show Gilmour playing a solo from one angle and his hands will be in one position, then cut to another angle and they're suddenly doing something else... something that would make sense, but that just doesn't match the audio that's actually playing, or the previous shot. Or, they'll show an extreme closeup of Rachel Fury's face from one side, then cut to a medium shot from the other side and there's no camera shooting the closeup you just saw. It's just weird. It can occasionally make it feel less like an actual concert and more like a film that somebody's consciously put together... which of course is what it is, but I feel like there's supposed to be an illusion that it isn't. That illusion is broken sometimes by the editing. Anyway, I'm glad I have it because it was a tour that I went to and there are some unique things about it. And I'm glad they released it as a standalone disc. It's definitely worth buying; there are some songs on here that you're not going to get in better quality than this, at least until a standalone "Pulse" BD release, and in some cases ever. It's also a really good historical document of the first Pink Floyd tour post-Roger Waters.

As I lifelong Floyd fan this is a must-have for any Pink Floyd fan.

Great video, awesome sound! The best Pink Floyd concert video from a video quality and sound perspective. It's too bad Pink Floyd didn't film more concerts in 35mm. Some of the other concert videos are good from a performance and sound perspective but are dissapointing in the video quality/resolution department.

Hervorragende DVD mit erstklassiger Ton und Bildqualität! Hier sieht man was heute technisch möglich ist, wenn man sich sehr viel Mühe gibt. Schließlich ist das Ausgangsmaterial aus dem Jahr 1988. Auch bei der Produktion dieser DVD sind Pink Floyd Perfektionisten!

Pink Floyd, un icono en la musica. Buen DVD, buena calidad de sonido, y buen precio.

The sound quality is excellent throughout, but the picture quality is poor at the start, however it steadily improves. Anyone that is a Floyd fan will really love it.

Great

私の年代なので、凄くいいですね。 ピンクフロイドで初めて聴いたのが、吹けよ風呼べよ嵐で、当時ベストテンで聴いたの覚えています。それから神秘、原子神母など聴きました。懐かしいですね。