Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Live Performances

Live Performances

The song was first performed on the French tour in June 1974 as "Shine On". It was first introduced as "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" on the British tour in November 1974. The song was originally performed as one whole suite with some of the parts differing from the album versions with samplings of Barrett's solo song "Dark Globe" during the opening of the song. The version from the British tour was included on the Wish You Were Here Immersion box set.

The multi-part version of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" was first performed on the band's 1975 North American tour with "Have a Cigar" thrown into the middle of the piece. The 1975 versions were close to the final versions except parts one and nine were still not refined yet.

The band performed the whole nine-part "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" as part of the Wish You Were Here portion of their 1977 In the Flesh Tour, with extra musicians White on guitar and backing vocals and Parry on saxophones.

Parts I–V of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" became a staple of Pink Floyd's live performances from 1987-94. The track opened shows for most of the A Momentary Lapse of Reason and Delicate Sound of Thunder tours of 1987–89 and the tour closing performance at Knebworth in 1990 with Candy Dulfer on saxophone. The first eleven performances had "Echoes" as the show opener before the band proceeded to play all of Momentary Lapse of Reason in the rest of the first half in a slightly different sequence to the album.

A condensed edition of the track (without the Gilmour solos in both Part II and III) would then open the second half of the shows on the group's 1994 The Division Bell and tour (documented on P•U•L•S•E) except on shows where all of The Dark Side of the Moon was performed when "Shine On" opened the first half and in the last month and a half of the tour the band added part VII to Parts I–V.

Gilmour performed almost the whole suite (save part IX) at his 2001 and '02 semi-unplugged concerts (which were documented on his 2002 David Gilmour in Concert DVD) and has performed Parts I–II and IV-V (in a new arrangement) on his 2006 On an Island solo tour. Part III was omitted and Parts I and II were simplified and more guitar-focused. Gilmour performed Parts I-V on his Live in Gdańsk CD on disc two and on DVD in the four-disc edition of the album. The five-disc edition and the online downloads available in the three and four-disc editions include Parts I-V recorded in Venice and Vienne in 2006.

Waters has also performed the song on his 1999 and 2000 tours documented on his In the Flesh – Live album and DVD which was a condensed parts I, II, IV, VI, VII, and IX. Part VI on these performances had a lap steel solo from Jon Carin then guitar solos from Doyle Bramhall II and White. Then on Waters' 2002 tour, he played all nine parts like on record (although part VIII was shortened). An abridged version of parts I–V was performed on Waters' 2006-07 The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour.