The Division Bell Tour
Tour by Pink Floyd | |
Associated album | The Division Bell |
---|---|
Start date | 30 March 1994 |
End date | 29 October 1994 |
Legs | 2 |
No. of shows | 112 (2 canceled) |
Pink Floyd concert chronology |
The Division Bell Tour was the final concert tour by the English rock band Pink Floyd. It was performed in 1994 to support their album The Division Bell, which was released two days before the tour’s start date. Though it was Pink Floyd’s final tour, members of the band have continued to perform the band's songs on solo tours.
In 1995 the band released the live album Pulse to commemorate the tour.
History
The Division Bell Tour in 1994 was promoted by Canadian concert impresario Michael Cohl and became the highest-grossing tour in rock music history to that date, with the band playing the entirety of The Dark Side of the Moon in some shows. The first show they played the whole The Dark Side of the Moon was on July 15th, 1994 at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, which was the first time since 1975 it was played. While preparing for the tour, Pink Floyd spent most of March rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base in California.[1]
The concerts featured even more impressive special effects than the previous tour, including two custom designed airships.[2] Three stages leapfrogged around North America and Europe, each 180 feet (55 m) long and featuring a 130-foot (40 m) arch resembling the Hollywood Bowl venue. All in all, the tour required 700 tons of steel carried by 53 articulated trucks, a crew of 161 people and an initial investment of US$4 million plus US$25 million of running costs just to stage. This tour played to 5.5 million people in 68 cities; each concert gathered an average 45,000 audience. At the end of the year, the Division Bell Tour was announced as the biggest tour ever, with worldwide gross of over £150 million (about US$250 million). In the U.S. alone, it grossed US$103.5 million from 59 concerts. However, this record was short-lived; less than a year later, The Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour (like the Division Bell Tour, also sponsored in part by Volkswagen) finished with a worldwide gross of over US$300 million. The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Metallica, U2, The Police, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters and Madonna remain the only acts ever to achieve a higher worldwide gross from a tour, even when adjusting for inflation.
The tour was sponsored in Europe by Volkswagen, which also issued a commemorative version of its top-selling car, the "Golf Pink Floyd", one of which was given as a prize at each concert. It was a standard Golf with Pink Floyd decals and a premium stereo, and had Volkswagen's most environmentally friendly engine, at Gilmour's insistence.[3]
These shows are documented by the Pulse album, video and DVD.
The final concert of the tour on 29 October 1994 turned out to be the final full-length Pink Floyd performance, and the last time Pink Floyd played live before their one-off 18-minute reunion with Roger Waters at Live 8 on 2 July 2005.
Tour band
Pink Floyd:
- David Gilmour – guitars, lead vocals, pedal steel guitar
- Nick Mason – drums, percussion
- Richard Wright – keyboards, lead vocals on 'Astronomy Domine," "Time" and "Comfortably Numb", backing vocals
Additional musicians:
- Guy Pratt – bass, lead vocals on "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell", backing vocals
- Jon Carin – keyboards, lead vocals on "Comfortably Numb" and "Hey You", backing vocals
- Gary Wallis – percussion, additional drums
- Tim Renwick – guitars, backing vocals
- Dick Parry – saxophones
- Sam Brown – backing vocals, lead vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky"
- Claudia Fontaine – backing vocals, lead vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky"
- Durga McBroom – backing vocals, lead vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky"
Set list
There were two typical set lists used throughout the tour. The first was used all tour, and the second was introduced on 15 July at the Pontiac Silverdome, and rotated with the first typical set list for the remainder of the tour.
Typical set list one:
First set:
Encore:
|
Second set:
|
Typical set list two:
First set:
Encore:
|
Second set: The Dark Side of the Moon
|
Songs rarely played during this tour were:
- "One Slip" (only played once on 22 April 1994 in Oakland, California between "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them"; at this show, "Wish You Were Here" was played after "Us and Them")
- "Marooned" (only played twice on 29 and 30 August 1994 in Oslo, Norway before "Run Like Hell")
Tour dates
Date | City | Country | Venue | Tickets sold/available | Box office |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rehearsals | |||||
3 March 1994 | San Bernardino | United States | Norton Air Force Base | - | - |
23 March 1994 | Orlando | Universal Studios Florida | |||
North America | |||||
30 March 1994 | Miami Gardens | United States | Joe Robbie Stadium | 54,738 / 54,738 | $1,975,665 |
3 April 1994 | San Antonio | Alamodome | 44,331 / 44,331 | $1,499,188 | |
5 April 1994 | Houston | Rice Stadium | 45,021 / 47,000 | $1,502,047 | |
9 April 1994 | Mexico City | Mexico | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez | 90,476 / 90,476 | $5,235,862 |
10 April 1994 | |||||
14 April 1994 | San Diego | United States | Jack Murphy Stadium | 51,610 / 51,610 | $1,594,069 |
16 April 1994 | Pasadena | Rose Bowl | 129,060 / 129,060 | $4,703,290 | |
17 April 1994 | |||||
20 April 1994 | Oakland | Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum | 155,662 / 155,662 | $5,249,778 | |
21 April 1994 | |||||
22 April 1994 | |||||
24 April 1994 | Tempe | Sun Devil Stadium | 63,827 / 63,827 | $2,259,833 | |
26 April 1994 | El Paso | Sun Bowl Stadium | 34,945 / 37,000 | $1,148,228 | |
28 April 1994 | Irving | Texas Stadium | 87,400 / 87,400 | $2,944,618 | |
29 April 1994 | |||||
1 May 1994 | Birmingham | Legion Field | 55,169 / 55,169 | $2,944,618 | |
3 May 1994 | Atlanta | Bobby Dodd Stadium | 71,272 / 80,000 | $2,426,720 | |
4 May 1994 | |||||
6 May 1994 | Tampa | Tampa Stadium | 55,987 / 55,987 | $2,038,815 | |
8 May 1994 | Nashville | Vanderbilt Stadium | 41,169 / 41,169 | $1,348,505 | |
10 May 1994 | Raleigh | Carter–Finley Stadium | 46,656 / 48,000 | $1,597,283 | |
12 May 1994 | Clemson | Memorial Stadium | 50,569 / 50,569 | $1,733,619 | |
14 May 1994 | New Orleans | Louisiana Superdome | 41,475 / 41,475 | $1,401,445 | |
18 May 1994 | Foxborough | Foxboro Stadium | 137,175 / 137,175 | $4,975,365 | |
19 May 1994 | |||||
20 May 1994 | |||||
22 May 1994 | Montreal | Canada | Olympic Stadium | 187,302 / 187,302 | $5,301,117 |
23 May 1994 | |||||
24 May 1994 | |||||
26 May 1994 | Cleveland | United States | Cleveland Stadium | 108,205 / 110,000 | $3,807,153 |
27 May 1994 | |||||
29 May 1994 | Columbus | Ohio Stadium | 75,250 / 75,250 | $2,406,920 | |
31 May 1994 | Pittsburgh | Three Rivers Stadium | 55,054 / 55,054 | $1,879,330 | |
2 June 1994 | Philadelphia | Veterans Stadium | 152,264 / 152,264 | $5,091,120 | |
3 June 1994 | |||||
4 June 1994 | |||||
6 June 1994 | Syracuse | Carrier Dome | 38,901 / 38,901 | $1,338,073 | |
10 June 1994 | New York City | Yankee Stadium | 103,690 / 103,690 | $3,765,090 | |
11 June 1994 | |||||
14 June 1994 | Indianapolis | RCA Dome | 44,762 / 44,762 | $1,487,448 | |
16 June 1994 | Ames | Cyclone Stadium | 46,273 / 46,273 | $1,514,838 | |
18 June 1994 | Denver | Mile High Stadium | 69,788 / 69,788 | $2,375,714 | |
20 June 1994 | Kansas City | Arrowhead Stadium | 57,003 / 57,003 | $1,914,318 | |
22 June 1994 | Minneapolis | Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome | N/A | N/A | |
25 June 1994 | Vancouver | Canada | BC Place | ||
26 June 1994 | |||||
28 June 1994 | Edmonton | Commonwealth Stadium | 57,701 / 57,701 | $1,834,004 | |
1 July 1994 | Winnipeg | Winnipeg Stadium | 42,616 / 42,616 | $1,234,117 | |
3 July 1994 | Madison | United States | Camp Randall Stadium | 60,960 / 60,960 | $1,942,780 |
5 July 1994 | Toronto | Canada | Exhibition Stadium | 158,593 / 158,593 | $4,431,108 |
6 July 1994 | |||||
7 July 1994 | |||||
9 July 1994 | Washington, D.C. | United States | Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium | 98,570 / 98,570 | $3,313,378 |
10 July 1994 | |||||
12 July 1994 | Chicago | Soldier Field | 51,981 / 51,981 | $2,056,105 | |
14 July 1994 | Pontiac | Pontiac Silverdome | 111,355 / 111,355 | $3,772,950 | |
15 July 1994 | |||||
17 July 1994 | East Rutherford | Giants Stadium | 118,554 / 118,554 | $4,474,220 | |
18 July 1994 | |||||
Europe | |||||
22 July 1994 | Lisbon | Portugal | Estádio José Alvalade | ||
23 July 1994 | |||||
25 July 1994 | San Sebastián | Spain | Anoeta | ||
27 July 1994 | Barcelona | Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys | |||
30 July 1994 | Chantilly | France | Château de Chantilly – (Hippodrome de Chantilly) | ||
31 July 1994 | |||||
2 August 1994 | Cologne | Germany | Müngersdorfer Stadion | ||
4 August 1994 | Munich | Olympiastadion | |||
6 August 1994 | Basel | Switzerland | St. Jakob Stadium | ||
7 August 1994 | |||||
9 August 1994 | Montpellier | France | Parc du Château de Grammont | ||
11 August 1994 | Bordeaux | Esplanade des Quinconces | |||
13 August 1994 | Hockenheim | Germany | Hockenheimring | ||
16 August 1994 | Hanover | Niedersachsenstadion | |||
17 August 1994 | |||||
19 August 1994 | Vienna | Austria | Flughafen, Wiener Neustadt | ||
21 August 1994 | Berlin | Germany | Maifeld am Glockenturm | ||
23 August 1994 | Gelsenkirchen | Parkstadion | |||
25 August 1994 | Copenhagen | Denmark | Parken Stadium | ||
27 August 1994 | Gothenburg | Sweden | Ullevi | ||
29 August 1994 | Oslo | Norway | Valle Hovin | ||
30 August 1994 | |||||
2 September 1994 | Werchter | Belgium | Rock Werchter | ||
3 September 1994 | Rotterdam | Netherlands | Stadion Feijenoord | ||
4 September 1994 | |||||
5 September 1994 | |||||
7 September 1994 | Prague | Czech Republic | Strahov Stadium | ||
9 September 1994 | Strasbourg | France | Stade de la Meinau | ||
11 September 1994 | Lyon | Stade de Gerland | |||
13 September 1994 | Turin | Italy | Stadio delle Alpi | ||
15 September 1994 | Udine | Stadio Friuli | |||
17 September 1994 | Modena | Festa de l'Unità | |||
19 September 1994 | Rome | Cinecittà | |||
20 September 1994 | |||||
21 September 1994 | |||||
23 September 1994 | Lyon | France | Stade de Gerland | ||
25 September 1994 | Lausanne | Switzerland | Stade Olympique de la Pontaise | ||
13 October 1994 | London | England | Earls Court | 273,474 / 273,474 | $9,188,726 |
14 October 1994 | |||||
15 October 1994 | |||||
16 October 1994 | |||||
17 October 1994 | |||||
19 October 1994 | |||||
20 October 1994 | |||||
21 October 1994 | |||||
22 October 1994 | |||||
23 October 1994 | |||||
26 October 1994 | |||||
27 October 1994 | |||||
28 October 1994 | |||||
29 October 1994 |
Cancellations and rescheduled shows
Date | City | Country | Venue | Reason | Rescheduled to |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 September 1994 | Helsinki | Finland | Olympiastadion | Poor sales[4] | Cancelled |
12 October 1994 | London | England | Earls Court | Seating stand collapse[5] | Rescheduled to 17 October 1994 |
See also
References
- ^ "Pink Floyd - The Official Site". www.pinkfloyd.com. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
- ^ VOLA Archive Archived 2005-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The Spiegel-Translation
- ^ Mattila, Ilkka (29 August 1994). "Pink Floyd tekee jättishown valoilla". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). p. D 10.
- ^ "Pink Floyd 'very angry and upset' over accident: Human error could". independent.co.uk. 14 October 1994. Retrieved 11 April 2018.