Pink Floyd in Austria - a web documentation of six parts

Vienna 1973

Main Page           Audio Clip

October 13th, 1973   Stadthalle, Vienna

Obscured by Clouds, When You're In, Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun, Careful With That Axe Eugene, Echoes

Speak To Me, Breathe, On The Run, Time, The Great Gig In The Sky, Money, Us And Them, Any Colour You Like, Brain Damage, Eclipse

One Of These Days

The  album "Dark Side Of The Moon" was released in 1973 and had an overwhelming success worldwide, making the members of Pink Floyd millionairs overnight. This also marked a critical turning point in their career, eventually slowing down their creativity (resulted in ever increasing production gaps) and leading to tensions within the band. Moreover, Roger Waters, who was responsible for both the concept and the lyrics of the new album, took more and more control, being the main supplier of ideas on whom the other band members began to rely on (the following album, "Wish You Were Here", released in 1975, would be the last one in the classical Pink Floyd line-up, on which the musicians composed together).

After having spent several months of the year touring the USA, Pink Floyd returned to Europe in September for a few concerts. The concert in Vienna was the second last in the year 1973 (the last one took place in the Rainbow Theatre in London on November 4th). Now in front of a much bigger audience than in Ossiach two years earlier, Pink Floyd performed their new album as well as some old standards and two instrumentals of their soundtrack album "Obscured By Clouds" which had been released in 1972. The show was more gigantic than ever, featuring new special effects like a plane flying over the audience during "On The Run" and "exploding" just when it reached the stage...

The media were very much interested in the concert. The "Kronen Zeitung", Austria's leading newspaper, published the following concert review entitled "The Dark Side - Pink Floyd in the Wiener Stadthalle" (originally in German, written by Liesbeth Böhm):

"One of the most beautiful concerts of the year took place on Saturday evening in the Wiener Stadthalle: The "Pink Floyd " perfectly staged their music in front of 13,000 enthusiastic fans. This was not a concert in the usual sense, as the optical effects dominated most of the time, but always fitting very well with the music.

"Dark Side Of The Moon" is the title of Pink Floyd's latest album - an optical transformation could be seen in the Stadthalle: fire, clouds of smoke, a flying object racing above the audience and exploding and, in the end, the moon. A moon which rotated and - by means of skillful lightening - reflected thousands of small light spots - the hall turned into a starry sky. The optical spectacle was complemented by the music of Pink Floyd. Music of a meditative nature causing a mesmerizing atmosphere which is unusual for pop events.

Pink Floyd's music has departed from pop or rock. Occasional rhythmic passages would soon lead to quiet sound collages which have become a characteristic feature of this band. These electronically produced sound collages are pure, extreme and spiritualized sound. In contrast to rock music, it does not give the listener the opportunity to work off, it does not "activate". The audience is made into passive listeners and it takes time to adjust to the sound. This happens in a very quiet way, this process repeatedly being disturbed by show effects..

Every single member of Pink Floyd is a perfect musician. In particular the lead guitarist performed splendid solos. Three black female background singers contributed to an even more well-rounded sound in the second part of the concert.

This concert seems to be symptomatic for a change in the pop scenery, as it represents a departure from the excessive "work off games" of rock music: harmony and atmospherical sound on the other, the dark side of the moon."

Again Pink Floyd went on holidays for a few weeks after this show. Then in November (after the abovementioned show in London) they started to work on a new, very unusual project. They tried to make music without musical instruments, limiting themselves to household objects like partly filled glasses, adhesive tapes etc. However, before Christmas this project had to be aborted as it proved to be unrealizable. The following six months Pink Floyd would be inactive...and it would take almost four years until their next concert in Austria...