Does anyone know which prog band played to the biggest audience in the 70's?

[A. Scherze]

ELP was at Isle of Wight. They also did a festival at the Pocono Speedway and, IIRC, one down south. Possibly, Charlotte Motor Speedway. And, Mar y Sol.

King Crimson was one of the opening acts at the Stones' Hyde Park concert.

Pink Floyd don't count as they were no longer a prog band when they became successful.

Zep were never prog.

[A. Scherze]

Yes played Roosevelt Stadium five days after the JFK gig. The opening act was Pousette-Dart Band.

ELP played at Roosevelt. It was the concert that was washed out by a hurricane and was re-scheduled (after they dried out the Moog). The opening act was Snafu and they sucked, royally.

[Rufus]

At the time maybe but it wasn't a single concert it was a festival. Peter Frampton was on the bill too and he is probably most responsible for the huge turnout. No other Yes concert by themselves was anywhere near that size. Led Zeppelin held the record at around that time for the single largest concert attendance(@77,000). I don't consider Led Zeppelin prog. I do consider Pink Floyd prog and I'm guessing their audiences dwarfed those by YES, ELP and Genesis by a mile even in the seventies.

To say the support act I.e. Frampton drew more than the headliner is just plain ridiculous!

[Scrotum Scissor]

Etron Fou Leloublan?

No, Kavus - they came in second. You're thinking of my 70s band, O.F.E. (Old Fart Extract), when we played at Tiananmen for Mao's funeral. 2,7 million attended. We were so prog that we had to warn people not to try this at home. You know, like Transatlantdick.

[Rufus]

No, Kavus - they came in second. You're thinking of my 70s band, O.F.E. (Old Fart Extract), when we played at Tiananmen for Mao's funeral. 2,7 million attended. We were so prog that we had to warn people not to try this at home. You know, like Transatlantdick.

I should start a thread for the least attended concerts, Scrotum's fave bands would fill the top 50!!!

[NogbadTheBad]

I should start a thread for the least attended concerts, Scrotum's fave bands would fill the top 50!!!

Ah but it would be a 'quality' crowd

[Jack in Wilmington]

Didn't Soft Machine play at Woodstock?

Not at the real Woodstock.

[progman1975]

Jean Michel Jarre???

[progman1975]

Shit, that was the 80's...

[pbs1902]

Pink Floyd don't count as they were no longer a prog band when they became successful.

While I do not want to contribute to the "was Pink Floyd a Prog group" argument, a little surprised by this comment.

Pink Floyd's 1977 "In The Flesh" tour promoting their "Animals" album had them playing to the biggest audience of their career at that time. The U.S. leg has quite a few baseball and football stadiums as venues: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_th...imals%27_tour)


I find hard to believe that you would not consider the "Animals" album a Prog album.

[Rarebird]

While I do not want to contribute to the "was Pink Floyd a Prog group" argument, a little surprised by this comment.

Pink Floyd's 1977 "In The Flesh" tour promoting their "Animals" album had them playing to the biggest audience of their career at that time. The U.S. leg has quite a few baseball and football stadiums as venues: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_th...imals%27_tour)


I find hard to believe that you would not consider the "Animals" album a Prog album.

If there are no Mellotrons, it isn't prog.

[ronmac]

ELP
Jethro Tull
Chicago
Supertramp (maybe not prog at this point)
Procol Harum
The Doors
The Moody Blues


All played at the Isle of Wight in 1970 in front of 600-700,000 people

[Brian Griffin]

I find hard to believe that you would not consider the "Animals" album a Prog album.

No worse than the ridiculous notion that Yes were not as "big" as the Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, or the Who in the 70's

In the NYC area Yes sold out:

75 Roosevelt Stadium
76 Roosevelt Stadium
77 3 nights MS Garden
78 4 nights MS Garden
79 3 nights MS Garden
80 4 nights MS Garden

There were also sold out shows at Nassau Coliseum in addition to the above in 76, 79,and 80

They were as "big" as it got

BG

[Rufus]

No worse than the ridiculous notion that Yes were not as "big" as the Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, or the Who in the 70's

In the NYC area Yes sold out:

75 Roosevelt Stadium
76 Roosevelt Stadium
77 3 nights MS Garden
78 4 nights MS Garden
79 3 nights MS Garden
80 4 nights MS Garden

There were also sold out shows at Nassau Coliseum in addition to the above in 76, 79,and 80

They were as "big" as it got

BG

^^^They where indeed! Only The Stones, The Who, ELP, Zep & Yes could sell out a stadium tour in the UK & Europe!

[miamiscot]

ELP

[Digital_Man]

To say the support act I.e. Frampton drew more than the headliner is just plain ridiculous!

Well, Peter Frampton was very big. He was on the heels of Frampton Comes Alive which has sold about three times more than any YES record. My point is YES did not draw that many people all by themselves. Rarely did they ever play a concert of more than 20,000 by themselves. Roosevelt stadium held about 24,000 people and I imagine they probably sold it out but other than that(and JFK) they never really played stadiums(more like indoor arenas).

[Digital_Man]

We are talking about the 70's, Genesis never had a platinum album until they're 80's pop period, not even a Gold album!

No, that is not correct. "And then there were three" went gold soon after it came out and that was in the 70's. Also, SEBTP up to and including W&W all went gold(ok not in the seventies but those albums are from the seventies; they were certified gold in 1990).

[Digital_Man]

No worse than the ridiculous notion that Yes were not as "big" as the Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, or the Who in the 70's

In the NYC area Yes sold out:

75 Roosevelt Stadium
76 Roosevelt Stadium
77 3 nights MS Garden
78 4 nights MS Garden
79 3 nights MS Garden
80 4 nights MS Garden

There were also sold out shows at Nassau Coliseum in addition to the above in 76, 79,and 80

They were as "big" as it got

BG

Where are you getting these statistics from?

Yeah, YES at one time held the record for most sell out nights in arenas(specifically MSG but other than NY and Philly Yes were not super duper huge I'm sorry and it's certainly not reflected in their over all record sales especially compared to many other bands). But they rarely played in stadiums like PF, The Who and Led Zeppelin. I love how prog fans can be so delusional about YES's popularity. Leave it to Digital Man to give you guys a little dose of reality every once in a while. Trust me there are probably no bands I like more than YES(with the possible exception of Rush)but I do not delude myself into thinking they were ever this super huge band on the level of PF, LZ, or even the WHO(or GD, Genesis in the 80's) etc.

[Steve F.]

Is the next step in this thread a new thread informing us all that the band who played to the biggest crowd is, of course, the best 'prog' band ever, because, well, popular taste tells us that they must be, even though popular taste is also responsible for the fact that no one listens to 'good music' anymore, according to 8 zillion other posts I've seen on PE in the last decades??

sigh.

[Digital_Man]

In the end popularity doesn't mean shit. If you look at the biggest selling Genesis albums those certainly aren't their best ones(especially not if you ask prog fans). However, I've always been interested in things like statistics and record sales and popularity(not because I think being popular means it's better but because I find it's interesting to see what the masses like).

[Rufus]

No, that is not correct. "And then there were three" went gold soon after it came out and that was in the 70's. Also, SEBTP up to and including W&W all went gold(ok not in the seventies but those albums are from the seventies; they were certified gold in 1990).

Exactly, which proves they were a second tier prog band in the 70's. ATTT was their first pop album so dosnt count.

[Digital_Man]

Exactly, which proves they were a second tier prog band in the 70's. ATTT was their first pop album so dosnt count.

[Digital_Man]

If you consider over all popularity Genesis will squash Yes like a little bug. Yes were bigger than Genesis as a prog band(ONLY as a prog band)but Genesis were bigger as a pop band and over all. I'd even say that Genesis probably has more prog fans(these days) than YES. I do admit this is because of their popularity and exposure as a pop band though.

Also, it's worth mentioning that Genesis did play arenas on their 1977 Wind and Wuthering tour and in fact played at the old Spectrum in Philadelphia there. Yes they were a prog band then! Genesis were certainly not this obscure little cult band that hardly anyone knew about back then.

[Halmyre]

Genesis were big enough in 1976 (or thereabouts) to get featured on BBC TV's 'Nationwide' magazine programme.

[Zeuhlmate]

Opposite Rufus I dont think quality and popularity necessarily has anything to do with each other.

I attended a concert with Japanese 'After Dinner' in Copenhagen - we were 4.

If any bands at Woodstock can be considered prog, they played for 400.000.

At the Roskilde festival 1996 Sex Pistols, David Bowie, No Doubt and Rage Against The Machine played for 115.000 (well for those up& going and able to listen)
Magma played for 32.500 in 1976
Arctic Monkeys, Iron Maiden, Kings of Leon, Mastodon, M.I.A., PJ Harvey and The Strokes olayed for 130.000 in 2011

More here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roskilde_Festival