Pink Floyd are on their way to claim their seventh UK number 1 album this week with ‘Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII’ dominating the midweek official album charts. The 70s rock band’s iconic 1975 concert film, directed by Adrian Maben and filmed in the beautiful Roman amphitheatre of Pompeii, was digitally remastered from its original 35 mm and remixed by Steven Wilson is available across multiple formats including 2CD, 2LP, Blu-ray and DVD.
Wilson said it was “an honour”, adding: “Ever since my dad brainwashed me as a kid by playing The Dark Side of the Moon on repeat, Pink Floyd have been my favourite band. They are my Beatles, deeply ingrained in my musical DNA. I first saw Pompeii from a grainy print at a local cinema. It made an incredible impression on me with its untethered and exploratory rock music made by four musicians who seemed to epitomise the notion of intellectual cool.”
NME awarded the ‘Pompeii – MCMLXXII’ concert film four stars in a review. It said, in part: “As such, Pink Floyd At Pompeii: MCMLXXII captures a moment that’s as bygone as the good citizens of Pompeii themselves. Here was an uncompromising, visionary band who, over the four years since losing their frontman Syd Barrett, had been given several avant-garde experimental albums to explore their new identity: 1970’s ‘Atom Heart Mother’, for instance, featured a cow on the cover and a roadie eating breakfast for 13 minutes.”
If the band holds the spot until Friday, they’ll add their latest release to their list of chart-topping albums, making the seventh alongside ‘Atom Heart Mother’ (1970), ‘Wish You Were Here’ (1975), ‘The Final Cut’ (1983), ‘The Division Bell’ (1994), ‘Pulse (Live)’ (1995) and ‘The Endless River’ (2014). This milestone would see the iconic British band make it on the list of other artists with the most UK number 1 albums such as George Michael or Blur.
In the midweek charts this week, Sabrina Carpenter’s latest album ‘Short’N’Sweet’ is making its was back up into the Top 3 whilst Ed Sheeran’s ‘+-=÷× (Tour Collection)’ re-enters the Top 5, pushed by the announcement of his eighth studio album ‘PLAY’ and the strong debut of his new single ‘Old Phone’. Erasure’s frontman Andy Bell’s first solo album ‘Ten Crows’ also made it in the Top 5, currently tracking at number 4 whilst singer-songwriter Andrew Cushin is aiming for his first Top 10 album with his latest release ‘Love Is For Everyone (10)’ with Alex Warren’s ‘You’ll Be Alright, Kid (Chapter 1)’ is following close behind at number 12.
Final chart positions will be confirmed this Friday by the Official Charts Company. The band’s movie is available for purchase of their official website.
