Spirits Having Flown Tour
Tour by Bee Gees
Promotional logo for the tour
LocationNorth America
Associated albumSpirits Having Flown
Start date28 June 1979 (1979-06-28)
End date6 October 1979 (1979-10-06)
Legs2
No. of shows56
Bee Gees concert chronology

Spirits Having Flown Tour (also known as the Spirits Tour and the North American Tour) was the eighth concert tour by the Bee Gees in support of their fifteenth studio album Spirits Having Flown (1979). The tour began on 28 June 1979 in Fort Worth, Texas reaching a total of 38 cities before coming to a close on 6 October 1979 in Miami, Florida. It was their most lavish and successful tour during the height of their popularity following two straight number-one albums and six number-one singles and grossed over $10 million from 49 shows, as reported by Billboard by the end of its run. The tour was organized and promoted by Jerry Weintraub and Concerts West.

Background

After the release of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, The Bee Gees were unable to tour due to their commitment to the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band movie. Then from March to November 1978, they spent much of their time in the studio recording Spirits Having Flown, the follow-up album to Saturday Night Fever.

Prior to the kickoff of the tour, The Bee Gees popularity grew even further following Saturday Night Fever, when they were the headline act on the Music for UNICEF Concert in January. Then they won four Grammy awards in February for Fever and by June, they pulled off a feat only matched by The Beatles with six consecutive US number-one singles, when "Love You Inside Out" topped the charts in June, setting the stage for the hottest summer tour since The Beatles in 1964.

In addition, the Bee Gees' brother Andy Gibb took part in the tour, making a guest vocal appearance; he, too, was at the height of his popularity, having notched three US Billboard number-one singles and appearing at the Music for UNICEF Concert.

Considering the group's popularity was at an all-time high, stringent security precautions were taken, though The Bee Gees themselves set up base in only five cities. They would fly to the next venue and return to their home base immediately following the show. They leased a custom 55-seat Boeing 720 jet (previously used by Led Zeppelin) at a cost of over one million dollars with a specially designed logo on the exterior of the plane. The Bee Gees were accompanied on the tour by a film crew capturing highlights of the shows, for use in an NBC-TV special which aired in November, hosted by David Frost.[1]

The Bee Gees were joined on stage with their usual band featuring Alan Kendall on guitar, Blue Weaver on keyboards and Dennis Bryon on drums, as well as Boonero Horns, a 6-piece brass section and Sweet Inspirations, which provided backing vocals.

The show

Given that this was the most ambitious tour The Bee Gees ever embarked on, there was a lot of preparation that went into the tour, from an extensive rehearsal schedule (in which The Bee Gees missed that year's Billboard music awards, where they won an astonishing 11 awards), staging and special effects, merchandising and tight security. The tour consisted of a 41-date schedule starting in Fort Worth, Texas and ending in their hometown of Miami, Florida. The 3 Gibb brothers were identically dressed in incredibly skin-tight, white satin trousers and dazzling white spangled jackets throughout the tour. During the Houston show on June 30, a bearded John Travolta joined the Bee Gees on stage during "You Should Be Dancing" to reprise some of his footwork from Saturday Night Fever. Travolta was in Houston shooting the film Urban Cowboy.[1] Besides the surprise appearance by Travolta at the Houston concert, many celebrities were in attendance at many of the concerts. Among the 60,000 fans at L.A.'s Dodger Stadium were Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, Rod Stewart, Olivia Newton-John, Karen Carpenter, Jack Nicholson and Harry Wayne Casey of KC & The Sunshine Band.[1] Prior to their September 24 concert in Landover, the Bee Gees were invited to the White House where President Carter congratulated them for their efforts with UNICEF.[1]

A scheduled concert in Kansas City, Missouri had to be cancelled due to severe damage to the roof of Kemper Arena during a violent storm on June 4.

Tour band

Setlist

  1. "Tragedy"
  2. "Edge of the Universe"
  3. "Night Fever"
  4. "Love So Right"
  5. "Stayin' Alive"
  6. "New York Mining Disaster 1941"
  7. "Run to Me"
  8. "Too Much Heaven"
  9. "Holiday"
  10. "I Can't See Nobody"
  11. "Lonely Days"
  12. "I Started a Joke"
  13. "Massachusetts"
  14. "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart"
  15. "Nights on Broadway"
  16. "To Love Somebody"
  17. "Words"
  18. "Wind of Change"
  19. "How Deep Is Your Love"
  20. "Jive Talkin'"
Encore
  2. "You Should Be Dancing"

Tour dates

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, the opening act, tickets sold, number of available tickets and amount of gross revenue
Date City Country Venue Opening act Attendance Revenue
North America[2][3]
28 June 1979 Fort Worth United States Tarrant County Convention Center Sweet Inspirations 13,901 / 13,901 $202,480
29 June 1979 Austin Special Events Center 17,440 / 17,440 $231,410
30 June 1979 Houston The Summit 16,654 / 16,654 $231,285
2 July 1979 Denver McNichols Sports Arena — —
3 July 1979 Salt Lake City Salt Palace 12,920 / 12,920 $177,748
5 July 1979 San Diego San Diego Sports Arena 12,714 / 12,714 $175,853
7 July 1979 Los Angeles Dodger Stadium 56,000 / 56,000 $700,000
9 July 1979 Oakland Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena 38,078 / 38,078 $530,305
10 July 1979
11 July 1979
13 July 1979 Seattle Seattle Center Coliseum 26,707 / 26,707 $369,443
14 July 1979
15 July 1979 Vancouver Canada Pacific Coliseum 15,158 / 15,158 $215,828
17 July 1979 Portland United States Memorial Coliseum 22,769 / 22,769 $320,458
18 July 1979
21 July 1979 Saint Paul St. Paul Civic Center 31,040 / 31,040 $434,445
22 July 1979
24 July 1979 Ames Hilton Coliseum 14,685 / 14,685 $204,220
25 July 1979 Madison Dane County Coliseum 9,883 / 9,883 $144,573
26 July 1979 Indianapolis Market Square Arena 17,730 / 17,730 $245,328
28 July 1979 Pontiac Pontiac Silverdome 36,270 / 36,270 $453,375
30 July 1979 Chicago Chicago Stadium 36,196 / 36,196 $507,573
31 July 1979
1 August 1979 St. Louis Checkerdome 16,834 / 16,834 $238,290
3 August 1979 Tulsa Mabee Center 10,586 / 10,586 $151,250
4 August 1979 Oklahoma City Myriad Convention Center 15,477 / 15,477 $217,920
27 August 1979 New Haven New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum 10,880 / 10,880 $157,768
28 August 1979 Providence Providence Civic Center 26,139 / 26,139 $371,368
29 August 1979
31 August 1979 Toronto Canada Maple Leaf Gardens 18,249 / 18,249 $264,265
1 September 1979 Montreal Montreal Forum Burton Cummings 34,733 / 34,733 $484,984
2 September 1979
4 September 1979 Pittsburgh United States Civic Arena Sweet Inspirations — —
5 September 1979
7 September 1979 New York City Madison Square Garden
8 September 1979
9 September 1979
11 September 1979 39,364 / 39,364 $376,000
12 September 1979
14 September 1979 Buffalo Buffalo Memorial Auditorium 16,800 / 16,800 $236,492
15 September 1979 Cincinnati Riverfront Coliseum 33,334 / 33,334 $469,545
16 September 1979
18 September 1979 Richfield Richfield Coliseum 35,000 / 35,000 $496,000
19 September 1979
21 September 1979 Philadelphia The Spectrum 29,056 / 29,056 $399,015
22 September 1979
24 September 1979 Landover Capital Centre 36,674 / 36,674 $515,568
25 September 1979
26 September 1979 Norfolk Norfolk Scope Arena 11,854 / 11,854 $163,783
28 September 1979 Birmingham BJCC Coliseum 17,901 / 17,901 $243,583
29 September 1979 Atlanta Omni Coliseum 31,951 / 31,951 $455,315
30 September 1979
2 October 1979 Greensboro Greensboro Coliseum 18,299 / 18,299 $213,980
3 October 1979 Columbia Carolina Coliseum 12,151 / 12,151 $171,065
4 October 1979 Jacksonville Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum 10,117 / 10,117 $140,580
6 October 1979 Miami Miami Stadium — —
Total 803,544 / 803,544 $10,911,095
Cancellations and rescheduled shows
2 August 1979 Kansas City, Missouri Kemper Arena Cancelled
3 August 1979 Kansas City, Missouri Kemper Arena Cancelled
26 August 1979 Boston, Massachusetts Boston Garden Cancelled
7 October 1979 St. Petersburg, Florida Bayfront Center Cancelled

References

  1. ^ a b c d Môn Hughes, Andrew; Bilyeu, Melinda; Cook, Hector (27 October 2000). The Bee Gees: Tales Of The Brothers Gibb. London, England: Omnibus Press. ISBN 9780711979178.
  2. ^ Sources for box office score data:
  3. ^ Sources for tour dates in North America:
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