Today marks Robbie Robertson’s 79th birthday. The Band guitarist and songwriter was born in Toronto on July 5, 1943. Thirty years later he would find himself performing for 80,000 people with The Band at London’s famed Wembley Stadium.
On September 14, 1974 Robertson and The Band were among the performers for an all day concert at Wembley that included headliners Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Joni Mitchell and more. The Band had toured earlier that year with their old friend Bob Dylan around their collaborative album Planet Waves. The group had also released a covers album, Moondog Matinee, in 1973.
But at Wembley in 1974, The Band would focus more on material from their earlier albums. The group performed for roughly one hour and 15 minutes with a career-spanning set that included songs from their 1968 debut album Music From Big Pink with “The Weight” and “Chest Fever;” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up On Cripple Creek” and more off of their 1969 self-titled LP; “The Shape I’m In,” the title track and more from 1970’s Stage Fright; and a slew of covers including Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released” and Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train,” with the latter appearing on Moondog Matinee.
To celebrate Robbie Robertson’s birthday, watch The Band’s entire set from Wembley in ‘74 below via the JamBase Live Video Archive (JBLVA):
Setlist
The Band at Wembley Stadium
- Hard Times the Slop
- Just Another Whistle Stop
- Stage Fright
- The Weight
- The Shape I’m In
- Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever
- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
- Across the Great Divide
- Endless Highway
- Smoke Signal
- I Shall Be Released
- The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show
- Mystery Train
- The Genetic Method
- Chest Fever
Encore
- Up on Cripple Creek
[Originally Published: July 5, 2020]
