Robin
 

What day did Robin die? I know it was in October.

Also, how do you think Stevie dealt with this? I know FM was on the road at the time. Did they take time off? How the hell did Stevie get up on stage? I mean, yeah, it's her duty and blah blah blah - just like not cancelling the TISL tour after 9/11 but come on. You gotta grieve alone and have time to heal.

I tend to think of this era as Stevie really beginning to let go and get a little crazy (subststances, in particular) and i many times attribute it to Robin's death.

I don't know the exact date - did they say it on Behind the Music? I can't remember.

I agree that Stevie's drug use probably started getting worse about this time, or shortly thereafter. Can you imagine when she realized that her marriage to Kim was a bad idea? How guilty/horrified/upset/depressed she felt about all of it - Robin, Matthew, Kim...everything? I think that Robin's death probably didn't "hit her" immediately, but when it did, it hit hard.

Paula

She said on Behind the Music that she went crazy, but had to keep working, and any song she sang would make her cry, any song on the radio made her cry. And Sharon said it was a loooooong time before she came back from that. And there was nothing anybody could do...

I think Robin died around 10-12-82. The date is on the Rhiannon painting that Stevie did, in the lower right-hand corner. I remember them cancelling shows (including my first FM show in Austin), with the explanation that Stevie was sick. The upside to that - the Austin show got rescheduled for Halloween, and Stevie came onstage wearing a witch's hat.

P.S. - Duh, I meant to say 1982 instead of '80...the Mirage tour...updating my original typo...

I believe it was Tuesday, Oct. 12, 1982. Matthew was born one week earlier, which would be on or around Oct. 5. In Stevie's description of the Rhiannon painting, she says Robin "died last Tuesday," but I think Stevie put together that description ("I finished her in brilliance upon Robin's death") about a week after she finished the painting (Oct. 12), when Mac did a show to raise money for City of Hope, & then presented the money to the organization in a photo session.
Fleetwood postponed a bunch of shows in the Southwest & on the West Coast, but the reason given was Stevie's walking pneumonia. That makes sense: when you're grieving, you frequently get sick.

I saw Stevie play a week after all the bad stuff -- at the City of Hope benefit. She was pretty unhappy, but she gave a great performance. For the shows in CA later that week, she didn't seem grief-stricken to me. She was probably just sort of numb. I think it all hit her even more during her solo tour the following year, when she was a lot more up & down emotionally & a lot more stoned.

Also, all the band members & road crew knew Robin; her illness must have affected everybody.

I would deem this accurate. I had tickets to a show in Oakland on October 2nd, and the show was postponed until the 20th. Which sucked, as I had saved my pennies and flown my 16 year old butt all the way down there. I still can't recall how the hell I got the money. Good thing I was always a workin man.

I read the exact date somewhere - but I do believe this is close enough for horseshoes.

and those are the shows that wound up being videotaped and released.
that's one of the reasons for my question: she looks pretty happy and with it throughout the whole thing although there are moments where she looks doggone pissy like during "rhiannon."

how could she muster even a half smile during this time? i guess the power of being a rock and roller on stage is pretty potent.

And the power of coke.

Didn't they know that these shows would be recorded? I'm sure it was like "OK, they're filming, you have to be like they expect you to be." And we all talk about how many "breaks" she takes off stage in that vid. Like Amber said, I'm sure the coke helped numb her pretty well.

Paula

And cigarettes and brandy. :lol:

Wasn't the Baton Rouge show on Oct 13th? (the one BlueWhiteFire has for download) If so, that was the day after Robin died.

I thought she died on October 5, 1982. It's heartbreaking to see Robin on the Japan Rumours tapes...laughing, watching Robin take care of Stevie, smiling, etc.

Yeah, it's really sad on the "Conversations" tapes, when they're recording things for Mirage and Stevie's telling them about Robin's trip to Dr. whatsherface and telling everyone that it was a miracle that she was getting better and that she thought Robin was going to make it okay. :\

Are those the tapes where Stevie keeps interrupting Christine as she's talking? There's always comedy in sad situations.