It’s strange how we can sleep on certain things musically. Atom Heart Mother not being one of those Pink Floyd albums I spin as regularly as it deserves (its ambition let down by realisation perhaps) means that while I’ve listened to David Gilmour’s previous two live albums upon which it featured, I must have dozed off.
Then again, I may not have been the only one. In the same way that Mr Gilmour opted to step outside his usual approach for the recording of Luck and Strange he took the same tact with the live band that he took out on a run of shows to support it: “it was all too robotic, and some people would have been better off in a Pink Floyd tribute band. So I thought we’d get people who are genuinely creative and give them a little more space.” Which had kind of been my feeling listening to Live In Gdansk.
So it was that on Saturday past, with the intensity of this current heatwave bearing down outside, that I found Live at the Circus Maximus was up on that video streaming service named after a South American river. On it went.
Of course, judging by the preamble you know where I’m going here… but being lulled into a drift-off fuelled by heat and IPA during the organ solo, the gear change going into the guitar solo was much harder hitting. Having listened back to previous live takes on it, I still stand by this one being the best to date, no doubt thanks to the addition of guitarist Ben Worsley and drummer Adam Batts to the band.
Anyway, here’s the original and then the latest live version:
Mumbling About... 