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| Dark Side of the Moon Tour | ||
|---|---|---|
| World tour by Pink Floyd | ||
| Supporting album | The Dark Side of the Moon | |
| Start date | 17 January 1972 | |
| End date | 04 November 1973 | |
| Pink Floyd tour chronology | ||
| Meddle tour (1971) |
Dark Side of the Moon Tour (1972-1973) |
1974 tours (1974) |
The Dark Side of the Moon Tour was a concert tour by British rock band Pink Floyd in 1972 and 1973 in support of their album The Dark Side of the Moon. There were two separate legs promoting The Dark Side of the Moon, one in 1972 before the album's release and another in 1973 after its release.
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Playing 98 shows in 1972, the most until 1994, Pink Floyd debuted the live performance before its release not of a song but a whole album. The original title was Eclipse, then Dark Side of the Moon - A Piece for Assorted Lunatics, the name under which it made its press debut in February 1972 at London's Rainbow Theatre. The title changed for the first part of the US tour to Eclipse (A Piece for Assorted Lunatics) during April and May before reverting to Dark Side of the Moon - A Piece for Assorted Lunatics in September for the second part of the US tour and finally released in 1973 under the title of The Dark Side of the Moon.
Remarkably, at its first full live performance at Guildhall, Portsmouth, England on 21 January 1972, most of the album was in the form it would be when released 14 months later. The significant differences include:
"On the Run", whose working title was "Travel" or "The Travel Sequence", was a guitar and drum jam and would remain so for the rest of the year's performances.
"Time" was played at a slower speed and the first half of the verses were sung by Gilmour and Wright together. The line "Lying supine in the sunshine" was sung instead of "Tired of lying in the sunshine". The former lyric was also sometimes used in shows after the album's release.
"The Great Gig in the Sky", whose working title was "Religion" or "The Mortality Sequence", consisted at the debut in January of synthesized organ and various tapes of "preachers" either preaching or reading from such passages as from Chapter 5, Verse 13 of Ephesians, a book of the Bible, or reciting The Lord's Prayer. Starting in September, the music of the song as per the album was performed, without vocals. A portion of the song contained the aforementioned "preacher" tape recording of Ephesians, at much lower volume, and it was performed this way for the rest of the year.
"Money" began with a longer introduction on the bass, and the saxophone solo was instead played on the electric piano.
"Us and Them" during 1972 lacked the saxophone solo as found on the album.
At the debut, the song "Eclipse" was nothing more than lyricless extension of "Brain Damage" that devolved into various odd sounds. The version with lyrics and music as found on the album debuted at Bristol on 5 February.
Finally, none of the spoken word pieces as found on the album were done during 1972.
One of the two shows at The Dome, Brighton, England on 28 June and 29 June was filmed by Peter Clifton for inclusion on his film Sounds of the City. Clips of these appear occasionally on television and the performance of "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" is on the various artists video Superstars in Concert.
In November 1972, during the middle of the European leg of their 1972 world tour and again in January 1973, Pink Floyd performed with the Roland Petit Ballet. The set list for which their portion of the ballet was choreographed to was "One of These Days", "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", "Obscured by Clouds", "When You're In" and "Echoes".
1973 saw Pink Floyd go on two relatively short tours of the US, one in March to coincide with the release of Dark Side of the Moon and a later one in June. Sandwiched between them were two nights at London's Earl's Court on 18 May and 19 May where they debuted the special effect of a plane crashing into the stage at the end of the song "On the Run". This was also the first year that the band took additional musicians on tour with them, unlike the earlier performances of "Atom Heart Mother" where the band would often hire local musicians. Dick Parry would join Pink Floyd during Money and Us and them and a backing chorus of three or four women. Clare Torry sung backing vocals during the Robert Wyatt benefit concerts, she wouldn't do this again until 1990 at the Knebworth Festival.
Due to the overwhelming chart success of both Dark Side of the Moon, which reached #1 in the US in late April, #2 in the UK, and the US-released single "Money", the nature of Pink Floyd's audiences changed in June 1973. They used to play at theaters and auditoriums but in this tour they played at Stadiums and large arenas.
On 4 November 1973, Pink Floyd played two shows at London's Rainbow Theatre to benefit musician Robert Wyatt formerly the drummer of Soft Machine, a band they'd played with in their UFO Club days. Wyatt fell from a fourth floor window in June 1973, breaking his back and making him a paraplegic. The concerts raised a reported £10,000 for Wyatt.
London (Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park) UK - Rehearsals London (Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park) UK - Rehearsals London (Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park) UK - Rehearsals Brighton (The Dome) UK (= very first "Dark Side Of The Moon" live performance interrupted at 'Money' due to technical problems) Portsmouth (Guildhall) UK (= very first complete live performance of "Dark Side Of The Moon") Bournemouth (Wintergardens) UK Southampton (Guildhall) UK Newcastle-upon-Tyne (City Hall) UK Leeds (City Hall) UK Coventry (Lanchester Polytechnic College Arts Festival - Locarno Ballroom) UK Bristol (Colston Hall) UK Plymouth (ABC Theatre) UK (Cancelled) Leicester (De Montfort Hall) UK Manchester (Free Trade Hall) UK (Rescheduled) Sheffield (City (Oval) Hall) UK Liverpool (Empire Theatre) UK London (Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park) UK London (Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park) UK London (Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park) UK London (Rainbow Theatre, Finsbury Park) UK
Tokyo (Tokyo-To Taiikukan) Japan Tokyo (Tokyo-To Taiikukan) Japan Osaka (Festival Hall) Japan Osaka (Festival Hall) Japan Kyoto (Dai-Sho-Gun Furitsu Taiikukan) Japan Yokohama (Kemin Hall) Japan (Cancelled) Sapporo (Nakajima Sports Center) Japan Manchester (Free Trade Hall) UK Manchester (Free Trade Hall) UK
Fort Homer Hesterly Armory Auditorium Tampa, Florida Sportatorium Hollywood, Florida Township Auditorium Columbia, North Carolina Atlanta Memorial Arts Center Symphony Hall Atlanta, Georgia Syria Mosque Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The Lyric Theater Baltimore, Maryland Civic Center Akron, Ohio Cincinnati Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio (Rescheduled) Toledo Sports Arena, Toledo, Ohio Allen Theater, Cleveland, Ohio Ford Auditorium, Detroit, Michigan (two shows) Auditorium TheaterChicago, Illinois The Spectrum Theater, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(Cancelled) Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Carnegie Hall, New York City, New York (two shows) John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts (Cancelled) Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (Rescheduled) The Spectrum Theater, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Deutschlandhalle, West Berlin, West Germany (Rescheduled) Second British Rock Meeting, Mannheim, West Germany Second British Rock Meeting, Germersheim, West Germany
Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
(Cancelled) Bièvre Festival, Bièvre, France
Brighton Dome, Brighton, Sussex, England Brighton Dome, Brighton, Sussex, England
(Cancelled) Arena di Verona,Verona, Italy Austin Municipal Auditorium, Austin, Texas Music Hall, Houston, Texas Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas (Rescheduled) Community Center Arena, Tucson, Arizona Memorial Hall, Kansas City, Kansas Civic Center Music Hall, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Levitt Arena, Wichita, Kansas Community Center Arena, Tucson, Arizona Community Concourse, San Diego, California Big Surf, Tempe, Arizona University of Denver Arena, Denver, Colorado Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, California (Rescheduled) Santa Clara Fairgrounds, San Jose, California Winterland Auditorium, San Francisco, California (two shows) Arena Gardens, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon (Rescheduled) Seattle Arena, Seattle, Washington Hec Edmundson Pavilion, Seattle, Washington Vancouver Gardens Arena, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (two shows) Empire Pool, Wembley, London, England
K.B. Hallen, Copenhagen, Denmark (two shows) Ernst Merck Halle, Hamburg, West Germany Philipshalle, Düsseldorf, West Germany Sporthalle, Böblingen, West Germany Festhalle, Frankfurt, West Germany (two shows) Roland Petit Ballet, Marseilles, France Roland Petit Ballet, Marseilles, France Roland Petit Ballet, Marseilles, France Roland Petit Ballet, Marseilles, France Roland Petit Ballet, Marseilles, France Palais des sports, Toulouse, France Les Arènas, Poitiers, France Dane County Memorial Coliseum, Madison, Wisconsin Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri The Amphitheater, Chicago, Illinois The Fieldhouse, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio Gymnasium, Kent State University, Ohio Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Montreal Forum, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Boston Music Hall, Boston, Massachusetts The Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Radio City Music Hall, New York City, New York The Palace Theater, Waterbury, Connecticut The Civic Center, Providence, Rhode Island The Coliseum, Hampton, Virginia Park Center, Charlotte, North Carolina Municipal Auditorium, Atlanta, Georgia (Cancelled) The Bayfront Center, St. Petersburg, Florida SHELTER-National Campaign for the Homeless benefit, Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London, England SHELTER-National Campaign for the Homeless benefit, Earls Court Exhibition Centre, London, England Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Saratoga, New York Civic Center Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Maryland Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York Olympia Stadium, Detroit, Michigan Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio Convention Center, Louisville, Kentucky Lake Spivey Park, Jonesboro, Georgia Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Jacksonville, Florida The Sportatorium, Hollywood, Florida Tampa Stadium, Tampa, Florida Olympiahalle, Munich, West Germany
Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria A Benefit For Robert Wyatt, Rainbow Theater, Finsbury Park, London, England (two shows - 5pm & 9pm)A typical 1972 set list for the tour:
Set One: The Dark Side of the Moon (entire album)
Set Two:
A typical 1973 set list for the tour:
Set One:
Set Two: The Dark Side of the Moon (entire album)
Encore:
Additional musicians:
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