The Two The Hard Way Tour was a concert tour by American singer-actress Cher and American singer Gregg Allman, designed to promote their joint Two the Hard Way album. Due to the album's commercial failure, the dates of the tour in the United States were very limited, although there were more dates in Japan, Oceania and Europe.
History
At the time of the tour, Cher had just finished production of The Sonny & Cher Show after a broken six-year run. Allman's band, The Allman Brothers Band, was in the middle of an acrimonious breakup. The European leg of the tour covered the Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, Wales, Scotland and West Germany, over a span of 29 days. The tour would start November 6, 1977, and was to be a 29 date tour, but on December 3, 1977 Cher pulled the plug on the tour and left Allman in Europe while she headed back to the United States with her children. The pair were backed by an eight-piece band. The show, whose material was selected by both of them, combined both Allman's material, which he sang solo, and numerous duets between the two on softer material in a blues or country and western vein. Cher avoided the gaudy, over-the-top outfits of her normal stage self, and instead wore jeans, a tank top, and a cowboy hat. The two also engaged in some married-couple stage banter, although not to the Sonny and Cher level. In November 1977, following their opening show in Brussels, Belgium, Allman said that he had had some concerns about the endeavor. "It's the first time ever we've given concerts together. We wondered a lot about how it would work out. For one thing, we didn't know if we'd be accepted." Cher said, "It's different, but not that different, and I also find it real easy to sing this type of music," sentiments she had said before the tour as well, "We sound like we've been singing together for a long time." Allman did not want this tour's road expenses to mount up, as they had for the last Allman Brothers Band tour. However, this tour too lost money from the start. The Hard Way Tour also led to the final breakup of the couple. While pre-tour publicity had emphasized that Gregg Allman was free from drug and alcohol problems, Cher discovered during the tour that Gregg Allman's drinking had returned, and once the tour was complete, she told him that their marriage finally was done for good.
Concerts were only recorded in Oceania and Japan. Video or photographic records of these concerts are very hard to come by, but in early 2008, three low quality videos emerged on YouTube from the Japanese concerts. Cher is only in one video, but in Japan she sing also "You've Really Got A Hold On Me". The couple were guests on the UKtelevision showThe Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 to promote the album and tour, clips of which can be seen in the documentaries Still Cher and A&E Biography. They performed at least "Love Me" and "Move Me".
