Pink Floyd – The Late Great Millard Tapes (Highland HL644/645/646)

The Late Great Millard Tapes (Highland HL644/645/646)

Sports Arena, Los Angeles CA, – April 26th, 1975

Disc 1 (62:59):  Recorder check by Mike Millard, Tuning and Intro, Raving And Drooling, Tuning and Intro, You Gotta Be Crazy, Tuning and Intro, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts 1-5), Have A Cigar, Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts 6-9)

Disc 2 (56:34):  Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run, Time, The Great Gig In The Sky, Money, Us & Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse

Disc 3 (24:17):  Tuning and Intro, Echoes

Another boot named after the famous taper from Los Angeles responsible for great tapes of The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and others.  This Highland release is a duplication of the Ayanami cdr release Master Stroke utilizing a first generation of this great show with Roger Water’s comments about the men in the yellow shirts before the intermission and the funny comment after “You Gotta Be Crazy” about it being “cruel, but fair.” 

There are two cuts on the tape:  in “Have A Cigar” and in “Any Colour You Like” most likely due to tape flips.  This tape was previously released on LP as Movin’ Time and on CD as Hog’s In Smog on the STTP label (although with the wrong date). 

There is some debate out the tape generation used on this release.  It is unclear if they are the actual masters or a first generation.  Whatever the situation really is, the tapes used are extremely good as can be expected from the taper. 

Extremely detailed for a tape so old it displays Pink Floyd in a strange position.  After having attained superstar status with the release with Dark Side of the Moon, they write songs about the vacuity and destructiveness of such fame and success.  The juxtaposition of the two halves of the set is very interesting.  The reaction, the fame, and the return to innocence with their early masterpiece “Echoes”.

These concerts at the LA Forum are of historical note for the well known drug busts that occurred during the band’s four night string of shows.  The LAPD chief Ed Davis mobilized the police force against concert goers and made 511 arrests.  Roger Waters alludes to this event in the film The Wall, contrasting the riot with the Royal Fusiliers Company C’s storming of the Anzio beach head in April, 1944.  The Late Great Millard Tapes is another sterling release by Highland. 

This tape, along with the Boston concert in June, 1975 (Echoes In The Garden on Heartbreakers and Raving & Drooling on Watchtower) are the two essential releases to own from Pink Floyd’s 1975 tour of the US.  The back cover has a fascinating picture of the road crew inflating the nuclear family used on the In The Flesh tour.  It’s the wrong tour but still an interesting.