Another Link in the Chain tour 1994/95

[guillamene]

Not a lot of audio/video of these shows twenty years ago.I was wondering if there are any ledgies who attended any of the dates who could share their memories?
I'm curious as to what the audiences were like in terms of numbers and general reception that the band got in view of the very different line-up? I know that they were part of a 'package' tour in the U.S. with Pat Benatar and C.S.N. . R.E. O. Speedwagon(?) among others and that the sets were therefore quite short.

Listening to the few shows that I have, I notice that a portion of the set was solo/Traffic/Delaney and Bonnie material as well as -gulp!-'Imagine' and 'All Along the Watchtower'(so sad!) which left room for a reduced number of Fleetwood Mac songs. It was such a huge reduction in scale for the band and many fans felt little or no connection with the 'Rumours' -or even preRumours- line up. Nonetheless, I admire Mick and John for carrying on as it must have been difficult for them.
Two things always puzzled me about this tour: why it nver came to the U.K.(I suspect thet no promoter would book this line-up) and, secondly, why TIME was released(and not promoted) AFTER the tours?

Hope some can share their memories/thoughts.

"Never break the chain"

[cascade13]

Well, here's one take, for what it's worth given 20 years of fading memory.

I caught the 1995 tour in August when they stopped at Redwood Amphitheater at Great America in Santa Clara, CA. My first official FM show, so I was quite excited, even if it wasn't quite the lineup I'd loved growing up (I was 19 by then). I'd listened to Billy's songs on BTM plenty, plus had listened to the Zoo album that featured Bekka, so I was intrigued by hearing them live.

The show itself was pretty good, considering it was very much a transitional lineup that wasn't ultimately going to last much longer. I remember thinking Billy and Bekka were the workhorses that day -- energetic and talented -- while Dave seemed a little indifferent. Mick and John did their usual thing, and Steve Thoma just stayed off to the side. I get what you mean about a different scale. Not just the length of the set, but the size of the stage...it was much simpler than what they put together nowadays.

Bekka and Billy were the highlight to me, especially on Go Your Own Way. I've always thought Billy does an awesome version of that song (I've heard some really bad ones), and Bekka put quite a charge into it with her backing vocals. It just fit their voices well. That and Don't Stop had the biggest reaction from the audience. Billy and Bekka really sang well together all day -- their take on Oh Well was also good and novel -- and really tried to make it a "Fleetwood Mac" show. (Although I wish they'd have featured a Zoo song or two...Bekka just rocked that album.)

Dave, on the other hand, seemed to treat it as a "Dave Mason featuring Fleetwood Mac" show. The Chain was the only song where he took one of Lindsey or Peter's parts (he sang two of his own pre-FM songs). And I don't know if it was a deliberate change in style or emphasis, but his guitar work was just not very compelling, either, especially compared to what Rick was able to do with Lindsey's and Peter's parts.

I left thinking it was a good show, but it could have been much more. I though Time itself was a good album and wished they'd have featured more than one song (Dreaming the Dream) on the tour, but when you're touring as FM and doing only 10 or 12 songs...what can you do?

Originally Posted by guillamene

Not a lot of audio/video of these shows twenty years ago.I was wondering if there are any ledgies who attended any of the dates who could share their memories?
I'm curious as to what the audiences were like in terms of numbers and general reception that the band got in view of the very different line-up? I know that they were part of a 'package' tour in the U.S. with Pat Benatar and C.S.N. . R.E. O. Speedwagon(?) among others and that the sets were therefore quite short.

Listening to the few shows that I have, I notice that a portion of the set was solo/Traffic/Delaney and Bonnie material as well as -gulp!-'Imagine' and 'All Along the Watchtower'(so sad!) which left room for a reduced number of Fleetwood Mac songs. It was such a huge reduction in scale for the band and many fans felt little or no connection with the 'Rumours' -or even preRumours- line up. Nonetheless, I admire Mick and John for carrying on as it must have been difficult for them.
Two things always puzzled me about this tour: why it nver came to the U.K.(I suspect thet no promoter would book this line-up) and, secondly, why TIME was released(and not promoted) AFTER the tours?

Hope some can share their memories/thoughts.

"Never break the chain"

[PenguinHead]

I'm a roller-coaster fanatic, so I traveled to a lot of amusement parks. I saw Fleetwood Mac, with REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar, in California at an amusement park I can't recall at the moment....possibly Six Flags.

It was an astonishing surprise, since I was just there to ride the rides and no idea they were going to be there. I was aware there was a drastic lineup change in the band, but I was still excited to see them. Still, it was somewhat sad to see them on a package tour at an amusement park. Most of the general public associate with Christine, Stevie and Lindsey as the face of Fleetwood Mac. So many audience members were likely unaware that they would see none of them on stage.

It was a disconcerting situation for various reasons. This legendary band was seemingly stripped of its identity and high status, and laid bear in the light of day. Since this was essentially a side show within an amusement park, it wasn't a normal fan-based audience. I saw a lot of confused faces, and probably one of the lowest attendance record in their history.

They are all fine musicians, so the performance was good. Beka's a great singer, but seeing her singing Gold Dust Woman was like watching a great cover band. And having Dave Mason in the mix made the situation even more bizarre. I give Mick credit for keeping the institution of Fleetwood Mac alive. This was a strange link in the chain. But I was very concerned about the fate of the band.

I like the Time album. Christine's songs are up to her normal standard, and there are other good songs on it. In hindsight, the Fleetwood Mac brand was kept on life-support until it found it's pulse again. It's sad consider that since then, the only album they have made that consists of entirely new material is Say You Will. A new album is long overdue.

[cascade13]

Sounds like we were at the same show! Great America has been run by Marriott, Paramount, and Six Flags at various times. I grew up down the road, so it was always our place of choice to get a roller-coaster fix.

I'd known about the lineup in advance because of the various FM newsgroups, etc. that had started up at the time (the Internet was a fairly new thing in the mid-90s), but had no idea what they sounded like because YouTube was still a gleam in someone's eye. Like you said, strange environment for them, but they sounded good.

That lineup was always an interesting one to me in the grand scheme of FM. On one hand, Mick and John were doing what they always did -- find new singers, songwriters, and guitarists to fill out their front line, ease them in slowly by having them cover older songs (witness that Bob Welch, LB, and Billy have all covered Oh Well), then let the band's style evolve from there. That approach led them from the PG years to the BN years in the first place. But obviously it was much harder to pull off once the BN lineup attained mega-stardom...and we had The Dance two years later.

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

I'm a roller-coaster fanatic, so I traveled to a lot of amusement parks. I saw Fleetwood Mac, with REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar, in California at an amusement park I can't recall at the moment....possibly Six Flags.

It was an astonishing surprise, since I was just there to ride the rides and no idea they were going to be there. I was aware there was a drastic lineup change in the band, but I was still excited to see them. Still, it was somewhat sad to see them on a package tour at an amusement park. Most of the general public associate with Christine, Stevie and Lindsey as the face of Fleetwood Mac. So many audience members were likely unaware that they would see none of them on stage.

It was a disconcerting situation for various reasons. This legendary band was seemingly stripped of its identity and high status, and laid bear in the light of day. Since this was essentially a side show within an amusement park, it wasn't a normal fan-based audience. I saw a lot of confused faces, and probably one of the lowest attendance record in their history.

They are all fine musicians, so the performance was good. Beka's a great singer, but seeing her singing Gold Dust Woman was like watching a great cover band. And having Dave Mason in the mix made the situation even more bizarre. I give Mick credit for keeping the institution of Fleetwood Mac alive. This was a strange link in the chain. But I was very concerned about the fate of the band.

I like the Time album. Christine's songs are up to her normal standard, and there are other good songs on it. In hindsight, the Fleetwood Mac brand was kept on life-support until it found it's pulse again. It's sad consider that since then, the only album they have made that consists of entirely new material is Say You Will. A new album is long overdue.

[SorcererJP]

I attended their concert in Leiden (Holland) in de fall of 1995. (or was it 1995, cannot remember).

The show was horrible, dull and boring as far as i remember. I was very upfront at Billy Burnette's stand and wanted to turn my back on them when Bekka Bramlett raped Gold Dust Woman ... I thought they sucked.

Next it took a decade to see the real Mac in 2004 again in Oberhausen Germany ...

... and then again in 2009 (2x), 2013 (3x) and 2015 (3x).

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by guillamene

Listening to the few shows that I have, I notice that a portion of the set was solo/Traffic/Delaney and Bonnie material as well as -gulp!-'Imagine' and 'All Along the Watchtower'(so sad!) which left room for a reduced number of Fleetwood Mac songs. It was such a huge reduction in scale for the band and many fans felt little or no connection with the 'Rumours' -or even preRumours- line up. Nonetheless, I admire Mick and John for carrying on as it must have been difficult for them.
Two things always puzzled me about this tour: why it nver came to the U.K.(I suspect thet no promoter would book this line-up) and, secondly, why TIME was released(and not promoted) AFTER the tours?

Hope some can share their memories/thoughts.

"Never break the chain"

Well, you had an ex-member of Traffic in the band (who also was a songwriter of some renoun in his own right), so of COURSE they're going to play his songs...also, who had a hit with his cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower", so of course that's going to be in the set. And, of course there was no connection with Rumours since NONE of the Rumours songwriters were still in the band; just as the Rumours crew really had no connection with the Peter Green era of Fleetwood Mac, either. But, they still played SOME material from those days.

The album was released AFTER the tour mainly because the album they THOUGHT they were touring behind was rejected by Warner Bros...so they had to rework the album during breaks in the tour (mainly adding Christine's songs)

[cbBen]

Originally Posted by chiliD

Well, you had an ex-member of Traffic in the band (who also was a songwriter of some renoun in his own right), so of COURSE they're going to play his songs...also, who had a hit with his cover of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower", so of course that's going to be in the set.

Dave Mason didn't have a hit with "All Along the Watchtower." He just contributed 12-string acoustic rhythm guitar to the hit version by Jimi Hendrix:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Ladyland (musician credits)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY (link to the recording)

He proceeded to use this fairly meager basis to establish the song as a staple of his own. Similar situation with "Dear Mr. Fantasy," which he didn't co-write but merely contributed bass and harmonica (no guitar).

Yes, he did on his own write or otherwise score hits with some strong songs (though not all that many) – most notably "Only You Know And I Know," "Feelin' Alright" (via Joe Cocker's version), and "We Just Disagree." (FWIW, IMO his songs "Shouldn't Have Took More Than You Gave" and "Sad And Deep As You" are stronger than the above hits).

But his connections/contributions to "Watchtower" and "Fantasy" are scant, and in neither case involve vocals or lead guitar.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by cbBen

Dave Mason didn't have a hit with "All Along the Watchtower." He just contributed some relatively non-descript* 12-string guitar to the hit version by Jimi Hendrix:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Ladyland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY

He proceeded to use this relatively meager basis to establish the song as a staple of his own set. Similar situation with "Dear Mr. Fantasy," which he didn't co-write but merely contributed organ and harmonica (no guitar).

Don't get me wrong, he did write or otherwise score hits with some strong songs on his own – "Only You Know And I Know," "Feelin' Alright" (via Joe Cocker's version), "We Just Disagree." But his connection to the above two songs is fairly scant.

*unless I'm wrong and the solo from 2:00 to 2:15 is Mason's, not Hendrix's (I don't think it is, but am not 100% sure), and even if it is it's a relatively thin read on which to make the song a staple of your own

You realize that ChiliD can't debate you, right? He passed away several years ago.

[cbBen]

Originally Posted by HomerMcvie

You realize that ChiliD can't debate you, right? He passed away several years ago.

I did not. RIP. And thanks for letting me know.

In any case, I was more clarifying the record for the benefit of the group than I was looking for an argument. (In that regard, just to let everyone know, I revised my comment after you quoted it; so everyone please refer to the one above.)

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by cbBen

I did not. RIP. And thanks for letting me know.

In any case, I was more clarifying the record for the benefit of the group than I was looking for an argument. (In that regard, just to let everyone know, I revised my comment after you quoted it; so everyone please refer to the one above.)

He was a great guy, guitarist, and had a plethora of FM knowledge. He also owned a Rick Turner Model 1(Lindsey's guitar).

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by cbBen

Dave Mason didn't have a hit with "All Along the Watchtower."

It wasn’t a hit, but Dave Mason’s 1974 solo cover got regular airplay for years and it’s been a staple in his setlist ever since. It’s a very different arrangement from Henxrix.

ETA: Mason and Winwood did dueling leads on “Dear Mr. Fantasy” on Traffic’s live “Welcome to the Canteen” album.