Fleetwood Mac to unleash the magic again

By Ryan Alan
Contributing Writer
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Fosters.com

Mick Fleetwood believes his band is a "glorious accident" that probably was meant to happen "because it's going on for so long."

Full Article

FLEETWOOD MAC PUT STORMY PAST BEHIND THEM

Baltimore Sun

By Chris Kaltenbach

Fleetwood Mac was famous in the 1970s for putting its members' personal bitterness on vinyl, but now, says vocalist Stevie Nicks (second from left), "We're having a blast."

Few rock 'n' roll bands openly displayed their internal fissures like Fleetwood Mac - or rode them to greater success.

But the hurt feelings and emotional turmoil that were poured onto vinyl for 1977's mega-platinum Rumours, still one of the best-selling records of all-time, are decades behind them now. When the band shows up at 1st Mariner Arena June 10, for one of the last stops in the "Greatest Hits Unleashed" North American tour, don't expect those kinds of sparks to fly. These days, everyone seems to be getting along swimmingly.

Being together off and on for more than three decades can do that to a band.

"We've been down this road, a long, long road, together," songwriter-guitarist Lindsay Buckingham said while promoting the tour. "In some ways, we know each other better than we know anybody else. We share things with each other that we've never shared with other people. I think we all want to dignify the road we've been down."

Adds drummer Mick Fleetwood, a wide-eyed giant of a man whose pounding drums have been a staple with the band since day one, "It's something that has not always been easy. But change and surviving that change ... is somewhat of a miracle, to tell you the truth."

For Fleetwood Mac, the road extends as far back as 1967, when some veterans of Britain's legendary John Mayall's Bluesbreakers decided to form their own group. Named for drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, Fleetwood Mac saw several members come and go before solidifying in the mid-1970s. Only Fleetwood and McVie remained from the original lineup, which now included vocalists Buckingham, his girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, and McVie's wife, Christine, who also played keyboards.

That lineup was responsible for a trio of landmark albums, including 1975's Fleetwood Mac, which established the blend of pop and blues-influenced rock that would briefly make them one of the hottest bands on Earth, and 1979's Tusk, a hodgepodge of musical styles and Buckingham's doodlings that stands as one of the decade's most daring musical experiments.

Between those albums came Rumours, made while the McVies' marriage was dissolving and Buckingham and Nicks were undergoing a not-so-amicable break-up. The result, filled with anger, yearning and some of the greatest hooks of the rock era, had sold some 40 million copies worldwide at last count.

Fleetwood Mac's lineup would continue to shuffle, with Buckingham, Nicks and Christine McVie all leaving and rejoining the group at various times. But it's the Rumours-era group that will be in Baltimore tomorrow (minus Christine McVie, who quit touring for good in 1998). This is the group's first tour since 2004, and the first without a new album to promote.

"We've been apart for four years, now we're back together and we're having a blast," says Nicks, who celebrated her 61st birthday last month. "Had we been working every single year for the last four years and we were going out to do yet another tour this year, we would all be going, like, 'Uh, OK.' So this makes it very, very different and we're all excited."

That excitement even extends to the idea of not having any new music to offer, of playing only their greatest hits. The band members say they're excited by the challenge of playing to audiences whose loyalties have stood the test of time. Even more, they say, they're looking forward to playing with and for one another.

"It frees you up to kind of enjoy each other a little bit more as people," Buckingham says. "The mantra is really more 'Let's just have a good time,' and value the friendships and the history that really underpins this whole experience that we've had over these years."

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REAL TIME REVIEW OF FLEETWOOD MAC SATURDAY NIGHT

Join us Saturday night at 8 p.m. for real-time coverage of the Fleetwood Mac concert from the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, MB. Canada - Then, read the full review from Melissa Martin in the Sunday Winnipeg Free Press.

FLEETWOOD MAC - JUNE Q MAGAZINE INTERVIEW (scans)

New Fleetwood Mac interview in the June issue of Q Magazine featuring Noel Gallagher on the cover.
[ scans courtesy of Shel from The Ledge ]

RETURN OF THE MAC

AFTER revealing the band’s tentative plans to tour the UK later this year, bizarrely on The One Show of all places, ‘70s rock survivors Fleetwood Mac have confirmed they’ll play Manchester for the first time in six years this autumn.

Currently winding its way across the US, the Rumours World Tour will dock at the M.E.N. Arena on October 27.

Featuring four of the original five who recorded the 1977 landmark album (Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, Christine McVie no longer tours), the quartet will be playing tracks from the record alongside hits from their substantial back-catalogue.

Including the hit singles Go Your Own Way, Dreams, Don’t Stop and You Make Loving Fun, the Grammy Award-winning Rumours has gone on to sell over 25 million copies worldwide.

And in conjunction with the tour, it will be re-released as part of a special CD/DVD box set, which will include previously unreleased tracks recorded during the making of the album.

Formed in 1967 by blue-rocks magician Peter Green, drummer and band custodian Fleetwood remains the only original member.

Fleetwood Mac play the M.E.N. Arena on Tuesday, October 27. £45, £60, £75. Fully seated show. Tickets go on sale on Friday, June 5 at 9am. Call 0844 847 8000.

FLEETWOOD MAC BOOKED FOR SHEFFIELD ARENA

By David Dunn
The Star

FLEETWOOD Mac - one of the most successful bands of all time - are to make their Sheffield Arena debut this winter.

The group featuring Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Lindsey Buckingham will bring their global hits Go Your Own Way, Everywhere and Don't Stop and more on Monday November 2 and tickets go on general sale at 9am this Friday.

1967, the rhythm section of McVie and Fleetwood has never changed although the line-up featuring Buckingham and late 70s sex symbol Nicks was the most successful, producing the 25 million-selling classic album Rumours.

The band began as a traditional British blues band with Peter Green but amid personnel changes relocated to California in 1974 where it added Buckingham and Nicks.

Their first studio offering Fleetwood Mac sold five million copies and in spite of the well documented separation of Buckingham and Nicks the band went on to make the Grammy Award-winning Rumours.

Although the band has never managed to match the success of that, it produced the ambitious and experimental Tusk, Mirage and 1987's Tango In The Night which tendered major hits Little Lies, Seven Wonders and Everywhere.

In 1998 the band was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame where it played an acoustic set that Buckingham, now a prolific solo artist, insisted would be its swan song.

The band have sold more than 100 million albums and remain one of the most popular rock bands in history.

Tickets for the reunion tour are expected to sell quickly, even with a price tag of £45 to £75, plus booking fee. Tickets are available online at www.sheffieldarena.co.uk, in person at the arena box office and by phone on 0114 256 5656.

(THE HERALD UK) FLEETWOOD MAC REUNITE FOR TOUR

Proving the Rumours are right: 

Fleetwood Mac reunite for tour

The Herald

ALISON CAMPSIE June 03 2009

Most of its members consider themselves lucky to still be alive but yesterday Fleetwood Mac, one of the biggest, most successful bands of all time, proved that old rockers never die with the announcement that they are to embark on a UK reunion tour this autumn.

Over the late 1960s and 1970s, the band came to define the chaos of the era with their terrifying commitment to hedonism and drugs and the stormy passions which existed between band members.

However, following a long collective silence, Fleetwood Mac will bring together most of their best-selling Rumours line-up of Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Lindsey Buckingham - now all in their sixties - to perform at a string of stadiums across the country. The only missing member will be Christine McVie, the English singer songwriter who helped steer the band for almost 25 years.

Ms McVie, who married John McVie shortly before joining the band, was one of the main movers behind the band's 1977 Rumours album, which has sold more than 25 million copies worldwide and documented the breakdown of their marriage.

The band will kick off their UK dates with a show at the Glasgow SECC on October 22.

The announcement makes Fleetwood Mac the latest band rooted in the sounds of the Sixties and Seventies to embark on a profitable "comeback" tour.

While The Rolling Stones may have proved that "baby boomer rock" has enduring appeal - their last world tour earned more than £558m - a string of iconic bands are now choosing to relive their glory days and cash in with a host of tour dates and merchandise to match.

The band have not released a new album since 2003's Say You Will, which charted in the UK top 10, but Buckingham said recently that the tour could be a precursor to a new recording.

"I think maybe there was even a sense that we would make a better album if we went out and hung out together first on the road ... Maybe even sowing some seeds musically that would get us more prepared to go in the studio rather than just going in cold. It takes the pressure off from having to go in and make something cold."

FULL ARTICLE

Buckingham on Not Sweating The Small Stuff

Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham on Not Sweating The Small Stuff
Gibson.com
Aidin Vaziri

Lindsey Buckingham has a bit of a reputation. For years, the Fleetwood Mac singer and guitarist has been as well known for his ability to knock out sublime pop tunes as his propensity to mix it up with bandmates Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. But the Buckingham we spoke to on the eve of Fleetwood Mac’s latest reunion tour — once again without Christine McVie, who left the group at the beginning of the decade — is far different than the character you’ll find in rock history books. At 59, the father of three has admittedly mellowed, telling us that the little things no longer bother him in a big way.

How do you make it through two hours on-stage every night?

It goes pretty quick. Somebody made the comment the other day that you don't get paid for going on-stage; you get paid for the downtime before and after. A lot of the time what seems more challenging is maybe the few hours leading up to the show. In terms of energy level, it comes from somewhere. I know it's all very age inappropriate what I'm doing.

Does it bother you that Stevie gets the biggest cheers of the night for her twirls?

It's very balanced out for me. I don't feel like I have to compete with a set of preconceptions in terms of focal point. All I can say is she has her moments where she gets big applause and there are many points in the show where I feel I'm getting the energy. I certainly would not begrudge Stevie her moments.

Are there any of the old songs you refuse to sing, either because they bring up too many memories or you’re just sick of them?

Not really. We sat down and we came up with a set list, which was a pretty obvious group of songs. It's what we do. It's our job. We have a good job. A lot of people would want our job. The older you get the more you feel blessed that you have not only survived the business this long but stayed on top of it. My challenge is working out the logistics of making my solo albums every once in a while.

This seems like a pretty good gig. What did you get out of making your last solo album?

It relieved a sense of frustration I had for a number of years of wanting to do something solo and having it intervened upon on every occasion. Which is fine. If you're a band member you've got to think about what the group wants to do first. But after Say You Will, I was in a place of clarity where I said, "Don't bother me for three years. Let me get this done.” I think I learned a lot.

Do you ever bring your kids out on the road?

Some of the time. Last time we went out they were all pretty portable but now they're all in school so it's a little bit tough. I think they do like it. They've grown up with it. They're actually a little more aware of the stuff I was doing solo since my oldest is 10. They don't remember that much from the last Fleetwood Mac tour.

Are you feeling more mature with age?

I have to try. You hit a point where a lot of things that you thought would push your buttons don't really push your buttons any more. That's why this tour is going so smoothly. Nothing has really been bothering me. Something must have changed. Things that used to bother me don't bother me anymore.

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KRISTEN KICKS LINDSEY ASS... "IT WAS A GREAT GIFT" SAYS BUCKINGHAM

Fleetwood Mac to unleash greatest hits.  Legendary band brings familiar hits for June 3 show.

By David Burger
The Salt Lake Tribune

Fleetwood Mac released "Rumours" in 1977 despite going through incredible personal turmoil -- its two famous couples, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, and John McVie and wife Christine McVie, broke up during the recording sessions.

Perhaps it was inevitable that Fleetwood Mac classics such as "Go Your Own Way" and "The Chain" record the tragedy of lost love.

So as Reprise Records is preparing to release a Fleetwood Mac box set this summer, with unreleased tracks from the "Rumours" sessions as well as never-before-seen footage of the band, it must be hard for the musicians to relive those times, right?

"It's a little touching in some ways," Buckingham agreed in an interview after watching the video footage.

The release of the box set and tour might seem like, well, marketing, or at least an unorthodox response to the musical history created more than 30 years ago. But Buckingham, who will perform with the four remaining members of Fleetwood Mac at EnergySolutions Arena June 3, speaks about the material from the strength of a decadelong, happy marriage to photographer Kristen Messner. "I was lucky enough to meet a woman who kicked my ass," said Buckingham about his wife. "It's been a great gift."

For the musician, happiness comes from the memories of creating some of the pop-rock band's most enduring songs during the "Rumours" sessions" -- including "Don't Stop," "Dreams," "Gold Dust Woman" and "You Make Loving Fun," with the last rumored to be about Christine McVie's affair with the band's lighting director.

With a catalog of those songs as well as other hits from legendary albums such as "Tusk" and "Tango in the Night," the revived band can afford to tour without a new release. "Standing on principle, maybe it's not the right time," Buckingham said about touring sans new album. "But we have a significant body of work. We wanted to reconvene."

Buckingham said after touring with the band in support of "Say You Will" through 2003 and 2004, he asked for several years off to work on solo efforts. He recorded and toured behind two successful albums, "Under the Skin" and "Gift of Screws," and then received another phone call from band founder Mick Fleetwood. "It usually is Mick getting everyone together," Buckingham said with a laugh.

It's still up in the air about what's next for the former members of Fleetwood Mac. "We haven't decided what we want to do," Buckingham said. "The obvious thing would be [to record an album]. I won't presume anything. My mantra is to keep my mouth shut."

MICK FLEETWOOD UN SPECIAL ENVOY

Class, spell turmoil: F-L-E-E-T-W-O-O-D M-A-C
The band is infamous for its battles and lineup changes – and famous for its music
By George Varga, Pop Music Critic

signonsandiego

There are a variety of nonmusical career opportunities for world-famous rock 'n' roll stars, especially those willing to lend their names to lucrative endorsement deals and other commercial ventures. But Mick Fleetwood is one of the few who might qualify for a position as a special envoy for the United Nations.

“That probably would have appealed to me, if I had been better educated and had more mental discipline,” said the lanky drummer, who performs with Fleetwood Mac Sunday night at the San Diego Sports Arena. “I can see bits and pieces of my natural instincts that would have made me well-suited for the U.N. In another life, that premise is not a horrific one for me. Obviously, that's not what I ended up doing.”

However, in his own way, Fleetwood has learned more than many career diplomats about maintaining order, tiptoeing around land mines (at least figuratively speaking) and negotiating fragile truces in uncivil circumstances.

The only member of Fleetwood Mac to have played with every edition of the band since its inception in 1967, his key qualification is, well, that he is the only member of Fleetwood Mac to have played with every edition of the band since its inception in 1967.

As a result, he has served as the de facto peacekeeper for this famous (and famously contentious) band, which in its first seven years of existence went through nine different lineups.

Between 1970 and 1974, guitarist Peter Green burned out after taking too much LSD, guitarist Jeremy Spencer abruptly left to join a religious cult and guitarist Bob Weston was fired after his affair with Fleetwood's then-wife was discovered.

The band has weathered five more lineup changes since 1975, the year two young Americans – singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham – joined. The couple had previously played together in Fritz, a Bay Area band, and had recorded one obscure duo album.

Against all odds, the addition of Buckingham and Nicks helped transform Fleetwood Mac, which had started out as an all-English blues-rock outfit, into an Anglo-American band that became one of the best-selling rock acts of the 1970s – and beyond.

Faster than you can say “Rumours,” the name of the band's 1977 mega-album, Fleetwood Mac became a superstar act at precisely the same time internal band tensions nearly caused it to implode.

The marriage between bassist John McVie (who is still in the band) and singer-keyboardist Christine McVie (who isn't) came to a rocky finish. Buckingham and Nicks ended their romantic relationship. Fleetwood began a clandestine affair with Nicks, who still relied on Buckingham to improve her songs with his expert arrangements and stellar musicianship.

“It's a testament to every man and woman in this band that none of us ever believed we were something special,” Fleetwood, 61, said. “That's been the extreme blessing of Fleetwood Mac, that it really is a 'people with their faults' band. We never got sucked into the massive potential for a showbiz-type approach, (despite) the soap-opera type stuff going on that became public knowledge.”

At the time, Buckingham openly bristled when it became clear the band (and its record company) wanted Fleetwood Mac to avoid tampering with its success. Determined not to cash in on the success of “Rumours,” which has now sold close to 40 million copies, the guitarist pushed the band to make 1979's “Tusk.” An edgy, artistically ambitious double album, it didn't sell nearly as well as its predecessor.

“Those years after 'Rumours' were difficult,” Buckingham acknowledged in a separate interview from Los Angeles.

“That was the beginning of me realizing I wanted to buck the pressures of making something like 'Rumours 2,' so that we would not become a caricature of ourselves. People want you to repeat formulas and run them into the ground.”

People (at least at the time) like drummer Fleetwood. His increasingly heated arguments with Buckingham over creative control and the band's musical direction prompted the guitarist to quit in 1987 and embark on a solo career.

“I was probably the numero uno cheerleader for the band,” Fleetwood acknowledged.

“I was the one who believed that, at all costs, we must turn up for Fleetwood Mac. Lindsey left because he didn't see any other way to do what he wanted to do, without leaving Fleetwood Mac. He probably had visions of me, with a cheerleader's outfit on and a huge master-of-ceremony's whip, saying 'We will never stop, not even to take a breath.'

“Looking back, I would say I could have done with being about 30 percent less obsessive about putting my whole life on hold for Fleetwood Mac. But all of us, for a while, sold our creative souls to the band. And it was always all about the music, even when things were not easy for us, emotionally.”

But that was then, and this is now. And Buckingham, who rejoined the band in 1997, has since managed to strike a balance between his solo career and his work with Fleetwood Mac. The band's current tour is, by Fleetwood's account, the first time the band has hit the road without a new album to promote. (The band's most recent album was 2003's “Say You Will.”)

The result is a “Greatest Hits” show that also features some songs from Buckingham and Nicks' respective solo careers, including his “Go Insane” and her “Stand Back,” along with Fleetwood Mac's 1969 gem “Oh Well.”

“When I introduce the band now (on stage), I acknowledge John and Lindsey first,” Fleetwood said. “And when I get to Stevie, I invariably say: 'This is a lady who keeps us guys in Fleetwood Mac very well-behaved, if you know what I mean.'

“We have fun with that. We never got into the whole ripping-hotels-apart thing. Our illicit deeds were tiptoeing down hotel corridors and visiting each other when we shouldn't have. We were more 'under the covers.' ”

Literally and figuratively?

“Yes!”

Macking on the Mac

By ALYSIA GRAY PAINTER

Though it may be tempting to write "The Mac is Back!" when referring to 

1) Fleetwood Mac coming to town for a concert or 2) the band having another mega-hit, we shall not. Not that we don't like the rhyming-ness of it, but because we're sure many other people have tread those same waters before us.

But, we would be wrong to not acknowledge the iconic band's Los Angeles date. They're playing Staples Center on Thursday, May 28, which has us thinking of all the super things about this supergroup.

1) The way Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham would sing "Go Your Own Way" to each other on stage. Oh boy. Talk about hot-hot backstory.

2) Stevie's amazing, witchy, mystical clothing choices. The lady swirls. Nobody has been able to swirl like her, before or since. Oh, and those platform boots from her solo "Stand Back" era. No matter that we couldn't possibly stand in them, much less stand back, but we did covet them so.

3) That Mick Fleetwood and John McVie both play on Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London," the lycanthropiest rock song of all time.

4) "Songbird," the final song on side one of "Rumors," is just so, so sweet. A tear jerker, that one. Kudos to Ms. Christine McVie.

5) That the USC marching band appears in the "Tusk" video. Definitely an early forebearer of marching-band chic.

Copyright NBC Local Media

Meet Fleetwood Mac at MSG on June 11, 2009

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Includes: 4 tickets to see Fleetwood Mac at MSG on June 11, 2009 plus a meet and greet with the band.

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While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac. Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late '60s, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade. Combining soft rock with the confessional introspection of singer/songwriters, Fleetwood Mac created a slick but emotional sound that helped 1977's Rumors become one of the biggest-selling albums of all time.

Enjoy 4 tickets to see this groundbreaking band live at Madison Square Garden on June 11, 2009!

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JOHN MCVIE.... PLEASE MEET JOHN MCVIE

Shared name ticket to Fleetwood Mac concert
BY JUDITH LAVOIE, TIMES COLONIST

Victoria real estate agent John McVie knows exactly what's in a name.

Five free tickets to the sold-out Fleetwood Mac concert at GM Place in Vancouver Friday, backstage passes for the entire family, $700 raised for charity from auctioning signed Fleetwood Mac CDs and a series of phone calls and e-mails from the famous John McVie -- the bassist with Fleetwood Mac.

The Victoria McVie was still over the moon yesterday after meeting the musician.

"He's a really nice guy -- genuine and real," said McVie, who is considering wearing his Fleetwood Mac T-shirt to work next week.

The connection started about eight years ago when McVie wanted the JohnMcVie.com web address for marketing, but found it had been reserved by the musician.

Since it was not being used, McVie fired off an e-mail asking if he could have it, without any expectation of receiving a reply.

About three weeks later, he answered the phone with his name, as usual, only to hear someone with a British accent saying, "I am not used to someone using my name."

"I said I am John McVie and he said, 'I am John McVie.' Then we chatted for about 15 minutes and compared notes on where our grandparents had come from," said McVie, who settled for the web address JohnMcVie.ca, but wangled the signed CDs for a charity auction he was doing.

Strangely, the two men had something else in common -- both were tax inspectors when they were younger.

The Victoria McVie asked for the musician's forgiveness for the many times he had impersonated him.

"And he said, 'Milk it for all it's worth,'" McVie said.

Over the years, there were intermittent exchanges and a commitment to meet if Fleetwood Mac was in the area.

The opportunity came with the band's North American tour and, true to his word, Fleetwood Mac McVie came through with the tickets.

"Afterwards, we had a good chat and he had his picture taken with all of us," McVie said. "It was a lot of fun."

Q&A WITH LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM

Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac
SFGate.com
Aidin Vaziri
Friday, May 15, 2009

The mercurial forces behind Fleetwood Mac - John McVie, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham - are back on the road, once again without Christine McVie. And for the first time in a long time, the band doesn't have any new material to promote, so the Unleashed Tour is made up of two hours of fan favorites. We asked the group's 59-year-old guitarist - and a recent father of three - Buckingham how he felt about that. Fleetwood Mac plays Wednesday at Oakland's Oracle Arena and Thursday at San Jose's HP Pavilion.

Q: There was some talk last year that Sheryl Crow was going to take over Christine McVie's position in the band. Did you block that?

A: No, I didn't block it. One of the things that made this go so smoothly is that I've been really unparticular about my opinions. I did not think that was a good idea. One, she was going to come in for a period of time and it spoke to me like something that had come from the top down, like a marketing idea. The other thing is that it struck me as a bit loungey to have someone else come in and do Christine's songs. She went and shot herself in the foot anyway.

Q: How's that?

A: She somehow announced she was going to join Fleetwood Mac. We had talked about it, but it had not been decided. So that became a red flag for the band. At the end of the day, it wasn't the right thing to do. So that was it. I was actually quite happy it turned out that way. We're much better working with the four core people.

Q: Besides, the last thing you need is another ego in this band.

A: That's right. Stevie and I are still working on our dynamic, which, believe it or not, is still evolving.

Q: Does doing a greatest-hits tour make you a nostalgia act?

A: This resting-on-our-laurels tour? We have a body of work that will transcend that label, I think. Had we gone in to make a new album first, it would have felt more in line with the things I value. Oddly enough, having not done that, it put us in the position of going into rehearsals completely anxiety-free, as opposed to having the residue of making the album to deal with. The actual experience of doing the tour has been quite thrilling. I have no explanation for that. It's kind of like a point you get to as a band, and for a moment you can rest and say, "This is what's happened, and it's pretty f- good."

Q: Having three children probably puts the band dramas in perspective.

A: It's certainly put a balance on everything. It's made it easier to enjoy what I'm doing now. It probably helped that I did a couple of solo albums and got some touring out of the way. You hit a point where a lot of things that you thought would push your buttons don't really push your buttons anymore. That's why this tour is going so smoothly. Nothing has really been bothering me.

Q: How much do you think your robust chest hair had to do with Fleetwood Mac selling those 100 million albums?

A: Wow. I would say none. The whole band, or just me?

Q: Specifically you, since I don't remember Stevie or Christine having much chest hair.

A: John has got a good tuft on there. I would hope very little. That's the first time I was asked that. It could have been something I missed. {sbox}

Rumours redux

BY ELAINE CORDEN, SPECIAL TO THE SUN

Fleetwood Mac, Friday, 8 p.m.
GM Place, Vancouver, BC Canada

In an age when the neighbourhood record store has given way to the digital download site, where listeners can cherry-pick their songs and never bother with a B-side, the incentive for musicians to make albums as events is fading fast.

Arguably, the democratization of music distribution has been a good thing for both artists and fans, removing the gatekeepers that traditionally stood between them. But what is lost, perhaps, amidst this revolution is the idea of a capital-A Album, a body of work to be consumed as a whole.

Anyone attending this Friday's sold-out Fleetwood Mac concert will likely see this as a tragedy. From their blues-y beginnings, to their forays into prog rock, to their most famous incarnation - the chart-topping band that released Rumours and Tusk - Fleetwood Mac have always had more to say than just singles. With some 17 members coming and going since the group started in 1967, this is a band that is more than the sum of its parts.

The iteration of the 'Mac performing at GM Place is almost certainly the most well-known, save the absence of one member. Of the five musical powerhouses that gave the world the triple-assault of Fleetwood Mac (1975), Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979), four are back to rekindle the magic. Founding member Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are all in for the group's first tour since 2004. Only Christine McVie, seemingly still gun-shy of the group's infamously difficult interpersonal relations, has opted out - a disappointment, to be sure, but not an insurmountable challenge.

Speaking on a conference call in late February, the foursome about to head out as Fleetwood Mac sounded excited to hit the road throughout the United States and Canada on their Greatest Hits Unleashed Tour. With no new album to promote, save a remastered edition of Rumours, the quartet of legendary musicians bubbled with enthusiasm at the idea of playing what they pleased.

"This is truly a new experience for Fleetwood Mac," said Fleetwood, clearly in the mood to wax poetic. "To go out and truly go and play songs that we believe and hope that people are really going to be familiar with and love to do. We haven't done this. Some bands, which is fine, go around doing this year after year, year in, year out."

This translates, practically, into something of a greatest hits tour, though the group is hesitant to look at it that way. While reviews so far have proved that audiences are going to hear their favourites, there's also clearly a mission among the group to really dig in to the "experience" of Fleetwood Mac.

"It takes a little pressure off not having to kind of reinvent anything this particular time," said Buckingham, in his reedy California accent. "And I think because of that we are actually able to just look at the body of work and choose from that [so we can] have a little bit more fun with it than we would normally be able to have."

Chatting to each other between questions from a phalanx of North American journalists, the band members sound like they are getting along famously. But part of the Fleetwood Mac legend is the romantic tensions between members of the group, with Nicks and Buckingham (and the now-divorced McVies) notorious for having group-melting fallouts.

"Lindsey has been in incredibly good humour since we started rehearsal on the fifth of January," said Nicks, with remarkable candour. "And when Lindsey is in a good humour, everybody is in a good humour. When he's happy, everybody is happy."

Both Buckingham and Fleetwood concur (McVie barely says a word during the whole interview), and indeed it's fairly amazing that the group is able to discuss personal issues so openly, without stepping on any toes. Indeed, the only time anyone in the group prickles is when the subject of Tusk comes up, with one brazen journalist suggesting that the record, at the time the most expensive album ever made, constituted an indulgence on the part of the five musicians who created it.

"We never looked at it as some sort of opulent indulgence," insists Fleetwood, sounding galled by the idea.

"I might absolutely add it was paid for by the individuals that you're talking to, in order, in our world, to present something that was going to be more meaningful and more special . To me it doesn't personally feel like any form of indulgence at all . It's really about the integrity of what we do. And we've always taken the responsibility to make the very best effort to do that . .

"It was a privilege, and in truth everyone you're speaking to paid for that privilege . You can actually be in the studio for, you know, nine months, but you have to pay for it. And the fact that we didn't go in there and say, 'Well, it's been three weeks, get the hell out of here and just shove something out,' I think actually speaks well of where this band puts its mettle."

FLEETWOOD MAC BILLBOARD ATLANTIC CITY

by iirraa

FLEETWOOD MAC - POTENTIALLY LUCRATIVE VICTORY LAP

Fleetwood Mac finds there is great fun in revisiting classic tunes
By PRESTON JONES
DFW.COM

The cycle for rock legends is numbingly familiar: Achieve stratospheric success, release a so-so album, fall off the top of the world, disappear for a bit and gradually — if luck holds — inch back into the spotlight for a potentially lucrative victory lap.

It has become a cliché that superstars like Fleetwood Mac know all too well. Fortunately, the star-crossed pair of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham have carved out respectable solo careers, which not only allows the band to take much-needed breathers but also makes endeavors like the "Unleashed: Hits Tour 2009" an opportunity for, surprisingly, creative rejuvenation.

"[Having] solo work and Fleetwood Mac is a really great thing to be able to go back and forth," Nicks said in a recent conference call with the four remaining band members. "It really is kind of a blessing in many ways.  . . . It’s like it’s you never get bored.  . . . It really makes for staying in a much more excited and uplifted humor for everything that you do when you’re not just doing one thing year after year after year after year after year."

Fleetwood Mac, sans keyboardist Christine McVie, who bid the band adieu in 1998 (although she did contribute a bit to 2003’s reunion record, Say You Will), will play Dallas’ American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Back to basics

The multiplatinum rockers haven’t released any new material since Say You Will, nor have they toured extensively (this stop marks the band’s first Dallas performance in five years), and they are hitting the road without anything in stores or even on the horizon, aside from a possible re-release of the 1977 masterpiece Rumours. Freed from promotional obligations, the band is able to get back to basics, Mick Fleetwood said.

"This is the first time that we’ve gone on the road without an album," said Fleetwood. "It is, truly, believe it or not, a refreshing thing to do in terms of selecting a whole lot of really emotively connected songs to the audience that we’ve enjoyed having through the years."

Buckingham echoed Fleetwood’s sentiments, saying that the absence of commercial expectations makes the band’s famously volatile relationships less susceptible to explosion.

"What it does is it kind of frees you up to kind of enjoy each other a little bit more as people — the mantra is really more, 'Let’s just have a good time’ and value the friendships and the history that really underpins this whole experience that we’ve had over these years," he said.

"It takes a little pressure off not having to kind of reinvent anything this particular time. Because of that we are actually able to just look at the body of work and choose. And then just have a little bit more fun with it than we would normally be able to have," Buckingham said.

Still, pounding out the same hits every night — The Chain, Go Your Own Way, Don’t Stop or any of the band’s considerable string of smash singles — can be a precarious proposition. Become too comfortable and it looks as though you’re going through the motions. Change it up too much and you’re messing with what people plunked down hefty chunks of change to see.

"It stays fresh because we never stop playing," Nicks said. "Basically, what we are is entertainers. Even if this band had never made it big, we’d be playing all the clubs, we’d be still doing that. So when we go onstage, we’re performers. It isn’t a question of keeping it fresh because it’s what we love — we don’t have anything else, basically, to do."

A new album?

Inevitably, the question was raised about whether Fleetwood Mac would head into the studio and cut a new album once this tour wraps?

And, just as expected, the band tried to artfully evade answering.

"There have been discussions, for sure, that we would love to make some more music," Fleetwood said. "I think it’s really down to the whole sort of biorhythms of how everyone is feeling and what’s appropriate. We have careers and families and whole different sort of perspectives from what it would have been, you know, 20, 30 years ago, and going onwards from there."

Buckingham, while waxing rhapsodic about the opportunities he’s had as a solo artist, took a bit more expansive view of the future.

"We’ve been down this road — a long, long road together," he said. "In some ways we know each other better than we know anybody else. I think that we all want to dignify the road we’ve been down  . . . and I just think we all want to get to a place where we all feel that unity is waiting in the wings.

"It’s not that we’re not unified, but it is still a work in progress. I think that’s one of the main meanings of what we’re doing right now. So I actually feel quite excited to be able to go out and just relax into playing a body of work you know."

Fleetwood Mac

8 p.m. Thursday

American Airlines Center, Dallas

$49.50-$149.50

800-745-3000; www.ticketmaster.com

Preston Jones is the Star-Telegram pop music critic, 817-390-7713