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Stuart Ferguson's Collection

Pink Floyd   04/08/1975

PNE Exhibition Park, Vancouver, BC
Source Audience
Media CDR   6 discs
Notes DVD 2615; lineage: Audience recordings. "The Arms Of Vancouver" (Sigma 56) Silver CD > EAC WAV > FLAC. Two different audience versions of this show. See J Card Comment for notes on sources.
J-Card Comment After concluding their Winter tour of the UK with shows in Bristol and at the Marquee in London, Pink Floyd took a four month break before bringing their new songs to North America for the first time. They played thirteen shows in April starting with a gig in the Pacific National Exhibition Park in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The setlist was similar to the previous tour by featuring the new songs for an hour, then the complete Dark Side Of The Moon after a twenty minute intermission. ìEchoes,î the sole older number, would serve as the encore. But the difference is that, in the intervening four months, the band wrote the new song ìHave A Cigarî and decided to insert it between parts five and six of ìShine On You Crazy Diamond.î The live debut of the song and the new arrangement occurred in Vancouver.

The press were not enthusiastic for the show. The Vancouver Sun, in a review titled ìPink Floyd: Like Technicians for the land of Gadgetry,î claimed all their equipment changed the Coliseum into îpsychedelic concrete earphones.î The author called the music simple but the crowd enjoyed the gimmicks and that overall it was a ìfitfully pleasing, consistently dull show.î The thrashing is almost as bad as the final show of the tour in June when they played in Hamilton, Ontario. It seems that Canada really hates Pink Floyd.

The Arms Of Vancouver, the new release on Sigma, features two complete audience recordings spread out over six discs. The label could be criticize the label for doing this, but they are trying to be as comprehensive as possible. One of the tapes has been pressed before on a rather well known title but the other makes its silver pressed debut. But this isnít simply a collection with two unique tape sources. One has been used to fill in the gaps in the other, so itís in reality two edits of the two tape sources.


Pacific National Exhibition Park, Vancouver, Canada - April 8th, 1975 source #1


Disc 1 (61:11): Raving And Drooling, You Gotta Be Crazy, Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 1-5, Have A Cigar, Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 6-9

Disc 2 (59:57): Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run, Time, Breathe (Reprise), The Great Gig In The Sky, Money, Us And Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse

Disc 3 (26:07): audience, Echoes


The first three discs contain a very good but incomplete audience recording which has never been used before. The second tape source is used from 12:18 in ìShine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 1-5? to the end of the first half of the show which includes ìHave A Cigarî and ìShine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9? to the fade at the end. Itís also missing ìSpeak To Meî at the beginning of disc two, but picks up at the beginning of ìBreathe.î Source two is again edited in again 5:38 in îThe Great Gig In The Skyî to 1:58 in îMoneyî (right before the saxophone solo).


Pacific National Exhibition Park, Vancouver, Canada - April 8th, 1975 source#2


Disc 4 (63:27): Raving And Drooling, You Gotta Be Crazy, Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 1-5, Have A Cigar, Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part 6-9

Disc 5 (58:56) Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run, Time, Breathe (Reprise), The Great Gig In The Sky, Money, Us And Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse

Disc 6 (25:56): audience, Echoes


Discs four to six contain the same tape used for Azimuth Coordinator. Four songs, ìRaving And Drooling,î ìYou Gotta Be Crazy,î ìHave A Cigarî and ìEchoesî appear on Vancouver 1975 (SACEM 091-013). It is more distant than the first and has some hiss present, but there is also more emphasis upon the lower frequencies than the first tape. ìShine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9? has the last few notes cut off in the recording.

The show begins with a pre-show tape before ìRaving And Droolingî with the Irving Berlin tune whistle. Itís not too audible on this show but on the tape for the next show in Seattle, itís very clear and can be heard on Dark Side Last Tour (Highland HL571/572). Pink Floyd deliver a very slow and tentative rendition of the song. ìYou Gotta Be Crazyî fares a bit better. It has more liveliness to it an the dream-scape created by the guitar melody works well in both recordings.

Roger Waters tells the audience that the next song is about Syd Barrett (and he pronounces the last last name barr-ETT). For the first performance of the core of Wish You Where Here, it shows how much they rehearsed during the interim in live performance. The transitions between the two ìShine Onî with ìHave A Cigarî are seamless.

ìHave A Cigarî also is very rehearsed and tight. In these early versions both Gilmour and Waters share lead vocals during the verses with Waters taking the ìand if we tell you the name of the game boy / we call it riding the gravy trainî sections. Also Wrightís airy keyboard melody of the studio version was not yet written.

Some kind of communication breakdown occurs around part eight of ìShine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9.î Gilmourís guitar disappears in the mix leaving Waters to doodle around on the bass guitar until he comes in again to complete the song. On the whole the audienceís reaction to the material is a tepid appreciation. The first two new songs especially sound very much like what they are: a sequel to Dark Side Of The Moon exploring in more concrete musical and thematic themes the affects madness has upon the artist.

The audienceís reaction to the second half of the show is much louder and genuine. Dark Sidewas their biggest hit and enabled them to fill venues such as the PNC in Vancouver. Many in the audience were to hear them perform the album. The sounds of the effects used to punctuate the show illustrate their enthusiasm for the show.

It also provides some opportunity for the band to jam a bit. The first third of the set, from ìSpeak To Meî through the reprise of îBreatheî after ìTimeî is close to the studio recordings, but Wright interjects new ideas into ìThe Great Gig In The Sky.î Gilmour likewise has fun during ìMoneyî when they extend the guitar solo by some minutes. Gilmour becomes so lost in the song that he sings ìMoney, get backî as the first line of the final verse, which is a mistake.

ìUs & Themî is dominated by the stately organ of Wright, but ìAny Colour You Likeî turns into a group jam. Waters dominates on the bass by the ending, producing a similar situation to the ending of ìShine On You Crazy Diamond Parts 6-9.î

Waters tells the audience theyíll sing ìEchoesî as an encore ìif we can remember itî he jokes. The twenty five minute epic sounds extremely tight and adventurous. Overall this isnít the best show from the spring 1975 tour, and there are certainly better sounding tapes available. But for an opening nights it improves as it goes on and is nice to hear the live debut of ìHave A Cigar,î one of their best live numbers.



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Reference / Generation 2615
Owned by Stuart Ferguson · Last Updated May 23, 2023