The Uprising Tour was a concert tour organised to support the album Uprising by Bob Marley and the Wailers. It was Marley's last tour and the biggest music tour of Europe in that year.
The tour started at the Hallenstadion in Zurich, Switzerland, where Marley performed for the first time, on 30 May 1980, and ended at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, on 23 September 1980, which was Marley's last concert.
Two days prior to the Pittsburgh show, after playing two shows at the Madison Square Garden, Marley collapsed in Central Park while jogging, and was told to immediately cancel the U.S. leg of the tour, but he instead flew to Pittsburgh to perform one final performance. Marley went to a few treatment clinics in the United States, Boston, New York and Miami (maybe Mexico). Each place gave him only a month to live. Marley then left for West Germany to receive cancer treatment which eventually was not successful but prolonged his life 6 months more than any medical clinic in the United States predicted, as Marley died in May 1981.
The concert in Dortmund on 13 June was broadcast in the 1990s by German TV station WDR in their Rockpalast concert series. Numerous other performances from the Uprising Tour have also been taped on video. On 27 June, Marley performed in front of 120,000 people in the sold-out San Siro stadium in Milan. While on tour Marley performed for the first time in Switzerland, Italy, Ireland and Scotland.
Set list The standard set list of the tour mostly looked like the following:
"Natural Mystic" "Positive Vibration" "Revolution" "I Shot the Sheriff" "War" / "No More Trouble" "No Woman, No Cry" "Zimbabwe" "Jamming" "Zion Train" "Exodus" "Redemption Song" "Work" "Natty Dread" "Could You Be Loved" "Is This Love" "Get Up, Stand Up"
As an introductory theme, the concerts often started with a version of the stalag riddim by Winston Riley, with keyboardist Tyrone Downie chanting "Marley!" over the riddim while Marley coming to the stage (therefore the intro is commonly called "Marley Chant" among fans). Most shows had a standard set list which closed with "Exodus", and an encore set which usually ended with "Get Up, Stand Up". There were also performances of an earlier song, "Trenchtown Rock", which is not featured on any of Marley's Island albums released at that time.
For the short U.S. leg of the tour Marley changed the set list to be similar to the one from the Kaya Tour in 1978: he dropped "Revolution" and "Natty Dread" and added songs like "Burnin' And Lootin'" or "Them Belly Full" at the beginning, or "The Heathen" and the "Running Away" / "Crazy Baldhead" medley in the middle of the set list.
From show to show sometimes an additional song was edged in the middle of the set list, like "Lively Up Yourself", "Kinky Reggae"-San Siro, Milan, Italy; "Roots, Rock, Reggae-San Siro, Milan, Italy and Le Bourget-Paris, France"; "Coming in From The Cold", "Bad Card"-Meehan Auditorium-Providence, Rhode Island, "Kaya"-San Siro, Milan-Italy; "Trenchtown Rock", "We And Them"-Meehan Auditorium, Providence, Rhode Island; "Three Little Birds"-Plaza de Toros, Barcelona-Spain; "Talkin' Blues" or "Forever Loving Jah"-Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York. Live performances of each of these songs happened very rarely during the tour.
Tour dates Date City Country Venue Notes 30 May 1980 Zurich Switzerland Hallenstadion 1 June 1980 Munich West Germany Reitstadion with Fleetwood Mac 3 June 1980 Grenoble France Palais des Sports 4 June 1980 Dijon Parc des Sports 6 June 1980 Cologne West Germany Sporthalle 7 June 1980 London England Crystal Palace Concert Bowl 8 June 1980 Kaiserslautern West Germany Fritz-Walter-Stadion with Fleetwood Mac 9 June 1980 Strasbourg France Hall Rhénus 10 June 1980 Orléans Parc des Expositions 11 June 1980 Bordeaux Exposition Hall 13 June 1980 Dortmund West Germany Westfalenhallen 14 June 1980 Hamburg Ernst-Merck-Halle 16 June 1980 Drammen Norway Drammenshallen 17 June 1980 Stockholm Sweden Gröna Lund 18 June 1980 Copenhagen Denmark The Forum 20 June 1980 West Berlin West Germany Waldbühne 21 June 1980 Kassel Eissporthalle 22 June 1980 Brussels Belgium Forest National 23 June 1980 Rotterdam Netherlands Ahoy 24 June 1980 Lille France Zénith de Lille 26 June 1980 Toulon Stade Mayol 27 June 1980 Milan Italy Stadio Giuseppe Meazza 28 June 1980 Turin Stadio Comunale 29 June 1980 Madrid Spain Estadio Román Valero cancelled 30 June 1980 Barcelona Plaza de Toros 2 July 1980 Nantes France Parc des Expositions de la Beaujoire 3 July 1980 Paris Le Bourget 6 July 1980 Dublin Ireland Dalymount Park 8 July 1980 Brighton England Brighton Centre 9 July 1980 10 July 1980 Glasgow Scotland The Apollo 11 July 1980 12 July 1980 Queensferry Wales Deeside Leisure Centre 13 July 1980 Stafford England New Bingley Hall 16 September 1980 Boston United States JB Hynes Auditorium 17 September 1980 Providence Meehan Auditorium 19 September 1980 New York City Madison Square Garden opener for The Commodores 20 September 1980 23 September 1980 Pittsburgh Stanley Theater
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