Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Fleetwood Mac " the Brits in the group liked to drink and the hippies liked to smoke pot."

It’s been a turbulent ride, but the group is back. "We are the kind of people who don’t all belong in the same band together,' says Lindsey Buckingham.

By George Varga

It’s been 39 years since Lindsey Buckingham and his then-girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, joined Mick Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie in Fleetwood Mac.

Faster than you can say “Landslide,” the 8-year-old English blues-rock band and its two new American members shifted gears, changed musical styles and soared to international pop stardom. The 1975 album “Fleetwood Mac” was the group’s first release to top the U.S. charts, while its 1977 masterpiece “Rumours” has now sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and yielded such enduring hits as “Don’t Stop” and “Go Your Own Way.”

Did Buckingham ever imagine then that the band would still be active in 2013 and embarked on a world tour, which includes a Friday stop here at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena?

“Well, time kind of slips by and it doesn’t seem that long,” said the veteran guitarist and singer-songwriter, speaking from a recent tour stop in Boston. “You know, when you’re in your 20s and contemplating that (long an) amount of time, you think: ‘Gee, will I even still be alive by then?’ So, it’s all kind of relative to your perspective. And it certainly is a surprise, although there are bands that have managed to stick around that long.

“The one thing that probably would have disabused me from thinking then that we’d still be around now is that the chemistry was always so volatile. Not just because there were two couples in Fleetwood Mac who had broken up (before ‘Rumours’ was completed), and that whole subtext, but from the point of view that we are the kind of people who don’t all belong in the same band together.”

Those two couples were, of course, Buckingham and Nicks, who split up while making “Rumours,” and the McVies, who separated before recording sessions for “Rumours” began and soon divorced. For any other band, such upheaval would spell the end. For Fleetwood Mac, it was the launchpad to fame, fortune and more upheaval, including drugs, Fleetwood’s bankruptcy, his on-tour affair with Nicks and enough other ups and downs to fuel a rock ’n’ roll soap opera.

“The conception is the volatility would eventually become a divisive force,” Buckingham said. “But I guess it went the other way; that same dynamic has a musical synergy, and we’re still working through things on a personal level.”

He laughed.
Billy and Rick

"There's no way (39 years ago) I thought we'd still be doing this, now, in this form."

Of course, Fleetwood Mac has hardly remained constant since its “Rumours” heyday.

Buckingham, always the most musically adventurous of the band, quit in 1987. He was replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. Nicks and Christine McVie left the group in 1990, followed by Vito a year later, at which point Fleetwood Mac ground to a halt.

Clinton Inauguration
In 1993, Buckingham, Nicks, Fleetwood and the McVies reunited to perform at newly elected President Bill Clinton’s inaugural ball (“Don’t Stop” was his campaign theme song). Burnette quit the same year, leaving Fleetwood and the McVies to soldier on. They were soon joined by singer Bekka Bramlett and, briefly, ex-Traffic singer-guitarist Dave Mason. Burnette returned in 1994 and Christine McVie left.

In 1998, a year after the band’s “Rumours” lineup reunited — perhaps as much for financial reasons as artistic ones — Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Christine McVie quit the band, for good, the same year.
























Lindsey Buckingham says a love-fest vibe has replaced the heavy drama of old

Fleetwood Mac is back
by Randy Lewis
Los Angeles Times

Randy Lewis examines the band’s legacy as it brings its tour to the Southland. For a notoriously perfectionist band like Fleetwood Mac, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that its live show leaves nothing to chance.

Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 tour, which wraps up with a final run of shows this week in California, is built around a song list that’s gone virtually unchanged since the concert run began in April.

“We’re not one of those bands that throws the names of all their songs in a hat and pulls them out right before they go on stage,” guitarist, songwriter and singer Lindsey Buckingham said last week from a tour stop in Charlotte, N.C. (Buckingham and the band play Staples Center on Wednesday.) “Years ago I was hanging out with Peter Buck and went to several shows R.E.M. did and they literally did just that. That’s one end of the spectrum.

“We’ve always had the sensibility that you work on the set and you structure it, much like a play, where once you’ve got the lines down and blocking right, you freeze it, and then you go out and do what you’re doing night after night,” he said. “You want to structure something that has form and that builds the right dynamic from start to finish.”

This time out that set list runs from “Second Hand News,” the “Rumours” opening track that serves the same function on this tour, through cornerstone hits including ““Rhiannon,” “Gold Dust Woman” and “Go Your Own Way” that are interspersed with deeper tracks such as “Not That Funny,” “Eyes of the World” and “I’m So Afraid.”

When it comes to touring, the group stresses a sense of stability onstage that rarely existed for the members off stage. The group famously channeled feelings unleashed by the disintegrating relationship of Buckingham and Stevie Nicks as well as the failing marriage of John and Christine McVie into the songs that catapulted “Rumours” and the band into the commercial stratosphere. Ever since, interpersonal dynamics have been nearly as big a part of Fleetwood Mac’s history as the music it made.

“You could look ... and think these people don’t belong in the same band together,” he said. “But it’s the differences and disparity that creates a kind of synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and that’s what makes Fleetwood Mac what it is, and what makes the politics of the band what they are.”

Certainly the remaining four core members are long past the big drama that fueled their breakthrough 1975 album “Fleetwood Mac,” the first after Buckingham and Nicks joined the lineup with founding members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie and longtime member Christine McVie.

But drama still surfaces — most recently over whether the group would have a full album out in conjunction with the latest tour. After bumping the band’s tour from 2012 to 2013 so Nicks could continue to support her 2011 solo album “In Your Dreams,” Buckingham, John McVie and Fleetwood worked up eight new tracks for what they hoped would be a new album, anticipating several more from Nicks when she returned to the fold.

But she brought just one, and an old one at that: “Without You,” an unreleased song from the days she and Buckingham recorded and performed as Buckingham Nicks before joining Fleetwood Mac. (There’s talk of a possible Buckingham Nicks tour and album reissue to note the 40th anniversary of that group’s one and only release, but it’s too early for any specifics, Buckingham said.)

“Without You” is one of two songs from “Extended Play,” the new four-song EP released in April, that are incorporated into the live shows. The other is Buckingham’s song “Sad Angel.”

“All four are some of the best stuff we’ve done in a long time,” he said. “I think they fit right in alongside the other songs. ‘Sad Angel’ we play very early in the set, and for the song of Stevie’s, she tells a story — a very long story — as an intro about how it predates our involvement with Fleetwood Mac.... Referring back to the past, it becomes an embodiment of how long Stevie and I have known each other, so that has a certain context of its own that fits in very well.”

Return of the Mac! why the cool kids love them

Page 34 Irish Independent
July 2, 2013
by Ed Power
Irish Independent - July 2, 2013

Music’s most hip are lining up to pay tribute to Fleetwood Mac, says

Their greatest album was recorded in a blizzard of cocaine, champagne and heartache. Thirty five years later, Fleetwood Mac are suddenly the name to drop in fashionable music circles. Tickets for this September's brace of O2 dates sold out in a heartbeat; a ‘ lavish' — i.e. super-expensive — re-issue of their 1977 blockbuster record Rumours is basking in fivestar reviews (you get the impression certain journalists would award six stars were that allowed).

So what, you cry. Fleetwood Mac have always been popular. Until Michael Jackson's Thriller, Rumours was the biggest-selling LP of all time, some 40 million copies residing in record collections around the world. Well, yes. The difference is that today it isn't merely nostalgiahappy oldies flocking to the band. ‘The group’s fastest growing fanbase is among the under 30s.

In trend-conscious alternative pop, in particular, people can't get enough of Fleetwood Mac. Natasha Khan of Mercurynominated outfit Bat For Lashes says her biggest hit, ‘Daniel’, was inspired by their 1987 soft-rock classic ‘ Tango in the Night’.

Last year, cooler than-thou names such as MGMT, Best Coast and Lykki Li lined up to pay tribute to ‘ the Mac' on a covers album.

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Win Tickets to Fleetwood Mac Live in Australia - Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane

WIN TICKETS TO PERTH SHOW!
Fleetwood Mac are coming to Australia for their first series of concerts since the sold-out 2009 Unleashed Tour and 6PR is giving you the chance to win tickets to see them at Perth Arena on November 22.


Fleetwood Mac's spectacular two-hour-plus show reunites the multi-Grammy winning, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees on stage to deliver many of their classic and most beloved songs including 'The Chain', 'Dreams', Second Hand News', Rhiannon', 'Sara', 'Gold Dust Woman', 'Tusk', 'Looking Out for Love', 'Don't Stop', 'Go Your Own Way' and so many more!


For your chance to win, listen out for the cue-to-call in the Breakfast Show and the Afternoon Show all this week, where you'll need you to Identify The Mac Track!

(Competition runs from Monday 1st July to Friday 5th July)

6PR882 News Talk

WIN TICKETS TO SYDNEY SHOW!


The multi Grammy award winning, Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductees have reunited and are on tour in Australia in November and December. Of course, we’re talking about Fleetwood Mac – with fantastic hits like ‘Rhiannon’, ‘Dreams’, ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Go Your Own Way’… just some of their classics.

The Chris Smith Afternoon Show is giving you the chance to win a double pass to the November 11 concert. Stay listening all this week!

Live Nation brings the legendary Fleetwood Mac to the Sydney Entertainment Centre November 11.

Tickets are on sale now through Ticketmaster. Go to: ticketmaster.com.au

2GB 873AM

WIN TICKETS TO SYDNEY SHOW!

2UE is giving you the chance to win tickets to see them at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Monday November 11!  For your chance to win, stay listening to Breakfast with Angela Bishop & Andrew Voss and Drive with Jason Morrison from Monday July 1.

2UE 954 News Talk

WIN TICKETS TO BRISBANE SHOW!
4BC is giving you the chance to win tickets to see them at the Sydney Entertainment Centre on Monday November 11. For your chance to win, stay listening to Breakfast with Kim and Mary from Monday July 1.

4BC 1116 News Talk

WIN TICKETS TO MELBOURNE SHOW!
3AW is giving you the chance to win tickets to see them at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday 27 November! For your chance to win, stay listening to Breakfast with Darren James & Tony Leonard from Monday July 1.

3AW 693 News Talk


Lindsey Buckingham Interview WEDNESDAY in LA Times - Calendar

After Fleetwood Mac tour: Reissue of 'Buckingham Nicks'?
LA Times

Fleetwood Mac is headed down the home stretch of its 2013 tour, with only three shows remaining: Wednesday at Staples Center in L.A., Friday in San Diego and Saturday in Sacramento.

But 2013 represents a milestone of another kind for band members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks: It’s the 40th anniversary of “Buckingham Nicks, ” the only album they put out as a duo before joining up with Fleetwood Mac in 1975.

That album never made the Billboard 200 album chart, but it’s prized among rock fans as an important moment in California rock history and in the story of Fleetwood Mac’s evolution from respected British blues-rock band to a transatlantic runaway success.

“Buckingham Nicks” remains out of print, but there’s momentum building not only for a reissue of the album on CD but also the a possibility of some performances to go with it.

“There has been some talk about finally getting that out on a CD,” Buckingham told Pop & Hiss when we caught up with him last week at a tour stop in Charlotte, N.C. (The full interview with Buckingham will appear Wednesday in Calendar.) “I think it really comes down to what we want to do with that format.

“Do we want to just release it and that’s it? Do we want to add some bonus tracks? What level of involvement do we take it to? There’s a market for just about anything we want to do, but we have not gotten there yet.  It’s something we need some clarity on.

“If it were me, I’d say let’s put a couple of bonus tracks on it, and do some dates. That would be something brand new,” Buckingham said. “The idea of just dropping it as a CD doesn’t quite underscores the gesture enough.”

Likewise, Nicks told Rolling Stone before the current Fleetwood Mac tour started that she’d be interested in reuniting the band she and Buckingham had in the early '70s, which included guitarist Waddy Wachtel, drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Jerry Scheff, and doing some shows this year or in 2014.

“These are dialogues we’ve had, but only in the hypothetical, and we have not come to any decisions about what we want to do,” Buckingham said. “And all these things will become clear. It’s all from the bottom up. These things tend to take on a life of their own.”

Monday, July 01, 2013

UK TV ALERT: Lots of Fleetwood Mac | Stevie Nicks | Lindsey Buckingham This Week on Sky Arts 1

Seems every year there is some sort of a marathon on UK TV that's dedicated to all things Fleetwood Mac. The last blitz was in August, 2012 when the below shows aired on Sky Arts A LOT over the course of a couple of days.  All great shows if you haven't seen them.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013 Sky Arts 1 HD
9:00pm - Classic Albums Fleetwood Mac "Rumours" 
Members of Fleetwood Mac reveal how private turmoil acted as a catalyst in the creation of Rumours, their Grammy-winning album that went on to sell more than 19 million copies

10:20pm - Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (Episode 1 of 2)
Part one of two. Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks play hits from throughout their career in a concert from 2004

11:20pm - Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (Episode 2 of 2)
More tracks from the 2004 concert, which saw Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks play hits including Dreams and Go Your Own Way.

12:40am - Soundstage Presents Stevie Nicks
The Fleetwood Mac singer performs a selection of her greatest hits, including Rhiannon, Edge of Seventeen and Sara.

Wednesday, July 3 2013 Sky Arts 1 HD
02:20am - Classic Albums Fleetwood Mac "Rumours"
03:40am - Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (pt 1)
04:40am - Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (pt 2)

6:30am - Talks with Dave Fanning (Lindsey Buckingham)
Lindsey Buckingham The DJ presents an interview with Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who talks about his life and musical influences, accompanied by archive clips.

07:00am - Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (pt 1)
08:00am - Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (pt 2)
09:20am - Classic Albums Fleetwood Mac "Rumours"
10:40am - Soundstage Presents Stevie Nicks
02:25pm - Talks with Dave Fanning (Lindsey Buckingham)
03:00pm - Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (pt 1)
04:00pm - Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (pt 2)

Thursday, July 4, 2013 Sky Arts 1 HD
06:40pm - Classic Albums Fleetwood Mac "Rumours"
08:00pm - Soundstage Presents Stevie Nicks

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Portland "band was fired up and totally engaged"

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE
PORTLAND, OR - ROSE GARDEN
JUNE 30, 2013

Photo by Megan Deans
Fleetwood Mac at the Rose Garden
BY Ned Lannamann
Portland Mercury

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Last night, four members of the Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac played the Rose Garden, offering their biggest hits and some (relative) obscurities as well. It was a great show that didn't ever feel like a routine retread through past glories—the band was fired up and totally engaged for over two and a half hours. They opened with perhaps the greatest one-two-three punch a band could ever pull off: "Second Hand News," "The Chain," and "Dreams," wasting no time whatsoever in getting to the hits.

Lindsey Buckingham held down stage left, almost overly eager to prove his guitar ability. He shredded all night long, with highlights in his now-mandatory solo rendition of "Big Love," and the lengthy face-melting solo during "I'm So Afraid." He whooped and barked at the crowd, as animated as a man without have an eightball shoved up his nose could possibly be. (Oh, wait...) He played to the back row, as if he still had something to prove—when Buckingham's magnum opus Tusk met with some resistance in 1979, it must have put a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, which he still seems to be working out.

Stevie Nicks, meanwhile, was the soul of the show, departing the stage for the numbers that weren't hers but providing a great visual focal point while she was onstage. Dressed in her trademark black chiffon skirt and an array of shawls, she looked amazing and sounded excellent, even as she elected not to reach the high notes in "Dreams" or "Rhiannon."

Continue to the full Review at Portland Mercury

SAD ANGEL
WITHOUT YOU INTRO
GOLD DUST WOMAN
THE CHAIN
WORLD TURNING
SILVER SPRINGS Love that she takes a little stroll mid song around the stage... then back to the mic, spins around a few times...then continues on with the song.  Noticed the last few shows, she's really moving around a LOT on that stage, not just sticking to her little area... Great to see!
CLOSING THOUGHTS You know, every time I see them talking especially at the end of the show, and especially with Stevie's delivery, it sounds so final, like this is the last time... Years ago, they used to say "see you next time" or something to that effect... Not this time.

AVAILABLE NOW! Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams Film via inyourdreamsmovie.com

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams
Stevie and Dave's documentary on the making of Stevie's 2011 album "In Your Dreams" is now available to purchase via direct download and DRM-Free from inyourdreamsmovie.com

This is especially cool for those that don't use iTunes and didn't get to see the film during it's limited theatre run.  Now you have the opportunity to see it!  PLUS... It's cheaper too!!  Only $9.99 vs the iTunes version. Payment options include: Paypal, Amazon or by Credit Card.

Update:
It seems the film can STILL only be accessed by those inside North America!  This is crazy!!  If they are going to make it available on their own website, make it available to everybody everywhere!  

Instant streaming of the film and HD Downloads of the film are available.  Buy now, watch on-line or download immediately.  An email link will be sent to you once you purchase that let's you come back to the site to watch any time!

BONUS FOOTAGE:
Buy it today and get TWO, previously unreleased, exclusive scenes with Dave and Stevie!

I just bought using a credit card... Really simple!  It's a fun film!


Also available on Hoopla 

Some great footage out of Spokane... Fleetwood Mac Live June 29th

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE
SPOKANE, WA - SPOKANE ARENA
JUNE 29, 2013



SECOND HAND NEWS/THE CHAIN
STAND BACK
GO YOUR OWN WAY
WORLD TURNING
DON'T STOP