Uprising Tour

Uprising Tour

Tour by Bob Marley and the Wailers
Associated album	Uprising
Start date	30 May 1980
End date	23 September 1980
Legs	2
No. of shows	33 in Europe 5 in the United States 38 in total
Bob Marley and the Wailers concert chronology

The Uprising Tour was a concert tour organised to support the album Uprising by Bob Marley and the Wailers. It was Marley's last tour and the biggest music tour of Europe in that year.

The tour started at the Hallenstadion in Zürich, Switzerland, where Marley performed for the first time, on 30 May 1980, and ended at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, on 23 September 1980, which was Marley's last concert. Two days prior to the Pittsburgh show, after playing two shows at the Madison Square Garden, Marley collapsed in Central Park while jogging, and was told to immediately cancel the U.S. leg of the tour, but he instead flew to Pittsburgh to perform one final performance. He was rumoured to go out on stage to say "Hi" to fans with Stevie Wonder during his performance of Master Blaster but this is not true. Marley went to a few treatment clinics in the United States, Boston, New York and Miami (maybe Mexico). Each place gave him only a month to live. Marley then left for West Germany to receive cancer treatment which eventually was not successful but prolonged his life 6 months more than any medical clinic in the United States predicted, as Marley died in May 1981.

The concert in Dortmund on 13 June has been broadcast in the 1990s by German TV station WDR in their Rockpalast concert series. Numerous other performances from the Uprising Tour have also been taped on video. On 27 June, Marley performed in front of 120,000 people in the sold-out San Siro stadium in Milan. While on tour Marley performed for the first time in Switzerland, Italy, Ireland and Scotland.

Set list

The standard set list of the tour mostly looked like the following:

1. "Natural Mystic"
2. "Positive Vibration"
3. "Revolution"
4. "I Shot the Sheriff"
5. "War" / "No More Trouble"
6. "No Woman, No Cry"
7. "Zimbabwe"
8. "Jamming"
9. "Zion Train"
10. "Exodus"
11. "Redemption Song"
12. "Work"
13. "Natty Dread"
14. "Could You Be Loved"
15. "Is This Love"
16. "Get Up, Stand Up"

As an introductory theme, the concerts often started with a version of the stalag riddim by Winston Riley, with keyboardist Tyrone Downie chanting "Marley!" over the riddim while Marley coming to the stage (therefore the intro is commonly called "Marley Chant" among fans). Most shows had a standard set list which closed with "Exodus", and an encore set which usually ended with "Get Up, Stand Up". There were also performances of an earlier song, "Trenchtown Rock", which is not featured on any of Marley's Island albums released at that time.

For the short U.S. leg of the tour Marley changed the set list to be similar to the one from the Kaya Tour in 1978: he dropped "Revolution" and "Natty Dread" and added songs like "Burnin' And Lootin'" or "Them Belly Full" at the beginning, or "The Heathen" and the "Running Away" / "Crazy Baldhead" medley in the middle of the set list.

From show to show sometimes an additional song was edged in the middle of the set list, like "Lively Up Yourself", "Kinky Reggae"-San Siro, Milan, Italy; "Roots, Rock, Reggae-San Siro, Milan, Italy and Le Bourget-Paris, France"; "Coming In From The Cold", "Bad Card"-Meehan Auditorium-Providence, Rhode Island, "Kaya"-San Siro, Milan-Italy; "Trenchtown Rock", "We And Them"-Meehan Auditorium, Providence, Rhode Island; "Three Little Birds"-Plaza de Toros, Barcelona-Spain; "Talkin' Blues" or "Forever Loving Jah"-Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York. Live performances of each of these songs happened very rarely during the tour.

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue	Notes
30 May 1980	Zürich	Switzerland	Hallenstadion
1 June 1980	Munich	West Germany	Reitstadion	with Fleetwood Mac
3 June 1980	Grenoble	France	Palais des Sports
4 June 1980	Dijon		Parc des Sports
6 June 1980	Cologne	West Germany	Sporthalle
7 June 1980	London	England	Crystal Palace Concert Bowl
8 June 1980	Kaiserslautern	West Germany	Fritz-Walter-Stadion	with Fleetwood Mac
9 June 1980	Strasbourg	France	Hall Rhénus
10 June 1980	Orléans		Parc des Expositions
11 June 1980	Bordeaux		Exposition Hall
13 June 1980	Dortmund	West Germany	Westfalenhallen
14 June 1980	Hamburg		Ernst-Merck-Halle
16 June 1980	Drammen	Norway	Drammenshallen
17 June 1980	Stockholm	Sweden	Gröna Lund
18 June 1980	Copenhagen	Denmark	The Forum
20 June 1980	West Berlin	West Germany	Waldbühne
21 June 1980	Kassel		Eissporthalle
22 June 1980	Brussels	Belgium	Forest National
23 June 1980	Rotterdam	Netherlands	Ahoy
24 June 1980	Lille	France	Zénith de Lille
26 June 1980	Toulon		Stade Mayol
27 June 1980	Milan	Italy	Stadio Giuseppe Meazza
28 June 1980	Turin		Stadio Comunale
29 June 1980	Madrid	Spain	Estadio Román Valero	cancelled
30 June 1980	Barcelona		Plaza de Toros
2 July 1980	Nantes	France	Palais de la Beaujoire
3 July 1980	Paris		Le Bourget
6 July 1980	Dublin	Ireland	Dalymount Park
8 July 1980	Brighton	England	Brighton Centre
9 July 1980
10 July 1980	Glasgow	Scotland	The Apollo
11 July 1980
12 July 1980	Queensferry	Wales	Deeside Leisure Centre
13 July 1980	Stafford	England	New Bingley Hall
16 September 1980	Boston	United States	JB Hynes Auditorium
17 September 1980	Providence		Meehan Auditorium
19 September 1980	New York City		Madison Square Garden	opener for The Commodores
20 September 1980
23 September 1980	Pittsburgh		Stanley Theater