Pink Floyd’s catalogue of live recordings underscores the idea that 1973’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and 1979’s “The Wall” are their signature releases. After all, there are multiple albums commemorating multiple tours focusing on just those two projects.
Pink Floyd Live Albums also makes the case for the often-overlooked material released before the band’s platinum-selling heyday. David Gilmour began to explore this era much more deeply once he reconnected with former Pink Floyd co-founder Richard Wright, digging back to his initial albums with the group. Original drummer Nick Mason has created his own new band to perform some of Pink Floyd’s earliest songs.
Tours also inevitably feature the latest songs from an act’s latest album, and these live recordings are no different – whether that means including material from the Gilmour-led Pink Floyd reboot or individual solo efforts from Gilmour and Roger Waters. With a backlog of earworm classics,
Ummagumma (1969)
David Gilmour had been touring with Pink Floyd for just over a year, and they still hadn’t found a musical path forward. “Ummagumma” summed up the confusion. The first disc was recorded as Pink Floyd performed sometimes desultory 1969 versions of recent songs like “Astronomy Domine” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.”
(The concerts also included embryonic takes on soon-to-be-released songs like “Cymbaline” and “Green is the Colour,” though they weren’t included on “Ummagumma“.) Yet it’s all still better than the second disc, which contains largely pointless solo studio compositions by each member of the group.
‘Delicate Sound of Thunder’ (1988)
Pink Floyd’s first proper live release somehow didn’t arrive until Roger Waters was long gone. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his former bandmates had trouble rising to the visceral anger of Waters’ late-period material, in particular on tracks where he used to share vocals. They tended to sound far more comfortable with the new songs.
Recorded over five nights at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, New York, in August 1988 and mixed at Abbey Road Studios in September 1988, The album includes many works from “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” as well as tracks from older Pink Floyd albums.
Still, “Delicate Sound of Thunder” offered a welcome return to the flowing group sounds that predated novelistic albums like “The Wall” and “The Final Cut“. Replacement band member Guy Pratt also had a knack for adding the kind of funk and sophistication on bass (check out “Another Brick in the Wall [Part 2]”) that Waters can’t really approximate. It opened the door to far more intriguing future collaborations.
Although David Gilmour stated around the time of its release and on a radio interview in 1992 that the album contained no studio overdubbing whatsoever, he embellished the tracks during mixing with some extra acoustic guitar on “Comfortably Numb“, according to engineer Buford Jones. In addition, some harmonies were replaced by studio re-takes: Richard Wright re-did his vocal on “Time” and Sam Brown replaced Rachel Fury‘s part in “Comfortably Numb“ but the rest of the album is as performed at the shows
‘Pulse’ (1995)
Pink Floyd’s only chart-topping live album featured the return in full of Richard Wright, who’d made only occasional contributions to 1987’s “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” after being fired by Waters in “The Wall” era. This opened the band’s in-concert setlist a little wider, as they added “Astronomy Domine” a Syd Barrett song not performed since the early 1970s taken from their 1967 debut. The album was recorded during the European leg of Pink Floyd’s “Division Bell” Tour in 1994
The second-disc performance of “Dark Side of the Moon” also served to highlight Wright’s often overlooked contributions as an instrumentalist (“Us and Them”), composer (“The Great Gig in the Sky”) and vocalist (“Time”). At that point, this was the only complete reading of Pink Floyd’s signature 1973 album.
The track “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II” features small portions of the songs “Another Brick in the Wall, Part I“, “The Happiest Days of Our Lives” and “Another Brick in the Wall, Part III“. Unlike the previous live album “Delicate Sound of Thunder”, no parts of the songs were re-recorded in the studio. However, the band and Guthrie fixed songs that had bad notes (as heard on some bootlegs) by lifting solos and corrected vocal lines from other performances as the band recorded most of the European leg.
‘Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980–81’ (2000)
Waters’ solo renditions of “The Wall” typically held their own intrigues, but all were forgotten after an historic excavation by producer James Guthrie. Pink Floyd originally staged just 31 concerts in support of this sprawling project. Guthrie focused on performances from August 1980 and June 1981 in London, including Waters’ last concert appearance with Pink Floyd before 2005’s Live 8 reunion.
The shows involved the construction of a wall on stage throughout the first half of the show. Once complete, members of the band performed in small openings in, atop, in front of, or even behind the wall.
“Is There Anybody Out There?” unfolds with a new sharpness and muscular force, while expanding our understanding of the narrative: Two new songs appear, including “What Shall We Do Now?” – a last-minute cut from the original album.
The album artwork featured the life-masks of the four band members in front of a black wall; the masks were worn by the “surrogate band” during the song “In the Flesh“. “Goodbye Blue Sky” and parts of “Run Like Hell” were taken from the 17th June 1981 show, this was the very last performance by the four-man Pink Floyd until the 2005 Live 8 concert.
‘Live at Knebworth 1990’ (2021)
This headline show was part of the star-studded 1990 Silver Clef Winners performance at Knebworth House, Hertfordshire 15th November 1990 that saw Pink Floyd topping the all-star bill that included Paul McCartney, Dire Straits, Genesis, Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler, Robert Plant (with Jimmy Page), Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton and Tears For Fears. Around 120,000 music fans saw these giants of rock appear on the hallowed stage of Knebworth, all in aid of the Nordoff Robbins charity, profits from which went towards setting up the BRIT School. The concert was broadcast globally on MTV.
This stunning live concert features many of the bands best known songs including “Comfortably Numb”, “The Great Gig In The Sky”, and “Wish You Were Here”. Alongside David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright, the album also features original “The Great Gig In The Sky” vocalist Clare Torry, plus guest musicians including sax player Candy Dulfer and keyboard player and composer Michael Kamen.
Completists might be tempted by the dramatic return of vocalist Clare Torry for “The Great Gig in the Sky,” but they’ll also notice there isn’t much more to this. Originally part of The Later Years box set focusing on Pink Floyd’s post-Roger Waters era, “Live at Knebworth 1990” was subsequently issued as a painfully short, cash-grabby stand-alone product.
There are only seven total tracks, and two of them – “Comfortably Numb” and “Run Like Hell” – were on the previously released compilation Knebworth: The Album.
‘The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974’ (2023)
This has an origin story not dissimilar to “Live at Knebworth 1990″, having been released as a stand-alone LP after originally appearing on two earlier box set reissues. But that’s where the similarities end. “The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley 1974″ finds Pink Floyd at the peak of their powers and performing their best-known album in its entirety. The material was originally recorded in November 1974 by BBC Radio 1 at what’s now Wembley Stadium. The shows are notable for showcasing an early version of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” as well as very early versions of “Sheep” and “Dogs” under different titles – “Raving and Drooling” and “You’ve Got to Be Crazy”, respectively.
The first three tracks were released as part of the “Wish You Were Here” Immersion box set in November 2011. The whole performance of “Dark Side of the Moon” was released two months earlier, in September 2011 as part of the “Dark Side…” Immersion box set. The encore, “Echoes”, was not released until November 2016 when it was included in “The Early Years 1965–1972” box set as part of Volume 7: 1967–1972 Continu/ation.
The tour also featured the whole of “The Dark Side of the Moon” album played as well as one of the final performances of “Echoes” before being resurrected briefly in 1987; this performance of “Echoes” is notable for featuring saxophone performed by Dick Parry.
Here’s how great those shows were: They also provided material for 2011’s “Wish You Were Here” Immersion box (including an early version of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”) and 2016’s The Early Years (one of the final classic-era renditions of “Echoes”).
The Fat Angel Sings 