Atom Heart Mother World Tour
Tour by Pink Floyd | |
Associated album | Atom Heart Mother |
---|---|
Start date | 27 June 1970 |
End date | 11 October 1971 |
Legs | 6 |
No. of shows | 92 |
Pink Floyd concert chronology |
The Atom Heart Mother World Tour was an international concert tour by Pink Floyd. It commenced during September 1970 and ended during October 1971. It marked the first time the band visited countries such as Japan and Australia. Intended to promote their new album Atom Heart Mother, the band hired local orchestras and choirs on some dates to perform the title piece while performing it in a four-piece arrangement on other occasions.
History
Early in 1970, Pink Floyd performed at gigs a piece from their film soundtrack for Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point referred to as "The Violent Sequence". This was the musical basis for "Us and Them", from their The Dark Side of the Moon album. Lacking only the lyrics, it is identical to the final song[1] and is the earliest part of the seminal album to have been performed live. The song "Embryo" was also a part of the live repertoire around this time, but was never to appear on a studio album until the compilation album Works.
On 17 January 1970, the band began performing a then untitled instrumental piece, which would eventually become the title track to their next album Atom Heart Mother. At this point, it had no orchestra or choir accompaniment. This is the first time they performed a song live in an unfinished form as a work in progress, something they continued to do until 1975. The song officially debuted at the Bath Festival, Somerset England on 27 June 1970 under the title "The Amazing Pudding" (later the name of a Pink Floyd fanzine) and for the first time with orchestra and choir accompaniment.
Announced as "The Atom Heart Mother" by legendary British broadcaster John Peel on his BBC Radio 1 show "Peel's Sunday Concert" on 16 July 1970, a name suggested by him to the band,[2] it was also announced as "The Atomic Heart Mother" two days later at the Hyde Park free concert.[3] Partly due to the difficulties of finding and hiring local orchestras and choirs, the band often played what is referred to as the "small band" version of the song when they performed it live.
Pink Floyd also appeared at a free festival in Canterbury on August 31, which was filmed. This was the end leg of the Medicine Ball Caravan tour organised by Warner Brothers, which was later made into a film of the same name. It appears that the Pink Floyd footage was not included in the movie but spectators report that Atom Heart Mother was part of the set that was recorded.[4] The audience must have been one of the smallest to see Pink Floyd at this era, only 1500 were present as the festival was not widely promoted.
In contrast, over 500,000 people witnessed their show at Fête de L'Humanité, Paris on 12 September 1970, their largest crowd ever. Filmed by French TV, the show was never broadcast.[5]
Experimental on the album Atom Heart Mother, the song "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" was performed at a few gigs in December 1970. "Breakfast" being made was part of the song. The first part of this lasted around four minutes. The second part of "breakfast" preparation was around a minute followed by a 3-minute tape of British DJ Jimmy Young, whom the band disliked. The song lasted a little over 24 minutes.[1]
Tour band
- David Gilmour – guitar, vocals
- Roger Waters – bass, acoustic guitar, vocals
- Richard Wright – keyboards, vibraphone, vocals
- Nick Mason – drums, percussion
Additional musicians:
- Local orchestras and choirs, on some dates
Set list
A typical 1970 set list would include some of the following:
- "Astronomy Domine"
- "Interstellar Overdrive"
- "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"
- "A Saucerful of Secrets"
- "Cymbaline"
- "Green Is the Colour"
- "Quicksilver"
- "Main Theme"
- "Careful with That Axe, Eugene"
- "Sysyphus", pts. 1–4
- "Moonhead" (only played twice)
- "Grantchester Meadows"
- "Embryo"
- "The Violent Sequence"
- "Heart Beat, Pig Meat"
- "Atom Heart Mother"
- "Fat Old Sun"
- "Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast"
- "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" (partially)
- "Corrosion"
- "More Blues"
- "Echoes"
Tour dates
Date | City | Country | Venue |
---|---|---|---|
Europe | |||
27 June 1970 | Shepton Mallet | England | Bath Festival of Blues & Progressive Music at Bath and West Showground |
28 June 1970 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | Kralingen Music Festival, Kralingse Bos |
12 July 1970 | Aachen | West Germany | Aachen Open Air Pop Festival, Reiterstadion Soers |
16 July 1970 | London | England | Paris Theatre |
18 July 1970 | Hyde Park | ||
26 July 1970 | Antibes | France | La Pinede |
8 August 1970 | Saint-Tropez | Saint-Tropez Festival de Musique
at Plage | |
12 August 1970 | Poitiers | Les Arenes | |
31 August 1970 | Kent | England | Charlton Park |
12 September 1970 | Paris | France | Fête de l'Humanité at Bois de Vincennes |
16 September 1970 | London | England | Playhouse Theatre |
North America | |||
26 September 1970 | Philadelphia | United States | Electric Factory |
27 September 1970 | New York City | Fillmore East | |
1 October 1970 | Portland | Memorial Coliseum | |
2 October 1970 | Seattle | Moore Theatre | |
3 October 1970 | |||
6 October 1970 | Ellensburg | Central Washington University | |
7 October 1970 | Vancouver | Canada | Garden Auditorium |
8 October 1970 | Calgary | Jubilee Auditorium | |
9 October 1970 | Edmonton | Sales Pavilion Annex | |
10 October 1970 | Saskatoon | Centennial Auditorium | |
11 October 1970 | Regina | Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts | |
13 October 1970 | Winnipeg | Centennial Concert Hall | |
15 October 1970 | Salt Lake City | United States | Terrace Ballroom |
16 October 1970 | San Rafael | Pepperland Auditorium | |
17 October 1970 | |||
18 October 1970 | San Diego | Intercollegiate Baseball Facility | |
21 October 1970 | San Francisco | Fillmore West | |
23 October 1970 | Santa Monica | Santa Monica Civic Auditorium | |
25 October 1970 | Boston | The Tea Party | |
Europe | |||
6 November 1970 | Amsterdam | Netherlands | Concertgebouw |
7 November 1970 | Rotterdam | De Doelen | |
11 November 1970 | Gothenburg | Sweden | Konserthuset |
12 November 1970 | Copenhagen | Denmark | Falkoner Centret |
13 November 1970 | Aarhus | Vejlby-Risskov Hallen | |
14 November 1970 | Hamburg | West Germany | Ernst-Merck-Halle |
21 November 1970 | Montreux | Switzerland | Altes Casino |
22 November 1970 | |||
25 November 1970 | Ludwigshafen | West Germany | Friedrich Ebert Halle |
26 November 1970 | Stuttgart | Killesberghalle | |
27 November 1970 | Hanover | Niedersachsenhalle | |
28 November 1970 | Saarbrücken | Saarlandhalle | |
29 November 1970 | Munich | Circus Crone | |
4 December 1970 | Paris | France | ORTF TV Studios |
5 December 1970 | |||
11 December 1970 | Brighton | England | The Big Apple |
12 December 1970 | Dagenham | The Roundhouse | |
18 December 1970 | Birmingham | Town Hall | |
20 December 1970 | Bristol | Colston Hall | |
21 December 1970 | Manchester | Free Trade Hall | |
22 December 1970 | Sheffield | City Hall | |
17 January 1971 | London | Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, The Implosion | |
23 January 1971 | Leeds | University Refectory | |
3 February 1971 | Devon | Great Hall | |
12 February 1971 | Colchester | Lecture Theater | |
13 February 1971 | Farnborough | Students Union Bar | |
20 February 1971 | London | Student Union | |
Lyon | France | Théâtre du Huitième | |
24 February 1971 | Münster | West Germany | Munsterlandhalle |
25 February 1971 | Hamburg | Musikhalle Hamburg | |
26 February 1971 | Offenbach | Stadthalle Offenbach | |
27 February 1971 | Frankfurt | Festhalle Frankfurt | |
3 April 1971 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | Sportpaleis Ahoy |
12 April 1971 | Sunderland | England | Locarno |
16 April 1971 | Doncaster | Top Rank Suite | |
22 April 1971 | Norwich | Norwich Lads Club | |
7 May 1971 | Lancaster | Central Hall | |
15 May 1971 | London | Crystal Palace Bowl | |
18 May 1971 | Stirling | Scotland | Stirling University |
19 May 1971 | Edinburgh | Caledonian Cinema | |
20 May 1971 | Glasgow | The Ballroom | |
21 May 1971 | Nottingham | England | Trent Polytechnic |
2 June 1971 | Edinburgh | Scotland | Student Health Centre & Refectory |
4 June 1971 | Düsseldorf | West Germany | Philips Halle |
5 June 1971 | West Berlin | Sportpalast | |
12 June 1971 | Lyon | France | Palais des Sports |
15 June 1971 | Royaumont | Abbaye de Royaumont | |
19 June 1971 | Brescia | Italy | Palazzo dello Mostra |
20 June 1971 | Rome | PalaEur dello Sport EUR | |
Pilton | England | Glastonbury Fayre at Worthy Farm | |
23 June 1971 | Hatfield | Main Hall | |
26 June 1971 | Amsterdam | Netherlands | Free Concert at Amsterdamse Bos |
1 July 1971 | Ossiach | Austria | Ossiach Festival at Stiftshoff |
Asia | |||
6 August 1971 | Hakone | Japan | Hakone Aphrodite Open Air Festival
at Seikei Gakuen Jofudai |
7 August 1971 | |||
9 August 1971 | Osaka | Festival Hall | |
Oceania | |||
13 August 1971 | Melbourne | Australia | Festival Hall |
15 August 1971 | Sydney | Randwick Racecourse | |
Europe | |||
18 September 1971 | Montreux | Switzerland | Festival de Musique Classique
at Pavillon de Montreux |
19 September 1971 | |||
22 September 1971 | Stockholm | Sweden | Kungliga Tennishallen |
23 September 1971 | Copenhagen | Denmark | K.B. Hallen |
28 September 1971 | Stockholm | Sweden | Kungliga Tennishallen |
30 September 1971 | London | England | Paris Theatre |
4 October 1971 | Pompeii | Italy | Roman Amphitheater (Live in Pompeii) |
5 October 1971 | |||
6 October 1971 | |||
7 October 1971 | |||
10 October 1971 | Bradford | England | Great Hall |
11 October 1971 | Birmingham | Town Hall |