Pink Floyd - 2021 - The Dark Side Of The Lunatics (The Complete Rainbow Theatre 1972 Tapes / EVSD)

Pink Floyd

2021

The Dark Side Of The Lunatics
(The Complete Rainbow THeatre 1972 Tapes)

Empress Valley Supreme Disc

Day 1
Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London, UK, February 17, 1972

101. Speak To Me
102. Breathe
103. On The Run
104. Time
105. Breathe (Reprise)
106. The Great Gig In The Sky
107. Money
108. Us And Them
109. Any Colour You Like
110. Brain Damage
111. Eclipse

201. Tuning & Soundcheck
202. One Of These Days
203. Tuning & Soundcheck
204. Careful With The Axe, Eugene
205. Tuning & Soundcheck
206. Echoes
207. Tuning & Soundcheck
208. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun


Day 2
Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London, UK, February 18, 1972

301. Speak To Me
302. Breathe
303. On The Run
304. Time
305. Breathe (Reprise)
306. The Great Gig In The Sky
307. Money
308. Us And Them
309. Any Colour You Like
310. Brain Damage
311. Eclipse
312. Encore Break (Wind Tone S.E. & Soundcheck)
313. One Of These Days
314. Careful With The Axe, Eugene

401. Echoes
402. Tuning & Soundcheck
403. A Saucerful Of Secrets
404. Tuning & Soundcheck
405. Blues
406. Tuning & Soundcheck
407. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun


Day 3
Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London, UK, February 19, 1972

501. Breathe (Fade In)
502. On The Run
503. Time
504. Breathe (Reprise)
505. The Great Gig In The Sky
506. Money
507. Us And Them
508. Any Colour You Like
509. Brain Damage
510. Eclipse
511. One Of These Days
512. Careful With That Axe, Eugene

601. Echoes
602. A Saucerful Of Secrets (Cut)
603. Blues
604. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun


Day 4
Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park, London, UK, February 20, 1972

701. Speak To Me
702. Breathe
703. On The Run
704. Time
705. Breathe (Reprise)
706. The Great Gig In The Sky
707. Money
708. Us And Them
709. Any Colour You Like
710. Brain Damage
711. Eclipse
712. Tuning & Soundcheck
713. One Of These Days
714. Tuning & Soundcheck
715. Careful With That Axe, Eugene

801. Tuning & Soundcheck
802. Echoes / Encore Break
803. Audience Requests
804. A Saucerful Of Secrets
805. Blues
806. Audience Requests
807. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

Pink Floyd by the beginning of 1972 were growing tired of their stage show. In interviews leading up to the Rainbow gigs the members of the band were quoted in the press saying only “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” and “A Saucerful Of Secrets” provided any sort of challenge to them anymore. The rigidity of epic pieces such as “Atom Heart Mother,” coupled with their desire to outgrow the cliched appellation of “space rock,” lead them to compose their masterpiece Dark Side Of The Moon.

Several times before they wanted to write an extended piece of rock theater emulating the commedia dell’arte (The Man And The Journey and Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast come to mind). Neither of the two resonated either with the audience or their own talents. But “Eclipse,” the early name for Dark Side Of The Moon, did with its explorations of human madness and vanity.

This presented almost forty-five minutes of new music, and at this point allowed them to improvise to a degree. The band began touring for the new piece on January 20th in Brighton, a full month before the important London shows at the Rainbow. Press reports from the Brighton show were not very promising since they had a serious breakdown in equipment. Melody Maker described the new piece as “not impressive” and “lacking framework and conception.” (But the report singled out drummer Nick Mason for praise).

The month-long preparation tightened up the piece and the four sold-out concerts at the Rainbow were a major success. Melody Maker called the show “Pink Floyd’s Star Trek,” singling out the light show and special effects. New Musical Express likewise mentioned the special effects and called it a “magnificent production.”

And the Sunday Times, in an almost complete reversal of Melody Maker’s assessment of he Brighton show, pointed out that Pink Floyd “have structure to their music, beauty of form” and that their new music has “an uncanny feeling for melancholy for our times.”

All four shows were recorded from the audience in varying degrees of sound quality and completeness, but only the fourth show has received much attention. Given the superlative sound quality (and its alleged BBC source), there were many vinyl and silver disc editions.

The source tapes in this set are all as good as possible, and most of these shows are extremely rare to find. Empress Valley Supreme Disc presents the definitive versions of these shows in a gorgeous set. This is one of the best Pink Floyd releases to surface in quite a long time and may go down as one of the best Pink Floyd releases to ever be produced.

Rainbow Theater, Finsbury Park, London, England – February 17th, 1972

The first Rainbow show exists in a very sharp and clear mono audience recording. There are small cuts in “Time” at 3:04 and 3:42, and a couple minor drops outs, but is nevertheless an excellent, low-hiss recording.

It has seen some commercially produced editions. Time Ends (Shout To The Top STTP 162/163) claims to have the complete show, but the Dark Side set is really the excellent tape from the final night. The second set (“One Of These Days” to “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”) comes from this show but with “Echoes” and “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” reversed.

Rainbow Day 1 (Ayanami 212) was released on CDR with the correct tape, in the correct order, and with the speed adjusted. Godfather is the first silver pressed version of the complete first night in the Rainbow.

Given the publicity and importance of this set of shows, and especially of the opening night, Pink Floyd sound understandably tense and nervous. They play the Dark Sidesuite very cautiously, emphasizing each note and trying to be careful not to make any mistake. “On The Run” is a nice jam between Gilmour and Wright, and “The Mortality Sequence” contains the Muggeridge speech.

“Money” is restrained, as is “Any Colour You Like.” Overall the performance is effective, but would grow much better in the ensuing days.

The second half has a similar feel to the first. Roger Waters rarely addresses the audience as they play the older tunes. “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” has some interesting improvisation in the middle as does “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.” Wright has fun in the latter, providing 1950’s b-movie sci-fi sound effects.

Rainbow Theater, Finsbury Park, London, England – February 18th, 1972

Sound quality for the second night at the Rainbow Theatre is very good. It is very top heavy, emphasizing the treble with the bass pushed to the back and a lack of depth prevents this from being an excellent recording. “Set The Controls For Heart Of The Sun” is cut at 6:53 and 7:25. The only commercial release of this show is on Rainbow Day 2 (Ayanami 213) on CDR. This is the first silver pressed edition of the show.

The performance of Dark Side is much more interesting than the first night. Wright on keyboards definitely shines on this night, providing interesting fills and variations in the melodies. His performance is a reminder that, before Waters’ vision (and ego) grew to dominate the band, Wright was singled out as the talent of the band.

He plays a catchy jazzy riff in “On The Run” and switches to a slow, pious organ for “The Great Gig In The Sky.” Gilmour plays a great solo in “Money” which requires him to play double time since there is no saxophone in these early performances. The transition from “Us And Them” into “Any Colour You Like” is a bit clunky, but the ending is spectacular with the audience reacting loudly to the air raid sirens at the end of “Eclipse.”

After a twenty minute break they tune their instruments. The wind sound effect, the one used for “One Of These Days,” can be heard.

Waters introduces “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” as a “golden oldie.” The audience are receptive enough to determine when the flash pots go off during the song. The are noisy between songs, shouting out requests. After “Echoes,” which Wright again dominates, they shout out for “A Saucerful Of Secrets,” and get it.

Again, they shout out requests for obscure songs (“Sysyphus” is a popular choice), but they get the Pink Floyd blues instead. After more shouting, Floyd give them “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” as a final encore. On all counts this is a marked improvement over the first night. Both “A Saucerful Of Secrets” and the blues improv were added to the set and would remain for the rest of the Rainbow shows, making them all over two hours long.

Rainbow Theater, Finsbury Park, London, England – February 19th, 1972

The third night, because it exists in fragments, is the most obscure of the four. Only by combining two unique tape sources can the show be heard in its (almost) entirety. The first tape source is good to very good but with slight traces of hiss. It is not noticeably except in quieter passages. “Speak To Me” and all but the final minute of “Breathe” are lost.

A lot of work went into making this tape sound smooth. Drop outs during “Breath,” “The Mortality Sequence,” the beginning of “Money” and the start of “One Of These Days” were smoothed over. It has been speed and balanced corrected to make it quite listenable.

Source two picks up with “Echoes” and runs to the end of the show (the original taper lost his cassette with the first half of the show). It is much brighter since the taper stood closer to the stage. A couple of glitches in “Echoes” have been smoothed over, and there are several small cuts and tape crinkles in “A Saucerful Of Secrets” (points where the taper’s recorder ate the tape in the ensuing years).

Day three has the most uneven Dark Side of the four. Some parts, like Wright’s keyboards in “The Great Gig In The Sky” which sound almost like Phillip Glass and the ensemble playing in “Money” are definite highlights.

But the transition from “On The Run” into “Time” is extremely rocky since Gilmour comes in several measures too early. Also, the power goes out briefly three and a half minutes into “Brain Damage.” The music abruptly stops and some confused members of the audience applaud, thinking the set is over. The band pick up, finish “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” without incident.

“Echoes” features Gilmour’s best guitar riffing of the night. Afterwards someone by the stage makes very strange, ugly noises and says some rude (but inaudible) things. “I like you” Waters jokes. “I have an affinity for you. This next song is called ‘Set…” No, that’s not it at all. The next song is ‘A Saucerful Of Secrets.'”

The “Pink Floyd Blues” has to restart (met with sarcastic cheers from the audience), and the final encore is a thirteen minute long “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” with what the taper describes as “incredible soaring, echoing quadrophonics” which unfortunately do not come across in the mono recording.

Overall it is a strange night at the Rainbow for the band. Equipment problems were kept to a minimum and they were able to overcome early struggles, but it is an uneven performance compared to the others in this set.

Rainbow Theater, Finsbury Park, London, England – February 20th, 1972

The fourth and final night at the Rainbow is the most famous of the shows and is many people’s very first listen to what would be on of the most important and highest selling rock LP’s in history. Several tapes exists including a superlative sounding audience tape which is so good many thought it was a soundboard recording or a BBC radio broadcast.

No record of any broadcast exists, however, and muffled conversations in the lower right channel betray it as an audience tape. It was used on the first vinyl release The Best Of Tour ’72 (16-421/422) which originated in Europe and was quickly copied in the US and Japan and has been in circulation ever since. The Swingin’ Pig Records released The Best Of Tour 72 (TSP-CD-049) in 1990 on compact disc.

This is one of the titles produced by this label, along with Liver’ Than You’ll Ever Be, which was criticized for their heavy handed mastering using the No-Noise which eliminated the hiss but also clipped the music too producing a horrible sounding affect.

Dark Side Of The Sky (Chapter One CO 25117), Forbidden Samples (Neutral Zone NZCD 89007) and The Live Side of The Moon (Seagull Records) are other releases of this tape. The definitive version of these tapes were pressed on The Best Of Tour 72 (Siréne-135), which is still a good title to have for the unedited tape sources.

WVSD use a mix of all three sources to present the show in its entirety and in the best possible sound quality. It begins with the second audience tape, but then edits into the excellent quality “radio” tape for the Dark Side suite. The cuts in “Time,” “Us & Them” and the latter half of “Eclipse” are filled with the second audience source again.

The second half of the show utilizes another audience recording. The editing job between them is very nicely handled, minimizing the differences in sound quality between them.

“On The Run” is the same arrangement they played throughout the entire year until the LP was released, being a jam between Wright and Gilmour. This version is very intense with Gilmour reaching a tense crescendo before segueing into “Time.”

“Money” has a long bass intro and an extended guitar solo at the end. It sounds like someone missed a cue as happens also in the following song “Us & Them.” Wright misses the time signatures at the beginning and extends the measures two extra beats until Mason comes in and gets the band back on track.

“Eclipse” ends with very loud sirens going off in the theater which impressed the newspapers in their reviews the following week. After “One Of These Days” Waters says: “There are people outside with petition…anti-all-this midnight assembly rubbish which is going through Parliament, so if you can sign it when you go out…”

“Careful With That Axe, Eugene” sounds very creepy in this recording and comes very close to The Doors’ “Not To Touch The Earth” (I sometimes believe that track is Waters’ Jim Morrison tribute).

“A Saucerful Of Secrets” closes the set on a high note despite Wright’s miscue in “Storm Signal.” His wandering head drove the band to the brink several times during the show. The band play the “Pink Floyd Blues” as the first encore, introduced by Waters as “something different.” And finally “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” closes the show and London’s introduction to the new Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd - 1979 - Another Wall

Pink Floyd
1979
Another Wall

EVSD 1418/1419

An alternative, extended version of The Wall

101. Prelude [Vera Lynn] (outtake)
102. Another Brick In The Wall (intro) (outtake)
103. In The Flesh? (from "The Wall")
104. The Thin Ice (early version)
105. Another Brick In The Wall Part 1 (from "The Wall")
106. Teacher, Teacher (outtake/demo)
107. Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 (Part 2 Prelude) (outtake)
108. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives (from "The Wall")
109. Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 (from "The Wall")
110. Mother (from "The Wall")
111. When The Tigers Broke Free (single version)
112. The Thin Ice (Reprise) (outtake)
113. Goodbye Blue Sky (alternate extended mix)
114. What Shall We Do Now? (from "The Wall" film)
115. Young Lust (early version)
116. Sexual Revolution (outtake/demo)
117. Another Brick In The Wall (Part 3 Prelude)
118. One Of My Turns (single B-side version)
119. Don't Leave Me Now (early rough mix)
120. Empty Spaces (from "The Wall")
121. Another Brick In The Wall Part 3 (from "The Wall")
122. The Last Few Bricks (outtake)
123. Goodbye Cruel World (from "The Wall")

201. Hey You (from "The Wall")
202. I.s There Anybody Out There Part 1
203. No.body Home (from "The Wall")
204. The .Final Cut (from "The Final Cut")
205. Is There Anybody Out There (outtake)
206. Vera (alternate take)
207. Is There Anybody Out There Part 3 (outtake)
208. Bring The Boys Back Home (single B-side version)
209. Comfortably Numb (from "The Wall")
210. The Show Must Go On (alternate lyrics)
211. In The Flesh (from "The Wall")
212. Run Like Hell (extended promo mix)
213. Waiting For The Worms (early version)
214. Stop (from "The Wall")
215. The Trial (from "The Wall")
216. Outside The Wall (alternate version)
217. It's Not Easy (outtake)

Pink Floyd would end the 70’s by releasing their most ambitious project ever, the double LP entitled The Wall. All of the group’s most popular records from the decade beginning with Dark Side Of The Moon, would be concept projects as the songs told a story if you will. On those records, Roger Waters would be the lyricists and visionary if you will with the music being formed by Gilmour, Wright, and to a lesser extent Mason. What started as the next Floyd album would eventually turn into one of the most visually intense concert experiences and finally into a motion picture. Like most I consider The Wall to be a masterwork, equally as important and impressive as Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, and like those records has withstood the ultimate test, time. I’ve got many live Wall recordings in my collection but until recently, no releases of the outtakes or demos that circulate.

Pink Floyd have been guarded with their studio material, compared to bands like The Beatles, The Stones, or even Led Zeppelin, there is precious little from their recording sessions out there until the Immersion sets were released in 2011-2012. It seems like the stars were in line as just after I get a copy of a couple of Wall demos, Wall In Progress (Sigma 255), that this new title by Empress Valley comes to light. The Sigma release is two different demo versions of The Wall, Empress Valley have taken a different approach. First off I am extremely grateful that the label has added two fold open sheets that gives us information for this release as well as track listing and a brief bit of information on each track. Basically what EV has done is to produce a “complete” version of The Wall as it was originally written before the constraints of time forced Waters to cut and focus the work to fit onto the slabs of vinyl. To do this they use existing studio demos, B-sides, and music from The Wall record itself. I guess we could consider this the “Directors Cut” if you will. First off, the sound quality of this set is excellent, the blending of studio demo material with the officially released music is extremely well done and only a couple times does something sound sonically out of place, another plus.

To aid me in listening and learning, and better understanding this release I have used the notes included by EV and the excellent Comfortably Numb A History of “The Wall” book by Vernon Fitch and Richard Mahon. I bought this book recently and am blown away by it, superbly researched and equally visually impressive. I am also using Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) as a reference, the first disc is credited as Early 1979 Demo, the second disc is a Late 1979 Demo.

Warning, this may get tedious, reader be warned!

Prelude (Vera Lynn) This is an outtake, it is the exact same thing as found on the Sigma Wall In Progress CD 1 track 1. Until I started reading I never searched who Vera Lynn was, once I did it was like getting hit with the bat named obvious. A singer slash entertainer popular in the 40’s whose song We’ll Meet Again would give hope to those entrenched in the second World War and those who kept the home front.

Another Brick In The Wall (Intro) (Outtake) EV says this was the original first song intended for The Wall, cut at the last minute. It seems plausible as it is like a lyrical overture to The Wall, again from the first disc of Sigma Wall in Progress. 

In The Flesh? (from “The Wall”) The brilliant opening track taken from the official version of The Wall, Pink Floyd at their heaviest.

The Thin Ice (Early Version) This early version of The Thin Ice begins like the official version but the heavy part is replaced by a piano piece. The notes on this EV state that The Wall was originally a blue album before Bob Ezrin added the orchestration, this is true for this song. This is also found on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) disc 1.

Another Brick In The Wall Part 1 (from “The Wall”) The segue from The Thin Ice into Another Brick Part 1 is excellent.

Teacher, Teacher (outtake / demo) An interesting piece, musically reminiscent of Short and Sweet on David Gilmour’s first solo record. Lyrically a depiction of the abusive Teacher that would be expanded on Another Brick part 2.

Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 prelude (Outtake) An early version of Another Brick Part 2, the guitar is very interesting in this song. This song would be reworked as The Heroes Return on The Final Cut. This track and the prior one are both found on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) disc 1.

The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, and Mother are all taken from the official release of The Wall.

When The Tigers Broke Free (Single version) A piece from The Wall movie, this is taken from its original release as a single in 1982 and eventually added to The Final Cut when it was reissued in 2004. Great song lyrically.

The Thin Ice reprise (Outtake) Basically an instrumental portion of the latter part of The Thin Ice, the heavy section with its great guitar playing by David, also found on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) disc 1. 

Goodbye Blue Sky (alternate extended mix) They use the intro from the official version, “Look mommy there’s an aeroplane up in the sky” the rest is also found on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) disc 1.

What Shall We Do Now? (from “The Wall” film) Certainly written for the live show and one of the animated highlights from The Wall movie, the evolution of Empty Spaces into this heavy monstrosity is perfection, like In The Flesh, Pink Floyd at their heaviest. The latter demo found on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) disc 2 has an embryonic version of this song referred to as Backs To The Wall.

Young Lust (Early version) and Sexual Revolution (Outtake / demo) These two songs go together, the early version of Young Lust is really interesting, the tempo is much different with an almost hip hop lyrical delivery, the chorus is the only portion used on the official version. Sexual Revolution is interesting, it sounds very much out of place, you do not hear David’s guitar so must be a session player. Discarded early on but eventually used on the Pros And Cons Of Hitchhiking. Both of these are also on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) disc 1.

Another Brick In The Wall Part 3 (prelude) An interesting short piece, commonly referred to as Another Brick: Drugs.

One Of My Turns (Single B-side version) The classic complete with groupie intro, taken from the single version. I am pausing this review as it’s my bath time.

Don’t Leave Me Now (Early rough mix) Clean as a whistle, this should be referred to as the deep breathing version.

Empty Spaces, Another Brick In The Wall Part 3, The Last Few Bricks (Outtake), Goodbye Cruel World. Other than The Last Few Bricks all are culled from the official version of The Wall. Most know Few Bricks it an instrumental passage featuring musical themes from the first set that allowed the “brick builders” time to finish the wall prior to the intermission.

Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There Part 1, Nobody Home. All three culled from The Wall official release.

The Final Cut (from The Final Cut) The liner notes state The Final Cut was written for inclusion on The Wall but was dropped early on and later revisited for The Final Cut. The song is included here as it fills a hole in the story narrative.

Is There Anybody Out There (Outtake) This and the next version of Is There Anybody Out There are very interesting, radically different from the official release, both are also found on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) disc 1. 

Vera (Alternate take) Another amazing alternate version, sparse and dissident that goes with the narrative of being lost in a haze of drugs and psychosis.

Is There Anybody Out There Part 3 (Outtake) See above, the liner state that Is There Anybody Out There was written as a reoccurring theme and this is an attempt to correct the sequence. The mastering of these three tracks is really good.

Bring The Boys Back Home (Single B-side version) This is the orchestrated version with choir.

Comfortably Numb Taken from the official version of The Wall. Interesting, but correct choice. While the couple versions of the early version of this song entitled The Doctor are on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255), they do not have the emotional power that this version has.

The Show Must Go On (Alternate lyrics) Interesting but not superior in any way to the official version.

In The Flesh Taken from the official version of The Wall, like its predecessor, you cannot mess with perfection. That being said the version found on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) disc 2 is very good, perhaps not as dynamic and sonically not up to par.

Run Like Hell (Extended promo mix) Roughly 20 seconds longer than the version found on The Wall, this is the perfect version for inclusion on this set. Several songs and themes and themes were either cut for time or removed all together to keep the project to a double LP format. Interesting that this song was something David Gilmour had not used for his first solo album.

Waiting For The Worms (Early Version) They should call this the small band version, a perfect example of what The Wall could have sounded like if Ezrin was never brought in. Also found on Wall In Progress l are both taken from the official version of The Wall. After listening to both versions on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255) it was clear to me that EV made the right decision by using this version. The others are too sparse and would have sounded out of place. The orchestration on this version is perfection.

Outside The Wall (Alternate version), It’s Not Easy (Outtake) Outside The Wall uses a harmonica instead of the clarinet that I prefer as it seems more humble, and if one could gather, Pink has been humbled. It’s Not Easy is an extension of Outside The Wall.

First off the mastering of this set is excellent, many songs segue into each other and the work here is likened to that of an official release. The sound of the official material versus the demo material is very well done and speaking of the latter, is superior to the versions of each found on Wall In Progress (Sigma 255). Certainly the outtake and demo material is culled from the 2012 Immersion box set, I do not own it so cannot make a comparison. 

The packaging is very nice, glossy slick cover and interior with an almost holographic film over it, clear when you look straight on but at an angle when you pick up light you get a rainbow effect that is eerily similar to the Dark Side Of The Moon album cover. The pictures on the CDs mirror the front and rear cover which are themselves mirror images of each other. The interior is made up of story board illustrations taken from pages 130 and 131 of The Making Of Pink Floyd The Wall book by Gerald Scarfe. The track listing insert is very nice and is something that the Sigma set sorely lacks, overall an excellent presentation both musically and visually. An interesting take on The Wall, the idea of trying to present the most complete version of the story is interesting in theory and as a listening experience but IMO not better, just an alternate view. 

Pink Floyd - 1971 - All Together Now (71 Hakone Aphrodite)

Pink Floyd
1971
All Together Now - '71 Hakone Aphrodite

EVSD 1423/1424

August 6, 1971
Hakone Aphrodite
Hakone, Kanagawa

Japan

Audience recording

101 Soundcheck - Opening Announce
102 Atom Heart Mother
103 Careful With That Axe, Eugene
104 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

201 Echoes
202 A Saucerful Of Secrets
203 Closing Announce

Pink Floyd’s first trip to Japan consisted of three concerts, the first two were at the open air festival ’71 Hakone Aphrodite in Hakone, Japan, a city roughly two hours drive south from Tokyo, the third was at the Festival Hall in Osaka. While there has not been any confusion regarding the Osaka date, there certainly has for the Hakone performances. There are five different recordings from one of the dates, some giving the date as August 6, others listing it August 7, while others simply labeling it as August 1971. There have been two recordings that have surfaced that begin to provide much needed clarity. First off is recorder 4 that surfaced back in mid 2015, a 55 minute recording featuring three songs, Atom Heart Mother, Echoes, and Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun. This recording was issued by Sigma as Hakone Aphrodite 1971 Master Recording (Sigma 138) and its immediate follow up Hakone Aphrodite 1971 Remastered and Restored (Sigma 139). I own Sigma 138 and on the interior there is a picture of what is assumed the master reel, it is dated August 7 which would be the second Hakone show. The next recording surfaced a year later, a near complete audience recording released as Complete Aphrodite 1971 (Sigma 160), these recordings originate from the same performance and while the Sigma 138 title does not give a specific date on the artwork, Sigma 160 clearly states August 6.

In October 2020 Empress Valley began to tease an upcoming release with a photograph that was clearly from the Hakone Festival, and when the title finally was released in December, is was quickly uploaded to the intra-web and the discussions began. The new recording is dated as being from August 6, the first day of ’71 Hakone Aphrodite, this is corroborated by the closing speech by Goro Itoi:

"Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

Pink Floyd!

The band was supposed to play for about an hour, but Pink Floyd played for almost two hours.

They played a total of five songs. Some of the reporters asked me to tell you about the songs they played, so here is a brief introduction of the songs they played.

The first song was the well-known “Atom Heart Mother”. Japanese title is “Genshi-shin-bo”.

The second song is “Careful With That Axe, Eugene“. Eugene is a person’s name, “Eugene yo, Ono ni kiwotukero”.

The third song is “Echoes,” a song that uses the echo machine to its fullest extent. Echoes. In Japanese, it means “Kodama”.

The fourth song was “Set The Controls For The Heart Mother Sun”. Set The Controls For The Heart Mother Sun, not Atom Heart Mother.

The fifth song is “A Saucerful Of Secrets”. It’s called “Osara ippai no himitsu”. This is the literal translation.

They played the above five songs.

Sponsored by Nippon Broadcasting System Inc, the first day of Hakone Aphrodite, the first day of today, it has ended successfully thanks to everyone.

Thank you very much. Please have a safe trip home. Thank you for your cooperation."

(Many thanks to Yeeshkull member shuffle who not only uploaded this recording quickly, but who also provided this important translation)

Based upon this recording we can firmly date the other recordings as firmly being from the second concert on August 7. This new Hakone recording is very important from a document standpoint as it provides the much needed information for us to properly date the Hakone recordings, so in that regards it is an essential piece. An essential document does not always translate into a must listen for the casual collector, in fact just the opposite. The recording featured on this new release from Empress Valley is an overall good recording, at times it dips into just a fare rating, other times it goes into the very good range. It’s best attributed is its clarity, even in the worse areas of the recording, you can make out what is happening. The volume goes from muffled to bright and back continually during the performance. The bass frequencies are very deep yet it does not lead to excessive distortion and there are many instances of wind noise on the microphone and is the source for the majority of the distortion present. The tape is also incomplete, the taper paused the machine between songs and Set The Controls ends just a couple seconds before the end of the song.

The recording does have a good balance and as I mentioned before is clear with virtually no hiss. We do get a few instances of between song introductions, just prior to Atom Heart Mother you get Dave mike testing “One two…one two”, Roger introduces the following song “This is called Careful With That Axe, Eugene, and he also gives the final introduction “Ok this is the last tune we’re going to play tonight it’s called A Saucerful of Secrets, thank you very much for coming”. Even with the continual fluctuation of the sound, the distortion is minimal and is a very listenable tape for the committed. Once you surrender to the sound you are treated to an excellent performance by Pink Floyd. Atom Heart Mother is the shorter 15 minute version, and for me works extremely well as it is a more focused piece. The audience is very excited to hear Pink Floyd, they cheer, laugh and clap at the beginning of the piece in obvious joy. The version of Careful With That Axe, Eugene is just tremendous, Roger’s scream is bloodcurdling and very intense, a fantastic version of the song. The fact that the band did not play Green Is The Colour as a prelude lends me to believe they were under time constraints. 

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun is a very unique version, about eight minutes in during Richard Wright’s soundscape section he plays the child laughing tape, one can only think there were many people looking around for the crying infant. Echoes is excellent, it’s interesting to hear as it sounds fresh and even while the band play a laid back version, it is very dynamic and makes Atom Heart Mother sound dated. The band are still using the “Planets singing face to face” lyrics and the band just soar after the lyrical portion is over leading into a great funky section. Roger’s bass at the beginning of A Saucerful Of Secrets is very powerful and deep in a good way. There are some casual conversations during the Syncopated Pandemonium section, Nick’s drums are fine in the mix and even when they fade they still can be heard only to rise again in sound, Dave’s sound effects are also moving and mysterious. Celestial Voices clocks in at almost eight minutes and is excellent, the band just let the final piece just build naturally, a very strong ending to the band’s first concert in Japan.

The packaging is beautiful, the entire front and a third of the back is the event poster, the interior features the site map from the program as well as two pictures of Roger, Nick, and David in their hotel lobby looking rather casual and relaxed. There is a postcard size picture included of a shot perhaps taken by the taper looking up to the stage with Roger Water’s manning his cymbals. The CD’s have different pictures on them as well, again superb packaging that pays homage to the event itself, something I am a big fan of. When I first read that this cover was going to be a 7″ size, I wasn’t thrilled, but after looking it over I can’t fault it, only applaud it. For the serious Pink Floyd collector this is a must have, but is not recommended for the casual collector, from what I have read it is sold out but certainly Empress Valley will release a second version. 

Pink Floyd - 1969 - Live In Amsterdam 1969

Pink Floyd
September 17, 1969
Concertgebouw

Amsterdam

Live In Amsterdam 1969 - Top Gear

Part I - The Man

01. Introduction 1:00
02. Daybreak 8:11
03. Work 3:53
04. Teatime 3:34
05. Afternoon 5:13
06. Doing It 4:03
07. Sleep 4:37
08. Nightmare 9:14
09. Daybreak (Part Two) 1:21

Part II - The Journey
01. The Beginning 4:55
02. Beset By The Creatures Of The Deep 6:27
03. The Narrow Way 5:13
04. The Pink Jungle 4:48
05. The Labyrinths Of Auximenes 6:39
06. Behold The Temple Of Light 5:31
07. The End Of The Beginning 6:54

This is the complete soundboard source as recorded by Hilversum 3 Radio and is the "raw" source HRV used for their remaster
Several concert recordings exist of The Man and The Journey and many people probably possess cd's of these pieces without realizing it. The Man and The Journey were two parts of “More Furious Madness From The Massed Gadgets of Auximines” and consisted of several well-known Floyd tunes linked into a concept piece as follows:

MORE FURIOUS MADNESS FROM THE MASSED GADGETS OF AUXIMENIES

PART ONE: THE MAN (representing a day in the life of a man)

Daybreak (“Grantchester Meadows”)
Work (Sawing, Hammering in a I fashion)
[the band was served afternoon tea on stage at this point]
Afternoon (“Biding My Time”)
Doing It (instrumental) (“Grand Vizier’s Garden Party, pt. 3”)
Sleep
Nightmare (“Cymbaline”)
Daybreak (reprise)

PART TWO: THE JOURNEY

The Beginning (“Green is the Colour”)
Beset By Creatures of the Deep (“Careful with that Axe, Eugene”)
The Narrow Way (“The Narrow Way, pt. 3”)
The Pink Jungle (“Pow R Toc H”)
The Labyrinths of Auximines (“Moonhead”)
Behold the Temple of Light
The End of the Beginning (“Saucerful of Secrets” — final part)

The complete piece lasted about 70 minutes.

Do any recordings exist ?

Officially, no. However, the following shows are known to be recorded and are circulating on tape:

14 April 69: Royal Festival Hall, London (I think the original performance. A tape of this show exists but is very very rare. Easily identifiable because it has IO as an encore. A lot of people still list the 26jun69 show as this show).
22 June 69: Free Trade hall, Manchester. Has Set the Controls as an encore, tape contains lots of cuts
26 June 69: Royal Albert Hall, London. a.k.a. The Final Lunacy. Brass and Choir on the closing section of a Journey. Two different recordings of this show are available.
8th August 69: Plumpton Festival The Journey only — Roger introduces it as “the second half of… a kind of concept thing… we did around the country a bit earlier this year.”
17 September 69: Concertgebouw, Amsterdam Recorded and broadcasted by Dutch radio, and the source of many cd's. Recently the (almost) complete concert was rebroadcasted and treed on Echoes. This is the version to hunt for. The broadcast only misses the non-musical parts (Work, the bird noises in daybreak, etc.) and is in soundboard quality. This show had no encore. Behold the Temple Of Light lacks keyboards, because Rick Wright left his usual spot and ran to the big pipe organ of the Concertgebouw and plays that during the ‘The End of the Beginning’ section.

“Biding My Time”
There has been some debate as to who actually plays the trumpet during Biding My Time. Conrado Daws and Karl Magnacca settled this by providing the following information:

Rick Wright did, at least during live performances. We have a picture of him playing it in a “The Man”/”The Journey”-era concert, and, during the trumpet portion of the song, you can hear Roger-esque ass but no keyboard.

“So who or what is Auximines/Auximenes?”
No one knows. Dave Gilmour said in an interview that it might have been someone from Greek mythology, but he didn’t know for sure.
There is a Belgian (mining) company called Auximines.
It begs belief that the Floyd have released loads of inferior demo versions of tracks from The Wall but this remains unreleased and extremely hard to obtain, unless you want to remortgage your house to pay for it! The concepts are simply excellent, with The Man representing 24 hours in somebody's life, including Work (where I believe members even sawed up pieces of wood on stage) to Teatime (literally a tea-break in the middle of the gig) to Doing It (a drum solo with a recording of what sounds like John Lennon speaking) and the return of a ticking clock and birdsong following the eerie 'Nightmare' conclusion to Cymbaline.
Yes, you are going to hear live versions of some of the More tracks incorporated into the concepts, but they are simply amazing to hear in this format. My only criticism is the split second pauses between the tracks which slightly interrupt the continuity
The Journey includes the often bootlegged Behold the Temple of Light which uses 4 chords from the transition between parts 2 and 3 of Ummagumma's The Narrow Way to dramatic effect with huge percussive gong sounds.
Gilmour's vocal on The Narrow Way is a little wafty, but the rousing finale (actually the conclusion to A Saucerful of Secrets) may even rival the blistering live version on Ummagumma. The atmosphere from the audience is captured here too and adds to the charm of this recording IMO. There are even a few chuckles when tea is served.
It's such a shame that fans are virtually criminalised for listening to music they clearly want to hear, so come on guys, let's have a mainstream release, or do we forever have to scrabble about on YouTube to hear gems like this live set, Vegetable Man, Scream thy last Scream, Embryo, King Bee, Lucy Leave. . . I could go on!

Note, some versions omit Teatime and most of the Work section. Personally I feel that these non-musical tracks are essential to the concept.
In 1969 Pink Floyd were touring a show they called The Massed Gadgets of Auximenes. They would do 2 suites of songs, "The Man" and "The Journey", which varied somewhat from night to night. Later that year some of these songs turned up on More and Ummagumma, but here they are still carrying working titles which are different. Puzzlingly, for this show even the older songs were given different names; programmes from the tour list the titles seen here.
This 17 Sept Amsterdam show was broadcast by Dutch FM radio, and has very good stereo sound (by bootleg standards). It has been re-issued/re-packaged a great many times under different titles, so it can be tricky to avoid duplicates if you're collecting other '69 Floyd shows.

The re-named songs are:

"Daybreak" = Grantchester Meadows
"Work" = Biding My Time
"Doing It" = a bit of Grand Vizier's Garden Party
"Sleep" = Quicksilver
"Nightmare" = Cymbaline
"The Beginning" = Green is the Colour
"Beset by Creatures of the Deep" = Careful With That Axe Eugene
"The Pink Jungle" = Pow R. Toc H.
"The End of the Beginning" = the 'Celestial Voices' finale of Saucerful of Secrets

The songs all segue together, meaning there is little crowd noise. A radio host talks over the music a couple of times, sounding like he's covering a Dutch golf tourney, but this is a minor complaint.
What makes this recording so special is that the song versions here are often quite different and better than the studio ones. Often stunningly so! The instrumentals like "...Auximenes" and "Behold..." are unique to this tour and alone are worth getting hold of this recording for. Others, particularly "Teatime/Afternoon", were simply effects meant to showcase the quadraphonic PA system the band was using in live venues at the time. Fun if you happened to be in attendance, but merely a footnote for us now. "Work" (Biding My Time) was also unique to this tour until a studio version was finally issued on 1971's Relics compilation. The version of "Pow R. Toc H" (called The Pink Jungle here) will really amaze you if you've only heard the '67 official one.

A word about Dave Gilmour's shockingly off-key vocals here and there: Since his problem seems to be a unique to this show, perhaps the venue lacked proper stage monitors - still a common issue in 1969. Without stage monitors at a rock show, singers cannot hear themselves, with predictably dire vocal results. It seems likely that's what happened here. Still, Gilmour's issue in no way reduces the overall value of this unique recording.

I've been a casual Floyd fan for over 35 years, and this year marks the first time I've heard this amazing show. Pink Floyd were at their best during 1968-72, and this show is truly a highlight of that period.

Pink Floyd - 1969 - Plumpton 1969

Pink Floyd
1969-08-08
9th National Jazz & Blues Festival
Plumpton

Plumpton 1969/Sigma 233

01. Introduction
02. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
03. Cymbaline "The Journey" Suite
04. The Beginning
05. Beset By Creatures Of The Deep
06. The Narrow Way
07. The Pink Jungle
08. The Labyrinths Of Auximines
09. Behind The Temple Of Light
10. The End Of The Beginning
11. Interstellar Overdrive

There are two known recordings for the Plumpton gig, the first referred to as recorder 1 was recorded by Anders V and is an incomplete audience source clocking in at 36 minutes. It is very clear and detailed with just a small amount of tape hiss, easily falling into the very good plus range. However, due to it being an open air gig, the sound is thin yet the instruments and vocals are nicely balanced and features the first part of the performance, from the introduction through The Narrow Way. The second source is again an audience recording taped by Nick Ralph, an early Floyd enthusiast who also recorded the Southampton 1969 and Royal Albert Hall 1969 shows. His recording captures the complete show in very good sound quality, it is again clear and detailed although sometimes is hard to initially hear as it has more hiss than source 1. It also has a better frequency range, much fuller sounding with quite nice bottom end and very much compliments the first tape. The first source is used through the 4:52 mark of The Narrow Way, the remainder comes from recorder 2, the transitions of tape sources is excellent and while you can clearly here the differences in recordings it does not hamper ones enjoyment of the performance.

The only release of the Plumpton concert to date is an old Highland title The Journey Through The Past (Highland-HL195) that uses recorder 1 and adds A Saucerful Of Secrets from the Pepperland 1970 concert. I was curious how these would compare so I pulled out my copy of the Highland release. It actually holds up well, this new Sigma version is not as loud and has just a bit more hiss, it also has a warmer feel and better frequency range making it much easier on the ears, the Highland sound almost brittle in comparison. It should also be noted that a two source composite was done by the Yeeshkul community, that is not the source for this release but a CD-R version of that set was offered as “bonus” for this set by some distributors. I snagged some info from that torrent I thought gave some insightful information on the event itself:

One of 42 acts scheduled, the Floyd were booked to appear at 10.25 p.m. for an hour on Friday 8 August, following UFO club friends and rivals Soft Machine and closing the first night of the three-day festival. Future collaborators Ron Geesin and Roy Harper appeared on the other two days, along with major groups such as The Who.

The festival comperes, one of whom can be heard at the start of recorder 1, at the end of The Journey on this recording and after the encore, were John C Gee (Marquee Club) and Colin Caldwell (Marquee Studios).

Including a nice Ummagumma style sleeve photo, the event programme noted in the style of the time that Pink Floyd’s “music is so highly personal many a pagan has been converted to their musical conceptions.” For their “unique, avant garde” contribution to proceedings records show that the band were paid £600.

Because of power problems affecting the preceding bands, some accounts suggest the Floyd played their set in the early hours of Saturday morning when, it’s commonly reported, a good part of the audience had gone to sleep. It’s possible therefore that we should therefore really be referring to the date of this tape as 9 August 1969. International Times 63 records the start time differently, however, suggesting the “the Floyd finally appeared at 11, very cool and unconcerned by it all.”

IT went on to say that “their sound was as nicely balanced as it’s ever been outdoors but there was a controlling restraint that went through the first part of their set which was unfortunate under the circumstances, as already there were hang-ups with the last train.”

The recording features the intro “…welcome to the Pink Floyd” to a nice round of applause, one that is equal to Roger’s introduction of “This is a song called Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”. The song continues to evolve just three months after the live recordings that would be featured on Ummagumma, there is a very nice improvisation section just before the second set of lyrics that sounds a bit like the Storm Section of A Saucerful Of Secrets. Richard tests the seabirds sound effects during the tune ups, Roger introduces the next song as “This is a much newer song, its called Cymbaline”, written for the recently released More soundtrack, the song was also part of “The Man” segment where it was entitled Nightmare/ Daybreak, this version is nice and melancholy and sans footsteps section.

“Some of you may have seen we did a kind of concert thing around the country a bit earlier this year, and this, which is what we’re gonna do now ’til we finish, is the second half of that concert. It’s called The Journey”. The piece begins with the paring of Green Is The Colour into Careful With That Axe, Eugene aka The Beginning and Beset By Creatures Of The Deep. Rogers’s screams during Beset drown out Gilmour’s leads and while the beginning is rather up tempo once the violence subsides they get into some really ambient playing that surely will be expanded upon in the coming years.

One of my favorite pieces of the studio side of Ummagumma is David Gilmour’s The Narrow Way, dramatic and very haunting and one pretty heavy as well, I love the live versions from The Journey as well as the BBC Sessions. The Pink Jungle is a very cool take on Pow R Toc H, very interesting hearing Roger’s vocals, part owl part Eugene. The Pink Jungle, The Labyrinths Of Auximines is a variation of A Saucerful Of Secrets with some wonderful bubbling sounds inter spaced over the top and really is a musical description the songs title, or vice versa. This leads into the footsteps and doors soundscape that would feature heavy in future versions of Cymbaline and become a highlight of future live performances.

Behold The Temple Of Light is a rather monotone instrumental piece that is not really interesting but a variation of a small piece of The Narrow Way, The End Of The Beginning is the Celestial Voices from A Saucerful Of Secrets and a stunning ending to an avant garde music piece, it is easy to see why this stayed in the live repertoire versus The Man, it is a more coherent music piece and very enjoyable. The encore is a superb version of Interstellar Overdrive, Roger plays some very aggressive bass runs leading into a Gilmour and Wright trading what can only be described to as “notes” and the song, the recording is cut at the 10:50 mark just as the band were getting into the coda, strange as their is a bit of audience noise cheering afterwards.

The packaging is typical for Sigma, bright hot pink coloured cover adorned with live shots of the group, ticket stub, and a couple different posters. First off this is an excellent sounding document of a superb mid 1969 performance by Pink Floyd as complete as we will ever get. Secondly it’s about time. The 1967-1969 years of Pink Floyd have largely been ignored by Sigma, sadly as this period is very interesting and very transitional, one can only hope they will look deeper into the well and give us more.

Pink Floyd ‎- 1969 - The Man And The Journey: Legendary London 1969 Performances

Pink Floyd

1969

The Man And The Journey: Legendary London 1969 Performances

Eat A Peach! ‎– EAT 74/75/76/77

April 14th, 1969
Royal Festival Hall

Southbank, London

Afternoon Rehearsal
101. Biding My Time
102. The Beginning / Beset By Creatures Of The Deep
103. Variation On Theme Of Nightmare
104. Sleep
105. Organ Exercises (The End Of The Beginning)

The Man
106. Daybreak (Part 1)
107. Work
108. Doing It!
109. Afternoon
110. Sleep
111. Nightmare
112. Daybreak (Part 2)

The. Journey
201. The Beginning
202. Beset By Creatures Of The Deep
203. The Narrow Way (Part 3)
204. The Pink Jungle
205. The Labyrinths Of Auximenes
206. Behold The Temple Of Light
207. The End Of The Beginning

Encore
208. Interstellar Overdrive

Bonus Track
209. Nightmare / Daybreak (Part 2)

June 26th, 1969

Royal Albert Hall

Kensington, London

The Man
301. Afternoon
302. Doing It!
303. Sleep
304. Nightmare
305. Daybreak (Part 2)

The Journey
401. The Beginning
402. Beset By Creatures Of The Deep
403. The Narrow Way (Part 3)
404. The Pink Jungle
405. The Labyrinths Of Auximenes
406. Behold The Temple Of Light
407. The End Of The Beginning

Encore
408. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

In early 1969 there started to be a major shift in the Pink Floyd’s live performances, gone were the psychedelic free from dance raves, now the band was starting to be embraced by a more intellectual crowd, one that would want to quietly listen to the music and the band’s ability to not only recreate the music on their records, but expand upon it, yes it was the early days of what would become Progressive rock. So instead of investing is lighting and projectors, the band would Cutie their wages by investing in their sound system, the early culmination of the investment was certainly the Azimuth Coordinator, a 360 degree surround sound system. To showcase the new direction, the group would take existing material and present it in a way that would also include a bit of their theatrical influences also, the music would form two long form pieces of music, the individual songs would become movements of the main themes. These early explorations were given names, the first half would be referred to as “The Man” with a running theme of a persons routine in a daily time span. The second half would be called “The Journey”, a theme that could be more open to interpretation of an inner mind to possibly a theological journey. This early experiment would be the group’s first sojourn into a conceptual piece of music and be the foundation for much of the output of the following decade.

Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London, England – April 14, 1969

Billed as “The Massed Gadgets Of Auximenes – More Furious Madness From Pink Floyd”, the London debut of The Man And The Journey would be performed at the 2,500 seat Royal Festival Hall, quite a feet considering the group was banned from the venue a couple years prior. With the revolutionary sound system still in its early stages, the aftermath of the performance left the group a bit disappointed and while press reviews were mainly positive, most thought of it as a good rehearsal. What the performance did was to give confidence to the group and to promoters that they were a group worth promoting, and certainly the group could stay the course of musical vision.

There are two tape sources for this performance, the first is from Anthony Stern, who was asked to film the entire performance yet did not go through the correct channels and was only able to film the groups rehearsals the day of the event. The 25 minute documentary is the source of the first part of this set. The recording is excellent, clear and detailed yet very fragmentary. You do hear some snippets of dialog and you can get the sense that Roger Waters is certainly the one in charge and giving much direction. It should be noted that the video does circulate in trading circles and is a fascinating piece of Celluloid Pink Floyd history.

The second recording is an audience source of the complete concert. It is a fair to good yet distant recording, the press on this title claim it is from a new tape transfer. This concert was previously circulated on two main titles, first is The Massed Gadgets Of Auximenes (Highland HL 282) a title that has eluded me for some time, so my only previous copy of this show was on CD-R as The Massed Gadgets Of Auximenes (Harvested CDR 009). When compared to the Harvested release this new release has a layer of hiss not found on the Harvested title, it is most notable at the beginning of the concert, Daybreak (part 1) is Grantchester Meadows and is performed acoustically making it difficult to hear and enjoy the song. Much of this early performance of The Man is improvised instrumental pieces, save for Daybreak and Sleep and at times can be a challenging listening experience, yet once one finds a quiet time, for me at night when the bustle of the day is over, I found myself picking up detail I did not hear during the day.

The second half performance of The Journey is much more concise as it contains more structured pieces of music. The early pairing of Green Is The Colour > Careful With That Axe Eugene aka The Beginning > Beset By Creatures Of The Deep is nice, the early versions of Eugene / Beset have a fast pace to them quite different than the versions that will evolve over the next few years. The Pink Jungle sounds very interesting, like a bubbling soundscape and one of the few themes to have carried over from the Syd era of the Floyd. The group get a nice ovation after The Journey is complete, some punter screams out “Interstellar Overdrive”, his cries will be rewarded as that is the nights encore after which another loud ovation and in true Floyd fashion the last thing you here on the tape is a “Wow”, very fitting. There is a bonus track, Nightmare / Daybreak in much better quality, the source is again from the Anthony Stern tape and even though he was not allowed to film the band he did anyway and this is all that exists of the evening performance as he was discovered and promptly kicked out!

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington, London, England – June 26, 1969

After the London premier at the Royal Festival Hall in April, the Floyd would play various gigs around the UK, a few were recorded for their next record, the half live half studio Ummagumma plus some sporadic festival appearances. The group would return to London to play the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in June 1969, a concert billed as “The Final Lunacy”. For the occasion they would be joined by the brass section of the Royal Philharmonic and The Ladies Of The Ealing Central Amateur Choir for the ending of The Journey. There is one tape source for this concert, sadly incomplete missing Daybreak (part 1), and Work. The audience recording is a solid good just a bit distant with very little hiss and was recorded by a chap named Bernard, who captured the event nicely. The best that circulates is a 1st Gen, and this version found on this new release sounds like that version of the tape.

Being more clear and detailed than the April performance, the band’s playing during this concert is also more confident and have played it several times, there is a level of comfort as well. Sleep is a variation of Quicksilver from the More soundtrack, the breathing over the lush soundscape is particularly enjoyable, Nightmare is not an instrumental piece as found on the earlier performance but is now Cymbaline, again from More with an intense middle section.

The End Of The Beginning aka Celestial Voices from A Saucerful Of Secrets is very long, Richard Wright starts on the Halls massive pipe organ sounding quite majestic, the Philharmonic Brass comes in a bit awkwardly but get it together quickly but when the women’s Choir comes in it is really very nice, they add a spiritually epic feel to the piece. One listen and you can almost here the origins of Atom Heart Mother, I am sure this had a major influence on the band. An excellent version of Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun finishes off the evenings festivities and reportedly a Pink smoke bomb was let off, infuriating the Hall management who reportedly banned the Floyd! An excellent end to a piece of Pink Floyd history.

The packaging for this title is incredible, the typical mini LP sleeve with four mini sleeves for each CD, the pictures on each tie in with each other, the 8 page booklet is adorned with Relics style illustrations as well as liner notes from The Lazy Goalkeeper, it also includes a breakdown of each piece of both suites. The CD’s also have pictures on them, of 60’s era Marvel Comics mixed in with The Man And Journey graphics. For Floyd collectors, like myself, this release is like a wet dream. Excellent packaging and very relevant material that fills a gap in my collection as I have precious few documents from 1969, perhaps other labels should take notice of a release like this. So far I am blown away by the Eat A Peach Floyd titles and cannot wait to see what they do next.

Pink Floyd - 1967 - Copenhagen 1967 3rd Night

Pink Floyd
1967-09-13
The Star Club
Copenhagen, Denmark

..

Copenhagen 1967 3rd Night / Sigma 241

01 Reaction In G
02 Arnold Layne
03 One In A Million
04 Matilda Mother
05 Scream Thy Last Scream
06 Astronomy Domine

Copenhagen 1967 is the second circulating audience recording of Pink Floyd and one of just three amateur recordings from the Syd Barrett period. Audience recordings from this period for most bands, not just the Floyd, are of average quality for two reasons. First off, concert sound systems were not that advanced and secondly, recording equipment was limited, the fact that there are early recordings at all is something to be applauded. This new release from Sigma explores one of these early audience recordings from the Barrett days, a recording that has been in circulation for some time and is really getting an upgrade thanks to the Yeeshkul group, whose goal to preserve the live history of Pink Floyd provides source material for many of the bootleg titles on the market.

First off lets get some history on the recording itself. It was made by a local musician Casrsten V who recorded on an unknown recording device. His master tape was copied by a fellow Michael K on reel to reel. Martin Balsam made a cassette copy of this reel and came into circulation by the famous Pink Floyd collector Rolf Ossenburg, the Martin B tape would thus be a third generation from the master and considered the best that circulates. Like many recordings, there are several versions of the tape and the Master audio technician Jimfisheye was provided the Martin B tape and another that is only referred to as Low Gen for use on this project. Both recordings had slightly different sound characteristics, so both were used, one in one channel, one in the other. While both recordings are mono it gives an almost stereo effect to the sound, add some mastering into the project and JFE was able to get, in most opinion, the best sounding version of this tape in circulation.

There have been other releases of this show on bootleg, Star Club Psycho (Black Panther BPCD 032), Stone Rust (Oil Well RSC 107), and the copy I have had in my collection for years, Stoned Alone (Night Tripper AST-552). These old silver titles are all quite old by now, for years one of the most popular versions of this recording circulated in fan sites as What Syd Wants (Harvested HRV CDR 032). Just for old times sake I’ll compare this new Sigma to Stoned Alone. Wow, no comparison, this new title is stunning. The sound is much cleaner, less muddled and has wonderful instrument separation, a major upgrade, so much that you don’t need to try hard to discern what is going on. As most know Syd’s vocals are extremely low in the mix, no fault of the recording, more to the fact that the onstage vocal PA was not loud enough to compete with the instrumental power of Pink Floyd. There is the occasion sound fluctuation and just a very small amount of tape hiss as one would expect. Having never ventured passed Stoned Alone I am blown away by the sound on this title and can now not only enjoy this recording, but can also listen and take in this historic performance.

The recording begins with Reaction In G, guitar, bass, and drums are all audible, it is difficult to pick out Richard Wright until the three minute area you can begin to pick up his organ. The playing is quite furious, Syd is playing very well and delivers some really great lead type runs, these are being accentuated by Roger’s wonderful bass lines. Syd’s vocals can be heard rather nicely during Arnold Layne, so much that I did not have an issue making out the lyrics, Richard Wright plays a nice yet short organ lead on the song as well.

One In A Million features vocals by Roger, the count in to the song is clear and the song is quite heavy and pondering. He would later use a variation of this for the song Corpral Clegg on the A Saucerful Of Secrets album. Matilda Mother features Richard Wright’s organ very clear in the mix and leads the band, Syd and Roger seem to pick up the pace pushing the song and making for some really nice improvisation. Scream Thy Last Scream was one of the aborted Syd songs that was played at all three known live Syd recordings, very heavy sounding with the band hammering the audience’s ears, the then unknown song gets mild applause. The last song of the set is Astronomy Domine, it is what I would call a standard version capping off a very good performance that shows how good the Syd Barrett Pink Floyd were as a live act.

The packaging is typical Sigma, live and posed shots of the band that are coloured to give a psychedelic light show effect. First off this is a very short disc, Sigma have elected not to include any filler, after listening to the 36 minutes of music in this quality, what could they have put on here to follow this? All marks go to Jimfisheye for his incredible work on this project. Let’s hope Sigma decides to delve into the Floyd recordings from the late 60’s more as the 67-69 years have largely been ignored by the label. Until then, for the Pink Floyd collector this is an essential title to own.

Pink Floyd - 1967 - Happening At The Golden Circle

Pink Floyd

1967

Happening At The Golden Circle 

(Godfather Records GR 704)

September 10, 1967

Gyllene Cirkeln

Stockholm, Sweden

01. Announcement
02. Mathilda Mother
03. Pow R. Toc H.
04. Scream Thy Last Scream
05. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
06. See Emily Play
07. Interstellar Overdrive

Bonus Tracks:

December 6, 1969
Afan Lido Sports Centre

Port Talbot, UK

08. Interstellar Overdrive
09. Green Is The Color
10. Careful,With That Axe, Eugene
11. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

Pink Floyd’s debut LP Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was released in early September, 1967. It was met with very positive reviews in the press with writers pointing out how it captured their style of psychedelic rock. They followed with a short tour of Scandinavia, their first visit to the US and a lengthy UK tour with Jimi Hendrix. 

Happening At The Golden Circle documents the September 10th show at the Golden Circle in Stockholm. The second night in Scandinavia (following a show in Arhus, Denmark), Pink Floyd played on a bill with two other band before a small audience of about 300 people. 

Floyd’s set was recorded by Anders Lind, one of the key figures in the Swedish progressive music scene. He used professional microphones on a Revox tape recorder which resulted in a very clear and enjoyable tape of the entire hour long set. It isn’t the only audience tape from 1967 in circulation (a tape from the September 13th show at the Star Club in Copenhagen also exists), but this is the best sounding.

It is good enough to draw some interest from EMI, who have approached Lind for the tape for possible inclusion on an expanded edition of Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn in 2011. 

To celebrate its finding, The Golden Circle hosted an event in May 2011 to play the tape before an audience. With Pink Floyd being represented by dummies, they sought to reproduce that evening forty years ago. Even though the hosts begged attendees to not tape the show for fear that EMI will not use it, several people taped it onto DAT anyway. 

The tape begins with the announcer introducing the band. An opening eight minute instrumental, titled either “Before Or Since” (since Roger Waters remarks on the tape that it’s not something heard before or since), or perhaps “Reaction In G,” is unfortunately edited out of the performance. 

Poor PAs are a characteristic of this tour. They complained about it in the press, and is very noticeable on this tape. The vocals are very low to being non-existent. Much of the show sounds like long improvisations, especially in the first two numbers “Mathilde Mother” and “Pow R Toc H.” 

“Scream Thy Last Scream” is Barrett’s latest single, a follow up to “See Emily Play,” and is his personal highlight in the set. The middle section has hard and abrasive riffs reminiscent of punk. It reaches an intense climax before coming to an end. 

Roger Waters’ “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” follows. His vocals can be heard quite clearly. It’s a quick tempo performance but it still gives a glimpse into their “space rock” phase yet to come, a structured psychedelic masterpiece. 

“See Emily Play” is the nicest surprise. Although there are several TV performances, this is the first recording of the song in front of a live audience in a concert setting. The vocals are very low but the instruments are clear. The sped-up piano in the studio recording is replaced by a stomping riff used to mark time. It is a tricky song to play live and there are some rough parts, but Barrett’s slide guitar is very interesting. 

The set closes with a nine minute “Interstellar Overdrive.” It sounds very aggressive with a brilliant improvisation in the middle. 

Godfather include the AFAN Festival fragment from 1969 as filler. This appearance in Wales occurs soon after Ummagumma was released and is their final live performance in the sixties. 

It is an audience recording taped close to the stage. Making its silver disc debut, it’s not a bad recording, but it is very short. “Interstellar Overdrive” is the first track on the tape and is much advanced compared to early versions. It is very dramatic with Nick Mason’s syncopated jungle rhythms punctuating Waters’ thumping bass and Wright’s swirling keyboards. It’s a brilliant performance which is unfortunately cut after twelve minutes.

“Green Is The Colour” segues with a particularly brutal “Careful With That Axe, Eugene.” The tape ends with a long and spacy version of “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.” 

Happening At The Golden Circle is packaged in a trifold gatefold sleeve with many photographs of the May 2011 event reproduced inside. Its release probably means EMI won’t use the tape for their expanded edition of Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. It’s a silly threat really since the opening jam still hasn’t been heard. Hopefully the record label is merely bluffing and we’ll soon hear the complete set.