| The final Floyd gig was in my home town and was the worst in terms of sound and atmosphere. The Afan Lido was primarily a swimming pool and had the acoustics to match. It was nice to see all those bands without having to travel far, but the barn like nature of the hall , its appalling acoustics and the very size of the audience mitigated against it being a transcendent gig like the others I'd seen in 69. There must have been over 600 there and the stage was set back further than at Swansea and Parliament Hill Fields, distancing the band from the audience. Nevertheless, it was worthwhile being there. Although the minor bands were pretty rank , Sam Apple Pie were fun and East Of Eden played an excellent set , Dave Arbus on violin was a great front man- I wonder where he is now ? . | |
Floyd manfully offered some new songs which I had not seen them perform before , but which perhaps did not suit the venue as much as the more manic numbers they played at Swansea. Overall the improvisation was not so much to the fore here, they had seemingly moved on to a more structured set, but perhaps that was due to the nature of the gig, at P.H.Fields they were performing to an audience that was probably more open to them taking risks- hard core freaks, whereas the Port Talbot audience was a lot more parochial and were there to hear the hits. Also the open air nature of the PHF concert gave a warm vibe , whilst the brick walled ugliness of the Lido did not really go very far towards creating a special atmosphere.
Nevertheless,the band played a longish
show and were well received, although Gilmour
looked as though he was not too happy with the on-stage sound , I can remember
him looking rather distressed at times. By this time I think he had swopped
sides with Waters and was stage left , Mason
still being slap centre and his drum kit seemingly getting larger and more
elaborate at each passing gig .By this time he definitely had his GONG
, which dominated the stage behind him and was used just once during the
course of the show I think.It was a shame that this was the last time I
got to see the band , it was not the ideal circumstance in which to go
out and it possibly contributed to my lack of energy in bothering to search
them out again.
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After Floyd, Pentangle were something of an anticlimax . I was never fortunate enough to see this band in a decent venue or with support bands who were in the same mode . At Port Talbot, their acoustic based music was just lost in the reverb box that was the Lido and they sounded tinny in comparison with the louder rock bands. A great shame , as I admire them all as musicians, most especially Danny Thompson, John Renbourne and Bert Jansch, but they just were not suited to big venues or outdoor gigs, where the tiny PA's of the day just could not give them enough substance to make their presence felt. |
I've recently seen a Floyd CD which perports to be from this show on a list on the net.Quality rated B-amazing that this was recorded, it sounds better than I remember it wwas on the night