A Votre Sante is one of the four releases from the resurrected Yellow Dog/Yellow Cat label. This title contains the soundboard recording from Fleetwood Mac's spring tour of Europe right after the release of their classic LP Rumours. As welcome as this release is, it does present several problems.
The first is the date and venue. It seems inconceiveable that a date for such a popular band would be such a mystery. The only concrete evidence for its location is Stevie Nicks' comment "This is for you, Paris" right before the song "Landslide" and Christine McVie's "A votre sante... Paris is a beautiful city" comment before "Blue Letter". I asked around for more definitive information and a reply I received was:
"It probably would have been after April 10, which was, I believe, the
band's last show in Britain on that tour. They flew to Britain on
April 1, & played Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol & London
from the 2nd to the 10th. Paris may have come next, followed by
Holland, Germany & Sweden. The city, according to the original sleeve for the 1980 Live album, would have been Paris (where 'Dreams' was culled). The 'Dreams' on the Live album is a 1977 performance. Don't know which venue, although the band played the Palais de Sport
in Paris in 1980, so might have played that venue in 1977."
So we can tentatively place this concert on April 11th at the Sports Arena is Paris until someone can give more definitive proof.
The second question regards the set-list. The usual list was: "Say You Love Me", "Monday Morning", "Oh Well", "Rhiannon", "Oh Daddy", "Never Going Back Again", "Landslide", "Over My Head", "Gold Dust Woman", "You Make Lovin' Fun", "I'm So Afraid", "Dreams", "Go Your Own Way", "World Turning", "Blue Letter", "The Chain", "Second Hand News", "Songbird." Maybe the site I consulted assumed the band didn't change it at all? But this tape is definitely a 1977 show since Lindsey Buckingham announces Rumours to be the latest LP. We can safely assume that the band might have changed the set list around for this show.
Yellow Cat have utilized a high-generation soundboard recording. There is noticable hiss and a right channel bias. There are no cuts on the tape and it is enjoyable once your ears adjust to it. It is obvious the label used no mastering or tricks to improve the tape. We have it "as is". The concert itself is very good. The band play a good selection of the latest LP along with older hits and of course the classic "Oh Well". It sounds like the band are still getting used to playing the new material which doesn't come off as well as the older. Overall this is a very satisfying concert experience.
June 23rd, 2005: The great Fleetwood Mac legacy website ( http://www.fmlegacy.com/main.html ) has finally discovered that this tape is from April 14th at Le Zenith in Paris and not the Palais des Sports on April 11th. They also make note that "Dreams" and "Don't Stop" were recorded during rehearsals on this date for the Fleetwood Mac Live LP.
