Is there an animals soundboard?

Unfortunately, to the best of my experience, there are no Animals soundboards out there (yet!)

I collected Floyd live tapes extensively between 1980-1995, at one point I had close to 300 different shows in my collection although some of them might have been lost by now! At one time, I did have tapes of all the Animals tour shows that were known to exist at the time (not the whole tour, but most of the shows).

Anyway, here's what I can add from my collecting experience. I don't know what's out there on Kazaa or whatever now, because I stopped collecting years ago- but I did collect some tapes right from the guys who originally taped the shows to begin, and I think the passage of time can allow me now to tell some tales.

Compared to other bands, true Floyd soundboards, especially from their "classic" period are really scant. However, due to the excellent sound quality of their systems, and the hard work of the taping elite, there are of course some excellent recordings out there.

The Oakland 77 show, sometimes thought to be a soundboard, was recorded by a guy sitting in the front rows with the absolute best, state of the art live recording equipment you could buy at the time- Sennheiser mikes, Nakamichi recorder, the whole deal. In one of those most remarkable examples of bootlegging luck it also turned out to be the Careful With That Axe Eugene show.

The Montreal 77 show, as somebody mentioned earlier, is out there in various formats- for years all we had was a pretty mediocre tape, until the really good one that made it on to CD surfaced in the early 1990's. I am not sure why it took that long, excepting that from what I was told, the taper was not really a big Floyd collector per se, just a really good taper who taped a lot of shows in Canada.

Other good 77 tapes from my memory, included the Vienna show- this one I am pretty sure I've lost though, dammit!- and the Zurich show- this last was a great recording of a very indifferently played show.

Now, I remember reading in a couple of places (i.e fanzines) that the Floyd recorded all their shows in 1977, not for releasing a live album per se but for practice or checking the sound equipment or some such reason. I also read an interview online with one of the backing singers from the 73-75 shows, who said that the Floyds gave the girls tapes of the night's shows on a routine basis- but they just threw them away!

Hello,

Very interested in obtaining RoIo of Oakland Colleseum 77. Have a few things to trade, or would someone do blanks.

Thanks

LS

If you would like the best-sounding and most complete version of the legendary Oakland Coliseum show with all three encores, I suggest you find and download Harvested's new REV B. edition of "Animal Instincts." It is available freely on the DC++ hubs and treeing networks, with art that you can print out yourself. Makes for a nifty souvenir.

There is a partial soundboard recording from the 1977 tour: 29 January in Berlin. It cuts out between songs and misses some of the music (in fact, all of the encores and the WYWH set), but it has a true stereo image and despite some awful-sounding tape saturation you can hear things which are simply too distant on even the best-sounding audience tapes... like Rick's vocals! Someone attempted to edit it into an audience-sourced tape of the same show, but the results ("Desk Pig in Berlin") are disappointing. For my money "Animal Instincts (Rev. B)" is a much, much more enjoyable listen.

I'm sure there are plenty of far better soundboard tapes sitting "in the vaults," heard only by the Floyd and their entourage, but the band are too embarrassed by perceived imperfections in their performances to release them properly. There has been talk very recently (Nick brought it up in an interview this year) about releasing some of them for free or cheaply via the internet. But I would be frankly even more stunned than I was at seeing Live 8 if it were to ever actually happen.

hmm, that Berlin show is a board? geez, I wonder if I have a tape of that buried somewhere ( I stumbled across a few of my old Animals shows this morning in a crate in the basement- Ft Worth 77 was one of them), sounds interesting- I wonder what else might have come out of the works since I stopped collecting...

I agree with Botley. The soundboard from the 01/29 Berlin show sounds very distanced, the quality from the Animal Instincts Rev B show is much better, the taper was supposed to be in the front row on that night and it shows, its great, especially if you get the newest version (Rev B) with the clicking problem eliminated from the Animals set, not to mention the set is full with encores. This show has the best versions of Pigs, Money and SOYCD 6-9 i've heard anywhere. If I was writing a bootleg guide then I'd put this one right at the top.

i had read that james guthrie recorded all the animals shows in '77, and hopefully, he can talk floyd into making some big bucks(like they need it) and release them, like they did with the wall
...but i also have to agree with the majority and say that oakland '77 is the best one i've heard. i havent heard this remastered version yet, but maybe i can find it on WINMX

James hadn't even met the Floyd yet in 1977.

I have found WinMX to be quite Shwag since I got Limewire, but maybe its improved over the years.

On both WinMX and Limewire you'd probably only be able find it in lossy mp3 format. Try BitTorrent or DC instead for a lossless copy.

i stand corrected, but i did hear something about all the shows being recorded

They very well may have been, and it's possible but unlikely that the Floyd may start releasing them online.

Something like livemetallica.com? The price on their shows is a bit steep though, US$12.95 for a show in FLAC format. I guess it would be possible, though. There was also the rumour that each date on the Division Bell tour was recorded professionally as well.

Yes, most of that tour was recorded on multitrack. There's no way in hell I'm paying thirteen bucks for a '94 show, however!

Arguably on the show on 1977-02-22, the sound quality is better than Animal Instincts Rev B, but without the last 2 encores.