Pink Floyd Spectrum T-shirt – a Rainy Night in Wisconsin

This week we’re continuing with our look at the story behind some of our best-loved Pink Floyd Tees as we pay tribute to the band’s seminal Dark Side of the Moon album, 44 years after it’s original release in March 1973.

Last week we looked at Dave Gilmour’s Cosmos t-shirt and the events surrounding the concert at Milwaukee Stadium when Dave wore the shirt during their Animals Tour of 1977. It was a warm, balmy night and the most memorable thing that happened that evening was when the band’s trademark giant inflatable pig exploded around an hour into the set, showering the audience in debris as the band played on. This week we’re travelling a little further back in time with our Pink Floyd Spectrum t-shirt, to the Dark Side of the Moon tour - and what turned out to be a very eventful night at Milwaukee Stadium on June 22^nd 1975, as Nigel Taylor who worked on the staging and set design, explains:

"When we played in Milwaukee County Stadium, it poured with rain and the band had to do most of the second set with a tarpaulin just above their heads, which was supported by a few of us standing around them on the stage with eight-foot scaffold poles. It was hilarious but very dangerous, with two inches of water at our feet. But 'Echoes' was fantastic, because the crowd were all soaked, but suddenly they could see the band properly, and because the stage was so wet, the dry ice looked better than ever. It was just a marvellous finale!" 

According to one eyewitness account, this wasn’t the only magical thing about that night. It was cloudy and raining on and off all evening, which added to the camaraderie of the crowd as they toughed it out with waterproofs and umbrellas. It was so cloudy you couldn’t see the sunset or the moon coming out, but just as "Brain Damage" was playing and the band sang "I'll see you on the dark side of the moon", the clouds parted and the moon appeared right over the stage in front of the astonished crowd who cheered appreciatively!

It was one of those incredible moments that cannot be designed or replicated - where you just ‘had to be there - and if you couldn’t be there why not recreate the evening in the comfort of your own home, without the rain. You can find the whole setlist, which includes DSOTM in it’s entirety, on setlist fm. The design of our Pink Floyd Spectrum tee comes straight from the iconic gatefold album cover of Dark Side of the Moon, featuring a beam of light passing through a prism to transform into a spectrum of rainbow colours, making it the perfect accompaniment to any nostalgia session. So put it on, dim the lights and take a moment to lay back and immerse yourself in this timeless, classic album.