Pink Floyd broke conventions, damaged a stadium scoreboard, and lost an expensive inflatable pyramid during their “Wish You Were Here” tour.
The band defied music industry norms by launching their 29-date tour on April 8, 1975, more than five months before releasing the “Wish You Were Here” album.
Fans were treated to previews of the album’s nine-part suite “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and the single “Have a Cigar,” as well as early versions of “Sheep” and “Dogs” from their 1977 album “Animals.” Many of these songs debuted during their 1974 tours in France and Great Britain.
“Our stage show benefited from a much higher professional input,” drummer Nick Mason wrote in his autobiography “Inside Out.” The band hired a special effects expert from the James Bond films for the tour. “Previously, our special effects had been a dangerous mixture of imagination and passing acquaintance with the pyrotechnic arts.”
Despite expert help, the band ran into issues. To dispose of leftover munitions from their U.S. dates before entering Canada, they attached them to the scoreboard at Detroit’s Olympia Stadium and detonated them. “The explosion was devastating,” Mason recalled. “The board erupted in smoke, flame, and scores of a thousand goals a side. We had to pay for a replacement scoreboard and a lot of glass for neighboring houses.”
Another incident involved a house-sized inflatable pyramid meant to float over outdoor shows. “The slightest breath of wind would set the entire structure shuddering and wobbling,” Mason wrote. On June 20 in Pittsburgh, it went awry, and the crew cut it loose. It crashed in the parking lot and was torn apart by fans.
Despite the emphasis on visuals, none of the “Wish You Were Here” tour shows were professionally documented. “I’m sorry we never filmed and recorded a ‘Dark Side,’ ‘Animals,’ or ‘Wish You Were Here’ show,” Mason told Rolling Stone in 2018. “The problem was we hit a period where everyone was paranoid about bootleggers and didn’t tape shows.”
Fortunately, bootlegger Mike “The Mic” Millard captured what many consider the best recording of the 1975 tour. As Rolling Stone reported in 2021, Millard used a fake wheelchair to smuggle a tape recorder into the Los Angeles Sports Arena, wiring it to microphones on his hat. This method allowed him to get high-quality recordings of artists such as Rush, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, which even used some of his tapes on their 2003 self-titled DVD. Millard’s recording of Pink Floyd’s tour has been further enhanced with modern audio technology in recent years.