Pink Floyd – The Last Few Bricks (Siréne-074)

The Last Few Bricks(Siréne-074)

Earl’s Court, London, England – June 17th, 1981

Disc 1:  MC:  Atmos, 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:  Hey You, Is There Anybody Out There?, Nobody Home, Vera, Bring The Boys Back Home, Comfortably Numb, The Show Must Go On, MC:  Atmos, In The Flesh, Run Like Hell, Waiting For The Worms, Stop, The Trial, Outside The Wall

The final week of Wall shows at Earl’s Court in the summer of 1981 were scheduled in order to film the band for their film project.  As is well known the footage was never used for the film and has sat in the vaults for the past quarter of a century (although Roger Waters has hinted an official release).  But this stint is more significant because it is the final time the real Pink Floyd performed together (until Live 8 in July), and The Last Few Bricks is the very last show from that summer.  There are three different excellent sounding tape sources for this show.

According to the You Gotta Be Crazy website, “very easy to distinguish them from one point only, right during the first announcement by Gary Yudman: after he says “…Any camera found being used will be confiscated…”:
on recorder 1 taper yells “bollocks”
on recorder 2 there’s no comment (the taper laughs after Yudman says “Believe me, there’ll be enough explosions in your mind “).
on recorder 3 taper says “boo” and he or his friend also whistles then.

Ayanami’s Roger At Last is sourced from the first tape source, whereas this new release on Siréne comes from the third tape source from Nigel Bradder.  It is a superb stereo audience recording whose only flaw is the occasional muffled comments by the taper.  It really isn’t too intrusive but is noticeable.  The tape does pick up all of the dynamics of the audience’s reactions to the puppets perfectly and you really get the feel of the live experience.  The performance is excellent as well and a worthy end of an era.  It’s structured as all of the Wall shows so no surprises there. 

Before “Young Lust” Waters announces, “Thank you! Good evening! Welcome! Well at least Neil Diamond’s not here tonight.  That’s something isn’t it? This is called “Young Lust” …Sorry Neil, only joking!”  Before “Run Like Hell” he says, “Welcome! Are we gonna have a good time? Does anyone here like pigs? This is for all the weak people in the audience. Is there anyone here who’s weak? This is for you; it’s called ‘Run Like Hell’.  Let’s all of us clap!”  This is another worthy title from Siréne and it’s great to see the Japanese labels producing more Wall shows.  Hopefully the definitive version of the February 28th, 1980 Nassau Coliseum tape will find its way to a silver release soon.