“My friend was a big biker-type guy who wanted to get fancy concert tickets as a 1st anniversary gift to his wife. We were living in Alton, IL so we drove down to the Ambassador Ticket Box to get some 2nd row (quite expensive) seats. My friend wanted a special romantic mellow "date type" concert, and Ambrosia was the really popular group for that genre.' Fleetwood Mac was considered pretty cool with their "Bermuda Triangle " getting a lot of KSHE air time. As an extra anniversary gift for the concert, my friend even bought his beautiful wife a new black velvet top to show off a whole set of new silver and turquoise Navajo jewelry; and he then bought himself a real expensive leather belt and fancy buckle, (I think from Sundance Silver & Hide in NW Plaza).
I spent a ton of "date money" on my lady too, so we all drove down to STL Ambassador Theatre... paid a hunk of money for downtown parking ... and then strutted through the theatre lobby as proud as puffed-up peacocks. The Ambassador was old style ornate and a relatively small venue compared to Kiel Aud., or especially M.R.F. Nice seats, cushie fabric, curtains etc. etc. Whole mid-sized crowd looked like they were "hippies on a fancy date" so we really felt in tune with the venue.
As the show was about to start, a guy nervously came on stage and announced that Ambrosia had "bailed out" of the concert and pulled a sudden rude no-show. But the promoter luckily had found a last minute local replacement band from Marissa, Illinois called the "Road Crew." The audience was rumbling a lot when a group of guys stepped on stage dressed like they worked in a gas station (not a costume, I think they did work in a gas station). The Road Crew proudly introduced themselves as being from Marissa, IL, and said they said they were named that because they had been former roadies for Bachman-Turner Overdrive.
The audience thought all this was a joke until the band launched into a way over-volumed cover version of BTO "Takin' Care of Business." In 1975, BTO was the polar opposite to music from Ambrosia. It was like expecting a heavenly trip, and getting shoved onto a dirty donkey ride on the highway to hell.
The Road Crew was even a worse hack version of BTO... and I mentioned earlier these tickets weren't cheap. After the second song from them, the whole audience was bitching and getting really hostile. Some people behind us had gone to the lobby and returned saying loudly that Fleetwood Mac was also going to be a "fake." (Fleetwood Mac had a bad history for the "Fake Mac" switching of band members). My friend said we should go immediately and demand a refund from the ticket window. Several nearby people also got up and headed for the lobby when they heard us talk about "refunds" and the buzz about Fleetwood maybe being "faked."
We approached the ticket booth as a lady was rushing to get the ticket money into a strong box. She slammed the door on us, said NO-REFUNDS, and passed the money box over like a football to a weasely looking guy who immediately ran with it to the Office.
My friend started chasing him and several other folks joined in pursuit. Locked out of the office, he was blocked into the hall with us. He then ran into the men's room with about 6 guys chasing him, my biker friend in the lead. I was still in the lobby when the he shot out of the men's room with two guys grabbing his shirt. The weasel headed for the street door and ran down the outside sidewalk with the ticket box and 2 guys chasing him. We hurried back to our seats to protect our ladies. We could hear the boos and loud yells from the audience as the Road Crew was finishing their last song. Objects were flying through the air at the stage, people were buzzing that the whole concert was a super rip-off. We kept hearing that Fleetwood was going to be a "fake." House lights went on and the crowd got messy. I thought they were going to tear the theatre up. Word got out that the box office was closed and the promoter ran off with any chance of a refund. The stage was littered with projectiles and the crowd was getting nasty mean.
With houselights still on, and 25% of the audience leaving, a lone girl appeared on stage-right with a microphone. She was really scared, but the audience didn't throw anything in her direction. She nervously started to explain that this tour had been a disaster and she said something about having to be (or play) in a junky old bowling alley in South St. Louis (it was hard to hear over the audience growling). She said that Fleetwood Mac had lost most of its songs because a member/writer of the songs had run off with a bunch of "Jesus freaks in San Francisco" and that Fleetwood Mac wasn't permitted to play his music. She was all alone on stage, nervous, saying she was sorry , and the crowd was still hostile. She took the microphone and said she wanted to sing, and that she hoped it would help a bit.
No instruments – no other band members on stage (they were hiding in the wings) – audience mad as hell – a capella – scared and shaky – she began singing a new song – "Landslide." Simply AMAZING. In 30 seconds the whole audience was as tame as kittens. Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood nervously crept out for the second song, then later Christine and John McVie slid on stage. As superstars. few folks would believe that they almost got booed/thrown off the stage in a rowdy & riotous St. Louis 1975 concert."
