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The Division Bell Tour

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The Division Bell Tour
Tour by Pink Floyd
Location
  • Europe
  • North America
Associated albumThe Division Bell
Start date30 March 1994
End date29 October 1994
Legs2
No. of shows110
Pink Floyd concert chronology

The Division Bell Tour was the final concert tour by the English rock band Pink Floyd, held in 1994 to support their album The Division Bell. Pink Floyd disbanded after the tour. Recordings were released on the 1995 live album Pulse.

History

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Pink Floyd spent most of March 1994 rehearsing in a hangar at Norton Air Force Base in California and a soundstage at Universal Studios Florida.[1] The Division Bell Tour was promoted by the Canadian musician Michael Cohl and became the highest-grossing tour in rock music history to that date. Pink Floyd played the entirety of their 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon in some shows. They first played the whole of The Dark Side of the Moon on 15 July at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, which was the first time since 1975 it was played.

The concerts featured even more 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 over 5 million people in 68 cities; each concert gathered an average audience of 45,000.

The 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, their first live appearance as a quartet in 24 years since The Wall Tour (1980–1981), as well as their last before Richard Wright's death in 2008.

Sponsorship

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A Volkswagen Golf Pink Floyd Edition

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] In 1995, Gilmour said he had donated the money had made from the sponsorship to charity, and was uncomfortable with it: "I don't want [Volkswagen] to be able to say they have a connection with Pink Floyd, that they're part of our success. We will not do it again."[4]

Sales

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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. Less than a year later, the Rolling Stones' Voodoo Lounge Tour finished with a worldwide gross of over US$300 million. The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Metallica, U2, the Police, Bon Jovi, Madonna and the former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters are the only acts to achieve a higher worldwide gross from a tour, even when adjusting for inflation. The stage set was designed by Stufish Entertainment Architecture, led by the architect Mark Fisher.[citation needed]

Personnel

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Pink Floyd:

Additional musicians:

  • Guy Pratt – bass, co-lead vocals on "Comfortably Numb" and "Run Like Hell", backing vocals
  • Jon Carin – keyboards, co-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, co-lead vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky"
  • Claudia Fontaine – backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky"
  • Durga McBroom – backing vocals, co-lead vocals on "The Great Gig in the Sky"

Tour dates

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List of 1994 concerts
Date City Country Venue Attendance Revenue
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 Hoosier 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
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 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 Exhibition Centre 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

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List of cancelled shows, showing date, city, country, venue, reason and reschedulation date
Date City Country Venue Reason Rescheduled to
1 September 1994 Helsinki Finland Olympiastadion Poor sales[5] Cancelled
12 October 1994 London England Earls Court Exhibition Centre Seating stand collapse[6] Rescheduled to 17 October 1994

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Pink Floyd - The Official Site". pinkfloyd.com. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  2. ^ VOLA Archive TIME TO BREATHE - A Tribute to the Classic Sound of Pink Floyd at the Wayback Machine (archived 10 April 2005)
  3. ^ The Spiegel-Translation
  4. ^ "The 30-Year Technicolor Dream". Mojo. July 1995.
  5. ^ Mattila, Ilkka (29 August 1994). "Pink Floyd tekee jättishown valoilla". Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish). p. D 10.
  6. ^ "Pink Floyd 'very angry and upset' over accident: Human error could". The Independent. 14 October 1994. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
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