Atomic Heart Beat In The Hall (Godfather Records GR 786/787)
Town Hall, Birmingham, England – February 11th, 1970
Disc 1 (46:18): Embryo, Main Theme from More, Tuning, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Sysyphus
Disc 2 (61:08): Heart Beat Pig Meat, Quicksilver, Moonhead, The Violent Sequence, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, The Amazing Pudding
Atomic Heart Beat In The Hall documents Pink Floyd’s February 11th, 1970 show in Birmingham, England. The sound quality of the tape starts off quite rough and unpleasant, but quickly improves to be quite listenable and enjoyable. The entire show was pressed before on The Amazing Pudding (Highland HL 208/209) and the latter half of the show can be found as bonus tracks on Monopoly (1996 DYNAMO GULAG SUBOTNIK, MOSCOW).
There are several reasons why this show is important. It contains very early performances of both “Atom Heart Mother” still called “The Amazing Pudding” at this point and with a drum break, and “The Embryo.” Second, there are several very rare live performances of “Sysyphus” and “The Main Theme (from More).”
The most interesting part is the twenty-five minute long piece that starts off the second disc. It starts off with “Heart Beat Pig Meat” from the soundtrack to the film Zabriskie Point and leads into “The Violent Sequence,” the precursor to “Us & Them” on Dark Side Of The Moon. It’s the longest performance of the piece and most interesting given the incorporated musical themes. Godfather utilize their gorgeous tri-fold cardboard gatefold sleeve with copious liner notes written by their Pink Floyd expert Alex The Gnome.
8 Comments
This release needs an upgrade badly. I’m listening to a late 2017 upgrade using a 2nd gen source from a Yeeshkul magician and it offers a dramatic improvement in sound compared to the GR silvers.
Has an anyone heard the Sigma version?
From what I heard the title is sourced from newly discovered low gen copy. All previous titles were sourced from hissy high gen dubs that are floating around since late 1970s and this is the very first time low gen is circulated. The only difference I found is that on the older transfers/titles there’s a short snippet of Right’s organ just before ATH and new version does not have this what might meant there’s better sounding and more complete copy somewhere and maybe it will appear somewhere in the future.
Great set list for this show, worth the purchase alone. I agree, it’s not the greatest sounding document but I found it to be rather enjoyable as well. From what I understand, Godfather has done wonders with this tape. Excellent work!
I agree with all the above, a great release. Now if they could do Croydon from January 1970 we would be convered for early 1970
That’s why Godfather is the greatest label in the world…
i bought this cd at the recent Milan Record & Cd fair in italy few days ago,going back home i put it in my car player quite dubious about quality, i listened to the songs of this show many times both on vinyl and cd from back releases but i was really surprised : i realised that all flaws of the other releases i listened to were absolutely cancelled and it was really enjoyable, once again the mastering job was a real labour of love! This is not the most easier cd to listen but in fact it’s one of the most interesting , totally recommended for people loving Floyd experimenting on stage
The Fantasic Voyage cd from Moonage Daydream has a superior version of The Violent Sequence and The Amazing Pudding from 23 Jan.1970, Libv at Theatre des Champs-Elysees – Paris, France, but it appears that’s all they recorded. Oh, and for a few moments during The Amazing Pudding, Pink Floyd actually becomes Yes.