Question about Christine's solo tour
 

What kind of venues did she play at? I'm assuming smaller ones than Fleetwood Mac. How many shows did she do on her solo tour? Did they usually sell out?

I think she was on the road for two months, and performed maybe forty shows. I regret my lapse of reason for not attending her show. She certainly played in smaller venues, much like Lindsey does. I hope she had some sell-outs on her tour.

She did not play arenas but much smaller venues that held several thousand people. She did tour the entire USA going to all corners.....Ft Lauderdale, FL, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Houston, Jackson NJ, Boston, etc. In Pittsburgh she played the Stanley Theater which was a standard for major bands who could not fill the bigger Civic Arena. Today the Stanley Theater is the Bennedum Center in Pittsburgh which is the place Broadway shows come to town to perform. But back in the 1970's and 1980's the Stanley Theater was played by just about every rock band in history including Fleetwood Mac. One cool thing about the Stanley Theater is that it was voted the #1 venue in the USA for a rock concert due to its acoustics and beautiful historic charm.
https://sites.google.com/site/pittsb...ter---rock-era

I could never understand why Christine was not a major draw in attendance. She sung many hits with the Mac and had a big hit and another in the top 40 when the tour was progressing. I saw the show in Pittsburgh and there were only a few hundred people there. I have routinely said her 1984 show was the best concert of my life (and I have seen just about ever band from Metallica, Slayer to Cher and Boz Scaggs).

I have never been able to confirm this but I heard many shows were cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. But I have not read what city was cancelled. I saw her tour bus in 1984 and it was named after John McVie's boat "The Challenge." It was parked just a block or two from the theater. Gosh I wish I had a camera with me back then.

I love everything about Christine. She is the accidental rock star. So grounded. So humble and so beautiful. One of the highlights for her solo concert was seeing her sing at center microphone for a few of her solo songs. Talk about cool! Don't you wish we could all just go back in a time machine sometime?

I also enjoyed Christine's solo show very much. I particularly liked hearing two of her pre-1975 songs, "Spare Me a Little" and "Just Crazy Love." I saw her at the Orpheum in Boston, a medium sized theater. I have no memory of how full the theater was. I was in the second row and I don't think I thought of turning around to see how full it was.

I don't recall shows being cancelled on the tour, but of course in those pre-internet days that sort of information wasn't as instantly available as it is now.

Chris never half bakes anything. She is a true professional song writer and performer. Her band was amazing and she seemed to be enjoying herself. I have the Jackson, NJ bootleg on CD. Her band is so tight. 2 highlights. I love the echo effect on "The smile I live for" and her dedication to 6 Flags Amusement Park in Jackson, NJ on May 18, 1984. She dedicates Songbird to the city and a horrific tragedy that happened just one week before her concert there. 8 teenagers got trapped and died in a horrific dark ride tragedy. It is assumed that there was a light bulb that burned out and someone used a lighter to find their way out which ignited the entire ride. Her Songbird that night is quite emotional.

Here is a list of some cities the tour stopped in:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlists/chris...e-3d681a7.html

Here is about the tragedy in Jackson I spoke about:
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/13/ny...ed-castle.html

I don't know about all the cancelled shows, but I do know that her Bay Area show was cancelled because I was So Excited to see it and was really sad when it was cancelled. I'm guessing it was towards the end of the tour and that the whole end of the tour, and not just certain venues, were cancelled. I'm 99% sure that the show was scheduled for the Concord Pavilion (it's now got a corporate name and there are far fewer shows there than there were in the 1980's and '90's). It was either that or the Shoreline in Mountain View, but I'm pretty sure it was at the Concord Pavilion. That venue is a medium sized out door arena. One reason for the poor ticket sales might have been that at that time there were doing this really stupid ticket sales thing where you had to subscribe to a series of tickets to get the best seats. That basically meant buying tickets for shows that you didn't want to go to and then either eating those tickets or trying to sell them (and without the internet, that wasn't easy). I was a college student at the time with not a lot of disposable income, and I remember trying to think of what I was going to do, and then hearing that it has been cancelled and being in part relieved that I wouldn't have to think about it.

Kevin

Christine took her duties as a solo artist seriously and promoted the album pretty well. It was certainly not a blockbuster and I remember most people my age (14 at the time) having only a vague idea of who she was. She appealed largely to people who were young adults in the 60s and 70s. On her own, she was considered a low-profile act with a killer backing band.

No one doubted her skills. But even then talk of her "needing the band" to truly spark was a typical assessment. Most of the reviews of her concerts concluded she was charming but tame.

I got a lot of flack from my friends for buying her album because they saw it as easy listening. I couldn't entirely understand this since my favorite songs on it--One in a Million and Smile I Live For--transcended that category. However, I remember being disappointed that there weren't more piano-driven songs on it. And I HATED the three songs that fill the middle of the second side of the album.

That is the show I will always regret missing. I was in college at the time, in Fitchburg, MA.

Here's an entire thread discussing her solo tour:

http://www.ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/sh...ad.php?t=41591

I was fortunate enough to attend her San Antonio concert. WatchChain offers a very good description of that concert in the thread. Buried somewhere at my parents house, I know I have a written account of the setlist. I also have a adult medium size tour tshirt which I bought even though it was a size too small as they were out of large. I remember being seated slightly to the left of center just a few rows behind the front row. It was a great concert and only my second one, following Stevie's concert stop in Austin the year before. A few months later I was also fortunate to attend Mick Fleetwood's Zoo at their concert in Austin as well.

Saw the show in Cleveland. I remember the line going around the block to get in the theater. My parents took me and we were about 5th in line. Sat stage left where her piano was.

The show was absolutely amazing. I saw Stevie solo shows and felt this was so much more fun because it was a smaller place. Saw Lindsey at an even smaller venue for his OOTC tour. That too was fantastic.

I was at the Orpheum as well! I don't think it was even sold out.:confused:

Chris played concerts to people from 3,000 to about 9,000 during her 1984 solo tour. Interesting fact: Billy Burnette toured with her, that means he worked with

Lindsey Buckingham - SNL 1982
Stevie Nicks - Are You Mine? Duet 1984
Christine McVie - 1984 Solo Album and In The Meantime
John McVie - Gotta Band
Mick Fleetwood - The Zoo
Bekka Bramlett - Bekka & Billy
Rick Vito - Solo tours (as a guest)

He might have worked with other people from FM also, but that is all I can think of right now.

Billy never toured with Christine. He worked on her album and did the Country Club show in December 1983. He did not do the tour. Todd Sharpe and Steven Breitman (spelling) were the guitarists on the tour.

The venues may have held thousands but unfortunately the tour did not fill those venues. The article that is linked to this thread has a press article about her opening night in Fresno that only attracted 800 people. Fleetwood Mac has their peak audiences in LA and San Francisco and she only had 800 in Fresno. I was in shock when there were only about 200 in Pittsburgh. The bootleg of Milwaukee the audience is silent which makes Chris say....."its so quiet here."
This topic always strikes a nerve with me even as a teenager in 1984. I don't understand where Mac fans went because they sure were not loyal to Chris. She sang some of the biggest hits of the 70s and 80s and had a hit solo album with a top 10 single and another one in the top 40. 2 videos on MTV with heavy rotation, appearing on Solid Gold and American Bandstand. But Mac fans never supported Chris on her tour. Can you imagine the HUGE hit Hold me from 1982 followed by the top 10 hit Got A Hold on Me in concert? What a concert!
Sadly Lindsey and Mick never attracted huge crowds solo either. But Chris sung most of the hits so she should have been a much bigger draw.

*****sorry, just had to vent......off the soap box now *****

Sorry I must have been confused with Billy and the tour. I wonder if as the tour went on, more audiences would join her. She began the tour with no hits as a solo artist, and ended with 2 top 40's.

Lindsey should have had more people in attendance, but Mick? Nah. Nobody wanted to see the drummer of Fleetwood Mac in concert. Now it's different because he's playing blues songs and the singer was a member of FM (rick vito)

I attended the Universal Amphitheatre concert in Los Angeles in the middle of June, 1984. Venue was mostly full, I do believe. Mick and Lindsey sat down briefly in the front row, and then got hustled backstage, and that was that. The evening was less sedate than the reviews all claimed, but nobody mistook it for a Fleetwood Mac concert. Christine gives off a mid-level star vibe, shimmering a bit. But her 1984 recording and touring bands were musicians, not larger-than-life personalities of people who stop traffic. So, yes, things were a bit bland over the 90 minutes—for example, compare the solo "Hold Me" with Fleetwood Mac's combustible, arena-level "Hold Me." The latter is ear-battering Big Name Rock, the former is a pleasant, genteel arrangement and performance best suited to intimate venues—or maybe libraries.

It's a shame that the tour didn't peel back the conventional pop-rock cliches even more, and dispense with the gloss. People might have been more impressed with less structure and more freewheeling blues with a prominent piano.

Christine did not leave that tour unscathed. After her solo venture, she returned to the Mac and increasingly referred to herself in interviews as a side player. In 1997, she told an interviewer she "lacked the charisma" to tour by herself. Given her comments in a recent interview about overcoming her insecurities as a performer, I'd say her doubts about her ability to connect with a large fan base on her own may have had something to do with her unwillingness to promote In the Meantime. Her fear of flying may, too, have been tied in with some of those insecurities.

It is true that her solo shows were rather tame in comparison to Mac concerts. She didn't take enough risks to do something that would distinguish her. As David said, she might have sparked more interest by pairing down the shows and featuring herself as a blues pianist/singer. I think that would have gotten her critical attention at least. And I'd have loved to hear such a show!

I agree with what you say. But I like the authentic Chris. She is not flashy or tries to be something she is not. The fact that she lacks charisma makes me love her even more. Its about the music to me and with Chris you will never find a better singer and performer in the studio or live. Yes most will say how much underappreciated she is with the Mac. But her joining the group was equally changing like when Buckingham/Nicks joined. Chris is such a fantastic songwriter. When I listen to the old Mac albums with Chris.....her songs are always my favorite. I don't think there is any song recorded by Chris that I hate. Her sultry vocals, her lyrics, and her seriousness of a performer always pulls me in.
That is why I think In the Meantime is a lost treasure. How lucky her nephew got her playing again in 2003 for a 2004 release. When I first listened to it.... I thought it was good. It took me a little while to fully appreciate the masterpiece it truly is. No padding.... no filler and maybe no charisma but one of the few records I put on and listen to song after song. Its not supposed to be daring or ground breaking. Its just well written and performed music. And that is what you get in a solo concert too. Thank goodness Chris does not have a shtick.

I think she could have done a segment in the show like that. Just two songs, her with her piano doing blues songs. She could have done "Get Like You Used To Be" and one other blues chestnut that she loves. Actually, the band could have accompanied her as long as the piano was the main instrument. Now that would have been something memorable!

I love In the Meantime. To me, it's miles better than the 1984 album. Hardly a weak moment on it. And I DO think she displayed a low-key charisma on it. It's just that her subtle brand of musicianship attracts only the discerning ears.

I agree with that thought. It would have been the highlight of the show.

The thing is...Christine thrives within the context of an ensemble band. She never had aspirations to the central singer/leader of the band. Fleetwood Mac, with other singers/songwriters, has been the perfect platform for her to showcase her talents. She doesn't have the drive nor the charisma to sustain a solo career on the level of Steve or Lindsey.

That solo tour was rather an anomaly of sorts for her; just a one-off venture. But I'm glad she did it, and I'm happy we have her work with Chicken Shack, the Christine Perfect album, the Christine McVie album, and the surprise-out of the blue album In the Meantime -- a very fine album of songs-- some which sound like lost Fleetwood Mac numbers. I love her stray solo covers of "I Can't Help Falling in Love with You" and "Roll With Me Henry," both which have the instrumental support of various Mac members.

I totally agree. I also prefer In the Meantime to the CM album. Someone used the word "authentic" in this thread. I love ITM for its authenticity. It lacks the big production of the 1984 album and sounds like you're sitting in Christine's (or maybe her nephew's) living room listening to them play.

So finely articulated!