[Winterland]

just wondering, I know 3/23/74 was the first. I thought they only did a few with the full wall
but rolling stone mentions 40shows?

[mkaufman]

Through 10/20/74?

mk

[Winterland]

In the rolling stone special edition on page 83 it states that it was used for the some 40 shows. I thought it was more like 6. They should release "The Owsely tribute" it should also come with some cool aid! What a swell drink he made....

[alcorelectric]

According to Wiki the first "Touring" rendition of the wall made its debut on March 23, 1974
T

[gpilcher2001]

2-9-73 roscoe maples? I was always under the impression the wall of sound started then. You can hear the difficulties withthe pa in that show. Greg...

[Mr.Burns]

I always thought the gradual buildup of equipment kind of blurred the WOS's debut date. The "sound system" was "new" in 1972, but it never stopped growing until 1974 when it reached WOS proportions. At least that was my assumption.

[TI4-1009]

I'd think closer to 40 than 6. They had to have time to get sick of lugging it around.

[jester536]

I agree that a start date is difficult to determine but...for some reason Dick's Picks 24 is a show from the Cow Palace and it talks about it being the debut of the WOS (March 23, 1974). For what it's worth.

[cmc64]

As far as I have understood thngs, the debut of the "new" PA was at Maples Pavilion at Stanford on 2/09/1973 when they blew all of the tweeters during the first note of "Promised Land". It kept evolving throughout the year and then at the Boston Music Hall it wouldn't fit in the theater so those were the first shows in which the entire PA was set up behind the band. The were having issues with poor sound in the far reaches of venues with the line arrays and it was John Meyer who made the suggestion for the curved arrays but I believe it was Bear who designed the curved vocal and piano clusters. Fast forward to the Cow Palace on 3/23/1974 which was the debut of the (almost) finished version with the curved center cluster and piano array. They made a few more tweaks, one of which I know was at Billy's request because his kit was right beneath the center cluster. I am sure there are more specifics but I think that was the general progression of things. Paging Mr. Turner....

[CountryMile Cadillac]

Some good pics and info can be found here....

http://web.archive.org/web/201011240251 ... l-of-sound

[tigerstrat]

cmc64 has it straight...except that they didn't have either the vocal or piano cluster at the 3/23/74 "Sound Test", and both instead used individual low-driver cabinets arranged along a curved path. The hi-driver clusters appear to be completed for both vocals and piano at this time. The vocal cluster debuted at Reno on 5/12/74, the first road gig for the WOS. There seem to be almost NO pics available from June tour (!) but the piano cluster finally shows up "..."

<<<edited 1-27-14: "...in Jim Anderson's shots from July." I was incorrect on this: Anderson's shots from Dillon Stadium 7/31/74 show individual cabinets for the piano cluster, not the single curved cabinet. Richard Pechner states on his site that Bear's custom piano array was only used at one show, Hollywood 7/21/74 (which would have predated Anderson anyway). >>>

The February 22-24 1974 Winterland was set up very similar to 3/23/74.

Count all the shows from 11/30/73 to 10/20/74 and you've got your number... but for my money, I would extend it back to the aforementioned 2/9/73, since it's essentially the same system, including the out-of-phase mic pairs.

[TI4-1009]

Looks like 9/17/73 was as close as I got....

[gr8fullfred]

It was more than six. In 1973 I saw the WOS at RFK (they did two shows there), Wakins Glen, and Roosevelt stadium Jersey City NJ (possibly three shows there). Possibly the fall tour at Nassau Coliseum ( I remember shows there that were general admission with no seats on the floor and the WOS!)

More than 6 that is for sure!

[cosmickat]

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