Azimuth Coordinator Format: 6CD Catalog: Comfortably Cool Productions Misc.: Hand-numbered edition of 1000; #56 taken, #274 taken Date: 750408 Matrix: Disc 1: CDR 1 Disc 2: CDR 2 Disc 3: CDR 3 Disc 4: CDR 4 Disc 5: CDR 5 Disc 6: CDR 6 Cover: Individual disks stored together in black cardboard wallet which carries tracklist and source info. Also includes a 64-page illustrated book which tells the story of the WYWH, Animals and Wall albums, their genesis and the associated tours. The book and CD package are contained in a pink bubble-wrap pouch whose flap is sealed with a pink sticker bearing the legend: PINK FLOYD AZIMUTH COORDINATOR 1975-1980 The cover of the booklet consists of a pastiche of graphical motifs from the WYWH, Animals, and Wall albums, including a long and winding wall. At one point on this wall, written in indistinct script, are the words: "Syd was not here." Sources: 08 Apr 1975, 6Jul77, 7Feb80 CD1-2: 8 Apr 75; PNE Exhibition Park, Vancouver, BC CD3-4: 6 Jul 77; Olympic Stadium, Montreal, Quebec CD5-6: 7 Feb 80; Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California Tracks: Disc: 1 1. Raving and Drooling 13:39 2. You've Gotta Be Crazy 13:23 3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond I-V 12:44 4. Have a Cigar 5:08 5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond VI-IX [faded out] 13:38 6. Speak To Me 5:32 7. Breathe 3:06 8. On the Run [mis-cued] 4:17 Total Time: 71:29 Disc: 2 1. Time 5:11 2. Breathe (reprise) 1:03 3. The Great Gig In the Sky 6:45 4. Money 7:57 5. Us and Them 7:30 6. Any Colour You Like 9:46 7. Brain Damage/Eclipse 6:12 8. Echoes 23:53 Total Time: 68:20 Disc: 3 1. Sheep 12:15 2. Pigs On the Wing (I) 2:15 3. Dogs 18:16 4. Pigs On the Wing (II) 4:05 5. Pigs (Three Different Ones) 20:01 6. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (I-V) 14:11 Total Time: 71:06 Disc: 4 1. Welcome to the Machine 8:16 2. Have a Cigar 6:15 3. Wish You Were Here 6:41 4. Shine On You Crazy Diamond VI-IX 24:06 5. Money 11:44 6. Us and Them 10:04 Total Time: 67:09 Disc: 5 1. Intro 1:08 2. In the Flesh? 3:28 3. The Thin Ice 3:27 4. Another Brick In the Wall I 4:03 5. The Happiest Days of Our Lives 1:47 6. Another Brick In the Wall II 6:19 7. Mother 7:49 8. Goodbye Blue Sky 3:22 9. Empty Spaces 7:54 10. Young Lust 5:22 11. One of My Turns 3:51 12. Don't Leave Me Now 4:02 13. Another Brick In the Wall III 12:38 14. Goodbye Cruel World [mis-cued] 2:29 Total Time: 67:48 Disc: 6 1. Hey You 5:16 2. Is There Anybody Out There? 2:54 3. Nobody Home 3:33 4. Vera 1:14 5. Bring the Boys Back Home 1:28 6. Comfortably Numb 7:25 7. The Show Must Go On 2:47 8. Isn't This Where We Came In? 2:37 9. In the Flesh 5:23 10. Run Like Hell 6:50 11. Waiting For the Worms 4:32 12. Stop 0:31 13. The Trial 7:39 14. Outside the Wall 3:22 15. Drift Away-Blues 12:10 Total Time: 67:43 Band: Roger Waters Nick Mason David Gilmour Rick Wright Xref: Vancouver 1975 The Azimuth Coordinator part 1 The Azimuth Coordinator part 2 The Azimuth Coordinator part 3 Comments: Drift Away-Blues on Disc 6 should be played with the '77 concert, at the end of Disc 4. This set is comprised of the kick-off dates for the 1975 and 1980 (The Wall) tours, and also the final date of the Animals/In the Flesh 1977 tour where Roger loses his 'composure' with the rowdy audience. The inaugural Wall show is also of interest because of the fire which halted the show early on. There are sound problems with this recording, most notably an irritating electronic buzz during the latter part of ABITW2 on CD5 and an equally distracting fast metronomic beat during Comf'y Numb on CD6, although this fortunately disappears as Dave cranks up his solo. At long last, the much talked about Az. Coor. 6-CD set was finally released sometime earlier this month by some friendly folks at Comfortably Cool Productions (somewhere in the world). Glancing thru this "box set", its obvious that this is not your run-of-the-mill ROIO. The accompling book (65 pages, 20x20 cm) is bloody fantastic with a bizarre morphing of the three LPs imagery as the cover art. The book is chocked filled with relevant photos matched to the different tours (unlike Miles!) from each of the three live CD's time periods, some of which I haven't seen before. Love the pic of Rog in a Milwaukee Brewers T-shirt on p.9... musta taken it from the locker rooms on their '75 stop-over here? The book is worthy of a separate release, better than any of the recent offerings. Very nice narrative on the recording and art production of the three LPs of the later half of the 70's, and brief description of the diff. tours. The only thing lacking is a more detailed description of the '75 & '77 tours. The Wall show is described in detail for all of us whom failed to secure prized ducats to the shows on either coast. There's 6 Cds here, packaged in plastic slip cases boxed together in a cardboard box. The box is individually numbered, so it looks like there's only a 1000 of this things floating around. The price varies greatly between dealers. I think I paid $150 for the set.... I lose track of the green at swaps too easily these days. ;) Considering that double ROIO CDs go for $50- $60, a 6 CD set with a awesome book is easily worth this price. Sure this cuts deeply into the beer fund, but wot the 'ell! The entire "box set" is packaged together in a pink plastic bubble wrap. No clue why they did this?! Onto the Cds: Disc 1&2 are the opener show of the '75 "World Tour" live in Vancouver, Can, 8 Apr 75. The Floyd seem to have a great love with the Seattle/Vancouver area because they've played there every tour since '68, sometimes several stops in both cities. The show happens to be the debut of HAC and the "split" Shine On, with an unusual intro to R&D. The sound is very clean, but has a slight hiss probably due to the generations, and taper's mic feedback during Shine On 6-9. Bloody fab show, easily the best of the Spring '75 tour shows, and one that hasn't been released in complete form to date. So nice to have the long version of DSOTM on disc. The OTR sequence is amazing, almost sounds like Boeing lent a hand. And there's Echoes, need I say more. The '75 versions of Echoes are always a treat. Disc 3&4 are the infamous Montreal 6 Jul 77 show in complete form. I always list this show in my top 5 fave shows. Seems that a copy of the rare clean version has made its way to the bakery. Oh well, I know we couldn't keep this gem hidden forever. As such the case, most Echoesian have never heard this ripping version of the show, and have suffered with the crappy LP version for years. I know Dave and Rog have said that they hated their performance that day, but they should hear the tape first!! It's a toss up between the Oakland '77 and Montreal '77 shows for the best of the Animals tour. You gotta to be crazy not to get this show! Take a listen to Dave's searing guitar work on Pigs-3DO, while Roger lets loose some wild "pig talk". Mindnumbing stuff. Gotta love the tirades that Roger lets fly for the firecracker wackos. Definitely the highlight of the box set. Now I can put away my tapes of the show before they wear out. Not a soundboard, but the closest we'll ever get to one. Yeah, PF taped all their '77 shows, never to see the light of day, no doubt. Discs 5&6 are the debut performance piece of the Wall from LA, 2 Feb 80. Definitely not the best vesrion of the Wall live, in fact sounds more like a rehearsal! All sorts of problems plagued our boys on this night from inadvertent fires to Dave's mics. failing to off-key singing in spots by Roger. I bet Roger was really pleased after this show... For all its warts, its still an interesting show with the long extended ABIII jams (slow brickers) and surprised crowd reactions to the stage presentations. The crowd had little idea what to expect, and their joy is felt, esp. at the final brick being inserted. Yeah, I know others have wondered why this piece was chosen, but the better Wall shows have already been released on CD. Why duplicate them? The sound of these discs is a vast improvement over the crap I have on tape. This is actually listenable! Someone must of dug up a very low gen. of this baby or remastered it. Now, I can count along with Roger (Stop, stop, stop, .... stop the film!). The only annoying thing is the audio buzz that pops into trk 6 (ABII). So, overall I'd give the AzCoor a four piggies rating (out of 5). (I hope the piggie rating isn't copywritten yet?) My only gripe is the odd plastic bubble wrap packaging. A nice hard cover box would be in order here. If you're a hardcore Floyd collector (and who isn't on Echoes?), then I heartly recommend searching out this fine treasure. It doesn't appear to be readily available in most cookie stores. Definitely worth your Floyd dollars/pounds/lira/kroners/D-marks. The sound quality is fantastic and the shows are definitely well chosen. Partiuclarly nice is Dave's guitar work on Pigs (Three Different Kinds) and on Shine On Parts VI-IX. Although the box is flimsy and the bubble wrap kind of silly, the book is a great read and full of interesting notes on the albums. If the soundboard tapes could have been used for this set, this would without doubt be the best set of live Pink Floyd ever released. I believe my disc's were produced by someone else. Each disc says Front Row Center, Not For Sale. Show # (P1-P6) For Radio Play Only. "This broadcast is for one time use by stations cleared by FRC on the designated date and time prearranged in writing. This disc is the property of FRC and must be returned after use." My box set was not numbered. Excellent book, cheap box. The matrix numbers on the disc's are different, i.e. no CDR1-6. All disc's play and sound OK. Matrix Disc 1: MG3362 Front Row Center P1 103379 IFPI LBGI Matrix Disc 2: MG3363 Front Row Center P2 103381 IFPI LBGI Matrix Disc 3: MG3364 Front Row Center P3 103391 IFPI LBGI Matrix Disc 4: MG3365 Front Row Center P4 103388 IFPI LBGI Matrix Disc 5: MG3366 Front Row Center P5 103380 IFPI LBGI Matrix Disc 6: MG3367 Front Row Center P6 103439 IFPI LBGI all disc's have "IFPI LBGI" and a bar code. Overall I would have to give it a VG. At times it pushes a VG+. The problem I have is the hiss, especially with the 1975 show. I think the stereo separation could have been better with the 1975 show. The hiss seems to be reduced with each show. Excellent Echoes for 1975. (I'm still looking for the definitive 75 show.) The 1977 show is good, but the crowd is really wild and rude. They piss Roger off during POTW and US and Them. More crowd noise for the 1977 show. The Wall show was actually better than I heard on a previous time. Originally I thought it was as bad as the rehearsals, but it is much better than that (Still not as good as Behind the Wall). These shows reflect a great period for Floyd, too bad I didn't catch them live. Unfortunately, I would have preferred less hiss! for this era. I can't complain though, I traded for the set. For me it was worth it. After having a successful run with Great Dane Records, I felt a deep satisfaction in retiring, leaving a legacy of highly regarded Pink Floyd releases in my wake. I had accomplished just about what I had set out to do concerning the great "Pink Floyd Project," and with the Gat Treaty passing in 1996, the world of legal RoIO's was silenced. But my reputation had caught the eye of some enthusiastic entrepreneur, who wanted to bake his own cookies and wanted to enlist my services to coodinate certain projects. This person was a smooth talker with big ideas. He wanted to produce elaborate box sets which would include posters, stickers, special collectable items, and would be uniquely presented. He had me sold on the idea that this project would be done for "the fans," and that his vision would not be compromised. I didn't want to release any recordings that had been widely circulated, and had some relavance to the performance or gig. Vancouver 1975 was the first stop on the US tour and sounded just as good as the better 1975 shows. It was the first time "Shine On" was bridged with "Have a Cigar," and also the first time the US had heard the new material. The Montreal show is legendary for the "spitting" incident. It was also the last stop on a grueling stadium tour, to which the band claimed to have played horribly. On the contrary, this was one of the Floyd's best performances faithfully captured by a competent taper (which differs from the widely circulated higher generation and poorer quality recording). "Pigs (3 Different One's)" also inspired his "Pig Talk" during the "In The Flesh" segments of "The Wall" concerts. Absolutely the last great Pink Floyd show! "The Wall" show was harder to pick, and I listened to every gig! I could have easily opted for the great sounding Nassau Coliseum show that has been reissued to death, but instead opted for a more important show...opening night. Although the sound quality was far from up to par with the other 2 shows, some inivated studio engineering pushed this recording into a more listenable realm. The fire incident and the extended "ABITW Part 3," are also unique to this performance. The only sacrifice was that '"Drift Away Blues" could not fit on the Montreal CD's and had to be put at the end of The Wall set. With the liner notes prepared, photos ready, and recordings remastered, this baby was ready to be put into the oven. But probelms kept coming up and every time I asked what was going on, I got some sob story about production problems. I got to see a "proof" of the book, and honestly I wasn't too impressed. I had supplied alot more interesting photos and artwork that could have been used, and the few changes I wanted to make were out of the question. My tapes were held onto for over 9 months before they were finally remastered, and in all that time no work was done on refining the book (which in fact didn't go into production until much later on in the project). Over a year later, and dozens of bogus promises, I received a copy of the AzCo packaged in a cheezy bubble wrap. No hard cover on the book, no reproduced original stickers or postcards, poor silk screening on the disks, and just plain unprofessional. My outrage prompted the manufacturer to repackage it in a boxed format, but unfortunately the quality of the box is thin and cheap. Not only was I dissapointed with the product, but this manufacturer took orders from people and spent the money covering his bills and expensive overhead. Folks have been waiting for months for either a refund or their product, while this person's arrogant attitude seems to be, "they'll get it when I have the money." Although I think that the recordings alone are worth the price you're bound to pay, you gotta admit that even with the flimsy box, the book is a very nice bonus. In fact, the manufacturer is sitting on about a few thousand books and boxes ready to go...he just needs the CD's. You see, another ironic thing is that all of the CD's were pressed and ready to go, they just had to be paid for. And, with all the cash received from pre-orders, that shouldn't have been a problem. But, because the CD's weren't paid for, they are now being sold as individual 2 CD sets of each concert with no frills. These CD's are not rip-off's of the original AzCo. These are the actual original disks that were never properly paid for. So, if you can find one of the currently circulating copies, I say go for it. It's well worth the cash, I just hoped it could have looked alot nicer. And being so rare is another great reason for hunting it down. And who knows, maybe the manufacturer will get his shit together and throw out some more copies to the public because in the meantime, Comfortably Cool productions is being uncomforably uncool!