Thursday, October 16, 2014

Review | Photos | Video: Fleetwood Mac Live in Philadephia, PA October 15, 2014

Fleetwood Mac Live in Philadephia, PA
October 15, 2014
Wells Fargo Center



 Photos by Lori M. Nichols - View Gallery

Fleetwood Mac at Wells Fargo Center: What you missed
by Lori M. Nichols - South Jersey Times

PHILADELPHIA — Fleetwood Mac returned to Philadelphia Wednesday night, touring together as a full band for the first time in 16 years.

Christine McVie re-joined band mates Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks for their On With The Show tour.

The crowd at the Wells Fargo Center was excited to hear the multi-Grammy Award®-winning band perform together once again, and while nearly everyone was standing as the band took the stage, Christine McVie received a special welcome from not only the concert-goers, but each band member throughout the night.

WHAT YOU MISSED
• Singer-songwriter and vocalist Christine McVie's return to Fleetwood Mac after retiring from the band following The Dance tour in the late '90s. The crowd gave her an overwhelming welcome when she performed the second song of the show, "You Make Loving Fun," and despite a 15-year absence from the stage, her warm vocals really shined in "Little Lies." 

• The distinctive voice of Stevie Nicks isn't what it used to be, but that's not to say it's a bad thing; it's just different. At 66 years old, she stills delivers powerful performances in "Seven Wonders," "Gold Dust Woman" and "Silver Springs." The simplicity of "Landslide," with Nicks joined onstage by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, was almost haunting with her raspy voice.

• While it was definitely Christine McVie's night, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham stole the show. His solos, "Big Love" and "Never Going Back Again," were full of energy, and it was entrancing to watch his finger-picking throughout the night. But Buckingham seemed to mesmerize the crowd with his guitar solo in the 9-minute long "I'm So Afraid" and belted out the lyrics with such a strong voice you couldn't help but stop and just take it all in. 

• The band paid homage to McVie's return by beginning the show with "The Chain," a rousing song about unbreakable bonds that would've had the crowd quickly on their feet if they hadn't been already.

NOTES AND MUSINGS
• Stevie Nicks definitely got into character during "Gold Dust Woman," seemingly in a trance as she slowly danced across the stage. At the end of the song, she raised her arms like a bird spreading its wings, showing her silhouette through her shimmering gold shawl as the spotlight shone down on her at center-stage.

• While it would be nearly impossible to replicate the high-intensity, full-volumed "Tusk" without the benefit of the USC Marching Band playing alongside Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham led the group in a pretty energizing version of the song. The group wasn't remiss about tipping their caps to the marching band however, as videos of the tuba-carrying and trumpet-toting collegiate band played on the large screen behind them.

• Drummer Mick Fleetwood couldn't stop smiling all night long, and seemed as happy to be onstage as a kid in a candy store. He really impressed concert-goers as he performed the majority of his drum solo during "World Turning" with his eyes closed.

• The entire band put their all into "Go Your Own Way," the last song before a duo of encores. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks really worked the stage, and the crowd absolutely loved it.

Concert review: Fleetwood Mac wows boomers in marathon Philly show with Christie McVie
by Ed Condran
Mcall.com

After kicking off a two-and-half-hour tour de force of a concert aptly with "The Chain"’ a song about unbreakable bonds, Lindsey Buckingham beamed and looked to his right.

“And now the beautiful Christine is back,” the vocalist-guitarist said just before Fleetwood Mac delivered “You Make Loving Fun.”

The capacity crowd at the Wells Fargo Center Monday night roared as the band kicked into the tune’s opening notes. The classic configuration of Fleetwood Mac, which will return to the South Philly venue Oct. 29, was back performing in the area for the first time since it played what was known as the Tweeter Center in Camden in September of 1997.

Vocally McVie and her counterpart, the beguiling Stevie Nicks, have to dial it down. The former is 71 and the latter is 66. What they lack in range, they make up for in character. Fleetwood Mac still has it. It’s just different than it was in ‘97 and especially than it was during the summer of ‘77 when the band’s breakthrough album, "Rumours," was ubiquitous.

Fleetwood Mac wowed the enthusiastic crowd with cuts from the emotional "Rumours,"the second biggest selling album of all-time, and a plethora of other hits.

"Go Your Own Way," "Rhiannon" and "Landslide" sated the boomers.

Buckingham, the young buck in the band at a mere 65, stole the show. The thin as a rail fingerpicker riveted the crowd with an emotional "Big Love." His fiery solo and his electric play in general impressed.

“I think he’s been off stage for 30 seconds tonight,” drummer Mick Fleetwood declared.

That’s not much of an exaggeration as the rest of the veteran group took considerable time off during the marathon show. But Buckingham looked like an old school punk pogoing across the stage and grunting, groaning and screaming throughout the night.

McVie, who was MIA since ‘97 due to her fear of flying, was rough around the edges vocally but she’s been out of the game for nearly 20-years.

Nicks and her unique husky voice and subtle gestures made songs such as "Seven Wonders" and "Gold Dust Woman" haunting and compelling. Whenever Nicks would spin like she did a generation ago, fans shrieked.

Fleetwood made like it was 1977 with a wild drum solo.

But it was the hits and the charm of the band that made the night. Nicks, who has always been a great storyteller, often stopped to drop anecdotes. “In the beginning Lindsey and I lived in San Francisco and there was this amazing store (the Velvet Underground) which had incredible clothes and all of the rock and roll women with money shopped there like Janis Joplin and Grace Slick. I remember thinking that when I make it, I’ll shop at that store and I did. If you do believe in your dreams, they can come true.”

The wild success of Fleetwood Mac enables Nicks to shop anywhere and it also gave the band considerable creative freedom to craft some of the most enduring songs from a generation ago.

"We’ve started a new and poetic chapter with Christine,” Buckingham said. “It’ll bear much fruit.”

Mick Fleetwood's Hat Trick... Fleetwood Mac Drummer in town for show and show of photos


Fleetwood Mac’s Drummer in town for show — and show of photos

Toronto Star
by Trish Crawford

Drummer juggling photo show, autobiography and world tour.

At 67, Mick Fleetwood has lived through what he calls “a whirlwind world”: the ups and downs of being in a famous band, drug and alcohol addictions, three divorces.

But he’s come out the other side and, in the case of the band, been given a second chance. Fleetwood Mac, which Fleetwood founded alongside John McVie in 1967, has just launched a world tour that includes the 1975 Rumours- era lineup of Fleetwood, McVie, his ex-wife Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. It brings them to the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night.

“Once that door opened, it was like a fairy tale,” Fleetwood said in an interview. “The shows have been beyond anything. To be in the house with that atmosphere, it is a whole new level of enthusiasm.”

The tour is just one of the good things happening to Fleetwood right now.

In Toronto, he will also visit Yorkville’s Liss Gallery, which is showing his photographs until Oct. 31. There is an invitation-only reception with Fleetwood on Friday evening.

Titled Reflections, the photos are landscapes that have special meaning to Fleetwood, either from England, where he was born, or Hawaii, where he now lives with his mother, who is 98.

Available October 28, 2014
Mickfleetwoodofficial.com
And then there’s his autobiography, Play On, whose title refers to a line from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “If music be the food of love, play on,” which is also advice he gives to fans about pursuing their musical passions. It’s being released Oct. 28. Writing the book, which took 21⁄ years, was a so 2 bering experience, he said. “I have lived a crazy life with mucho grando amounts of alcohol pouring through my veins, but I don’t do that anymore. Oh, I have a glass of wine. But I’m not the Mad Hatter.” When he was writing the book with Anthony Bozza, he asked his first wife, Jenny, with whom he still has a close friendship, to help him edit it and provide her account of their time together.

“I went through a whirlwind world, you went with it all. But I had no malice, I never had that. In spite of the end result, I meant no harm,” he said of his three divorces. There was no proper work/life balance and spouses were neglected, he said.

“I was a guy on a mission in a Walter Mitty world, naive truly.”

His photography, inspired by the work of American photographer Ansel Adams, has allowed him to be “calm, thoughtful.”

All of the photos are personal, said Fleetwood: “selfishly, they mean a damn to me.”

One, a road vanishing in the distance, causes him to ponder: “What are you doing with your life?”

Another photo, titled Medusa, is of a twisted tree outside his mother’s home in England that looks like “a lady’s body.”

“These are my songs,” said the drummer, who didn’t write songs for the band.

He connects one particular photograph to the revival of Fleetwood Mac, a picture of two swans. “Swans live for a long time, they are a lifelong pairing. Do you know how precious that is? My father and mother had a lifelong relationship. It’s a massive accomplishment,” he said. Being able to stand onstage again with Nicks, Buckingham and the McVies, “We had a second chance and we got it right, like those swans. It is a state of grace.” Their current concerts end with Christine McVie at a piano playing “Songbird,” the songbird returned. The group has been performing to sellout crowds and rave reviews. Despite past comings and goings, some of them rancorous, the band members have made their peace with the past, Fleetwood said, and are family again. “How cool is this?” laughed Fleetwood. “We got a second chance to have a higher form of friendship.”

Fleetwood Mac Ticket Pre-Sale Begins Today


Fleetwood Mac: On With The Show Presale Passwords


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

New Interactive Fleetwood Mac eBook Biography Available Now

A new eBook based on a long-out-of-print authorized biography of Fleetwood Mac was recently 
released via Apple's iBooks store and iTunes.  Before the Beginning: A Personal and Opinionated History of Fleetwood Mac , by author Sam Graham , tells the band's story from its late-'60s origins as a U.K.-based blues outfit through its Rumours -era heyday as one of the world's most popular pop-rock acts.

In putting together the eBook, Graham revisited his 1978 publication Fleetwood Mac -- The Authorized History , and added multimedia content with help from artist and illustrator Kirsten Huntley .  The eBook includes 30 digitized audio clips from cassette-tape interviews the writer conducted with Mick Fleetwood , Stevie Nicks , Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie ; former Fleetwood Mac members Jeremy Spencer and the late Bob Welch ; and early producer Mike Vernon .

Before the Beginning also offers scanned images of letters sent between Graham and ex-Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis , autographed photos, notes from conversations Sam had with Mac bassist John McVie and founding lead guitarist Peter Green , and a timeline of the band's history from 1967 to 1983.

With regard to what's included in the text of the eBook, Graham notes, "The Lindsey-Stevie era is by far the longest and most productive, but they had an inspiring and tumultuous prior history, so that's in there too.  We tried to satisfy both those who knew there was a Fleetwood Mac before 'Rhiannon' or Rumours and those who didn't."

Before the Beginning is available on iTunes for $4.99.


Congrats to Stevie Nicks 24 Karat Gold enters Billboard Top 200 at No.7 (6th Top 10 Album)

Rock legend Stevie Nicks nets her sixth top 10 solo album, as her quasi-archival release 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault set starts at No. 7 (33,000). It’s her 13th top 10 album (combining Fleetwood Mac and solo releases). The set consists of newly-recorded material that was written and recorded in demo versions in earlier years. 24 Karat Gold follows Nicks' In Your Dreams, which debuted (and peaked) at No. 6 back in 2011 (52,000 sold in its first week).

Full article at Billboard

Billboard have published their charts for October 25th... Here's where Stevie and Fleetwood Mac fair on the latest U.S Charts.  Big move for Rumours up to No.83 from No.164.  On the Catalogue albums chart Rumours is back in the Top 5 at No.4.

BILLBOARD TOP 200 - October 25, 2014
#     7 (New) Stevie Nicks - 24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault
#   83 (164)  Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 121 (177) Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
# 148 (175) Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of

TOP 25 DIGITAL ALBUMS CHART
# 10 (New) Stevie Nicks - 24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault

TOP 50 CATALOGUE ALBUMS CHART
#   4 (30)   Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 12 (36)   Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
# 22 (34)   Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of
# 50 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

TOP 25 ROCK ALBUMS CHART
#  3  (NEW) Stevie Nicks - 24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault



STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"
Out Now! Order from Stevienicksofficial.com

Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham On The Group’s New Album Plans

by Jim Fusilli
The Wall Street Journal



Extending their tour into 2015 won’t deter Fleetwood Mac from recording what might become their first album in almost three decades of new songs composed by Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks.

During a telephone conversation last week, Buckingham said McVie had presented him with demos of her new compositions. “Piano and voice,” he said. He brought them back to his studio in Los Angeles. With McVie’s approval, he added, “I took massive liberties with them.”

Nicks was “otherwise engaged. A running commentary these days,” he said, perhaps referring to preparations for her exhibition of her self-portrait photography now ongoing at the Morrison Hotel galleries in Los Angeles and New York as well as the release last week of “24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault,” her album of new versions of old, mostly unfamiliar compositions. “Christine and I were able to concentrate on each other,” Buckingham said. “We were exploring some new turf. That became enlightening to me.”

With Christine McVie back in the band for the first time in 16 years, Fleetwood Mac will be on the road through next March. “We never envisioned finishing the album in the short term,” he said. “We set it aside. Stevie will come in and participate. I have material I had been working on. There’s no danger that it will slip between the tracks. It’s too profound to.”

Buckingham hinted the band might tour behind new material. The current “On With The Show” concert tour features only songs from Fleetwood Mac’s hit-making era from 1975 through 1987’s “Tango in the Night,” the last album to feature Buckingham, McVie and Nicks with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie.

“Once we finish it,” Buckingham said, “we can think about going out and trying something new.”

As for the vibe now among the quintet with Christine McVie back on board, he said, “It’s a very interesting thing when someone who helped to define the interaction leaves for that amount of time. You don’t know how it’s going to play out. But this something that feels really good. It feels really circular.”

Article from The Wall Street Journal