The Rumours Tour
 

Let's talk about the Rumours tour.

I wish more footage of it exsited beyond the Japan show, but the performances are cool. Oh yeah, and it was 13 years before I was born

Were the band touring DURING the making of Rumours? What was the Summer Safari? Was that something else?

The Penguin Summer Safari was after Rumours, in 1978. Once again Mick's book helps us:

That summer, we took a break from recording and embarked on the Penguin Country Summer Safari 1978, beginning at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in Wisconsin on July 17 and then moving to a monster show at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on the 23rd, where we topped a sold-out show supported by the Little River Band, Bob Welch (whose French Kiss was now a nationwide hit!), and Steve Miller. At J.F.K. Stadium in Philadelphia on the 30th we played with the same group, except that the Sanford-Townsend Band opened. We played a dozen more stadia that July and August, flexing our collective muscle as the Biggest and the Best in the Land. Let the punkers rant about the dinosaurs, we laughed, as we watched our fans fill up arena, coliseum, and bowl.

Did this spectacle give me joy? Did the old gigster enjoy being back on the road? The answer is no. It was the summer my father passed away.

But yes there were som shows during 1976:

By early June we were hip deep into the project, and the end was not in sight. "The Chain" was still a hodgepodge of several different riffs and songs. "Don't Stop," written for John by Chris, was half finished. "I Don't Want to Know" was recorded at Wally Heider's studio. Chris wrote "Oh Daddy" for me, the only dad in the band. "Songbird" was recorded in an empty university auditorium in Berkeley with a mobile unit. I said it should sound like Chris is sitting alone at the piano after a concert, when everyone has gone home.

At that point, we had to leave off recording for a while and go out on the road for most of the summer. Fleetwood Mac was still climbing the charts, a year after release, and it looked to us like we could give our chart-busting fellow British blues exile Peter Frampton a run for his money if we had another
hit single and our summer tour with the Eagles did well. To this end, we released Chris's "Say You Love Me" in June (the flip was "Monday Morning"), and it too went right to the top.

Rehearsals for the summer tour began on June 4 and lasted ten days. Six months of studio frustration and claustrophobia were unleashed, and the band roared as I'd never heard it before. Off we went on June 18, opening at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. This leg of the tour consisted of three acts us, Henry Gross, and Jeff Beck. Then to the Omaha Arena, the Iowa State Fairgrounds, the Pine Knob Music Theater in Michigan, then all around Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Illinois. On June 29, we played Busch Stadium in St. Louis with Jefferson Starship, Jeff Beck, and Ted NugentThen to Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

They also toured for a solid year after the record was released. It took some toll on the frontline, particularly Nicks.

A Rolling Stone article from late 1978 critiques one of the band's outdoor shows. It's titled "Mac Clicks, Despite Nicks." That had to tear Stevie to pieces.

Incidentally, the article has some great accompanying pics--a gorgeous one of Nicks floating across stage while Christine is singing, and one of Lindsey with already-shorn hair.

I was too young to see the band then, but one thing I have wondered is why they started the tour so soon after the release of the album.
Their first performance was in Berkeley in Feb of 1977 and I read a blurb somewhere that said Stevie was battling a strained throat & left the stage during the performance. Then they played Philadlephia's Spectrum & Nassau Coliseum in March, and went on to cancel weeks worth of dates when Stevie's vocal strain flared up again.
Her vocals were not in the best of shape in 1977 and she had trouble even up through their 1978 summer tour.

Which one? 1977-80, 1982, 1987, 1990, 1994/95, 1997, 2003, 2008????

NOT an uncommon occurrance in those days. From '75-78, there were some shows where she'd come out, sing the background vocals on "Station Man" & "Spare Me A Little...", belt out "Rhiannon" and that was it for her...they'd get to "Landslide"'s spot in the set and she'd shake her head and they'd skip ahead to the next song...she'd just stand there and shake a tambourine on the songs that she normally would sing backgrounds on, but any pre-'75 song ("Oh Well", "Green Manalishi", "Rattlesnake Shake"), she'd leave the stage altogether...there were many a night that "Why" & "Hypnotized" were only a two-part harmony between Christine & Lindsey.

Remeber since i know alot about tambourines, Stevie Used a REMO PTS series wood Tambourines threw 1975-1981

Thank you for sharing - but yeah there's no way Mick remembered all that! :D

You'd be surprised about some of the wacko random stuff we remember. I can tell you in exact detail the "system" a few other people came up with for me to use when giving answers for the Global History Regents back when I was a sophmore in high school and that next year for my Spanish Regents (I was pretty much the resident smarty pants in both those classes, and it was known by many who were in my classes and neither actually got off the ground level), and yet I can't remember what I had for dinner last night :lol:

Either way, I doubt anyone could remember that much from 30+ years ago in that much detail, and next-to-impossible with as stoned Mick probably was

Mick's got nothing on the Memphis Mafia.

This would have been between 75-76, since the setlist changed markedly by 77-78, and Stevie was called on to sing Dreams every night, too.

Stevie has said she did the most damage to her voice during the first tour.

The July shows referred to in Mick's book were referred to in the RS article I mentioned above, that's probably how he "remembered."

So that explains how he was able to "remember" it so well, but what about other things? Other mags? Fans? Whatever he thought went down in his drug-addled mind? :lol:

Rolling Stone has always trashed Stevie, not least when it came to reviewing her solo albums. The magazine hates anyone who isn't a straight male rocker.

Hell, I still don't understand why they hated Led Zeppelin so much or trashed so many great rockers. In fact, I heard the reason why Heart and the Moody Blues never got into the RnRHoF is cause Jan Wenner doesn't like 'em

Is it a big deal that he looks help on mag articles to remember? I guess everybody does. Besides the book is not written by him alone.
Bob Brunning's book is also a collection of articles, well consolidated.
He does know acknowledge magazines:

This book was recorded, transcribed, and edited in Malibu, New York, and London between 1985 and 1990. The authors wish to give thanks and
praise to all present and former members of Fleetwood Mac who helped out with memories of their own, as well as Biddy Fleetwood, Sally Hartnell, Jenny Boyd Wallace, Dennis Dunstan, Richard Dashut, Judy Wong, John Courage,
Paul Ahearn, and Sara. Ron Bernstein and Mickey Shapiro were instrumental in getting this mad endeavor underway, and-Jim Landis, Jane Meara, Susan Hill, and Roz Targ helped to see it into print.

I guess other bios I've read (Queen, Tina Turner, Gloria Estefan, etc.). are also helped on several sources. Whenever the info is right, good for us.

Oh, I agree! And in fact, would expect that Mick did research to verify facts, etc...

But the Brunning book is where I draw the line. That book is riddled with so many errors of fact that one can't take it seriously. He does, however, refer to some great articles, especially re: the lawsuit with Cliff Davis.

I read Bob's book several years ago. Can't remember if I detected errors. Can you mention some?
And of course magazines make mistakes, too, so the authors may transmit those errors to their books. They should research and verify.

For example Mick mentions (yes, again his book ;) ):

(1975, prior to release the white album ) Our low status in those days was confirmed when our label took out an ad in Billboard. In the photograph Stevie was identified as Lindsey and vice versa. We were not amused.