George Harrison live: Forum, Inglewood

Monday 11 November 1974 George Harrison, Live No Comments

The seventh date of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar’s 1974 North American tour took place at The Forum in Inglewood, California, USA, on 11 November 1974.

It was the first of two consecutive nights at the venue.

By Los Angeles, at the first of three shows at the Forum, more than Harrison’s voice seemed to be cracking. After an eight-second response — more a yawn than a hand — for a new song called ‘Māya Love’, Harrison told the house: ‘I don’t know how it feels down there, but from up here, you seem pretty dead.’ Later, his voice breaking, he angrily lectured someone in the audience who’d screamed out a request for ‘Bangla Desh’:

‘I have to rewrite the song. But don’t just shout Bangladesh, give them something to help. You can chant Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, and maybe you’ll feel better. But if you just shout Bangladesh, Bangladesh, Bangladesh, it’s not going to help anybody.’

Finally, after he’d cooled down a bit, Harrison apologized for the way things seemed to be going.

Ben Fong-Torres
Rolling Stone, 19 December 1974

The 45-date tour was to promote Harrison’s Dark Horse album and Dark Horse Records label, and took in 45 concerts in 26 cities. It was the first North American tour by a former Beatle, and Harrison’s first live performance since the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971.

Bad news travels so fast in LA that even the telegraph company are envious. By Tuesday George Harrison had performed three concerts in the Los Angeles area and the word circulating around the music industry was that the show was a ‘disaster’… But for me the George Harrison concert was a complete delight: incredibly good tight music, played by people who were not on ego trips and who were enjoying their time on stage. Harrison’s voice was gone, but there was so much music to cover the rough spot that it really didn’t matter. The band has got to be one of the finest assembled anywhere… Harrison still enjoys being part of a band, he still does not want to take centre stage. This is a difficult philosophy for Americans to accept: we thrive on stardom, charisma. Harrison wore no glitter, pranced no prances, displayed no ego. If you wanted a superstar he was a disappointment: if you wanted good music, he was perfect… The concert was enjoyable without being pretentious; dazzling in its skill without being theatrical in its presentation. Harrison should be very proud of himself. George Harrison is the first former Beatle to tour America. It’s going to be very difficult for people to accept one of them as simply an excellent musician.
Jacoba Atlas
Melody Maker

Harrison’s band included Billy Preston on vocals, keyboards, organ, and clavinet; Robben Ford on guitars and vocals; Tom Scott and Jim Horn on saxophone and flute; Chuck Findley on trumpet and flute; Willie Weeks on bass guitar; Andy Newmark on drums; Emil Richards on marimba and percussion; and Kumar Shankar on percussion and vocals. Jim Keltner joined the tour midway through on 27 November.

Ravi Shankar’s orchestra featured Shankar on sitar; Lakshmi Shankar on vocals and swarmandal; Alla Rakha on tabla; TV Gopalkrishnan on vocals, mridangam, and khanjira; Hariprasad Chaurasia on bansuri; Shivkumar Sharma on santoor and vocals; Kartick Kumar on sitar; Sultan Khan on sarangi; Gopal Krishan on vichitra veena and vocals; L Subramaniam on South Indian violin; Satyadev Pawar on North Indian violin; Rijram Desad on pakavaj, dholki, nagada, huduk, and duff; Kamalesh Maitra on tabla tarang, duggi tarang, and madal tarang; Harihar Rao on kartal, manjira, dholak, gubgubbi, and vocals; and Viji Shankar on tambura and vocals.

Concert setlist

Dark Horse Tour dates

Last updated: 4 January 2024
George Harrison live: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach
George Harrison live: Forum, Inglewood
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