FLEETWOOD MAC GOES BACK TO WHERE THEY ONCE BEGAN

LONDON: Their current world concert tour has taken Fleetwood Mac to Great Britain and Europe for the first time in five years, and will bring them to Japan and Australia for the first concert tour before this year is out. In their adopted homeland, American fans fiave been swarming to Fleetwood Mac shows. The June 29 and 30 gigs in New York’s Madison Square Garden were sold out more than a month in advance. While the current U.S. touring is an expected success, their return to the-continent is to re¬ introduce the group to a home country that had largely forgotten that Fleetwood Mac ever existed.

Promotional visits often seem to achieve little, for Fleetwood Mac the trip home paid big dividends. The year-old ‘Fleetwood Mac’ album which had till their return sold less than 10,000 copies, crept into the album charts. A few months later, the follow up album, ‘Rumours’, leapt straight into the top ten. The single “Go Your Own Way” even gave the group their first chart entry since “Green Manalishi” in 1970, when Peter Green was still with the group. And, a major hit single seems likely before the year is out if the critical and popular reaction to their sell-out tour is any¬ thing to judge by.

When the two recent recruits, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined two years ago, the English trio of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie had already helped lay most of the foundations for today’s group (through albums like ‘Kiln House’, ‘Future Games’, and ‘Bare Trees'). What Buckingham and Nicks brought was a hitherto unachieved stability rather than any change of musical direction.

They also sealed the striking image of the group, and their “American” identity. For, while Fleetwood Mac’s visit was a homecoming, their first British dates in almost half a decade, it was less the return of triumphant Britishers than a first visit by California curios. Fleetwood Mac’s audience in Britain is the America lovers, the Los Angeles cult followers, not those who once championed the British blues band.

Mick Fleetwood was well aware of this, though he and the rest were surprisingly nervous and aware of the pressure on them at the first of three packed nights at London’s Rainbow Theatre. Earlier, Christine McVie had said she felt a sense of homecoming at Birmingham, her home town. But the most surprising reaction came from Stevie Nicks: “We obviously don’t need England from a financial point of view, but we need England, in that it's still home for John and Mick and Chris, and if it’s home for them it’s our proxy home.”

“I didn’t want to come,’ she added candidly. On that last promotional visit Stevie had ultimately had a bad time, because throughout a day of interviews journalists repeatedly knew nothing of the new band and had nothing to ask her. Even at the lavish reception held for the group,, they were upstaged by the arrival of former leader Peter Green.

But whereas Green has since entered a further tragic stage in his career, he’s been committed to an asylum for the second time in five years, the Fleetwood Mac soap opera has taken an upswing for the group that today carries its name.

Stevie, on this visit, was besotted with would-be interviewers. Her, and Lindsey Buckingham have also had the satisfaction of seeing their three year old ‘Buckingham Nicks’ album be released in Britain and meet with critical success. Lindsey even spoke of their possibly recording another album outside of Fleetwood Mac itself.

Today Fleetwood Mac needs no re-introduction to mother country fans. The only calls for “Albatross” and “Dust My Broom” are from a boozey minority. The triumphs and shouts are for new numbers like “Rhiannon” and “Go Your Own Way”. Their performances are as exhilarating as their music in cold wet London towne, for Fleetwood Mac returned home with their own brand of warm California easy listening rock.

—Mick Houghton

Circus Magazine July 21, 1977

Review Fleetwood Mac Nov. 27, 1975 Santa Monica Civic Auditorium

Ben Edmonds

Record World

December 20, 1975

LOS ANGELES - It's exceedingly rare that a group can undergo constant changes of personnel and maintain any semblance of qualitative consistency. It's rarer still when a group can not only continue to grow under the weight of those circumstances but actually achieve commercial and aesthetic heights untouched by any of its previous incarnations. Such a band is Fleetwood Mac (Reprise), and their Thanksgiving night performance at the Santa Monica Civic indicated that their tremendous 1975 boom in popularity has been anything but accidental, and represents in fact only the preliminary heights that this present- ensemble is certain to rise to. 

Against a stunningly tasteful backdrop designed by Christine McVie, the group delivered a lengthy set that could've been twice as long and probably wouldn't have exhausted the audience's enthusiasm. Quite simply, it was as satisfying as any musical experience I've had all this year. Yes, you heard me right. The factors that pushed this performance past mere greatness were a) the band's ability to sustain intensity through the entire show (as opposed to the favored rock formula which says you push it at the beginning and then save it 'til the end), b) their ability to be a band at all times in a given situation where every one of them is a star, and c) the full integration at last of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. 

Though reserved and somewhat stiff in their early association with the band, the two newest members are now comfortable and confident enough that their performances match the fluidity and power of their musical contributions. They're now using up all that open stage space that they, as the frontpeople, are obligated to fill effectively if the show is to work. Stevie Nicks has developed into the kind of performer who elicits hard responses the way she previously generated only fascination. The audience liked her so much that they even shut up for her when she sang the acoustically backed "Landslide," quite a gesture indeed from a crowd that spent the rest of the evening vocally responding as if this was the last concert they were ever gonna be allowed to attend. 

Stevie's "Rhiannon" is probably the single most played track from their most recent (and best! and gold on top of that!) album, and the group's live treatment takes into account all of the rhythmic/ melodic qualities that make it such a pleaser on the LP but brings to it a power that the album version doesn't even begin to tell you about. On this and his own "I'm So Afraid," Lindsey Buckingham offers the most passionate explanation of why he should be considered certainly the most exciting guitarist Fleetwood Mac has ever boasted and, in time, may prove to be its best. His solo flights play soaring clusters of notes against dynamic chord bursts, never forgetting that the key to being a great lead guitarist is understanding how to be a great rhythm guitarist first. Where he at one time seemed totally self-absorbed, he's now matching his electrifying playing with a visual aggressiveness that's a pure delight to see at work.  

Buckingham's energy puts a much more forceful spotlight on the rhythm section of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, and it's revealed to be the best pairing active in rock & roll, bar none. The restricted blues framework of the first Fleetwood Mac often required little more than the competence of its rhythm section, but the band's current wealth of diversified talent encourages them to make a more fully personalized contribution. This ongoing redefinition has provided the cutting edge that's made the difference in Christine McVie's songs between nice tunes and hits. "Over My Head" sounded like the hit that it so deservedly is; the band has come to terms with her pop inclinations in a way that accentuates her direct simplicity rather than following it. Based on the way the band presents her songs these days, it's a safe bet that her song catalogue is going to become valuable property in the coming months. 

It would be vastly incorrect to assume that Fleetwood Mac's newfound energy is supplied by the newcomers alone. The wonderful thing about this band now is that the push comes from all five directions, and it accounts for the equal revitalization of the older songs included in the set. Not only the standard favorites like "Green Manalishi," but rarer gems like "Why" and "Hypnotized" which are actually developed further toward the songs they could be than when they were first recorded. The only song less-than-inspiring was "Oh Well," which they could just as easily delete anyway. Their new personality is finally powerful enough that their audiences no longer feel pressed to relive the "hits," freeing the band to select only the best songs from their back catalogue, if they choose to do any old material at all. 

What they left their audience with above all, however, was a hunger for the great things that are going to be created by this band; the future that, after eight years, has finally opened up for Fleetwood Mac. If their next album can incorporate the dynamic energy of their live performances without sacrificing any of their studio discipline, then it's gonna be all but impossible to find a better band than Fleetwood Mac.