arik.org

I was just flipping through my collection of Van Morrison bootlegs and happened upon this curious little snippet from a performance he gave in Sausalito, Calif. in 1971. In it Van shows his sense of humor.

I spent the summer of 1988 in France, and one of the highlights was seeing Pink Floyd at the Stade Municipale in Grenoble. All these years later I’ve searched high and low for a recording of that show, and I know one exists because someone created cover art that is available for download, but no torrent containing the audio for downloading. But I did just find this clip on YouTube of the first few minutes of the show. Here the band is playing “Run Like Hell,” from “The Wall.” And somewhere in that audience is a 17-year old me.

The final act of the show was “Comfortably Numb” and I found a video that was making the rounds that year and was shot on the same tour. I remember a very bright orb emerging from the stage, and as it rotated it opened up into a star-like shape and got only brighter. You can see it here, but it doesn’t look very bright. Still and all, it was a great show.