Salt Lake Tribune February 4, 1974 Salt Lake City, Utah

LYNYRD SKYNYRD Rescues Fleetwood Mac

By David Proctor
IX Music Writer
The cliche “What’s in a name?” took on new meaning at the Terrace Monday night when the band billed as Fleetwood Mac turned out not to be the original Fleetwood Mac at all. but a totally new group. The New Fleetwood Mac, as the group’s been billed since the new membership was discovered, is a group of four Britishers not even distantly related to the original group. Not related by music or talent, just the name, which they assumed under the direction of manager Clifford Davis, who says he is owner of the name. The legalities of the situation are complex, but Davis claims to have the right to hire and fire within the band. at his will, said local promoter Jim McNeil. In effect, what he did was fire the whole previous group, including namesake Mick Fleetwood. and hire a new one. The biggest problem is that the local promoters can do nothing about it except give refunds to the abused feeling fans, said Mr. McNeil. Grounds for Refunds Monday night’s version of Fleetwood was grounds for refunds. They were unoriginal, unimaginative and most unmusical. If it hadn’t been for the name they were using, they surely wouldn’t have drawn 18 percent of the crowd that attended. The band played around at light rock, pseudo-blues, heavy tuck and generally seemed at a loss for where to go and what to do.

The only thing that saved the evening from a total disaster was the opening set by Lynyrd Skynyrd — pronounced Leonard Skinnered Skynyrd is a group of seven Floridians who seem on their way to making a lot of good roll music in the years ahead. They were on for only 45 minutes but made good use of the time, building on each song and climaxing the performance with “Free Bird”, their show piece. With seven members, one assumes almost automatically that they will be musically tripping over each other constantly, but such as not the case Monday night. They play clean, uncluttered rock, and feature three guitarists, any of whom can solo proficiently, as they did in “Free Bird”. It was this tune that finally got the crowd’s attention and by the time it ended the whole, room was filled with shouting, applauding fans, all demanding an encore.

Tough to Swallow
After Lynyrd Skynyrd it was tough to swallow the new Fleetwood Mac set. No matter the reasoning,
the people there came to see a product that was promised but not delivered. It seems even worse that a lot of innocent local people are going to get blamed for the “surprise” when the group’s manager, Mr. Davis, will be in the next town, doing business as usual.

Lynyrd Skynyrd poses for a promotional photo in 1977

Lynyrd Skynyrd at the peak of perfection in the summer of 1977

Lynyrd Skynyrd perform in front of 250,000 during a severe drought in Knebworth England on August 21, 1976