The Show Must Go On (Highland Limited Special Edition HL001 SEX)
Earls Court, London, England – August 6th, 1980
Disc 1 (58:52): DJ introductions, MC Gary Yudman, 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, DJ intermission
Disc 2 (54:28): 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, DJ comment, Pigs On The Wing (bonus track)
After playing in New York, Pink Floyd took a six month hiatus before resuming in London. Six shows were scheduled for Earls Court in London, and The Show Must Go On documents the third show and is sourced from an excellent stereo audience recording. Older releases of this tape, The Wall Performed Live (Silver Rarities SIRA CD47-CD48) and Wall Live(Satisfaction Guaranteed SG 054/55) came from a higher generation cassette.
Highland released this about a week after the release of The Warm Thrill Of Confusion (Siréne-063). Both use the master cassette source remastered by the taper himself and speed corrected by Man Of Leisure Music. The taper himself states: “I was seated to the left of the stage, half way back, and used a Technics Single Point Stereo Microphone with the Sony TC153SD Cassette deck, which was quite a hefty machine in those days. I used the same equipment for the last concert (17Jun81), where I sat right at the back, so the 1981 recording is more distant than this 1980 show.”
Highland presents the show in the context of a radio broadcast on WRPI in Troy, New York. WRPIis an independent college radio station in the Capital region in upstate New York, located on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The tape begins with the disc jocky speaking to Jeff Flynn, who speaks about the show, the taper and his location in the venue.
This concert was the basis for a scathing attack by journalist Nick Kent in August 16th New Musical Express. He called it a “wretchedly lackadaisical performance” and that “Waters should deflate the farce, debunk all myths, strip the Floyd of all their pathetic theatrical devices, inform the audience that the game is over, and offer them refunds for their tickets.”
There are some technical problems in “Mother” detracting Roger for a bit, making him flub a line. But otherwise the show pretty much flawless with even a hint of improvisation thrown in “Another Brick In The Wall – part 2”. As with all of the shows “Comfortably Numb” receives the biggest reaction especially when Gilmour appears on top of the wall.
“Run Like Hell” is dedicated to “all the pig lovers in the audience; and for all the discos, disco freaks; and for all the paranoids and psychopaths.”
Highland released this on their special offshoot label, the same as their remastered version of Mr. Pig. It came packaged with a slip case and a bonus cdr of the Los Angeles rehearsals at first. Now it comes simply packaged in the jewel case. The final track “Pigs On The Wing Part 1” is simply the Animals version that closed the radio broadcast. The Show Must Go Onis a good alternative and competitor to the Siréne release, both with the excellent sound quality and the commentary offered in the radio broadcast.
