Why Midnight Special 1976

[David]

Bands seemed cooler in those days. I'm not sure what it was, but they all seemed cooler -- even if you didn't like their music.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

Thanks for clarifying that for me (long nets of white cloud my memory, to quote Stevie). Do you remember the date?

Perhaps you have written about this in another thread...but what was the circumstance in which you were in attendance (are you spotted in the film!)?

What was the atmosphere/mood like, regarding the band and response of the audience? Did they do retakes? Was the entire show included in the film?

I worked in a record store (a local chain called "The Wherehouse" that no longer exists)...during July & August, each store got a certain number of tickets per day for the taping of the show. KLOS-FM (95.5) would announce at 3:30pm who the artists that would be performing that evening. The show would start at 5pm, no one was allowed in or out once the artist was on stage. At 3:25, while at work, we switched to the station (from the in-store turntable) to hear who would be playing. As soon as I heard "Fleetwood Mac", I grabbed a couple of passes off the counter, which was a good thing, since everybody who came into the store after that was asking for tickets and we "sold out" within a few minutes. My shift that night was over at 4pm as was my co-worker's (who I'd just started dating a few weeks earlier; was a coincidence that we just happened to be scheduled the same shift that day), we FLEW from the store to the Long Beach Auditorium (going about 70 -80 the whole way), she had a Triumph Spitfire convertible that put out some serious G-forces when accelerating! We'd have never made it had we taken my VW bus! Got there, got in line...just as we were the next people to go in, Security was ordered to close the doors. We asked who was going on, when they said "Fleetwood Mac", we begged & pleaded...they relented pretty quickly (Thanks, guys!) & let us in. We found seats in the very last row just as they walked out on stage. They played a full concert set (about 75-90 minutes), but only 4 or 5 songs actually made it to the broadcast. After their set, they did a couple of songs a 2nd time. When watching the broadcast (it was shown about a week or so later) there were crowd shots, but there was no way I could see myself, we were so far back. And, with editing, who even knew if those were even of the same audience at that particular show? Other acts that played were Blue Swede and comedian Gary Muledeer, but we were glad that Fleetwood Mac was first, we left when they finished.

The mood was that of a regular concert...energized!

That was the first time I saw Fleetwood Mac live...I'd see them a few months later at one of the final shows (if not THE final show) of the '74 tour (which, of course, was Bob Welch's last as a member of Fleetwood Mac)

I also attended a couple of other Don Kirshner tapings from that season...
Dr John/Ohio Players/Stylistics/New York Dolls
and
Linda Ronstadt/Nitty Gritty Dirt Band/John Hartford/Steve Martin (JUST before his fame skyrocketed) If there's a video of this show circulating, I might be seen, since we were in the 3rd or 4th row right in the center.

[GoldDustWoman22]

Originally Posted by David

Bands seemed cooler in those days. I'm not sure what it was, but they all seemed cooler -- even if you didn't like their music.

I totally agree! I feel like it's because they didn't try to be cool...they just went out and did their thing which automatically makes them cool. I feel like today's bands try too hard to be something their not. While the bands of the 60s and 70s were just going out there and playing their music and being really "organic"