Survival Tour

Survival Tour 1979

Tour by Bob Marley & The Wailers
Start date	late October 1979
End date	6 January 1980
Legs	1
No. of shows	41 in North America 3 in the Caribbean 2 in Africa 46 in total
Bob Marley & The Wailers concert chronology

The Survival Tour was a concert tour organised to support the album Survival by Bob Marley & The Wailers. It was Marley's second-to-last tour.

The tour started in Boston in late October 1979, and ended in Libreville, Gabon, on 6 January 1980. During 1979, which was the International Year of the Child, the band made appearances at a few benefit concerts for children, as was the case on 10 August 1979, in Jamaica, prior to the Survival Tour, and on 15 December 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas. The tour took place mainly in the United States, but also included performances in the Caribbean and in Africa.

The performance in Santa Barbara, California on 25 November has been released on VHS and DVD as "Bob Marley - The Legend Live". The performance in Oakland, featuring Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones) in the encore five days later, had also been taped on video by Bill Graham Presents, but hasn't been released yet.

Most concerts in the United States and in Africa were opened by soul and R&B singer Betty Wright. Furthermore, the Survival Tour was the only tour the band included a horn section, featuring Glen Da Costa on saxophone and David Madden on trumpet. After the concerts in Gabon the band returned to Jamaica to record the Uprising album and to make trips to Brazil and to Zimbabwe to perform at its independence celebrations on 18 April 1980, before kicking off the Uprising Tour in Europe by the end of May.

While on tour Marley performed for the first time in Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, and in Africa.

Setlist

The standard setlist of the tour mostly looked like the following:

• "Positive Vibration"
• "Wake Up And Live"
• "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)"
• "Concrete Jungle"
• "I Shot The Sheriff"
• "Running Away" / "Crazy Baldhead" (medley)
• "Ambush In The Night"
• "The Heathen"
• "War" / "No More Trouble"
• "Africa Unite"
• "One Drop"
• "Exodus"
• "No Woman, No Cry"
• "Jammin'"
• "Is This Love?"
• "Get Up, Stand Up"

At the beginning of the tour which started with seven shows at the Apollo Theater in New York City, Marley varied the setlists much more than later on the tour. Most shows had a standard setlist which closes with "Exodus", and an encore set which usually ended with "Get Up, Stand Up". From show to show sometimes an additional song was edged in the middle or attached at the end of the setlist, like "Ride Natty Ride", "Natty Dread", "Lively Up Yourself", "Roots, Rock, Reggae", "Zimbabwe", "Stir It Up", "Kinky Reggae", "So Much Trouble In The World", "Burnin' And Lootin'", "Natural Mystic", "So Much Things To Say", "Rat Race", "Rebel Music" and "Survival". Live performances of each of these songs happened very rarely during the tour.

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue	Notes
21 October 1979	Boston, Massachusetts	United States	Harvard Stadium	with Stevie Wonder
22 October 1979	New York City, New York		Madison Square Garden
25 October 1979			Apollo Theater	2 shows
26 October 1979				2 shows
27 October 1979				2 shows
28 October 1979
31 October 1979	Hamilton, New York		Cotterell Court
1 November 1979	Toronto, Ontario	Canada	Maple Leaf Gardens
2 November 1979	Montréal, Québec		Montreal Forum
3 November 1979	Ottawa, Ontario		Ottawa Civic Centre
4 November 1979	Burlington, Vermont	United States	Burlington Memorial Auditorium
7 November 1979 7 PM	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania		Philadelphia Civic Center Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center where?	with Betty Wright; benefit concert for the Black Music Association
10 November 1979 7 PM	Detroit, Michigan		Masonic Temple	with King Sundiata Keita
11 November 1979	Madison, Wisconsin		Dane County Coliseum
12 November 1979	Milwaukee, Wisconsin		The Auditorium
13 November 1979	Chicago, Illinois		Uptown Theatre	rare live performance of Survival
15 November 1979	Minneapolis, Minnesota		Northrop Auditorium
17 November 1979	Edmonton, Alberta	Canada	Kinsmen Fieldhouse
19 November 1979	Portland, Oregon	United States	Paramount Theatre
20 November 1979	Seattle, Washington		Paramount Theatre	2 shows
21 November 1979	Vancouver, British Columbia	Canada	Pacific Coliseum
23 November 1979 9:15 PM	Los Angeles, California	United States	Pauley Pavilion
24 November 1979	San Diego, California		San Diego Sports Arena
25 November 1979	Santa Barbara, California		Santa Barbara Bowl
27 November 1979	Los Angeles, California		The Roxy Theater	benefit for Sugar Ray Robinson's foundation
30 November 1979	Oakland, California		Oakland Auditorium Arena	with Ronnie Wood and Donald Kinsey
1 December 1979	Davis, California		Freeborn Hall
2 December 1979	Santa Cruz, California		Civic Auditorium	2 shows
5 December 1979	Denver, Colorado		Denver University Arena	Promoter: Skip Davis and Marshall Royal Monsell
6 December 1979	Lawrence, Kansas		Hoch Auditorium	Blue Riddim Band opened
7 December 1979	Dallas, Texas		?
10 December 1979	Nashville, Tennessee	United States	Memorial Gymnasium
11 December 1979	New Orleans, Louisiana		?
12 December 1979	Atlanta, Georgia		Fox Theatre
13 December 1979	Tampa, Florida		Jai Alai Fronton
14 December 1979	Birmingham, Alabama		Brothers Music Hall
15 December 1979	Nassau	Bahamas	Queen Elizabeth Sports Center	benefit concert for Bahamian children
4 January 1980	Libreville	Gabon	Gymnase Omnisport Bongo
6 January 1980