Pink Floyd - Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena [CD]

Pink Floyd Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, April 26th, 1975 spotlights the band during their rapid ascent. The Dark Side of the Moon had taken Pink Floyd from a hugely successful breakout British band to one of the biggest rock groups on the planet. Arenas and stadiums would now play host to their performances. The Wish You Were Here Tour was announced in early March 1975, just one month prior to commencing. The shows instantly sold out and broke box office records, including that of the Los Angeles Sports Arena, which in a single day sold all of its 67,000 ticket allocation for the scheduled four-night run. An extra fifth show signalled a residency, and sold out within a matter of hours. The recording that lays the foundation of this historic release was created by the late bootlegger Mike “Mike the Mic” Millard, whose tapes from concerts across Los Angeles in the 1970s became renowned for their surprisingly clear sound quality. To conceal his recording equipment from venue security, Millard would often pretend to be disabled and arrive to concerts in a wheelchair. Many of Millard’s bootlegs were pressed onto vinyl unofficially, however he did not condone the sale of his recordings for profit. Pink Floyd’s penultimate concert at the Los Angeles Arena was no exception, remaining unreleased and unheard by all but a few audio trading collectors, until now. Meticulously restored and remastered by Steven Wilson, this is the definitive live recording of Pink Floyd’s 1975 tour. At the time of the Los Angeles Sports Arena shows, Pink Floyd were in a period of creative transition. While a new album had originally been expected earlier in 1975, the band embarked on their North American tour whilst still developing new material live, on stage. The performance opened with early versions of songs initially titled as ‘Raving and Drooling’ and ‘You’ve Got To Be Crazy’, later evolving into ‘Sheep’ and ‘Dogs’ which would feature on their tenth album, Animals. ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ in its two parts bookended another new composition, ‘Have A Cigar’. Following these new compositions, the band performed The Dark Side of The Moon in full, with ‘Echoes’ as an encore.