Thursday, February 07, 2013

NEW Interview with Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie


‘We were never too stoned to play’ Fleetwood Mac: the comeback interview 

The Mac are back, with live shows, songs and a re-release. Will Hodgkinson meets Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie
The Times

It is 36 years since Rumours, the soft-rock masterpiece by Fleetwood Mac, became the soundtrack to separation. Songs such as Go Your Own Way, The Chain and You Make Loving Fun articulated the new rules of relationships for the baby boom generation, capturing the reality of affairs, tensions, betrayals and break-ups and selling more than 40 million copies in the process. For much of the 1980s, arguing over who got the copy of Rumours was as much a part of divorce as lawyer’s fees and pretending to like each other in front of the

Rumours hit a nerve because it came from a place of truth. Fleetwood Mac’s keyboardist Christine McVie was divorcing its bassist John McVie. The singer Stevie Nicks was splitting with her childhood sweetheart, the band’s guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Stuck somewhere in the middle was the drummer Mick Fleetwood, who was recently divorced from his wife. Everyone dealt with the situation in the only way rock stars in the 1970s knew how: by taking huge amounts of cocaine.

It should have ended there, but as Fleetwood says, “Rumours is the thing that would not go away.” While the album has just gone back into the Top Three, four of the band members are putting aside the pain of the past and, in one of the biggest break up and make up stories of all time, getting ready to go out on the road again for a world tour. Only Christine McVie, who left the band in 1998, is staying away. She’s been leading a reclusive, distinctly non-rock’n’roll life in a Kent farmhouse ever since, having no involvement with Fleetwood Mac and never giving interviews — until now. 

Read the full interview/article at FleetwoodMac-UK

WIN Fleetwood Mac UK Tour Tickets #FLEETWOODMACUKTOUR

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Tweet the Hashtag #FLEETWOODMACUKTOUR to move the Twitter Bird along barometer.  When it reaches the different dates the "WIN TICKETS" buttons will become live.  Then just click through and leave your details.  Keep an eye on the barometer though - THE MORE YOU TWEET, THE FASTER IT MOVES!

Full details at Fleetwoodmac.com/uktour

London, Birmingham, Manchester & Glasgow! Fleetwood Mac Pre SaleTickets on sale 9am

Live Nation Pre-Sale - Sold Out
General Public Sale begins Feb 8th

Update on the 'In Your Dreams' Documentary

Dave Stewart on Stevie's 'In Your Dreams' Documentary... 
Dave Tweeted a couple of days ago that he was meeting up with Stevie to discuss possible release dates for their "In Your Dreams" Documentary... It's been fairly quiet since the last screening of the flick in Las Vegas last November, so an update like this is appreciated.  Fans are pretty eager to get their hands on this last installment of the In Your Dreams saga.  This month marks the 3 year anniversary that Dave and Stevie began working together formulating the album... Man time flies by!  I'm sure the wait will be worth it.
Awfully nice of Dave to keep fans up to date!

And a follow-up


Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Audio: Interview with Mick Fleetwood from last week...

Interview: Mick Fleetwood on Magic Breakfast
Mick appeared on Magic Breakfast in the UK last week... Here's his audio segments where he spoke with Neil Fox. They're short, but Part 2 is interesting - talks about encouraging Chris to say hello in some sort of way on stage when they play London this year...

I think it's going to happen!


Part 1 Part 2
Magic.co.uk

PREVIEW NEW Stevie Nicks Track "You Can't Fix This" w/Dave Grohl From "Sound City Real to Reel"

Album in stores on March 12th, 2013.
You Can't Fix This (Preview) - Dave Grohl, Stevie Nicks, Taylor Hawkins, Rami Jaffee

Pre-order via Amazon or iTunes

Photo: Christine McVie with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie on Maui

Christine McVie dinning with Mick and John in Maui.
Photo by: debbie_peek on instagram taken last evening I believe.
Thanks to LucyDotAlex 
@LucyLawless on Twitter for pointing it out!


Feb 7th:
Christine with Mick, Steven Tyler and Rick Vito on Maui
She looks fantastic!
The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band featuring Rick Vito with Special Guest Steven Tyler will be playing at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center next Wed., Feb. 13 at 7:30. Pictured here with us is the lovely and majorly talented Ms. Christine McVie! A great time was had last night at dinner by all. Photo: Rick Vito - Facebook

Big Love: Fleetwood Mac fans snap up pre-sale reunion tour tickets

Pre-sale tickets sell out before stadium and arena shows in the states, Europe and the UK - the general sale for tickets is on Friday
By Roland Ellison
The Mirror


Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 blockbuster Rumours re-enters the Billboard Top 200 chart at #40 this week.


Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 blockbuster Rumours re-enters the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart at #40 this week with US sales of 10,818 units.  That's an increase over the previous week of 527% where it sold 1,726 copies in the US. Total US sales since Soundscan began tracking over the counter sales in November, 1991 are 3,136,203.

The number of physical units sold for the week were 6,090 with digital units making up the difference of 4,728.  The album is also #1 this week on the Top 200 Catalog Chart moving up from #94 last week.  Rumours has logged 31 weeks at #1 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums Chart and since 1956, only two albums have had longer runs on top: the West Side Story soundtrack (54 weeks) and Michael Jackson’s Thriller (37 weeks) according to Paul Grein at Yahoo Chart Watch. Rumours was also #5 on the Top Internet Albums Chart for the week.

The only thing I'm not sure of is whether the above Rumours charts and sales are for the 3CD reissue, the Deluxe Box, or is it just the normal Rumours album... OR is it all sales combined.

Also back on Billboards Top 200 this week is Fleetwood Mac's "Very Best Of" re-entering the chart at #161 on sales of 2,800 units for the week vs 886 the previous week.  That's a 216% increase in sales.  To date Very Best Of has sold 1,541,056 units in the US. The album also moves into the #20 spot on the Top Catalog Chart.  Digital sales for the week were 1,664 with the balance of the 2,800 coming from physical sales.

Greatest Hits increased in sales as well by 28% moving up to #84 from #134 on the Catalog Albums Chart with sales of 1,866 vs 1,456 the previous week.  To date in the US Greatest Hits sales are 4,618,248.

On the Digital Tracks front "Landslide" was way up in sales because of the Budweiser ad that ran during the SuperBowl... "Landslide" came in at #128 on the Top 200 Digital Tracks Chart with sales of 15,572 for the week up 95% over the previous week of 8,002.  To date "Landslide" has sold 1,315,950 copies in the US.

Billboard Top 200
# 40   (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 160 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of

Top 200 Catalog
# 1 (94)     Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 20 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of
# 84 (134) Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

Overall Digital Albums
# 39   (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 125 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of
# 184 (87)  Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

"Rumours" Around The World
#   3 - UK Top 100 Albums Chart Feb 2nd
#   7 - The Netherlands Top 100 Albums Chart Feb 2nd
# 18 - New Zealand Top 40 Albums Chart Feb 4th
# 18 - Australia Top 50 Albums Chart Feb 11th
# 24 - Norway Top 40 Albums Chart Feb 5th
# 33 - Canada Top 200 Albums Chart Feb 3rd
# 40 - USA - Top 200 Albums Chart Feb 16th
# 40 - Denmark - Top 40 Albums Chart Feb 8th
# 53 - Germany - Top 100 Albums Chart Feb 8th
# 72 - Belgium - Top 100 Albums Chart Feb 9th




Fleetwood Mac 'Rumours', an album released 35 years ago that continues to haunt the lives of everyone involved

Mick Fleetwood: 'Rumours is who we are’
With their 35-year-old album back in the charts, the Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood talks to Neil McCormick about its stormy story and long legacy.

By Neil McCormick
The Telegraph

'It’s good therapy,” says Mick Fleetwood, settling back to talk about Rumours, an album released 35 years ago that continues to haunt the lives of everyone involved. “There’s still a fascination about it, it’s who we are and what we are, the reason why we made all that music. It forces you to think about yourself, how you’ve developed or undeveloped, screwed up or not, what you learnt from that, and whether you have truly moved on from the hurt, fear and loathing.”

Fleetwood Mac’s classic 1977 album is back in the charts, a reissued expanded edition going straight in at No  3 this week. “It’s this mutant thing, with a life of its own,” says Fleetwood about the enduring appeal of an album that has already sold more than 40 million copies. “It shaped me as a person, because we went through a damage, making that album,” admits the tall, hirsute, elegantly attired 65-year-old drummer. “I know it sounds like, 'Oh my God, when will those people grow up?’ Well, the reality was maybe we didn’t actually ever grow up. But it’s never too late. We’re not finished yet.”

In February 1976, the five members of the Anglo-American rock band convened at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California to record a follow-up to the previous year’s four-million-selling Fleetwood Mac album. After eight years of shifting line-ups and stylistic changes, the band formed by Fleetwood with bassist John McVie had achieved new success. But on a personal level, they were in deep trouble. The bassist and his wife, keyboard player and vocalist Christine McVie, were in the throes of divorce, ending nearly eight years of marriage. The other couple in the band, guitarist-vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks, were high-school sweethearts whose intense 10-year relationship was falling apart.

Drummer Fleetwood had domestic problems of his own, his marriage to model Jenny Boyd at the end. “It was a poignant moment,” says Fleetwood. “It could have exploded and imploded the band right there. We could have got half-way through and everyone tell everyone to ---- off.

“But because we kept going, we emotionally crippled people, we’ve carried this with us ever since.”

Rumours is justly celebrated as one of the great break-up albums, conjuring up a bittersweet tension between the strong emotional content of songs like Don’t Stop, Go Your Own Way, Dreams, Songbird and Oh Daddy and the gently rocking, beautifully harmonised, shimmering arrangements. “There’s a duality to the album,” acknowledges Fleetwood. “It sparks all of the personal stuff but I don’t listen to the music differently. I’m really happy that we didn’t overproduce, because we were all of a mindset of being pure.

“It’s not full of fluff and, to my perception, it doesn’t sound dated, because there’s no weird echoes or plastic drums. A lot of our contemporaries were doing funny things in the studio that spoils stuff from that period. But Rumours could have been made yesterday.”

Stylistically, he says, there was no masterplan, it was just a culmination of the music they all liked, embracing a Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter blend of intimacy and melody with sleek, harmonic Seventies Californian soft rock and an undercurrent of the grittier British blues-rock roots of the long-serving rhythm section. “We knew, in a very organic way, that something was horribly right about what we were doing. We were in charge of our own destiny, and yet our destinies were all falling apart on a personal scale.”

Fleetwood claims that recording was straightforward, on a musical level at least. “We made decisions on songs fairly early. The real work was stripping it down to stuff that sounds very simple, and then layering it up, especially the vocals.” Two CDs of out-takes (released as part of the new Rumours package) illuminate the process, both in terms of the care taken with arrangements and the core strengths of songs that sound perfectly formed even as rough demos. Emotionally, it was another story. “It’s not the easiest thing to imagine having to be with someone 24-7 when you don’t want to be or, even worse, you want to be with but can’t.”

Fleetwood characterises the band’s whole career ever since as being one of dealing with the aftermath of Rumours. “The album was our baby. You and your wife break up, you wanna do the right thing, not to hurt the children. That’s what made an impossible thing possible. It was like, 'Let’s do our best to turn up and go to that play together and let those children know Mum and Dad are here.”

For Fleetwood, there was a long period of denial and escape. “You anaesthetised yourself emotionally. The wound was cauterized but underneath was chaos. Fleetwood Mac became the bandage, just wrap it up and keep it wrapped up.” For he and Nicks (who had an affair behind the back of Buckingham during the recording of 1979’s experimental double album Tusk) “the bandage included a whole lifestyle of toys and substances, a big old circus that never stopped, with loads of jugglers with balls being thrown up and catching them just in time.

“And that’s what Lindsey eventually ran away from. And I don’t blame him.”

Buckingham left the band after the recording of 1987’s Tango in the Night.

McVie retired in 1998, and though relationships remain strong she has made it clear she does not wish to be involved any more.

“I’ve had to agree to stop asking her,” notes Fleetwood, with a guilty smile. In 2003, Buckingham returned to the fold, which seems to have opened up old wounds and helped heal others. “Me and Stevie are very similar, a couple of old drama queens who got into the whole drug thing. We were nuts, totally out of our minds at one point. Lindsey was just not that type of guy. He’s very metred about stuff. Well, to see Stevie, just a week ago, saying to Lindsey that she understood that he left because he couldn’t stand to see her destroy herself in front of his eyes. Because he loved her.

“It was a heavy, good moment.” Fleetwood gets suddenly moist- eyed. “See, I’m moved even talking about it,” he sniffs.

Although they last toured in 2009, the band haven’t released an album since 2003’s Say You Will. But Fleetwood reveals that they have been recording again. “The seeds have been sown. I will be cheeky enough to say it’s the best stuff Lindsey’s done since I first met him. It’s all coming good.”

Fleetwood Mac have announced UK dates for September and October this year, and Fleetwood hopes they will have new music out by then.

“The biggest misconception to me is that these people really don’t like each other. That’s the worst rumour about Rumours,” says Fleetwood. “There’s bands out there, usually a bunch of guys, who don’t give a ---- about each other. They just come to an arrangement. We can’t do that! We’re all ex-lovers, so we don’t have that corporate, guy thing where it’s just 'get the job done’. I think it bodes in our favour that, in a funny, shaky way, there is some integrity. We do actually love each other, for real. Unfortunately. ’Cause it’s tough.”

Mick Fleetwood VIP Meet & Greet Tickets Available for Ireland, UK, Euro Shows

Mick Fleetwood VIP Meet and Greet Experiences are now available for Ireland and most UK and European shows

Here's what you get:
  • Ticket in First 5 Rows ($425 USD) or Ticket in First 20 Rows ($375 USD)
  • VIP Entry to Venue
  • VIP Host for the Evening
  • Meet & Greet with Mick Fleetwood
  • VIP Q&A with Mick Fleetwood onstage at his Drum Kit
  • Personal Photo with Mick Fleetwood
  • Mick Fleetwood VIP Laminate
Create an account on mickfleetwoodofficial and select a show.

London show = SOLD OUT (both categories)
Manchester show = Top Tier Tickets ($425) = SOLD OUT


Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Fleetwood Mac Dominate iTunes Rock Albums Chart in 5 Countries

Fleetwood Mac on the Top 10 Rock Albums Chart on iTunes
It's amazing what a tour announcement and an album reissue can do to catalogue sales. Sure brings back a lot of interest... Number 1 in 5 countries with either "Rumours" Deluxe Edition or "Greatest Hits"







"Landslide" is currently the #1 Rock song in the USA after the Superbowl airing of the Budweiser commercial that used the original version.  The track is also #3 in Canada.  "Go Your Own Way" is currently #10 in the UK and #10 in The Netherlands. "Tusk" is #2 in New Zealand (They must have seen the FX TV Show "The American" that featured "Tusk" quite heavily through out the debut episode this past week.)