Start date May 2, 1970 End date December 30, 1970 | Legs 1 Leg 1 | |
No. of shows 14 in North America; 14 in total |
The Jackson 5 First National Tour was the group's first tour of the United States. After having made 1969 appearances with Diana Ross & The Supremes at The Forum near Los Angeles, and Yvonne Fair in Gary, Indiana, the tour began in Philadelphia with their first official full-length Motown concert. One concert in San Francisco was shared with Jerry Butler and Rare Earth (Ike & Tina Turner had been scheduled to appear).
Contents
In an interview, Michael Jackson told Soul Magazine about the tour, "In San Francisco and Los Angeles, it looked like the walls were falling the way hundreds of them, the girls, came at the stage all together; but we have to practice getting away too, so we're ready to drop everything and run. Jermaine dropped his guitar and took off at the Forum concert. We can always get a new guitar for him, but he'd be kinda hard to replace. It's too bad really, 'cause we can't finish the show the way we rehearsed. We always have to run off stage, and we can't thank the audience and stuff, you know the way we'd really like too, we just have to run away."
Background
The tour was announced in April 1970 by Berry Gordy Jr. and Joe Jackson. During the group's May 10, 1970 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Ed Sullivan announced the group would begin a summer tour of one-nighters at New York City's Madison Square Garden on July 7. However, outside of the two June concerts in California, they would not appear there or at any venue until October.
They toured with only four band instruments, Ronnie Rancifer on the organ/keyboard, Johnny Jackson on drums, Tito on lead guitar, and Jermaine on bass.
Set list
- "Stand!"
- "I Want You Back"
- "ABC"
- "Feelin' Alright" (cover of the Three Dog Night version)
- "Who's Lovin' You"
- "I'll Be There"
- "Mama's Pearl"
- "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"
- "Yesterday"
- "Can You Remember?"
- "There Was a Time"
- "It's Your Thing"
- "I Found That Girl"
- "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"
- "Walk On" (Instrumental rendition of Isaac Hayes' "Walk On By")
- "The Love You Save"
Notes