The Division Bell Tour
{{short description|1994 concert tour by Pink Floyd}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox concert
| concert_tour_name = The Division Bell Tour
| image = TheDivisionBellTour94.jpg
| artist = Pink Floyd
| location = {{hlist|Europe|North America}}
| album = The Division Bell
| start_date = 30 March 1994
| end_date = 29 October 1994
| number_of_legs = 2
| number_of_shows = 110
| last_tour = A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour
(1987–1989)
| this_tour = The Division Bell Tour
(1994)
| next_tour = N/A
}}
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
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.{{cite web |title=Pink Floyd - The Official Site |url=http://www.pinkfloyd.com/history/timeline_1994.php |access-date=11 April 2018 |website=pinkfloyd.com}} 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.[http://www.volaarchive.pinkfloydtrader.com/belle.html VOLA Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050410212211/http://www.volaarchive.pinkfloydtrader.com/belle.html |date=10 April 2005 |title=TIME TO BREATHE - A Tribute to the Classic Sound of Pink Floyd}} Three stages leapfrogged around North America and Europe, each {{convert|180|ft|m}} long and featuring a {{convert|130|ft|m|adj=on}} 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
Image:Golf Pink Floyd.jpg 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.[http://www.pink-floyd.org/artint/spiegel.htm The Spiegel-Translation] 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."{{Cite journal |date=July 1995 |title=The 30-Year Technicolor Dream |journal=Mojo}}
Sales
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.{{cn|date=March 2024}}
Personnel
Pink Floyd:
- David Gilmour – guitars, lead vocals, console steel guitar
- Nick Mason – drums, percussion
- Richard Wright – keyboards, co-lead vocals on 'Astronomy Domine," "Time" and "Comfortably Numb", backing vocals
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
| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ List of 1994 concerts ! scope="col" style="width:12em;" |Date ! scope="col" style="width:10em;" |City ! scope="col" style="width:10em;" |Country ! scope="col" style="width:17em;" |Venue ! scope="col" style="width:10em;" |Attendance ! scope="col" style="width:10em;" |Revenue | |
| 30 March 1994
|rowspan="3"|United States | 54,738 / 54,738 | $1,975,665 | |
| 3 April 1994
| 44,331 / 44,331 | $1,499,188 | |
| 5 April 1994
| 45,021 / 47,000 | $1,502,047 | |
| 9 April 1994
|rowspan="2"|Mexico City |rowspan="2"|Mexico |rowspan="2"|Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez |rowspan="2"| 90,476 / 90,476 |rowspan="2"| $5,235,862 | |
| 10 April 1994 | |
| 14 April 1994
|rowspan="21"|United States | 51,610 / 51,610 | $1,594,069 | |
| 16 April 1994
|rowspan="2"|Pasadena |rowspan="2"|Rose Bowl |rowspan="2"| 129,060 / 129,060 |rowspan="2"| $4,703,290 | |
| 17 April 1994 | |
| 20 April 1994
|rowspan="3"|Oakland |rowspan="3"|Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum |rowspan="3"| 155,662 / 155,662 |rowspan="3"| $5,249,778 | |
| 21 April 1994 | |
| 22 April 1994 | |
| 24 April 1994
| 63,827 / 63,827 | $2,259,833 | |
| 26 April 1994
| 34,945 / 37,000 | $1,148,228 | |
| 28 April 1994
|rowspan="2"|Irving |rowspan="2"|Texas Stadium |rowspan="2"| 87,400 / 87,400 |rowspan="2"| $2,944,618 | |
| 29 April 1994 | |
| 1 May 1994
| 55,169 / 55,169 | $2,944,618 | |
| 3 May 1994
|rowspan="2"|Atlanta |rowspan="2"|Bobby Dodd Stadium |rowspan="2"| 71,272 / 80,000 |rowspan="2"| $2,426,720 | |
| 4 May 1994 | |
| 6 May 1994
| 55,987 / 55,987 | $2,038,815 | |
| 8 May 1994
| 41,169 / 41,169 | $1,348,505 | |
| 10 May 1994
| 46,656 / 48,000 | $1,597,283 | |
| 12 May 1994
| 50,569 / 50,569 | $1,733,619 | |
| 14 May 1994
| 41,475 / 41,475 | $1,401,445 | |
| 18 May 1994
|rowspan="3"|Foxborough |rowspan="3"|Foxboro Stadium |rowspan="3"| 137,175 / 137,175 |rowspan="3"| $4,975,365 | |
| 19 May 1994 | |
| 20 May 1994 | |
| 22 May 1994
|rowspan="3"|Montreal |rowspan="3"|Canada |rowspan="3"|Olympic Stadium |rowspan="3"| 187,302 / 187,302 |rowspan="3"| $5,301,117 | |
| 23 May 1994 | |
| 24 May 1994 | |
| 26 May 1994
|rowspan="2"|Cleveland |rowspan="15"|United States |rowspan="2"|Cleveland Stadium |rowspan="2"| 108,205 / 110,000 |rowspan="2"| $3,807,153 | |
| 27 May 1994 | |
| 29 May 1994
| 75,250 / 75,250 | $2,406,920 | |
| 31 May 1994
| 55,054 / 55,054 | $1,879,330 | |
| 2 June 1994
|rowspan="3"|Philadelphia |rowspan="3"|Veterans Stadium |rowspan="3"| 152,264 / 152,264 |rowspan="3"| $5,091,120 | |
| 3 June 1994 | |
| 4 June 1994 | |
| 6 June 1994
| 38,901 / 38,901 | $1,338,073 | |
| 10 June 1994
|rowspan="2"|New York City |rowspan="2"|Yankee Stadium |rowspan="2"| 103,690 / 103,690 |rowspan="2"| $3,765,090 | |
| 11 June 1994 | |
| 14 June 1994
| 44,762 / 44,762 | $1,487,448 | |
| 16 June 1994
|Ames | 46,273 / 46,273 | $1,514,838 | |
| 18 June 1994
| 69,788 / 69,788 | $2,375,714 | |
| 20 June 1994
| 57,003 / 57,003 | $1,914,318 | |
| 22 June 1994
| rowspan="3" |N/A | rowspan="3" |N/A | |
| 25 June 1994
|rowspan="2"|Vancouver |rowspan="4"|Canada |rowspan="2"|BC Place | |
| 26 June 1994 | |
| 28 June 1994
| 57,701 / 57,701 | $1,834,004 | |
| 1 July 1994
| 42,616 / 42,616 | $1,234,117 | |
| 3 July 1994
|United States | 60,960 / 60,960 | $1,942,780 | |
| 5 July 1994
|rowspan="3"|Toronto |rowspan="3"|Canada |rowspan="3"|Exhibition Stadium |rowspan="3"| 158,593 / 158,593 |rowspan="3"| $4,431,108 | |
| 6 July 1994 | |
| 7 July 1994 | |
| 9 July 1994
|rowspan="2"|Washington, D.C. |rowspan="7"|United States |rowspan="2"|Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium |rowspan="2"| 98,570 / 98,570 |rowspan="2"| $3,313,378 | |
| 10 July 1994 | |
| 12 July 1994
| 51,981 / 51,981 | $2,056,105 | |
| 14 July 1994
|rowspan="2"|Pontiac |rowspan="2"|Pontiac Silverdome |rowspan="2"| 111,355 / 111,355 |rowspan="2"| $3,772,950 | |
| 15 July 1994 | |
| 17 July 1994
|rowspan="2"|East Rutherford |rowspan="2"|Giants Stadium |rowspan="2"| 118,554 / 118,554 |rowspan="2"| $4,474,220 | |
| 18 July 1994 | |
| 22 July 1994
|rowspan="2"|Lisbon |rowspan="2"|Portugal |rowspan="2"|Estádio José Alvalade |rowspan="2"| |rowspan="2"| | |
| 23 July 1994 | |
| 25 July 1994
|rowspan="2"|Spain |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 27 July 1994
|Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 30 July 1994
|rowspan="2"|Chantilly |rowspan="2"|France |rowspan="2"|Hippodrome de Chantilly |rowspan="2"| |rowspan="2"| | |
| 31 July 1994 | |
| 2 August 1994
|rowspan="2"|Germany |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 4 August 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 6 August 1994
|rowspan="2"|Basel |rowspan="2"|Switzerland |rowspan="2"|St. Jakob Stadium |rowspan="2"| |rowspan="2"| | |
| 7 August 1994 | |
| 9 August 1994
|rowspan="2"|France |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 11 August 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 13 August 1994
|rowspan="3"|Germany |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 16 August 1994
|rowspan="2"|Hanover |rowspan="2"|Niedersachsenstadion |rowspan="2"| |rowspan="2"| | |
| 17 August 1994 | |
| 19 August 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 21 August 1994
|rowspan="2"|Germany |Maifeld am Glockenturm |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 23 August 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 25 August 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 27 August 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 29 August 1994
|rowspan="2"|Oslo |rowspan="2"|Norway |rowspan="2"|Valle Hovin |rowspan="2"| |rowspan="2"| | |
| 30 August 1994 | |
| 2 September 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 3 September 1994
|rowspan="3"|Rotterdam |rowspan="3"|Netherlands |rowspan="3"|Stadion Feijenoord |rowspan="3"| |rowspan="3"| | |
| 4 September 1994 | |
| 5 September 1994 | |
| 7 September 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 9 September 1994
|rowspan="2"|France |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 11 September 1994
|Lyon |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 13 September 1994
|rowspan="6"|Italy |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 15 September 1994
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 17 September 1994 | Festa de l'Unità
|rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| |
| 19 September 1994
|rowspan="3"|Rome |rowspan="3"|Cinecittà |rowspan="3"| |rowspan="3"| | |
| 20 September 1994 | |
| 21 September 1994 | |
| 23 September 1994
|Lyon |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 25 September 1994
|Stade Olympique de la Pontaise |rowspan="1"| |rowspan="1"| | |
| 13 October 1994
|rowspan="14"|London |rowspan="14"|England |rowspan="14"|Earls Court Exhibition Centre |rowspan="14"|273,474 / 273,474 |rowspan="14"|$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
| Class=wikitable
|+List of cancelled shows, showing date, city, country, venue, reason and reschedulation date !Date !City !Country !Venue !Reason !Rescheduled to |
| 1 September 1994
|Cancelled |
| 12 October 1994
|Earls Court Exhibition Centre |Rescheduled to 17 October 1994 |
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20100629153540/http://www.pinkfloyddrums.com/ Pink Floyd Drums: The Division Bell Tour Drums]
{{The Division Bell}}
{{Pink Floyd}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Division Bell Tour}}