Why Pink Floyd swapped 'Take It Back' for 'The Great Gig in the Sky' on the 1994 tour's second leg

For the Australian and Japanese shows of the 1994 Division Bell tour, the band replaced the album’s single “Take It Back” with the Dark Side of the Moon classic “The Great Gig in the Sky.” The move was likely a practical one: “Take It Back” had a tricky, loop-based guitar part that Gilmour found hard to reproduce consistently live, and it didn’t land as strongly as the band hoped. Swapping in “Great Gig” gave the setlist a dramatic, crowd-pleasing peak and let the backup singers (Durga McBroom, Claudia Fontaine, and later Lorelei McBroom) take center stage with their wordless vocal solo.

David Gilmour definitely had a hand in the decision — he was the primary setlist architect and often cut songs he felt weren’t working on stage. The backup singers, meanwhile, were already rehearsing “Great Gig” for the full Dark Side performance that closed the show, so adding it earlier wasn’t a stretch. No public statements exist from them about the swap, but the change suggests Gilmour valued the song’s emotional impact over the single’s promotional push.