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| The Floyd's of
London As far as discerning Rock aficionados were concerned, the BBC was an institution made up of three smaller ones: "Top of the Pops," "The Old Grey Whistle Test," and "Top Gear" were three groundbreaking shows and key outlets for new music. "Top of the Pops" was BBC-1's flagship Top-40 show. "The Old Grey Whistle Test" (BBC-2's TV alternative to the Top-40 format of "TOTP") was hosted by "Whispering" Bob Harris, who each week introduced a live studio session of some of Rock's classic acts. "Top Gear" hosted by John Peel, was the BBC Radio equivalent of "Whistle Test," the key difference between the shows being that John Peel's sessions usually featured a live audience. Peel, at the time, was something of a maverick. Bucking the Top-40 format, he was more interested in promoting almost anything that was not in the mainstream, and had been a huge admirer of the Pink Floyd. On the 25th of September and the 20th of December [1967], the Floyd performed many of their early classics live on John Peel's "Top Gear" show (each broadcast a week or so later). The latter session was the last in which the band would be accompanied by Sys Barrett, whose latest material, ("Vegetable Man," "Scream Thy Last Scream," and "Jugband Blues") began to indicate the eventual demise of his creative genius. His legendary daily doses of LSD certainly inspired him to write some of the most original psychedelic masterpieces this side of Sgt. Pepper, but was also inevitably a factor in his breakdown. David Gilmour, an old mate of Syd's, made his BBC debut with the band on the 25th of June, 1968, on "Top Gear." Searching for a new musical direction, the Floyd started working on extended pieces, debuted many of these songs ("Murderistic Women," "Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major," "The Embryo,: et al) on this show and also later that year on the 2nd of December. These two sessions illustrated how much the band had changed in such a short period of time. In 1967 they were trying to be psychedelic "pop stars," recalls Roger Waters. It didn't work out that way Two years later they were re-establishing a new niche for themselves, relying on touring and appearances on Peel's show as their main exposure to the public. On the 16th of July, 1970, the Floyd made a landmark appearance on the "Peel Sunday Concert" from the Paris Cinema in London. Performing well developed versions of "The Embryo" and "Green is the Colour" seamlessly sequeing into "Careful with that Axe, Eugene" (three lives staples from that era), they also premiered two new pieces, "If" and the grandiose "Atom Heart Mother" suite. The latter, which was the title track of their new album (taking up an entire side of the vinyl), saw the band accompanied by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble performing before a live audience, and was 1st broadcast on the 19th of July (and repeated throughout the 1970's). On the 30th of September, 1971, Pink Floyd returned to London's Paris Cinema to promote their new album, "Meddle." The songs featured were "Fat Old Sun," "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You into Little Pieces, "Echoes," "The Embryo," and finally a blues instrumental. This show was also performed before a live audience and was later broadcast on Peel's "In Concert" program on the 12th of October. This was the first time that two key songs from their new album were performed on the BBC. "Echoes" had been through a number of iterations, originally starting out as a collection of unrelated segments stitched together and originally titled "The Return of the Son of Nothing." Peel's dry sense of humour can be heard as he introduces this song, casually mentioning that the group's roadies Pete and Scott find it to be "a rather good number." Likewise, he sarcastically puts down Roger Waters' equally sarcastic contention that "Echoes" was about "modern contemporary society." [Peel makes this comment for "One of These Days" actually - ed] "One of These Days" was introduced as "Nick Mason's Vocal debut, which I am assured," announces Peel, "he will do without moving his lips." While "Echoes" and "One of These Days" would soon appear on "Meddle, "Fat Old Sun" had been previously released on "Atom Heart Mother," and was expanded into a fourteen minute epic, showcasing the instrumental talents of Gilmour and Wright. "The Embryo" has only been ever released on hte EMI/Harvest sampler "Picnic," in the UK (to the dismay of the band who regarded this track as "an unfinished demo"), and on the U.S. compilation "Works. " This version of "The Embryo" is vastly different than the official releases as well as the version played on "Top Gear" in 1968, and is similar to the one played a year earlier on Peel's show. "Blues" is just that, and as such it is a rarity. Recent Floyd shows have been such tightly timed visual extravaganzas, that there is little, if any room for musical interludes. Also note that this "Blues" number was never broadcast except for it's original airing on veteran Rock station WNEW in New York. This is classic Pink Floyd, well on the way to becoming the mature band that would soon reach world-wide fame with it's 1973 album "The Dark Side of the Moon." What we have on this performance is a tight, professional band, who unlike in later years, found room for improvisation and a looseness that would slowly disappear from their repertoire. Fans of the latter day Pink Floyd might be disappointed with this show, considering that the songs are slower and do not feature any of Gilmour's blistering guitar solos or Roger's biting and dark lyrics. But long-time fans of the band will delight in this golden era recording. This was a Pink Floyd performance without the aid of a sopisticated light show, lasers, back-up performers or inflatable pigs. This was purely the talents of Roger Waters on bass, David Gilmour on lead guitar and vocals, Richard Wright on keyboards and vocals and Nick Mason on drums (and pre-recorded vocals). The celebrate the 25th anniversary of this show, only the highest quality sources were used to reproduce the original concert onto CD. The original BBC transcription LP's were comprised of "Fat Old Sun," "One of These Days" and "Echoes." This was later combined with their 1970 performance on John Peel's show by Westwood One, who acquired the rights in the mid 1980's (these two shows were independantly rebroadcast throughoout the 1970's on the syndicated "King Biscuit Flower Hour" and "The Best of the BBC Rock Hour"). Unfortunately, combining these shows also involved limited air time, and ultimately, "Fat Old Sun" and the first half of "Atom Heart Mother" were sacrificed and omitted from future broadcasts. "Fat Old Sun" was recorded off an original BBC transcription LP directly onto DAT as well as the introductions to the new material from "Meddle." The first forty-five seconds of "Echoes" has also been restored, which remains edited, (as well as Peel's intros) from the combined shows. "The Embryo" and "Blues" originate from a second generation analogue tape from WNEW's initial broadcast ("The Embryo," although broadcast in the UK, was never included on any of the radio transcription disks).
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