1972 February 17-18-19-20: Eclipsed by the Rainbow

upadated January 23 2006

Here's the report of the famous shows at the Rainbow Theatre in 1972, where The Dark Side Of The Moon was officially introduced.
These dates at the Rainbow Theatre were the first I've ever checked and soon the recordings from them turned out to be a challenge to check! Even if strangely not so many recorders surfaced, each date has a peculiar recording circulated respectively on tapes in many different "ways", often edited, sometimes mixed. The first date especially was confused for years with the last one, because of a supposed radio broadcast of the premiere which was actually a recording of the last, not the first date. That was fixed some years ago, but still many tapes survive being labeled wrong.

1972 February 17

setlist: The Dark Side Of The Moon, One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene ("Golden Oldie"), Echoes, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

one recorder only surfaced in general circulation so far, it's complete; here are examples of some versions I checked of it:

Master>HIFI>DAT; "Rainbow Day 1" (Ayanami);  2ndGen; Many tapes exist on old collector's circuit with different edits....

the numerous mixes between the Radio(?) source of 2.20 and this audience source of 2.17 like on the CD "Time Ends".

once again, the Raio(?) source of 2-20 was mislabeled for years as 2-17 prolly because of a wrong labeling of some Italian LPs!

1972 February 18

setlist: The Dark Side Of The Moon, One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene ("Golden Oldie"), Echoes, A Saucerful Of Secrets,  Blues,  Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.

one recorder only surfaced in general circulation so far, it's complete; here are examples of some versions I checked of it:

source 1: Master>DAT (one of the numerous versions supposed from the masters, ther are at least 4 different ones!!, none confirmed, prolly all low gens); "Rainbow Day 2" (Ayanami); Mind that some incomplete/short copy of this recorder on tapes was believed to be from a different recorder than this, again the only one surfaced, but was found to be not (I never checked those though).

source 2: cass[0]>DAT[4]>CDR[0] - more intermissions but missing the last songs for some reasons...

NOTE that some incomplete tapes were and are believed to be from a different recorder, the ones I checked are the same usual recorder described above.

1972 February 19

setlist: The Dark Side Of The Moon, One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene,  Echoes,  A Saucerful of Secrets, Blues,  Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.

2 recorders are in general circulation so far: one cut on ASOS and the other one complete, but the first set is lost! so only the second one is available of it.

here are examples of some versions I checked of it:
recorder 1 - cuts on ASOS, the most common version on CDR is the ACR release from 3rdGen, there are numerous fantapes having some edits in the audience parts.
recorder 2 - Echoes / ASOS / Blues / STC; this was shared kindly by the taper last year in an edited version; the uncut version reveals more audience parts.

1972 February 20 added as extra-date

setlist: The Dark Side Of The Moon, One Of These Days, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Echoes, A Saucerful Of Secrets, Blues (introduced as "Something Different"), Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun

3 recorders, including the supposed radio version, are in general circulation. the 2 audience recorders are often mixed together. here are examples of some versions I checked of it:

recorder 1 - audience -  NO Dark Side Set! - this taper didn't record Dark Side but only the second set. This recorder was used to fill recorder 2 often (or vice versa), mostly to fully cover the second set of it (or vice versa, again), sometimes only to cover part of it (recorder 2 has part of the second set only as we know so far); the most common version of this recorder is on the supposed Master>MD version, here this recorder is used to fill completely the second set, or rather, the Master source is prolly meant for recorder1 filled in for the first set with recorder 2, also in this other supposed master source (which is yet from a doubtful source); This 1stGen obtained by the taper is what was actually recorded (no mixes); On this 2ndGen of recorder 2 was filled with this recorder from the second part of a ASOS.

recorder 2 - audience - complete?? - this recorder includes the whole Dark Side + OOTD /CWTAE / Echoes / ASOS - cut. Although some version supposed from the Master Reels doesn't include Echoes and ASOS, this 2ndGen and the recently surfaced 1stGen of this recorder reveal how these pieces have been recorded by this taper; this recorder was used to patch recorder 1 often on tapes like explained above, like on the Master>MD version or in this other master source, also the 2ndGen above has a part from recorder 1 as filler; I'm not able to state details about other tapes since I never checked them, including the ACR release from 4thGen.

recorder 3 - the Radio? source.

this is the most common recorder of this gig, supposed to be from Radio or SBD, the source of it is still partially a mystery. Only LP sources of this are in circulation from LP releases like: "Best Of Tour '72"; "Celebration Of The Comet - The Coming Of Kahoutek"; "Nordestar"; "Time"; "Live" etc...

common CD releases migh be some of these: "Forbidden Samples"; "Time Ends"; "The Live Side Of The Moon"; "The Best Of Tour 1972" (TSP)"; "The Great Gig in Boeblingen" all the LP sourced cds as this restored one and this nice LP-transfer by pinkrudy etc...

At least parts of this recording were surely broadcasted as this tape from USA radio confirms, for the rest, again, the source of this recording is a mystery so far.  The common version from LP in circulation includes the Dark Side set only with evident edits (as example mind that U&T is neither 3mins long). Parts of this source are used widely on RoIO-compilation, especially in old bootlegs, you can rarely find an old-compilation-boot having not pieces of this recording...

some points to distinguish the 2nd set of the 2 audience sources:

OOTD

recorder 1 the taper moves the recorder/mic soon after the first bass notes of the song, also you can hear someone shouting "wahoo" when the audience claps at the very beginning

recorder 2  long tuneups are included before the song starts and after too.

CWTAE

recorder 1 very clear intro to the song by Waters + talking about the petition thing, soon after that you can hear the taper moving the recorder/mic

recorder 2 long tuneups are included before the song, the Waters' intro is barely audible (very distant) but the claps are perceptible and a guy shouts "hey"  twice very clearly after Waters introduces the song .

ECHOES

recorder 1 after the first "pins" got by this taper you can hear someone beside him coughing clearly;

recorder 2  long tuneups are included before the song starts and the intro too, after the intro the same guy as before shouts "hey"

ASOS

recorder 1 starts with Waters introducing the song, after the first bass notes you can hear someone in the audience coughing

recorder 2 long tuneups are included before the song starts with audience shouting a lot in the hall (also a girl laughing in he back is perceptible), the Waters' intro to the song sounds much more distant than on rec.1. ... the whole recording sounds more distant ... MIND THAT THE LONGEST VERSION OF THIS RECORDER I FOUND IS PATCHED IN THE MIDDLE WITH REC.1 SO FROM THAT POINT ON NO POINT OF DISTINCTION MAY BE STATED SO FAR.