Two Divas Named Lindsey and Stevie

Fleetwood Mac '09

Nostalgia, cash and a tale of two divas named

Stevie and Lindsey

Chicago Tribune

by Greg Kot

As the relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham goes, so goes Fleetwood Mac.

The band, formed as a British blues-rock outfit in 1967, has a history that reads like a soap-opera script. Band members have literally gone crazy. Some have gone AWOL. Others have slept with one another. Marriages were broken. More than 73 million records have been sold. And still the quarrels continue. Even a 2004 tour that raked in $22 million ended in acrimony, with a fed-up Nicks saying she was through and Buckingham returning to his solo career.

But now, on the eve of another Mac tour, the biggest problem facing Nicks is a sore arm. While being interviewed, she mentions that a physical therapist is working her over. “I strained my right arm doing arm curls, which I never do, so I’m trying to get it back so I can comfortably and enjoyably play tambourine.”

Such are the rigors of being a multimillionaire icon in a band that defined mainstream pop in the ‘70s. Mac is commanding as much as $149.50 per ticket (plus service charges) for a national tour that includes two concerts March 5-6 at the Allstate Arena. They promise few surprise; just a show with more than two hours of greatest hits --- just the way their fans presumably like it. “The songs we’re playing are the tapestry of not only our fans’ lives but our own lives,” Nicks says.

Buckingham has long detested the idea of doing a nostalgia tour, but he says he’s “just trying to ride the machine.” Part of Mac’s on-off existence the last three decades has been due to Buckingham’s creative restlessness; he’s maintained a solo career defined by adventurous albums in between Mac projects. As one of the band’s primary songwriters as well as its producer and arranger, Buckingham is first among equals, and his word goes a long way in determining Mac’s fortunes. This time, he agreed to do a hits tour to promote a box-set release of the band’s best-selling 1977 “Rumours” album.

“There’s still a push-pull inside me that says I need to redefine myself creatively, but I did two solo albums in the last three years, so it allowed me to feel a little more relaxed about doing something like this,” he says. “I am very consciously going into this not wanting to drive anyone in the band crazy if I can help it --- and sometimes it doesn’t take a lot for me to do that. My priority is working on the interaction within the band, especially between me and Stevie. I’m doing a tour that the industry and the listeners and the rest of the band want, and maybe sow some seeds of stability for once.”

That sounds like a man compromising his artistic instincts in the name of peace, harmony and cash. Buckingham laughs.

“Why am I doing this? It’s a good question… let me see, why am I doing this? Well, we’ll probably make a ton of money, and that’ll make everything a bit easier. But the other reason is that there’s unfinished business with Fleetwood Mac. Stevie left the last tour saying she wasn’t going to do this again, and that’s not right. It’s been a difficult road, we’ve been through a lot, and I want to see it play out and come out the other side in a bit better place than we were last time.”

Mac’s last tour followed the release of a 2003 studio album, “Say You Will.” That’s where the troubles began. Buckingham had interrupted his solo work to make the album with Mac, and brought finished songs into the recording session. Christine McVie had retired from the music business, leaving Buckingham and the founding rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie to focus on Nicks’ songs. Buckingham and Nicks already had a long, fractured history; they were former lovers and old tensions would resurface whenever new conflicts emerged.

“It felt weird, working for nine months in a Bel Air mansion on just my songs,” Nicks says of the Los Angeles recording sessions. “It started to grate on everyone. It started to grate on Lindsey. It ended up not being our happiest album. Then we went on tour, and it was just a continuation of something that had already gone off track.”

Nicks says the departure of Christine McVie had a huge impact on band chemistry: “She was the voice of reason.” Nicks hunted for another female foil after the tour ended. “I vowed not to do it again unless we had another person who could act as a buffer,” she says. She recruited Sheryl Crow, but the singer backed out when she realized how big the commitment would be.

“She just had a baby, and once you’re in Fleetwood Mac, you don’t have a life of your own,” Nicks says. “It’s like joining the National Guard and being deployed to Iraq in two weeks.”

Well, no, it isn’t, actually. But melodrama is as much a part of Fleetwood Mac as hit songs.

Nicks says she agreed to hit the road with Buckingham and risk opening up old wounds again because she sensed a change in her old sparring partner. “He has little girls who are 8 and 4 years old, plus a wife, and he has been living in girl land since coming off the road in 2005. It’s softened him up. Instead of treating me as a miserable ex-girlfriend, he’s looking at me more like a beloved daughter. He’s been very nice and loving to me. This is the guy that I met and fell in love with when I was 17, and I hope it stays that way. No one could come in and make peace between us. Lindsey and I had to.”

Buckingham says if they pull off the tour without any meltdowns, there may be yet one more Fleetwood Mac studio album down the road. But he makes no promises. He has left the band in the past, and he says he will again if he feels things are growing stagnant.

“We all want this to work,” he says, “but there are only 45 dates scheduled. I’m sure there are people in back rooms somewhere talking about more dates in America and elsewhere in the world, but nothing is in the books, nothing has been agreed to. In this band, it’s best not to plan too far in advance.”

Fleetwood Mac's revolving door: A timeline

• 1967: Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac forms in England with Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, Jeremy Spencer and later Danny Kirwan on guitars.
• 1970: Green leaves group amid drug problems; he later drops out of music altogether.
• 1971: Spencer leaves in middle of a tour to join a religious cult. Band reassembles around Christine Perfect (who marries John McVie) and Bob Welch.
• 1975: Welch exits, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham join.
• 1976: Christine and John McVie divorce, Buckingham and Nicks separate, yet recording for “Rumours” continues.
• 1987: Nicks is treated for chemical dependency, Buckingham quits on eve of tour, and is replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito.
• 1991: Vito quits.
• 1993: Nicks and Burnette exit, replaced by Dave Mason and Bekka Bramlett.
• 1995: Mac disbands after “Time” album stiffs.
• 1996-97: The “Rumours” era lineup reunites for a live album and tour.
• 2003: Christine McVie retires, but rest of “Rumours” lineup records “Say You Will,” first studio album in 15 years.
• 2009: Once more on the road, this time with “Rumours” box set as marketing hook.

ROLLINGSTONE Q&A WITH STEVIE NICKS

Fleetwood Mac's singer on their new tour, turning 60 and making mixtapes

By Austin Scaggs
Rollingstone Magazine

"It still gives me goose bumps, and it still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up," says Stevie Nicks, who is eagerly anticipating the first Fleetwood Mac tour in five years, which kicks off on March 1st in Pittsburgh. And later in the month, Nicks is releasing a DVD, Live in Chicago, and a concert CD, The Soundstage Sessions. With her dog barking in the background, Nicks checks in from her home in Los Angeles: "We still feel like Fleetwood Mac have a lot to give to the world. In this time of trouble and turmoil, I think the world needs Fleetwood Mac."

What's the latest from the Mac rehearsals?

I don't want to give the set list away, but it's pretty exciting. The fact that we haven't been on tour since 2004 makes every song sound fresh. It's just bang, bang, bang- all fantastic songs. We always start with the staples: "Go Your Own Way," "Gold Dust Woman," "Rhiannon" and "Dreams." We will play one song we've never done at all. If I were going to see Fleetwood Mac, this is definitely the set I'd want to see. It's like a big steam locomotive that doesn't stop until

 we walk offstage.

How are you getting along with Lindsey Buckingham?

When Lindsey and I aren't getting along, nobody's getting along. We haven't had one disagreement since we started rehearsing. And instead of treating me like his miserable old ex, he's treating me like his difficult but beloved older daughter. He's been very sweet.

How often do you speak with Christine McVie?

We check in with each other, but we can't hang out, because she lives in England, and she won't fly. The only time I've seen Chris since 1998 was when we did three nights in London in 2003. I miss her every day. But we've all finally started to accept that nothing could make Chris go back out on the road.

Last May you turned 60. How do you feel about that?

I don't feel any different at 60 than I felt at 50. Age is a state of mind. You can either get old or not get old.

On the "Live in Chicago" DVD you're joined by Vanessa Carlton on a couple of songs. What other artists of her generation do you mentor?

I love Vanessa - I feel like she's an adopted child, in a way. And Michelle Branch and I had dinner the night before last. I have a lot of information for all of these women. I should do a "Dear Stevie" column in Rolling Stone. When Mariah Carey was going through her craziness a few years ago, I wrote her a long letter telling her how everybody else is crazy - not her. I saw her recently, and she told me she keeps the letter with her jewelry! I love that.

What's wrong with the record business today?

The internet has destroyed it. I miss buying an album and lying on the floor for three days and going over it with a magnifying glass. I still go to the record store and spend hours there and buy a big bag of CDs. I don't have a computer of a cellphone, because I don't want to be that available to anybody. I'm all about mystery. Little girls think it's necessary to put all their business on MySpace and Facebook, and I think it's a shame.

You've always made mix-tapes on cassette. Do you still do that?

That's how I do it. Cassettes sound so much better. And I'm deaf as a doornail, so I like to crank my little boombox.

What songs are worthy of a Stevie Nicks mixtape?

I was just in Hawaii, and I made a mix called "Lahaina Twilight." It's got songs by the Goo Goo Dolls, Jackson Browne, Sting, Coldplay, Tom Petty, the Fray, Snow Patrol.

What albums do you love in their entirety?

I don't, usually. In the beginning, I was inspired by songwriters like Jackson Browne, David Crosby, the Eagles, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfiled - those are the people I learned from. And I probably listed to Joni Mitchell's For the Roses, Blue and Court and Spark a hundred million times. But now, I can't listen to a whole album unless it's a Fleetwood Mac record, where I made sure that every song is spectacular. Sequencing is my forte. I sequenced Rumours. Lindsey doesn't like to admit it, but he will admit it.

Last year, Sheryl Crow claimed that she would be part of the 2009 Fleetwood Mac tour, but Buckingham later denied it. What really happened?

It was absolutely discussed and she was absolutely invited to join. The reason was because I missed Christine [McVie] so much, and I wanted another woman in the band - it's hard to be in the boys' club. I explained to Sheryl what it was like to be in the group - that it's all-encompassing. Like, on 2003's Say You Will tour, we went out expecting to do 40 shows, and it turned into 135 shows. So Sheryl called me and said, "I'll have to pass." As Stevie Nicks, I was disappointed. As her friend, I told her she made the right decision. Sheryl Crow passed on Fleetwood Mac - I want that out there.

What are the origins of your patented onstage twirl?

A lot of ballet and a lot of dance. I wanted to be a ballerina, but I realized I was not going to be Pavlova, so I became a rock singer instead.

Rumours CD/DVD Special Fan Version?

A somewhat cryptic message appeared on the nicksfix over night regarding the release of the Rumours CD/DVD package.  

Check back for news on the release of the new Fleetwood Mac CD/DVD. 

Look for a special version to be made available to the fans.

Obviously based on this, there are now going to be multiple versions of this release.  I keep hanging on the fact that over at fleetwoodmac.com it states that the package will be released SIMULTANEOUSLY with the beginning of the tour. The tour starts in 10 days... and basically we don't know to much about this release other then it being a CD/DVD package put together by Warner Bros. the record company - and that the band basically didn't have any input on the project other then to sign off on it's contents... We need more info!

Lindsey on the Mark and Brian morning show (2/17)

Lindsey Buckingham called in to the Mark and Brian morning show on KLOS in Los Angeles today (2/17).   He spoke about the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour, his solo career that he wants to continue, and the Rumours Boxset that's coming out.

Fleetwood Mac loads up hits for new tour

Fleetwood Mac loads up hits for new tour

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
LiveDaily Contributor
February 17, 2009

Being in Fleetwood Mac [ tickets ] is a blessing for singer Stevie Nicks. It enables her to bounce back and forth seamlessly between her solo and collaborative careers.

"It's like people that have relationships all over the world," Nicks said during a recent teleconference with her Fleetwood Mac bandmates: drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie and guitarist/singer Lindsey Buckingham. "You never get bored. And so you can do your thing until you start to get bored and then you can go to the other thing. And then you can do that until you start to get bored and then you can go back to the other thing.

"And it really makes for staying much more excited and uplifted [in] everything that you do when you’re not just doing one thing year after year after year after year after year. So, for us right now, we’ve been apart for four years, now we’re back together and we’re having a blast."

Fleetwood Mac is reuniting for the Greatest Hits Unleashed North American tour, which begins Sunday, March 1, in Pittsburgh. In conjunction with the tour, the band is releasing a greatest-hits package, "Unleashed," and re-releasing, as a special CD/DVD box set, its diamond-certified CD "Rumours." This is the first time the group is touring without support of a new album.

"So we are truly paying some attention to the fact, of course, that Christine and her songs are surviving very well in the set that we’re doing," Fleetwood said of former member Christine McVie. "And the band--and certainly with more focus for obvious reasons, Stevie and Lindsey--are finding a fresh way in certain instances to present those songs. And we think we’ve got a really good balance where we can have fun doing that whole part of it."

He said he feels confident that Fleetwood Mac is going to surprise the audience in some ways.

"I think we’re going to make the audience identify with songs for sure that they know," Fleetwood added. "And the energy of the band is all focused on that because we don’t have five or six songs off the new album that we always, you know, naturally, would love to be playing when you’ve made an album."

So, he said, he thinks people are going to have "a hell of a lot of fun" because the band members' collective energy has gone into choosing the "lovely songs."

"And we’ve had fun really resculpting certain segments of the show, which will remain secret until you see us," Fleetwood explained.

Fleetwood said his band is certainly addressing the concept of writing new material.

"There have been discussions for sure that we would love to make some more music," Fleetwood said. "And I think it’s really down to the whole sort of bio-rhythms 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 onward from there."

Fleetwood said the consensus is the band would enjoy the idea of being challenged with new material "in a couple of years."

"My heart says I believe that will happen," Fleetwood said. "Certainly, I know all of the songwriting department is--both Stevie and Lindsey--are continually writing, hence all the lovely stuff they do on their solo albums. So that whole [creative] bowl is very much intact, you know. So I, for one, would love to see it happen, and we have had loose discussions about doing that."

Nicks, who said she longs for the day Christine McVie returns to the fold, explained she has "many, many long two- to three-page formal poems that are ready to be made into songs." They will stay that way until she has a reason to head to the piano and make them into songs.

"Because the words are the hardest part to write," Nicks explained. "If you’ve got a bunch of great words, going and sitting yourself up in a studio with some candles and some incense and a couple of your great friends that are musicians, now that’s a pleasure.

"Actually, the writing the words and getting your poems right, that’s long hard work by yourself. So that work is all done. All I have to do now, if somebody says, 'We're doing an album,' then then I go intosix weeks' worth of solid songwriting, and then I’ve got 10 songs."

Because there is no new material to rehearse, the "mantra" for this tour is "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," according to Buckingham. The dynamic between the band members is still, to some degree, something that is a work in progress.

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

Mick Fleetwood Audio Interview on WMGK

Mick Fleetwood Audio Interview

February 12, 2009

Mick Fleetwood Spoke with Debbi Calton at WMGK in Philadelphia on February 12th over the phone.  Mick elaborates on the Rumours Re-Issue that's coming out (hopefully soon!) and about the upcoming tour etc. - confirming that Oh Well will likely be in the set.  Also spoke about seeing Christine in England recently and about his release in North America of Blue Again.

She had a lovely chat with Mick Fleetwood about the Rumours CD/DVD set reissue and the upcoming UNLEASHED TOUR.

Hear the interview and download it: WMGK.com

Fleetwood Mac unleashes a barrage of opinions

With tour looming, Fleetwood Mac unleashes a barrage of opinions

The Morning Call

by: Len Righi

The members of Fleetwood Mac have been known to go their own way, and during a 94-minute teleconference today, band members offered a variety of explanations about why their first tour in four years is being called "Unleashed."

"It's unleashing the furies, unleashing us back into the universe, unleashing an amazing musical entity back into the world," said always ethereal singer Stevie Nicks. "You might have to wear your armor."

Drummer Mick Fleetwood said the tour name was inspired by a comedic "mantra" uttered before Mac live shows on an earlier tour: "Every gig before we would walk on stage, one of our guitarists had this thing he'd say, 'Unleash the hounds! Unleash the hounds!' ... I was remembering that little mantra [when coming up with the tour name] ... It's about not being restricted. ... 'This is us, let us go out and do it.' It's not really that complicated."

"Stevie [Nicks] and I had a go-round on this," said usually reticent bassist John McVie. "I don’t think there was any thought of us being stifled or held back."

The 44-city greatest-hits tour, which begins on March 1 in Pittsburgh, will stop at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on April 15. Tickets are $49.50, $79.50 and $149.50. But people trying to buy tickets through Ticketmaster have been re-directed to a site that charges between $240 and $1,065 apiece.

When it was my turn to pose a question, I asked if the musicians if they were aware of the ticket scalping. The generally cordial exchange grew tense. Singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham said the practice "was a pretty typical thing," adding that "Irving Azoff was quoted in the paper as being against that" and that Azoff, who is part of Fleetwood Mac's management team, "will make sure that kind of thing didn’t happen."

Things got a little more uncomfortable with a follow-up question from a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter. In light of the bad economy, why did Fleetwood Mac raise the top ticket price to $150, compared to $125 four years ago?

Nicks replied that touring now costs "a gazillion dollars more than four years ago." The last time out, she said, the band and its entire entourage flew in a 738 jet. This time, only band members will be flying in a Gulfstream 400 business jet becausd of fuel and rental costs. "Everybody else will be on the bus," Nicks said. "We wish we didn’t have to charge anything. I wish we could just play. ... But you can be sure that the people [being interviewed] on the phone will be making phone calls after we hang up" to find out what is going on with ticket prices.

Fleetwood said the band is "somewhat informed, but not fully informed. ... We're trying to do this the best way that makes sense for our audience. ... We are more than aware the people around us are doing their uppermost to make this a possibility."

This being Fleetwood Mac, there also was talk of the combustible personalities that have fueled both the band's music and tabloid columns. For the moment, there seems to be harmony.

"Lindsey's been in incredibly good humor since we started rehearsing on the 5th of January," Nicks reported. "When Lindsey’s in a good humor, everybody’s happy. Our only problem is that our rehersal time has been messed with a little bit" by family matters.

Added Buckingham: "Knowing that we did not succeed as well as we could have last time we did an album and tour together and on a personal level ... we have something to shoot for that is a little higher. ... We are a group of contradictions ... [but] the whole being greater than the sum of its parts."

Buckingham also said at another point, "Unity is waiting in the wings."

While the tour set list has not been finalized, "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" and "Don’t Stop" will be performed, said Fleetwood, along with "special songs that aren’t considered massive hits but are emotionally connected with Fleetwood Mac."

Going on the road without a new album to promote "frees you up to enjoy each other as people," said Buckingham. "Let’s have a good time and value the friendships and history ... It takes the pressure off ... and allows more fun than we would normally be able to have."

In conjunction with the tour, Fleetwood Mac's Grammy-winning 1977 album, "Rumors," will be re-issued as part of a special CD/DVD boxed set with uneleased tracks recorded during the making of "Rumors," as well as a DVD with never-before-seen footage of the band.

The album reflected the turmoil of the previous two years -- Fleetwood separated from his wife Jenny; so did McVie and keyboardist-singer Christine McVie and Buckingham and Nicks, although all five remained in the band.

Asked if the re-release might re-open new wounds, Buckingham replied, "Even though we were drawing on our own experiences, I don’t believe the songs on 'Rumors' were so starkly autobiographical. ... It was three writers cross-dialoging with each other. ... The tabloid (quality) of it was only revealed to us by our audience after the fact. ... [Now] you tend to see the irony in the songs ... the heroicism we possessed. We saw ... the music had redemptive power and could be a symbol for other people. The whole struggle had a meaning to it that was symbolic."

Since its original release, "Rumors" has racked up 30 million in sales. Buckingham said he expects the re-issue will sell about 100,000 copies, "maybe."

Here are other comments on various topics

made during the interview:

Fleetwood on the possibility of recording a new Fleetwood Mac album:

"My heart believes that all will happen."

Nicks on Christine McVie's continued retirement:

"I’ve been the only girl in Fleetwood Mac since 1998, so I’m used to it now. ... But I miss Christine ... The loss of Christine as one of my best girlfriends was horrific to me ... Not a day goes by that I don’t wish she would call up and say, 'I’m back.' "

Nicks on working as a solo artist versus playing in a band:

"When you’re in a band, you’re not the boss. ... You’re part of a team. ... Do I like not being the boss? No, I really do like being the boss ... After 11 solo albums, you get used to being the boss." But she enjoys being in a band, too. "It's good to be knocked down a little like that. ... It makes you think a little more. ... It makes you humble.

Nicks on when she will record her next solo album:

"Not for a long time. When I am in one relationship, I am not in another one. ... I’m a fragile old grandmother at this point, even though I don’t have grandchildren. I need to stay focused on one thing....

Fleetwood on U2:

"They were an Irish pop band that made all the right moves ... [The group's success] makes me feel good about the music business ... because they are able to do what they do with some sense of integrity."

Nicks on whether she expected to be playing rock 'n' roll when she was 60:

"The answer to that would be yes. I joined Fleetwood Mac when I was 28. I went on tour with my normal street clothes, we didn't have any money. It was a three-month thing. I opened my suitcase and found out I had gained five pounds. I sat down and started to draw an outfit. I said to myself I am going to have a uniform I can wear it today and wear it at 60. I remember it like it was yesterday."

(Thank you to Heroes Are Hard To Find for the heads-up on this article)

Fleetwood Mac Pass The Torch To Radiohead

Undercover.com

Fleetwood Mac`s Lindsay Buckingham has described Radiohead`s performance at the Grammy Awards this week as a “passing of the torch”.

Radiohead performed ’15 Step’ at the Grammy Awards with the USC Marching Band. Fleetwood Mac used the USC Marching Band on their 1979 hit ‘Tusk’.

Ironically, the two bands were rehearsing last week at the same place. Fleetwood Mac were preparing for their US tour and Radiohead were rehearsing for the Awards show.

“Doctor Bartner is the guy who has been musical director for the USC Marching Band for about 40 years now,” Lindsay Buckingham said on media conference call this week. “He was the one we liaised with when we used them on ‘Tusk’. He was there rehearsing with Radiohead on an adjacent sound stage where we were rehearsing, over at Sony Studios. It is a small world”.

Lindsay loves what Radiohead is doing. “I told Art Bartner please go tell Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood how much their efforts have meant to me personally and thank them for their good work,” he said. “If that idea was inspired by ‘Tusk’ I would be quite complimented, as Mick should be because it was Mick’s idea to put them on the song. I look at that very much as the passing of the torch and an exchange of ideas. That is part of the greater function of music really”.

Fleetwood Mac will hit the road for the first time in 5 years on March 1.

Fleetwood Mac Auction Benefits School

To help parents meet their children's educational needs, supergroup Fleetwood Mac are auctioning off VIP tickets and meet-and-greets with Mick Fleetwood as a fundraiser. A cooperative, parent-participation nursery school is the beneficiary of the proceeds.

As supergroup Fleetwood Mac begins their first tour in five years, bandleader Mick Fleetwood has launched an important and exciting charity fundraiser on eBay: An auction of VIP tickets on Fleetwood Mac’s UNLEASHED tour which starts March 1st in Pittsburgh, PA.

Along with a pair of tickets in the first 25 rows, each auction winner and their guest will get a meet and greet the legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood before the show–a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the true fan!

The auction benefits Hilltop Nursery School in Silver Lake, California, a parent-participation, cooperative pre-school founded over 50 years ago. Giving Engine Auction Management, a pioneer in online fundraising for schools and non profits, will manage these one of kind experience packages.

This auction runs from February 9th through February 19th for the first 16 dates of the tour March 1st through March 26th

To bid on this thrilling auction go to http://www.ebay.com/hilltopla

One of the Worlds Greatest Furies... Unleashed!

Click to Enlarge

Full Article at: 24hours.ca

Gold Dust Woman justifies the high price of a Fleetwood Mac concert

BRAD WHEELER
Globe and Mail
February 11, 2009 

"We wish we didn't have to charge anything,” says Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac singer. “We wish we could go out and play. That's what we do – we're performance artists.”

Rock on, gold dust woman. During a teleconference Tuesday, Nicks and her fellow Mac mates were chatting up their upcoming North American tour (which kicks off March 1 in Pittsburgh, with dates in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver to follow) when the subject of ticket prices came up. Fleetwood Mac, legendary for its rock-star indulgences in its prime, charge up to $149.50 for top seats in Toronto.

“The price of life in general is a gazillion dollars more than it was four years ago,” reasoned Nicks, not an economist. The British/Californian band's most recent tour wrapped up in 2004. “Our emotions are about trying to do this in the best way that makes sense for our audience,” chimed in drummer Mick Fleetwood, “and in a way that we can get to our audience.”

Ticket prices and ticket distribution are a touchy subject these days. A $510-million Canadian class-action suit filed this week alleges that Ticketmaster and subsidiary TicketsNow.com are conspiring to hold seats from the public and reselling the tickets at a higher prices – seemingly a violation of anti-scalping laws.

Those looking for Fleetwood Mac seats for the Air Canada Centre show on Ticketmaster.ca are able to pay face value, but also are offered “Official Platinum Seats” at the site's Marketplace, where concertgoers can purchase premium seats at inflated values – as much as $800 a ticket.

The band is represented by Irving Azoff, who also happens to be chief executive officer of Ticketmaster Entertainment, and will become executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment if the just-announced merger of Ticketmaster and concert promoters Live Nation goes through. Asked about any unsavoury ticket-selling practices involving Fleetwood Mac, Nicks promised she would be “making phone calls” on the matter.

Nicks went to say that tour's “Unleashed” title refers to the unleashing of the band's furies “back into the universe.” Asked if the public would be able to handle all the pent-up rage, Nicks answered in the affirmative, but cautioned that fans might need to bring their “armour.”

That, and their gold card.

This is truly a new experience for Fleetwood Mac

Billboard Magazine

February 11, 2009

by: Gary Graff, Detroit

Not having a new album is working to Fleetwood Mac's advantage as the group prepares for its upcoming Unleashed North American tour.

"This is the first time we've gone on the road without an album," drummer and co-founder Mick Fleetwood told Billboard.com during a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday. "This is truly a new experience for Fleetwood Mac to go out and play songs that we believe and hope people are going to be familiar with and love."

Singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham added that not having to integrate new songs into the set -- which the group has been rehearsing since Jan. 5 in Los Angeles -- "just allows you to relax into the situation. We're not coming off a new group of tunes, a new album ... the stakes for that side of it become a little bit lower."

As for a new Fleetwood Mac album, vocalist Stevie Nicks said "there isn't any plan at this point ... for any album. We're going to get through this tour before deciding what to do with an album." Fleetwood, however, confirmed that "there have been discussions, for sure, that we would love to make some more music ... We hope it happens, and certainly it's been somewhat loosely touched on ... My heart says I believe that will happen. Certainly I know that all of the songwriting department, both Stevie and Lindsey are continually writing ... The whole creative bowl is very much intact, so I would love to see what happens."

While declining to get specific about the 46-date tour's repertoire, Fleetwood did say that hits such as "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" and "Don't Stop" would be included, and that the group would be "paying some attention" to material written by former band member Christine McVie.

"Her songs are surviving very well in the set that we're doing," Fleetwood said. "Stevie and Lindsey are finding a fresh way in certain instances to present those songs. And then we are finding songs as we go along that we feel are special songs that maybe aren't considered the massive, massive hits but truly are emotionally connected to Fleetwood Mac."

Nicks, meanwhile, confirmed that the group seriously considered adding Sheryl Crow to the lineup in 2008, even setting up a rehearsal last Mother's Day to work on material.

"We needed Sheryl to come in and just play some music with us," Nicks recalled. "But it was Mother's Day. She had a brand new baby. She had all her parents and everybody coming and she chose not to cancel that, understandably. She called back and said, 'I have to pass,' and it was over. I said, 'You're making the right decision. You have a new baby, you survived breast cancer, you survived Lance Armstrong.'

"Sheryl is my very dear friend. We are best buddies, and that will go on forever. The fact she is not in the band does not mean she's not our friend."

The Unleashed tour, Fleetwood Mac's first road trek since 2004, begins on March 1 in Pittsburgh. The group is also planning to release a CD/DVD edition of its 1977 "Rumours" album with unreleased songs, demos and previously unreleased footage of the band from that era.

Lindsay and I don’t need a buffer (Stevie Nicks)

Undercover.com

February 11, 2009

Undercover was part of the Fleetwood Mac media conference today where Stevie revealed that Sheryl Crow almost joined Fleetwood Mac following the departure of Christine McVie. 

“We rented a studio and hired a crew,” Stevie said. “We were ready to go in and I called her and needed her to come for two or three days to just play. It was Mother’s Day and she had invited 300 people in her family there. It was her first Mother’s Day as a mom and she could not do it. At that point she said “I am going to have to pass”. I said “I think you are making the right decision. You have a new baby, you have survived breast cancer and Lance Armstrong. I don’t think this is the right thing for you”. That is what happened with Sheryl Crow. She is still our friend and I still adore her. She is one fm my dearest friends”.

While Sheryl Crow came close to joining Fleetwood Mac, no other female has been considered. “As far as having another girl in the band, after we went through that we really realised that there wasn’t going to be another woman that could come into this band who could fit,” she said. “I was looking at it three years ago as a buffer between me and Lindsay. Lindsay and I don’t need a buffer. Certainly Sheryl Crow and not any woman in the world is going to be able to get in the middle of Lindsay and me. The fact is if Lindsay and I can’t work out our problems by ourselves we might as well throw in the towel. That's what we are currently trying to do is work out own problems and certainly another person could not do that for us. 

Think about this – Christine has been gone since 1998 so I have been the only girl in this band for a long, long time. I’m used to it now. At first I was not used to it. After ‘The Dance’ it was horrifying for me. She has been gone a long time and I’m fine with it now”.

Christine McVie was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1970 to 1998. Prior to Fleetwood Mac, she sang with English band Chicken Shack but left in 1970 after marrying Fleetwood Mac bass player John McVie.

After leaving Fleetwood Mac, she released her third solo album ‘In The Meantime’ in 2004 but has remained relatively out of the public eye.

Fleetwood Mac will begin their `Unleashed` tour, their first tour in five years, on March 1st in Pittsburgh.

Tusk's $1 Millon Dollar Budget was a Privilege

by Paul Cashmere - February 11 2009
Undercover.com

Fleetwood Mac founder Mick Fleetwood says that the cost of making the 1979 `Tusk` album, the first album with a budget over $1 million, was a privilege, not an over-indulgence.

In a conference call with Undercover today, Mick said, “For all of the blessings we had bestowed on us for being successful I always thought that it was a fully righteous thing that a band such as Fleetwood Mac would plough that money back into the very process that we’d been blessed by to have made that money because it was our money.”

‘Tusk’ was the follow-up to the classic ‘Rumours’. While ‘Rumours’ turned the band into a supergroup, they still paid their own way. “People often assume that you are the star of the show and some production company pays for everything. That is not the case literally by 100%”, he told Undercover. “I always thought it was incredibly righteous to taking the time to plough back the energy, time and expense to make an album like ‘Tusk’ coming out of the most successful album that this band ever had, not that we knew it at the time, ‘Rumours’”.

While the album did not achieve the same heights as its predessor, Mick is glad they did what they did to make ‘Tusk’. “It was our pleasure to do that,” he said. “We never looked at it as some sort of opulent indulgence. I think the lines got blurred more often by the lifestyles and the romance of the stories of the individuals in Fleetwood Mac. The music and the time making ‘Tusk’, we took a huge interest in the studio we were going to record the next album in. All of that stuff had to be paid for and I might add that it was paid for by the individuals that you are talking to to present something that in our world that was going to be more meaningful and more special”.

He says they did it because they could afford to do it in light of the success of the previous two albums. “That to me doesn't personally feel like any form of indulgence. It was always a cross to bear that we all had from ‘Rumours’ on, and in fact Fleetwood Mac ‘Fleetwood Mac’ and ‘Rumours’ and the characters in this particular play”.

The success of Fleetwood Mac not only made the group famous, it made Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks all individually famous. That fame has often gotten in the way of the music. “No doubt, there is a story to be told and continues to be told,” he says. “But behind it all is the music and we very often bemoan the fact that because we were so open as people, which was intriguing and interesting, or maybe not, behind some of that we did take some blows in terms of the music at certain points in time”.

The internal romances and break-ups became tabloid fodder. “We often wanted to talk about the music instead of the ongoing soap opera,” he said. “It is really about the integrity of what we do. We have always taken the responsibility to make the very best effort to do that”.

Fame gave them money and ‘Tusk’ was simply money well-spent, according to Mick. “That to me was never an indulgence. It was a privilege and in truth, everyone you are speaking to paid for that privilege to present something to the listener and the people who enjoyed this band and reinvest our “hey-day” ability to do that where you can’t believe you can actually be in a studio for nine months but then you have to pay for it”.

Anything less than perfection was not an option when recording ‘Tusk’. “The fact that we didn’t say “lets spend three weeks in the studio and get the hell out and shove something out” actually speaks well of where this band puts its metal,” he said.

Fleetwood Mac will begin their `Unleashed` tour, their first tour in five years, on March 1st in Pittsburgh.

Press Conference by Phone With Fleetwood Mac

Quizzing Fleetwood Mac

By Eric R. Danton
Courant.com

I've written before about teleprint conferences (like this one, with Maroon 5) -- essentially, press conferences by phone, wherein a bunch of reporters lob questions one by one at musicians -- but the one I'm on right now with Fleetwood Mac is a gem.

The band this spring unleashes Unleashed, a greatest hits tour tied to the re-release of "Rumours," and the Mac's first road trip in five years (including a date March 14 at Mohegan Sun). Highlights of the teleprint session include:

• Stevie Nicks declaring, "Basically, what we are is entertainers." Ah. That clears that right up.

• Lindsey Buckingham shows up 20 minutes after the scheduled start time, and says to the others, "Have you all been on the line for a while?" 
  

• Apparently Buckingham is influenced by Radiohead.
  

• Mick Fleetwood, on the other hand, likes U2.
  

• The band attempts to steer a question to John McVie, who's been largely silent. "No, I feel so stupid today," McVie says. Mick offers, "We'll do one together."
  

• Stevie Nicks, addressing rumors that Sheryl Crow would take Christine McVie's place: "I told her, 'You've survived breast cancer and Lance Armstrong, and I think you're doing the right thing'" by not joining the band to focus instead on raising her child.
  

• Whither the significance of the tour title? Stevie: "To me, 'Unleashed' means unleashing the furies, throwing us back into the universe." Is it possible to roll your eyes so hard they fall out? To his credit, the reporter asks, tongue in cheek, "Will we be able to handle this fury?" 
  

• The guy from the Plain Dealer asks, in reference to the USC marching band appearing with Radiohead at the Grammys, "Are you sick of Radiohead stealing all of Fleetwood Mac's good ideas?" The band laughs, then Buckingham says he told the director of the marching band, "Please go tell Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood how much their work has meant to me."
  

• Stevie: "I'm a fragile little old grandmother at this point, even though I have no grandchildren." 
  

• The guy from L'Press (or some damn place) asks the band when the "Rumours" re-release is coming out. The band, of course, has no idea. Dude: Check Wikipedia.
  

• Aw, man, after I've spent 90 minutes on the phone, some guy asks a dumber version of the question I was going to ask.
  

• Jon Bream from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune asks why Fleetwood Mac tickets are so expensive, especially compared to the band's last tour. Stevie: "I can't even answer that, because I don't know. All I can say is that the price of life in general is a gazillion times higher than it was four years ago." Alas, this time the band can't afford to fly on a chartered 737, she says. They're taking a G4 jet instead.
  

• If brevity is indeed the soul of wit, Mick Fleetwood is witless.
  

Now that's the spirit!!

Cool graphic design.... I love it!

Fleetwood Mac has sold 16.4 million albums

THE 'MAC IS BACK

Ask Billboard

January 2, 2009

Hi Keith,

With Fleetwood Mac going on tour again soon, I was wondering how many albums they have sold since Nielson SoundScan started, specifically their last few releases?

Thanks!
Kevin Markowski
Chicago

Hello Kevin,

I'm excited that Fleetwood Mac is going back on the road, but still sad that they are touring without Christine McVie. Really, the band just isn't the same without her. But you didn't ask about that, did you?

Since 1991, when SoundScan began tracking sales, Fleetwood Mac has sold 16.4 million albums in the U.S. The biggest seller is its 1997 live album "The Dance," which has sold 4.5 million. The group's last studio set, 2003's "Say You Will," has shifted 858,000.

Fleetwood Mac's Unleashed tour begins on March 1, 2009 in Pittsburgh.

Auburn Hills Starts at 8pm - not 7:30pm

Fleetwood Mac gets a later start at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Are you heading south Sunday, March 8, to catch Fleetwood Mac at The Palace of Auburn Hills?

Take your time -- it starts at 8 p.m. now, instead of 7:30. And those of you thinking "I didn't know Fleetwood Mac was coming around" can still get tickets at the nearest Ticketmaster.
They'll set you back $149.50, $79.50 or $49.50, depending on how up-front-and-personal you want to get.

That's about the going price for the acts we call legends these days. The Eagles' top tickets costs $195 when they swoop into the Palace on Saturday, March 21. And Jimmy Buffett's Aug. 13 visit to the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston is sold out, so hang on to your $137.50.

What do you say -- are they worth it? What's the top price you would pay to see your favorite?

Lindsey Buckingham Talks Guitars, Fleetwood Mac Reunion Tour

by: Russell Hall
Gibson Magazine

On March 1, a reunited Fleetwood Mac will hit the road for their first concert tour in five years. Concurrently, an expanded CD/DVD package of the band's landmark 1977 album, Rumours, will hit record stores. In the following interview, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham talks about the differences between his work in Fleetwood Mac and his solo work. He also shares his thoughts about his distinctive six-string style.

Wasn't your very first guitar a cheap Harmony acoustic?

That's right, although I first learned some chords on a plastic ukulele. There was a TV show called The Mickey Mouse Club, which marketed a smaller version of what the guy on the show played. When I was about eight years old, I got a Harmony 6-string three-quarter-size guitar for Christmas. I think it cost about 35 or 40 bucks.

Did you feel an immediate facility for the instrument?

It's hard to say. I had been exceptionally interested in music before then, although I didn't have any lessons. I was tuned in to my parents' record collection, which ranged from the South Pacific soundtrack to Patti Page to my Dad's collection of Dixieland Jazz 78s. I was always interested in what was making those sounds. Then, when Elvis Presley came onto the scene, there was a role model, visually, and music that subverted our parents' sensibilities. It was something we could call our own.

When did you first try to write songs?

I didn't write until 1972, near the very end of the first band that Stevie and I were in. Stevie had been writing tunes since she was in high school, and thought of herself as a writer-poet. Actually, I still don't think of myself as a writer. I think of myself more as a stylist. It still comes in bits and pieces — the process of putting a song together.

You play without a pick. Beyond technique, does that make you feel more of direct connection to the guitar?

I think so. It has its good and bad points. It can be a little sloppy. Sometimes, on-stage, when I'm playing lead, I'll look down and see that I'm just thrashing around. I don't know what I'm doing with my fingers, and it looks sort of odd to me. In that sense, yes, it's completely connected to something inside. But I think other people probably feel that connection with a pick, because they've done it that way for so long.

How did you get into finger-picking at such an early age?

Part of that stemmed from not taking lessons. As a child, I found my own way, in a manner that made sense to me. I wasn't doing finger-picking right away, but I strummed with my hand, because I didn't know any better. But even Scotty Moore had an element of finger-picking and orchestral playing going on. The other thing was, before the British Invasion occurred, a lot of folk music became popular. In that music, of course, you're talking about basic Travis-picking, which everybody was learning to do. I also became interested in trying to learn some of the fast banjo-playing style that a lot of people were doing at the time.

You've talked in the past about a certain Dave Mason album that had a big impact on you as a lead player.

That's right. That album — Alone Together — came out in 1970, at about the time the original band Stevie and I were in was breaking up. I was trying to embrace lead playing, and the things Dave Mason was doing on that album seemed to mesh with what I was aspiring to do. He wasn't trying to be technically proficient, and the playing had a plaintive quality that fit what I was already doing, as an acoustic player.

What adjustments did you make to your style, when you and Stevie joined Fleetwood Mac?

It was an exercise in paring down. There wasn't as much room to establish any sort of style statement, in terms of what I had done on the Buckingham Nicks album. The band's pre-existing sound made it difficult for me to even play the model of guitar I had been using. The electrics I had played had always been either Stratocasters or Telecasters. And both those guitars sounded a little anemic, within the band. Therefore I switched over to something "fatter," which, at the time, was the Les Paul.

Are there things you can do as a solo artist that you can't do within the parameters of Fleetwood Mac?

I don't think there's any one thing. It's more a case that maybe there are things you can do only once, on a Fleetwood Mac album. There are lots of things on the [2006 solo album] Under the Skin album that are just one guitar, or two guitars, and voice, and nothing else. Politically, that would be fine in Fleetwood Mac as a one-off type of thing. But on Rumours, for instance, you wouldn’t want to have four songs like "Never Going Back Again." It just wouldn't have been appropriate.

The reunion tour begins in March. Your thoughts?

I think there's still quite a bit of road that we need to walk together, in order to put things in a certain place, with regard to interaction. For that reason alone, there's an interest for me in reconvening, to see if we can approach things a little more humanly. Stevie and I have some stuff to work on. That, in and of itself, becomes intriguing. I've known Stevie since I was about 16, and we've been through things together that no one else has. We know each other awfully well. It should be fun.

Is Now The Time To Buy??

If you've been on the fence and unsure if you wanted to shell out a ton of cash for seats to see Fleetwood Mac on their Unleashed Tour because the only seats available were seats at the back or in the rafters - well now's the time to consider buying or at least be on the look out for prime seating. Ticketmaster has released PRIME seats (Floor Seats) for a number of the first shows on Fleetwood Mac's upcoming tour.

Just to name a few:
Pittsburgh (3/1/09)
Minneapolis (3/3/09)
Detroit 3/8/09)
Uniondale, NY (3/13/09)
Toronto (3/17/09)

Each of these shows at the moment are showing floor seats in the first 10 rows available at the regular pricing - which will run you about $150.00 plus fees.