Bits of Philly 7/30/78

[David]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

The band's site and Wikipedia states it was still considered the Rumours tour but because of some new material and stadiums I see how it could be considered another venture. The band took a break to start Tusk in 1978 but hit the road again in 1978. The leg of the 1978 tour was called the "Penguin Summer Country Safari". The 1978 dates are still considered part of the Rumours tour.

The Rumours tour had 6 legs.
1. First North American Leg February 24, 1977 - April 1, 1977
2. European Leg April 2, 1977 - April 26, 1977
3. Second North American leg May 1, 1977 - October 4, 1977
4. Oceana and Japan November 6, 1977 - December 5, 1977
5. North American Leg 3 December 7 and 10, 1977 - Hawaii
6 Penguin Country Summer Safari July 17, 1978 - August 30, 1978

I suppose it can be considered a proper leg of the Rumours tour, but I see those concerts as stand-alone. When they got off the road in December 1977, Fleetwood Mac was finished with the Rumours tour. None of them had any plan or idea they would tour for a month later that summer. It was an ad hoc plan to take a studio break and really had no original connection to the 1977 tour. In 1978, these were big shows, like a month-long series of stand-alone stadium gigs (the East and West festivals weren’t related to a tour, either). Apart from playing live to take a break from the studio, I think the organization wanted to keep the band’s name in the spotlight — and unload the rest of the unsold 1977 programs and T-shirts. The 1978 concerts were very unusual, too, because there were no West Coast appearances. In fact, there were no appearances west of the Rockies. Really weird. Bly, I envy your getting to see this “leg.”