Pink Floyd Plays The Animals: 1977 In Review

By Dean Pedley

1977 marked the final time that the Pink Floyd line-up of Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason embarked on an extensive tour. Taking in 55 shows and spanning seven months from the end of January to the beginning of July, the In The Flesh tour saw the band play venues across Europe and North America in support of their newly released studio album Animals. During the first half of the show the band performed the five songs from the Animals album for the only time in their history and the second half of the show was also notable for being the only time that Pink Floyd played the Wish You Were Here album in full. This book spotlights Pink Floyd in 1977; the album, the tour, the pig, the spitting incident and the aftermath...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dean Pedley
• Release date: Jan 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310964336

Dean Pedley

Dean Pedley had his first review published in the letters column of Kerrang back in 1982 when he was just twelve years old. Since then he has written extensively about rock and metal, reviewing hundreds of albums and gigs and carrying out numerous interviews along the way. He currently contributes to Fireworks magazine and the long running webzines Sea of Tranquility and The Midlands Rocks.

Book preview

Pink Floyd Plays The Animals

1977 In Review

Published by Dean Pedley at Smashwords

Copyright 2015 Dean Pedley

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

About the Author:-

Dean Pedley has been writing extensively about rock music since 1982, reviewing hundreds of albums and gigs and carrying out numerous interviews along the way. He currently contributes to the long running webzines Sea of Tranquility and The Midlands Rocks.

By the same author:-

Permission To Rock - Volume One, Smashwords 2012

Acknowledgments

For their ongoing support and encouragement thanks to Andrew Manning, Neil Horsburgh, Mark ‘Tosh’ Davies, Peter Keevil, Pete Pardo, Mark Appleton and Lynne Hampson.

Table of Contents:-

Animals - The Album

In The Flesh - The Tour

RoIO's

Timeline 1976 - 78

The Aftermath

Introduction

1977 marked the final time that the Pink Floyd line-up of Roger Waters, Richard Wright, David Gilmour and Nick Mason embarked on an extensive tour. Taking in 55 shows and spanning seven months from the end of January to the beginning of July, the In The Flesh tour saw the band play venues across Europe and North America in support of their newly released studio album Animals. During the first half of the show the band performed the five songs from the Animals album for the only time in their history. Although Roger Waters would , at various times, perform 'Pigs on the Wing Part 1', 'Dogs', 'Pigs (Three Different Ones)' and 'Sheep' on his solo tours of the 1980's and beyond, David Gilmour chose to overlook the album entirely when putting together the set list for the Floyd's comeback tour in 1987. The second half of the show was also notable for being the only time that Pink Floyd played the Wish You Were Here album in full.

The legacy of the '77 tour proved to be far reaching as far as the future of Pink Floyd was concerned. Following the climax of the tour Roger Waters retreated to write The Wall with a vow to never again play in football stadiums, Richard Wright's role became untenable leading to his eventual removal and they would never be the same band again. For Pink Floyd, Animals truly did mark the end of an era.

What has proven to be a source of ongoing frustration for fans is that there is no officially released live document of the '77 tour. No commercially available CD or DVD from the period has ever been issued so fans have had to instead rely on the treasure trove of RoIO's (recordings of indeterminate origin or bootlegs as they are more commonly referred to) to get an insight into what Pink Floyd sounded like live during the Animals era. Live albums were par for the course for many of Floyd's notable contemporaries of the period such as Genesis (Seconds Out), Yes (Yessongs and Yesshows) and Emerson Lake and Palmer (Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends). Aside from the four songs that made up half of the Ummagumma album from 1968, Pink Floyd did not release any live material until they toured in support of A Momentary Lapse of Reason from the period 1987 to 1989 by which time Waters had departed and the remaining trio of Gilmour, Mason and Wright were joined by a host of additional musicians. Further live releases have followed by way of PULSE and Is There Anybody Out There?, covering the years of 1994 and 1980/81 respectively but nothing emerged from the 1970's until the 2011 release of the Experience and Immersion editions of Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here.