Pink Floyd Live Concert 1973

[Ken Reels]

Pink Floyd had worked out a basic structure of Dark Side of the Moon in late 1971, and played it at almost every gig the following year, alongside a set of earlier live favourites. Various changes to the structure were made throughout this time, as songs were tightened up and arrangements changed. By 1973, the album was finished and the live performance resembled the completed work. To re-create it in concert, the group added saxophonist Dick Parry and female backing singers to the show. The stage performance was enhanced with extra visual effects and an improved quadrophonic sound system. The success of Dark Side of the Moon and the US top 20 hit "Money" increased Pink Floyd's profile and they began to play sell-out stadium shows, though the audience changed from being one that would quietly listen to one that just wanted to dance and hear hit songs.

Playing 89 shows in 1972, the most until 1994, Pink Floyd debuted the new suite live on 20 January at the Brighton Dome. Partway through, when playing "Money", a lack of power led to the backing tape slowing down and going out of time, causing the group to stop. After a break, they came back and played "Atom Heart Mother" instead.[5] The first complete performance was the following day at the Portsmouth Guildhall.[6] At the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, the power failed 25 minutes into the show, and the rest of the concert was abandoned.[6] Two extra shows were booked on 29 and 30 March to make up for this.[7]

Dark Side of the Moon was performed differently to the finished album, and evolved over the year. Although Pink Floyd had previously rehearsed material before recording it, taking it on tour first allowed the piece to be improved and strengthened.[10] They also knew that their audience were happy to sit patiently and listen to the group, which gave them the confidence to play over 40 minutes of new material they had not heard.[11] "On the Run", whose working title was "The Travel Sequence", was at first a guitar and keyboard jam and would remain so for the rest of the year's performances.[10][12] "Time" was played at a slower speed, and the line "Lying supine in the sunshine" was sung instead of "Tired of lying in the sunshine".[13][14] "The Great Gig in the Sky", whose working title was "Religion" or "The Mortality Sequence", originally consisted of an organ solo 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, including soundbites from broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge.[10] Initially, the suite ended with "Brain Damage". Roger Waters felt there needed to be a suitable ending, and wrote "Eclipse" as a finale.[10] It made its debut at a gig at De Montfort Hall, Leicester on 10 February.[10]

The first London performance, and the first to the press was on 17 February 1972 at the Rainbow Theatre,[15] where the band played for four consecutive nights, following which the group took a break from touring to work on the soundtrack album Obscured by Clouds.[16] A bootleg recording of the concerts was released and sold 100,000 copies, annoying the band as it was still a work in progress.[11] The tour then moved to Japan for five shows,[7] and then to the US and Europe. The group headlined the British Rock Meeting festival at Germersheim, West Germany on 21 May and the Amsterdam Rock Circus at the Olympic Stadium, playing "Atom Heart Mother" instead of Dark Side of the Moon.[17]

Following the European shows, recording began on The Dark Side of the Moon on 24 May, beginning with basic backing tracks derived from the live versions.[18] As a replacement for the first Brighton Dome show which was abandoned during Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd gave two concerts at the venue on 28 and 29 June. The latter show was filmed by Peter Clifton for inclusion on his film Sounds of the City. Clips of these were occasionally aired on television and the performance of "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" was on the various artists video Superstars in Concert.[19]

The tour moved to the US in September. Engineer Alan Parsons was asked to run the front of house sound, setting a trend for Pink Floyd inviting studio personnel out on tour.[20] Richard Wright had now written the piano music to "The Great Gig in the Sky", replacing the earlier "Mortality Suite" piece, and it was performed in the arrangement per the finished album, without vocals.[19][21] On 22 September, the group played the Hollywood Bowl, which featured eight powered searchlights beaming rays from behind the Bowl's amphitheatre.[10] They then played two dates at the Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco on 23 and 24 September.[22] The group returned to the UK to play a sell-out charity show at the Empire Pool, Wembley on 21 October, supporting War on Want and Save the Children.[23] This was followed by shows in Europe to the end of the year, with the final date at the Palais de Sports, Lyon on 10 December.[24] By then, Dark Side of the Moon sounded close to the final album, except without any female vocals or saxophone, which would follow the next year.[15]

In November 1972, during the middle of the tour's European leg, 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".[34] Some of the 1973 shows only featured the ballet playing to pre-recorded tracks, as the group were trying to finish recording The Dark Side of the Moon at this time.[33] One of the last pieces to be recorded was Clare Torry's lead vocal on "Great Gig in the Sky" on 21 January during this run.[35]

Following the Roland Petit shows and the completion of the album, Pink Floyd booked further rehearsal time at the Rainbow Theatre from 19 to 21 February 1973 for an enhanced stage show based on the final recordings. Dark Side of the Moon was moved from the start of the show to the end of the main set. For the first time, the group took additional musicians with them; saxophonist Dick Parry (an old childhood friend of David Gilmour) and three female backing vocalists who had been touring with Leon Russell. The tour began in Madison, Wisconsin on 4 March.[36][37] On 17 March, they performed at Radio City Music Hall, New York City at 1am, being transported onto stage from one of the elevators surrounded by dry ice, which drew strong press reviews. The show made use of a 20-speaker quadrophonic sound system.[38][39]

Following the US tour, the band played two nights at Earl's Court on 18 and 19 May. In "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", a gong played by Waters was lit up with flames. During Dark Side of the Moon, a 7-foot (2.1 m) plane crashed into the stage at the end of "On the Run".[40]

The group returned to the US in June. Dark Side of the Moon had now topped the Billboard charts, and the single "Money" had become a top 20 hit. Having previously played halls and theatres, the tour now covered stadiums for the first time.[41][42] Although all the shows sold out, the audience now included people who wanted to hear the hit singles and "boogie", in sharp contrast to earlier audiences who were happy to listen to whatever music Pink Floyd were playing.[41] The tour closed with two European shows in October.[43]

On 4 November 1973, Pink Floyd played two charity shows at London's Rainbow Theatre as a benefit for Robert Wyatt, formerly the drummer of UFO Club contemporaries Soft Machine, who had become paralysed after falling out of a window. The concerts raised a reported 10,000 for Wyatt.[44][43] Clare Torry sang her vocal on "The Great Gig in the Sky" as it had appeared on the album.[43] Pink Floyd then took a lengthy break from touring and did not play any further shows until June 1974.[45]

Over the last couple of years, and in what could be almost seen as a bit of a Christmas present to the fans, Pink Floyd have quietly released a number of 1973 live recordings on the various streaming services, such as Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, Amazon Music and also the band's official YouTube channel. The quality is rather variable - by the very nature of the unofficial, audience recordings - but the shows give a fascinating look at the concerts performed at the time of release of The Dark Side Of The Moon.

As with the batches released the last couple of years focused on 1971 and 1972, these are not expected to be around for long, and won't be released physically on CD or LP, so make the most of them over the holiday and new year period before they disappear! Our thanks to those who emailed to let us know about these.

The laser system show first made an appearance during The Dark Side of The Moon tour in 1973, and soon became a staple at every live Pink Floyd performance. However, it was not as simple as setting up the lasers and having a technician time the on and off switches. The engineers utilized thousands of reflective lenses and mirrors to stretch the visual strength and versatility of the few laser beams they were able to utilize. A single high power laser beam was a thing of beauty and incredible technical engineering at this time, so to get the most out of each diode they had to develop elaborate lens and reflection schemes around each venue and stadium they would play. This took incredible planning and practice and the engineers would sometimes start set up days before the band members would even arrive on the seen.

Pink Floyd changed the very nature of live performances with their use of laser light technology. Today you can still see the example they set by cover groups who play Floyd music along with the same style (albeit more advanced) laser performances across the globe. We can see the lasting impact in just about every large stadium performance and concert as nearly all major musicians have an entire team dedicated to using lasers, lights, reflectors, and even fire as well to enhance their music and the performance for their fans. It all started with the development of high power lasers, and today the same technology is available in hand held form.

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