Best Floyd bootlegs?

[Axl Rose]

Hi. I've been a Floyd fan for over a decade now I'm 23 years old, and for some reason I've never felt the urge to go and purchase or download bootlegs, I've heard a couple and was was slightly let down by what I heard, the experience paled in comparison to their studio wizardry, obviously I love stuff like Pompeii and the live parts on ummagumma, as well as is there anybody out there etc......

So can someone please educate me on what the best Floyd bootlegs are ?

[danielcaux]

I'm not an expert at all, but some essentials would be: "Animal Instincts" from the 1977 In The Flesh Tour, it has a version of Pigs with some really great guitar solos that completely make the studio version sound tame by comparison, the Pigs on The Wing Part 2 with Snowy guitar solo at the end and great versions of all WYWH songs + CWTAE as one of the encores; the 1970-71 BBC sessions where the play The Embryo, extended Fat Old Sun and live Echoes and AHM; some recordings of The Man and The Journey concerts, I believe the one from Amsterdam has the best sound quality... what else? Ah yes, there's also that 72 Rainbow Theater concert with the embrionic Dark Side of The Moon, that has The Travel Sequence instead of On The Run and The Mortality Sequence instead of The Great Gig In The Sky. What else? Is Jambo still around?


Just remember to NOT buy bootlegs, yo can get those audio recordings on the internet for free without giving money to unscrupulous copyright infringers.

[Keith Jordan]

Note 1 - Please remember trading Pink FLoyd RoIOs is not allowed on the forum as per the Forum Rules.

Note 2 - I think www.pf-db.com is an excellent resource for ratings of RoIOs from memory.

[Stephen]

This has always been one of my favourites.

[mastaflatch]

i'm pretty fond of Meddler myself.

[mandraxhair]

I think a version of "The Man, The Journey" is worth it as it represents the first concept piece they did.

[Hudini]

"Animal Instincts"
the 1970-71 BBC sessions
72 Rainbow Theater concert

I'd also add 1971 Paris Theatre show with the ultimate version of "CWTAE" and the only known live version of "If" by the whole band.

[J Ed]

Im thinking the 1971 Paris Theatre show is BBC 1971 (and Meddler is the Harvested version of that show)
but Green>Eugene and If are from the 1970 BBC show, also recorded live at the Paris Theatre

DanielCaux's list actually includes most of the essentials a beginner should start with, good sound (mostly from fm radio broadcasts), good performances, and a few interesting early/alternate/unreleased versions that show how the albums as we know them evolved
theres also many releases of all those with different titles and artwork ... look for the ones remastered by an entity named Harvested, if you can find them, theyre generally definitive

what else is missing?
theres only about 3cds worth of Syd-era stuff, but the sound quality on those is quite variable, esp the two audience recordings ... the studio outtakes from the Syd era are essential however (Lucy Leave, King Bee, Scream The Last Scream, Vegetable Man)

the 1974/75 tour is worth hearing because of the embryonic versions of the next two albums that evolved before either album was released ... there is a radio broadcast of a live Dark Side of the Moon 2nd set and its encore Echoes from 1974, but only audience recordings of the 1st set

the official live album makes any of the audience recordings of The Wall Live arguably unnecesarry though theres a few that sound very good ... there is a leaked version of Wall demo tapes, from some point midway the albums production, and a complete filmed Wall concert that hopefully Roger Waters will soon make redundant with an official release

oh yeh, there were 5 short live-in-studio BBC broadcasts between 67-69, usually compiled onto a single cd, you need those
and there were two hourlong TV broadcasts both from 1970 that need to be closely studied by any Floydian
there is no filmed footage between Pompeii and the abovementioned Wall concert


... we used to have dozens of threads devoted to this exact topic, Im sure ... did they all get disappeared?

[TheLazenby]

* "A Tree Full Of Secrets" covers a vast majority of the Floyd, Roger, David, Rick, and Nick studio rarities. "Have You Got It Yet" fills in the Syd rarities. (Be warned - each are quite a few discs long, though the last several discs of HYGIY are just pointless.)

* The Concertgebouw performance of "The Massed Gadgets Of Auximines" is definitely a must, and it's in great quality too. (If you can forgive David just murdering "The Narrow Way Part 3.")

* "Under Construction" and "The Final Cutting" - two album-length demos by Roger. DEFINITELY worth hearing.

* "One Side Of The Moon" - Someone at EMI leaked a tape of DSOTM side 2 with the faders on full; the songs have loads of elements that weren't used. 'Us and Them' is damn near unrecognizable for a few moments, and 'Brain Damage' has quite a few surprises in store. You also get to hear the irritating sound collage that was apparently meant to end 'Eclipse'!

* Bootlegs of the "Zabriskie Point" sessions are worth a listen, as Floyd put down quite a bit of material. (There's a lot of boring-ass instrumental ramblings in here, but besides that...) Imagine the album that could've been. And yes, I realize that someone has put together a 'virtual album' using these tracks - that's nice for completists, but trying to listen through it track after track is a goddamned snore.

* "British Winter Tour '74" - three prototype live tracks (Dogs, Sheep, Shine On). So good that the public thought it was Floyd's new album at the time.

* "Careful With These Tracks" - Disc 1 of Ummagumma, as originally recorded. It becomes clear that the tracks underwent quite a bit of studio retouching. The lost "Interstellar Overdrive" performance is intact, as is a performance of "A Saucerful Of Secrets" that wasn't used on the final LP.

* The Limited Edition Trance Remixes.... mmmmm. Very well done reinterpretations of Floyd tracks, by someone who may or may not be The Orb; though of course "Floyd is perfect," and fans seem to hate them. See what you yourself think about them. Just so happens I've recently uploaded the entire batch, including two unreleased ones, onto a certain demonic torrent site......

* "The Final Cut In The Wall" - I'm not sure how one would get ahold of this, as the website of its creator (Zolcaro Productions) closed years ago; but if you can find it, GET IT. A fan reimagined "The Wall" as a 2.5 hour epic, seamlessly combining unique extended mixes and alternate versions of most songs with appropriately placed material from "The Final Cut." After I heard this, I never played the original "Wall" again.

[Zack]

Most of the key nights have already been named.

J Ed, I hate to nit pick you again (!) but to say "the 74/75 tour" is bunching a lot of important different stuff together, even though the setlists were very similar. The summer 74 Paris shows (Colmar best) shows the very first performances of WYWH material), then there's the November Wembley shows that mark evolution of the material (though SOYCD is still a 23-min epic). Jumping to April 75 (LA 4-26 best) you experience further evolution of the album, ibid the June shows (famous ones from Boston, Nassau, and the final show of the tour in Hamilton, Ontario, where their sound literally exploded the lights on the scoreboard). Now THAT'S rock and roll.

[Axl Rose]

Great replies, thanks guys

[Steph22]

I've been collecting lossless boots for about a year now, and my favorite one is Something From Nothing, George Washington University, Lisner Auditorium, November 16, 1971. Brilliant versions of Embryo and Fat Old Sun! The whole performance is super, but those two songs in particular stand out.

Also if you're interested in hearing Roger in hilariously rare form, get a hold of the show from Ernst Merck Halle, West Germany, November 14, 1970. He rants and raves in his Scottish accent and insults the German crowd! It's an excellent show as well.

[Zack]

* "One Side Of The Moon" - Someone at EMI leaked a tape of DSOTM side 2 with the faders on full; the songs have loads of elements that weren't used. 'Us and Them' is damn near unrecognizable for a few moments, and 'Brain Damage' has quite a few surprises in store. You also get to hear the irritating sound collage that was apparently meant to end 'Eclipse'!

Me seekum, Kemo Sabe.

[The Crazy Diamond]

Back in the late 60s early 70s we had a second hand record shop in a back street of town run by a German guy .He would have most bootlegs available at the time, nice deck to listen to anything we fancied , good coffee amonst other things freely available at the time.
This Guy would dissapear for weeks , and return with boxes of bootleg vinyls from concerts around the world.
Lots of Floyd as I recall on the flying pig label , plus many from Europe.
Sadly in my hard up student days most vinyls in my collection paid the rent ..and they are lost forever !!
As a very mature Floydian who has been around the block several times I am fortunate to have a pretty well stocked Floyd vinyl collection including many rarities and a few bootlegs

[dgsyd1]

* "The Final Cut In The Wall" - I'm not sure how one would get ahold of this, as the website of its creator (Zolcaro Productions) closed years ago; but if you can find it, GET IT. A fan reimagined "The Wall" as a 2.5 hour epic, seamlessly combining unique extended mixes and alternate versions of most songs with appropriately placed material from "The Final Cut." After I heard this, I never played the original "Wall" again.

On a similar theme, Project: KAOS is worth looking out for. It takes Roger's Radio KAOS album, and fleshes it out with extended versions, tracks that didn't make the album ("Get Back To Radio", "Going To Live In LA"), some bits from the KAOS promo film, and some of the track from the When The Wind Blows soundtrack.