Pink Floyd - Aachen (stratcat58-Beechwoods) (24-96)
 
Album info
 
Recording Date  : 12-07-1970
     
Length  : 84:10
Format  : FLAC
Track List
 
01 Astronomy Domine 06:24
02 Green Is The Colour 03:52
03 Careful WIth That Axe, Eugene 10:07
04 Atom Heart Mother 19:43
05 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun 13:36
06 A Saucerful Of Secrets 18:00
07 Interstellar Overdrive 12:28

Notes
Recorded at the Open Air Pop Festival, Reitstadion Soers, Aachen, Germany. Very good audience recording.


From the info file:

Pink Floyd 1970-07-12 1st Open Air Pop Festival, Reitstadion Soers, Aachen, West Germany
Stratcat58 Tape
24-96
Unknown Gen
Original Taper: Ulrich A.

1 x Maxell XLII 90

Transfer by Beechwoods

Nakamichi ZX-7 > Tascam HD-P2 24/96 > WAV > FLAC

01. Astronomy Domine
02. Green Is The Colour
03. Careful With That Axe, Eugene
04. Atom Heart Mother
05. Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
06. A Saucerful Of Secrets
07. Interstellar Overdrive


The third transfer from my series of Stratcat58's tapes, this is an interesting transfer of a festival set from the band at the 1st International Open Air Pop Festival in Aachen.

A supposed transfer of the Master Cassette to DAT circulates, and both R&D and Wojtek have remastered what sounds like that source with quite pleasing results, but hearing this transfer gives the impression that the 'Master Cassette' either wasn't a master, or could have been transferred much better.

This tape and transfer is noticeably brighter and clearer than any of the sources circulating so far. It takes a minute or so to settle down. Being a completely raw transfer with no processing whatsoever it displays flaws that aren't so evident on the other copies. I suspect that somewhere along the line, from the 'Master > DAT' onwards, these other copies were EQ'd to remove these.

This transfer will reward the listener wanting to hear how this tape probably sounded when recorded. Stratcat58 received it from a very reliable trader with good contacts and though the Generation is unknown, by reputation we can expect it to be 2nd or 3rd gen.

---

Shortly after initially drafting this text file I received an email from Neonknight reminding me about some additional information he discovered while investigating his own 'unknown gen' transfer. This goes some way towards backing up what I suggest above, and gives some extra insights into the history of this recording:

'Lineages for copies of 1970-07-12 tend to be bogus. The late Grolsch confirmed that copies doing the rounds are 2nd gen at best.

Grolsch also explained that Ulrich recorded the master on '…a cheap Phillips cassette machine using those terrible yellow Agfa FeCr blanks. When that cassette started to deteriorate, he made a copy to a Maxell UDXL II. I got this cassette as a present in 1987. I sure gave away cassette copies to folks and I may have done one DAT copy for a friend in the UK - that's it.''

---

If nothing else this transfer shows what this recording could sound like. Someone needs to dig out the master again, for a proper high-res transfer!

Beechwoods
January 2015


Addendum...

There is an interesting record of the '40+1 Aachener Rockfestival 1970' exhibition held in Aachen in August 2011 on the 'Jolly Joker's Ohrenbalsam' blog at http://ohrenbalsam.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/ausstellung-40-1-aachener-rockfestival.html
Of particular interest are the shots of the crowds. This looks like it was an excellent little festival.