Nassau Coliseum February 28, 1980
The Wall Rehearsals, February 1 1980, Paramount Studios, Los Angeles
The Thin Ice
Another Brick in the Wall (Part 1)
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)
Mother
Goodbye Blue Sky
What Shall We Do Now?
Young Lust
Roger Waters "Legendas de La Guitierra" concert, Seville, Spain, October 19, 1991
In the Flesh (Part 2)
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)
What God Wants
Opening the box, I found a beautiful, wonderfully illustrated booklet with thick glossy color pages filled with great pictures of the show and entirely illustrated with detailed wall graphics. All text is in the red Scarfe script and details the dates and places of each show of the entire Wall tour from February 1980 to June 1981. The back cover gives further info about the tour, shows, and the rehearsal contained on the CD's.
Sitting under the booklet in the nicely divided box are 3 individual CD cases. Each of which has a different color picture on both the font and inside and back covers, and in addition on the back of each are song listings. And if all this is not enough, all three CD's are picture discs, each with different color Wall graphics!
The entire package is so beautiful and wonderful it literally takes your breath away. No expense is spared in it's making, no detail overlooked. This boxed set is so much better than anything the big record companies have ever produced it's ridiculous.
The show at the Nassau Coliseum is an audience recording and not sound board but it is extremely high quality and must be first generation. I rate it 'Ex' for excellent or grade it an 'A'. This CD has captured what is probably the best of all the Wall shows, it's really great show.
The sound quality of the rehearsal portion of this boxed set however is far less than great. This rehearsal has been around for awhile on audio tape amongst many in the collectors circuit (wish there was a video!!). The tape used in the making of this CD however must have been far from first generation, for the amount and volume of tape hiss can be very annoying. However, the rehearsals are really a must have for any hobbyist or serious collector. They are an insight into the trials and tribulations of what it must be like to rehearse an extremely large production with hundreds of people doing everything at once. And they are also an insight as to how the individuals of the band relate to one another in extremely stressful situations. And then their is the value of the sometimes entirely different renditions or incomplete versions of some of the songs.
We are never left wondering who is the leader of Pink Floyd or who is in charge. Roger, many times gets do frustrated, angry, and aggravated, he almost loses his temper. At one point, during "Hey You," frustrated beyond belief, many times having to stop the rehearsal because of technical and personnel problems Roger, trying to stay calm says:
The four tracks from Roger's Seville concert are indeed a bonus. Especially nice is hearing "What God Wants" live now that it's almost a given that there will be no tour of Amused To Death. This will likely be the only chance for anyone to hear anything from the album played live.
The sound quality is sound board since the entire concert was broadcast on Spanish TV. The renditions of In The Flesh, The Happiest Days..., and Another Brick..., are flawlessly executed with Snowy White playing his usual sterling guitar solos. And What God Wants is done surprisingly well and very close to the album version considering the album wasn't even out for over a year later. Roger's voice however sounds as if it had gotten a little strained.
It would have been nice to have had the entire hour long set that Roger did at Seville, however the third CD is already 73 minutes long. perhaps we can get a boot manufacturer to make it into a separate CD.
There are three versions of this boxed set and they can be titled (or listed as titled) as either 'Behind The Wall' or 'Behind The Wall Street.' One has the Seville concert excerpt, and two include the booklet. This Stonehenge Records set 'STBX22/23/24' of course has both. 'GDRBX22' on Great Dane Records, (renowned for their excellent quality and packaging) is another and comes also with the booklet and I believe also has the Seville show but I'm not sure. (Stonehenge may just be a subsidiary of Great Dane or vise versa.) The other which has only the Nassau show and LA rehearsals is 'MGR 22,' sorry I don't know the label or manufacturer.
As great as this CD package is it's not without it's faults or errors. For instance, in the song listings on the back of the box set and also on the CD cases, are several errors. In the Nassau show listing, "What Shall We Do Now" is listed as "What Shall We Do From." And "Waiting For the Worms" is listed as "Waiting For the Horns." Obviously someone had trouble reading Gerald Scarfe's scripted lettering. And in the Seville listing "What God Wants" is listed as "Comfortably Numb." Also on the back box cover alone the set for rehearsals are marked as from Seville and the set from Seville is marked as from the L.A. rehearsals.
But all in all this fantastic boxed boot CD set is easily worth $100.00 or more to collectors. It sells at a street price of anywhere from $50.00 to $85.00 plus shipping. And it is the collectors item of all CD boots. If you own any boot CD, you must own this! Sell your cat or your sister if you have to, but buy this!!