Worldwide Texas Tour

Worldwide Texas Tour: Taking Texas to the People

Concert by ZZ Top
Official tour poster
Location	United States
Associated album	Fandango!, Tejas
Start date	May 29, 1976 (1976-05-29)
End date	December 31, 1977 (1977-12-31)
Legs	5
No. of shows	96
ZZ Top concert chronology

The Worldwide Texas Tour was a concert tour by American rock band ZZ Top. Launched in support of their 1975 album Fandango!, the tour visited arenas and stadiums from 1976 to 1977. To mirror the newfound success of Fandango!, the tour was meant to differ from their previous expectations of the band. In contrast to ZZ Top's sparse stage setups from previous tours, the Worldwide Texas Tour was an elaborately staged event. It exaggerated the group's hometown culture by utilizing various props and wildlife on stage. To further their reputation as a successful touring act, ZZ Top adopted a more playful and self-deprecating image on tour. The Worldwide Texas Tour and Fandango! were central to the group's success in the 1970s.

The tour's concept was inspired by the outdoor environment and wildlife of Texas. The stage featured several scrims that formed a three-dimensional panorama of the Texas prairies stretching to the Sierra Madre mountains. Live animals, plants, and visual effects were incorporated into the shows. Although ZZ Top was known for their modest live performances in the early 1970s, the group's Worldwide Texas Tour performances were intentionally ironic and energetic; on stage, they wore studded Western suits.

With five legs and 96 shows, the tour began in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on May 29, 1976 and finished in Fort Worth, Texas, on December 31, 1977. After the cancellation of performances in Europe, Japan, Australia, and Mexico, a second route in the US was scheduled to begin in February 1977. Although the tour generated a variety of reactions from music critics, it was generally well received. Along with broken attendance records and capacity audiences, the Worldwide Texas Tour sold around 1.2 million tickets over its five legs. The band's 1976 album Tejas, which expanded the group's musical boundaries, was recorded during breaks in the tour, and its songs were played in 1977.

Background

ZZ Top's 1973 album Tres Hombres and the supporting single, "La Grange", brought them to a national level of commercial and critical success in the United States. The band gained a reputation as one of the top rock acts in the country and earned them the nickname "that little ol' band from Texas", an image that was further employed after their September 1, 1974 Labor Day show at Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin. The concert—photographs of which were taken and used for their 1975 Fandango! album—was the last to be held at the stadium until a May 7, 1995 Eagles concert, as the artificial turf was damaged by rowdy fans.^[1] In a 2008 Texas Monthly Talks interview, guitarist and vocalist Billy Gibbons recalled the event: "I remember having to sit face-to-face in front of Darrell Royal, trying to explain why his AstroTurf had been carved out in the shape of Texas, which took up the 50-yard line into the 40-yard line, but we had a great time. Santana came along, and Joe Cocker performed. Bad Company was there, as well as Jay Boy Adams and Jimmy Page. It was just such a huge turnout—a great, great event."^[2]

Stage design and show production

The Worldwide Texas Tour stage was designed by Bill Narum, who also designed ZZ Top's album covers and tour posters.^[3] In place of the ZZ Top's minimalistic productions of the early 1970s, the tour stage was an elaborate setup and designed to "bring Texas to the people".^[4] The set included a 63-by-48 foot (19-by-15 m) stage that was tilted at a four-degree angle, which resembled the shape of Texas and weighed 35 tons (70,000 lbs), costing a reported US$100,000. The stage was constructed in a seven-hour process with the help of 40 crew members. The set's backdrop was an 180-foot (55 m) three-dimensional panorama that used five scrims measuring 36-by-20 feet (11-by-6 m), which were hand-painted and individually lit to show dawn and dusk effects. The presentation also included live animals such as a longhorn steer, black buffalo, two vultures, and two rattlesnakes. Various plants, such as yucca, agave, and cacti, also decorated the stage. The set used 260 speakers and 130 light fixtures, using over 136,000 watts of power. A crew of 50 people traveled in a series of 13 vehicles to transport 75 tons (150,000 lbs) of equipment. Over US$140,000 was spent to insure that the animals were healthy, traveling under the supervision of an animal expert and veterinarian. The entire production and crew were insured for $10 million.^[5]

Planning, itinerary, and ticketing

Rehearsals for the tour began in May 1976 at Astroarena in Houston. The band and crew spent a week in the arena rehearsing the show, constructing and tweaking the stage set. Unlike many of the group's previous tours, which began shortly after or coincident with the release of a new album, the Worldwide Texas Tour started over a year after Fandango! was released, allowing fans the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the new songs. By opening night, the album had already been certified gold in the United States and sold over one million copies in Canada. The first leg of the tour, 30 shows in the US, alternated between stadiums and arenas. The band had planned overseas concerts in Europe, Japan, Australia, and Mexico, but were cancelled due to quarantine restrictions for buffalo.^[6] By the time the third US leg began, Tejas had sold over half-a-million copies in the US. The leg, which began in February 1977, was the band's first full arena leg of the tour. Four days of heavy rain and hailstorms preceded the opening show at Groves Stadium, which decreased ticket sales to 20,000.^[4] Tickets for two shows at The Summit in Houston sold out in less than twelve hours.^[5] Ticket prices for outdoor venues were US$8.50 in advance and $10 on the day of the show, while indoor venues were $6 in advance and $7 at the door.^[4] At its conclusion, the Worldwide Texas Tour sold over 1.2 million tickets.^[7]

Setlist

Tour dates

Notes

References

• "Billy Gibbons, Musician". Texas Monthly Talks. Season 6. Episode 141. Austin. April 24, 2008. Event occurs at 14:02-14:33. PBS. KLRU-TV. 
• Clark, Stuart. ZZ Living. Hot Press. January 26, 1994.
• Gray, Chris. R.I.P. Bill Narum, KLOL Co-Founder, Leading Texas Counterculture Artist and ZZ Top Stage Designer. Houston Press. November 19, 2009.
• Hinchliffe, Jon. These Men Are Not As Daft As They Look. Kerrang!. September 1981;1(3):31.
• Longhorns Host Eagles. The Alcalde. May 1995;83(5):31.
• Orb, Maureen. ZZ Top tour is the largest in rock history. Newsweek. 1976.
• ZZ Top global trek has $20 mil potential. Billboard. June 12, 1976.