21 January 1973
Session singer Clare Torry recorded her vocal for the song The Great Gig In The Sky at Abbey Road.
The song was included on Pink Floyd's next album, The Dark Side Of The Moon. Work continued on the album at Abbey Road throughout the month.
12 February 1973
Pink Floyd played the first of eight performances with Roland Petit's Ballets de Marseille at the
Palais des Sports in Paris. They performed One Of These Days, Careful
With That Axe, Eugene, Obscured By Clouds, When You're In
and Echoes to accompany Roland Petit's choreographed ballet.
19 February 1973
Pink Floyd staged three days of full production rehearsals at London's Rainbow Theatre in preparation for their forthcoming North American tour.
27 February 1973
EMI held a press reception for The Dark Side Of The Moon at the London
Planetarium. Only Richard Wright attended the event; the other band members
refused in protest at what they believed to be an inferior sound system brought in by EMI.
4 March 1973
Pink Floyd began a 16-date US tour at Dane County Memorial Coliseum in Madison,
Wisconsin. The band were joined by saxophonist Dick Parry and backing vocalists
Nawasa Crowder, and Phyllis and Mary Ann Lindsey. Their set list featured the
whole of The Dark Side Of The Moon plus Obscured By Clouds, When
You're In and Careful With That Axe, Eugene, with an encore of One
Of These Days. The tour closed at Atlanta's Municipal Auditorium, when the
US promoter cancelled a scheduled show in Florida believing that a Santana show
in town would drastically reduce Pink Floyd's audience.
10 March 1973
The Dark Side Of The Moon was released in the US. Tracklisting: Speak
To Me; Breathe (In The Air); On The Run; Time; The Great Gig In The Sky; Money;
Us And Them; Any Colour You Like; Brain Damage; Eclipse. The album gave Pink
Floyd their first No. 1 chart placing.
23 March 1973
The Dark Side Of The Moon was released in the UK. It reached No. 2 in
the charts.
7 May 1973
Money (B-side: Any Colour You Like) was released in the US as
a single and reached No. 13 in the charts.
18 & 19 May 1973
Pink Floyd played two nights at Earls Court Exhibition Hall, with additional
personnel Dick Parry on saxophones and backing vocalists Liza Strike and Vicki Brown (mum
of solo artist and future Floyd backing singer Sam Brown). The set list included
the whole of The Dark Side Of The Moon.
16 June 1973
Pink Floyd returned to the US for their second American tour of the year. They played
13 shows, starting at New York's Saratoga Performing Arts Center and ending
at Florida's Tampa Stadium. The band set a new record gross at New Jersey's
Roosevelt Stadium by making $110,565 for a single performance.
1 October 1973
Pink Floyd began an intermittent 20 days of recording at Abbey Road studios,
working on what became known as the 'Household Objects Project'. The group,
assisted by engineer Alan Parsons, used elastic bands, wine glasses, matchsticks
and sticky tape in place of conventional instruments to make music.
4 November 1973
Pink Floyd played two shows at London's Rainbow Theatre, as a benefit for ex-Soft
Machine drummer Robert Wyatt.
5 December 1973
The Australian cult surf movie Crystal Voyager premiered in Melbourne.
The film featured Pink Floyd's Echoes as part of its soundtrack.
