Roar Ends (Siréne-066)
Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec, Canada – July 6th, 1977
Disc 1: White Noise, Sheep, Pigs On The Wing (part 1), Dogs, Pigs On The Wing (part 2), Pigs (Three Different Ones)
Disc 2: Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1-5), Welcome To The Machine, Have A Cigar, Wish You Were Here, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 6-9)
Disc 3: Money, Us And Them, Blues
Roar Ends on Siréne documents their very final concert on this tour in Montreal on July 6th and is one of the most thrilling, chilling, and surreal show captured on several superb audience tapes for posterity to contemplate and enjoy.
While some claim that Pink Floyd begain their merry way across the world touring for Animals, the truth is Roger Waters was never pleased with the size and scope and said so from the beginning. His desire to perform with a wall between himself and the audience was not born out of the trouble on the final week of the tour and in Montreal in particular, but were stated in an interveiw in New Musical Express in January, 1977.
The audience sounds very keyed up from the very beginning, and from the bass intro to “Sheep” it sounds like it will be a special performance. Fireworks begin (literally) by “Pigs On The Wings (part 2)”. Some audience members throw some fireworks which set of Roger and his famous tirade: “I’m trying to sing a song! Go outside and set them off.” All this is a prelude to perhaps the greatest versions of “Pigs (Three Different Ones)” on record. Rogers spits out the lyrics and David Gilmour extends the solo with ferocity.
And this contains the well known incident where Waters calls the kid up to the stage, like one would a dog (“C’mon boy… come back… all is forgiven… just a bit further… there’s a good boy…”) and unleashes an accurate (by all accounts) spit into his eye. The Wish You Were Here set is notable for the audience’s very loud and enthusiastic reaction to the theatrics, especially the Scarfe film during “Welcome To The Machine”.
The finale “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 6-9)” is one of the longest ever played (23 minutes) and contains an enthusiastic slide guitar solo that gets out of control, prompting Waters to sing “Nobody knows where we are” to much laughter. The song is extended sounding like they don’t want the fun to end.
Journalist Juan Rodriquez writing in the Montreal Gazette criticized Gilmour’s solos as “formless time fillers” which is far from the truth. They are delivered with such genius and passion and are one of his greatest moments. “Money”, the first encore, contains a fireworks display (coordinated with the venue this time) in the latter part of the guitar solo which drives the audience crazy.
“Okay, we’re gonna do another tune” Waters says afterwards. “Just because there are a few assholes out front doesn’t mean everyone can get upset. This is called ‘Us & Them’ and begins quiet. Let’s try to end this peacefully” which doesn’t occur. The beginning of the song is tough to hear over the din. “We’re just going to play some music to go home to.
We’re not noted as a blues band but we’ll play a slow blues so everybody can calm down.” The mellow jam has its intended affect as the audience becomes quieter. This has been called the “Drift Away Blues” because Roger sings that line in the middle of the twelve-minute piece. The roadies began to break down the stage and by the end only Rogers’ bass and Mason’s drums are left playing. A bizarre end to a bizarre show.
Three tape sources exist for this show. The first appeared on the famous Azimuth Coordinator release and also used for En Chair Et En Os, Fire Works Show In The Canadian Walls, Montreal ’77, Last Performance Of The Animals Tour, and The Last Animalized on Highland. The second tape source which is utilized by Siréne was also used for their previous release of this show The End Of Animals on Ayanami. The label used the master clone of the second tape source and made the dynamics broader. This is another nice job by Siréne.
3 Comments
There’s now an alternative ‘Yeeskul’ sourced (I believe) / fan’s sorta ‘best of’ the gigs compilation of the Stateside / Canada ‘Flesh’ tour – (and simply stunning top quality for audience sources – as STILL NOT soundboard) – that in effect the band (Nick?) should have been arsed – er, sorry proud, conscientious – to have put together themselves, and in it it has this gig’s notorious ‘Pigs’ RW rant in it – but not with the related earlier POTW2 one, which renders it sort of incongruous (although, understandably excised if a best of for not only discerning fans but others not to have to hear / save Rog any lingering embarrassment, too, I suppose):
but point to this performance / recording is that the second half of SOYCD as here, was not chosen: which is a pity as, contrary to that contemporary crass press review notably quoted here, my take is that this recording highlights probably the best interplay (call and response) of the tour between DG and SW, almost heart-renderingly so nearing its final play out, and to me, their playing (plus with Rick’s mournful coda) seems to augur that they already knew this was to mark the end of an era: no more of their signature live improvisational jamming anymore thereafter (already, really only Pigs and SOYCD part 2 mainly allowed for any such in this tour): then, the ‘Money’ encore wig out version (one of the best of the tour) also seems to confirm this, and with the sort of resigned / apologetic most rare additional ‘Drift Away / Calming Blues’ final ever PF version 2 encore, just seems to sum it all up as so. Superb archive artefact!
Best Dogs solo ever??
35 years later and it still gives me chills.
I am just listening to this one, and by all accounts this is a stunning show as well as a stunning recording!
From the outset of the show there is an ominous feeling as if a storm is about to hit any moment. I am actually not capable of telling whether this is due to the gloominess of the Animals tracks or whether the atmosphere at the gig is super charged. In any case this is a wonderful release that I have listened to over and over again. Gilmour is really top of his game, but also Waters is delivering the lyrics with a tremendous bite all through the show …