Exodus Tour

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Exodus Tour 1977
Tour by Bob Marley & The Wailers
Start date May 10, 1977
End date June 4, 1977
Legs 1
Shows 15 in Europe
15 in total
Bob Marley & The Wailers tour chronology
Rastaman Vibration Tour
(1976)
Exodus Tour
(1977)
Kaya Tour
(1978)

The Exodus Tour was a concert tour organised to support the album Exodus by Bob Marley & The Wailers.

The tour began at the Pavillon Baltard in Paris, France, on May 10, 1977, and involuntarily ended with four shows at the Rainbow Theatre in London in early June; actually there were six shows planned to be performed in London, but the last two shows had been cancelled due to Marley's serious toe injury he received in a football friendly game with French journalists just before the tour's start in Paris. Subsequently the tour's second leg in the United States had first been postponed and then definitely cancelled. The last show of the tour has been released on VHS and DVD, labeled Live! at the Rainbow. It is reported that all four shows have been recorded and taped on video.

The cancellation of the U.S. leg is for many people the main reason for Marley's underrated reputation in the U.S., as the Exodus album is said to be Marley's international breakthrough whereby he achieved international superstardom; Exodus was honoured the Greatest Album of the Century by TIME Magazine in 2000.

While on the tour Marley performed for the first time in Belgium and Denmark.

[edit] Setlist

The standard setlist of the tour mostly looked like the following:

  • "Rebel Music (3 O'Clock Roadblock)"
  • "Burnin' And Lootin"
  • "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)"
  • "The Heathen"
  • "I Shot The Sheriff"
  • "War" / "No More Trouble" (medley)
  • "No Woman, No Cry"
  • "Lively Up Yourself"
  • "Get Up, Stand Up"
  • "Exodus"

The militant songs from the first side Exodus album had all been performed at least once, whilst performances of the soft love songs from the second side remained widely rare; only "Jammin'" had been performed a few times and later became a classic Marley tune and a standard of the later tours. "Waiting In Vain" and "One Love / People Get Ready" had been performed at least once during the Kaya Tour in 1978, as was "Three Little Birds" at least once during the Uprising Tour in 1980). There were performances of two songs which are not featured on any of Marley's Island albums released at that time: "Trenchtown Rock" (an early pre-Island song) and "Running Away" (a song released on the 1978 album Kaya).

From show to show sometimes an additional song was edged in the middle of the setlist (especially during the Rainbow Theatre shows when Marley widely varied the setlists), like "Jammin'", "Positive Vibration", "Concrete Jungle", "Crazy Baldhead", "Running Away", "Trenchtown Rock", "Natural Mystic", "So Much Things To Say" and "Guiltiness". Live performances of each of these songs happened very rarely during the tour.

[edit] Tour dates

Date Venue City State Notes
May 10 Pavillon Baltard Nogent-sur-Marne, Paris Flag of France France
May 11 Forest National Brussels Flag of Belgium Belgium
May 13 Houtrust Hallen Den Haag Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
May 15 Circus Krone Munich Flag of Germany Germany
May 16 Rhein-Neckar-Halle Heidelberg Flag of Germany Germany
May 17 Congress Centrum Hamburg Hamburg Flag of Germany Germany
May 18 Eissporthalle Berlin Flag of Germany Germany
May 20 Gröna Lund Stockholm Flag of Sweden Sweden
May 22 Falconer Theatre Copenhagen Flag of Denmark Denmark
May 23 Scandinavium Gothenburg Flag of Sweden Sweden
June Top of the Pops London Flag of England England BBC TV program
June 1 Rainbow Theatre London Flag of England England
June 2 Rainbow Theatre London Flag of England England
June 3 Rainbow Theatre London Flag of England England
June 4 Rainbow Theatre London Flag of England England
June 5 Rainbow Theatre London Flag of England England cancelled
June 6 Rainbow Theatre London Flag of England England cancelled