Kansas City 1984

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

Really more for visual effect, I think. In addition to the upright having a honky-tonk sound, she could play it right alongside the others, whereas whenever she used the grand it was positioned so far to the left of the stage that she was pretty physically removed from them. You can guess how far this was in the live German version of Don’t Stop (1980) where the only shot we get of her playing or singing is BEFORE the song starts—and even then it appears to be stock footage. The camera crew could not include her in a wide band shot.

The problem was rectified by the time of The Dance because by then the grand piano was placed on a rotating disc that also included her keyboards, so whenever she played one of them, the stage rotated.

However, such an ingenious device was not used for the On With The Show tour. There, the piano was air lifted onto the stage for one song—Songbird. All other piano parts were shared by her and Brett on electric pianos. And in 2018, the piano was left home.

I swear that for Mirage, it rose from beneath the stage(god, that's been 41 years ago- kill me now).

And I agree that uprights sound more "honky tonk", plus the visual of her playing it on the other side of the stage.