This is interesting. I was a roadie on the April 1973 DSOTM show in St Louis. We rebuilt the entire PA after it blew up in Detroit the night before. Anyway, I have called the PA crew Britannia Row in the past because that's who I remember them to be. But I couldn't find evidence that they were indeed the same guys who were on that early part of the tour. It's good to hear that that was indeed who they were. I spoke with Roger Waters about all this about five years ago when he did a rehearsal session at the studio I worked at in DC.
What a privilege to have worked on that tour! I remember an interview on the radio many years ago in which Gilmour said (if I recall correctly) at one of the American gigs after the album was released and becoming massive, the arena had a retractable roof, and just as he was about to sing 'Breathe, breathe in the air..' the sweet, cool fresh night air swept into the auditorium. Cheers from London.
Really interesting stuff! I was a component level audio electronics engineer all my working life, over 50 years, and grew up with all the names and equipment on this video. When the trend swayed towards high power amplifiers in one box, HH Electronics came up with an amplifier model S500D which we used a fair bit back in the day. They were used in an industrial application for vibration testing aeroplane wings! As any technician out there who knows his stuff can tell you, there is always someone ready to make the idiotic comment of "blimey, only 100 watts? I've got !K in my car!" The drivers in those boxes were so efficient, 100watts RMS gave rise to a lot of SPL. E.g. the Marshall 50 and 8 x 10" Celestion rig, they were absolutely deafening with slightly less than 50 watts RMS of power.
The only problem with the S500D was when they popped they put 70V+ DC through the speaker so you needed a new module for the amp and a recone kit if the coil hadn't welded itself to the magnet gap. We started using Daly 70 Volt reversible electrolytics in the bass bins these saved the speaker at least. We never really delved into the amp modules as HH were good at providing replacements.
According to wikipedia "Pink Floyd 1974 tours" page, under "1974 British Winter Tour" Pink Floyd played The Palace Theatre in Manchester on 9th and 10th of December 1974. The band lineup doesn't mention a second guitarist, however, and Snowy White didn't tour with them until the Animals "In the Flesh" tour of 1977.
Saw that tour in Newcastle in 1974, not in the City Hall, Floyd knocked it back as unsuitable for the new PA so they did the gig in the nearby Odeon cinema. Class.
Fun fact: you can actually see the newer cabs in the Pompeii film. During Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, when the camera pans away from the band, you can see them.
Fantastic stuff thanks. Must be similar age to Mark and was at the Maine Road concert too. Heard Animals for the first time on Fluffs Saturday afternoon show. Think he played the whole thing straight through. Seem to remember did the same with A Trick of the Tail. Happy memories.
I actually remember Alan Freeman playing Trick Of The Tail on the Saturday afternoon rock show, as if it were yesterday... It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I went on a bicycle 🚲 ride, with my transistor radio tied to the cross-bar of my push bike. I'd stopped on a grass bank and listened to the entire album, eating sandwiches and drinking a bottle of pop.. I went out the following weekend to the following weekend and bought the album.... Happy days back then.
Yeah black boxes prevail in pa It’s great when you have space but if you are a bit savvy you can get a really good sound out of two boxes aside bass/mid and mid/tops and a couple of lab gruppen amps
Phase Linear, the early brand name of Bob Carver’s audio equipment (later just branded as Carver). Local to Lynnwood, Washington, near where I grew up. I still use the Carver amp I bought in 1992 to power my main speakers (used to be Dahlquists, but recently replaced with Martin Logan ESLs). I never knew the Pink Floyd connection, but knowing Bob Carver it’s astonishing that he never capitalized on that.
Didn't know that either-but I have 5 or 6 Carvers that still work and they must be at least 30 years old-and never let me down. Bob Carvers voltage stacking topology and transformer size reduction was genius. Same with the Crown Macrotechs-very clever idea. Still got a VZ5000 somewhere.
Charlie Watkins really was the Father of modern large scale P.A. (Public Address!) sound systems at least on this continent -even today's Line Array systems use the same principles as a WEM Column speaker. Bless ya Charlie! Equally John Lenard Burnett-Lenard Audio in Australia-to be fair-a great innovator-still going! And for me James Bullough Lansing in US-of course-started in Cinema sound-all greats!
@@wispa1a Correct in 2 Ohms with extra DIY colling fans not a problem. Just bear in mind that this amp could switch up to 128 Amps. But that was all in the good old times when we used real bassbins not this scale down fits in the truck junk
What's Radcliffe on about when he said there were no arena's back then?!?! What about Earls Court Arena where "Dark side of the Moon" was Premiered? I was there! What about Olympia? The Empire Pool Wembley?
Yes, that is correct. One poster was of the band in different squares and the other was of pyramids with a blue tinge. The two stickers that came with the album were also of the pyramids with the letters of the band's name in each square. I think the majority of people put the posters on their bedroom walls, including myself and I put the stickers on my record case's.... The following week I bought the album again and never played it, I still have it today, unplayed and still have the original poster's and stickers.
@@nigelbevan8449 My original Pyramid poster from 1973 had a green tint. I believe some later pressings had the blue tint. I put the stickers on my Guitar Case.
@@ricknorris1466 Green??? Well that's something I didn't know about... Thank you so much for your comment Rick. I still remember where I bought the record, John Lewis's department store in Bristol.
@@nigelbevan8449 Well… back in the day it would actually change to different colors and twist and sometimes melt. Like Krusty The Clown asked “what was I on?”
Another great talk! So great to hear the behind the scenes stuff
Really interesting stuff, great video!
This is interesting. I was a roadie on the April 1973 DSOTM show in St Louis. We rebuilt the entire PA after it blew up in Detroit the night before. Anyway, I have called the PA crew Britannia Row in the past because that's who I remember them to be. But I couldn't find evidence that they were indeed the same guys who were on that early part of the tour. It's good to hear that that was indeed who they were. I spoke with Roger Waters about all this about five years ago when he did a rehearsal session at the studio I worked at in DC.
What a privilege to have worked on that tour! I remember an interview on the radio many years ago in which Gilmour said (if I recall correctly) at one of the American gigs after the album was released and becoming massive, the arena had a retractable roof, and just as he was about to sing 'Breathe, breathe in the air..' the sweet, cool fresh night air swept into the auditorium. Cheers from London.
Nick Mason ended up with Brit row
What did roger say about that I know they never recorded a love video of dsotm concert only audio and a tiny bit exist that's why it's on pulse
Empire Pool, Wembley - November 1974. The same running order described by Mark, and certainly good value for £2.20.
For an old Floydian relic like me, that was magic. Thank you 👍
Really interesting stuff! I was a component level audio electronics engineer all my working life, over 50 years, and grew up with all the names and equipment on this video. When the trend swayed towards high power amplifiers in one box, HH Electronics came up with an amplifier model S500D which we used a fair bit back in the day. They were used in an industrial application for vibration testing aeroplane wings! As any technician out there who knows his stuff can tell you, there is always someone ready to make the idiotic comment of "blimey, only 100 watts? I've got !K in my car!" The drivers in those boxes were so efficient, 100watts RMS gave rise to a lot of SPL. E.g. the Marshall 50 and 8 x 10" Celestion rig, they were absolutely deafening with slightly less than 50 watts RMS of power.
The only problem with the S500D was when they popped they put 70V+ DC through the speaker so you needed a new module for the amp and a recone kit if the coil hadn't welded itself to the magnet gap. We started using Daly 70 Volt reversible electrolytics in the bass bins these saved the speaker at least. We never really delved into the amp modules as HH were good at providing replacements.
That is interesting. I was recently the GM for MSI-DFAT and they test aerospace vehicles with massive sound systems.
According to wikipedia "Pink Floyd 1974 tours" page, under "1974 British Winter Tour" Pink Floyd played The Palace Theatre in Manchester on 9th and 10th of December 1974. The band lineup doesn't mention a second guitarist, however, and Snowy White didn't tour with them until the Animals "In the Flesh" tour of 1977.
This was the first cd my dad bought me when I was 15 for a Christmas gift I listened to it over and and over I loved it x
I remember the saturday afternoon rock show..Fluff played the first ever play on radio before the album was released..He played 'Money'
Saw that tour in Newcastle in 1974, not in the City Hall, Floyd knocked it back as unsuitable for the new PA so they did the gig in the nearby Odeon cinema. Class.
Fun fact: you can actually see the newer cabs in the Pompeii film. During Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, when the camera pans away from the band, you can see them.
Worked as a tech in the audio dept on the Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour. Columbus Ohio at Horseshoe Stadium.
Fantastic!
Fantastic stuff thanks. Must be similar age to Mark and was at the Maine Road concert too. Heard Animals for the first time on Fluffs Saturday afternoon show. Think he played the whole thing straight through. Seem to remember did the same with A Trick of the Tail. Happy memories.
I actually remember Alan Freeman playing Trick Of The Tail on the Saturday afternoon rock show, as if it were yesterday... It was a lovely sunny afternoon and I went on a bicycle 🚲 ride, with my transistor radio tied to the cross-bar of my push bike. I'd stopped on a grass bank and listened to the entire album, eating sandwiches and drinking a bottle of pop.. I went out the following weekend to the following weekend and bought the album.... Happy days back then.
This is the audio equivalent of starting a vintage Pratt & Whitney radial engine on a stand for exhibition.
It's incredible how far we have come. Parraflex rigs with 10k Powersoft one RU amps.
20000 watt labgruppen amps
Yeah black boxes prevail in pa
It’s great when you have space but if you are a bit savvy you can get a really good sound out of two boxes aside bass/mid and mid/tops and a couple of lab gruppen amps
Phase Linear, the early brand name of Bob Carver’s audio equipment (later just branded as Carver). Local to Lynnwood, Washington, near where I grew up. I still use the Carver amp I bought in 1992 to power my main speakers (used to be Dahlquists, but recently replaced with Martin Logan ESLs). I never knew the Pink Floyd connection, but knowing Bob Carver it’s astonishing that he never capitalized on that.
Didn't know that either-but I have 5 or 6 Carvers that still work and they must be at least 30 years old-and never let me down. Bob Carvers voltage stacking topology and transformer size reduction was genius. Same with the Crown Macrotechs-very clever idea. Still got a VZ5000 somewhere.
Excellent stuff! 👋
Thank you! 👍 glad you enjoyed :)
Very interesting.
Charlie Watkins really was the Father of modern large scale P.A. (Public Address!) sound systems at least on this continent -even today's Line Array systems use the same principles as a WEM Column speaker. Bless ya Charlie! Equally John Lenard Burnett-Lenard Audio in Australia-to be fair-a great innovator-still going! And for me James Bullough Lansing in US-of course-started in Cinema sound-all greats!
The DC 300A is about 150 watt per channel but we used them to drive 3 8ohm 15" speakers in parallel
@ 2ohm?
@@wispa1a Correct in 2 Ohms with extra DIY colling fans not a problem. Just bear in mind that this amp could switch up to 128 Amps. But that was all in the good old times when we used real bassbins not this scale down fits in the truck junk
was this part of the rig that they uesd at knebworth?
The equivelant of making up as we go ahead with an idea.
Interesting doc
The thing is does everyone have an Opus Audio Rig ?
No one talks about the album being a set they used play at shows pre-73!
What's Radcliffe on about when he said there were no arena's back then?!?! What about Earls Court Arena where "Dark side of the Moon" was Premiered? I was there! What about Olympia? The Empire Pool Wembley?
LOL I have 3 OEM Dark sides with posters and stickers and never played two of them, I sure wish I knew someone who would pay thousands, LOL
2 Posters and 2 Stickers came with the original Album.
I've still got it all.
Yes, that is correct. One poster was of the band in different squares and the other was of pyramids with a blue tinge. The two stickers that came with the album were also of the pyramids with the letters of the band's name in each square. I think the majority of people put the posters on their bedroom walls, including myself and I put the stickers on my record case's.... The following week I bought the album again and never played it, I still have it today, unplayed and still have the original poster's and stickers.
@@nigelbevan8449 My original Pyramid poster from 1973 had a green tint. I believe some later pressings had the blue tint. I put the stickers on my Guitar Case.
@@ricknorris1466 Green??? Well that's something I didn't know about... Thank you so much for your comment Rick. I still remember where I bought the record, John Lewis's department store in Bristol.
@@nigelbevan8449 Well… back in the day it would actually change to different colors and twist and sometimes melt. Like Krusty The Clown asked “what was I on?”
Ode to the days of Album Rock ...
Or you could do bong hits, while you read and listened to the albums!
Mark, without the boy Lard is like strawberries without cream.
I could never understand how it was like "Right lads that was fun but now lets do Dark Side"
Even Meddle was still a bit of a mess
Not a pyramid on the cover, its a light prism.
They're talking about a poster that was included inside the album cover
When u stand at the front of a gig...it sounds weak..... the pa don't work every where.. something is now missing for sure
Modern Line array sound systems are a compromise-narrow beam projection with dead spots in between.
Notlob