Pink Floyd – Household Objects In Paris (The Godfatherecords G.R. 867/868)

Household Objects In Paris (The Godfatherecords G.R. 867/868)

Theatre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, France – January 23, 1970

Disc 1 (59:52) Daybreak pt. 1 (aka Grantchester Meadows), Work, Tea Time, Afternoon (aka Biding My Time), Doing It (aka The Grand Viziers Garden Party Entertainment), Sleep (aka Quicksilver), Nightmare (Cymbaline), A Saucerful Of Secrets

Disc 2 (69:48) Astronomy Domine, Green Is The Color, Careful With That Axe Eugene, The Violent Sequence, Main Theme From “More”, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, The Amazing Pudding (aka Atom Heart Mother)

The second release in a short time of the recently circulated tape source for The Pink Floyd’s incredible concert in Paris in January 1970, this time from the folks at Godfather Records. The first was The Man In Paris (Sigma 89), a very nice release that included a third disc that featured two songs in outstanding quality from a radio broadcast.

The main difference comes in the mastering of the show itself, Godfather chose not to increase the volume as much as Sigma so the background noise is not as bad nor are the mic bumps that occur sporadically such as the beginning of both discs as the taper was positioning his equipment. Case in point, take the beginning of the second disc as the band retakes the stage and begins the tune up for what would eventually be “Astronomy Domine”, the mic bumps sound quite jarring on the Sigma while hardly noticeable on Godfathers. They also elected not to increase the speed of the tape as much and filled in some small gaps with the original radio broadcast recording.

I was reading over the description of the show in Hodges and Priston’s superb Embryo: A Pink Floyd Chronology and found an interesting observation from a friend of the Floyd’s who was in attendance. He went on to say that when the band started “The Main Them From More” the audience had a very positive reaction, you can clearly hear it on this new recording.

Godfather also uses the original radio broadcast recording three times for this release, the first is at 11:48 – 11:56 during “A Saucerful Of Secrets” and the last two gaps are both in “Atom Heart Mother”, the first at 8:08 – 8:19 and at 23:33 – 23:45, the slices are excellent with the first two being hard to notice. Anyone who has heard the original tape knows that the volume does fluctuate slightly throughout the entire recording, from what I would guess it is the azimuth coordinator in all its glory. I like that Godfather chose to use the older radio source, it would have been extremely jarring to hear the excellent sounding broadcast tape mixed in.

The packaging is tri gate fold sleeve with pictures from early 1970; the center spread has liner notes written by Alex The Gnome. The photos and graphics are over tattered looking paper giving the feeling of unearthing some long lost document. For those who wish to obtain the show with an excellent quality release at a more affordable price this is certainly a viable opportunity to do so as Godfather has done an excellent job with this release. It’s not often Floyd collectors get such a wonderful treat to tantalize not only one’s ears but also one’s mind.