FLEETWOOD MAC – RUMOURS LIVE 1977 Concert At The Forum Recorded During The Rumours Tour Debuts As Double Live Album
20th July 2023Fleetwood Mac was at the top of its game in August 1977 when the band returned to its adopted home in Southern California to play three shows at The Forum in Los Angeles. Rumours had only been out a few weeks when the band left in February to tour the world, returning six months later to play three shows at The Forum for nearly 50,000 fans.Â
Rumours was the #1 album in America and well on its way to becoming one of the most successful ever released. Rumours eventually sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and has just been certified 21x platinum in the U.S. The record has also been certified 14x Platinum in the U.K., and 13x Platinum in Australia and New Zealand, all countries where the album reached #1.Â
RUMOURS LIVE captures the energy and excitement of the bandâs opening night at The Forum on August 29, 1977. The nearly 90-minute performance includes live versions of most of the songs from Rumours and Fleetwood Mac, the groupâs first multi-platinum #1 album, which came out in 1975.
The concert remained unreleased for decades until 2021, when âGold Dust Womanâ from the show was included as a bonus track on Live: Deluxe Edition, Rhinoâs expanded version of Fleetwood Macâs 1980 concert album. The other 17 songs on the collection have never been released before.
RUMOURS LIVE will be available on September 8 as 2-CD and 2-LP sets. The black-vinyl version has two 180-gram records in a gatefold jacket with lacquers cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. Pre-order HERE..
The music will be available from digital and streaming platforms. The unreleased live version of âDREAMSâ from RUMOURS LIVE is available today digitally. Listen HERE.
The concertâs setlist draws almost exclusively from Fleetwood Mac and Rumours, the first two albums recorded by the bandâs latest incarnation: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie, and the newest members, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham. The lone nod to Fleetwood Macâs other nine studio albums is a performance of âOh Well,â a rock-guitar masterpiece originally released in 1969 and written by the bandâs founder, guitarist Peter Green.
Engineer Ken Caillat, who helped record Rumours, also recorded the concert at The Forum using the Record Plantâs mobile recording truck. He captured the bandâs impassioned performance at a moment of peak Rumours frenzy, including powerful versions of âLandslide,â âNever Going Back Again,â âSongbird,â and âThe Chain.âÂ
In the liner notes from RUMOURS LIVE, Sam Graham observes: âThe songs are familiar: âDreams,â âGo Your Own Way,â âSay You Love Me,â âOver My Head,â and on and on. But most of these live versions are more muscular, more ferocious, than the album recordings, driven by the powerhouse Fleetwood-John McVie rhythm section and Buckinghamâs febrile guitar playing; and instead of a rote recital of the hits, the group stretches out in concert, as songs like âRhiannon,â âWorld Turning,â and âIâm So Afraidâ blossom into exuberant tours de force onstage.â
RUMOURS LIVE
2-LP Track Listing
LP One
Side One
âSay You Love Meâ
âMonday Morningâ
âDreamsâ
âOh Wellâ
âRhiannonâ
Side Two
âOh Daddyâ
âNever Going Back Againâ
âLandslideâ
âOver My Headâ
âGold Dust Womanâ
LP Two
Side One
âYou Make Loving Funâ
âIâm So Afraidâ
âGo Your Own Wayâ
âWorld Turningâ
Side Two
âBlue Letterâ
âThe Chainâ
âSecond Hand Newsâ
âSongbirdâ