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In the Flesh (Pink Floyd tour)

In the Flesh, also known as the Animals Tour, was a concert tour by the English rock band Pink Floyd, in support of their 1977 album Animals. It was divided in two legs: one in Europe and another in North America. The tour featured large inflatable puppets, as well as a pyrotechnic "waterfall", and one of the biggest and most elaborate stages to date, including umbrella-like canopies that would rise from the stage to protect the band from the elements.[1]

In the Flesh
Tour by Pink Floyd
Location
  • Europe
  • North America
Associated albums
Start date23 January 1977
End date6 July 1977
Legs5
No. of shows55
Pink Floyd concert chronology

This was the last tour in which Pink Floyd played songs from Animals live (early versions of "Dogs" and "Sheep" had been performed with different titles during their 1974 and 1975 tours). Pink Floyd would never again play songs from Animals during their tours, but the flying pig still appeared with different designs. Only Roger Waters would continue playing songs from Animals live. This tour was also the only tour where Pink Floyd played the entire Wish You Were Here (1975) or entire Animals (1977) albums.

History

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Rotating flower-petal mirror ball, used to reflect spotlights during concerts from 1975 to 1977; displayed at the Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains exhibition

Pink Floyd's marketing strategy for the In the Flesh Tour was aggressive, filling pages of The New York Times and Billboard magazine. To promote their four-night run at Madison Square Garden in New York City, there was a Pink Floyd parade on 6th Avenue featuring pigs and sheep.[2] Although the Animals album had not been as commercially successful as the previous two, the band managed to sell out arenas and stadiums in America and Europe, setting scale and attendance records. In Chicago, the band played to an estimated audience of 95,000; in Cleveland and Montreal, they set attendance records for those venues by playing to about 80,000 people.[citation needed] They also set an attendance record in Milwaukee, playing before a reported crowd of 60,000 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

This was the Floyd's first tour since 1973 not to use female backing singers. Augmenting the band were sax player Dick Parry (who occasionally played keyboards out of view of the audience) and guitarist Snowy White, who also played bass on "Sheep", "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" and "Welcome to the Machine". Roger Waters played electric guitar on "Sheep" and "Pigs" and acoustic guitar on "Pigs On The Wing 1-2" as well as "Welcome to the Machine". David Gilmour played bass on "Pigs On The Wing Part 2" during the second and final leg of the North American tour.

In the first half of the show, the band played all of Animals in a different sequence than the album, starting with "Sheep", then "Pigs on the Wing (Part I)", "Dogs", "Pigs on the Wing (Part II)" and "Pigs (Three Different Ones)".

At some venues, paper sheep and pigs designed by Tim Hunkin were fired over the audience and parachuted back to earth.[3] Some venues prohibited this, however.[3]

During "Pigs (Three Different Ones)", Waters shouted the number of the concert on the tour (such as "1–5!" for the fifteenth show) so recordings of the shows would be easy to distinguish from each other. The second half of the show comprised the Wish You Were Here album in its exact running order ("Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I–V)", "Welcome to the Machine", "Have a Cigar", "Wish You Were Here" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI–IX)"). This was the first time "Welcome to the Machine" and "Wish You Were Here" were played live, with the latter being played differently than the studio album. It featured an extended guitar solo, a reprise of the second verse and Richard Wright closing the song with a piano solo. The encores were "Money" and often "Us and Them" from The Dark Side of the Moon. At the Oakland, California show on 9 May they played "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" as a second encore, the first time it had been played since 1974 and the last time it was ever performed.

During the tour, Waters began to exhibit increasingly aggressive behaviour, and would often scold disruptive audiences who lit off fireworks, and yelled and screamed during the quieter numbers.[2] In the New York shows they had to use local workers as lighting technicians due to union problems with their own crew. They had several difficulties with the workers; for example, Waters once had to beckon one of the spotlights to move higher when it only illuminated his lower legs and feet while he was singing.

The final night of the tour on 6 July at Montreal's Olympic Stadium ended with Pink Floyd performing a second encore of "Drift Away Blues" as the roadies dismantled the instruments in front of the insatiable audience who refused to let the band leave the stadium. David Gilmour sat out the final encore as he was unhappy with the band's performance that night. Snowy White played a bluesy guitar solo in Gilmour's place. A small riot at the front of the stage followed the band's eventual exit. Earlier that night, Waters spat in the face of a disruptive fan;[4] The Wall grew out of Waters' thoughts about this incident, particularly his growing awareness that stardom had alienated him from his audience.[5] "It was a funny gig," recalled guitarist Snowy White. "It was a really weird vibe… I used to just do my job. But it was interesting to look across the stage and see Roger spitting at this guy at the front… It was a very strange gig. Not very good vibes."[6]

Personnel

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Pink Floyd:

  • David Gilmour – lead electric guitars (except as noted); lap steel guitar on "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Part VI"; lead and backing vocals
  • Roger Waters – bass guitar (except where noted); lead and backing vocals; electric rhythm guitar on "Sheep" and "Pigs (Three Different Ones)"; acoustic guitar on "Pigs on the Wing, Parts 1 and 2" and "Welcome to the Machine"
  • Richard Wright – keyboards; backing vocals
  • Nick Mason – drums; percussion

Additional musicians:

  • Snowy White – guitars (harmony lead on "Dogs", lead on "Pigs on the Wing, Part 2", "Have a Cigar", "Drift Away Blues" (6 July 1977), and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (link from Part VI to Part VII, dual lead on Part VIII and harmony lead Part IX), 12-string acoustic guitar on "Wish You Were Here"); backing vocals; bass guitar on "Sheep", "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" and "Welcome to the Machine".
  • Dick Parry – saxophones, backing keyboards

Set list

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The following set list was obtained from the concert held on 6 July 1977 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada. It does not represent all concerts for the duration of the tour.

First set: Animals

  1. "Sheep"
  2. "Pigs on the Wing, Part 1"
  3. "Dogs"
  4. "Pigs on the Wing, Part 2"
  5. "Pigs (Three Different Ones)"

Second set: Wish You Were Here

  2. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts I–V"
  3. "Welcome to the Machine"
  4. "Have a Cigar"
  5. "Wish You Were Here"
  6. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts VI–IX"

Encore

  2. "Money"
  3. "Us and Them"

Second encore

  2. "Drift Away Blues"

Notes

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  • "Us and Them" was performed only during select concerts.
  • "Money" was not performed in the concert in London on 19 March 1977.
  • "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" was performed as a second encore on 9 May 1977 in Oakland.
  • "Drift Away Blues" was a blues improvisation performed once as the final song during the concert in Montreal on 6 July 1977, in response to an aggressive audience. David Gilmour did not perform during the number, instead Snowy White stood in for Gilmour on this.

Tour dates

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List of 1977 concerts showing date, city, country, venue, attendance and gross revenue[7][8][9]
Date City Country Venue Attendance Gross
23 January Dortmund West Germany Westfalenhallen — —
24 January
26 January Frankfurt Festhalle Frankfurt
27 January
29 January West Berlin Deutschlandhalle
30 January
1 February Vienna Austria Stadthalle
3 February Zürich Switzerland Hallenstadion
4 February
17 February Rotterdam Netherlands Rotterdam Ahoy — —
18 February
19 February
20 February Antwerp Belgium Sportpaleis
22 February Paris France Pavillon de Paris
23 February
24 February
25 February
27 February Munich West Germany Olympiahalle
28 February
1 March
15 March London England Empire Pool — —
16 March
17 March
18 March
19 March
28 March Stafford New Bingley Hall
29 March
30 March
31 March
22 April Miami United States Miami Baseball Stadium — —
24 April Tampa Tampa Stadium
26 April Atlanta Omni Coliseum
28 April Baton Rouge LSU Assembly Center
30 April Houston Jeppesen Stadium
1 May Fort Worth Tarrant County Convention Center
4 May Phoenix Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum
6 May Anaheim Anaheim Stadium
7 May
9 May Oakland Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena
10 May
12 May Portland Memorial Coliseum
15 June Milwaukee Milwaukee County Stadium 60,000 / 60,000 $540,000
17 June Louisville Freedom Hall — —
19 June Chicago Soldier Field 67,000 / 67,000 $670,000
21 June Kansas City Kemper Arena 12,115 / 12,115 $120,778
23 June Cincinnati Riverfront Coliseum 14,500/14,500 $127,425
25 June[a] Cleveland Municipal Stadium — —
27 June Boston Boston Garden
28 June Philadelphia Spectrum 30,500 / 30,500 $269,085
29 June
1 July New York City Madison Square Garden 58,000 / 58,000 $608,000
2 July
3 July
4 July
6 July Montreal Canada Olympic Stadium 75,000[11] —
Notes
  1. ^ The concert in Cleveland on 25 June 1977 was part of the World Series of Rock music festival.[10]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ Schaffner 1991, pp. 216–217.
  2. ^ a b Schaffner 1991, p. 218.
  3. ^ a b "Pink Floyd's Flying Pigs and Sheep". Tim Hunkin. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  4. ^ Maben, Adrian (Director) (18 April 2000). Pink Floyd Shine On: Interviews (VHS). Frantic Films. ASIN 6305855730.
  5. ^ Schaffner 1991, p. 219.
  6. ^ Turner, Steve: "Roger Waters: The Wall in Berlin"; Classic Rock No. 148, August 2010, p78
  7. ^ "Top Box Office" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 26. 2 July 1977. p. 44. ISSN 0006-2510.
  8. ^ "Top Box Office" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 27. 9 July 1977. p. 40. ISSN 0006-2510.
  9. ^ "Top Box Office" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 28. 16 July 1977. p. 39. ISSN 0006-2510.
  10. ^ Bornino, Bruno, "Stadium rocks inside and out," Cleveland Press, June 27, 1977, p. B-2. "Rock concert goers litter downtown," Cleveland Press, June 27, 1977, p. A-4.
  11. ^ Harding, Mark (5 July 1977). "75,000 await Pink Floyd spectacle". The Montreal Star. p. A3. Archived from the original on 3 July 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.

Sources

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  • Schaffner, Nicholas (1991). Saucerful of Secrets (First ed.). Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0-283-06127-1.
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