Pink Floyd at the V&A London, May 13 to October 1, 2017
We were just over a month in when we rolled up for the Pink Floyd exhibition at the V&A London, and while arguments still rage as to what kind of rock band they were, their global success is undisputed. I wondered how such an exhibit spanning almost half a century of work, and ideally with a massive musical content, could possibly be curated? Would it be saddled with traditional museum stuffiness, a sort of expanded biography with static exhibits?
I needn’t have worried. This show is a triumph of content, design, and continuity, of timeline, events, copious artwork and not least, the music. Abundant quantities of Pink Floyd memorabilia peppered our path as we progressed through the evolution of the band and its output, sucking in the stunning artwork and the evocative and memorable music tracks. I enjoyed 2 hours of unremitting, informative and musical pleasure, which passed in a flash, finally coming out into the bright summer light of the V&A cafe courtyard for a respectable flat white.
Each visitor was equipped with a personal set of remote synchronised and good quality Sennheiser HD 2.20 cans, closed back to insulate the sound of other visitors and other exhibits, with the audio feeds synchronized to each ‘station’, these filled with informative commentary and music tracks along the way.
Each visitor was equipped with a personal set of remote synchronised and good quality Sennheiser HD 2.20 cans, closed back to insulate the sound of other visitors and other exhibits, with the audio feeds synchronized to each ‘station’, these filled with informative commentary and music tracks along the way.
Sennheiser at the exhibition: you could purchase a version of the cans used for the show
The ground breaking Midas mixer, custom made for touring. Earlier, ’87-’88, Britannia Row had built a custom Quad Panner to send sound channels circling round a massive audience space. In fact the ‘Floyd had used quadraphonic concert systems as early as ‘67 at the QEH, pioneering immersive audience experiences.
The story of the cover shot for A Momentary Lapse of Reason revealed the immense almost cinematic care and thought that went into creating the iconic Pink Floyd images. This was dominated by the work of Hipgnosis, for example the ‘burning man’ image for Wish You Were Here.
Huge inflatables from famous scenes hovered over the visitors, here the Schoolmaster from The Wall, 30 foot high:
Huge inflatables from famous scenes hovered over the visitors, here the Schoolmaster from The Wall, 30 foot high:
The Schoolmaster from The Wall
The band's difficult history was delicately negotiated, and Rogers Waters vital contributions also given due recognition. The Battersea Power Station Pig was there together with larger than life statues, including those for that amazing cover of The Division Bell.
The Massive statues from The Division Bell
Their magnificent Hokusai decorated drum kit, of some 350 exhibits.
The surprise finale began with a dark corridor, leading to a massive high ceiling cubic performance space with projection of live concert tracks, with lasers, and tracking lighting and a powerful, high quality quadraphonic music system using Sennheiser AMBEO, and clearly well aligned. Founded on studio monitors, the powerful fast body shaking bass was from seven Neumann KH870 active sub woofers ( -3dB at 18Hz) and the surround sound from no less than eighteen KH420 mid field, three way active-crossover monitors, each capable of 115dB at 1 metre.
Visitors in the surround sound performance space
Visitors were stunned into rapt attention, swaying gently to the beat. In some respects, the sound was thought better than a live concert, here found intimate and immersive.
Highly Recommended
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Highly Recommended
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