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Jeppessen Stadium |
In The Flesh Animals Tour 1977
Jeppessen Stadium is on the
University of Houston Campus which is located in one of the worst
sections of Houston. The stadium was built in 1941 and was called
Houston Public School Stadium with a capacity of 20500, the stadium has
been renovated and is now called Robertson Stadium and is used by the
Houston Cougars college football team.
In 1977 it was in disrepair and
was used mainly for high school football and track meets as the Cougars
played their games at the Astrodome. Very few concerts were played
there and it was the only show I attended there.
A great venue for the Floyd to
play their Animals tour in 1977, the grimy old stadium (at the time)
features four edifices, two on each side of the stadium, that the light
towers are mounted in so it kind of resembles Battersea Power Stations
four smokestacks. The stadium is five minutes from downtown Houston. I
estimate the crowd for the show at 25000.
The concert was originally going
to be played at the new Summit basketball arena but the venue was
changed before tickets went on sale because of the demand for tickets
and the size of the Summit.
April 30th 1977 was a
grey rainy day in Houston; the Floyd had to deploy the umbrellas for
this show and it was fortunate they had them made for the tour. The
show would have been unplayable without them, especially the second
half. There were tents pitched on the field, some included handmade
signs advertising illicit wares, people also managed to sneak in
bottles of liquor as well.
I don't know how they got away
with the tents and adverts but the authorities probably had no
intention of going on the field and getting in the middle of the zoo.
Houston concert crowds were extremely wild and rowdy in the seventies
and in retrospect the authorities were surprisingly relaxed at concerts
in Houston, unlike today where they want to throw you in jail for
smoking a cigarette inside a venue.
The show started at sunset during
a light drizzle that increased to a steady rain as the show progressed.
The basic set structure for 1977 was played, Animals in the first half,
Wish You Were Here in the second half with Money and Us and Them played
for the encores. This had to be the pinnacle of David Gilmour's career,
he had more room to improvise with this set list and used it to great
advantage: what great solos he unleashed that night.
The fireworks were deployed at
the end of Sheep and the main pig was brought out over the audience
during Pigs Three Different Ones but the exploding pig was not deployed
during this show probably because of the rain. The nuclear family were
suspended behind the stage but they didn't bring much excitement to the
show since they were just hanging around.
Gilmour really extrapolated on
Pigs Three Different Ones adding solos that were not on the record.
Wind noises were circulated throughout the stadium by the surround
sound speakers between songs. The videos shown during the WYWH portion
of the show were great. The Welcome To The Machine video was incredible
with the steel dinosaur looking out at the audience and the outro of
SOYCD with Pink tumbling through space turning into a leaf was a
magical moment during a steady rain. Gilmour and Snowy White
interacting during SOYCD 6-9 was great.
Money was incredibly long and
Gilmours guitar was thrown around the surround system to great effect.
Us and Them was not a popular choice to end the concert with as people
were grumbling a bit and wanted to rock, I think most of the fans were
expecting them to play all of DSOTM. The band were in good spirits
considering the circumstances and the rain had a calming effect on the
crowd, at least during the show.
After the encores a really bad
scene erupted on the field, even though the Floyd played their entire
set for the tour the unhappy crowd demanded more and started to rain
down empty liquor bottles on the stage destroying the drum kit. There
was a lot of broken glass and bottles littering the stage. I stuck
around to watch the mayhem from the field, the roadies retreated until
the bedlam subsided and eventually we shuffled out of Jeppessen as a
torrential rain cloud unloaded. I was totally stunned that the crowd
reacted so violently after the Floyd had played the whole show in the
rain, risking electrocution.
Overview: It was quite a
spectacle and the hardest rocking tour of Pink Floyd's career, Gilmour
was unleashing the hounds of hell in 77. The surround sound system was
unique and sounded great.
The tickets were pink and
embossed with the pig and smokestack and had Pink Floyd written on them
with the block lettering like the Animals album. Unfortunately our
tickets were confiscated upon admission and they wouldn't give us a
stub. I did run across a tour flyer identical to the ticket for the
show and have that framed. When I bought the flyer it included a ticket
stub for the Baton Rouge show instead of the Houston show and it isn't
embossed with the animals motif and isn't nearly as nice.
I was very fortunate to have
witnessed Pink Floyd on the last true tour they played together. Three
weeks later I saw Zeppelin play at the Summit, incredible times...
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