.png)
.png)
Friday, March 20, 2009
FLEETWOOD MAC SET TO PLAY IRELAND
Rumours have been persistent about Fleetwood Mac playing Glastonbury this year in the UK, and with news today being reported by the Irish Times that Fleetwood Mac are set to play Ireland at the "Electric Picnic Music and Arts Festival" , can there still be doubt out there that Fleetwood Mac will be heading to Europe this Summer?
The festival is held at Stradbally, Co Laois.
FULL ARTICLE
REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac at MSG in New York City
.jpg)
Fleetwood MacMadison Square Garden
The Village Voice
by Chris Ryan
photo by David Atlas
It was sometime during Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham's delicate duet performance of the lullabye-like "Never Going Back Again" at last night's Madison Square Garden Fleetwood Mac show when someone behind me opined, "They shouldn't even be allowed to fucking play these hallowed fuckin' halls."
This self-appointed curator of Madison Square Garden, a man who could be best described as what would've happened to Turtle from Entourage had he never gotten out of Queens, was dismayed at the similarity of last night's set to previous Mac gigs he had seen. And while I wouldn't exactly put it the same way, you could empathize with his frustration.
Tonight's most recent incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, a Stevie-John-Mick-Lindsey-and-five-dudes-playing-backup-in-the-shadows set-up, was, according to ticket stubs, on the Unleashed: The Hits 2009 Tour. But despite a set list of nothing but straight-'70s-FM-God-Body-Heat-Rocks this wasn't easy listening.
Fleetwood Mac's well-known extra-musical narrative is about the strong personalities, big demons and contentious conflicts that haunted the band. And their records, especially the classic run from Fleetwood Mac through Tango In The Night, are testaments to the band members' collective ability to overcome their egos and all the upheaval in their lives and make a seamless, often beautiful, sound together. They really were a collective; imbuing any song--be it a Stevie, Lindsey, or Christine--with a sound only the group could produce.
So it was kind of sad watching them balkanize their set in such a decided way: making their performances celebrations of individual achievement rather than group harmony, pummeling the real trophywives of the NYC in the audience with drum and guitar solos, and badly misjudging the pacing and momentum of the set.
The early part of the night peaked with the band's most unselfconscious performance: a blinding take on "I Know I'm Not Wrong" from Tusk that had motorik and sounded more like The Clean than anything else. After a marching-band-free "Tusk," the band went all an-intimate-evening-with... and played a sleepy stretch of quiet jams: "Sara," "Landslide," and the rarely-played-out "Storms."
After a punishing Turkish prison sentence of the Peter-Green-era blues explosion, "Oh Well," and some Mick Fleetwood drum-solo/scream therapy (enlivened only by a great version of Nicks' solo new-wave classic "Stand Back"), the group came into the home stretch: "Go Your Own Way," then break, then "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." As people started to file out, Turtle piped up, "They got one more; they're gonna do 'Silver Springs.'" And, like clockwork, the band filed out to play the gorgeous mid-tempo break-up song, originally left off Rumors. On this very last song, Fleetwood Mac, playing a tune about tearing yourself apart, actually sounded the most together they had all evening. And despite knowing what was coming all night long, even the self-appointed guardians of these hallowed halls--as they tipped back their white Yankees hats and teared up a little--seemed to finally feel like they got what they paid for.
Tonight's most recent incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, a Stevie-John-Mick-Lindsey-and-five-dudes-playing-backup-in-the-shadows set-up, was, according to ticket stubs, on the Unleashed: The Hits 2009 Tour. But despite a set list of nothing but straight-'70s-FM-God-Body-Heat-Rocks this wasn't easy listening.
Fleetwood Mac's well-known extra-musical narrative is about the strong personalities, big demons and contentious conflicts that haunted the band. And their records, especially the classic run from Fleetwood Mac through Tango In The Night, are testaments to the band members' collective ability to overcome their egos and all the upheaval in their lives and make a seamless, often beautiful, sound together. They really were a collective; imbuing any song--be it a Stevie, Lindsey, or Christine--with a sound only the group could produce.
So it was kind of sad watching them balkanize their set in such a decided way: making their performances celebrations of individual achievement rather than group harmony, pummeling the real trophywives of the NYC in the audience with drum and guitar solos, and badly misjudging the pacing and momentum of the set.
The early part of the night peaked with the band's most unselfconscious performance: a blinding take on "I Know I'm Not Wrong" from Tusk that had motorik and sounded more like The Clean than anything else. After a marching-band-free "Tusk," the band went all an-intimate-evening-with... and played a sleepy stretch of quiet jams: "Sara," "Landslide," and the rarely-played-out "Storms."
After a punishing Turkish prison sentence of the Peter-Green-era blues explosion, "Oh Well," and some Mick Fleetwood drum-solo/scream therapy (enlivened only by a great version of Nicks' solo new-wave classic "Stand Back"), the group came into the home stretch: "Go Your Own Way," then break, then "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." As people started to file out, Turtle piped up, "They got one more; they're gonna do 'Silver Springs.'" And, like clockwork, the band filed out to play the gorgeous mid-tempo break-up song, originally left off Rumors. On this very last song, Fleetwood Mac, playing a tune about tearing yourself apart, actually sounded the most together they had all evening. And despite knowing what was coming all night long, even the self-appointed guardians of these hallowed halls--as they tipped back their white Yankees hats and teared up a little--seemed to finally feel like they got what they paid for.
REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac at Madison Square Garden Unleashed Tour
Fleetwood Mac's Golden Oldies are Aging Just Fine
Family dynamics never cease to fascinate us - especially ones with histories as incestuous as Fleetwood Mac's.
It should surprise no one, then, that the band's show at Madison Square Garden last night proved as musically vital, and as alive with subtext, as ever. This, despite the fact that the band had no new music to play, instead drawing most of the material from wells filled more than 30 years ago.
Opening with 1975's jubilant "Monday Morning," the band's remaining four main members wove through a two hour and 20 minute set that functioned as a nearly unbroken greatest hits medley.
The current "Unleashed" tour represents the band's second since singer/songwriter Christine McVie bailed. So, naturally, the defection has thrown a harder light on the complex interplay between Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Their songs threaded in and out of each other at last night's show just as the lives of these former lovers have. "Gypsy," Nicks' tale of emotional independence, played off Buckingham's admission of neurotic excess, "Go Insane" - together serving as an on-going public confession of their mutual needs and deficiencies.
In "The Chain," the two harmonized about family bonds in a way that communicated less loyalty than threat. "You'll never break the chain," they brayed at each other. Consider these guys the original "reality show."
The loss of McVie has robbed the group - which also features John McVie and Mick Fleetwood - of its most diplomatic voice. And she was missed on the few numbers that originally featured her, like "Say You Love Me."
But as a happy consequence, the band rocked harder and found more room for Buckingham's fiendish guitar work. His obsessive arpeggios gave a richly tactile feel to "Big Love," while in "I'm So Afraid," he mined deep blues hues.
The group kept things frisky by tweaking the arrangements and the harmonies in many songs.
Buckingham delivered some with newly emphatic inflections.
But the night's emotional highlight struck a tender note. When Nicks sang her song of age and humility, "Landslide," she read the line "I'm getting older, too," with an acceptance that showed not an ounce of regret.
Some families, it seems, only grow more sure with age.
LANKY STICKS MAN BEHIND FLEETWOOD MAC
by JOHNSON CUMMINSMontreal Mirror
It’s not often you get a chance to talk to a legend, and the rather lanky sticks man behind Fleetwood Mac, Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer Mick Fleetwood, is indeed a card-carrying member in the legendary set, having cut his teeth during the British blues explosion of the mid-’60s with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and then of course recording one of the biggest selling records of all time in 1977, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
Now in his sixties, Fleetwood is feeling a little bit nostalgic these days, having managed to get Fleetwood Mac’s most famous line-up back on the road (well, almost—keyboardist Christine McVie chose to tend to her garden instead). Fleetwood’s on the cusp of seeing the Rumours deluxe edition re-released, and releasing the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band’s Blue Again!, which revisits all the original Fleetwood Mac blues classics.
“I really have nothing but amazing joy when I think of those days,” says Fleetwood. “We had such an amazing journey in such a short space of time, it blows my mind. I still consider myself more of a bluesman than a pop star and I think that the music we made back then still really holds up.”
Mick Fleetwood makes an appearance at Barnes & Noble
TODAY - 12 NOON - NEW YORK CITY
Rock legend Mick Fleetwood makes an appearance at Barnes & Noble on Fifth Ave. Probably best known for his contributions to the band, Fleetwood Mac, this time the rocker appears solo to promote his newest album “Blue Again.” The album was released on March 17 and features several collaborations. 12 Noon; free admission. 555 Fifth Ave. (212-697-3048).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)