Ummagumma Studio album and Live album by Pink Floyd Released 25 October 1969 Recorded 27 April 1969 at the Mothers Club,Birmingham, England
2 May 1969 at Manchester College of Commerce, Manchester, England Genre Avant-garde, musique concrète,psychedelic rock, experimental rock, progressive rock Length 86:11 Label Harvest Producer Pink Floyd, Norman Smith Pink Floyd chronology Soundtrack from the Film More
(1969) Ummagumma
(1969) Atom Heart Mother
(1970) YOU ARE BIDDING ON A FABULOUS SOUGHT AFTER DOUBLE VINYL LP RELEASE ON THE HARVEST LABEL FROM 1969 THIS IS I BELIEVE A 1ST PRESS MATRIX NUMBERS:  SHDW A 1 SHDW 1 B 2 SHDW 2 A 1 SHDW 2 B 2

 PINK FLOYD
" UMMAGUMMA "

LABEL: HARVEST SHDW 1 / 2
YEAR: 1969

VINYL CONDITION:  EXCELLENT 

SLEEVE CONDITION:  EXCELLENT
WILL BE SENT IN PVC PROTECTIVE IN A PRO MAILER WITH STIFFENERS SLEEVE FOR EXTRA PROTECTION 

Record Collector Magazine's Grading Guide:

"MINT: The record itself is in brand new condition with no surface marks or deterioration in sound quality. The cover and any extra items such as the lyric sheet, booklet or poster are in perfect condition. Records advertised as Sealed or Unplayed should be Mint.

EXCELLENT: The record shows some signs of having been played, but there is very little lessening in sound quality. The cover and packaging might have slight wear and / or creasing.

VERY GOOD: The record has obviously been played many times, but displays no major deterioration in sound quality, despite noticeable surface marks and the occasional light scratch. Normal wear and tear on the cover or extra items, without any major defects, is acceptable.

GOOD: The record has been played so much that the sound quality has noticeably deteriorated, perhaps with some distortion and mild scratches. The cover and contents suffer from folding, scuffing of edges, spine splits, discolouration, etc.

FAIR: The record is still just playable but has not been cared for properly and displays considerable surface noise; it may even jump. The cover and contents will be torn, stained and / or defaced.

POOR: The record will not play properly due to scratches, bad surface noise, etc. The cover and contents will be badly damaged or partly missing.

BAD: The record is unplayable or might even be broken, and is only of use as a collection filler."

Ummagumma is the first live album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It was released on 25 October 1969, throughHarvest Records. It is a double album containing part of their normal set list of the time, while the second contains solo compositions by each member of the band recorded as their fourth studio album.

Although the album was well received at the time of release, and was a top five hit in the UK album charts, it has since been looked upon unfavourably by the band, who have expressed negative opinions about it in interviews. Nevertheless, the album has been reissued on CD several times, along with the rest of their catalogue.

The album is also notable for its artwork, featuring a number of pictures of the band combined together to give a Droste effect. Like several other of the band's covers, it was designed by Hipgnosis.

Contents

• 1 Title
• 2 Background
• 3 Packaging
• 4 Release history
• 5 Reception
• 6 Track listing
• 7 Personnel
• 8 Sales chart performance
• 9 References
• 10 External links

[edit]Title

The album's title supposedly comes from Cambridge slang for sex,[1][2] commonly used by Pink Floyd friend and occasional roadie, Ian "Emo" Moore, who would say "I'm going back to the house for some ummagumma". According to Moore, he made up the term himself.[3]

[edit]Background

Although the sleeve notes say that the live material was recorded in June 1969, the live album of Ummagumma was recorded live atMothers Club, Birmingham[4] on 27 April 1969[5] and the following week at Manchester College of Commerce[4] on 2 May of the same year.[5] The band had also recorded a live version of "Interstellar Overdrive" (from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn) intended for placement on side one of the live album, and "The Embryo", which was recorded in the studio before it was decided that the band members each come up with their own material.[4]

The studio album came as a result of Richard Wright wanting to make "real music", where each of the four group members (in order: Wright, Roger Waters, David Gilmour and Nick Mason) had half an LP side each to create a solo work without involvement from the others.[4] Wright's contribution, "Sysyphus", contained a combination of various keyboards, including piano andmellotron. Although initially enthusiastic about making a solo contribution,[6] Wright later described it as "pretentious".[4]Waters' "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" contained a variety of vocal[7] and percussion effects treated at various speeds, both forwards and backwards, and was influenced by Ron Geesin,[7] who would later collaborate with both Waters and Pink Floyd.[8] Gilmour has since stated he was apprehensive about creating a solo work, and admits he "went into a studio and started waffling about, tacking bits and pieces together",[9]although part one of "The Narrow Way" had already been performed as "Baby Blue Shuffle in D Major" in a BBC radio session in December 1968.[10] Gilmour said he "just bullshitted" through the piece.[4] He asked Waters to write some lyrics for his compositions, but he refused to do so.[4]Mason's "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" featured his then wife, Lindy, playing flute[7] and Mason playing a nine minute drum solo.[4]

[edit]Packaging

The cover artwork shows the members of the band, with a picture hanging on the wall showing the same scene, except that the band members have switched positions.[11] The picture on the wall also includes the picture on the wall, creating a recursion effect (i. e. the Droste effect), with each recursion showing band members exchanging positions. After four variations of the scene, the final picture within picture is the cover of the previous Pink Floyd album, A Saucerful of Secrets. The latter, however, is absent from the CD release; instead, the recursion effect is seemingly ad infinitum.

The cover of the original LP varies between the British, American/Canadian, and Australian releases. The British version has the album Gigi leaning against the wall immediately above the "Pink Floyd" letters.[5] At a talk given at Borders bookstore in Cambridge on 1 November 2008, as part of the "City Wakes" project, Storm Thorgerson explained that the album was introduced as a red herring to provoke debate, and that it has no intended meaning. On most copies of American and Canadian editions, the Gigi cover is airbrushed to a plain white sleeve, apparently because of copyright concerns; however the earliest American copies do show the Gigi cover,[12] and it was restored for the American remastered CD edition. On the Australian edition, the Gigi cover is completely airbrushed, not even leaving a white square behind. The house used as the location for the front cover of the album is located in Great Shelford, near Cambridge.[13]

On the rear cover, roadies Alan Stiles (who also appears in "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast") and Peter Watts (father of the actress Naomi Watts) are shown with the band's equipment laid out on a runway at Biggin Hill Airport. This concept was proposed by Mason, with the intention of replicating the "exploded" drawings of military aircraft and their payloads, which were popular at the time.[5]

Song titles on the back are laid out slightly differently in British vs. North American editions; the most important difference being the inclusion of subtitles for the four sections of "A Saucerful of Secrets". These subtitles only appeared on American and Canadian editions of this album, but not on the British edition; nor did they appear on original pressings of A Saucerful of Secrets.

The inner gatefold art shows separate black-and-white photos of the band members. Gilmour is seen standing in front of the Elfin Oak.[5]Original vinyl editions showed Waters with his first wife, Judy Trim, but she has been cropped out of the picture on most CD editions (with the original photo's caption 'Roger Waters (and Jude)' accordingly changed to just 'Roger Waters').[5] The uncropped picture was restored for the album's inclusion in the box set, Oh, by the Way.[5]

[edit]Release history

The album was released in the UK and US on 25 October and 10 November 1969, respectively. The album reached number 5 on the UK album charts[14] and number 74 on the US album charts, marking the first time the band reached the top 100 in the US. The album was certified gold in the US in February 1974 and platinum in March 1994. In 1987, the album was re-released on a two-CD set. A digitally remastered version was released in 1994 in the UK and 1995 in the US.

The CD edition includes a longer version of "Sysyphus", extended to 13:26, with the movements lasting 1:08, 3:30, 1:49 and 6:59, respectively. The original "Part 1" of "Sysyphus" was split into two tracks and called "Part 1" and "Part 2". "Part 2" on vinyl became "Part 3" on CD, and "Part 3" and "Part 4" were combined into the CD's "Part 4" (the original "Part 4" begins with the lengthy orchestral thud). "The Narrow Way" and "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" were also split into their three parts for easier navigation. The times below reflect the original vinyl pressing.

In 2009, to mark the 40th anniversary of the album's release, Storm Thorgeson sold a limited number of autographed lithographs of the front cover.[15] Although the 2011 re-release campaign Why Pink Floyd...? presented all fourteen albums newly remastered in 2011, only the studio disc of Ummagumma was remastered – the live disc is the previous 1994 version.

American versions of the cassette omitted "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" and "A Saucerful of Secrets".

[edit]Reception

The album originally received favourable reviews upon release.[6][7] International Times were particularly positive about the live album, saying it "is probably one of the best live recordings I have ever heard".[19]

However, the band have since been dismissive and critical of the work. Recalling the album in later years, Waters is reported to have said, "Ummagumma – What a disaster!",[20] while in 1995, Gilmour described the album as "horrible. "[21] In 1984, recalling the album, Mason said "I thought it was a very good and interesting little exercise, the whole business of everyone doing a bit. But I still feel really that that's quite a good example of the sum being greater than the parts",[22] and later described it as "a failed experiment ... the most significant thing is that we didn't do it again".[23]

Paste, reviewing the 2011 re-release, described the album as "rock excess of the worst kind", though they did praise the live version of "Careful with that Axe, Eugene".[18]

[edit]Track listing

[edit]Personnel

• David Gilmour - lead guitar, vocals, all instruments and vocals on "The Narrow Way"
• Nick Mason - percussion
• Roger Waters - bass guitar, vocals, all instruments and vocals on "Grantchester Meadows" and "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict"
• Richard Wright - organ, keyboards, vocals, all instruments on "Sysyphus"

• Lindy Mason – flutes on "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party" parts I and III (uncredited)
• Brian Humphries – engineering (live album)
• Pink Floyd – production (live album)
• Peter Mew – engineering (studio album)
• Norman Smith – production (studio album)
• Hipgnosis – sleever design and photographs

[edit]Sales chart performance