Description
The 1974 British Winter Tour is a popular tour among enthusiasts after the mega-hit album “THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON”. The secret to its popularity is that it was the last time that Floyd’s unique creative process of playing new songs before recording on stage and repeating trial and error shone through. The attitude of performing new songs that had not even been recorded yet on stage, combined with the feelings of fans who were waiting for the release of a new album following “THE DARK SIDE…”, resulted in the bootlegs containing the new songs performed on this tour recording tremendous sales. It seems that the fact that such a phenomenon forced Floyd to change the way they handled new songs has been talked about extensively, but that is why the “British Winter Tour” shines so brightly in the history of Floyd’s live performances. In particular, the sound source capturing the consecutive performances at Wembley Empire Pool (later Wembley Arena) in mid-November, which was the highlight of the tour, has continued to produce unrivaled items. I would like to organize the Wembley items that were released other than on November 14th, when the sound source has not yet spread. November 15th “YOU GOTTA BE CRAZY AT WEMBLEY” → “WHO GOTTA BE CRAZY” → “WEMBLEY 1974 2ND NIGHT” November 16th “WEMBLEY 1974 – PRE FM MASTER” SIRENE (soundboard) → “RAVING LUNATICS” SIRENE (soundboard and audience) → “ABSOLUTELY YEARS” SIRENE (soundboard + sound source on the 15th) → “BBC ARCHIVES” (soundboard) And this time, the “Unprocessed Master” version will finally be released from the audience recording that captured the performance on November 17th! Unlike the 15th performance of “BLACK HOLES IN THE SKY”, where CD items have existed for a long time, the 17th performance was the first release of AYANAMI’s “AMAZING WEMBLEY” released in the 21st century. In the LP era, the new song part of the first half of the show was released in various forms, as if to form a pair with the radio broadcast part on the 16th. Based on WIZARDO’s LP “THE SCREAMING ABDAB”, which has a proven track record of release, it was copied by labels such as TKARL and CBM and spread among enthusiasts. Following “BRITISH WINTER TOUR ’74”, which contained new song parts from the show at Trentham Gardens held after Wembley, these LP items played a role in lowering the appetite of fans who were hungry for new songs. For that reason, “AMAZING WEMBLEY” was highly praised as a literal long-awaited release for enthusiasts. What this “AMAZING WEMBLEY” revealed was the fact that it was the best performance by far among the three Wembley performances for which sound sources exist. Thinking back, on the 15th, there was a problem where music unrelated to Floyd was playing during the intro of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, as if Gilmour’s effects had picked up a radio broadcast, and when the band joined the performance, Waters even had to tune the bass while playing. On the 16th, there was a recording that was intended for radio broadcast above all else, and from the full-length show version heard in the audience recording of “RAVING LUNATICS”, the performance was clearly stiff. There is no way that Floyd would not be aware of the fact that the recording was made with the intention of making it public. On the 17th, they performed a very relaxed performance, as if they were freed from the troubles and pressure mentioned above. In addition, the rearrangement of the new song part, which moved “Raving And Drooling” to the opening number from this day, was also successful, and the momentum of the song was much greater than before. The fact that this opening alone was at a different level from the previous performances at Wembley was already proven by the LP mentioned above. However, with the advent of the CD era, all performances were released and the details of each show became clearer. However, in “You Gotta Be Crazy,” Gilmour made a simple mistake that had never been seen at Wembley before, failing to play the refrain that was repeated at the point where the tempo of the song changed. This may have been a problem with the stage monitor. After all, the song itself had already been played many times since the start of the Winter Tour. The secret to the high evaluation of the performance on the 17th was also Gilmour’s strong singing in “THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON.” In the first place, 1974 was the year when his throat began to show serious deterioration, but the “THE DARK SIDE” part at Wembley on the 16th was a noticeable situation that was spread by the sound board and radio broadcast. This may have been due to Gilmour’s “tension” with the intention of recording. On the contrary, the point where the singing on the 17th was clearly much better than the 15th was too high. It can be said that the superb quality of the audience recording included in “AMAZING WEMBLEY” also played a major role in raising the evaluation of the 17th. The recording condition is very similar to that of the 15th, and there is no doubt that it was recorded with the same taper. After all, the sound image is surprisingly on for a recording from 1974, and for example, the bass drum hits that Mason unfolds in “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” are clearly audible, which is stunned. In terms of clarity, the audience recording of “RAVING LUNATICS” on the 16th with a different taper is superior, but the recording condition with a special sound image and analog-like texture instead of clarity is attractive. As such, it is a special recording that boasts high quality in both performance and sound quality, so there have been voices calling for its release since the release of “AMAZING WEMBLEY” among enthusiasts. In addition, after the release of the same title, a first-generation sound source appeared, so it was finally realized in 2008 as “DECLINE AND FALL OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE”. Not only was the sound quality improved from “AMAZING WEMBLEY”, but the pitch that was out of sync with the same title was recorded in an accurate state, so it was a long-selling title that was undisputed as the definitive version on the 17th. However, the new first-generation sound source provided this time by a heavyweight overseas maniac gave us a different surprise. While “DECLINE AND FALL ~” (hereinafter referred to as “pre-released version”) was a copy that was dropped once from the master reel to the cassette, this time it was a copy that was dropped once from the master reel to the master reel. In addition, when the pre-released version was dropped to the cassette, an equalization was applied to reduce the subtly amplified noise. Moreover, the difference in the amount of information brought about by the difference in media between cassette and reel is clear. First of all, from the moment you play the opening, you will be reminded of the big difference in texture from “DECLINE AND FALL”. The first generation copy via the reel this time was recorded in a literally “unprocessed” state, which suddenly increased the natural texture and rich realism. In particular, the audience listened to the new song part with bated breath to the song they were seeing for the first time, so the difference from the already released version is very easy to understand. For example, in the quiet part of the performance, such as the beginning of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, the hiss noise may be more noticeable this time, but compared to the already released version, you will notice that there was an unnaturalness as if it was “crushed”. And yet, the freshness that is unique to the state of being copied to a medium with a large amount of information is overwhelming. This upper feeling is exceptional. The release of the “Unprocessed” version, which captures the charm of the final day of Wembley, a masterpiece that has gained a solid reputation among enthusiasts around the world, will finally be realized. Live at Empire Pool, Wembley, London, UK 17th November 1974 PERFECT SOUND(UPGRADE) Disc 1 (56:03) 1. Raving And Drooling 2. You Gotta Be Crazy 3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond Disc 2 (57:18) Dark Side Of The Moon 1. Speak To Me 2. Breathe 3. On The Run 4. Time 5. Breathe(Reprise) 6. Great Gig In The Sky 7. Money 8. Us And Them 9. Any Color You Like 10. Brain Damage 11. Eclipse Disc 3 (26:10) 1. Audience 2. Echoes
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