THD,

Please believe me when I say that I was in no way attempting to "prove you wrong" as to your memories - you were there, I was not -

in researching past events such as these, with only incomplete and often contradictory written accounts, and (sometimes) old posters or handbills, it is difficult to claim one has found a definitive answer -

It is only natural that timelines and events blend, blur and overlap in our memories as the decades roll by - that is one of the things that make it so difficult to sort out not only when something may have taken place, but also what it was that happened!

Reading and comparing books about the band by Martin Celmins, Mick Fleetwood and Bob Brunning are truly a trip down the rabbit hole

I've done a bit of research about Hookfoot, which has revealed that they were his backing band on his first two albums, and were on the same record label ,so I think the explanation probably is that Elton must have joined them on stage for a few numbers on the night of the FM concert .

For the sake of completeness I've duplicated the text of my memories of the concert at the Lyceum ball room in 1970(originally posted on the Mr Bassman thread and still there) and put it here ,so all the concerts appear in the same thread .( This is not quite in true chronological order ,as the Roundhouse concerts were amalgamated into one memoire ,but the last of them Peter's final gig with FM, was after the Lyceum concert .

Quote:
Originally Posted by THD View Post


The best concert I ever saw them do was a the Lyceum ball room in April 1970 (I think )by this time the set involved a section with just Mick and Peter on stage , Peter playing vituoso bass - )
The Lyceum is in the Strand. London where it joins the to the curve of the Aldwych A grand building with a Greek columned frontage( more like side-age really) I remember queuing to get in with some friends , whilst buskers played. I think the concert was to raise money for charities helping Jewish old people , and the Grateful Dead were supposed to be playing, but they certainly weren’t there that night )….. whilst we waited they showed two films The Plank ,a brilliant English silent comedy starring and written by Eric Sykes, with appearances by other great British comedians such as Tommy Cooper and the like , and a film about the Wild Horses of the Carmargue (That bit about the films is moot (whereas the characters in the Plank were mute)-I definitely saw these films at a FM concert, but it might have been another one- I don’t think so but……. )
Humour was a big part of Fleetwood Mac .At a previous Roundhouse concert Mc Vie had been wearing a green tee shirt with Filmore West emblazoned across the chest in yellow , so we had prepared our own tee shirt of the same colours with Filmore EAST on it ,thinking we were being ultra clever ,and that if McVie spotted it he might be amused My good fiend Paul wore this creation . In our schoolboy minds we thought we were being incredibly funny, but little did we know there really was a Filmore East ! Meanwhile , I had brought a special comedy gift for Mick!
Glen Cornick’s Wild Turkey were on the bill ‘he wore a bandana, and had his trousers tucked into knee length boots ! I think they played as a complete out fit ,but “Blue horizon” in his posting is probably right that Nick Picket ,with others played first
When the Mac played their set , Peter was dressed in his Russian peasants outfit with a white top and possibly black baggy trousers, I don’t think he was wearing the full length coat thing ,but I could well be wrong The Lyceum Ballroom was formerly a theatre, and the stage was overlooked by small elaborate highly decorated balconies .In the right hand one was a very , very beautiful woman blonde I think!! and Peter acknowledged her when they took to the stage, or some point during the show, maybe she was his then current amour ?They played brilliantly - Coming Your Way - Albatross,- World in Harmony , -Jeremy’s slide numbers - I’m a stranger in your town was one I think- Before the Beginning ( thought there must have been hundreds of people there, some how you felt Peter was looking at you personally Obviously he wasn’t but there was something about him ,but there was this sort of intimacy with the audience that you just don’t get at a FM gig or anybody elses now a days -at Earl’s court for example ,and I especially felt it in this number ).The Green Manalishi – Big gong behind Mick’s kit for the intro’-probably the 6 string bass Peter And Mick interlude followed within the jam stemming from this song . Peter seemed very happy, and enjoying it ,as did the whole band ,not to mention the audience They went into a night club type vamp repeating, and repeating, and Peter introduced their very special celebrity guest ,which of course turned out to be Jeremy in one of his alter Egos Elvis probably ,and it was just fabulous. I cannot emphasise enough, what an important part of the show Jeremy was. People post that he was redundant after Danny joined Not so! It would have been a far poorer show if he hadn’t been there If he had quit to form his own band ,I can’t see them matching the excitement of the backing by John ,Peter And Danny Mick , ( I saw plenty of fancy drummers , but very few could get this aspect right ) , and as I say FM’s shows would have been the poorer without Jeremy ,!.

This band had everything : Humour mainly Peter and Jeremy , Peter’s playing could make you cry(but be sure that this depended on sympathetic playing from the others , He(Peter) and Danny played and interwove together like demons,(and two strong composers ) and the whole band could rock better than anyone I ever saw, and then take it up a notch above that (Sorry! Almost a Spinal Tap moment ), This was so important in Jeremy’s slide numbers too ! And there was the delight of seeing Mick, all knees and elbows,and grimaces , like some sort of demented a human steam hammer!(you can barely see him now ,as he has with such a huge kit enveloping him )

But I digress !I think they did Twist and Shout ,and McVie was doing backing vocals !!And Peter seemed to radiate this sense of humour when they were doing this sort of number. I truly can’t remember what the last number was ,or what other songs they did possibly Twist and Shout was the last . Then various people returned to the stage for a jam -Clen Cornick ,Mick Fleetwood amongst them. My friend Paul ,who’d driven us there wanted to go , or maybe other friends to whom he’d given a lift were putting pressure on him, but I just had to give my gift to Mick , so I waited till he left the stage -others were still playing,collared him ,and presented him with two giant mahogany balls each about 7 inches in diameter, tied together with string (obtained when my friend Dave "castrated " the staircase of his house, when he was forced to leave it against his will- the balls not the string ) saying something like “these are for you Mr Fleetwood- hope you like them “ever so politely and pathetically , and then turning and running to catch up with my friends who were already leaving . Other friends who stayed later than us (it may have gone on all night ) ,told me that Mick returned to the stage, to much laughter, flaunting these monsters hanging from his belt , having temporarily replaced his own( by comparison) modest spherical danglers !(but not for long I’ll wager - wearing them for any length of time would have been a real strain as they were heavy you couldnt play the drums wearing them !)
So it was a fantastic night ,and the best I’d ever seen them ,before or since ,or anybody else for that matter (with the possible exception of Brian Wilson about 5 years who was almost as good but in a different way )

Finally, when FM were over a couple of years ago to play Wembley , after many years of waiting for the opportunity, I had a good talk with Mick , and he couldn’t remember the giant balls incident at all. ,

Still it meant a lot to me at the time !

Yeah, know what you mean. It's hard to express emotions of the past into words of the present.
But cheer up, you're definitely not the only one.
As for me, I only saw FM once (perhaps twice, can't even remember that!!!). But I'm in no way to put down any recollections of the show apart from being astonished by a song where Mick is bent over his high hat, continuously hitting just that with his sticks, whilst Peter plays on. By now, years later, I guess that must have The Green Manalishi with Peter playing his 6-string bass. Little did I know back then in 1969 at 18 years of age.....

Wouter ,the following is the text of my original post on the Mr Bassman thread which lead to the further detailed posting about the Lyceum concert on that thread (the previous - but -one post )and was about the section where only Peter and Mick were onstage to which you refer. I think your right it was the final section of a jam which itself followed on from the Green Manalishi .


The best concert I ever saw them do was a the Lyceum ball room in April 1970 (I think )by this time the set involved a section with just Mick and Peter on stage , Peter playing vituoso bass - I think I may have been a 5 or 6 string , and my recollection is that part of the time he was using a wah wah pedal (stangely though, I don't think he used a wah wah in any other song that night !)I think some how one of the songs had morphed into a jam typical of the period ,and then Peter was handed the bass ,whilst the others continued , and then Danny and John left the stage so the music never stopped ! He and Mick then played for at least ten minutes ,and it was great stuff !Mick is always very modest about his drumming abilities, but it was fantastic the way he kept the hi -hat going ,and would then throw in a sort of unexpected off beat with his bass drum which would surprise you- much more difficult to do than a continuous bass drum beat against the hi hat rhythm. I think there is some of this on the Boston tea party recordings and I'm sure the casual listener assumes John Mc Vie is doing the bass playing !

Yeah, that's exactly what has stayed in my vague memory.:thumbsup:
Wish sometimes we could turn back...:shrug:

Imperial College concert by the "Kiln House Line up
 

The concert was presented at Imperial College, part of the University of London by the students Union , in the heart of London’s great Victorian Museum area- South Kensington I’d bought the tickets days in advance from the student’s Union ,and when I went it there and said I wanted ten tickets(a lot of friends were going and handed over the money the grateful guy said “For that much you can have the whole Fleetwood Mac ! (an offer I should have accepted instantly !)
, This was a sit down concert., for once ! There was a theatre with a stage but not with cinema type seating -rather there were stackable chairs laid out in the hall . I think now that this is where they screened the films The Plankl and the Wild Horses of the Carmargue prior to the performance rather than what I said before (ie at the Lyceum gig )because my feeling is now that I was sitting in a chair whilst watching these films and that couldn’t have been the case (for me anyway , at the Lyceum or Roundhouse )
So this is Fleetwood Mac after Peter had just left, but he was in the front row of the audience,!(talk about even more pressure! ) So the band consisted of Jeremy Spencer and Danny , Mick and Christine. they certainly did Station man, a song that I liked very much and they played better than most bands around at the time, but if you’d had the privilege of seeing them at their peak with Peter then it wasn’t enough. That most of that special magic had gone! Sound levels were more audience friendly- not the post concert ear buzzing levels of the Roundhouse concerts(-but perhaps loudness is necessary for hard blues rock ) This wasn’t a hard blues rock concert I don’t remember Jeremy doing any Elmore James stuff I suppose we- the audience,- the fans from that era wanted it but I expect the band wisely wanted to leave it behind I suppose they did most of the stuff off Kiln House but I cannot say with certainty .
I think it was at this one that McVie warned the audience about plainclothes officers from the Chelsea drugs squad mingling with the crowd and to” watch out”! (this has reminded me that, at some concert, Peter said some thing about Marihuana, but pronouncing it as Mary dew wahnah, in his deliberately comical way , probably at the Lyceum gig ,( but obviously not at this concert though, because he was sitting in the front row!) Jeremy was, I think, wearing plimsolls and bopping around a lot to the music, but my vague recollection is that it was Christine who was announcing the songs and acting as “front man “ Earlier, on a sort of mezzanine level other bands were performing and one northern outfit(foolishly )
attempted Stop Messin’ Round the best they could, but it was lacklustre , and made you realise why the original Fleetwood Mac were a cut above the rest.!

Thank you for reminiscing. I appreciate its a long time ago but I wonder whether you recall...

I'm trying to comprehend what sort of feeling the audience would have had for this gig- would there have been any booing? Obviously the setlist and musical style in general would have been much removed from what the audience would have expected of Fleetwood Mac. Indeed, do you recall whether they would have played any of PG's material? Would it have been a knowledgeable crowd?

Regarding Christine- do you remember whether her 'front man' duties stretched to any lead vocals? I'm guessing it was mainly Danny and Jeremy sharing the leads but perhaps she may have sung Get Like You Used To Be or Rather Go Blind?

Indeed, when would this gig have been? Would this have been before they left for their Autumn trip to the States? It sounds as if it might have been a low key warm up before they went to America so perhaps Christine's first ever performance as a band member.

I did a bit of research on the net last night, and I think it must have been the 4th Dec 1970 , as I found an advert for what I think must be it, in Imperial Colleges own student mag. The ad says it was from 9 to 6am (therefore all night ) and supporting were Jeremy Taylor (remember nothing of him )and Sam Apple Pie, who were perhaps the band I referred to in my initial report There was a” disco” and they were screening The Plank (which ties in with what I remember) and Candy which is a long feature film .I don’t remember seeing the latter , but perhaps I did.as I did see it around that time in a cinema type environment But I doubt we stayed all night .Tickets were 30/- !!!
Which is equivalent to £1.50 (one hundred and fifty pence ) if I’m not mistaken !!!!!) Even taking 44 years of inflation into account that’s got to be value for money ?

I was a bit more formal than the other gigs I’d seen before Peter left ,given that everyone was seated .There was certainly no booing or hostility. I think the audience was on their side, hoping it would be good, which it was -it just wasn’t transcendent as it was with the last few performances I had seen which included Peter . It wasn’t a low key gig, it was advertised in student magazines etc but I must have seen an ad in the Melody Maker or similar ,as I was no longer at college, having quit after a few weeks I don’t think Christine did I’d Rather Go Blind -I surely would have remembered if she had done it I don't recall her doing lead vocals ..and I’m not even sure Danny did anything like Coming your Way which he was entitled to do nor do I don’t think they did any of Peter’s compositions

Mick Fleetwood's personal appearance at drum store in Archway (London) 1988
 

If anyone is interested I have just posted my account of Mick Fleetwood's personal appearance at drum store in Archway (London) 1988 on the Rumours forum ,as strictly it doesn'y fall into the early years category, but for the sake of continuity I thought I'd better mention it here !

I'm wondering if anyone here saw Fleetwood Mac on any of their tours from 1971-74. And if so, what they recollect from the show(s). What did the band play? What kind of venue? What was the energy on stage like? Anything.

Many of us fans of the band have a clear picture of the what FM concerts looked and sounded like from 1975-today, and a fairly good idea of what the band was like in concert during its three-guitar army days.

But the McVie-Welch years are a mystery to me (no pun intended, seriously).

Anything? Anything at all?

Gig at Kensington Town Hall in june 1971
 

To hear is to obey ,Oh Aleuzzi !

I think I saw them three times (Thrice !) with Bob Welch, once with Weston and the other guy I will do a post after this one about those but there won’t be much to tell !



I saw FM do a gig at Kensington Town Hall in june 1971(possibly the 11th) (as did my old nemesis Bluehorizon- here’s a link to his excellent report, but you’ll have to scroll down the page a bit (http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=19109)I don’t remember the town hall used as a venue so they must’ve just hired it for an unusual one off- so no formal seating - we all sat on the floor ,and I do believe I saw Mick’s sister, the actress Susan Fleetwood, and some of her actor mates sitting close by . I think it was on this occasion that I noticed Mick’s kit was setup on a fold out hinged plywood board ,with blocks on it to prevent the kit moving around .I think the concert had been re -scheduled, the original was called off and the band took a holiday in Greece ,and when they returned they did this concert to replace the original one. Consequently, I remember Mick playing topless and looking very skinny, but very sun tanned !
After the formal part of the concert ,there was some sort of jam in which Mick excelled himself, playing very freely and impressively- he just let rip dispensing with his normal “less is more “philosophy (which is quite right for supporting other peoples songs) If you’ve never seen him in this mode you might be forgiven for assuming he is a very limited, but sympathetic And/or hard shuffling drummer. But this demonstrated he was capable of much more, Purely by chance ,I was recently chatting to someone else who was there ,and who says he went to the party afterwards where he spoke, apparently, to Peter Green ,but I can’t say that I saw Peter there in the audience myself They played very well- I wasn’t disappointed ,but it wasn’t magical ! Don’t remember much about the main concert set ,but I have this vague memory that Danny looked a bit nervous all the way through Having to write these memories has made me think that ,through the filter of forty years ,what does stick in the memory is in direct relation to the charisma of the people involved, So Jeremy and Peter (not at this concert of course ), Mick and John are vivid but Danny Bob and Christine less so I’m afraid , certainly regarding this concert anyway (I don’t think Bob had fully developed his front man ability at this point, or he felt inhibited about taking charge as the new(ish) member )As to what numbers they played ,well I’d just be guessing /deducing really, as nothing particularly has stuck in my memory.

Thank you so much! I look forward to the other recollections as well. Interesting: your assessment is virtually identical with most people who saw a show from the band during the 71-74 period: very fine musicianship, a rewarding set, but not a lot of star-quality charisma.

Concluding Part of the Drumstore posting-
 

Just a note to say that I have now posted the concluding part of the Drumstore story on the Rumours forum

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=55355

Can you tell me about the FM show you saw with Weston?

I appreciate any and all first-hand memories and reminiscences of the 1970-1974 era. I've always been fascinated by that transitional time for the band. In 1977, when I became a fan of the Rumours era band, I eventually discovered their backstory, which seemed so mysterious and very confusing.

I suppose it was confusing for many new fans. After purchasing the self-titled 1975 "White" album and Rumours, they purchased the older albums, assuming they were getting more of the same. This happened with my older sister, who graduated high-school in 1977. I inherited Future Games and Mystery to Me, and became hooked. I eventually bought Bare Trees, Penguin, and Heroes Are Hard to Find.

Are there any bootlegs/recordings or confirmed set lists of their Penguin or Mystery to Me tours? I recall that the Mystery tour was aborted when it became known that Bob Weston was screwing around with Mick's wife. What a shame, because that was such a strong band configuration. There is a great TV appearance of them performing Miles Away. I also have a some murky recordings from 1974 of them performing Bad Loser and Coming Home.

I dream of an box set that exclusively features the material from Kiln House through Heroes, with extensive liner notes, photos, and unreleased audio recordings. This era somewhat gets overshadowed by their Peter Green/blues era and the Buckingham Nicks era. For a long time. Heroes was the least appealing album for me. Now I have much love for it is. Bob Welch can be an acquired taste. In hindsight, he was quite progressive. with shades of Lou Reed.

I actually heard the 5 Bob Welch era albums first and I was digging Bob's and Danny's songs (and Christine's too of course) before I had ever heard of Lindsey and Stevie. A college roommate had those 5 albums and I was getting to know them when this roommate went to the record store to buy the new White Album. This all happened in the span of a few weeks in fall of 1975 (my senior year at college).

So, although I had heard the Bob Welch records first, I never saw that configuration of the band. I had probably only listened to the White Album a half dozen times before seeing them in concert for the first time in October of 1975. My friends and I thought Lindsey was the girl and Stevie the guy before we walked into the concert!

Wow, that puts you in a really unique (ish) position. When you become a fan of FM must have some impact on how you perceive the band as a whole and how you appreciate the music of the different eras. To have started off with 71-74 must make you feel as if that is the band.
Did you have an awareness of the pre-Bob band at the time?

You know, I have always had a fierce love and appreciation for the five Bob Welch era albums, but I think that is because they are great albums, not just because I heard them first. I also am the kind of person who roots for an underdog, and while Lindsey and Stevie deserve accolades for their great songs, I really think Bob and Danny are woefully underrated (and that Christine's pre-1975 songs are, too). That's another reason for my love of that era of the band.

I don't specifically remember if my classmate owned any of the pre-Bob Welch albums, but I must have heard at least Kiln House, because I knew the song "Station Man" when they played it in Oct. '75. (I don't think I had ever heard "Get Like You Used To Be" before hearing it live). I don't think I knew much or anything about Peter Green yet, but I fixed that problem as soon as I started buying my own copies of the records.

Whilst going through a box of mementos I found this !( which is related to the story I posted about Mick's appearance at a drum store in london which I posted on the Rumours forum but put a link on this forum for historical continuity





https://www.dropbox.com/s/4zutu4y8gk...store.JPG?dl=0

Sorry about replying so long after your question -it got lost in the shuffle ! I don't remember much at all- not because I was inebriated or anything, but I suppose, because it just was not very memorable. It was at City University in East London ,I think, and was very loud . I can't remember any particular songs, or any remarkable guitar playing that moved me . The truth is, since Peter's departure, I had continued to see the band (perhaps a total of six times ) out of loyalty to Mick and John, primarily I suppose, I bough every album , always hoping they could recapture some of the Magic of the Peter Green line up, when playing live , but after this concert I knew it was not going to happen, Every concert produced ever diminishing returns, so to speak , and I lost interest .Subsequently The Buckinham ,Nicks line up just didn't appeal -It was too middle of the road for me , I was not in California , I didn't relate to it at all .( I think I was a bit hard on them! ) Looking back on the BN era now ,they made some very good music and I certainly admire Lindsay as a fine guitar player and a great composer- Looking out for Love is a great song Finally ,I liked the Bob Welch era Mac, its wasn't as overwhelming as the Peter Green line up during the early months of 1970.-how could it be ?But I was not disappointed when I saw the Welch line up , but I certainly was by the time of this Weston gig !, Also ,funnily enough, though I followed ,Mick and John's live performances ,I didn't see Peter play live at all and didn't make much of an effort to do so despite the profound effect he had had on me ! Strange !