In a bit of unexpected good fortune for the discerning prog fan, a selection of Pink Floyd bootlegs dating from 1971 have appeared on streaming services.

Spotify and Amazon Music began hosting a range of live recordings from the ‘Meddle’ era, in varying quality a few days ago. Some of the recordings have long been well known to bootleg collectors – such as the ‘Screaming Abdabs’ recording from Quebec, featuring the classic Gilmour/Wright/Waters/Mason line up showcasing a couple of new ‘Meddle’ tunes as well as providing the often overlooked ‘Embryo’ with a live outing, and the full set from Montreux ’71 – but the opportunity for the more casual listener to stumble upon these archive treasures will surely be welcomed.

No official reason has been given for their arrival. Since they’re not part of a radio show archive (a source that have made up a vast amount of “legal” bootleg recordings in the UK over the past few years), it’s suspected that this is a copyright move on behalf of Parlophone Records. In recent years, Sony have issued various Bob Dylan bootleg recordings in miniscule numbers to secure a legal claim on them and to stop them falling into the public domain after fifty years, so it makes sense that other labels would seek to take the same measures for their legacy artists.

How long these recordings will be around is anyone’s guess, but for now, Spotify users can find them by visiting the official Floyd account below. This, of course, doesn’t address the biggest elephant in the room: the most discerning prog fans are the least likely to be using streaming services and have been very vocal about that fact…

With grateful thanks to Mark Burnell for the heads up.