When it comes to Pink Floyd, die hard and casual fans alike are mainly interested in two albums: The Dark Side of the Moon, and The Wall. Fans will sometimes tell you differently, saying that their favorite album is Piper at the Gates of Dawn or some nonsense, but they are probably lying. Personally, I really do like Meddle better than any other Pink Floyd album, but I don’t own nearly as many copies of that record as I do DSTOM or The Wall. Sometimes, it seems like there are a million different versions of DSOTM floating around, and that a million and one have been bootlegged. With The Wall, that’s just not the case. The main reason for this is that there were only 29 performances of it ever staged during the Pink Floyd era. Reportedly, each band member lost about $15,000.00 US per show, so you can see why they sort of got in and got out.
This is why when a product showcasing The Wall does come out, whether it’s an official release or a bootleg, it’s a pretty big deal. In the world of bootleg records, you rarely come across a bigger deal than the release we are looking at today: Pink Floyd – California 1980 – First and Last Bricks published by Casino Records. This is a 5 LP box set that is supposedly limited to only 500 copies worldwide. The original ad copy indicates (as usual for Casino releases of this type) that there will be no re-pressings or second editions. Those 500 copies were pressed on 250 of each orange/black marble and white vinyl. Each set comes in a full color printed box with a 24-page replica tour booklet, numbered certificate, and a sort of informational insert with some background. I’ll say it from the start… this is a nice box set.
Given the hype and crazy distribution around this release, I find that I have a lot to say about that particular portion of things. Before we look into any of that though, what about the actual concerts we are getting here? Well, there are two of them. The first one is the first ever live performance of The Wall which took place on 7 February 1980 in Los Angeles, California. The band did seven performances in a row in LA to start off the tour. The second show we get on this release is the last LA performance on 13 February 1980. For space’s sake, I’m not going to provide a track list here. If you are reading this, I imagine you already know the songs on this record.
To start with, the audio quality on these recordings is fantastic. Fantastic to the point of being suspicious, even. As indicated on the label, this is an audience recording. In theory, that means someone in the audience snuck in recording equipment (which was a lot bigger in 1980 than it is now) and set it up somewhere where it couldn’t be seen. Not only that, but it would have to be set up in a place that was at least close enough to the band that the recording would come out to some degree of listenability. Then, they would have had to start a tape and hope their setup went undiscovered for the duration of the show. The quality of this recording is so good that in my opinion, the people taping this had to have help to some degree. Whether this meant help from some security guards in the venue or the band themselves, I have no idea. It really is that good, though.
The vinyl pressing itself is also just great. The discs maybe aren’t quite as heavy as I would like them to be, but the quality is spot on. These records are just as good or better quality than any official release you will find for sale today. The vinyl is smooth and flat, and the black marbling in the orange is very nice. The white ones are also great, but for the purposes of this article, I’m looking at the orange set since I got that one first. The labels on the discs are some of the best I’ve ever seen for a release of this type, incorporating the very memorable characters from concert. They were even careful about where they punched the spindle holes and worked them into the artwork! I always give all my new records a good cleaning, but these ones were spotless, and the pressing is totally silent.
As you might imagine, both concerts are great, and because this is a live audience recording, you can really imagine what it must have been like to be there and experience it all in person. I won’t spoil the whole thing, but here are some of the performance highlights that really stuck out to me that make this box set worth tracking down:
Show 1 – Los Angeles Sports Arena – Los Angeles, California – February 7, 1980
The emcee here is not Gary Yudman, who we are all used to hearing from the officially released The Wall live recordings. Instead, we have a female disc jockey from the LA area who does a great, but brief job. Due to what is most like some type of error in timing, she gets cut off abruptly without getting to say much of anything. Unlike Gary in later performances, she does not return to the microphone.
During “Goodbye Blue Sky”, we hear what sounds like a bomb exploding. Apparently, according to the liner notes, this was actually some fireworks prematurely detonating. For a while, the band decided to try to ignore this, and went on to playing “Empty Spaces”. After just getting into the groove, however, Roger stops the band, which takes more time than you might think it would. He announced something to the effect of, “we have decided that the best thing to do is probably to put out the fire”. Good call, Rog. It really struck me that something like this could NEVER happen today. At the first sign of a fire, it would be “everybody out”, and the place would be closed down until the fire Marshall could walk through the entire building. The fact that they put out the fire, had a bit of a laugh and then went on with the performance is quite something.
After the fire, the band continued part one by starting “Empty Spaces” over again, and everything went really well up until they got to “The Last Few Bricks”. Once again, the liner notes help us out here by letting us know what was going on. Apparently, they couldn’t get those “last few bricks” in place fast enough, so the band was left to improvise for nine minutes! In my opinion, if you don’t have access to these recordings otherwise, this bit is probably worth picking them up for. At least it was for me. Through all the problems, the musicians hold their own with some great improv until the final bricks can be placed. They end the song like nothing was wrong in the first place, and the show goes on.
Side two of this show sounds much like you would expect it to when compared with other live versions of The Wall. There is one unusual bit here, and it starts on the song “Nobody Home”. All throughout this number, there is a ridiculous, trap-style drumbeat. The beat is electronic sounding, and as far as I can tell, not coming from any of the drums that are present on the stage, acoustic or otherwise. There is no way Mason is doing this, and if you listen carefully, you can hear it playing independent of the real drums. It’s a droning beat, and its presence does take away from the show a bit. This anomaly continues to run straight through “Vera” and “Comfortably Numb”, where it is drowned out and finally stopped during the second solo. Thankfully, at that point, it doesn’t come back.
So, what could that beat have been? I can’t claim to know for certain, but as a musician myself, I’m fairly certain it’s a “click-track”. A click-track is something that musicians listen to in headphones when recording or playing live that keeps them in time with other musicians, on stage effects, projected animations etc. If you think about it, a show like The Wall would absolutely have to have something like this. Musicians can usually see and hear each other on stage, but there is a major exception here. Some band members would have been playing behind and on top of the wall, and everyone would have needed to be in time with the Surrogate Band, the puppets, the projections, and the orchestral pieces. My guess is that something malfunctioned, and they had to choose between not hearing the sound at all, or letting the audience hear it too until they could figure it out.
That’s about all the highlights I came up with for the first show, but I would say it certainly is an eventful listen. The recording is quite enjoyable musically, as well as from a historic standpoint. I only wish we could have the band members comment on some of the things that happened that night!
Show 2 – Los Angeles Sports Arena – Los Angeles, California – February 13, 1980
Compared to the first show, this one is pretty uneventful. This of course makes sense, given that the band had six shows and rehearsals in between opening night and this final California performance. Overall, the show is a lot tighter musically. The audio quality is a bit lower than the first show, but not by much. There is a little bit of tape noise present, but it isn’t distracting or anything. I would say that if you wanted to put one of these two shows on the stereo and not actively listen for unique performance points, this would be the one you would want to go with.
There are some small hiccups here and there, but nothing too major. Once again, “The Last Few Bricks” is an extended version, but not nearly as long as it was on opening night. The Los Angeles area DJ is back again as the announcer, and she gets to make a brief announcement before “In the Flesh” about a weed petition that’s making its rounds in the audience. On this recording, we don’t get to hear much at all from her during the opening bit.
The only other real point of interest here would be “Waiting for the Worms”. Roger’s megaphone parts are obviously pre-recorded, and apparently, he was used to lip synching them. He actually does do the parts live, but they are supposed to be overdubbed with the megaphone effect. During this particular performance though, someone forgets to turn down his microphone, and we get some overlap which must have been pretty confusing for the performers. In a similar way, the acoustic guitar on “Is There Anybody Out There” goes out of synch with the other instruments at one point. I’m sure this was a result of having the musicians being in totally different areas of the stage and not being able to directly see and hear each other. I find all these little things very interesting, and it’s cool to hear how the band dealt with the challenges and still pulled off one of the most amazing concert experiences of all time.
The Release:
Up until now, my favorite unofficial release for The Wall has to be Education For What? which is also done by Casino Records. Eventually, I’ll review that one on this site as it really is excellent. That particular release has 3 LP’s along with 2 CD’s that contain the same shows. I would have really liked to see the addition of CDs with First and Last Bricks, and if I had one complaint overall, this would probably be it. As we will find out below though, a set like this is difficult to measure the value of to begin with.
As I mentioned previously, this has certainly been one of the most hyped releases of 2024 and will probably end up being in the top three, if not number one overall for the year. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best one I’ve seen in a long time. Originally, I was able to pick up a copy of the orange version. I liked it so much that I kept my eyes open for the white version, and eventually got that set as well. The only difference between the white and orange sets is the numbered certificate that comes in each box. On the orange version, it features the “Mother” character, and on the white version, it features the marching hammers. Almost all of the “pre-orders” I saw didn’t allow you to choose the color; you just got whatever you got.
What you really need to know about California 1980 is that it’s been heavily scalped in various areas, but especially in the US. So far, the highest I’ve seen it sell for is 225.00, which I think is extremely overpriced. Some may disagree with me, but I think it’s important to take a step back and actually look at what you’re getting here. You get a nice-looking thin box with five jacketless LP’s inside (No covers or artwork. Just plain black paper sleeves), one page of liner notes, a nice if somewhat grainy copy of The Wall tour program, and a small, numbered certificate. If you paid 225.00 for this, you would be paying 45.00 per LP. That seems very expensive to me. I didn’t pay nearly that much for either of my copies.
To add to this, we must also consider that anyone with just basic internet skills can find and download the audio for these shows for absolutely no cost at all. This also comes in handy for people who want to hear the audio before committing to a physical version, but my main point is that you are basically paying for the pressing and packaging. It’s nice. I like it. Do I like it enough to spend 225.00 US on it? No. To me, it’s just not worth it at that price. Sometimes you have to pull a page out of the Pawn Stars playbook, and not be afraid to walk away.
Without wasting too much time on this here, it’s good to keep in mind how sales of unofficial records work. The manufacturer doesn’t set an MSRP or anything, so the people who are able to get them can mark them up and charge whatever they want for them. So, when you see a crazy high price on something like this, it doesn’t automatically mean that’s really what it’s valued at. Additionally, Casino Records is almost certainly selling these to record stores and distributors for a fair price. If someone gets overcharged by a few hundred dollars, it’s not their fault.
With all this being said, I’m here to tell you that despite what you may hear about this box set being sold out, it’s still readily available to order online from European record shops (at the time of this writing). You will have to pay international shipping, but it’s still going to be cheaper than overpaying American sellers. Keeping with my policy of not promoting anyone selling unofficial recordings, you’ll have to find these sites on your own. If you have some basic google skills though, I promise it won’t be difficult.
I’ve also heard some people say that the value of this box will eventually go up. I think it possibly could, but that all depends on how many are really out there. If there are indeed only 500 copies available in total, the chance that the price could go up is substantial. Right out of the gate, it seemed like people wanted the white colored copy more, but so far, I haven’t seen anyone charging more or less based on color. I think the orange set looks better, but the white version goes along better with the aesthetic of the The Wall artwork and all that.
To conclude, I will say that California 1980 – First and Last Bricks is yet another amazing release by Casino Records, and that it is worth tracking down. I have told you just about all I can as far as what you should expect (and be willing) to pay, and where you might begin a search to find a copy. I can tell you that the audio between both shows is a 9/10 (taking the fact that this is an audience recording into consideration), and that the quality of the product is 10/10 (considering this is an unofficial release). Do with this information what you will, and I’ll see you outside the wall.