Quote:
Originally Posted by WatchChain
I attended one of the last shows of this tour at The Majestic Theater in San Antonio, Texas on June 11, 1984. At the time, this huge Fleetwood Mac fan had just turned 14 years old. My friends and I were the youngest people in the crowd, and looked like we would fit in more at a Go Go's or Simple Minds concert.
In the unimaginable age before the internet, I purchased our tickets at the JCPenney Ticketmaster outlet about three days after they went on sale. I guess the tickets were not in high demand, because I still managed to get FRONT ROW seats at the 2,500 seat capacity theater. I was thrilled, as I had never sat in the front row at a MAC concert. I had seen the band just two years before on the MIRAGE tour and sat in the upper reaches of the auditorium. Being not old enough to drive, my friend’s mother dropped us off at the theater.
Chris and her sassy band opened with "Say You Love Me", though I certainly missed hearing Stevie chime in harmony vocals for the chorus. My friends and I were screaming in the front row like 15-year-olds at a Beatles concert in this small theater. Chris wasn't sure how to take it! Nonetheless, she played through the set without missing a beat. I remember the crowd being comatose, most people just sat in their seats with polite applause. The real cheering did not start until near the end of the set when more Fleetwood Mac tunes appeared. When Chris introduced “Just Crazy Love”, I went nuts! I had always wanted to hear this “Mystery to Me” number performed live. With a backing band that included George Hawkins, Steve Ferrone, future Mac member Billy Burnett and future husband Eddy Quintela, Chris rocked the house!!
After the show, the sedated crowd left quietly. We purchased a Christine McVie Tour T Shirt (which I still have, although it doesn’t fit my 44 year old body), and waited outside for Christine to exit the back of the theater. Sure as rain, after about 20 minutes, the band exited the back door and made their way to a large passenger van as we shouted her name! Chris brushed by my arm as she walked hand in hand with her main squeeze, Eddy. Her face was half smiling, half asking “What the hell is this?” Faster than you can say, “gotta get my feet back on the ground”, the songbird and her band were racing off. She smiled, waved politely out the window, and took off in the night just like a white winged dove……..oh, sorry, wrong lady.
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Glad you and your friends were there to remind her that she appeals to younger folks, too. I was also 14 in 1984 and a lot of my friends laughed at me for loving her.
I imagine the touring experience had to be a bit of a difficult pill to swallow: she did everything she'd always done, but was no longer lauded for it. In the context of FM, she was given high praise for years and years. On her own, without the others who spark so well off her, she was deemed bland and safe. The reviewers weren't entirely wrong (I thought the album, even at the time, was too close to slick, easy-listening polish) but there was enough to like on the album and in the live show (at least the video taped one I saw) to deserve higher praise than she got.
For what it's worth, a good deal of her ITM songs would have made livelier concert fare. Can you imagine Liar, Forgiveness, Anything is Possible, and Friend on stage?