PINK FLOYD – COLMAR 1974 REVIVE (2 CD)

Description

★Reissue of the June 22, 1974 concert!
This is the 2nd issue, but the audio has been slightly remastered.
Low-frequency noise has been removed, and the left/right volume balance has been slightly corrected.
In particular, the removal of low-frequency noise has resulted in an even cleaner sound this time around.
As a bonus, “One Of These Days” from the June 24 concert, two days later, is included!

The following is an expanded version of the information from the 1st Issue.

★The oldest existing recordings of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Raving And Drooling” from 1974 are now available on pressed vinyl!
★Undoubtedly the best recording from the 1974 France tour! High-quality stereo audience recording!
★The pitch has been meticulously adjusted for this definitive version!

A new pressed CD title featuring a high-quality stereo audience recording of the June 22nd Colmar concert from their 1974 French tour is now available!

This recording is a live performance that was mistakenly credited as the June 24th show on Highland’s “Shine On Paris” (2CD) in the ’90s, but the sound quality has been dramatically improved.

For Pink Floyd, 1974 live performances were already rare and precious, consisting only of short shows during the French Summer Tour in June and the British Winter Tour in November. However, the Colmar performance included on this album is extremely valuable, as only one track from the same tour has been released in the past (a mono Aud recording from the June 24th Paris performance; only “Shine On You” was included on the 1990s Triangle album “IN THE SKY”), and the full scope of the June 1974 French performances remains unclear. Moreover, it offers a somewhat simpler atmosphere compared to the slightly more polished November UK tour, and includes the oldest and earliest original takes of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Raving And Drooling (the original version of Sheep),” making it a definitive recording of the Colmar performance with significant historical value!

This high-quality stereo audience recording, supposedly made with a Uher 4400 recorder and two Monacor dynamic microphones, is undoubtedly superior in sound quality compared to other recordings from the French tour, such as the Paris performance on the 24th (monaural audience). However, due to the inherent problems of inconsistent tape speed caused by equipment battery issues during recording, it had never been released as a press title, even though it had been circulating among traders for quite some time. Among enthusiasts, a version titled “Colmar” was circulated by the fan label Harvested in the past, but even that label only included the first part, which had relatively few tape speed problems, and completely cut out the madness of the second part.

The original recording’s speed is mostly fine in the first half, around “Shine On,” but it starts to get a little questionable around “Echoes.” However, after “Echoes” marks the end of the first half of the live performance, the recording equipment’s battery seems to recover, and the beginning of the madness section manages to hold up somehow. But from “Time” onwards, fluctuations in the sound can be heard here and there, and the pitch starts to rise. By “Brain Damage,” the pitch is more than one tone (about 12%) higher than the original pitch, and by “Eclipse,” it’s more than 15% faster, a speed that anyone would find jarring. In addition, the speed is not at all consistent, making it an extremely difficult recording to correct the speed of. Despite being a long-circulated and high-quality stereo audio recording, no items have been released from this source among traders for a long time.

This time, we performed thorough pitch correction to restore the music to a normal state. Even if you knew beforehand that the pitch was off, we corrected it to a point where you wouldn’t notice any difference at all. In particular, in the final section, from Brain Damage to Eclipse, pitch deviations in delicate guitar phrases can be noticeable, but we pinpointed and corrected even the slightest fluctuations of a fraction of a second. This is not just a “we did our best” level of correction; it’s a serious and thorough correction, and we’re confident you’ll understand once you listen to the album.

Aside from pitch issues, there were a few places where the sound dropped or cut, but I kept the processing to a minimum. Duplicate cuts that were present after “Raving” were edited out and restored to a seamless state. Additionally, dropouts (missing parts due to level reduction) at the beginning of “Breathe” and “Eclipse” were processed to sound natural by seamlessly inserting the same phrase from the same audio source.

For this remaster, we have removed high-frequency noise around 15.5kHz, corrected and thoroughly eliminated phase shifts and pop noises as appropriate. In addition, since the microphone was placed on the armrest of a chair or similar object, it picked up a rattling noise throughout the entire recording, so we have removed that as much as possible.

The audio source used is a 16-bit/48kHz unprocessed source copied to DAT from a 2nd Gen version circulating among traders. Incidentally, a version supposedly from the 1st Gen is also in circulation, but it is inferior in sound quality to this version, lacking the intro before “Shine On” and suffering from frequent distortion in loud sections. Furthermore, there is information that the person who recorded this audio unfortunately passed away in the 1990s, so the possibility of a version created from the master tape circulating again in the future is extremely close to zero. This version, using the 2nd Gen as the master, will undoubtedly become the definitive best version.

As mentioned earlier, the highlights in terms of content are “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Raving And Drooling (the original version of Sheep).” “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” is not separated into two halves, the part corresponding to Part 9 in the release version is missing, and Roger sings the main vocals instead of Gilmour. Around the chorus of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” one of the members sings a quirky backing chorus that you won’t hear anywhere else, making it quite unusual.

“Raving And Drooling” is also different from the released version, with Rick Wright’s undulating keyboards taking center stage and being quite prominent. Roger’s vocals are the same as the released version, but the lyrics are completely different. Furthermore, there are no sound effects, and the chorus is slightly different, among other differences from the performance on the UK tour in November.

The front jacket is a bifold design, paying homage to the old Highland pressings.

Naturally, the front cover features a rare photo from their French performance.

The definitive recording of their 1974 Colmar, France concert is now available on a 2-CD set!

Exhibition Park, Colmar, France, June 22, 1974
Disc 1 (62:23)
1. Introduction
2. Shine On You Crazy Diamond
3. Raving And Drooling
4. Echoes

Disc 2 (63:54)
The Dark Side Of The Moon
1. Speak To Me
2. Breathe
3. On The Run
4. Time
5. Breathe (reprise)
6. The Great Gig In The Sky
7. Money
8. Us And Them
9. Any Colour You Like
10. Brain Damage
11. Eclipse

Bonus Track ★初CD化！
Palais des Sports de la Porte de Versailles, Paris, France
24th June 1974
12. One Of These Days