George Harrison live: Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis

The 17th date of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar’s 1974 North American tour took place at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, on 27 November 1974.

The Beatles had performed at the venue on 19 August 1966, the eighth date of their final tour.

Harrison’s 30-date tour was to promote his Dark Horse album and Dark Horse Records label, and took in 45 concerts in 26 cities. It was the first North American tour by a former Beatle, and Harrison’s first live performance since the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971.

Last night’s show before a capacity crowd of 11,600 gave no evidence of any raggedness. From the start it was great, simply great. They throw the word ‘great’ around a lot in the music world, but it was certainly deserved by Harrison and his friends last night. Musically, vocally and as an experience to be shared, the concert was successfully done. There have been few concerts as moving as last night’s.

Harrison’s band included Billy Preston on vocals, keyboards, organ, and clavinet; Robben Ford on guitars and vocals; Tom Scott and Jim Horn on saxophone and flute; Chuck Findley on trumpet and flute; Willie Weeks on bass guitar; Andy Newmark on drums; Emil Richards on marimba and percussion; and Kumar Shankar on percussion and vocals. Jim Keltner joined the tour midway through on 27 November.

Ravi Shankar’s orchestra featured Shankar on sitar; Lakshmi Shankar on vocals and swarmandal; Alla Rakha on tabla; TV Gopalkrishnan on vocals, mridangam, and khanjira; Hariprasad Chaurasia on bansuri; Shivkumar Sharma on santoor and vocals; Kartick Kumar on sitar; Sultan Khan on sarangi; Gopal Krishan on vichitra veena and vocals; L Subramaniam on South Indian violin; Satyadev Pawar on North Indian violin; Rijram Desad on pakavaj, dholki, nagada, huduk, and duff; Kamalesh Maitra on tabla tarang, duggi tarang, and madal tarang; Harihar Rao on kartal, manjira, dholak, gubgubbi, and vocals; and Viji Shankar on tambura and vocals.

David Bowie watched the show, and afterwards went backstage. Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark had performed on Bowie’s then-unreleased Young Americans album. Bowie performed at the Mid-South Coliseum the following night.

Harrison was not impressed by Bowie, whom he discussed in an interview on KHJ (AM) radio in December 1974:

Harrison: I just met David Bowie, who they call ‘boowie’ in America. David Boowie. Who I know Ringo also thinks is great.

John Lennon: So do I.

Harrison: OK, John does too. Now, you know, I don’t have any concepts of whether he’s great or not great, but I met him in Memphis, and he was in the shower (?) room with the band, just before they went on for the second show. I had to pull John’s glasses off and say ‘Let’s have a look, let’s see where you are, David Bowie.’ I said, and these are the very words, and I hope he wasn’t offended by it because all I really meant was what I said, which was: I pulled his hat up from over his eyes and said, “Hi man, how are you? Nice to meet you” – pulled his hat off his eyes and said, you know – “do you mind if I have a look at you, to see what you are because I’ve only ever seen those dopey pictures of you.” And the only picture I’ve ever seen of David Bowie, or Elton John, they just look stupid to me.

Lennon: I thought they look great.

Harrison: Well I think he looks dopey. I want to see, you know, I want to see who the person is.

Concert setlist

• ‘Hari’s On Tour (Express)’
• ‘Something’
• ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’
• ‘Will It Go Round In Circles’ (Billy Preston)
• ‘Sue Me, Sue You Blues’
• ‘Zoom Zoom Zoom’ (Ravi Shankar)‘Na Na Dahni’ (Ravi Shankar)
• ‘Cheparte’ (Ravi Shankar)
• ‘Anurag’ (Ravi Shankar)
• ‘I Am Missing You’ (Ravi Shankar)
• ‘For You Blue’
• ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)’
• ‘Sound Stage Of Mind’
• ‘In My Life’
• ‘Tom Cat’ (Tom Scott and LA Express)
• ‘Māya Love’
• ‘Nothing From Nothing’ (Billy Preston)
• ‘Dark Horse’
• ‘Outa-Space’ (Billy Preston)
• ‘What Is Life’
• ‘My Sweet Lord’

Dark Horse Tour dates

• 2 November 1974: Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada
• 4 November 1974: Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle
• 6 November 1974: Cow Palace, Daly City
• 7 November 1974: Cow Palace, Daly City
• 8 November 1974: County Coliseum Arena, Oakland
• 10 November 1974: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach
• 11 November 1974: The Forum, Inglewood
• 12 November 1974: The Forum, Inglewood
• 14 November 1974: Tucson Community Center, Tucson
• 16 November 1974: Salt Palace, Salt Lake City
• 18 November 1974: Denver Coliseum, Denver
• 20 November 1974: St Louis Arena, St Louis
• 21 November 1974: Tulsa Assembly Center, Tulsa
• 22 November 1974: Convention Center, Fort Worth
• 24 November 1974: Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston
• 26 November 1974: LSU Assembly Center, Baton Rouge
• 27 November 1974: Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis
• 28 November 1974: Omni Coliseum, Atlanta
• 30 November 1974: Chicago Stadium, Chicago
• 4 December 1974: Olympia Stadium, Detroit
• 6 December 1974: Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto
• 8 December 1974: Forum, Montreal
• 10 December 1974: Boston Garden, Boston
• 11 December 1974: Providence Civic Center, Providence
• 13 December 1974: Capital Centre, Landover
• 15 December 1974: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale
• 16 December 1974: Spectrum, Philadelphia
• 17 December 1974: Spectrum, Philadelphia
• 19 December 1974: Madison Square Garden, New York City
• 20 December 1974: Madison Square Garden, New York City