Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon is one of my all-time favourite albums. I first heard it when I was 14 and I instantly fell in love with it. And I wasn’t alone: the album has old over 45 million copies and spent over 30 years in the Billboard charts.
So I was quite excited to see that there was to be an immersive of DSOTM at Jodrell Bank, Manchester University’s huge radio telescope, the largest in the UK and third largest in the world. What better place to capture the mood of this unique album?
As we meandered through the Cheshire countryside on a hot, quiet Sunday afternoon we were hardly prepared for the sudden appearance of the Lovell telescope, 250 feet in diameter and apparently just dropped into a farmer’s field.
As for the immersive experience itself, it was breathtaking. As the album played we were treated to visuals which picked up on the themes explored through the tracks - including greed, time, death and mental illness. To these were added visuals of the NASA Apollo mission to the Moon, making a unique show. Photos can hardly do justice to the show, projected onto the huge wrap-around screen.
An evening to remember.
