Adventuring into Pink Floyd bootlegs

I've been enjoying The Endless River so much I decided to expand my Floyd collection. During a road trip to Portland, OR. I visited Mississippi Records with the hopes of finding A Saucerful of Secrets on LP. They didn't have that title, but I did pick up Broadcasting From Europa 1. Side one is from Paris, France January 23, 1970 and is AMAZING! The sound quality is EX+, just as the record cover says.
Side 2 is from Lyon, France June 12, 1971 and is everything that steers me away from purchasing bootlegs. The sound quality is rubbish and a complete waste.
Can any of you recommend other Floyd with great sound quality? Is the rest of the Paris show in circulation?

 

Assuming I'm not breaking any rules... 'Animal Instincts' (Almeda Colosseum, Oakland, 77) is an absolute belter, despite being an audience tape. It's the Floyd recording I play the most, and that includes the proper albums. The BBC Sessions from '68, '70 (which includes the Bath Festival performance of Atom Heart Mother) and '71 are essential. These are usually sourced from BBC transcription discs and are of such high quality that it beggars belief that they haven't been issued legitimately. 'The Extraction Tapes' gets you early studio takes of the 3 main cuts on Animals from 1976, plus an early studio run through of Shine On (1-8). All of these are of significantly higher audio quality than 'Broadcasting from Europa 1. There's also a Dutch TV recording of 'The Man & The Journey' from the Amsterdam Concertgebou, 1969. Most important though is that under NO circumstances should you contemplate paying for any of them. A little research is all that's needed. The era of the commercial bootleg is rightly over. Have fun.

 

You shouldn't miss, among others, recordings of the November 1974 UK tour and April and June 1975 U.S. tours while Wish You Were Here was in process. Also the last complete Dark Side sets until 1994. Fun to see the evolution of SOYCD, starting as a 23 minute epic, and of course the original versions of the two binned tracks that eventually appeared on Animals. Lots of good SB recordings for both.

 

must listen: Rainbow Theatre 02-20, Grolsch's Baked Pepperland Reel & San Diego 1971 as well as Paris 1977
aaaand......

1970 Hannover. that version of CWTAE is awesome

 

Only those 2 songs from the paris show exist,so far.As others have said any show that exists can be found for free in probably it's best quality VS a bootleg which could be from a 10th gen tape.

 

the complete recording from paris exists and in EX quality

 

Both of the Montreux 1970 performances sound amazing. You have to have 5/9/1977. It's to Pink Floyd what 8/06/71 is to The Grateful Dead. A fantastic audience document. I have a sweet 24/96 version.

 

The '70 and '71 Peel shows are, playing-wise, the best I've ever heard from the band, well deserving of an official relase. The '71 Fat Old Sun is truly a special thing.

 

I've listened to the '70 and '71 BBC recordings much, much more than any official Floyd album.
They are just so great. I can't believe they haven't seen official release, as stated above.

 

Who wouldn't be excited for live versions of Animals? None of those tracks are on any of the official live albums to my knowledge.

Here is the setlist for their 5/9/1977 show:

Sheep
Pigs on the Wing part 1
Dogs
Pigs on the Wing part 2
Pigs
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V)
Welcome to the Machine
Have A Cigar
Wish You Were Here
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)
Money
US and Them
Careful With That Axe, Eugene

 

Fat Old Sun from BBC is just amazing.
Some great Floyd out there.

 

Or maybe it IS the Peel.
Now I gotta check.

 

Fat Old Sun from Montreux '70. i love the guitar work on that one

 

my personal favorite 'unofficial' floyd~ such wonderful warm psychedelic vibes on this excellent audience recording!

 

The Pink Floyd RoIO Database is a useful resource.

http://www.pf-roio.de

It has not been actively maintained for years now but is such a well organized and thoroughly cross-reference site, that it still sees a lot of traffic and the authors continue to host it as it is. In their words "it stays alive. But don't expect our information to be up-to-date anymore." Years ago when I was collecting Floyd shows it was invaluable and it is well worth checking out. They use the term RoIO (recording of indeterminate origin) as opposed the bootleg saying "We avoid this word and use the term."

Here is one entry page for a recording I always looked for. I never did find a copy.
http://www.pf-roio.de/roio/roio-cd/childhood_end.cd.html

 

I particularly like the period from 69-71 where the band was really stretching out live and playing the songs differently every night.

 

Here is a helpful run-through:

http://www.collectorsmusicreviews.com/editorial/essential-floyd/

 

A few of the great things of note about this tour and this gig in particular. First, Snowy White plays lead - so you get Pigs On The Wing Pt 2 with guitar solo (albeit at the end, rather than linking the two halves). There are no backing singers and Dick Parry is reigned in - so the sax is restricted to more or less what it did on the records and there are no Oooh Oooh Oohs. This is the only tour where the whole of WYWH is played end to end (killer riffage on Have a Cigar too). This gig is the band's final ever performance of Careful With That Axe Eugene.

 

Too Late For Mind Expanding-Google it!

 

Good topic and it always nice to hear recomendations of what to check out, as there is anyways much material out there (similar case with Led Zeppelin). I will surely mention here, if I happen to find any worthwhile addditions from my collections.

 

Careful with These Tracks Eugene is interesting but unfortunately lossy - its an alternate soundboard mix of the Ummagumma live album with added Interstellar Overdrive:

01. Astronomy Domine - 8.46 (Same as Ummagumma version, different mix)
02. Careful With That Axe, Eugene - 9.27 (Same as Ummagumma version, longer intro, no vocals in mix)
03. Interstellar Overdrive - 13.35 (Pulled from official release)
04. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun - 9.51 (Same as Ummagumma version, different mix)
05. A Saucerful Of Secrets - 14.25 (Birmingham Mother's) (Ummagumma version uses a composite of this and the Manchester recording)

 

I am far from an expert on Pink Floyd live recordings. I am a big fan of the Grateful Dead and whenever I see live recordings of other bands from 1968 to let's just say 1980 or so I am always thankful that the VAST majority of Grateful Dead live recordings are of such high quality. In the case of Pink Floyd and certainly another guy I am a big fan of, Frank Zappa, I find that this is not the case. Most of them sound just gawd awful. When you find one you can listen to, be thankful.

 

Well, with Pink Floyd, most of what's out there is audience sourced. The Grateful Dead have an enormous amount of soundboards to choose from so they are really an exception. But there were some great tapers out there and I find that I often times prefer an AUD to a dry soundboard. I have a fairly large collection of Floyd boots and most of them don't sound gawd awful to me. But YMMV and all that.

 

My favorites are the bbc shows, Amsterdam '69; but my absolute favorite is Interstellar Encores ( Fillmore '69). If you want the ultimate Floyd studio work look for multi volume A Tree Full of Secrets; extremely comprehensive collection