Roger Waters - HRV CDR028 - Swedish Neurotica

Isstadion, Stockholm, Sweden / June 17, 1984
Label: Harvested HRV CDR028
Audio Source: Audience recording

Artwork: included

Number of Discs: 2
Disc 1 Running time 64m 31s / Disc 2 Running Time 54m 35s



Back in 1984, Roger did his first solo tour. With Eric Clapton and company in tow, he did 19 dates in June and July of that year.

He would return again in 1985 and do another 17 shows; but this time without Mr. Clapton.

HRV-CDR-028 is an audience recording from June 17, 1984 in Stockholm, Sweden. This being just the second night of his first ever tour with his new band!

It's a goody!

The show seems to be complete. When QAing it, I couldn't see any cuts or patches made. But you never know, Professor Frankentoon has been known to do these sorts of things ;-)

I mention this, because other RoIOs that exist for this date have cuts/patches in Every Stranger's Eyes. Swedish Neurotica has no such problem.

But speaking of problems, there are a couple minor ones to point out. It seems that people were not all in their seats when the show started. The first song has a large amount of "mic movement" noises. Likely caused by these late people pushing past the taper. But that's only for the first song, the rest is clear. Then Roger gets the yips in track 4, you'll see what I mean when you hear it.

Anyway, here's the track lst:

101 Set The Controls
102 Money
103 If
104 Welcome To The Machine
105 Have A Cigar
106 Wish You Were Here
107 Pigs On The Wing
108 In The Flesh
109 Nobody Home
110 Hey You
111 The Gunners Dream
201 4.30 AM
202 4.33 AM
203 4.37 AM
204 4.39 AM
205 4.41 AM
206 4.47 AM
207 4.50 AM
208 4.56 AM
209 4.58 AM
210 5.01 AM
211 5.06 AM
212 5.11 AM
213 Brain Damage
214 Eclipse


Swedish Neurotica thoughts

Hello all,

Just a few comments on the recent Harvested release, Swedish Neurotica.

First off, the first thing I noticed about the performance it that Roger seems angry for much of the first set, especially during Money and Hey You. It seems as if he had a bit of venom he needed to spit out that night. His vocals are harsh!

To me, Eric Clapton didn't really add much to either set. His guitar work, while not bad by any means, just seems really out of place. His style doesn't mesh well with the Floyd songs, and he seems to go overboard in the +/- set. The one exception is his lead part during If, at least I'm pretty sure it's him, with Roger playing the basic arpeggio. I'm not a huge fan of his, but Clapton's acoustic work has always been one of my favorite traits of his, and it shines here. Also, it gave me chills to hear him harmonizing to Wish You Were Here.

The +/- set isn't anything really special and considering it was the second show of the tour, didn't seem very inspired, either. While I enjoy the musical themes of the album- I often hum them to myself- the fact that the songs aren't your typical songs (as in structure) is a large part why the album isn't near the top of my list of favorites, and the performance doesn't much differ from the album. I did like the Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking song on here better than the album, though- there's more life to it, it doesn't come across as cheesy as the album version. And even back then, Rog lip-synched to ESE.

Highlights of the show for me were Set the Controls, If, and The Gunners Dream.

All in all, a worthy addition to the HRV catalog. It won't be at the top of my list of releases, but it's definitely an interesting and decent listen.

~Ryan



The Band:
Roger Waters - Bass/Vocals
Eric Clapton - Guitar

Mel Collins - Saxophones
Michael Kamen - Keyboards
Andy Newmark - Drums
Tim Renwick - Guitar/Bass
Chris Stainton - Keyboards/Bass
Doreen Chanter - Backing Vocals
Katie Kissoon - Backing Vovals