Luna Lille (Sigma 33)
Palais des Sports, Lille, France – December 7, 1972
Disc 1: (49:19) Dark Side Of The Moon – 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: (40:40) One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Echoes
Luna Lille comes from a newly surfaced tape from Lille, France on December 7th, 1972. The recording has been known to exist for a couple years but hasn’t surfaced on silver disc until now. The tape has reportedly been cleaned up recently and has been circulating amongst collectors and is probably what was used for Sigma 33. It features a very good audience source with some traces of hiss. The recording features Waters’ bass standing out just above Wright, Gilmour and Mason. There are some minor tape disturbances throughout the recording, not so much drop outs but more like brief dips in sound. It is possible maybe removing some of the distortion during the clean up left the tape this way. There are a few brief comments around the recorder but for the most part the crowd is respectful during the performance.
The Dark Side Of The Moon fills out the first set and is a standard end of the tour performance. “On The Run” is still being played as “The Travel Sequence” (with the guitar/keyboard jam) but “The Mortality Sequence”, as it was referred to earlier in the year, has almost fully developed into “The Great Gig In The Sky”. Wright attempts the solo on the Moog but quickly switches to electric piano after realizing the Moog was out of tune. This is a fairly unique version that was also featured in Boblingen on November 15th and is the only other time from the European Tour that the solo was played on piano. Dave’s guitar soars through the Leslie speaker in “Any Colour You Like” and is captured very well here.
During the second set the band seems even more inspired and Roger’s bass is even more pronounced. Closing in on the end of the tour they improvise a little more than usual in places. “One Of These Days” has a few spots of tape deterioration but isn’t too bad. “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” reaches a new level of eerie partly due to Water’s steady thud being up front with Gilmour’s echo soaked guitar down slightly in the mix and includes Roger’s “Pictish rant” common to the versions around this time. “Echoes” closes the set with unfortunately no encore present which is a shame because at this stage of the tour “Childhood’s End” was being favored over “Set The Controls”.
1972 played a significant role in the success of Pink Floyd and the development of the Dark Side material throughout the year is fortunately very well documented (especially by Sirene/Sigma). Luna Lille comes in a double slimline jewel case with a nice selection of photos and is another nice title to add to Sigma’s growing collection.
6 Comments
WELL DONE SIGMA!! THIS TIME I’M REALLY HAPPY TO LEAVE A GOOD COMMENT FOR THIS RELEASE, WE LOVE NEW STUFF.. IF I HAVE TO SPEND MY HARD-EARNED MONEY FOR LIVE STUFF, THAT’S THE RIGHT WAY FOR SIGMA TO HAVE ME BETWEEN THEIR CUSTOMERS!! THIS GIG IS QUITE INTERESTING AND LONG AWAITED, DON’T STOP PRESSING PLANT FOR THIS GREAT STUFF YOU SIGMA GUYS!!
Let us hope we see a release of Boblingen 11/15/72 in the near future, Roger’s pict rants during CWTAE are great
Yes, 1973 is another of my favorites and the Rainbow shows from November would make a great set. I never get tired of Obscured By Clouds stuff.
Disc 2 is fantastic for sure. Love the heavy bass presence. Regarding other ’72 shows awaiting the Sigma upgrade, I’ll second the suggestion for the overdue 4CD set of the Rainbow Day 1 + Day 2, along with Brighton Dome & Portsmouth. Actually, if Sigma were also to take care of Osaka 3/9/72, Hamburg 11/12/72, Boblingen 11/15/72 and St Ouen 12/1/72 as well, that would pretty much wipe out the remaining Ayanami, Highland, and STTP releases from that year. There’s also the remainder of Tokyo 3/6/72 to address and the not-so-great Florida/South Carolina recordings from the Spring. But it seems to me that ’73 is the most neglected year in terms of Sirene and Sigma…
**And how could I forget the Leeds 1/28/72 previously available as Windmill-005 that continues to elude me? A silver pressing/upgrade would be welcome unless someone wants to part with Windmill-005!**
Thanks DLee, While I liked disc one, I really enjoyed the performances on disc two even more. As I stated in the review, I always found the development of the Dark Side material during 1972 very fascinating and I hope Sigma will issue more from the January/February shows. (i.e. Ayanami’s Rainbow Day One and Day Two would make a great 4CD set and the Brighton Dome and Portsmouth shows are in need of an upgrade as well)
Thanks for this excellent review, wgpsec – I pretty much agree with most everything, esp. it being a considerably bass-heavy recording.