Pink Floyd - 1971-08-13 - Melbourne, AU (AUD/FLAC) by Godfather Records

(Audience FLAC)

First Australian Show
Melbourne Festival Hall

Godfather Records (G.R.) 321 

Lineage:
Silver CD > FLAC 

01. Atom Heart Mother 
02. Green is the Colour 
03. Careful with that Axe, Eugene 
04. Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun 
05. Echoes 
06. Cymbaline 

Notes:
After three shows in the first ten days of August in Hakone and Osaka, Japan, Pink Floyd came to Australia for a tour of only 2 dates. It's their first visit there, and it'll remain the only one until January 1988, when they'll stay one month on their "Momentary Lapse Tour". This is the first of the two nights, the second one being played the day afterwards; outdoors at Sydney Racetrack, at 1 P.M. in the cold Australian winter (Nick Mason remembers having to play with gloves). 

The show starts with 'Atom Heart Mother', this version being played without the brass and choir (too expensive to have 30 extra persons touring the Far East), and goes on 7 minutes less than official release, but anyway, the Floyd's are really inspired and play it with an agressive arrangement to compensate for the lack of atmosphere from the John Aldiss choir. 

Then Waters introduces 'Green is the Colour/Careful with that Axe, Eugene', again played seamlessly with an impressive change of rhythm. 'Green Is the Colour' won't be played after these shows again, making more room for 'Fat Old Sun'. 

The show keeps going with a burning and psychedelic 'Set the Controls...', and 'Echoes', a real suite officially released 4 months earlier in Norwich under the provisional title of 'Return of the Son of Nothing', and played only a dozen times so far. It is a song the Floyd's love so much, they will play it again in 1987, during the first shows of their "Momentary Lapse Tour". Even Gilmour will present the song again in his recent solo tours, having enthusiastic reactions from the audience. It's a song that crosses different moments, and that fascinates and surprises, for mixing inside a great number of different ideas - enough for 4 or 5 songs. 

'Cymbaline' is a usual song that never betrays the audience; it doesn't have big surprises or improvisations, but surely is one of the most important moments of that show, even thanks to some videos. 

This show is a gem on Pink Floyd's live history, and it's released on a silver CD for the very first time. 

This show is significant for the fact that it contains possibly the last ever performance of 'Green is the Colour'. It certainly contains the last ever known recorded version, nontheless. 

SQ-wise, this show holds up well considering the age of the recording, but the performance itself I wold rate an 8/10.