The Rumours lineup s accidental final tour

0:00Every day, excessive delays and denials from big insurers keep patients from accessing the care they need. And when care is urgent, these delays can be disastrous. These practices cost billions in wasteful spending, driving up costs for American families. But while big insurers put up barriers, America's hospitals and health systems are in your corner. Navigating endless reviews and appeals to get you the care you need when you need it most. It's time to curb these harmful practices and put the focus back on patients. Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Health Care. Welcome, everyone. We are so thrilled to have you joining us today for this deep dive. Yeah, thanks so much for hanging out with us. Today, we are looking at something truly monumental. I mean, we are talking about Fleetwood Max 2014 to 2015 on with the show World Tour. Oh, the big one. The massive one. And to do this, we are drawing from a meticulously detailed Wikipedia article. It chronicles the tours, dates, the shifting set lists, the staggering box office numbers and the complete personnel roster, basically the master spreadsheet of the whole era.

1:03Exactly. But our mission today isn't just to, you know, read you a spreadsheet of dates and ticket sales. We want to look right past those dry statistics and really understand the logistical marvel and the historical weight, too. Yes, the profound historical weight of a legendary rock band reuniting for one last massive global track. And I think it's important to frame right up front why you, the listener, should care about a concert tour that wrapped up about a decade ago. Right. Why does it matter now? Because this specific tour perfectly encapsulates the fleeting, deeply unpredictable nature of creative partnerships. I mean, they are famously unpredictable. Famously. We often think of legendary bands as these immortal institutions, almost like statues. Yeah. But they are made up of flesh and blood people. Yeah, very complicated people. And what we are going to see today is that this wasn't just some nostalgic victory lap. It was the ultimate entirely unforeseen curtain call for one of rock's most successful and less face at most famously complicated lineups.

2:06It really is wild when you look at it through that lens. I mean, just the sheer scale of what they attempted here is amazing to me. 120 shows. That's an absolute marathon. To help you visualize the sheer scale of this operation, just use the theater of your mind for a second. Imagine a sprawling world map covered in 120 pushpins. Just a sea of pins. With tangled chaotic flight paths crossing from North America over to Europe all the way down to Oceana and back again, it really sets the stage for the massive, globe-spanning undertaking we are about to explore. That is the perfect way to picture it. I've been reviewing the historical data from our source material, synthesizing the timelines, the venue capacities, and those box office reports. And the numbers are huge. Oh, absolutely. And I am very ready to break down exactly how this massive endeavor came together piece by piece. Okay, let's unpack this. We have to start with the catalyst for the entire tour. The big announcement. Right. Because the genesis of On With The Show actually begins with a massive announcement.

3:07On January 13, 2014, the band's publicist, Liz Rosenberg, released a statement that sent absolute shockwaves through the music world. I remember when that dropped. She announced that Christine McVee was officially rejoining Fleetwood Mac. Now, to put that into perspective, Christine had left the group back in 1998. Which is a lifetime in music. That is a 16 year absence. In the music industry, 16 years might as well be a century. Entire musical errors come and go in that time. What's fascinating here is the strategic restraint the band showed following that incredible announcement. Restraint. How so? Medical notes that Rosenberg initially stated a new album and a tour were planned. And indeed, the band actually got together and spent time in March of 2014 working on new material. Oh, I didn't know they actually went to the studio. They did. But then, they made a highly capulated creative choice. They confirmed that absolutely no new releases would be issued until after the tour was over.

4:09Wait, really? Was that actually a smart move? It really was. I mean, usually legacy bands rely heavily on a new album to generate PR, get themselves booked on late night shows, and draft ticket sales. Wasn't it a massive financial and promotional risk to go out on the road completely empty-handed? On the surface, it seems counterintuitive. I'll give you that. But it was actually a stroke of genius. By holding back the new music, they entirely avoided the trap of the standard album promotional cycle. Okay, I think I see where you go. Think about it from the audience's perspective. When you go see a legacy rock band, the energy in the stadium always dips when the lead singer says, here's a new one from our latest record. Oh, definitely. That's when everyone goes to buy a t-shirt. Exactly. Fans tolerate the news stuff to get to the classics. By putting the album on ice, they didn't have to convince fans to sit through half a dozen unfamiliar songs. That makes a lot sense. Instead, they focused the world's attention entirely on the live reunion experience itself. We made the return of the missing piece, Christine McVee, the sole focal point of the event.

5:13It's pure nostalgia in the best way. Yes. The tour dates were announced on March 27, 2014, and by April 7, tickets were already on general sale. Here's where it gets really interesting because the demand for those tickets was just explosive. Unprecedented, really. It led to logistics that are almost hard to wrap your head around. Let's break down the actual physical footprint of this tour. As I mentioned, we are talking about 120 shows spread across three massive legs. Exactly. They played 81 shows in North America, 23 in Europe, and 16 in Oceana, a true global run. The whole thing kicked off in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Target Center on September 30, 2014, and it did not conclude until over a full year later. When was the final day? November 22, 2015 at Matt Smart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. We have to remember that grueling schedule wasn't even the original plan. No. The demand was so overwhelming right out of the gate that they had to keep expanding the map. On October 9, 2014, just a little over a week after the tour started, they were forced

6:17to announce a second North American leg. Just a weekend. Right. They added 28 additional shows running from January 16, 2015 in St. Paul, Minnesota, all the way to March 31 in Wichita, Kansas. They just couldn't stop. And the snowball just kept rolling. In the November, 2014, Mick Fleetwood went on BBC Radio 2 to announce British tour dates for May and June of 2015. But I'm guessing those sold out instantly too. Of course. Due to incredibly high ticket demand, they had to add even more dates, which extended that British leg well into July. I want you to really try and picture what it takes to pull that off. It is essentially like moving a small, highly functional city across the globe every two or three days. It's a massive military operation at that point. You have the core band, the supporting musicians, the massive crew. You are dealing with delicate instruments, towering lighting rigs, incredibly complex stadium sound systems, the wardrobe, packing it all up into convoys, convoys of trucks and chartered planes, setting it up in a brand new arena, performing for tens of thousands of screaming

7:19people, tearing it all down before midnight and doing it all over again in the next time zone. And doing that 120 times. The physical toll must have been monumental. It absolutely was. But the financial return on that level of grueling work was frankly staggering. Let's hear the numbers. When we look at the data provided by poll star, which for those who might not know is essentially the Wall Street Journal of the live concert industry, tracking every ticket sold globally, the numbers are massive. Okay. In their 2014 year end report, poll star ranked the tour 13 on its top 100 worldwide tours, including earnings of $79.2 million from just those first 40 shows in North America. This is the first 40 shows. Just the first 40. Then, in the 2015 year end rankings, the tour jumped all the way up to sixth place worldwide, with a retorted gross of $125.1 million from 78 shows that year. So if they're clearing nearly $80 million on just a fraction of the shows in the first

8:20year, the final tally for the entire 14 month run must be astronomical. It brings the cumulative gross to a phenomenal $199.2 million. $200 million. Just shy of it. Yeah. And to really bring those numbers out of the spreadsheet and into reality, we can look at some specific box office highlights, like specific venues. Exactly. For example, when they hit Europe, they played a massive six show run at the O2 arena in London. Six nights at the O2. That's huge. Across the six nights in May and June of 2015, they brought in 96,564 attendees and grossed over $12.3 million at that one single venue. That is just from London. Right. Or look at the Oceania leg in October 2015. They played three nights at the all phones arena in Sydney, Australia, drawing almost 40,000 fans and hauling in over $5.4 million. That level of sustained commercial success is incredible. But of course, you don't generate a multi-million dollar gross night after night unless the actual

9:20product on the stage is phenomenal. Exactly. People won't pay those prices if the show doesn't deliver. And that brings us to the stage itself and the sound they brought to these massive arenas. And looking at the historical record gives us a great window into how they constructed the live experience. The text details a representative 24 song set list from their October 6, 2014 show at Madison Square Garden. 24 songs is a solid set. It is. And when you analyze this set list, it really is a masterclass in how to pace a legacy rock show to maximize the emotional impact on the audience. I noticed they opened that Madison Square Garden show and many others with the song, The Chain. Oh, yes. Out of their massive hit-filled catalog, why do you think they chose to start with that specific track? Because it's the ultimate musical statement about the unbreakable bonds of the band. Think about the lyrics. And if you don't love me now, you will never love me again. Right. And I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain. Coming right out of the gate with that song, especially with Christine McVee finally

10:21back on stage after 16 years, sets an incredibly potent, unifying tone immediately. It's a statement of purpose. Exactly. From there, they expertly weave through their massive catalog, carefully balancing the vocal leads between Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nex, and Christine McVee. But what I find really compelling is how they structured the end of the show. They utilized two separate on-course, which is a very deliberate choice. On-course are tricky. You want to leave them wanting more, but you also want to give them closure. How did they handle it? The first on-course was designed to keep the arena energy high, featuring world-turning, and don't stop. Make sense. Get everyone dancing. But the second on-course brought the energy all the way down to a highly emotional, intimate close. They ended with Stevie Nex's haunting song, Silver Springs. And then often, Christine McVee's beautiful, solitary ballad songbird. So it is worth noting that a tour of this length isn't a rigid, inflexible thing. It's a living, breathing entity.

11:23Exactly. It evolved over those 14 months. For instance, the song, Seven Wonders, was actually dropped from the setlist entirely after the North American leg. That happens. And even that beautiful closer we just mentioned, songbird, wasn't performed on certain selected dates in 2015. That kind of setlist evolution is entirely natural and necessary for a tour of this length. You have to adjust to the physical toll on the singer's vocal cords, the changing acoustics of different venues, and just the overall flow of the performance as the months go on. And as the band figures out what is resonating most with the crowds. Precisely. And speaking of the performance, I love the granular details we have about the actual instrumentation on stage, because it wasn't just them standing statically at microphones. The documentation specifically points out Christine McVee playing the accordion on the songtask and getting on the maracas for everywhere in world turning, which is actually a massive logistical and sound engineering challenge in its own right, playing an acoustic instrument

12:25like an accordion, we're shaking maracas on a stadium stage, surrounded by massive amplifiers and echoing concrete walls requires incredibly precise live mixing to make sure they can actually be heard. To ensure those subtle sounds aren't drowned out or it was screeching audio feedback, it shows a real dedication to the texture of the music. It really does paint a vivid picture of the live energy. But creating that massive iconic Fleetwood Mac sound live requires more than just the five core members. He can't do alone. Recreating the complex layered studio magic of albums like Rumors or Tusk in a Hockey Arena is not easy. It requires unsung heroes. Absolutely. The personal list highlights the incredibly important additional musicians who were brought on the road. You can't replicate a 1970s studio masterpiece live without some help. For instance, you had Brett Tuggle who provided keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals, and notably samples. Let's pause on that for a second. When people hear the word samples, they might think of modern hip hop or electronic music.

13:28Why is a 1970s legacy rock band using digital samples? That's a great question. In the context of a legacy rock show, samples are often used to trigger specific iconic studio sounds that are impossible to recreate organically live. Like what? Maybe it's a specific synthesizer tone from the 1980s, or a layered vocal harmony from the original recording sessions? Tuggle was triggering these essential audio textures to make sure the live sound matched the fans' memories. That's fascinating. Along with Tuggle, you had Neil Haywood on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. There was a dedicated team of backing vocalists to flesh out those famous Fleetwood Mac harmonies. We have their names here too, Sharon Salani, Laurie Nix, and Stevi Alexander. Yes, vital to the sound. And here is perhaps the most fascinating personal detail of all. They also had a musician named Steve Rinkoff playing drums and percussion, but he was actually unannounced from the stage. A secret drummer. Why would you have a secret drummer? It comes down to the sheer physical reality of the tour.

14:29Steve Rinkoff was there to support Mick Fleetwood's drumming. Okay, that makes sense. Mick Fleetwood is a phenomenal, deeply expressive drummer. But playing a relentless three-hour rock show, night after night, in your late 60s, is an unbelievable physical exertion. I can't even imagine. Having a secondary unannounced percussionist helps thicken the rhythm section, keeps the tempo locked in during complex transitions, and provides a necessary sonic safety net. Letting Mick be Mick. Exactly. Mick Fleetwood to focus on his iconic flourishes without exhausting himself carrying the entire rhythmic weight of the stadium alone. So what does this all mean? We have this massive logistical triumph. We have 120 shows crisscrossing the globe. We have nearly $200 million in revenue. Huge numbers. We have perfectly crafted, emotionally resonant set lists, and the triumphant 16 years in the making return of Christine McVee. It sounds like the absolute perfect victory lap for a legendary band. If we connect this to the bigger picture, that is exactly where the story takes a deeply

15:31poignant, almost melancholy turn. Why melancholy? Because while they were standing on that stage in 2014 and 2015, soaking in the applause, neither the band nor the millions of people in the audience knew the historical finality of what they were experiencing. It's true. Following the departure of Lindsay Buckingham in 2018 and the tragic passing of Christine McVee in 2022, on with the show retroactively became Fleetwood Max final tour featuring the band's most successful, most iconic lineup. Wow. Lindsay Buckingham, McFleetwood, Christine McVee, John McVee, and Stevie Nix. The rumors five, this was it. That was the end. This is the last time they would ever tour the world together. It was an accidental farewell tour. And even during the tour itself, if you look closely at the timelines, there was subtle reminders that behind this unstoppable, multi-million dollar touring machine, there was real human frailty. That's right. It wasn't entirely smooth sailing the whole way through. When you look at the schedule for the European leg in the summer of 2015, you see cracks in

16:33the armor starting to form. You really do. A concert scheduled for June 12, 2015 at the Manchester arena had to be completely canceled. The stated reason was illness within the band. It wasn't just a single isolated night, a show in Birmingham at the Genting Arena, which was originally supposed to happen on June 9, also had to be rescheduled to July 7. Again, due to illness. Yes. When you are pushing a touring apparatus of this size, with hundreds of crew members relying on the core talent, and you're doing it with musicians who have been in this grueling industry for decades, the physical reality of the human body eventually asserts itself. It always catches up. It never runs biology, even with a hundred million dollar gross. These cancellations serve as a stark reminder of just how physically demanding the honor the show tour really was. I want you to just imagine for a second being in the audience on that very last night, November 22, 2015. The final show. You are standing in Metsmart Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. The stadium lights are blazing. You are watching them play the chain.

17:34You are watching Christine McVee shake the maracas during everywhere. Are these in harmonies? Yes. Looking at those incredible layered harmonies from the backing vocalists, echoing into the night sky, and you are entirely blissfully unaware that you are witnessing the absolute end of an era. Nobody knew. You are watching the final bow of the ultimate Fleetwood Mac lineup, and nobody in the stadium, not even the people on the stage knows it yet. It completely changes how you view the entire tour in retrospect. It transforms the on with the show tour from a highly successful, highly lucrative reunion run into a priceless historical document. A time capsule. It was the final hours of one of the greatest creative partnerships of the 20th century. It really does give you chills to think about it. To quickly summarize the incredible journey we've taken on this deep dive today, we started with that shock announcement in January 2014. That brought Christine McVee back into the fold. After an agonizing 16 years away, we unpacked the band's brilliant counter-intuitive strategic

18:34choice to withhold their new music and focus entirely on the pure, live nostalgia of the reunion. We track their grueling, globetrotting schedule across 120 shows, marveling at the nearly $200 million in revenue they generated, and the massive logistics required to move that show from city to city. Truly staggering logistics. We explored the meticulous construction of their set lists, the intense audio engineering, and the unsung musicians like Brett Tuggle and Steve Rinkoff, who helped recreate their iconic sound. And finally, we confronted the poignant reality that this massive undertaking was completely by accident. They're final though as that iconic quintet. This raises an important question, one that I hope you'll continue to mull over long after we wrap up today. What's that? Think about the hundreds of thousands of people at those Fleetwood Mac shows, holding up their smartphones, recording every single song. In our current era, every single second of a major stadium tour is digitally preserved

19:34from a thousand different angles uploaded and immortalized online before the band even leaves the venue. That's true. You can find a whole tool online. So does the concept of an unrepeatable, fleeting moment even exist anymore? How does knowing that a concert will be online forever, perfectly preserved, change the way you actually experience the live energy in the room? It's a very different vibe now. Do we lose some of the magic of a moment when we know we can just watch the video tomorrow? That is a deeply fascinating angle to consider next time you are standing in a crowd with the lights going down. Thank you so much for joining us and exploring the triumphant, logistically staggering and ultimately bittersweet story of the on with the show tour. It's been a great ride. We hope you enjoyed diving into the history as much as we did. Keep exploring, stay insanely curious, and we will catch you next time. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in a podcast, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy.

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