There are many reasons for not having attended a live concert by an artist you love. Maybe the tickets sold out quicker than you could say ‘Scalpers!’. Perhaps the concert was in another city—or another country. For artists long gone, you may have been born too late. Whatever the reason, the live album has long been a consolation prize for music fans who couldn’t make the gig.
In 1994, Pink Floyd—at the time consisting of David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Richard Wright—released The Division Bell and mounted an extensive tour to accompany what turned out to be their last studio album of new material. Naturally they recorded the shows and put out an album to mark the occasion.
Pulse, originally released in 1995, was a 2CD set featuring songs from the latest album, some perennial favourites, and a complete live performance of Dark Side of the Moon. It was impeccably played, beautifully recorded, and very nicely packaged by a team including the legendary Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis fame. Some versions even had a pulsing red LED light on the spine of the CD slipcase. Your correspondent was fortunate enough to snare one of these blinking sets and religiously replaces the two AA batteries every couple of years.
The 2018 re-issue of only the second official live Pink Floyd album as a 4 LP boxed set caused a lifting of pulse rates amongst Pink Floyd fans, this writer included. Despite having a well-maintained compact disc set I was seduced by this delicious slab of live Floyd. It is a brilliant performance and a thoroughly enjoyable listening experience on vinyl. The arrangements are slick and powerful, and to the delight of fans, the much loved song ‘One of these days’ (from Meddle) is restored to its rightful place in the running order.
What’s more, Pulse is a visual treat. The record covers have all the mystery and fascination of classic Hipgnosis design while the hardcover LP-sized booklet is a feast of images from the concerts.
This lavish set will bring smiles to the faces of Pink Floyd fans everywhere, yet could serve equally well as an introduction to one of rock’s classic bands. The vinyl box may not have a flashing light, but it has everything else.
First posted at Discrepancy Records in late 2018. Reposted with kind permission. (Includes minor edits)
No such thing as too much Floyd? A memoir post on my encounters with this album can be found here.
vinylconnection.com.au 
We had to figure out a way to file this. It didn’t fit into a CD security box. Even the “fat” doubles. So, we just put a pile on our front counter, and maintained a count of how many we had. If we were short one, we had to check to make sure a customer had it in their hands.
The flashing lights never synced up. You could stare at that pile for hours and they would never sync.
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Love it. Hypnotised staff and the occasional customer staring at the blinking lights. A visual Philip Glass piece for LED and eyeballs.
Happy NY to you, Mike.
Bruce
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A live flasher.
You make it sound desirable.
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🤣
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I saw Floyd in the mid-90’s. Still one of my favourite concerts of all time.
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I was fortunate to see this tour as well (I wrote about it here). And I thoroughly agree: a spectacular rock show.
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I saw Pink Floyd for the second time during the tour on which the “Pulse” album was based.
I own another Floyd live album on CD, “A Delicate Sound of Thunder.” I believe that album was recorded during the tour where I first caught them, in Germany in the ‘80s in the wake of their 1987 studio album “A Momentary Lapse of Reason.”
Both of these Pink Floyd concerts were quite amazing sonic experiences.
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That’s a match, Christian. Those were the tours I saw also. In fact the Division Bell show I saw was in fact in Hanover! It’s here, though I see you read and commented back in the day. 🙂
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🙂
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Caught this tour in Winnipeg Manitoba July 1st 1994 (Canada Day). Great show so buying Pulse when it came out was a no brainer.
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Did you score a flasher, deKE? 😉
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Sure did. What a marketing ploy haha…
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LOL. I read this article thinking the whole time that I was reading a post by Bill Pearse (I think the word Pink in the title flipped my brain in that direction). When I got to the end, I was like “Wait, Bill writes for Discrepancy Records too?” Sounds like a set I should listen to. I don’t have much depth in my Floyd knowledge. Just DSOTM, the Wall & Wish You Were Here.
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That is funny, Jeff. Sorry to discombobulate you, but glad you enjoyed the journey!
I think you might enjoy Animals, just in passing.
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That’s with Syd Barrett correct? I think I tried that once. I’ll listen again.
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The first album (Piper at the Gates of Dawn) is the Syd one (plus a tiny bit of the second LP)… all 60s whimsy and eccentricity.
Animals is the one after Wish You Were Here and before The Wall. It’s Roger’s angry rant against Thatcher’s Britain. Choleric and sharp.
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Ooh, I like ranting against Thatcher
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😄
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Hi Bruce, I’ve just had a lovely time listening to Animals (twice) as I shoveled snow this afternoon (although for the last 20 minutes my neighbor came out with his snow blower and sort of ruined the mood). It’s possible this is my favorite pink floyd album. At times it seemed like I was listening to Wish You Were Here sides 3 and 4, and at other times it was the perfect bridge between WYWH and the Wall with musical elements of both albums showing up in the same songs. Thanks for the recommendation.
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That’s brilliant, Jeff. I really appreciate the ‘report back’ and of course am delighted that you enjoyed it. My hunch had been that the extra edginess of Animals might well appeal and it is an enjoyable confirmation to hear that played out. Bummer about the snow blower (whatever that is; like a leaf blower for the white stuff?).
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Ugh. It’s a gas powered machine that works like a lawn mower scooping up snow and spraying it fifteen feet away. They make a huge racket. Every house on the block but ours has one.
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Just the thing for a silent snow-covered morning, eh?
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Exactly
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