On 14 May the Pink Floyd appeared on Look of the Week, a late-night arts programme on BBC2. They opened with “Pow R. Toc H.”, followed by a spectacular “Astronomy Domine” with a smiling Syd waving his arms in the air, shadows from Peter Wynne Wilson’s lights casting spectral shadows on the walls in time with the thunderous music. They also played an incredibly loud version of “Interstellar Overdrive”. On hand that night was eminent musicologist Dr Hans Keller, a rather taciturn German who followed his disdainful introduction of the band with an absurd question and answer segment.
The good doctor began with, “Well, if I may first turn to you Roger, I want to ask one fundamental question, of which our viewers may not be fully aware of because they didn’t see all of it: why has it all got to be so terribly loud? For me I just can’t bear it, I happened to have grown up in the string quartet, which is a bit softer. Why has it all got to be so loud, so amplified?” Roger Waters, eyes rolling skyward, answered, “Well, I guess it doesn’t have to be. That’s just the way we like it, we didn’t grow up in the string quartet. I guess that could be one of the reasons why it’s loud. It doesn’t sound terribly loud to us.” Keller haughtily said, “Not everyone who hasn’t grown up in the string quartet turns into a loud cock … er, pop group, so your reason isn’t altogether convincing, except that you like it. What I’m saying is that if one gets immune to this kind of sound, one may finder it difficult to appreciate softer types of sound. Syd, yes, no?”
Syd Barrett, suppressing a smirk, said, “I don’t think that’s so. I mean, everybody listens. We don’t need it very loud in order to be able to hear it, and some of it is very quiet in fact. I personally like quiet music just as much as loud music. We play in large halls and things where obviously volume is necessary, and when people dance volume comes in on its own.” Keller asked, “Well, that’s interesting, ‘When people dance …’ You did start, if I’m not mistaken, as a group that accompanied dancing?” Barrett replied, smiling, “Yes, you could say that.” Keller continued, “How have you turned into a concertising [sic] group, if I may use that term?”
Roger Waters said, “Well, we’ve only done two concerts, because I guess pop music is the scene we’re in at the moment. You play gigs around ballrooms and dance halls, and that sort of scene. Because that’s how it works at the moment. But we felt that there was no reason why we shouldn’t play an organised concert in a large hall where people can actually listen to what we do. Because dance halls aren’t, generally speaking, very good places to listen to the music. Most people come along for the music, for most of them over the past few years, has just been a background noise that they can shake about to.”
Keller asked, “Were those two concerts successful, Syd?” Barrett answered, “Yes, I think so. The way the act has developed over the last six months has been influenced rather a lot by the fact that we played in ballrooms, which was obviously the first market. But concerts give us a chance to see that maybe the music we play isn’t directed at dancing like normal pop groups in the past.” Keller: “Have you encountered any hostility towards your creation?” Waters replied, “Well, yes we have, but I guess there has been quite a lot of hostility going on in odd places in the country. The only hostility we’ve actually seen has been from the professional knockers in the press like …” and here Waters fixes the camera with a fearsome expression, before hissing the name of the dreaded NME writer, “Robert Pittman!”
Keller asked, “Do you, in turn, feel aggressive towards the audience?” Barrett and Waters answered in unison, “No, not at all!” Keller asked, “in spite of all the loudness?” “There’s not many young people who dislike it,” said Barrett, curtly. Keller: “There’s no shock treatment intended?” “No, certainly not,” said Barrett, aghast, “some people think we deliberately try to shock the audience, or use the volume to keep them quiet. This is not so.” Dr. Hans Keller concluded lamely, “Well, there it is. I think you can pass your verdict as well as you can. My verdict is that it is a little bit of a regression to childhood, but after all … why not?”
12-21-2003, 12:11 PM
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