Atom Heart Mother World Tour

The Atom Heart Mother World Tour was an international concert tour by Pink Floyd. It commenced during September 1970 and ended during October 1971. It marked the first time the band visited countries such as Japan and Australia. Intended to promote their new album Atom Heart Mother, the band hired local orchestras and choirs on some dates to perform the title piece while performing it in a four-piece arrangement on other occasions.

Atom Heart Mother World Tour
Tour by Pink Floyd
Associated albumAtom Heart Mother
Start date27 June 1970 (1970-06-27)
End date11 October 1971
Legs6
No. of shows92 (103 scheduled)
Pink Floyd concert chronology

History

Early in 1970, Pink Floyd performed at gigs a piece from the Zabriskie Point soundtrack referred to as "The Violent Sequence". This was the musical basis for "Us and Them", which would appear on The Dark Side of the Moon (1973). The song "Embryo" was also a part of the live repertoire around this time, but was never to appear on a studio album until the compilation album Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air (1970) as a demo only, the release of which the band were displeased. This demo was again released on the Pink Floyd compilation Works (1983). The 2016 box set The Early Years 1965–1972 contains various live performances of "Embryo" as well as the previously released demo.

On 17 January 1970, the band began performing a then untitled instrumental piece, which would eventually become the title track to their next album Atom Heart Mother. At this point, it had no orchestra or choir accompaniment. This is the first time they performed a song live in an unfinished form as a work in progress, something they continued to do until 1975. The song officially debuted at the Bath Festival, Somerset England on 27 June 1970 under the title "The Amazing Pudding" and for the first time with orchestra and choir accompaniment.

Announced as "The Atom Heart Mother" by legendary British broadcaster John Peel on his BBC Radio 1 show Peel's Sunday Concert on 16 July 1970, a name suggested by him to the band,[1] it was also announced as "The Atomic Heart Mother" two days later at the Hyde Park free concert.[2] Partly due to the difficulties of finding and hiring local orchestras and choirs, the band often played what is referred to as the "small band" version of the song when they performed it live. Various live performances and a studio demo of "Atom Heart Mother" are included in the box set The Early Years 1965–1972 (2016).

Pink Floyd also appeared at a free festival in Canterbury on August 31, which was filmed. This was the end leg of the Medicine Ball Caravan tour organised by Warner Brothers, which was later made into a film of the same name. It appears that the Pink Floyd footage was not included in the movie but spectators report that Atom Heart Mother was part of the set that was recorded. The audience must have been one of the smallest to see Pink Floyd at this era, only 1500 were present as the festival was not widely promoted.

In contrast, over 500,000 people witnessed their show at Fête de L'Humanité, Paris on 12 September 1970, their largest crowd ever. Filmed by French TV, the show was never broadcast.[3]

"Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast" was performed at a few gigs in December 1970. "Breakfast" being made was part of the song. The first part of this lasted around four minutes. The second part of "breakfast" preparation was around a minute followed by a 3-minute tape of British DJ Jimmy Young. The song lasted a little over 24 minutes.

Tour band

Additional musicians:

  • Local orchestras and choirs, on some dates

Set list

A typical 1970 set list would include some of the following:

Tour dates
Date City Country Venue
Europe
27 June 1970 Shepton Mallet England Bath Festival of Blues & Progressive Music at Bath and West Showground
28 June 1970 Rotterdam Netherlands Kralingen Music Festival, Kralingse Bos
12 July 1970 Aachen West Germany Aachen Open Air Pop Festival, Reiterstadion Soers
16 July 1970 London England Paris Theatre
18 July 1970 Hyde Park
26 July 1970 Antibes France La Pinède
8 August 1970 Saint-Tropez Saint-Tropez Festival de Musique

at Plage

12 August 1970 Poitiers Les Arènes
31 August 1970 Kent England Charlton Park
12 September 1970 Paris France Fête de l'Humanité at Bois de Vincennes
16 September 1970 London England Playhouse Theatre
North America
26 September 1970 Philadelphia United States Electric Factory
27 September 1970 New York City Fillmore East
1 October 1970 Portland Memorial Coliseum
2 October 1970 Seattle Moore Theatre
3 October 1970
4 October 1970 Spokane Gonzaga University
6 October 1970 Ellensburg Central Washington University
7 October 1970 Vancouver Canada Garden Auditorium
8 October 1970 Calgary Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
9 October 1970 Edmonton Sales Pavilion Annex
10 October 1970 Saskatoon Saskatoon Centennial Auditorium
11 October 1970 Regina Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts
13 October 1970 Winnipeg Centennial Concert Hall
15 October 1970 Salt Lake City United States Terrace Ballroom
16 October 1970 San Rafael Pepperland Auditorium
17 October 1970
18 October 1970 San Diego Intercollegiate Baseball Facility
21 October 1970 San Francisco Fillmore West
23 October 1970 Santa Monica Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
25 October 1970 Boston The Tea Party
Europe
6 November 1970 Amsterdam Netherlands Concertgebouw
7 November 1970 Rotterdam De Doelen
11 November 1970 Gothenburg Sweden Stockholm Concert Hall
12 November 1970 Copenhagen Denmark Falkoner Center
13 November 1970 Aarhus Vejlby-Risskov Hallen
14 November 1970 Hamburg West Germany Ernst-Merck-Halle
21 November 1970 Montreux Switzerland Altes Casino
22 November 1970
25 November 1970 Ludwigshafen West Germany Friedrich-Ebert-Halle
26 November 1970 Stuttgart Killesberghalle
27 November 1970 Hanover Niedersachsenhalle
28 November 1970 Saarbrücken Saarlandhalle
29 November 1970 Munich Circus Krone
4 December 1970 Paris France ORTF TV Studios
5 December 1970
11 December 1970 Brighton England Brighton Dome
12 December 1970 Dagenham Dagenham Roundhouse
18 December 1970 Birmingham Birmingham Town Hall
20 December 1970 Bristol Colston Hall
21 December 1970 Manchester Free Trade Hall
22 December 1970 Sheffield Sheffield City Hall
17 January 1971 London Roundhouse, Chalk Farm
23 January 1971 Leeds University of Leeds Refectory
3 February 1971 Devon Devon Great Hall
12 February 1971 Colchester Lecture Theater
13 February 1971 Farnborough Students Union Bar
20 February 1971 London Student Union
24 February 1971 Münster West Germany Münsterlandhalle
25 February 1971 Hamburg Musikhalle Hamburg
26 February 1971 Offenbach Stadthalle Offenbach
27 February 1971 Paris France ORTF TV Studios
3 April 1971 Rotterdam Netherlands Sportpaleis (2 shows)
12 April 1971 Sunderland England Locarno
16 April 1971 Doncaster Top Rank Suite
22 April 1971 Norwich Norwich Lads Club
7 May 1971 Lancaster Central Hall
15 May 1971 London Crystal Palace Bowl
18 May 1971 Stirling Scotland Stirling University
19 May 1971 Edinburgh Caledonian Cinema
20 May 1971 Glasgow The Ballroom
21 May 1971 Nottingham England Trent Polytechnic
2 June 1971 Edinburgh Scotland Student Health Centre & Refectory
4 June 1971 Düsseldorf West Germany Philips Halle
5 June 1971 West Berlin Deutschlandhalle
12 June 1971 Lyon France Palais des Sports de Gerland
15 June 1971 Royaumont Abbaye de Royaumont
19 June 1971 Brescia Italy Palazzo dello Mostra
20 June 1971 Rome Palazzo dello Sport EUR
23 June 1971 Hatfield England Hatfield Main Hall
26 June 1971 Amsterdam Netherlands Amsterdamse Bos (free concert)
1 July 1971 Ossiach Austria Ossiach Festival at Stiftshoff
Japan
6 August 1971 Hakone Japan Hakone Aphrodite Open Air Festival

at Seikei Gakuen Jofudai

7 August 1971
9 August 1971 Osaka Festival Hall
Australia
13 August 1971 Melbourne Australia Festival Hall
15 August 1971 Sydney Randwick Racecourse
Europe
18 September 1971 Montreux Switzerland Festival de Musique Classique

at Pavillon de Montreux

19 September 1971
22 September 1971 Stockholm Sweden Kungliga tennishallen
23 September 1971 Copenhagen Denmark K.B. Hallen
28 September 1971 Stockholm Sweden Kungliga Tennishallen
30 September 1971 London England Paris Theatre
4 October 1971 Pompeii Italy Amphitheatre of Pompeii
(Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii)
5 October 1971
6 October 1971
7 October 1971
10 October 1971 Bradford England Bradford Great Hall
11 October 1971 Birmingham Birmingham Town Hall

References
  1. Povey and Russell p 83
  2. Povey and Russell p. 95
  3. Povey and Russell p. 96
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