Louder Than Concorde Tour

Louder Than Concorde Tour

Tour by Elton John
Location	Europe North America
Associated album	Rock of the Westies
Start date	29 April 1976
End date	17 August 1976
Legs	2
No. of shows	30 in United Kingdom 32 in North America 62 in total
Elton John concert chronology

The Louder Than Concorde Tour was a concert tour by English musician and composer Elton John, in support of his 10th studio album Rock of the Westies. the tour included two legs (United Kingdom and North America) and a total of 62 shows.

Tour

John and his band recorded the Blue Moves album (and No. 1 hit single "Don't Go Breaking My Heart") in Toronto in March 1976, and began touring the UK on 29 April in Leeds. This leg of the tour, which included a midnight show in Glasgow, ended on 4 June in Cardiff. On 29 June 1976 in Landover, Maryland, the eastern half of the US got the newly named "Louder Than Concorde (But Not Quite As Pretty)" tour, a testament to the onslaught John and his ferocious band were delivering to a country in the midst of its Bicentennial celebration.

On 4 July 1976, John played Schaefer Stadium near Boston. Billie Jean King sang backing vocals and John slipped "Holiday Inn" in to the 20-song set list, a unique event on this tour. Part-way through this leg of the tour, Ray Cooper fell ill and was forced to miss roughly a dozen shows. Ever the punsmith, John declared that the missing percussionist was "Ray Cooper-ating from surgery."

The tour concluded in mid-August with a record-breaking seven sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden. For these shows, John and the band shared the stage with the New York Community Choir and performed encores with Kiki Dee, Alice Cooper and Divine. As this week was winding down, John notified the band that he was taking a break from touring and the group soon disbanded.

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
Europe
29 April 1976	Leeds	England	Leeds Grand
30 April 1976
1 May 1976	Manchester		Manchester Bellevue
2 May 1976	Preston		Preston Guildhall
3 May 1976	Liverpool		Liverpool Empire
4 May 1976
5 May 1976	Leicester		De Montfort Hall
6 May 1976	Hanley		Victoria Hall
7 May 1976	Wolverhampton		The Civic Hall
9 May 1976	Croydon		Farfield Hall
11 May 1976	London		Earls Court
12 May 1976
13 May 1976
14 May 1976	Watford		Baileys
16 May 1976	Birmingham		Birmingham Odeon
17 May 1976
18 May 1976	Sheffield		Sheffield City Hall
20 May 1976	Newcastle		Newcastle City Hall
21 May 1976	Edinburgh	Scotland	Usher Hall
22 May 1976	Dundee		Caird Hall
24 May 1976	Glasgow		Apollo Theatre
25 May 1976
27 May 1976	Coventry	England	New Theatre
28 May 1976
29 May 1976	Southampton		Gaumont Theatre
30 May 1976	Taunton		Taunton Odeon
31 May 1976	Bristol		Bristol Hippodrome
1 June 1976
3 June 1976	Cardiff		Cardiff Capitol
4 June 1976
North America
29 June 1976	Landover	United States	Capital Centre
30 June 1976
1 July 1976
4 July 1976	Foxborough		Schaefer Stadium
6 July 1976	Philadelphia		The Spectrum
7 July 1976
8 July 1976
11 July 1976	Pontiac		Pontiac Silverdome
13 July 1976	Greensboro		Greensboro Coliseum
14 July 1976	Charlotte		Charlotte Coliseum
16 July 1976	Atlanta		Omni Coliseum
18 July 1976	Tuscaloosa		Memorial Coliseum
20 July 1976	Louisville		Freedom Hall
21 July 1976	Indianapolis		Market Square Arena
24 July 1976	Saint Paul		Saint Paul Civic Center
26 July 1976	Chicago		Chicago Stadium
27 July 1976
28 July 1976
29 July 1976
1 August 1976	Richfield		Richfield Coliseum
2 August 1976
3 August 1976	Cincinnati		Riverfront Coliseum
7 August 1976	Buffalo		Rich Stadium
10 August 1976	New York City		Madison Square Garden
11 August 1976
12 August 1976
13 August 1976
15 August 1976
16 August 1976
17 August 1976

Set list

1. Grow Some Funk of Your Own
2. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
3. Island Girl
4. Rocket Man
5. Hercules
6. Bennie and the Jets
7. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
8. Love Song (Lesley Duncan cover)
9. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (The Beatles cover)
10. Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
11. Empty Sky
12. Someone Saved My Life Tonight
13. Don't Go Breaking My Heart
14. I've Got the Music in Me (Kiki Dee cover)
15. Philadelphia Freedom
16. We All Fall in Love Sometimes
17. Curtains
18. Tell Me When the Whistle Blows

Encore:

1. Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
2. Your Song
3. Pinball Wizard (The Who cover)

Personnel

• Elton John – lead vocals, piano
• Davey Johnstone – lead guitar, acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• Caleb Quaye – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Kenny Passarelli – bass guitar, backing vocals
• Roger Pope – drums
• James Newton Howard – keyboards, electric piano, synthesizer
• Ray Cooper – percussion
• Cindy Bullens – backing vocals
• Jon Joyce – backing vocals
• Ken Gold – backing vocals

External links

Quotations related to Louder Than Concorde Tour at Wikiquote

• Information Site with Tour Dates