When I first saw this new Pigs On The Groove box set announced last month or so, I decided that I was NOT going to be picking it up. “I have enough versions of “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” and “Atom Heart Mother”, I told myself. Sure, the pink psychedelic themed box looked cool, and it came with a sweet T-Shirt, but I knew I really needed to slow down on adding to my Floyd collection. That resolve lasted for a surprisingly long time. Probably for about 2 weeks. Then I caved in, bought a copy and here we are. This is not what I would call an affordable or “budget” box set either. Did it end up being worth it? Well, yes and no…
This set is very unique in its packaging. Each 3 LP set comes in a “Pizza Style” record box, which is very similar to a Guns N’ Roses set I reviewed a long time ago. Inside, we have 3 LPs in their own jackets, an XL T-Shirt featuring the Croydon gig poster, and a thick, heavy (and somewhat inexplicable) cardboard reproduction of the poster. Maybe I’ll lean it up against something on my shelf? The sleeves are very nice and have individual track listings on the back of each one. They all have similar but separate artwork as well, which is a nice touch. The inside of the box is printed with liner notes, and provides some background on the Atom Heart Mother era, as well as some information on where the name came from. Once again with the POTG label, I found myself saying “I’ve never seen anything quite like this before”, since they are always coming out with crazy packaging designs.
I’m not sure how many different colors there are, but I know there are several. I didn’t request a specific one, and ended up with green, which I was quite pleased about. The LPs look a little dark in the photos but are actually standard POTG wax which is transparent when held up to the light. The labels are also the standard POTG labels that mark the sides clearly, but don’t have any track names listed. The box says the sets are limited to 320 copies, and there is a unique printed number on the back. In the upper right corner, you will find a colored POTG sticker. Mine is green, so I imagine this indicates the color of the wax. Discogs has a listing for a clear set as well, so we can confirm at least two different colors.
When I opened everything up to scope out the set, I noticed that while everything looked nice, the LPs themselves came with plain black paper inner sleeves. All of mine had some paper dust on them, but thankfully nothing was scratched. I will say that for the first time in a while, these records were all quite dirty. Usually, I put everything through my basic cleaning cycle no matter what so that as long as I keep them properly stored, they should never need cleaning again. In this case, they really needed it. Some people think that brand new records from the factory will be clean, but these days, that’s rarely true for any pressing, be it official or non-official. One or two of the LPs also had some stray wax bits that needed to be removed, which is no big deal. So, I cleaned everything on the ultrasonic and VPI, changed out the sleeves for rice paper ones and was ready to spin this thing.
Audience Recording – Fairfield Hall, Croydon, Surrey, UK – 18th January, 1970
A1 – Astronomy Domine
A2 – Heart Beat, Pig Meat
A3 – The Violent Sequence
B1 – Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
B2 – The Amazing Pudding – Part 1 (aka Atom Heart Mother Early Version)
C – The Amazing Pudding – Part 2 (aka Atom Heart Mother Early Version)
D1 – Careful With That Axe, Eugene
D2 – The Embryo (early version)
E1 – Main Theme From “More” (early version)
E2 – Biding My Time
F – A Saucerful Of Secrets
Before I go any further, I’m just going to lay out the main problem with this set. Side A on disc 1, and Side E on disc 3 have no locking groove on the inner part of the disc. What this means is that once the music runs out, the stylus just keeps going until it hits the paper label. It starts grinding, which is horrendously loud and annoying. Additionally, it’s possible this can damage a stylus or cantilever. I think that reports of damage happening are probably overblown, but it’s certainly possible. Diamonds are obviously harder than paper, so unless you are working with a genuine, old-style needle, you should probably be ok if this happens to you. Clean off the tip of the stylus with a brush (back to front) just in case any paper particles made their way on there, and you should be good to go. It’s not the end of the world or necessarily a deal-breaker for this set, but it sure was annoying.
The setlist for the concert itself is why I ended up caving and purchasing the box in the first place. It does have “Careful With That Axe”, which I wouldn’t really mind never hearing again, but it’s also got a few of my favorite early Pink Floyd tunes. We start out with “Astronomy Domine”, which was of course, a common staple for Floyd shows at this time. This is an extra long version, and like the rest of the show, it leans heavily into the keyboard/piano. With as much disrespect as Waters (and even Gilmour) dished out to Wright in later years, they might listen to this and be reminded of who did a lot of the heavy lifting to carry the band to where they find themselves now. Not even to mention Nick, who seems like he never really registered on the radar of either Floyd leader, enough to even be disrespected. Mason does give a stellar performance starting with “Astronomy” and continues all the way through the rest of the show. In these earlier performances, I think we get to hear a lot more of his natural musical sense shine through, before the songs became way more regimented starting with DSOTM.
“Astronomy” eventually segues into “Heart Beat, Pig Meat”, which dedicated fans will recognize from the soundtrack to the film Zabriskie Point. I recently picked up a Zabriskie Point box set which I believe is related to the /Remade series I’ve been reviewing, but without the actual Remade title. I really do love the music from that soundtrack, but this is probably not one of the better versions of this song. It eventually turns into “The Violent Sequence”, which would later become “Us And Them”. This track gives us a look into what was to come next for The Floyd at the end of this experimental era. The piano break here is much different than what I’m used to hearing and is just beautiful. Even in its unfinished form, this piece of music is just timeless and stunning. This is the first point in the set where the stylus went out of the groove and onto the paper label, which brought me back to reality and scared the hell out of my cat.
“Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” is always a fan favorite, and this version is very good. The recording is good quality, but the vocals are a bit harder to hear, especially during the beginning of the track. Eventually we arrive at another segue into what was at the time titled “The Amazing Pudding”, but would later, of course, come to be known as “Atom Heart Mother”. Personally, I prefer the “Pudding” version of the title. This version might be early, but it’s still well put together and all the important bits that make it recognizable are present. There are some added, effects laden slide guitar parts here and there that aren’t present in the finished recording. The full piece was too long to fit on this particular LP (since it also has “Set The Controls”), so part two is found on the next disc. Thankfully, the fade out is well done and sounds great.
The entirety of Side C is filled with the second half of “The Amazing Pudding”, which I think will probably be the highlight of the set for most listeners. We also get a somewhat shortened version of “Careful With That Axe” to finish out this side. Next, we have a great version of “The Embryo”. It takes up an entire side of an LP, and Gilmour’s voice sounds excellent. Wright’s keyboards are once again front and center, and whatever he’s using actually sounds like real metal bells being played with actual mallets. This version is obviously extended compared to most others and is a highlight for me.
The next two songs are two of my favorite early Floyd classics. The theme from More is rarely heard but is a fantastic song. This version is sort of a drawn out, jam type version that once again leans heavily into keyboards. “Biding My Time” is (currently) my favorite early Floyd tune, and having this version on wax probably made the purchase worth it for me. Unfortunately, just as I was really enjoying this bit of the show, the “no inner groove” issue struck again, and the stylus flew into the label and started scraping like a buzzsaw. Side F is entirely “A Saucerful of Secrets”, which is a fine version, but not one of my favorite Floyd numbers. I do think it’s one of the better versions of that particular song I’ve heard, though.
All and all, the audio quality here is pretty good for a bootleg. I think this might be one of those releases that a lot of people buy because it looks amazing and comes with a cool shirt, but then they end up disappointed because they don’t understand what bootlegs are and how they sound. The source audio quality is about 6/10, and as far as I’m concerned, it is great for an early concert like this. As usual, the Pigs On The Groove packaging goes above and beyond, and I think any reasonable collector would give it a solid 10/10. The actual pressing has very low surface noise, so it’s a real shame it has defective grooves that could potentially cause damage to an expensive stylus. For that reason alone, I would say this pressing is a 4/10. If it didn’t have the defects, it would have been an easy 8.5/10 for me.
Honestly, even with its problems, I don’t regret buying this. The price was a little high, but I think that’s to be expected for something that looks this nice. When I go to listen to it again, at least I’ll know I need to watch out for the ends of Side A and Side E so I can prevent the awful scraping noises. If that’s not an issue for you, or you are cool with dealing with it, I think you might really enjoy this set. If your turntable has an automatic return, you might not even notice. The audio is available on site like YouTube, so go check that out to see what you think. If you like it, now is the time to pick this beautiful set up!