REVIEW - The ghost of a living man haunts Fleetwood Mac - November 12, 2019

Fleetwood Mac deliver time-tested hits in return to Rogers Place

TOM MURRAY
EDMONTON JOURNAL
PHOTOS: IAN KUCERAK

Considering the 11 talented musicians packed on the Rogers stage Tuesday night you wouldn’t think that was possible, but it’s true. The half-century-old group can still put on an entertaining and polished show, though the gap where guitarist, songwriter, and musical spark plug Lindsey Buckingham normally stands is very evident in the retooled Mac.

The band itself obviously knows this, which is why they brought in some heavy hitters to up the supergroup quotient. Neil Finn (of Crowded House and Split Enz) and Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) split Buckingham duties, Campbell unspooling stinging solos, the affable and energetic Finn providing supportive guitar work and vocals.

Each got a few moments in the spotlight to shine on their own, Finn reaching all the way back to 1980 for I Got You and then later sharing the mic with Nicks on a lovely, understated Don’t Dream It’s Over. He also helmed an incendiary version of Go Your Own Way, while Campbell stepped up for Oh Well and led the band in tribute to his old boss with a Nicks-sung version of Free Fallin’. It was not unlike those Ringo Starr tours of the ’90s where the Beatles’ drummer brought along a cavalcade of celebrity musicians to take a turn at the mic for their best known songs.

Husky-voiced Stevie Nicks had to dip under the high notes a few times, understandable given that she’s edging in on 72. She still has the back catalog of perfect pop jams and mystic hippie moves to draw from, spinning during Gypsy and Dreams, giving herself over to full interpretative dance on psych-jam Gold Dust Woman. The drawn out Black Magic Woman was given a pronoun swap; after years of constant radio rotation Landslide was every bit as gorgeous and fragile as you would have expected, just as Rhiannon maintained the necessary sultry, mysterious vibe.

Mick Fleetwood Will Host Concert Honoring Peter Green and Early Fleetwood Mac

Mick Fleetwood Announces Concert to Honor Peter Green and Early Fleetwood Mac

Mick Fleetwood will host a one-of-a-kind concert honoring the early years of Fleetwood Mac and its co-founder Peter Green on February 25th at the London Palladium.

Fleetwood has enlisted an all-star cast of musicians to perform, including Billy Gibbons, David Gilmour, Jonny Lang, John Mayall, Christine McVie, Zak Starkey, Steven Tyler and Bill Wyman.

“The concert is a celebration of those early blues days where we all began, and it’s important to recognize the profound impact Peter and the early Fleetwood Mac had on the world of music,” Fleetwood said in a statement. “Peter was my greatest mentor and it gives me such joy to pay tribute to his incredible talent. I am honored to be sharing the stage with some of the many artists Peter has inspired over the years and who share my great respect for this remarkable musician.”

Fleetwood will act as the house band alongside Andy Fairweather Low, Dave Bronze and Ricky Peterson, and producer Glyn Johns will be the executive sound producer for the concert. The event will be filmed for eventual release and directed by Martyn Atkins.

Exclusive pre-sale tickets go on sale Wednesday November 13th at 10 a.m. GMT while public tickets go on sale Friday November 15th at 10 a.m. GMT via Ticketmaster. A donation from the event will go to Teenage Cancer Trust, a U.K. charity dedicated to providing specialist nursing and emotional support to young people with cancer.

Green co-founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967 alongside Fleetwood, John McVie, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan. Fleetwood told Rolling Stone in 2017 that there was little possibility of the original lineup of the band reforming down the road.

“I went there many years ago,” he said. “We got into it and we were going to put a whole thing together at the [Royal] Albert Hall. This is years and years and years ago. Probably about 15 years ago. And right at the last minute, Peter, in the world that he lives in, just suddenly pulled out. … Suddenly it was not a good idea. And we had put a whole bunch of things together, I had even booked the venue. So I would never do that again.”

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Calgary November 10, 2019

When it's Fleetwood Mac, every song is an encore
STEPHEN HUNT - CALGARY HERALD
PHOTO: Replicant Tusk

Fleetwood Mac — a walking, talking, drumming and humming Rock and Roll of Fame — returned to Calgary Sunday, to perform a makeup concert for Calgary that Stevie Nicks said was cancelled three times.

All of which, she added, were completely her fault.

“But don’t worry,” Nicks added, in that instantly familiar husky voice that seemed to spin the clock inside the jam-packed Saddledome back to 1977, the year Rumours was released, and changed music history.

“We will always return,” Nicks said, “to the land of snow-covered mountains.”

Then Nicks, and Neil Finn — taking over the role of Lindsey Buckingham in the 2019 edition of Fleetwood Mac — broke into Landslide, one of the great ballads (Nicks wrote it when she was 23 and it still sounds spectacular), and 18,000 people in the Saddledome sang along and many, many gigabytes of digital camera memory were chewed up by people videotaping the song on their phones.

That is, if they had any digital memory left, because to attend a Fleetwood Mac concert is to sit in awe of their songbook and your first temptation is to try to get some visual proof that you were actually there.

It’s astonishing — a concert where every tune is an encore.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Winnipeg November 7, 2019

Venerable band rolls out the hits
Fleetwood Mac starts late and loud
By: Erin Lebar
Winnipeg Free Press

CONCERT REVIEW
Fleetwood Mac
Nov. 7, Bell MTS Place
Attendance: 11,800
4.5 stars out of 5

It’s been five years almost to the day since Fleetwood Mac last graced the Bell MTS Place stage. It wasn’t supposed to be quite that long, of course, but an ill Stevie Nicks meant the band’s previously scheduled April 11 Winnipeg tour stop had to be rescheduled — one of a handful of cancellations and postponements this year due to health issues of older performers. 

But, that’s the risk one takes when touring with a band that has an average age of 70.

Fleetwood Mac only took a few weeks off in the spring for vocalist Nicks to recuperate, however, and have managed to hammer out the rest of their summer and fall dates, with the rescheduled Winnipeg show being the fourth-last stop on their list before wrapping this tour up later in November. 

And apparently just a few weeks off were all they needed — Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham replacements Mike Campbell and Neil Finn, in true rock ’n’ roll style, started late and started loud, quickly amping up the crowd with the iconic thumps of The Chain, the first of many tracks off the band’s landmark 1977 album, Rumours.

"Thank you for coming back," Nicks said. "Let’s get this party started." 

5 FLEETWOOD MAC ALBUMS TO BE RELEASED ON COLORED VINYL DEC 6, 2019

Five of Fleetwood Mac’s classic albums will be reissued individually on colored vinyl on November 29 (December 6 in the US).

The albums include: 

• FLEETWOOD MAC on white vinyl, 
• RUMOURS on clear vinyl, 
• TUSK on a silver vinyl 2-LP set, 
• MIRAGE on violet vinyl, and 
• TANGO IN THE NIGHT on green vinyl. 

On the same day, all five colored-vinyl LPs will be presented together in slipcase as a limited edition, individually numbered set of 2,000 copies, available exclusively at the Rhino.com store. This Individually Numbered, Limited Edition Colored Vinyl Boxed Set Is Exclusive to the Rhino Store.

Fleetwood Mac released five back-to-back multi-platinum albums between 1975 and 1987, an astonishing feat that drove them to become one of the best-selling bands in the world.

This collection includes: Fleetwood Mac on white vinyl; Rumours on clear vinyl; Tusk on a silver vinyl 2-LP set; Mirage on violet vinyl; and Tango In The Night on green vinyl.

A new incarnation of Fleetwood Mac debuted in the summer of 1975 that included Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie, along with new members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. The group’s first album together, Fleetwood Mac (sometimes called “The White Album”), topped the Billboard album chart, spent more than a year in the Top 40 and sold more than five million copies in the U.S. thanks to songs like “Landslide,” “Say You Love Me,” and “Rhiannon.”

In 1977, the band followed up with Rumours, considered by many to be among the greatest albums of all time. It won the Grammy® for Album of the Year and has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. Its unforgettable tracks include: “Go Your Own Way,” “Gold Dust Woman” and the band’s first number one smash, “Dreams.”

The Grammy®-nominated double-album Tusk arrived in 1979. It sold more than four million copies worldwide and introduced fans to hits like “Sara,” “Think About Me,” and the title track. Three years later, in 1982, Fleetwood Mac again topped the U.S. Album Chart for five weeks with Mirage. Along with hits like “Hold Me” and “Gypsy,” Mirage also features great album tracks like “Oh Diane” and “Straight Back.”

In 1987, Tango in the Night became the second-most successful album of the band’s career, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide with the massive hits “Everywhere,” “Big Love” and “Little Lies.”

Fleetwood Mac Announce Final Show Of World Tour - LAS VEGAS November 16th

Fleetwood Mac Announce Final Show Of World Tour After Eight Countries And 80+ Shows; Saturday, November 16 At T-Mobile Arena In Las Vegas

Due to overwhelming fan demand from around the world, the legendary GRAMMY Award-winning band Fleetwood Mac announced today the FINAL show of their 2018/2019 sold out world tour. The tour kicked off last October and after nearly a year on the road with 80+ concert events across eight countries, the band will mark their FINAL show of the tour on Saturday, Nov. 16 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Produced by Live Nation, the tour featured the newly minted line-up of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie along with newcomers Mike Campbell and Neil Finn. The group received critical and fan acclaim at every show, with rave reviews including: 

"…EPIC ROCK CONCERT" – Las Vegas Sun

"FLEETWOOD MAC IS BACK" – St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Tickets for the FINAL show will go on-sale to the general public starting on Friday, Oct. 11 at 10 a.m. PT. American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Monday, Oct. 7 at 10 a.m. PT through Thursday, Oct. 10 at 10 p.m. PT. A limited number of LaneOne VIP Packages will also be available, including amazing seats with premium benefits such as transportation, preferred entrance and more. 

Tickets ranging in price from $99 to $750 (not including applicable service charges) go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, Oct. 11 at 10 a.m. PT at www.axs.com. M life Rewards members and Live Nation and AXS customers will receive access to a presale beginning Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 10 a.m. PT. To join the M life Rewards program or for more information, visit mlife.com.

Tickets for the FINAL show will go on-sale to the general public starting on Friday, Oct. 11 at 10 a.m. PT. American Express® Card Members can purchase tickets before the general public beginning Monday, Oct. 7 at 10 a.m. PT through Thursday, Oct. 10 at 10 p.m. PT. A limited number of LaneOne VIP Packages will also be available, including amazing seats with premium benefits such as transportation, preferred entrance and more. 

Tickets ranging in price from $99 to $750 (not including applicable service charges) go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, Oct. 11 at 10 a.m. PT at www.axs.com. M life Rewards members and Live Nation and AXS customers will receive access to a presale beginning Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 10 a.m. PT. To join the M life Rewards program or for more information, visit mlife.com.

Review Fleetwood Mac Live in Dunedin, NZ Sept 21, 2019

DUNEDIN was once again pumping as thousands of fans poured into the city for Saturday night’s Fleetwood Mac concert at Forsyth Barr Stadium.

By Daisy Hudson
Otago Daily Times

Close to 30,000 fans with a serious case of Fleetwood fever, many of them having travelled from outside Dunedin, packed into the roofed stadium for the show, after hitting the city’s bars, restaurants and shops earlier in the day.

Retailers reported the city, bathed in the brilliant sunshine of an early spring day, was humming as fans soaked up the atmosphere.

The result was expected to be a cash injection worth millions to the city’s economy, as well as another marketing bump for the city on social media.

Fleetwood Mac still love what they do, and it shows. - Review

Fleetwood Mac, Auckland NZ, 2019
Review by Mike Beck. Photography by Richard Myburgh.
Abmient Light - Photo Gallery

Formed amidst the British blues boom of the late 1960’s, with a rhythm section whose surnames had the rare distinction of combining to create the band’s title, Fleetwood Mac have come a hell of a long way.

Casualties, internal relationships, big success, breakups, addictions, enduring friendships, long-term musical magic and memories are all part of their story. And with another significant line-up change occurring in 2018, two questions came to mind at last night’s opening show minus key playmaker Lyndsey Buckingham; how are they travelling without him, and how would one of his two replacements, local hero Neil Finn, fair in such a pivotal role?

The first of four nights at the city’s premier indoor stadium Spark Arena, last night’s show also held special significance, as it was the first glimpse of the band with Neil Finn on his home soil. Along with Finn, ex Tom Petty Heartbreaker, guitar gun-slinger Mike Campbell have collectively replaced Buckingham, who was ousted last year due to internal conflicts. This is the second time in the history of the band that they have replaced Buckingham with two musicians. Some big boots to fill then?

So, it was with heightened anticipation, that the ominously tall founding member Mick Fleetwood led the band out onto the stage, activating joyous applause for both the beloved group itself, as well as the arrival of the boyish Finn. Fittingly they opened with ‘The Chain’ off their mega album Rumours, a song affiliated with the bands tenacity to stick together through the trials of adversity. The dual vocals required for the tune, coupled with its extended guitar solo coda, meant that both Finn and Campbell were featured straight away on lead vocals and guitar respectively. And they didn’t disappoint, both adding experience, class, style and character to the Mac sound. Underpinning all was the bassline of foundation member, the super solid John McVie.

The Mac’s female star combination of Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks both got early entries for two of their signature tunes; ‘Little Lies’ and ‘Dreams.’ Here the audience were presented with a taste of what had been observed in previous shows, that this configuration of Fleetwood Mac has consented to perform in a notably more laid-back mode than previously heard. The slight tempo pull-backs of many of the songs the best indicator of this.

Syncing with Maori language week, Neil Finn addressed the audience with “Kia Ora NZ!” before turning in a rather decent version of ‘Second Hand News.’ Again, in cruise control, McVie had the audience incrementally on their feet for ‘Say You Love Me.’ As expected last night’s set featured more than a few tracks – seven in total – lifted from Rumours, the record that propelled Fleetwood Mac into superstardom status in 1977. In its day, Rumours became the biggest-selling album of all-time, its west-coast rock appeal producing so many hits that the band unequivocally ruled the airwaves.

The first of the Fleetwood NZ shows ticked all the right boxes

Fleetwood Mac - Auckland - Thursday September 12th, 2019
By Francine Auger
Date: Thursday September 12th, 2019
Libel Music
All Photos by: Megan Moss - Gallery

Neil Finn playing with the mighty Fleetwood Mac. Not only playing with, but touring with and officially part of the band. What kind of quirky, strange, yet fascinating parallel universe could this happen in? Well, oddly enough – this one! And the long awaited tour last night finally hit Auckland; ahead of three more Auckland shows on September 14th, 16th and 19th before heading to Dunedin on September 21st. 

Auckland’s Spark Arena was packed to the rafters, with everyone high on anticipation for what to expect. Would everyone’s favourite songs be played? Would we get a stonking Mick Fleetwood drum solo? Would the Kiwi flavour of Neil fit like a well-used glove in the Fleetwood machine? Well, it was time to find out…

The show starts off with ‘The Chain’, as the suave and sophisticated Mick Fleetwood takes his place behind the drums and is soon joined by Miss Stevie Nicks. We then see Neil Finn heading out, who got a massive reception. With his guitar on fire, it seems Neil is reveling in this latest role and is enjoying being part of this huge setup.