(Audience FLAC)
Wembley Empire Pool, London - PrrP 050 A Work In Progress (FLAC)
How Time Flies - Rover Records Source #4
David Gilmour - Lead Guitars & Vocals
Nick Mason - Drums & Percussion
Roger Waters - Bass Guitar & Vocals
Rick Wright - Keyboards & Vocals
Disc One
01. Shine On You Crazy Diamond 26:53
02. Raving And Drooling 17:21
03. You Gotta Be Crazy 17:38
Total Time 61:52
Disc Two
01. Speak To Me - Breathe 5:25
02. On The Run 5:03
03. Time 6:26
04. Great Gig In The Sky 7:11
05. Money 9:03
06. Us And Them 7:48
07. Any Colour You Like 8:01
08. Brain Damage 3:39
09. Eclipse 3:36
10. Echoes 23:32
Total Time 79:44
A Work In Progress ...
Music collectors might expect that all recordings from 1970’s Pink Floyd have been found, traded and distributed but here we are in the 21st century and new little treasures are still popping up. Take for example this recording. The source for this remaster project has been dubbed source number 4 for the Pink Floyd November 15th, 1974 concert. It was released by Rover Records under the title How Time Flies. Once torrented on the Dimeadozen website, a spirited discussion occurred regarding its characteristics and quality compared to other sources. We agree that it is the best quality source of that night’s event but felt that work needed to be done to improve the listening experience. Below, with permission, we present the lengthy and well thought out description of this recording ...
I think it’s best to address the issue of How Time Flies originally being announced as the November 14th, 1974 concert at Wembley -this is also the date printed on the cover. What we have here is in fact the concert from the following evening, November 15th, 1974. It’s pretty clear that this was nothing more than an honest, albeit tragic mistake and not an attempt to rip anyone off. That being said, some enthusiasts feel that the performance of the 15th is actually superior to that of its infamous successor. Previously, there have been versions of this show that have circulated both incomplete and intact. The first source was used for the majority of past releases including the incomplete Money on Flashback (FB0133), the often copied (and complete) Black Holes In The Sky first from Great Dane (GDR CD 9101) and later speed corrected by Harvested (HRV CDR 022), as well as the surprisingly good We Are From Planet Earth (STTP 184/185) from the often spotty Shout To The Top label. A second, inferior source was used for Akashic’s Electric Magic (AKA-26) with slightly better versions of this source circulating via trader circles afterwards, and then in 2004 a mysterious, incomplete soundboard recording surfaced of this show offering a third, albeit odd perspective of this show (being that it was primarily drum and bass tracks) represented on silver via disc 2 of Siréne’s Absolutely Years (Siréne-119).
The tape begins midway through Roger Waters’ introduction of ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ indicating that it is a new song. (PRRP: we have repaired this introduction in this release). What follows is a lengthy solo synthesiser introduction from Richard Wright that foreshadows his work on the Wish You Were Here and Animals albums, coming across as celestial, in an almost Kitaro-esque way. This introduction is unique to the shows from this year as it evolved into the shorter, more familiar chord sequence and clear melody by the time of the first shows in April 1975. There’s a small amount of microphone noise as the taper gets settled (PRRP: much of which is now minimised), but it is brief and doesn’t affect the enjoyment of this developing epic whatsoever. There’s also a really strange bit at 1:42 that sounds like some acoustic guitars being strummed and “Pictish” ranting - an anomaly present on ALL sources, so apparently this came from the stage. The introduction continues at length until the vocals finally enter at the 8:27 mark, and things start sounding more familiar. Although the song was still relatively new, it is probably the most developed of the newer songs, and despite being played as a complete suite (instead of in halves as it would be from 1975 onward), it is the closest to its final form of the new material. After 1974, the band would never play ‘Shine On’ as a complete piece again, so that contributes to the value of tapes such as this.
Floyd surely recognised the benefits of developing new material in a live setting after the tremendous success of Dark Side Of The Moon. Any musician can understand the value of gauging both audience reaction and the overall flow of new songs onstage, but the band clearly jumped the gun on ‘Raving And Drooling’ and ‘You Gotta Be Crazy’ during the French tour earlier in 1974. These songs started to gel more throughout the winter tour, but are still somewhat embryonic during this performance and at times bearing only a passing resemblance to the final versions heard in 1977.
‘Raving And Drooling I Fell On His Neck With A Scream’ (as introduced by Waters) begins with a truly bizarre taped recording that actually is some chap (Jimmy Young) raving and drooling nonsensically! Apart from that, the song itself has evolved to be fairly close to the much later version everyone knows from Animals. The bridge section about 10 minutes into the song features some interesting volume swells/feedback unique to this era, and there’s no 23rd psalm recitation.
The audience is apparently a bit impatient as the band tunes up before ‘You Gotta Be Crazy’ and Roger responds by saying “We’re going as fast as we can”. While one person in the audience tells Roger, “We’re from planet Earth”, another shouts “1967” to which Waters retorts, “1967 no, you’re wrong this is 1974! And this is another new tune especially for YOU. And it’s called You Gotta Be Crazy”. Which of these two people he was addressing with this last comment, we will never know. The song itself is more “together” than it was during the French tour earlier in the year, but is still the least complete in relation to its finalised version from the Animals era. Vocally it comes across more melodically than on other nights, but the lyrics are delivered in a rapid-fire fashion making it difficult to discern what Gilmour is singing. Fortunately, the lyrics were printed in the tour programs for the audience. There are some interesting passages after the 2nd verse with Gilmour vocalising in the style of ‘Atom Heart Mother’ prior to the 3rd verse, and a rather lengthy instrumental section after it.
The sound quality seems to improve slightly for the Dark Side Of The Moon set and it is a fairly standard post-album release performance. The band sounds more confident and enthusiastic and the audience erupts with rapturous applause from start to finish. Gilmour delivers fantastic solos in ‘Money’ and ‘Time,’ while ‘On The Run’ has something of a Bladerunner vibe this evening. It should also be noted that backing vocals sound absolutely fantastic throughout the suite - especially on ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’. The critics may have bashed the Wembley gigs, but the crowd responds with absolutely thunderous approval at the conclusion of ‘Eclipse’. They knew that Dark Side Of The Moon was well on its way to becoming an epic masterpiece. But in 1974, the audience had no way of knowing of the greatness that was to come from the material presented in the first set and that it was still ... a work in progress.
Notes from the Re-Master
As noted above, we began with the How Time Flies source recording for this remaster project. This recording had great clarity suggesting that the taper was in a good position within the venue. Unfortunately, numerous microphone bumps and other recording noises were found but most were repaired or minimised. Both the sub-bass and treble were excessive in sections and so both were attenuated to balance the tonality. Many segmental channel volume drops were found which led to imbalances. These may have been produced by microphone movement or obscuring the mics from time to time. These were also corrected. A distinct speed error was found, particularly during the first set material, suggesting that the cassettes themselves rather than the recorder were to blame. Only a minor degree of speed correction was needed for the Dark Side Of The Moon material. Dynamics were adjusted to make volumes more consistent throughout the show. Re-tracking was necessary to conform to standard references. We chose to keep Shine On You Crazy Diamond as a single track because, at this stage in development, this song is one full song, not the two parts that it later becomes on the subsequent album. As a result of remastering, we can now hear the audience member who yells, “We are from planet Earth”. This is an important moment since it causes Roger Waters to respond humorously before beginning the next song.
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