Pink Floyd (with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Brass), Royal Albert Hall, London (1969-Restored)

The Man Suite [Missing Daybreak and Work]: 00:18. Afternoon (Biding my Time) 06:07. Doing It 10:19. Sleeping 15:39. Nightmare (Cymbaline) 25:37. Daybreak The Journey Suite: 26:54. The Beginning (Green is the Colour) 31:33. Beset by Creatures of the Deep (Careful With that Axe, Eugene) 37:46. The Narrow Way 43:10. The Pink Jungle (Pow R Toc H) 48:48. The Labyrinths of Auximines 54:13. Footsteps / Doors 57:28. Behold the Temple of Light 1:02:15. The End of the Beginning with orchestra, choir and canon! (Celestial Voices) 1:11:42. Encore: Tuning 1:12:51. Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun Pink Floyd Royal Albert Hall, London 26th June, 1969 Rick Wright: keyboards, vibraphone, grand organ, Azimuth Co-ordinator David Gilmour: guitars, vocals Roger Waters: bass guitar, vocals and gong Nick Mason: drums with: Members of the Ealing Central Amateur Choir, conducted by Norman Smith The brass section of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Original notes: "This is an audio restoration of a historic occasion, Pink Floyd’s ‘The Final Lunacy’ concert in London’s famous Royal Albert Hall, one which earned them a lifetime ban from ever performing in the building again (an injunction that lasted less than a year). It was toward the end of a short UK tour, and joining them on stage were the brass section of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and members of the Ealing Central Amateur Choir, conducted by Norman Smith. These musicians and singers are heard to majestic effect performing Celestial Voices, during which Rick plays the hall’s grand organ, and with a canon being fired at the conclusion. Elsewhere in the concert, the Floyd’s recently developed ‘Azimuth Co-ordinator’ sent audio around multiple speakers, the band sawed wood on stage, a crew member dressed out as a gorilla roamed the audience, and a pink smoke bomb was detonated to end the show - pyrotechnics which likely were the source of the ban. It was a spectacular and memorable occasion. The music performed was The Man / The Journey Suite, with Set the Controls as an encore. It was one of the Floyd’s most experimental and ‘spacey’ periods, and one can see how songs arranged into conceptual suites became their template for later albums such as Dark Side. There is only one known document of the occasion, a mono recording of unknown origin. It captures nearly the entire concert, but misses the first two songs; Daybreak (Grantchester Meadows) and Work, with a few cuts during audience applause. Sadly, the audio quality is not good. Apart from being mono, the frequency response is muddy and thin, lacking both bass and top end, like listening to the concert down a telephone line. Nevertheless, being such a historic occasion, I felt a restoration of the audio would be a worthwhile project. The Source: The master appears lost, the best remaining source now being a 2nd generation copy to BASF single track mono reel to reel @ 3 3/4 ips from the collection of Bernard White. Transfers have been made of this tape over the years using different equipment, with slightly different results. Apparently the tape is no longer playable, but three of beechwoods transfers made around 2009 using different playback machines are bundled together(...). I auditioned other versions claiming to be 1st gen copies, however these were both poorer in audio quality and had been through a lossy stage, possibly minidisc. The Restoration: I have not attempted to preserve the analogue feel of a late 60s tape, as that exists on the source version. Instead I’ve gone all out using modern software and restoration techniques to present the musical information as clearly as possible. Thanks to all involved in preserving and sharing this performance, from the original taper on down the lineage. I hope this audio restoration presents the music to a more listenable way. If sharing, retain the version credit in title and metadata, and include this info file with the audio unchanged [detailed tweaking steps omitted because of number of characters restriction in this description - see fixed comment below for details]. A Hogweeds remaster / restoration, April 2022. In the interests of making the world sound a little nicer. " Special thanks to the great Hogweeds for going through meticulous (see fixed comment below) fine preparation for this special audio release. Footage and production by bigfootpegrande.