Anyone attending the Fleetwood Mac concert Friday night at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock could have easily guessed what the band’s climactic song was destined to be: “Don’t Stop (Thinkin’ About Tomorrow),” which became something of an anthem for the 1992 Clinton presidential campaign. But not that many in the sold-out crowd of 14,613 also guessed that former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state, were in the audience.
Hours after the dedication of the Little Rock airport that now bears their names, the Clintons took in the Fleetwood Mac concert in a skybox on about what would have been the 50-yard line if the arena were a football stadium.
They were introduced by Mick Fleetwood just before the band performed “their song.” By this time, it was 10:30 p.m., and instead of making it the final song, the band did a couple more, perhaps to help the Clintons ease out of the milling throngs with less stress.
Even without the presence of these former Arkansas luminaries, it was a memorable night, made more so by a band that showed they still have what made them the most successful band of the 1970s and ’80s. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham was easily the star of the show, on both acoustic and electric guitars, hitting many an amazing lick. His band mates were certainly not slouches, with Fleetwood looming large over a massive drum set, clearly loving his job, just from the look in his eyes.
Bassist John McVie was the quiet, steady one, like bassists frequently are, never uttering a word or singing a line, but getting an occasional bass solo to show off his prowess. And then there was Stevie Nicks, swirling around a bit slower than she used to, but still able to belt it out.
This was a mammoth, seemingly flawless production, with no opening act and state-of-the-art lights, huge, towering elevated speakers, visual effects, plus two small screens and a giant one on which were projected views of the band from many angles, plus images and shapes, some of which were as seriously psychedelic as the times in which the band took shape in the 1970s.
The 23-song set began with Fleetwood’s heavy metal drumming introduction to “Second Hand News” at 8:20 p.m. and the show almost hit the 11 p.m. mark with no intermission and a variety of combinations from the full band (augmented by two female singers, a keyboardist and a rhythm guitarist) to Buckingham and Nicks together and Buckingham alone. And no matter what he did, Buckingham wowed the appreciative fans with his finger-picking skill. He even got in a bit of percussion on Fleetwood’s cymbals while also playing his guitar.
Since the tour’s announced intention is to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the band’s album, Rumours, the largest number of songs came from it: the opener, followed by “Chains” and “Dreams” in succession, later scattering throughout the set “Never Going Back Again,” “Gold Dust Woman,” “Go Your Own Way” and the Clinton anthem. Buckingham spoke of the band’s new EP and the group performed “Sad Angel,” from that, quickly moving into one of Nicks’s signature songs, “Rhiannon,” from the band’s self-titled 1975 album (later adding “Landslide,” “I’m So Afraid” and “World Turning” from that release). Another of the new EP songs, “Without You,” came later, along with “Stand Back,” a big Nicks hit from her solo career.
Buckingham told of the band’s refusal to follow industry dictates (“If it works, run it into the ground”) in releasing the odd-for-its-time album, Tusk, just before a mini-set of four songs from that album: “Not That Funny,” the title cut, “Sisters of the Moon” and “Sara.” There were two songs from Mirage: “Gypsy” and “Eyes of the World,” and single songs from The Dance: “Silver Springs” and from Say You Will: “Say Goodbye,” which was the final song of the second encore, when Buckingham and Nicks shared some tender thoughts of their famous troubled times together and apart.
Throughout the show, Buckingham found ways to add new intros or solos to songs that were also far more complex than their chart versions in the days of FM album rock, so fans got more than just a greatest hits show. Instead, thanks to one of the most amazing guitarists in the world of rock ‘n’ roll, they got one of the greatest shows to ever hit Central Arkansas.
The Verizon Center presented the Clintons with a commemorative poster of the show.
Bill and Hillary Clinton were at last nights show in North Little Rock. They just happened to be in town for the formal dedication of the Little Rock Airport which last year was renamed The Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport. And who would pass up Fleetwood Mac? In another photo below they are seen standing in their box seats applauding the band... Mick dedicated 'Don't Stop' to them.
Fleetwood Mac draws huge Jazz Fest crowd
by John Wirt The Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — What a difference a day makes. After a Friday of mud, wind and chill, Saturday saw the sun return to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The temperature rose into the 70s, the mud receded.
Photo by Chris Granger
The cooperative weather likely helped draw what must have been one of the biggest crowds in Jazz Fest history to classic-rock band Fleetwood Mac’s headlining show at the Acura Stage. The audience maxed out space on the Fair Grounds Race Course infield and bordering racetrack.
Fleetwood Mac singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham used his introduction of a newly recorded Fleetwood Mac song to explain the return of the band that’s sold 100 million albums.
It would be easy to assume, Buckingham said, that a group with decades together in the music business would have nothing new to discover. On the contrary, he said, “there seem to be a few more chapters left in the history of Fleetwood Mac.”
The 2013 edition of Fleetwood Mac features four of the five group members who filled its most successful lineup: drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, Buckingham and singing, tambourine-rattling Stevie Nicks.
“We’re so excited to be in your amazing city,” Nicks said after the band opened with “Second Hand News” and the autobiographical “The Chain.”
The band played many of the hits the crowd expected. “Rhiannon,” a Nicks signature song, also came early in the show.
Nicks, always the most visually striking member of the group, wore blonde bangs, oversized tinted glasses that looked very ’60s and one of her witchy black outfits. Later in the show, she donned a top hat for “Go Your Own Way.”
True to Fleetwood Mac history, one of the new songs the band played — released via iTunes last week — was inspired by a disagreement between Buckingham and Nicks. He responded to her reluctance to make a full-length album by writing “Sad Angel.”
“Hello, hello, sad angel,” Buckingham and Nicks sang together on the Acura Stage. “Have you come to fight the war? … The crowd’s calling out for more.”
Nicks and Buckingham took center stage again for “Landslide,” from 1977’s landmark “Rumors” album. The pair performed the song as a duet, with her singing and him playing his finger-picking, multi-voiced acoustic guitar.
DREAMS
Jazz Fest Day 6: Fleetwood Mac Still Has Issues More than 30 years later, they're still working things out onstage.
by Alex Rawls Myspiltmilk
The band didn't disappoint. For two and a half hours, they covered most of the hits (I'm sad about the omission of "Seven Wonders"), two songs from the new Extended Play EP, and a handful of album tracks. But the show was more than just an exercise in nostalgia. The songs and the act of performing them clearly still feed something in the members.
For Fleetwood Mac at the New Orleans Jazz Fest, yesterday isn't gone
by Keith Spera Nola.com
Midway through Fleetwood Mac's two-hour-and-20-minute headlining set at the New Orleans Jazz Fest's Acura Stage on Saturday, Stevie Nicks spun a tale about "Without You." Originally a poem, she and then-paramour Lindsey Buckingham recorded it in the early 1970s for their unreleased second duo album. "Without You" faded into the hazy mists of memory until they "rediscovered" the song three years ago on YouTube.
"We loved it, we lost it, we found it," Nicks explained.
She was speaking of the song, but she might well have been describing the arc of Fleetwood Mac's career, one of rock's great success stories and soap operas. Like the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac accounted for one of the best-selling albums of all time, as well as one of the most enduring catalogs in American popular music. Also like the Eagles - and with the additional baggage of multiple intra-band romances - they fractured badly, only to come together again as an older and presumably wiser unit.
Much of the Fair Grounds was still a muddy bog on Saturday, but the weather was picture perfect - clear skies, mild temperatures. Tens of thousands of people filled the Acura Stage field and spilled over the dirt track all the way to the fences.
What they witnessed in the second half of Fleetwood Mac's set was a band that still very much wants to be a band. Nicks, Buckingham, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie -- Christine McVie, John's ex-wife and the lead singer on several Mac hits, has not toured with them in years -- could have phoned in a greatest-hits recital and called it a day.
But to their credit, they were not afraid to take chances, and their time. Last week, Jazz Fest moved up Fleetwood Mac's start time to 4:40 p.m., giving the band 30 minutes more than originally scheduled. They easily filled them.
The show's early going included classics -- "The Chain," "Dreams," "Rhiannon," "Tusk" -- as well as "Sad Angel," from a new Mac EP. "Every time we go apart and come back together, it's different," Buckingham said. "You'd think a band that's been together as long as us would have nothing new to discover, but there do seem to be a few chapters left in the history of Fleetwood Mac."
History still weighs heavily on them. But now they seem to share the warm camaraderie of veterans who survived a war together. Midway through the show, Nicks and Buckingham were left alone for an intimate duet on "Landslide." Buckingham finger-picked an acoustic guitar as Nicks sang, "I'm getting older." At the song's conclusion, he gallantly kissed her hand.
When Nicks and Buckingham first joined Fleetwood Mac, some fans of the band's first incarnation as a blues-based rock group were horrified, but they provided the necessary ingredients for mass popularity. A couple at the time, they came as a package; Nicks joked that Mick Fleetwood was really only interested in Buckingham's guitar skills.
"The voices, all that stuff was completely secondary," she said. "They just wanted you, let's face it."
Buckingham grinned: "It worked out OK."
At the Fair Grounds, Nicks battled a "New Orleans bug" that was stuck in her throat. "I need some coffee or I'm never going to get through this next song," she said. "If it totally sucks, Lindsey will be singing lead."
The next song was "Gypsy," which would have been an unfortunate choice for Buckingham. Happily, Nicks managed just fine. "Thank you everybody for being so patient," she said. "We're learning to live with that bug."
She accented her black-on-black ensemble -- high-heeled, platform suede boots and, for one song, a top hat -- with sparkling strands and scarves on her microphone stand and a succession of shawls. During "Gold Dust Woman" -- which Fleetwood prefaced with a bass drum and cowbell beat -- she and the band embarked on an extended breakdown. "Baby, baby, baby, you should see me now," she sang. She traced the silhouette of a woman -- a gold dust woman? -- in the air, then turned to face Fleetwood's drum kit, holding her shawl aloft like angel wings.
Buckingham's voice was a bit craggy at points, but his guitar work was consistently aggressive and vital. During a romp late in the set, he ripped off distorted, dirty riffs, high-stepping and stomping across the stage. He pounded the guitar's neck with his fists, and slapped it, producing squalls of sound. Afterward, he tapped a hand to his heart, then blew the crowd a kiss.
The band's auxiliary keyboardist -- there also was a secondary guitarist, and two female backing vocalists -- carried Nicks' solo hit "Stand Back." They went back to the Mac with "Go Your Own Way." It got off to a shaky start; Nicks eyed Buckingham from across the stage, as if trying to get in sync with him. It was all good once the crowd took over the chorus. Buckingham, the bite still in his guitar, ended the song atop Fleetwood's drum riser, whacking a cymbal with his bare hand.
The encore opened with a sturdy "World Keeps On Turning," its churning riff angular and lean. It was a bit late in the day for a drum solo, but Fleetwood took one anyway. "You know it's comin!" he shouted.
Although Christine McVie no longer tours with the band, her signature composition "Don't Stop" does. Buckingham sang the first verse, Nicks the second. "Don't Stop" is about moving beyond grief, about looking toward a brighter day. "Yesterday's gone," they repeated.
Not if you're Fleetwood Mac, it isn't. Yesterday, rediscovered, still sounds pretty great.
Mac makes magic with show-closing set
All the cool young kids flocked to the Gentilly stage to catch hot French pop band Phoenix execute songs from their new Bankrupt! album, along with irresistible hit Lisztomania from 2009. Given that they were scheduled against Fleetwood Mac, the size of their audience was impressive.
But lovers of classic Baby Boomer pop-rock, and their grandchildren, packed the huge field of the Acura stage to witness a wonderful reunion of Fleetwood Mac. The group in various configurations has been around since 1967, but the lineup on Saturday was the beloved classic version of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, missing only retired Christine McVie. The group paid loving tribute to its past, taking pains to explain the origins and context of the songs and digging out decades-old obscurities. Buckingham introduced several songs from 1979's Tusk, an album he said was a turning point in their career. When it came to the classic hits, Rhiannon seemed perfunctory but the set reached its peak with a heartfelt Landslide, sung by Nicks with an air of resignation. Nicks, wearing a blue velvet long-sleeved gown with a gold wrap, charmed the crowd with a brief a capella version of New Orleans from her recent solo album, In Your Dreams.
The whole approach, though well-curated, seemed a bit too low-key for a festival crowd that had been camped in the mud for most of the day.
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Sees Performances From Fleetwood Mac, Little Big Town
by Chevel Johnson Huffington Post
NEW ORLEANS — Little Big Town says that some networking they did is paying off with a chance to cross a couple of items off their "bucket list."
After playing Bayou Country SuperFest in Baton Rouge last year, group member Karen Fairchild said they talked to festival producer Quint Davis about other things they hoped to accomplish. They mentioned that they'd one day like to perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Davis was in a position to help since he also produces Jazz Fest.
Known for its trademark four-part harmonies, Little Big Town performed in New Orleans on Saturday.
"Can you believe we're opening for Fleetwood Mac?" said Kimberly Schlapman, another group member. "We've been wanting to play Jazz Fest forever and now we're opening for Fleetwood Mac and can mark off two big things from our list."
Schlapman said early in their career they had the chance to meet Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, which she described as an "amazing harmony band."
"Being able to share a stage with them is one of our greatest wishes," she said.
Fairchild said they've watched Jazz Fest from afar for years. "The who's who of music shows up year after year at the festival. Who wouldn't want to play there?"
Flags flying amid a cool breeze, music fans packed the festival grounds by the stage where Little Big Town and Fleetwood Mac performed. Some put down tarps over the muddy infield. Others sat in chairs, wore rubber boots or stood barefoot to hear the bands.
"Once you're in it, it kind of feels good," said Mary Kathryn Gatlin, of Greenville, S.C., who danced shoeless in the mud, the muck covering her feet past the ankles. Gatlin was taking in her first Jazz Fest with her sister, Frances Gatlin.
The pair had been at the stage since noon, about an hour after the gates opened.
"We love country, bluegrass, just easy-listening music that's fun to dance to," Gatlin said.
Many danced as Fleetwood Mac performed such hits as "Dreams," "Rhiannon," "Gypsy," "Tusk" and "Landslide," which drew huge roars from the crowd when Stevie Nicks introduced it.
Nicks also delivered her tribute to the host city, singing a portion of her song, "New Orleans," which she said she wrote after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "I wanna get a room in New Orleans, I wanna sing in the streets of the French Quarter," she sang.
The band also performed a new song, "Sad Angel," testing it out with the crowd. Toward the end of their set, they played an old favorite, "Go Your Own Way" at the end of which Buckingham shouted to the crowd, "New Orleans, we love you!"
They left the stage briefly before returning for an encore performance of "The World Keep On Turning," a song from their self-titled first album released in 1968 and "Don't Stop."
Though you could argue it’s phoned in by the title alone, I really like this four-track EP by Fleetwood Mac, the band’s first release in a decade and their second set of recordings sans Christine McVie. Once again her presence is missed – because it’s now just The Stevie and Lindsey Show and her counterpoint was (always) crucial.
Where Say You Will, the band’s last album, was far too long (some 75 minutes) Extended Play is probably just a bit too short – six tracks might have been nice. But it’s a move I applaud. For two (crucial) reasons. Firstly, Fleetwood Mac is a hits-act, running the nostalgia circuit, giving its fans what they want, delivering shit-hot performances, still white-hot with Lindsey’s guitar prowess front and centre, that oh-so-capable rhythm section, Nicks still playing the twirling white-witch bogan-fantasy to the hilt and – yes – The Stevie and Lindsey Show is a big part of the sound and look and story of the band’s tours – as it has been since 1975 (with just a slight break). So fans want to hear the hits and a new album would be a waste of time but a new EP allows them a fan-souvenir and a chance for the band to slip in just a wee bit of new material. A nice touch, I say.
But the other great reason for a four-track EP at this stage in their career – far more important, I say – is this idea of simply offering all you have to say at any one moment and nothing more. Or, put another way, offer up your best work – avoid the filler. So Fleetwood Mac only has four songs they want to share right now. So be it. See reason one above – no one is going to a Fleetwood Mac show for the new material.
I don’t see this move of releasing an EP as misguided, I think it’s smart that a band like Fleetwood Mac releases an EP over an album; that they’ve done so at this stage in their career pleases me. More bands should be releasing just the good material.
So, all that said, is the material on the EP good enough?
For the most part, yes. And – it has to be said – thanks to Lindsey. Three of the four songs are from Buckingham, who really has been doing the heavy-lifting since Tusk. And – in the decade since Say You Will – he’s the Mac member that’s offered the most outside of the band; his solo albums a grand showcase for his skills; each album offering something new, a fresh angle. The other song is one that Buckingham had a hand in way back; has been resurrected.
So, opener, Sad Angel is the sort of immaculate pop song Buckingham has been scrubbing since his first solo album and in the way the riff dissolves into the hook it bears some resemblance to his great solo track Trouble. It’s a strong new addition to the Mac cannon.
Without You is a re-recording of a pre-Mac Buckingham/Nicks demo – and though it’s lightweight it plays into the history and is something for fans to hear; to reconnect with that soap-opera back-story that is so important to this band. It’s the weakest song on Extended Play however.
But It Takes Time is gorgeous, Lindsey at the piano, deciding – essentially – that if the band is missing Christine McVie and Christine McVie Songs he’ll just write one. It Takes Time wouldn’t have been out of place on the recent return from Bill Fay. It’s my pick for winning track on EP – it’s the something special you often find on EPs.
And the closer, Miss Fantasy, is another strong pop song. Flavours of the Mac of old. Just enough to distinguish it – and the other songs here – from Lindsey’s solo career; it’s deceptively slight at first – just 17 minutes after all – but you hear the textures, that lovely feel that is signature.
Will it change the world? No. Will it keep the fans happy? Of course.
Fleetwood Mac, Extended Play (LMJS Productions) * * * 1/2
By Howard Cohen The Miami Herald
Fleetwood Mac’s first new music since 2003’s Say You Will is short on Stevie Nicks, who resisted recording a full album with the group. The resulting four-track EP, released to iTunes as a digital download, makes you wish for more on the strength of Lindsey Buckingham’s three new songs.
Nicks contributes the folksy Without You, a reject from the 1973 sessions for the Buckingham Nicks LP. The pair harmonize over Buckingham’s tinny acoustic strumming. Meh.
Much better: Buckingham’s fresh songs in which he returns to writing crisp, accessible, engaging California pop/rock, like the infectiously melodic and rhythmically driving Sad Angel and the breezy Miss Fantasy, a piquant taste of Mirage-era Mac that makes great use of the famed rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie.
His stark solo piano ballad, It Takes Time — imagine Christine McVie’s Songbird as its closest cousin — intrigues the most because it’s unlike anything the guitarist has released.
Fleetwood Mac will now kick off its 2013 New Orleans Jazz Fest set at 4:40 p.m. on Saturday, May 4, 30 minutes earlier than originally scheduled.
By Keith Spera NOLA.com
Producers of the New Orleans Jazz Fest have tweaked the timing of several shows this weekend. The most significant change? On Saturday, May 4, Fleetwood Mac's headlining Acura Stage set will start 30 minutes earlier than previously scheduled, at 4:40 p.m. instead of 5:10.
As a result, the band is now allotted two hours and 10 minutes of performance time.
Rock legend and Fleetwood Mac lead vocalist took some time to catch up with Dave & Sheila of KinkFM in Portland, OR.
Sheila puts Lindsey in a somewhat uncomfortable position by asking him if he realizes that women secretly hope that he and Stevie someday get back together again...
In the decade since Fleetwood Mac released 2003's “Say You Will,” a new surge of interest in the group's distinctive pop style has taken hold in the modern pop, alternative and country communities. Recent music by artists as diverse as Cut Copy, Lady Antebellum, Vampire Weekend, Haim, Daft Punk, John Mayer and Little Big Town was inspired by the warmth and harmonic richness of Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham/Stevie Nicks era, and last year's tribute album, “Just Tell Me That You Want Me,” offered persuasive testimony to the band's enduring influence.
But for all the enthusiasm those acts show for Fleetwood Mac's pop shimmer, most would balk at walking a mile in their shoes, and continued tension within the band is a key reason why they only mustered four tracks for “Extended Play,” Fleetwood Mac's first new material since 2003. But this concise burst of fresh songs, mostly co-produced by Buckingham and Mitchell Froom (Crowded House), says more about what it really means to be part of Fleetwood Mac than anything since “Rumours” and “Tusk.” Buckingham takes it on directly with “Sad Angel,” which addresses the challenge of getting Nicks on board with new Mac material while the fans are “calling out for more.” Even the inclusion of “Without You,” an unreleased Buckingham Nicks song, underlines the continued tension — putting the song on “Extended Play” was a compromise after Nicks and Buckingham could not agree on how to handle the 40th anniversary of the “Buckingham Nicks” album.
But Buckingham extends an olive branch with “It Takes Time,” a rare piano ballad from the band since Christine McVie's retirement. The song acknowledges that Buckingham bears some of the burden here, and that he carries his own emotional baggage to every Fleetwood Mac gig. The group wraps up “Extended Play” with Buckingham's “Miss Fantasy,” a wistful uptempo song about “the queen of the underground.” “Everyone whispers when you go, into the silence soft and low/ Ten thousand voices, crying ‘on with the show,” Buckingham sings. Over 35 years after the romantic fissures that nearly wrecked the band, on “Extended Play” Fleetwood Mac proves that some chains never really break.
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Fleetwood Mac rocks flawlessly
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