Spirits Having Flown Tour

Spirits Having Flown Tour

Tour by Bee Gees
Associated album	Spirits Having Flown
Start date	June 28, 1979
End date	October 6, 1979
Legs	1
No. of shows	53 in North America
Box office	$10.9 million
Bee Gees concert chronology

The Spirits Having Flown Tour is the eighth concert tour by the Bee Gees in support of their fifteenth studio album Spirits Having Flown. 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 as reported by Billboard by the end of its run.

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 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.

Considering the group's popularity was at an all-time high, stringent security precautions were taken, though The Bee Gees themselves setup 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 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 a 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

Being 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, TX and ending in their hometown of Miami, FL. 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 John 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 had to be cancelled due to severe damage to the roof of Kemper Arena during a violent storm on June 4.

Set list

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

21. "You Should Be Dancing"

Tour dates

List of concerts, showing date, city, country, venue, opening act, tickets sold, amount of available tickets, and gross revenue

Date	City	Country	Venue	Opening act	Attendance	Revenue
North America[2]
28 June 1979	Fort Worth	United States	Tarrant County Convention Center	Sweet Inspirations	13,901 / 13,901	$202,480
29 June 1979	Austin		Frank Erwin 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		N/A	N/A
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 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	PNE Coliseum		15,158 / 15,158	$215,828
17 July 1979	Portland	United States	Portland Veterans Memorial Coliseum		22,769 / 22,769	$320,458
18 July 1979
21 July 1979	St. Paul		Saint Paul Civic Center Arena		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		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		34,733 / 34,733	$484,984
2 September 1979
4 September 1979	Pittsburgh	United States	Pittsburgh Civic Arena		N/A	N/A
5 September 1979
7 September 1979	New York City		Madison Square Garden		39,364 / 39,364	$376,000
8 September 1979
9 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	Cleveland		Coliseum at Richfield		35,000 / 35,000	$496,000
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		11,854 / 11,854	$163,783
28 September 1979	Birmingham		Birmingham–Jefferson Civic Center Arena		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 Coliseum		10,117 / 10,117	$140,580
6 October 1979	Miami		Miami Stadium		N/A	N/A
Total					803,544 / 803,544	$10,911,095

Tour band

• Barry Gibb – Lead vocal, guitar
• Robin Gibb – Vocals
• Maurice Gibb – Backing vocal, guitar
• Andy Gibb – Vocals
• John Travolta – Vocals
• Alan Kendall – Guitar
• Joey Murcia – Guitar
• Blue Weaver – keyboards
• George Bitzer – Keyboards
• Harold Cowart – Bass
• Dennis Bryon – Drums
• Joe Lala – Percussion
• Boneroo Horns – Trumpets, Trombones, Saxophones
• Sweet Inspirations – Backing vocalists

References

1. Tales Of The Brothers Gibb, First Edition, Omnibus Press, 2000.
2. North American box score data:
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (28): 30. 14 July 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (29): 45. 21 July 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (30): 42. 28 July 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (31): 33. 4 August 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (32): 35. 11 August 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (33): 35. 18 August 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (37): 37. 15 September 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (39): 45. 29 September 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (40): 46. 6 October 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (41): 48. 13 October 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.
   • "Billboard Boxscore — Concert Grosses". Billboard. 91 (42): 39. 20 October 1979. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved January 31, 2015.