Rastaman Vibration Tour

Rastaman Vibration Tour 1976
Tour by Bob Marley & The Wailers
Start date April 23, 1976
End date June 27, 1976
Legs 2
Shows 27 in North America
19 in Europe
46 in total
Bob Marley & The Wailers tour chronology
Natty Dread Tour
(1975)
Rastaman Vibration Tour
(1976)
Exodus Tour
(1977)

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

The tour began at the Tower Theater in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1976, and ended in Manchester, England, on June 27, 1976. On the tour's second leg Marley performed for the first time in continental Europe and premiered in Germany, Sweden, France and the Netherlands. After the tour Marley performed the Smile Jamaica Concert in his homeland Jamaica, after being shot a couple of days before. The album Live At the Roxy was recorded during this tour, on May 26.

Setlist

After the first third of the tour the setlists became more standardised and mostly looked like the following:

At the beginning of the tour, for example during the four shows at the Beacon Theater when Marley experimented and changed the setlist much more than later during the tour, a gospel-like medley of two Nyabinghi chants ("Rastaman Chant" and "Lion Of Judah") and a brief reggae riff ("Keep The Faith") had been performed at the beginning instead of "Trenchtown Rock". Since the Nyabinghi chants were very meditative and slow until it segued into the lively reggae riff, it was decided to replace the long medley by the classic and instantly-lively "Trenchtown Rock" to better catch the audience from the beginning, as seen during the Natty Dread Tour in 1975 where "Trenchtown Rock" was the opening song as well.

All songs from the Rastaman Vibration album had been performed at least once, except for "Who The Cap Fit" (which was performed once during the Kaya Tour in 1978) and "Cry To Me". There were also performances of an earlier song which is not featured on any of Marley's Island albums released at that time ("Trenchtown Rock").

From show to show sometimes an additional song was edged in somewhere in the setlist, like "Slave Driver", "Johnny Was", "Night Shift", "Bend Down Low", "Crazy Baldhead" or "Jah Live". Live performances of each of these songs happened very rarely during the tour.

Tour dates

Date City Country Venue Notes
April 23, 1976 Upper Darby, Pennsylvania United States Tower Theater
April 24, 1976 Washington, D.C. McDonough Arena
April 25, 1976 Boston, Massachusetts Music Hall 2 shows
April 30, 1976 New York City, New York Beacon Theater 2 shows
May 1, 1976 2 shows
May 4, 1976 Montréal, Québec Canada Centre Sportif
May 5, 1976 Toronto, Ontario Convocation Hall 2 shows
May 6, 1976 Buffalo, New York United States Century Theater
May 7, 1976 Cleveland, Ohio Public Auditorium
May 10, 1976 Detroit, Michigan Masonic Temple
May 11, 1976 Chicago, Illinois Auditorium Theater
May 13, 1976 Minneapolis, Minnesota Orchestra Hall
May 14, 1976 St. Louis, Missouri Ambassador Theatre
May 20, 1976 Houston, Texas Music Hall
May 22, 1976 Denver, Colorado Denver Auditorium Arena
May 25, 1976 San Diego, California Civic Theater
May 26, 1976 Los Angeles, California Roxy Theater
May 27, 1976 Shrine Auditorium
May 29, 1976 Oakland, California Paramount Theater
May 30, 1976
May 31, 1976 Santa Barbara, California Santa Barbara Bowl
June 1976 Miami, Florida  ?
June 6, 1976 Offenburg Germany Messegelände Sunrise Festival
June 8, 1976 Düsseldorf Philipshalle
June 9, 1976 Hamburg Laeiszhalle
June 10, 1976 Stockholm Sweden Gröna Lund
June 13, 1976 Amsterdam Netherlands Jaap Eden baan
June 14, 1976 Paris France  ?
June 15, 1976 London England Hammersmith Odeon
June 16, 1976
June 17, 1976 2 shows
June 18, 1976 2 shows
June 19, 1976 Cardiff Wales Ninian Park West Coast Rock Show
June 20, 1976 Wolverhampton England Civic Hall
June 22, 1976 Birmingham The Odeon
June 23, 1976 Bristol Colston Hall
June 24, 1976 Exeter Great Hall, University of Exeter
June 26, 1976 Leeds Leeds University 2 shows
June 27, 1976 Manchester Belle Vue