Pink Floyd – Dortmund 1981 3RD Night (Sigma 134)

Dortmund 1981 3RD Night (Sigma 134)

Westfallenhalle, Dortmund, Germany – February 15, 1981

Disc 1 (55:10) MC Intro, In The Flesh?, The Thin Ice, Another Brick In The Wall Part 1, The Happiest Days Of Our Lives, Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, Mother, Goodbye Blue Sky, Empty Spaces, What Shall We Do Now?, Young Lust, One Of My Turns, Don’t Leave Me Now, Another Brick In The Wall Part 3, The Last Few Bricks, Goodbye Cruel World

Disc 2 (53:39)  Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There?, Nobody Home, Vera, Bring The Boys Back Home, Comfortably Numb, The Show Must Go On, MC Intro, In The Flesh, Run Like Hell, Waiting for The Worms, Stop, The Trial, Outside The Wall

The original run of performances of The Wall were in two cities in the United States followed by London, England, all were complete sell outs and due to the nature of the presentation the band would not do a proper “road” trek for promotion. As most know, The Wall was conceived early on to be a record, live presentation, and a movie. With live shows under wrap the focus began on the movie, and it was decided that the band needed to film the live shows for possible use in the movie, while there are videos from Uniondale and Earls Court, they were not multi angle professional ones needed for the cinema. The decision was made to film the band during their six night stand in London during the middle of June 1981 and to prepare for the filming, the band would do a warm up set of dates in Dortmund, Germany in February 1981. This new release from Sigma focuses on the third night in Dortmund, this is the first time this concert has been on silver edition, so how could I resist?

There are two recordings from this date, both culled from the audience, the main recording here is a good to very good distant source that is sadly incomplete, the beginning of the second set MC and very beginning of Hey You is missing and there is a few other cuts noted below. It has a nice range of frequencies, during the louder songs it is clear and detailed but during the quieter songs the levels are lower making for a bit of a contrast. There is also a bit of tape hiss, again it is more noticeable during the quieter sections. The taper does occasionally cough and you do here comments throughout the performance but none too detracting. The alternate recording is closer to the stage and is clear and enjoyable but does not have the full range of sound the first tape does and suffers from a high end crackle distortion when during loud sections, it is utilized to fill gaps in the main one, from :31 of Nobody Home to :52 of Vera and during 3:09 to 3:20 of Waiting For The Worms, the splices are smooth and well done. After listening to this release on both my home stereo and car, I find that it is much more enjoyable on my home stereo, the space of a room helps flush out the sound from this tape. The performance is great, by this time The Wall performances move almost like clockwork and since the recording was done far back you get to almost experience the show with those who were there as they clap in certain times. There are many reviews of The Wall shows on this site, no real need for a play by play as this is a standard Wall show, no curtains on fire or anything. The audience is just boisterous enough that you can feel their excitement yet does not become a distraction.

The packaging is typical for Sigma, live shots superimposed over a brick wall, there is a picture of the concert poster and the CD’s have pictures on them and let’s not forget the numbered sticker. Nice to see another Wall show out in circulation yet the sound makes for a release more for the serious collector, for the casual ones there are better sounding recordings out there.