Collectors Music Reviews

Eclipsed By The Dome (Godfatherecords G.R. 481/482) 

The Dome, Brighton, Sussex, England – June 28, 1972 

Disc 1: (44:19) 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 2: (67:58) Tuning, One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Echoes, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Bonus Track: Blues (Town Hall, Leeds, Yorkshire, England – January 28, 1972) 

The development of Dark Side Of The Moon took place throughout the year 1972. It started on January 20th, incidentally at The Dome in Brighton, when the piece was being debuted under the working title Eclipse. The suite was abandoned during “Money” due to some equipment problems but their return to The Dome in June would fare much better. 

First time on silver for this show and a much welcomed release by all means. It features a very good to excellent audience source that is slightly distant but sounds very clear and enjoyable with a nice range of frequencies. Audience interference is almost non existent during the performances and there are no musical cuts.  

The June 28th show is the first of two at The Dome and is about midway into the development of Dark Side Of The Moon. “On The Run” was still “The Travel Sequence” while “The Great Gig In The Sky” was starting to hint at the finished product but still played on the Hammond. The suite as a whole is definitely becoming tighter and the individual pieces are played with more confidence, especially “Time”, “Money”, and “Us And Them”, which had all recently been recorded. Wright does a nice little vamp in “Money” in place of the saxophone solo that works very well in this version. There is some brief audio deterioration about 2:45 in “Us And Them” but aside from that the rest of the tape is in good shape.  

The second half on the show seems a bit more upbeat than normal. The tracks are played at a noticeably quicker pace but the tape speed is accurate. Many performances of these songs tend to be slow and deliberate but the band plays aggressively throughout the second set. The crowd obviously recognizes the wind sound before “One Of These Days” and show their approval. “Careful With That Axe” and “Echoes” are really captured perfectly in this recording. “Set The Controls”, the only present encore, is an outstanding spacey version that caps off an astonishing performance all in very good sound quality. The Povey and Russell book, Pink Floyd: In The Flesh has a setlist for this show that includes a short version of “A Saucerful Of Secrets”. 

Godfather included “Blues” from Town Hall in Leeds from earlier in the year. It comes from a very good audience source that has Gilmour loud and clear in the mix. It is a nice bonus track in what I hope is a preview from a future release. Eclipsed By The Dome is definitely another excellent Pink Floyd title by Godfather worth obtaining. It is packaged in their usual tri-fold paper sleeve with an excellent essay written by Alex The Gnome with additional contributions from Enigma Publius.

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