Pink Floyd '67 - great show although weak vocals

Enjoying the show

The rare Stockholm 1967 Pink Floyd live recording is a real gem, although one can hardly hear the vocals at all. Here is Radio Dupree's report from the Pink Floyd Happening at Gyllene Cirkeln (The Golden Circle) in Stockholm yesterday on Saturday May 7.

The idea was to have a public playback of the rare and uncirculated recording that Anders Lind made at Pink Floyd's first visit in Sweden in September 1967...at the same location.
Anders held an introduction to the "performance" where he told the audience about how it all happened:

"I used to record different bands and I asked Pink Floyd's manager if I could record them. He said: OK, just promise you won't make anything bad with it."

Then Lind pressed the start button of the old Revox machine and we could hear a British voice announcing the band in a traditional way: "Give them a big hand..."
Then came the first bars of Matilda Mother, organ and bass. Syd Barrett's vocals could be heard faintly in the background.

The band and the tape recorder

Earlier Anders Lind had explained that there was no such thing as a PA system back in '67, and there was no one mixing the sound. The sound came from the amps on stage and the signal from the vocal microphones were sent to a couple of small vocal amps. The sound was a result of each musician handling their own amp, and during the show the vocal amps would probably not be adjusted at all. But the lack of vocals on the tape can also be a result of Syd's health and/or attitude at the time. Maybe he did not make the effort to sing out loud, by some reason.

Matilda Mother had a longer instrumental part in the middle and a quick look at the watch made clear that it clocked in on about 5:20, more than two minutes longer than the album version.
Next song is Pow R. Toc H. which is a long instrumental (except for some bird like screams in the beginning).

The impression so far is that the band is quite heavy for a 1967 band. Syd plays some mean guitar and Roger Waters bass is loud and sometimes aggressive. Rick Wright's organ wanders between odd (arabian?) scales and pure eerie sounds, and Nick Mason gives the tom toms a good bash.

The yet unreleased Scream Thy Last Scream is next. We can't hear any vocals on this one at all, but this is a heavy tune! The lads are ahead of their time, nine or ten years before the punk explosion!
Some more psychedelic improvisation: Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun. Here the vocals are slightly audible again.

The big hit single See Emily Play is next and here some spontaneous audience singing is filling the gap where Syd's singing should be. The final piece is Interstellar Overdrive.
Scream Thy Last Scream is the highlight of the show. A studio recording of this song exists, but by some reason EMI will not release it. A true mystery!

The Golden Circle tape is probably the only existing recording of an entire 1967 Pink Floyd concert. Yesterday we were allowed to hear all of it except one song. More on that and the possible release of the recording, coming soon here on the Radio Dupree blog.

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Live music was played by Lost In Rick Wright's Wardrobe. Here's a taste: