What unusual place did Pink Floyd perform in during the 1970s?

Pink Floyd performed in an ancient Roman amphitheater at Pompeii, Italy, during the 1970s. The performance was filmed in 1971 for the concert movie Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, which was released in 1972 and became one of the band’s most distinctive screen appearances.

The venue was the Amphitheatre of Pompeii, built around 70 BC and later buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. Pink Floyd played without a conventional concert audience; only the filmmakers and crew were present. That empty setting gave performances of songs such as “Echoes,” “One of These Days,” and “A Saucerful of Secrets” an eerie, spacious atmosphere.

The date can cause confusion because the filming happened in 1971, while the film’s original release was in 1972. It was not a performance on a boat, in a castle, or in a factory. The Pompeii sessions are often described as a concert film, although they were carefully filmed performances rather than a normal ticketed live show.