To describe Live At The Circus Maximus merely as an audio-visual feast would be a bit like calling the feeding of the 5,000 a small buffet with some bread and fish.
Those of us lucky enough to have witnessed David Gilmour’s Luck And Strange Tour in 2024 saw a show that was sumptuous in every aspect, from breathtaking musicianship to spectacular staging. This film – captured at a six-night engagement at the historic stadium where Romans raced chariots – is a lasting remembrance of a quite dazzling event.
The combination of a peerless catalogue to draw from, both as erstwhile Pink Floyd member and now solo figurehead, plus a state-of-the-art stage set, made the whole tour something to savour.
But director Gavin Elder and his team have superbly optimised the opportunity to capture Gilmour and his musicians in a breathtaking, ancient setting among the Seven Hills on which Rome was built.
Monochrome footage sets the stunning scene before a definitive latterday performance of 130 minutes by a band of all the talents, with wide and airborne camera angles sometimes making it look as if they’re playing to the whole city. Among the remarkable lighting effects, the stage at one point is a volcanic cauldron of red mist, at other times bathed in lasers.
Keyboard master Greg Phillinganes (who also contributes some key vocals) and newest member, guitarist Ben Worsley, are standouts alongside a stellar vocal/instrumental backline of the Webb Sisters, Louise Marshall and Gilmour’s daughter Romany.
She steps out to join him nervelessly on album highlight Between Two Points, the Montgolfier Brothers cover, and she takes part in the admirable reincarnation of The Great Gig In The Sky, with the soulful Marshall at the piano and Gilmour on pedal steel.
As ever, he’s the usual antithesis of a rock frontman, impassive throughout apart from the occasional smile at his workmates; but he’s in faultless form on abiding lodestars such as Breathe, Time, Wish You Were Here and the encore of Comfortably Numb (with the stalwart Guy Pratt vocalising the verses) and recent solo tracks The Piper’s Call and Dark And Velvet Nights.
Floyd’s weighty The Division Bell precedes his tribute to wife, collaborator and inspiration Polly Samson on the same album’s Coming Back To Life.
The film is augmented by documentaries, rehearsal footage and videos, and accompanied by the live album The Luck And Strange Concerts. An admirable memento of a dark and velvet night, indeed.
