A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour

A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour was a concert tour by the British rock band Pink Floyd from 1987–1989 in support of their album A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The tour was the band's first since The Wall Tour in 1981, and also the first without the band's original bassist Roger Waters. Furthermore, it was also the first tour in 10 years where people seeing Pink Floyd were treated to any other music besides The Wall album. The band reprised the set-list and stage show of this tour for their performance at Knebworth Park in 1990.

History

Initially, there was a great deal of uncertainty around the tour. Pink Floyd had not played live since 1981, and had not embarked on a full-fledged tour since 1977. Roger Waters left the band in 1985, believing the band would not continue. However, Gilmour and Mason decided to continue as Pink Floyd. Waters threatened legal action against Gilmour and Mason, as well as any promoters who promoted shows as "Pink Floyd." However, by the end of 1987, with the success of the album and first stages of the tour, the new lineup had established itself commercially, and the band reached a settlement with Waters in December.

Having the success of The Wall shows to live up to, the concerts' special effects were more impressive than ever. The initial "promotional tour" was extended, and finally lasted almost two years, ending in 1989 after playing around 197 concerts to about 5.5 million people in total, including 3 dates at Madison Square Garden (5–7 October 1987) and 2 nights at Wembley Stadium (5–6 August 1988). The tour took Pink Floyd to various exotic locations they had never played before such as shows in the forecourt of the Palace of Versailles, Moscow's Olympic Stadium, and Venice, despite fears and protests that the sound would damage the latter city's foundations. The tour marked the first time that the band played in Russia, Norway, Spain and New Zealand, and was the first time they had played in Australia since 1971 and Japan since 1972.

Pink Floyd was the second highest grossing act of 1987 and the highest grossing of 1988 in the U.S. Financially, Pink Floyd was the biggest act of these two years combined, grossing almost US$60 million from touring, about the same as U2 and Michael Jackson, their closest rivals, combined. Worldwide, the band grossed around US$135 million.

A further concert was held at the Knebworth Festival in 1990, a charity event that also featured other Silver Clef Award winners. Pink Floyd was the last act to play, to an audience of 120,000. During this gig Clare Torry joined Vicki and Sam Brown in providing backing vocals, Candy Dulfer contributing saxophone solos. The £60,000 firework display that ended the concert was entirely financed by the band.

These shows are documented by the Delicate Sound of Thunder album, video and Live at Knebworth '90 video.

Tour band

• David Gilmour – lead vocals, guitars
• Nick Mason – drums
• Richard Wright – keyboards, vocals

Additional musicians:

• Jon Carin – keyboards, sound effects, vocals
• Scott Page – saxophones, guitar
• Guy Pratt – bass guitar, vocals
• Tim Renwick – guitars, backing vocals
• Gary Wallis – percussion, keyboards, vocals
• Rachel Fury - backing vocals
• Durga McBroom – backing vocals
• Margaret Taylor – backing vocals (during the 1987-88 dates)
• Lorelei McBroom – backing vocals (at The Omni shows 1987 and the 1989 dates)
• Roberta Freeman – backing vocals (at The Omni shows 1987)

Knebworth Festival additional musicians:

• Guy Pratt – bass guitar, vocals
• Jon Carin – keyboards, vocals
• Tim Renwick – guitar, backing vocals
• Gary Wallis – percussion
• Durga McBroom, Sam Brown, Vicki Brown, Clare Torry – backing vocals
• Candy Dulfer – saxophone

Set list

Tour

The first set mainly consisted of songs from A Momentary Lapse of Reason and the second of hits and older songs.

First Set:

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5)" replaced "Echoes" after only 11 shows. (except for 30 April 1988)
2. "Signs of Life"
3. "Learning to Fly"
4. "Yet Another Movie"/"Round and Around" (moved to this position after 6 performances. It was originally performed after "The Dogs of War".)
5. "A New Machine (Part 1)"
6. "Terminal Frost"
7. "A New Machine (Part 2)" ("A New Machine" [both parts] & "Terminal Frost" were sometimes left out of sets)
8. "Sorrow"
9. "The Dogs of War"
10. "On the Turning Away" (ended the first half of the show)

Second set:

1. "One of These Days"
2. "Time" (omitting "Breathe (Reprise)")
3. "On the Run" (performed on all dates except Japan shows where it was replaced by "The Great Gig in the Sky")
4. "The Great Gig in the Sky" (added to the set on 2 March 1988)
5. "Wish You Were Here"
6. "Welcome to the Machine" (performed on all dates except on 30 April 1988)
7. "Us and Them"
8. "Money"
9. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"
10. "Comfortably Numb"

Encore:

1. "One Slip" (performed on all dates except on 19 September 1987)
2. "Run Like Hell"

Second Encore:

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5)" (This was only performed at a few of the Canadian dates and the Cleveland Municipal Stadium's first show in 1987 and was under-rehearsed. It was also performed in a second, unplanned, encore at the Philadelphia show at JFK Stadium.)

Knebworth Park 1990

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5)"
2. "The Great Gig in the Sky"
3. "Wish You Were Here"
4. "Sorrow"
5. "Money"
6. "Comfortably Numb"
7. "Run Like Hell"

Grand Canal, Venice – Live TV concert

This was a special performance, for live Italian TV and was also broadcast worldwide. Due to time restrictions of live TV some songs were left out and others shortened in places.

'The Venice show was great fun, but it was very tense and nerve-wracking. We had a specific length of show to do; the satellite broadcasting meant we had to get it absolutely precise. We had the list of songs, and we'd shortened them, which we'd never done before. I had a big clock with a red digital read-out on the floor in front of me, and had the start time of each number on a piece of paper. If we were coming near the start time of the next number, I just had to wrap up the one we were on. We had a really good time, but the city authorities who had agreed to provide the services of security, toilets, food, completely reneged on everything they were supposed to do, and then tried to blame all the subsequent problems on us.'

— David Gilmour, ^[1]

1. "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (Part 1 intro only)
2. "Learning to Fly"
3. "Yet Another Movie"
4. "Round and Around"
5. "Sorrow" (shortened outro)
6. "The Dogs of War"
7. "On the Turning Away"
8. "Time"
9. "The Great Gig in the Sky"
10. "Wish You Were Here"
11. "Money" (shorter than had previously been performed on the tour)
12. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)"
13. "Comfortably Numb"
14. "Run Like Hell"

Tour dates

Festivals and other miscellaneous performances

^A This concert was part of Day on the Green

^B This concert was part of Rock Werchter

^C This concert was part of The Silver Clef Award Winners Concert

References

External links

• Brain Damage.co.uk
• Pink Floyd Archives