Pink Floyd bootleg recordings are the collections of audio and video recordings of musical performances by the British rock band Pink Floyd, which were never officially released by the band. The recordings consist of both live performances and outtakes from studio sessions unavailable in official releases. In some cases, certain bootleg recordings may be highly prized among collectors, as at least 40 songs composed by Pink Floyd have never been officially released.
During the 1970s, bands such as Pink Floyd created a lucrative market for the mass production of unofficial recordings with large followings of fans willing to purchase them. In addition, the huge crowds that turned up to these concerts made the effective policing of the audience for the presence of recording equipment virtually impossible. Vast numbers of recordings were issued for profit by bootleg labels.[1]
Some Pink Floyd bootlegs exist in several variations with differing sound quality[2] and length because sometimes listeners have recorded different versions of the same performance at the same time. Pink Floyd was a group that protected its sonic performance, making recording with amateur recording devices difficult.[2][3] In their career, Pink Floyd played over 1,300 concerts, of which more than 350 were released as bootlegged recordings (sometimes in various versions).[4] Few concerts have ever been broadcast (or repeated once they were broadcast on television), especially during 'the golden age' of the group from 1966 to 1981.[5]
Pink Floyd was one of the mainstays of the bootleg industry in the 1970s.[5][3] In 1999, the group was mentioned on BPI's list of most bootlegged British artists of all time.[6][7][8]
One of the best known ROIO's by Pink Floyd is Best of Tour '72: Live at the Rainbow Theatre with a concert performed on 20 February 1972. This bootleg includes one of the first performances of The Dark Side of the Moon. One year and one month before the official release of that same album, the bootleg had already sold over 120,000 copies.[9]
In 2008, the Pink Floyd bootleg Madison Square Garden, New York, NY – 2 July 1977 was mentioned on the Yahoo's Top 10 of Best Bootlegs of All Time.[10]
Earliest bootlegs
Most of Pink Floyd's early bootlegs concern performances from the European A Saucerful of Secrets Tour and the A Saucerful of Secrets US Tour. Most of these bootlegs were released by the label "Ace Bootlegs Production".
Television performance. The Pink Floyd appeared on BBC One's "Look of the Week", hosted by Hans Keller. The performance consisted of a truncated version of "Pow R. Toc H." as well as "Astronomy Domine". Syd Barrett and Roger Waters were then interviewed by show host Hans Keller, who memorably asked the band why their music had to be so loud, finding it unbearable. The performance and interview have been repeated on BBC since,[11][12] and consequently circulate on both audio and video bootlegs. It is one of the few pieces of professionally filmed footage from the Barrett-led era that has survived.
Golden Circle
Gyllene Cirkeln, Stockholm, Sweden, 10 September 1967
This bootleg is considered as the only complete recording of a 1967 concert by Pink Floyd. It includes the show's soundcheck and the 50-minute concert (played at a Swedish restaurant and jazz club called Gyllene Cirkeln a.k.a. Golden Circle).[13][14] The recording was done by the Swedish sound engineer Anders Lind on his Revox machine. The setlist included "Introduction", "Reaction in G", "Matilda Mother", "Pow R. Toc H.", "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", "See Emily Play" and "Interstellar Overdrive". Despite the overall quality being very good for the time, the vocals are almost impossible to hear (An indication as to the poor quality of P.A equipment then). This concert was officially released in 2016 on The Early Years 1965–1972.
Audience recording. Also released as "Wonderful, Wonderful Kopenhagen" and "Starclub Psycho". Setlist consists of "Reaction in G", "Arnold Layne", "One in a Million", "Matilda Mother", and "Scream Thy Last Scream".[15]
Playhouse Theatre
The Playhouse Theatre, London, UK, 25 September 1967
Also released as "Hippy Happy Fair". This is a recording made for the BBC Radio series "Top Gear". The circulating track list consists of "The Scarecrow", "The Gnome", "Matilda Mother", "Flaming", "Set the Controls For The Heart Of The Sun", and an incomplete recording of "Reaction in G". Officially released on The Early Years 1965–1972.
Pink Floyd's second appearance on the BBC Radio show "Top Gear". This was Barrett's last recorded performance with the band. The track list consists of "Vegetable Man", "Scream Thy Last Scream", "Jugband Blues", and "Pow R. Toc H.". Officially released on The Early Years 1965–1972.
Rome Vpro (Broadcast)
First European International Pop Festival, Piper Club, Rome, Italy, 6 May 1968
Margriethal Jaarbeurs, Utrecht, Netherlands, 28 December 1968
Also released as "Owed to Syd Barrett"
The track list consists of "Tunings", "Astronomy Domine", "Careful with that Axe, Eugene", "Interstellar Overdrive", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "A Saucerful of Secrets"
In January 1996, the label See For Miles Records released the bootleg album "Psychedelic Games for May" which includes a collection of Syd Barrett era Floyd, featuring a pre-Floyd acetate, rough mixes of the early singles plus BBC TV and the unreleased single "Scream Thy Last Scream".[17][18][19]
As late as 2004, a bootleg album entitled "Outtakes From Outer Space" emerged from Israel on the dubious-sounding "Hippie Shit Label", featuring a compilation of studio session recordings and outtakes, some mentioned above.[20] The track listing was:
Plumpton Race Track, East Sussex, London, 8 August 1969
audience recording also released as "The Journey Through the Past", live at 9th National Jazz Pop Ballads & Blues Festival, includes a 20:26 version of "A Saucerful of Secrets"
Complete Concertgebouw
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 17 September 1969
soundboard recording also released as "A Man and the Journey", "Amsterdam 69 (Swingin' Pig Version)" and "Amsterdam 1969 (Harvest)", plans for an official live album release of "The Man and The Journey" were considered, but abandoned due to overlap of material with Ummagumma. Officially released in 2016 on The Early Years 1965-1972.
released by the label 'Man of Leisure Music', also released as "Essen" and "Song Days '69"
Amougies Pop Festival
Amougies Pop & Jazz Festival, Mont-de-l'Enclus, Belgium, 25 October 1969
first part of a unique concert in Belgium with Frank Zappa as special guest. The complete concert was released on "Interstellar Zappadrive" by Harvested. The songs "Green Is the Colour", "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" are in soundboard quality, but were performed without Frank Zappa.[21]
audience recording, released by Man of Leisure Music.
Ahcid Atthak!
November–December 1969
'Omay Yad'. Also released as 'The Midas Touch' Includes the officially unreleased instrumental "Fingals Cave".[22]
During the two one-week recording sessions in November and December 1969 of the soundtrack for Michelangelo Antonioni's Zabriskie Point at International Recording in Rome, Pink Floyd experienced for the first time a studio leak. Three out-takes appeared on a bootleg album Omay Yad, also known under titles as Oneone, Fingal's Cave and Rain in the Country.
With the advent of a 1997 deluxe reissue of the movie soundtrack on a double compact disc, four previously unreleased Pink Floyd out-takes were also revealed. Almost simultaneously, a 15-track bootleg CD of the complete sessions appeared that revealed additional works in progress, among them a track that was long referred to by Pink Floyd as "The Violent Sequence". It was penned by Richard Wright for a riot scene in the movie and although unreleased in any form officially, was incorporated into their live set as an acoustic piano piece in the early part of the year. It was a forerunner to the melody of "Us and Them", which featured on their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon.[23]
contains a 2:20 concert with an early prototype of "Atom Heart Mother" (then called "The Amazing Pudding", 24:34), "The Violent Sequence" (a 15-minute song with the piano sequence of "Us and Them" included), "Main Theme" from More (14:02) and "A Saucerful of Secrets" (16:54). The bootleg also contains a track from 22 December 1970, "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" (24.46)
a part of this concert was also released as "The Man-Live in Paris", "Paris 23 January 1970" and "Broadcast from Europe" (containing 3 songs from the performance at Palais des Sports in Lyon on 12 June 1971)
released by Manic Depression, 2 discs with BBC Top Gear sessions and 2 BBC concerts. This bootleg is also released under the names "BBC Archives 1970–1971", "Libest Spacement Monitor", "Pink is the Pig" (with a 1969 version of "Point Me at the Sky"), "Mooed Music" and "Eclipse"
also released as "Grooving with a Pict", includes the track "Moonhead (Corrosion)" (13:28)
Smoking Blues
Casino de Montreux, Switzerland
21 November 1970
also released as "Montreux Casino 1970", "Reeling on Pink Floyd" and "The Good ... The Bad", "Too Late for Mind Expanding", soundboard recording including "Just Another Twelve Bar". One song from this concert, "Atom Heart Mother", was officially released on The Early Years 1965-1972.
also released as "Alan Psychedelic Mastertape" and "Rise and Shine" (last mentioned bootleg is considered to contain the best version of "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast"), the bootleg "A Psychedelic Night" includes "Atom Heart Mother" (31:25 + reprise 2:36), "A Saucerful of Secrets" (23:22) and "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" (19:08)
1971
At least 34 bootlegs of different concerts from 1971 were released (not counting the several bootlegs of each concert).[25]
12 February – Colchester 12 February 1971
13 February – Close the Blinds
25 February – Live in Hamburg, also released as M502
26 February – Pictures of Pink Floyd – Vol.1, also released as Motionless Pictures of Pink Floyd
10 March – Rhapsody in Pink
3 April – Ahoy Mate, It's 1971, also released on the bootleg The Band Who Ate Asteroids for Breakfast
15 May – Echoes of a Distant Time
4 June – A New Piece of Music, also released as Philipshalle, Düsseldorf
5 June – Mauerspechte, also released as Vierundzwanzig Teile von Nichts
12 June – Broadcasting from Europa 1, also released as Foreign Legion and Doctor Strange
19 June – Brescia '71
20 June – Live in Rome
26 June – Amsterdam Free Concert
1 July – Cosmic Music
6 August – Echoes of Japanese Meddle, also released as Aphrodite (rev. A)
6 August – Festival for the Nips
13 August – Festival Hall – Melbourne 1971, also released as The Big Pink – Melbourne 1971 and Planets Meeting Down Under
8 September – Osaka 1971
18 September – Live in Montreux 1971 and Remember the Lesson of Giving
23 September – Copenhagen Teatret, also released as Northern Old Sun and Falkoner Theatret
30 September – Phenomena, also released as BBC Archives 1970– 1971, Eclipse, One of These Days and From Oblivion. Officially released on The Early Years 1965–1972.
4 October – Pompeii (Harvested Version), also released as Live at pompeii
10 October – One of These Days in Bradford, also released as Return from Pompei
16 October – Motionless Albatross, also released as The Eye of Agamotto
17 October – From Oblivion, also released as Life Could Be a Dream and as Wind and Seabirds
27 October – Echoes in the Auditorium
28 October – Hill Auditorium
31 October – Toledo
5 November – Hunter College
6 November – For Reasons I Don't Understand
10 November – Labyrinths
12 November – Those Were the Days, also Echoes in Irvine
16 November – Return of the Sons of Nothing, also released as Something from Nothing
20 November – The Complete Taft Tapes, also released as Strange Tales and Embryonic Madness
Sometimes the smaller record mastering and pressing plants simply hid the bootleg work when record company executives would come around (in which case the printed label could show the artist and song names) and other times they would print labels with fictitious names. For example, the 1972 Pink Floyd bootleg called Brain Damage was released under the name The Screaming Abdabs.[1]
In January 1972, Pink Floyd debuted the live performance of their album The Dark Side of the Moon before its release. Many of Pink Floyd bootlegs date back from this period. Most of these bootlegs contain a pre-release version of the entire album.
1972
20 January – The Dark Side Rehearsals, also released as Eclipsed by the Moon and Here They Come
21 January – Eclipsed by the Moon, also released as Portsmouth
22 January – The Dark Side of Winter Gardens
23 January – Southampton Docks Eclipsed by the Moon
28 January – You Are Number Six
17 February –
18 February – Rainbow Day 2
20 February – The Best of Tour 72, also released as Time Ends and Rainbow Theatre, Moon Walk, In Rainbow Light (complete 2 CD show)
6 March – Taiikukan 6 March 1972, also released as Acid Moon
7 March – Tokyo to Taiikukan, also released as Live in Tokyo 1972
13 March – Hokkaido, also released as Sapporo and as The Great Gig on The Moon
30 March – Run Rabbit Run
15 April – Sportarium
16 April – Paper Money, also released as Take Up My Stethoscope and Columbia Sonicwave
20 April – Syria Mosque Theater
23 April – Cincinnati 72, also released as Mad for F*****g Years
26 April – Detroit MI Ford Auditorium Pink Floyd – War in the Head
27 April – Detroit MI Ford Auditorium Pink Floyd – War in the Head
28 April – Eclipse – A Piece for Assorted Lunatics, also released as Hogweed Remaster
2 May – Carnegie Hall Upgrade
4 May – Mademoiselle Pink
18 May – Lord of the Universe
21 May – Sorcerers Supreme, also released as Gemersheim Festival, as Doubled Bubble and as Calling Number 228
22 May – Rock Circus
28 June – Return from Dark Profound
10 September – McFarlin Auditorium – Dallas
22 September – Bowl de Luna, also released as Cracked, Staying Home to Watch the Rain, From Box 1432, The Bright Side of the Earth and Damn Braces, Bless Relaxes
23 September – Winterland '72, also released as Time & Money in California
21 October – Gathering on the Moon
10 November – Doctor Who in Denmark
12 November – German Tour 72 Vol.3
14 November – Düsseldorf Master Tape
15 November – The Return of the Sons of Nothing, also released as The Great Gig in Böblingen
16 November – March of the Dambusters
17 November – Last Day in Germany, also released as One of Those Days
29 November – Any Colour You Like, also released as All Your Life Will Ever Be and The Devils Inside
1 December – Remembrance of Things Past, also released as Blow Your Mind Until You Die
2 December – Saint-Ouen 2 December 1972
7 December – Filling a Gap
9 December – In a Neutral Land
10 December – Across the Swiss Border, also released as End and Aim
1973
13 January – A Night with Roland
6 March – The Valley of the Kings
7 March – Childhood's End (Chicago)
8 March – Beneath Infinite Sky
10 March – Thoughts and Memories, also released as Kent State Master
11 March – Yeeshkul!
14 March – Boston USA
18 March – Dark Side of Radio City, also released Quiet Desperation in New York, Waterbury 18 March 1973 (Collector's Edition) and 3 Source Matrix [This show is usually listed as being at Radio 'City Music Hall in NYC but is actually from the Palace Theatre in Waterbury, Connecticut. A show was played at Radio City the previous night on 17 March]
18 May – Earl's Court – Day One
19 May – Supine in the Sunshine
16 June – New Jersey 16 June 1973
17 June – Saratoga Master, also released as On Stage
20 June – Breaking Bottles in the Hall, also released as War Memorial
28 June – Not a Cloud in the Sky
29 June – Tampa
12 October – Munich 1973 (Collector's Edition), also released as Paranoid Delusions
13 October – The Lunatics on the Run, also released as Revealed
4 November – Revealed at the Rainbow (Early Show)
4 November – Live at the Rainbow (Late Show), also released as Obscured at the Rainbow and Finnsbury Park
The bootleg Supine in the Sunshine contains an audience live recording with extended versions of two songs from the soundtrack Obscured by Clouds (1972); namely the title track (5:38) and "When You're In" (7:48).
Yeeshkul! is so named because the bootlegger, or someone close to him, mentions the word several times during the performance. The name has inspired a forum for discussing Pink Floyd bootlegs which shut down on February 28, 2023.[26]
15 November – Black Holes in the Sky (rev. A), also named We Are from Planet Earth
16 November – Dark Soundboard of Philadelphia, also named BBC Archives 74, Wembley 1974, Time in London, The Moon, No Room Upon the Hill and Interstellar Highlights
17 November – Getting Better All the Time, also named Little Lambs Eat Ivy
19 November – British Winter Tour
28 November – Empire Theater 74
9 December – The Kings of the Palace
14 December – Bristol 13 December 1974, also named Heavy Fog in Bristol
The bootleg British Winter Tour, a recording of the 19 November show in Stoke-on-Trent was a notable bootleg released in 1975. It featured the three new songs that Pink Floyd were playing on that tour. It sold an estimated 50,000 copies.[17] The record was issued with the lyrics to the songs, and the quality of presentation convinced a number of buyers that the album was a bona fide follow-up to The Dark Side of the Moon. The British Phonographic Industry were not impressed, and attempted to find out who the bootleggers were, with the intent of prosecuting them.[27]
26 April – Movin' Time, also released as Dogs and Sheeps (sic) and Cruel, But Fair
9 June – Landover, Maryland
10 June – Shone Like the Sun
15 June – Jersey Not Mother
16 June – Random Precision
17 June – Nassau Day 2, als released as Wishes, Echoes & Desires
18 June – Echoes in the Gardens (version 2-cd), also released as Echoes in the Gardens (version 3-cd), Boston Gardens Masters, Boston 1975, Spaceball Ricochet and Echoes of the Stage
20 June – Rivers of Steel
22 June – Heavy Rain
24 June – Detroit, also released as Detroit 1975
28 June – Ivor Wynne, also released as Steel Breeze
5 July – Knebworth '75 and Wish Roy Was in Knebworth
– "Under Construction", also released as "The WallDemos" (demo tape from the recording of The Wall in 1978, unofficially released by bootleggers. The songs here are not the same versions as those officially released on The Wall album.)
1 February – "The Wall Rehearsals", also released as "Behind the Wall" and "Brick by Brick"
28 February 1980 – Untitled LP with "hammers" cover, also released as "Behind the Wall", "Brick by Brick", "Nassau Coliseum Definitive Edition" and "The Wall From The Master Tape"
6 August – "The Show Must Go On", a.k.a. "The Wall on wrpi 91.5" and "Bars in the Window"
The classic line up of Pink Floyd (David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason) played together on stage for the first time in 24 years (the band toured without Waters in 1987–1989 and 1994).
The band performed the songs "Speak to Me", "Breathe / Breathe (Reprise)", "Money", "Wish You Were Here" and "Comfortably Numb". They were the only band not to be verbally introduced; instead the house and stage lights were darkened while the introduction to "Speak to Me" was played, accompanied on the video screens by an animated version of the heart monitor graphic from The Dark Side of the Moon sleeve. Due to the death of Richard Wright in September 2008, this would be the only reunion of all four members of the post-Syd Barrett incarnation of the band.
2 July – No More Excuses – Hyde Park – Live 8 (BBC Radio 2 FM Live Broadcast SB)
10 May – Syd Barrett Tribute London, Barbican Centre, two bonus tracks ("Arnold Layne" and "Bike") on the bootleg "David Gilmour & Rick Wright live in Copenhagen 1988"
Recent releases
The bootleg label The Godfather released in March 2011 an 8-CD box set of Pink Floyd songs called The Complete Rainbow Tapes. The box contains four Pink Floyd shows, recorded at the Rainbow Theater in London (17–20 February 1972).[28]
In 2012 The Godfather label released a 10-CD box set of Pink Floyd songs called The Massed Gadgets of Hercules 1970–1974. The box contains five Pink Floyd shows, recorded at 14 March 1970, Live at Meistersingerhalle, Nürnberg, West Germany / 13 February 1971, Live at Students Union Bar, TechnicalCollege, Farnborough, Hampshire, England / 16 April 1972, Live at Township Auditorium, Columbia, South Carolina, USA / 12 October 1973, Live at Olympiahalle, München, West Germany / 14 December 1974, Live at Colston Hall, Bristol, Somerset, England.
^Palacios, Julian (1998). "'Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears' (July 1967 – January 1968)". Lost in the Woods: Syd Barrett and the Pink Floyd. London: Boxtree. p. 202. ISBN0-7522-2328-3.