From Circus Magazine 
July 1975 issue 
 from an interview by 
Mitchell Glazer 
 
Robin Trower Bares The Tour Strategy 
That Succeeded Too Soon 
His plan to quietly lay the groundwork for a monster tour in November blew up in his 
face when mid-size halls were swamped by more fans than he'd ever dreamed of.

 

 Philadelphia's Spectrum hovered nearer, like an enormous concrete flying saucer. " It wasn't supposed to be the whole thing," mumbled Wilf Wright in his limousine as he caught sight of the huge disc squatting calmly in miles of floodlit asphalt. "We were supposed to play in a partitioned section of that, something that holds 9000 people, but the tickets just kept on selling.... so here we are." 
 As the car swooped into the 15,000 seat arena, Wilf admitted "Philly was never expected to go this well."  Wilf Wright is Robin Trower's personal manager, and he designed the red-hot English guitarists 1975 tour to saturate the United States, hitting 45 moderate size halls across the country. By midpoint in the circut, though, his well planned strategy was crumbling in the wake of the popularity of Robin's new Chrysalis album, For Earth Below. Robin's album has sold alright here, but not as great as elsewhere. We didn't expect this. 
  Indeed, the Spectrum was so packed to the rafters that evening in spring that people in the backrows disappeared into grey. There was something primitive and frightning about the massive crowd, and a hapless Brian Auger came offstage from his opening set tired and grim. Then the Philidelphia coliseum darkened a second time, and the spotlights played across a backdrop painting of the earth as seen from space - tiny, bathed on clouds, and featuring the legend For Earth Below.  When Trower hit the stage the crowd swelled forward to greet the "Return of the Guitar." 
 As the six-string virtuoso played, pulling sweat and searing notes out of the air, a bonfire burst out in the back of the hall; people hurled cardboard Pepsi cups into it, and a group of pagens danced around the eight foot flames in a circle. By the time Trower's set was finished, that bonfire was mimicked by 15,000 tiny off-spring. Three times the lit matches demanded encores and three times Robin replied. On one encore, he played his beautiful tribute to Hendrix, "Daydream." After the song, he stepped up to the mic and said "We appreciate all the noise you can make. It's nice to feel wanted." 
 After the show, the biggest night in the bands career, Robin was subdued but eager to talk about the nights triumph. "They wanted the best tonight, they willed it. If audiences want the real magic then they have to do their part. That's the point you usually gett the crowd to by the encore - committed. But tonight was beautiful; they were there from the beginning. Our music is very soulful, it cries I mean, people are very soulful.  Something as basic as music cuts across all boundries. It hits at that part of the people that is good and soulful and sweet. I believe in that."