ROGER WATERS & THE BLEEDING HEART BAND : THE LONDON REHEARSALS

 

Disc One (51:18)

  1. In The Flesh?
  2. The Thin Ice
  3. Another Brick In The Wall (Part 1)
  4. The Happiest Days Of Our Lives
  5. Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)
  6. Mother
  7. Goodbye Blue Sky
  8. Empty Spaces
  9. What Shall We Do Now?
  10. Young Lust
  11. One Of My Turns
  12. Don't Leave Me Now
  13. Another Brick In The Wall (Part 3)
  14. The Last Few Bricks
  15. Goodbye Cruel World

Disc Two (56:42)

  1. Hey You
  2. Nobody Home
  3. Vera
  4. Bring The Boys Back Home
  5. Comfortably Numb
  6. In The Flesh
  7. Run Like Hell
  8. Waiting For The Worms
  9. The Tide Is Turning
  10. Waiting For The Worms
  11. Stop
  12. The Trial (original studio version)
  13. The Tide Is Turning (another take)

Label : Free Range Pigs

Venue : The Town House Studio, London, UK

Date : May 2nd, 1990

Quality : studio recording (A+)

Review : This is a soundboard recording of a rehearsal in a small London studio with The Bleeding Heart Band. It is an absolutely clean studio take complete with chatter between and during tracks. This is not the final, full-up rehearsal with all of the artists that appeared in Berlin. The story: Someone who worked in the post-production studio made a copy of the master tape, or plugged his recorder into the soundboard. He then took a studio stock pre-printed cassette cover and typed the title and date of the rehearsal on it. The cassette cover reads : "2.5.90 Roger Waters Rehearsals - The Wall Berlin". Preprinted cassette information : "The Town House - Post Production - 140 Goldhawk Road, London", along with address and phone number. The studio still exists under a slightly different name. Special thanks to The Big Pig and The Pentagon Pig at FRP for making this available. Remastering by MOB Artwork created by Moonwall. Remastering notes from MOB : For the main rehearsal (stereo) I worked on track indexing and level adjustments. For the second rehearsal (mono, tracks 10-13 of CD2), I realized that the speed was different from the main rehearsal. By comparing Waiting For The Worms and The Tide Is Turning, I immediately noticed that the second rehearsal ran too slow. My suspicion is that the end of the tape was probably copied by a studio worker from another rehearsal tape, perhaps adding one gen to the lineage. My applied speed correction resulted in a 98% fix. I also applied a very slight EQ to Waiting For The Worms in order to decrease the "bassy" sound and to create a more natural transition between the last track of the main rehearsal (The Tide Is Turning) and the first track of the second rehearsal (Waiting For The Worms). I also did some editing in order to smooth out the abrupt cut during the judge's sentence in The Trial. BTW, I realized that the tape of The Trial that is played during the rehearsal, is not simply the regular version converted to mono. The voices are really mixed upfront and during the judge's sentence, you can hear the orchestra, but not Gilmour's guitars from the official release. I think this is a really unique mix of The Trial, specifically used for these rehearsals.

Review for the release "The London Rehearsals" (Godfatherecords) (Collectors Music Reviews) Roger Waters' decision to stage a massive production of The Wall in 1990 came after an interview in 1989 where he stated he would perform The Wall again if the Berlin Wall came down. Four month later the wall came down putting the show in motion. Along with The Bleeding Heart Band and The Rundfunk Orchestra and Choir directed by Michael Kamen, the show was to feature a special cast of guest appearances. The final production included performances with the Scorpions, Ute Lemper, Cyndi Lauper, Thomas Dolby, Paul Carrick, Sinead O'Connor, The Band, The Hooters, Joni Mitchell, Bryan Adams, James Galway, Jerry Hall, Van Morrison, Tim Curry, Marianne Faithful, and Albert Finney. These rehearsals feature only The Bleeding Heart Band and either come from a very good soundboard tape or a superb ambient room mic that captures an excellent mix. My guess would be a live room mic but either way the sound quality is almost professional and is a pleasure to listen to. Although most of the rehearsal flows consistently, occasionally Roger can be heard cueing and communicating with the musicians, directing the performance. It is unclear if the entire band is present as most of the backing vocals seem to be missing. Waters handles his own vocal parts during the rehearsals but whoever covers Gilmour's vocals does an excellent job. Rick DiFonzo and Snowy White stay true to Dave's guitar parts right down to the solos most of the time. Some of the tracks vary a little in arrangement from the previous Wall tours with new extended arrangements of "Goodbye Blue Sky" and "Comfortably Numb". "The Last Few Bricks" is included in the set but for some reason Waters decided to eliminate "The Show Must Go On". The tape effects are absent from at least the first part of the rehearsal with no helicopter or choir for "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)". They use the same arrangement as during The Wall tours with the added second guitar solo, and a noteworthy performance it is. Waters mimics the sound effect and the "look mommy, there's an airplane up in the sky" to cue a beautiful version of "Goodbye Blue Sky". "Comfortably Numb" is near perfect with some truly outstanding guitar playing in the outro solos. This version also differs from previous live performances and returns to the chorus section again to finish the song. "The Tide Is Turning" from Roger's solo LP, Radio K.A.O.S., was used to close the show after the wall came crashing down and is the end of the first rehearsal tape. The sound quality improves for the remainder of the disc starting with the second version of "Waiting For The Worms". This is from a different tape source and is surely from a soundboard recording. It cuts in, leaving only the last 1:48 but unlike the first take continues into "Stop" followed by "The Trial". This source also includes another version of "The Tide Is Turning". The London Rehearsals present an excellent and very credible performance from the Bleeding Heart Band. Both tape sources are presented in phenomenal sound quality producing another Floyd related gem from Godfather. This is very nicely packaged in their tri-fold cardboard sleeve and is recommended to all Floyd fans.