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The Touring Band
Billboard Concert Review
Rolling Stone Concert Review
The Itinerary

The Touring Band:
Mick Fleetwood: Drums and Percussion
John McVie: Bass Guitar
Christine McVie: Keyboards and Vocals
Stevie Nicks: Vocals
Lindsey Buckingham: Guitars and Vocals

Billboard Concert Review:
(JFK Stadium, July 29, 1978)
published in Billboard Magazine, August 12, 1978
(by Robert Ford)

Nearly 65,000 fans braved threatening skies July 29 to get a look at this wildly successful recording act at the hulking, antiquated football stadium best known as the home of the Army-Navy game. Unlike the Rolling Stones date held here earlier in the summer, the afternoon passed without major incident as the crowd was good-natured & orderly.

The band hit the stage about 4:20 & immediately brought the throng to its feet as it opened with some of its stronger up-tempo material.

Instrumentally the band was in rare form throughout, with drummer Mick Fleetwood giving a particularly strong performance. Fleetwood combines the creativity & taste of a veteran jazz drummer with the power & flair of a rocker. His solid time-keeping & spirited fills are one of the group's greatest yet most appreciated [sic] assets.

Unfortunately vocalist Stevie Nicks was in poor form as she seemed unable to get her voice to do the things it does on record. This was particularly disappointing to her fans since Nicks is the voice featured on some of the group's biggest hits such as 'Rhiannon' & 'Dreams.'

For the most part, the band's 17-song, 100-minute set was well paced with the group spreading its strongest material such as 'Listen to the Wind Blow,' 'Oh Daddy,' 'Say You Love Me' & 'You Make Loving Fun' throughout the show.

The set did get tedious toward the end, with 'You Can Go Your Own Way' being the only song in the last six that held the crowd's attention.



Rolling Stone Review:
(Madison Square Garden, June 29, 1977)
published in Rolling Stone Magazine, August 23, 1977
(by Peter Herbst)

Two things about Fleetwood Mac's Garden show: Stevie Nicks failing voice was the audience's prime discussion topic before and after the concert; and Fleetwood Mac performed magnificently without Nick's best efforts.

Nicks clearly has become the group's centerpiece, a shaggy, haired love object who cultivates onstage mystique that only the very young could thoroughly buy. Her mannerisma - whirling dances (outstreched arms converting her shawl into butterfly wings), sotto voice introductions fro Rhianon: This is a song about a welsh witch and sulky aimlessness between her numbers - skirt corniness. Still Nicks has an "undeniable" magnetism and gets away with her devices more often than not.

On this night, though, she couldn't summon the chops to get away with anything, Fleetwood Mac had canceled their previous evening's performance in Syracuse because Nicks was suffering from severe vocal strain. At the Garden she found it impossible to hit "Rhiannons" higher notes - though she struggled valiantly. And during "Gold Dust Woman", Nicks, wearing a witch's black hat and framed by a Halloween moon that reappeared from time to time during the night growled hoarse incarnations to rival Linda Blair's Regan's without Regan's exquisite control.

Even more, Nicks was nearly always physically unstable. She lurched about the stage, twirled slowly with all the grace of a druken sailor and, near the concert's end, wobbled along the stage's prt and starboard precipices while frantic roadies followed to prevent a fall.

What her deficiencies temporary I assume, since some who saw the next night's show at the Garden said Nicks had righted herself), allowed was the empergence of Lindswy Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac's slightly forgotten man (sandwiched as he is between airy Nicks and earth mother Christine McVie), Buckingham sang with startling force and range. Perhaps the fact that he his his high notes so ringingly after Nicks consistent fluffs made his singing more dramatic - he seemed genuinely grateful when the audience acknowleged his songs, almost always with its greatest applause.

Buckingham writes and sings Fleetwood Mac's most uptempo number ("Monday Morning"), so he's a antural in performance. But his guitar work, on slower acoustic numbers like "Never Going Back Again" as well as on hard rockers like "The Chain", was always suprisingly and, effectively electric. Buckingham used fingerpicking and hard chording to create an orchestral guitar sound and is primarily responsible for Fleetwood Mac's alluringly bright instrumental texture. On record, Buckingham's soloing has always sounded overly familiar, built as it is from the general guitar wisdom of the Sixties; yet taken as a whold, its beginning to sound distinctive. Buckingham's nonchant for understated fills nad his control of timbre remind me most of Beatles-era George Harrison.

Which is very much to the point, Fleetwood Mac, much like the Beatles, is a group of diverse personalities that mesh suprisingly well. Christine McVie is one of rocks most easily identifiable female vocalists, and most likable (her "Say that You Love Me" and "Over My Head" both hit singles, opened to great rushes of applause). But its as much a thrill to see Nicks and Buckingham harmonizing behind McVie as it is to hear her stately versions of those songs. Thought Buckingham's voice is not quite as distinctive as the other's, his, Nicks' and McVie's singing are effectively disparate - as diffeerent in intensity, approach and sheer sound as could be. And though the Beatles' voices were far more alike, there's a similar yoking here of strong egos to one purpose 9much like all-stars wo actually play as a team). And since this edition of Fleetwood Mac hasn't written a bad song in two albums, they always manage to score, no matter what.

Bass guitarist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood should not go unmentioned. Their combination of flowing percussion and spare, accented bass is one of the most delightful in all of rock. And Fleetwood Mac, as should be obvious, began and surely will end with Fleetwood and McVie.

The Tour Itinerary:
(If you have any correction or additions to this itinerary, our fleetnotes, or to this page at all, please send them here. As always, you will receive full credit for your submission.)

Date	Venue	City (Fleetnotes are highlighted in blue)
February 24, 1977	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY
February 28, 1977	Berkeley Community Theater	Berkeley, CA
March 1977	El Paso Civic Center	El Paso, TX
March 6, 1977	Tarrant Convention Center	El Paso, TX
March 10, 1977	San Diego Sports Arena	San Diego, CA
March 21, 1977	The Spectrum	Philadelphia, PA
March 22, 1977	Hershey Park Arena	Hershey, PA
March 23, 1977	Civic Center	Hartford, CT
March 24, 1977	Nassau Coliseum	Uniondale, NY
March 25, 1977	Hartford Civic Center	Hartford, CT
March 1977	Ramshead Airforce Base	Annapolis, MD
April 1, 1977	Kemper Arena	Kansas City, MO
April 2, 1977	The Odeon	Birmingham, England
April 4, 1977	The Apollo	Glasgow, Scotland
April 5, 1977	The Apollo	Manchester, England
April 8, 1977	Rainbow Theatre	London, England
April 9, 1977	Rainbow Theatre	London, England
April 10, 1977	Rainbow Theatre	London, England
April 1977	Colston Hall	Bristol, England
April 1977	Le Zenith	Paris, France
April 14, 1977	Jahrhunderthalle	Frankfurt, West Germany
April 16, 1977	RAI Halle	Amsterdam, Holland
April 23, 1977	The Apollo	Glasgow, Scotland
April 24, 1977	Hovet	Stockholm, Sweden
April 1977	Olympen	Lund, Sweden
May 1, 1977	Folsom Field	Boulder, CO
May 7, 1977	Oakland Stadium	Oakland, CA
May 15, 1977	Tarrant County Convention Center	Fort Worth, TX
May 1977	Summit	Houston, TX
May 18, 1977	Fairgrounds Arena	Oklahoma City, OK
May 21, 1977	Nashville Municipal Auditorium	Nashville, TN
May 29, 1977	Tangerine Bowl	Orlando, FL
June 2, 1977	Jefferson Civic Center	Birmingham, AL
June 3, 1977	Mid-South Coliseum	Memphis, TN
June 5, 1977	Tad Gormley Stadium	New Orleans, LA
June 25, 1977	Barton Coliseum	Little Rock, AK
June 28, 1977	Onondaga County War Memorial	Syracuse, NY
June 29, 1977	Madison Square Garden (see above review)	New York, NY
June 30, 1977	Madison Square Garden	New York, NY
July 3, 1977	Memorial Auditorium	Buffalo, NY
July 4, 1977	Exhibition Stadium	Toronto, Canada
July 7, 1977	Civic Center	Providence, RI
July 11, 1977	The Scope	Norfolk, VA
July 13, 1977	Capitol Center	Washington D.C.
July 16, 1977	Rupp Arena	Lexington, KY
July 23, 1977	Chicago Stadium	Chicago, IL
July 24, 1977	Chicago Stadium	Chicago, IL
August 25, 1977	Aladdin Theatre	Las Vegas, NV
August 27, 1977	University of Arizona Football Stadium	Tucson, AZ
August 29, 1977	Great Western Forum	Inglewood, CA
August 30, 1977	Great Western Forum	Inglewood, CA
Sept. 3, 1977	Seattle Center Coliseum	Seattle, WA
Sept. 4, 1977	Memorial Coliseum	Portland, OR
Sept. 7, 1977	Calgary Stampede	Calgary, Alberta
Sept. 8, 1977	.	Edmonton, Alberta
Sept. 11, 1977	Milwaukee County Stadium	Milwaukee, WI
Sept. 12, 1977	St. Paul Civic Center Arena	St. Paul, MN
Sept. 15, 1977	Pershing Auditorium	Lincoln, NE
Sept. 16, 1977	Kemper Arena	Kansas, MO
Sept. 17, 1977	Kiel Auditorium	St. Louis. MO
Sept. 21, 1977	Freedom Hall	Louisville, KY
Sept. 26, 1977	The Coliseum	Cleveland, OH
Sept. 27, 1977	Spectrum	Philadelphia, PA
October 2, 1977	UC Stadium	Santa Barbara, CA
Nov. 1977	Western Springs Stadium	Auckland, NZ
Nov. 9, 1977	Parklands	Brisbane, AU
Nov. 11, 1977	RAS Sydney Showgrounds	Sydney, AU
Nov. 13, 1977	Calder Park Raceway	Melbourne, AU
Nov. 15, 1977	Festival Hall	Queensland, AU
Nov. 17, 1977	Entertainment Centre	Sydney, AU
Nov. 18, 1977	Entertainment Centre	Perth, AU
Nov. 19, 1977	Entertainment Centre	Perth, AU
Dec. 1, 1977	Shi Kokaido	Nagoya, Japan
Dec. 3, 1977	Festival Hall	Osaka, Japan
Dec. 4, 1977	Festival Hall	Osaka, Japan
Dec. 5, 1977	Budokan	Tokyo, Japan
Dec. 10, 1977	Royal Lahaina Tennis Stadium	Honolulu, HI
Dec. 1977	Maui Sheraton	Maui, HI
March 18, 1978	Ontario Motor Speedway	Ontario, CA
July 17, 1978	Alpine Valley Music Theater	East Troy, WI
July 18, 1978	Alpine Valley Music Theater	East Troy, WI
July 19, 1978	Alpine Valley Music Theater	East Troy, WI
July 1978	University of Texas	Austin, TX
July 23, 1978	Cotton Bowl	Dallas, TX
July 26, 1978	Saratoga Performing Arts Center	Saratoga, NY
July 28, 1978	Rich Stadium	Orchard Park, NY
July 29, 1978	JFK Stadium (see above review)	Philadelphia, PA
July 30, 1978	JFK Stadium	Philadelphia, PA
August 6, 1978	Capitol Center	Landover, MD
August 7, 1978	Capitol Center	Landover, MD
August 24, 1978	Rupp Arena	Lexington, KY
August 26, 1978	Cleveland Stadium	Cleveland, OH
August 28, 1978	Jefferson Civic Auditorium	Birmingham, AL
August 29, 1978	The Omni	Atlanta, GA
August 30, 1978	LSU Tiger Stadium	Baton Rouge, LA

Sources:
Press/Reviews
Tour memorabilia & ticket scans
Contributions from Al Moran, Cathy, Duane Thompson, Graeme Sharp, John Jenkins, Michael Collins, Michelle Lithgow, Mike Whitaker, Dirk Faes, Hank Rowe, Chas Varnell, Steve Denison, Richard Gminder, Bud Anderson, Mark Freeman, Rob Farrish, Rowan McArthur, Steve, Lori, & Chris Allen