[BigAl84]

This is from the text file that was included in the original download file, when the newly surfaced audience tape surfaced. This person attended with the taper.


According to Jim, he and Mike recorded from the front row of Section E, which is the second section back at the Bowl behind the Garden Boxes. That's far enough away that one wouldn't expect Millard to be picking up a lot of on-stage amplifier and monitor sound, but for whatever reason, the PA mix Mike grabs is heavily focused on Buckingham's guitar. You can hear every detail and nuance of his playing, which makes this a fascinating listen.

That being said the tape needed an extraordinary amount of work to pull up the rest of the instrumentation and especially the vocals. On some songs, the balance is pretty good; on others, voices are still low. You'll hear moments where Mike shifts the axis of his microphones and the composition of the mix changes significantly. Why there is so much guitar coming through the PA I can't explain but the tape doesn't lie.

Here's what Jim R had to say about Fleetwood Mac at the Hollywood Bowl 1980:

I attended the Sept 1, 1980 Fleetwood Mac concert with my buddy Michael G Millard.

We sat in Section E, Row 1. This is in the first row of the bench seats located to the sides of the Terrace Boxes, which is the second section of box seats. Our position corresponded with the 10th row of Terrace box seats.

Box Seat rows at the Hollywood Bowl are spread out with extra aisle ways to provide easier access. So instead of being 10th row distance wise, we were the equivalent of 25 rows back. In addition, being in Row 1 meant there was a wide aisle in front of us. In other words, we much farther back than we were accustomed to.

With a capacity of 17,500, the open air Bowl has seats that just seem to keep going further and further back up the hill. Those final rows of benches feel like a mile away. No thanks. There were a ton of people behind us.

Seating nuances aside, the Hollywood Bowl boasts excellent acoustics and has a much larger sweet spot than other venues. Regardless, I would say we were a little behind our desired taping position.

This was the very last night of the Tusk tour that started in October '79, the end of the third and final leg. Mike and I, being dedicated fans, attended and recorded a show in the first leg of the tour at The Forum in December 1979. We sat in the 5th row that night. Now that's more like it.

For some reason (maybe ego?), Lindsey dominated the rest of the band in the mix. He was very aggressive and his volume was way up. The highlight for me was hearing "Sisters of the Moon" from the Tusk album. My pictures suffer from being so far back. I hope you enjoy the artwork and music.