Pink Floyd - 1968 - Belgian TV (DVDfull pro-shot)

(DVDfull pro-shot)

Pink Floyd
Belgian TV 1968 (HRV DVD 014)
40th Anniversary Edition

Video: NTSC
Audio: PCM Stereo

The RTB Films, 18 and 19 Feb 1968
01 - Astronomy Domine
02 - Scarecrow
03 - Corporal Clegg
04 - Paintbox
05 - Set The Controls
06 - See Emily Play
07 - Bike
08 - Apples & Oranges

David Gilmour made his film debut with Pink Floyd by recording this series of promotional clips for Belgian TV. Four of the films were shot at RTB TV studios and the remainder in and around Parc de Laeken on the 18th & 19th of February. "Apple & Oranges" was broadcast on the RTB pop music program Vibrato on 27 February. The remaining films, including a photo montage set to "Bike", were shown consecutively as part of the Tienerklanken pop music show broadcast on BRT TV on 31 March.

Kastival Open Air Festival 31 August 1968
Astronomy Domine

Pink Floyd performed in the afternoon on the 1st day of this 3-day festival. The event was filmed by BRT TV and highlights were shown on the Tienerklanken pop music show broadcast on 8 October in a featured segment called "Kastival '68".

Lineage: BBC Reels (format unknown) > DVD-R (PAL) > MPEG-2 (NTSC)/PCM Audio
After years of searching for a significant upgrade of these videos, an unexpected surprise just seemed to fall right into my lap. A very kind, and anonymous, member of Yeeshkul sent me a DVD that was transferred right from the BBC's existing reels. I demuxed the VOB files using VOB Edit, then ran the M2V file through Canopus Procoder for a great NTSC conversion. I remastered the audio from the original broadcast, balancing levels and adding a bit of NR to "Scarecrow" but this is being offered as a 2nd audio track. The main track was assembled by MOB who used various different sources to create an amazing sonic upgrade for these clips.

The audio for the main program (from Astronomy Domine to Bike) was carefully analysed and we arrived to the following conclusions:
- the 3 tracks from The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn are simply the regular versions from the stereo album, converted to mono for the TV broadcast (BRT did not use the mono version of the album)
- Paintbox and See Emily Play were taken from the mono singles (the stereo version of Paintbox would only be released 3 years later, on the 1971 Relics compilation)
- Corporal Clegg and Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun were not officially available at the time (these promo videos were filmed more than 4 months before the official release of A Saucerful Of Secrets album), therefore the audio versions from the BRT TV show are very unique early mono mixes. The difference with the regular version is obvious for Corporal Clegg, with an alternate ending, much more Syd's guitar lines in the background, and a surprising high speed compared to the album version (this track was probably slowed down during the mixdown of the album). And even if Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun sounds similar to the regular version, this is also an early mix, different from the album version (an obvious moment is during the instrumental part before the last verse, where birds noises were added for the album version, and are totally absent here).

Since our source for the TV show had superb video quality but a rather hissy sound, we decided to provide a superior audio track, recreating the mono broadcast audio from CD sources, except for Corporal Clegg and Set The Controls, for which we used the best available "Belgian mono mix" versions floating around ("A Tree Full Of Secrets" for Corporal Clegg, and "Have You Got It Yet? V2.0" for Set The Controls, for which we did some editing in order to correct an "imperfect" patch on the HYGIY version). The resulting experience of watching this 40 year old TV show with superb images and pristine audio is the best you'll ever get! For purists who want to hear the original broadcast audio with hiss, we put this as a second audio track to the DVD.

For Apples & Oranges, the video was taken from a 2nd gen VHS tape copy and the audio was taken from the mono single. This clip also appears on the PFVA 1 DVD.

For the last track, "Kastival 68", the video and audio were taken from the only available source (until now), i.e. the FLV video from YouTube. Some EQ was applied to the rough audio in order to avoid "ear bleeding". ;-)

Thanks again to the anonymous Yeeshkul member for the BBC transfer!
Video remastered by RonToon
Audio remastered by MOB
Thanks to Breathe for the great FLV conversion of Kastival '68
Artwork by Moonwall

Enjoy!
Team HRV