Happy new year to Outer Music readers and writers! 

Pink Floyd - Royal Festival Hall, Rehearsal 1969 (video)

This one almost made me laugh out loud, 25 minutes of dinking around including an almost intolerant amount of Richard Wright messing about on the organ, some talking (arguing even) and other pieces of tape from the cutting room floor. This isn’t even for Pink Floyd completists, I’m just glad they didn’t take the camera into the loo.

Hatfield & The North - Hatwise Choice

Before I start in on this thing, I’ll say straight up that I prefer full shows over comps of live tracks any day, even when you’re often getting a better bang for the buck with the comp. I like to get the idea of the full performance for a variety of reasons, but primarily to get an intuitive sense of just how on a band is on a given show. It’s fortunate that Hatfield & The North were one of those groups that was on fire nearly every night during their classic heyday and even if live show hunters like myself are already going to be familiar with the lion’s share of this collection, there won’t be any complaint revisiting this stuff. The BBC performances in particular, of which there were three and not all of them are here, are just outstanding showing a band with a perfect balance between ambition and humor. In fact I’d dare say they may have been one of the great live progressive rock outfits, rarely is music this thorny and convoluted played so tightly and with such a bright sense of humor. There’s even quite a few “new tracks,” although with the singles vs the albums, sometimes there’s just some renaming involved. It’s definitely a great package, although why the three BBC recordings have not been released on their own (maybe it’s because everyone already has them) is a bit baffling, a CD like that would be getting full marks from me.

Cheap Trick - Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles 6/3/77

I’ve probably spent a little more time with Cheap Trick than I might have for a couple reasons, I’ve got friends who really like them, and I enjoy the pre-CT Fuse CD and the first album. But by this point in 1977, the Cheap Trick most people are familiar with is in full swing, and most of these rather forgotten pop tracks don’t do a heck of a lot for me. It doesn’t help that the sound is muddy, in fact it made it an easy decision to get rid of it especially since the fuzz makes it really impossible to say anything about it.