LONDON '66-'67

these 2 tracks are actually included on the album "Tonight, Lets All Make Love in London". This is good stuff even though it is blatently lacking in material, it is only an EP and is only meant to show off some rare floyd stuff. This is a good, but not essential listen. I recommend this to completionists but otherwise leave it as one of the last pink floyd records you buy.

Even though there are only two instrumentals, it is still miles better than "the final cut" and some of the albums after it. The extended version of interstellar overdrive features parts of other piper songs such as "Take up thy stethoscope and walk".

"Nicks Boogie" can be a stretch to listen to but it is worth a listen. Good for an EP and for completionists only is what this record is meant to be and it exceeds in that perfectly.

This EP contains the first known live recordings of PINK FLOYD. They are taken from Peter Whitehead's short motion picture "Tonight Let's All Make Love in London" (although out-of-print it still available on Laser Disc, and VHS formats). The two tunes are also found on the "Tonight Let's All Make Love in London" Original Soundtrack. A 'special collector's edition' of this "London Live 66-67" CD was also released with an accompanying CD-ROM video of PINK FLOYD's performance. (I actually saw the imported version of this CD/CD-ROM initially priced at 85$ Cdn when first released!) So as you see, many different formats are available of these somewhat rare recordings.

As for the songs themselves, both are actually quite unique in their own way. The live version of 'Interstellar Overdrive' is far superior (and much longer) to the "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" offering. Syd Barrett's improvisational guitar work is appreciated here, and is definitely more representative of what the PINK FLOYD sounded like live early on in their psychadelic career.

Very uncharacteristically, Nick Mason takes centre stage for the only known version of the percussive 'Nick's Boogie', a wandering cacophony of a song. Although sounding a bit at times like a scary-movie soundtrack, this song has its moments, if you can stay focused as it noodles its way to the 11 minute mark. If you like the song 'A Saucerful of Secrets' than this might be for you.

The special edition (released in 1995, not 1999) cardboard cd case for "London Live 66-67" is quite exquisite. It has some contemporary still pics of Syd from the recording session, as well as the other 'cast members' of the "Tonite..." Movie.

For collectors and diehard FLOYD/BARRETT fans only! 2/5 stars

This album is one of the least popular or recognized Pink Floyd albums. I bought it a long time when I had no idea what kind of music Pink Floyd played. Despite the popular belief, this is not a live album so the sound quality is awesome. Anyways, on to the songs:

01. Interstellar Overdrive (16.46)

This track is what I think is Pink Floyd's absolutely best Pre-Dark Side of The Moon composition. The Piper At The Gates of Dawn had a version of the song going 8 minutes. This is longer, and far better. It kicks directly into gear with the loud, soaring guitar note played fastly, and of course eventually that famous riff pops up. Organ and bass soon join. I have so much respect for that riff; it just sounds so dark. Soon the driving rhythm that is the drums kick in, but it doesn't take long until we flow out into the freeform jamming. At 1 minute into the song we're already in the ''middle section'', if you may call it that. This is the most normal part of the song, with the organ is sounding just like something you'd hear from a regular jam. Syd joins with his sweet guitar tone; with lots of crazy echo laid onto it. The drums are still driving the rhythm hard. Syd plays a bit on guitar, and soon the chaos erupts. Syd plays wherever he feels like it on the fretbord while Richard Wright plays diminished chords on the organ. Roger keeps the bass steady and going, and so does Nick on the drums. More strange noises by Syd on the guitar. It's really cool, he holds a lighter against the strings and drags it up and down the fretboard. After that a rather jazzy section comes in. This section is really nice, and shows how sophisticated Syd could be, and not just create noise. Just wait though, there will be more ''noise''. The drumming fades out, and we're left with Syd playing stange notes. Soon the drumming fades in again, getting harder and harder and Syd's guitar gets louder. Richard goes mad on the organ, or at least has fun. Another cool effect Syd does here is that he mutes the strings with his palm while having lots of distortion and then he picks the strings very hard, making it sound like a clock ticking. Again, the echo effect on the guitar makes the sound awesome. Nick quits drumming, and you hear that clock tick sound. Soon however, Nick starts again with heavy tom playing. Richard does again make heavy use of diminished chords on the organ, while it gets louder and louder. Syd plays arpeggiated powerchords in the background, but it doesn't take long for him to go mad either. Different notes in God knows which key are played everywhere. Heavy drumming in the background somehow manages to keep this section in rhythm. The organ leaves after a while, so we hear Syd and Nick playing together. Pretty cool section, and eventually Syd playes two eight notes on every beat so Richard has the chance to go nuts. Nick then starts playing the intro drumming again, with Syd and Richard doing what they want do. I just can't get enough of Syd's guitar tone. It's just brilliant. Creepy organ tunes are played, but soon they evolve into something that sounds like what The Animals would have played. The drumming gets heavy, and Syd plays normal chords. This section is really cool and enjoyable. But again, what is an Interstellar Overdrive section without chaos? Syd get's mad on the high frets and the drumming soon fades out, but almost directly gets back in with a pounding bass drum. Another section with Syd and Richard doing whatever they feel like arises, but more sophisticated than the other ones. Awesome really, and after a while it's only Nick and Syd left. But Richard plays with some strange setting on the organ which sounds scary yet awesome at the same time. Syd makes very heavy use of the ''Lighter on strings'' effect here, and Nick soon comes with that driving drumming that was in the intro. Absolute madness comes up, with Nick playing like no tomorrow, and Syd going up and down the fretboard to make incredibly high pitched noises. It gets quiet after that with Nick and Roger keeping rhythm. Wright soon joins and plays strange chords. Syd does more strange noises on the guitar. Another 'sophisticated' section evolves from that, but soon gets crazy again when Syd's in charge. Everything gets extremely loud, and goes on like that for a while and then at exactly 16.11 the main riff kicks in again, and gets played like that for a while, then ends on an F# note. Such an awesome jam session!

02. Nick's Boogie (11.50)

This song starts out with Nick playing a rhythm on the toms (Thus the title) and Roger comes in after a while and plays the bass notes. Syd of course, makes more of those noises that he did on Interstellar Overdrive. This song is the predecessor of 'A Saucerful of Secrets' so if you enjoyed A Saucerful Of Secrets you'll most likely enjoy this one too. Syd again does all kinds of crazy things; detunes the guitar then puts it into tune again. Richard also comes with strange, creepy chords in this one. All of this while Nick keeps the rhythm going. All kinds of strange noises are apparent at the 03.00 minute mark, and the song continues into nowhere. Creepy guitar playing by Syd, and several different layers of Syd doing other stuff on the guitar joins along. Soon the drumming is interrupted, and instead Nick goes on to play lots of cymbals. Syd again keeps the strange noise going on the guitar, slides, detunes and whatnot. Nick soon approaches different percussion instruments as well. The organ is not very apparent here. Nick then starts with some heavy bass pedal playing over all the other percussion instruments, and Syd of course does more things on the guitar. Nick's drumming gets increasingly louder until it slowly goes back to quiet. This is where Syd makes absolutely mad noises on the guitar! This really reminds me of A Saucerful of Secrets. Almost creepy in a way. The song just goes into freeform jamming from here until 08.05 when Nick goes into that tom pattern again. Syd doesn't stop because of that, so of course he still makes strange noise. Nick's drumming gets more intense and more hard and to top that off, Syd goes even more mad on the high frets. The song continues like this until there is only Nick left, playing a fast pattern on the toms until he finally stops.

I think this is a great album! If you enjoy Pink Floyd's early psychedelic material, this is an absolute gold mine for you! If you hated it, then stay away. This is the most experimental, and the heaviest of them. If you just wanna check out Pink Floyd's early psychedelic material, then this is for you.

This is the soundtrack to the DVD of the same name, and deserve an equal review. The music is very psychedelic - too much so for my enjoyment. There is very little direction or structure. The music is at times interesting, but mainly bland and simply irritating. It grows very repetitive. And, on this version, there are no spacey visuals to go along with it. I would suggest only die-hard Floydians buy this, and even then, they should not expect anything good. I'm sure there are many better things for you to purchase before this!

Interstellar Boogie!

Not really much to say about it, this is an EP which only shows a couple of their early psychedelic and longer tracks, two of the finest compositions made in the Barrett era, we can clearly notice it (of course if we know the band), because for those who doesn't know Pink Floyd, they would probably think this could be any other band but Floyd.

So what we have here is "Interstellar Overdrive" which is a clear example of their psychedelic roots, and which we can find inside The Piper of the Gates of Dawn, but this EP contains a live version of the song, whose time duration is even longer, so the trip will last more. This is an excellent song but actually you would not think that it is Pibk Floyd if you are only familiar with works like Darkside of the Moon or Wish You Were Here, the sound is completely different, instrumental song led by psychedelic guitars and some spacey synth sound here and there, the music might be repetitive but their value lies in those repetitions, though you might love or hate the song, feel bored or excited, it's your call.

Nick's Boogie as the name suggests, it's fouces on drums so Nick Mason's work here is remarkable, it is his song, his music, his sound, of course he makes this HIS song. And practically the style is similar to the first song, it is like a jamming with psychedelic tendencies which is growin and progressin through the minutes, the intensity also increases and decreases, you know like a carrousel. It is full of strange noises mainly created by guitars, though bass and keys also play a nice role on it, but as i pointed out firstly, the leadership is taken by the drums.

So there you have a couple of early Pink Floyd songs, both of them over ten minutes, so if you want to know thei earlier stuff and also played live, you can get this EP, i like it, it is good, but i do not play it frequently and i honestly would not recommend it, so only if you are a PF fan, then you should get it without a doubt.

My final grade: 2 stars.

Enjoy it!

Review Nº 49

Pink Floyd were formed in 1965, and originally consisted of four university students Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason. In 1963 Mason and Waters initially met each other while they were studying architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic, in London. The pair first played together on a band with some other band members, and later, another fellow also a student, Wright, joined to them. The name of the band was Sigma 6. In the late of 1963, with the age of 17, Barrett arrived at London to study at the Camberwell College of Art. Waters and Barrett were childhood friends. Waters often visited Barrett when he played guitar at his mother's house in Cambridge. Meanwhile, the original name of Sigma 6 changed to others on several occasions. In 1964, some band members left the group to form another band. So, one year later in 1965, the four students joined together and form the new band, The Pink Floyd Sound. The Pink Floyd Sound was created by Barrett and the name was derived from the names of two blues musicians Pink Anderson and Floyd Council, whose records Barrett had in his personal musical collection. The band's name was simplified, ending just as Pink Floyd.

When Barrett began to write his own musical compositions, strongly influenced by the British and the American psychedelic rock, soon Pink Floyd became as one of the favourite groups in the underground movement. So, the band was playing regularly at some places like the UFO Club, The Marquee Club and The Roundhouse.

At the end of 1966, Pink Floyd were invited to contribute with some songs to the film who was to be called 'Tonight Let's All Make Love In London' of Peter Whitehead. Whitehead began working on a project for the British Film Institute, a documentary which had the finality to transmit the essence of the live, in that authentic kaleidoscopic period, of the London's cultural history. In 11 January 1967, Pink Floyd went into the Sound Techniques Studio, in London, for a two days demo sessions, and they were filmed while the band played two long instrumental pieces 'Interstellar Overdrive' and 'Nick's Boogie'. Only a few excerpts of the Pink Floyd's music, made the final cut of 'Tonight Let's All Make Love In London', which eventually screened in December 1967. Nevertheless, these two songs were released on a kind of a live EP called 'London 66-67' and on a DVD, with the same name, both released in 1999.

This live album, with only two tracks, contains the first known live recordings of Pink Floyd. The Barrett's musical era of Pink Floyd is a strange audio experience indeed, and those who are familiar only with the band's music from the 70's and 80's musical material, might be a little bit surprised and even shocked with some lack of cohesion, melody and musical arrangements of their earlier musical period. This was only pure psychedelic music, added with an avant-garde attitude and experimentation, jazz, classical and a kind of an earlier progressive rock.

So and as I wrote before, the group performed two pieces of music in the Sound Techniques Studio. 'Interstellar Overdrive' was originally a psychedelic musical composition written in 1966, which appears for the first time on their debut studio album 'The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn' released in 1967 and with almost ten minutes length. At the time it was a staple for the band. However, the live version on this live album, as I said before, is an earlier version with almost seventeen minutes and which was recorded for the documentary film of Whitehead. This live version is, in my humble opinion, a superior version of its studio version, and is also more representative of the Pink Floyd's psychedelic sound of their earlier musical career. 'Nick's Boogie' was originally a song which was never recorded on any Pink Floyd studio albums. It's a live improvisation of an experimental piece of music based on Mason's drum work. This track has some interesting drum work, but is definitely much less interesting than the previous one.

Conclusion: This live album, is without any doubt an undeniable and historical very interesting live document, especially because it represents the first and rare live document by this indispensable and historical band, and also because it has a very rare participation, on live, of their founding guitarist band member, Barrett. Sincerely, this was the only real reason that made me buy this live album. For some who enjoy the groovy 60's musical aura, this live album probably will be a great album, but for the others, it might be a little bit boring and a disappointing thing. 'Live 66-67' is a very special Pink Floyd's album. If you are a fanatic fan of the earlier Pink Floyd's musical career, especially with Barrett as a band member, this is definitely a compulsory purchase. However, if you are only a fan of their more elaborated musical stage of the 70's and 80's, beware of it. For me, this is a nice album with some musical and historical interest, but that I don't play usually, and that I sincerely don't recommend to anyone, unless you are a real fanatic Pink Floyd's fan. So, I sincerely think that this is definitely an album only for collectors and fans, like me.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)