Sunday, July 07, 2013

"Lindsey Buckingham Is An Insecure Man" - Classic Rock Magazine Summer 2013

They've had their share of highs and lows, but rock's most dysfunctional band will be reeling back the years on their first tour in four years.

Short Q&A with Mick Fleetwood in the current issue of Classic Rock Magazine - UK. On Newstands now.

Direct Link


VIDEOS | PHOTOS: Fleetwood Mac Say Goodbye To North America - Sacramento

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE IN 
SACRAMENTO, CA - SLEEP TRAIN ARENA
JULY 6, 2013
(Review to follow)


Well that's it!  Fleetwood Mac hit the stage for their last North America show last night at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento, California.

Fleetwood Mac leave the North America stage after 3 months and 46 shows stretching across both the U.S. and Canada  feeling, I'm sure, a huge sense of accomplishment and gratitude to the over half a million or so fans that came out to see what many have said is their best tour ever!

With the right set list mix, that remained intact from day one and a well structured show along with the enthusiasm amongst the band to clearly be happy and excited to be performing together, they leave fans in North America satisfied, grateful, excited for the future and calling out for more!  The excitement and enthusiasm from fans of all ages seeing the band for the very first time, and from those that have seen the band multiple times was completely palpable. Dedicated fans traveled across the globe to catch this almost 3 hour show and to experience that ole Mac Magic that only rears its head once or twice a decade. 

From the opening song of the night, "Second Hand News" from "Rumours" to the last song of the night "Say Goodbye" the second to last song on their last studio release "Say You Will", fans were taken on a nostalgic trip back to simpler times, through the good and the bad, through the lives lived by the members of Fleetwood Mac. Along the way, we saw the band perform new music in the form of "Sad Angel" and "Without You" from the new "Extended Play" release, we saw the "Tusk" gems "Sisters of the Moon" brought back to life for the first time since the '82 Mirage Tour with great success plus "Not That Funny" for the first time since 1997. We witnessed Lindsey, a man of unbendable perseverance giving it his all ripping through guitar solo after guitar solo with precision, taking no breaks at all during the show. We were in awe as Stevie and the band developed and transformed "Gold Dust Woman" into this 10-12 minute show stopping stage piece that varied nightly proving that synergy still remains in this band when they are open to working together - producing perfect results. The song became fairly loose in the latter part of the tour to the point where you really never knew what Stevie was going to give each night.  That was exciting! The guarantees were that the song would be great, totally unpredictable and that the eerie and spooky element would be turned up to 10!  All this and you have the back bone of Fleetwood Mac, the steadfast John McVie and the ever entertaining Mick Fleetwood.  These four are still able to create that perfect storm on stage.

Above Photos: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty
This is not to say there weren't any bumps along the way.  Stevie suffered a reported leg injury in early May that almost sidelined the tour and its momentum, but with the help of a physical therapist in Calgary was able to soldier on. A couple of shows in June (Ft. Lauderdale and Montreal) were dropped from the itinerary to the disappointment of thousands. Nobody likes to see shows cancelled especially those that had bought tickets and I'm sure the band felt the wave of disappointment from the fans that had planned to attend.  Aside from these few exceptions, plus Lindsey breaking a nail on his right hand, this tour will likely go down as their most successful not just monetarily.

Big thanks to all the reviewers, photographers and to anyone that talked about the band during the tour.. and took the time to interacted with us here at Fleetwood Mac News - with comments on posts (good and bad), texts, Facebook and Twitter posts and comments... It's been great!... Thank you!

Next up - Ireland in September...



THE CHAIN
RHIANNON
BIG LOVE
LANDSLIDE
SARA
GO YOUR OWN WAY

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Saturday, July 06, 2013

Peter Green Featured in the August, 2013 Guitar and Bass Magazine #FleetwoodMac

PETER GREEN'S LES PAUL
Discover the truth about the British blues legend and his mystical guitar 

Photos | Video: Fleetwood Mac Live in San Diego

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE
SAN DIEGO, CA - VIEJAS ARENA
JULY 5, 2013

Fleetwood Mac goes back & forth
Despite a few bumps, the veteran Anglo-American band played with purpose and passion Friday at SDSU,
By George Varga

Fleetwood Mac showed, and sometimes defied, its age during the legendary band’s generous Friday concert at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena.

As a result, “Don’t Stop,” the group’s 1977 hit and second encore, took on new poignancy with its now-weathered refrain: Yesterday's gone. So did 1975’s rustic ballad, “Landslide,” whose wistful chorus – Children get older / I’m getting older, too – assumes a different resonance 38 years later.

Then again, for a band that was formed in London in 1967 and whose enduring core members first joined forces in Los Angeles in 1974, Fleetwood Mac’s longevity and renewed energy is worthy of celebration and reflection. Its 23-song SDSU show offered ample opportunity for both, with the band’s members (all now past 60) and their multigenerational audience forming an unusually large, boisterous mutual admiration society.

The evening began with an impressive salvo of “Second Hand News,” “The Chain” and “Dreams,” all from the band’s epic 1977 “Rumours,” one of rock’s most popular albums, then and now. The concert, a notable improvement over the band's mostly rote 2009 San Diego Sports Arena show, concluded with four encore selections. They included the bristling “World Turning,” the jaunty “Don’t Stop” (the only song by former singer and keyboardist Christine McVie, who quit the band in 1998), the country-tinged “Silver Springs” and the gentle acoustic ballad “Say Goodbye.”

In between came a mix of classics (“Rhiannon,” “Go Your Own Way”) and deep album cuts (“Eyes of the World,” "I'm So Afraid"), plus one new song (“Sad Angel,” excellent), and a recently unearthed older one (the Cat Stevens-flavored ballad “Without You,” so-so). Guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks also did a few songs from their respective solo catalogs, a move that impeded the concert’s flow nearly as much as the four consecutive numbers from the band’s more experimental 1979 album, “Tusk.”

The absence of more new material did not appear to bother many in the enthusiastic SDSU audience. Nor did Buckingham seem concerned, as he noted in a U-T San Diego interview Thursday.

"Well, sure, of course you want to keep doing new material, if you can," he said in the interview. "But there is also, I would say, a point you get to where you do come to terms with the fact that you have this great body of work. And there's nothing wrong with going out and playing it. In a way, it can be a little freeing, because if you don’t feel you have to remake yourself every time (you tour), you can go put and deal with the (vintage) material in a slightly fresh way, every time.

"And that can be just as effective, once you come to terms with that, it kind of releases you and there's a point where you really need to come to that (realization). Because you have to understand that, probably, the audience is not really there to hear the new as much as to hear a reaffirmation of the body of work."

The underlying sentiments to parts of that body of work sometimes got jumbled during Friday's show. But that’s par for the course with this famously dysfunctional band, whose best songs from the mid-1970s were born from the crumbling love affairs between Nicks and Buckingham and between McVie and her-then husband, bassist John McVie.

Given this context, it kind of made sense that Nicks’ declaration early Friday night – “This party starts now!” – came just before “Dreams,” her wrenching 1977 song about the then-imploding relationship between her and Buckingham. The swirls and twirls that were once Nicks’ trademarks remain, but came only intermittently (and slower). During “Go Your Own Way” she playfully chased Buckingham, but not too fast, across part of the stage.

Nicks, 65, and Buckingham, 63, briefly held hands and embraced on stage several times. They also engaged in some between-songs banter that prompted Nicks to liken them to George Burns and Gracie Allen.

“Can’t we be someone younger?” Buckingham playfully responded.

Older and wiser, the two are keenly aware that their romance, while now decades in the past, still carries a special allure for fans. This holds especially true for those who might use “Rumours” as an emotional barometer of their own lives.

Bassist McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, the band’s two remaining charter members still on board, were rock-solid throughout. The sound was enhanced by several instrumentalists and backing singers, including Lori Nicks (Stevie's sister), who gave added dimension to the music. Kudos, too, to the band's audio engineers, who achieved impressive warmth and a clear, crisp sound balance in the usually echo-heavy arena. (The secret, as in most sprawling venues of this size, is simple: The lower and more defined the volume, the less muddled the sound.)

Buckingham played guitar with finesse and ferocity. Refusing to rest on his laurels, he often sang with such passion that it almost seemed as if his career prospects depended on it. The 1975 song "I'm So Afraid" featured his most extended solo of the night, and he made every note count as he expertly built up the intensity. (The same song also featured intricate unison lines by Buckingham and second guitarist Neil Haywood that evoked the work of the English band Wishbone Ash.)

Nicks sounded more constricted, her trademark tremolo less tremulous, her lower vocal range somewhat diminished. But she is still a commanding presence and the sheer force of her personality usually made up for her technical shortcomings. In a few instances, her struggle to hit the notes of her youth lent added depth to the songs. In others, she simply fell (and sounded) a bit flat.

After the fourth and final encore, “Say Goodbye,” Nicks thanked the audience for making her and the band’s dreams come true over the past four decades. She also urged fans to listen to the band’s vintage songs in the future as if they were hearing them for the very first time.

It was sage advice at a nostalgia-fueled concert that could serve as a preview of the band's valediction (Buckingham's reference to "new chapters in the Fleetwood Mac" notwithstanding). No fewer than 15 of the 23 selections came from the first three albums he and Nicks made with the band: 1975’s “Fleetwood Mac”; 1977’s “Rumours”; and 1979’s “Tusk.”

But the high-tech stage production was very much of the moment. And Fleetwood Mac's best songs, like the group itself, both define and transcend their time. Don't stop, indeed.

 



SAD ANGEL
LANDSLIDE: 
Dedicated to San Diego and a few of Stevie's friends at the show.
SISTERS OF THE MOON:
Wow! They nailed this one!

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BIG LOVE

Friday, July 05, 2013

Review: Fleetwood Mac "one of the all-time greatest band’s stroll down memory lane" Los Angeles

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE
LOS ANGELES, CA - STAPLES CENTER
JULY 3, 2013

BY WESLEY HODGES
Consequence of Sound

Photo by Chris Pizzello
When you’ve been doing whatever it is you do for four-plus decades – ‘work’ can get routine and the difficult can be made to look easy. For Fleetwood Mac in 2013, even after playing over 35 shows (including several major festival appearances) to date, there appears to be a new life force propelling the legendary band. While the relatively dull and demographically broad crowd could have used some of the aforementioned life force at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Wednesday night – Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie delivered nearly three straight hours of material from a majority of the band’s catalog (despite unfortunately ignoring the bluesy Peter Green years – but that was to be expected). And despite the absence of Christine McVie, fans ponying up are getting their money’s worth and a nice stroll down memory lane.

After a roaring ovation as the band took to the stage in the dark, the impressive lighting rig sprang to life and “Second Hand News” began an early run of major hits that included “The Chain” (replete with McVie’s bass-solo-you-know-by-heart) and “Dreams”. Anyone (Everyone?) who knows the catalog is adequately familiar with the truism that reads like a twisted tale of Shakespearean proportions. The lines just kept coming – whether it was Buckingham singing “the sound of your loneliness like a heartbeat,” during “Dreams”, Nicks’ dramatic delivery of the “So I’ll begin not to love you/ Turn around, you’ll see me runnin” verse during “Silver Springs” or “Been down one time/ Been down two times/ I’m never going back again” during “Never Going Back Again”, the tales of heartache and busted relationships rolled out in relentless form. Nicks would later dedicate “Landslide” to her father before delivering in inspiring form to pin drop silence in the Staples Center.

One of the major musical highlights during the set was the experimental foray out of the poppier realm of the catalog during the Fleetwood-steered “Tusk”, during which Nicks spun and floated around with a tambourine accented by her signature scarves while the band roared through a fierce rendition of the 1979 classic. A montage of the USC marching band playing the song and a PA blaring the marching band’s trademark brass was an essential kicker. Had school been in session, it would’ve been likely to see the modern Trojan Marching Band roll onto the stage but this production element did the trick. Buckingham’s worldly and tribal “Big Love” was the only selection from the 1987 mega success Tango In The Night and featured some aggressive strumming by the lead axe wielder. The set ended with the synth-infused “Stand Back” off Nicks’ 1987 LP, The Wild Heart, before an expectedly well-received and fierce run through of “Go Your Own Way”.

The night’s encore included the lengthiest drum solo I’ve heard since I last caught Widespread Panic, arriving during “World Turning” which sparked some last-minute energy for the thick layer of pop sheen that followed during “Don’t Stop”. Because that wasn’t enough, the veterans shuffled back out for another encore, toning things down with “Silver Springs” and a Buckingham-Nicks sign-off with “Say Goodbye”.  The more melodic finale closed the night’s multi-faceted run through one of the all-time greatest band’s stroll down memory lane, and in the town that helped inspire and propel them during their almost unrivaled run of mainstream success. One can only hope such fortune strikes today’s crop of talent.

Setlist:
Photot by Kevin Winter
Second Hand News
The Chain
Dreams
Sad Angel
Rhiannon
Not That Funny
Tusk
Sisters of the Moon
Sara
Big Love
Landslide
Never Going Back Again
Without You
Gypsy
Eyes of the World
Gold Dust Woman
I’m So Afraid
Stand Back (Stevie Nicks song)
Go Your Own Way
Encore:
World Turning (Drum Solo)
Don’t Stop
Encore 2:
Silver Springs
Say Goodbye

Original Review with Photos

LANDSLIDE:
Dedicated to Nigel Lythgoe of So You Think You Can Dance also to Margi Kent, Chris (Nicks), Dave (Stewart), Pat (?) and all their LA Friends at the show + Lindsey and Stevie's families and to the LA audience.
GO YOUR OWN WAY
Video below is interesting because of the perspective you get by sitting on the extreme side of the stage... which a lot of people have done during this tour...

Fleetwood Mac Headed For 3rd Auckland, New Zealand Sell-Out


The Live Nation pre-sale tickets for the 3rd show December 4th in Auckland, NZ went on sale Friday, July 5th in New Zealand (It's now Saturday AM there) and it looks like those tickets are pretty much already sold out - after just one day! That's amazing!  

The general on sale tickets go on sale Monday the 8th and it's likely within minutes the show will be completely sold out!

The two shows added for Perth and Brisbane are also on pre-sale through Live Nation... Tickets are still available for those dates.

Don't miss this show....  Get your tickets at Live Nation.  Sign up to "My Live Nation" to get in on the pre-sale.  





Stevie Nicks hangs up her tambourine | Lindsey Buckingham Goes His Own Way - Saturday!

Fleetwood Mac's North American Tour is coming to an end over this holiday long weekend in the U.S. with a pair of California shows beginning with tonight's show in San Diego and ending with Saturdays Sacramento show in northern California... It's been an awesome tour and fun following their every move... and especially exciting to see them so excited to be out on the road together again!  Time sure flies when you're having fun... it seems like the tour just started!

Tickets are available for both shows although the San Diego show is pretty much sold out, with only extreme side of the stage tickets available... In Sacramento there are a few at the back of the house and again on the extreme side.  Go if you can... It's an awesome show, and I think one of their best tours since I don't know maybe The Dance?  Ticketmaster   

The band take a well deserved long break - reconvening in Dublin, Ireland on September 20th.


THE CHAIN... "Keep us together"
STAND BACK AND GO YOUR OWN WAY

Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart Film "In Your Dreams" Out Now

Eurythmics' Dave Stewart Talks His New Film With Stevie Nicks
By Nathan Reese
Refinery29

Over their respective careers, Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart have accomplished more than just about anyone else in rock 'n' roll. Nicks, as both a solo artist and a driving force behind Fleetwood Mac, continues to captivate audiences young and not so young (including much of the Refinery29 staff), while Stewart's work with the Eurythmics, as well as his career as a producer and activist, has kept him in the limelight for more than three decades. Considering their histories, when we heard that Stewart would be working with Nicks on her latest solo album, we were more than a little bit excited. What we didn't know is that Stewart and Nicks had decided to film the whole process. 

The result is In Your Dreams, a documentary that serves as a time capsule for the months the two spent writing and recording the 2011 album of the same name in Nicks' beautiful California home. The film shows what it's like to have two icons (and friends) throwing ideas back and forth, arguing about creative decisions and shaping the sound of the record. Along the way, there are guest appearances by Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, and Reese Witherspoon, who helped contribute to the album. We caught up with Stewart to talk about working with Nicks, recording the album, and staying inspired. If you're interested, you can purchase the film from iTunes here. 

Was it hard to get used to the constant presence of the cameras during the recording process? 
"No, not once I'd established how omnipresent they were. And also nowadays, there are these great, very small cameras. Sometimes we'd set up cameras on tripods, and they'd capture hours of unusable stuff, but then you'd capture magic moments." 

Was there any moment in particular that you were amazed you had captured? 
"There were loads, actually. I loved watching how spot on and focused Stevie was. All these nuances that captured her focus. A lot of artists don't particularly want cameras, but in that sense, she was surprisingly open. It was pretty amazing." 

In the documentary, you mention that you've been filming for much of your life, but Stevie also has a directing credit. 
"I sort of suggested she had a directing credit, [because of her role in] the editing process. She was devouring information. I think because of that it took a lot longer because, interestingly enough, she wanted to [be involved] with the editing process." 

10 tidbits about Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks


By Carla Meyer
The Sacramento Bee

Here's a sobering fact: Stevie Nicks is 65.

Everyone's favorite witchy woman has ushered her crystal visions, white-winged doves and fringed tambourines into early senior citizenhood.

But she has not slowed down, or rather, further slowed down while spinning at a deliberate speed to better display her shawl.

Nicks looks like she's in her mid-50s, tops, and she still tours with Fleetwood Mac (minus Christine McVie, for purists), performing Saturday at Sacramento's Sleep Train Arena.

In 2011, Nicks released the finely crafted "In Your Dreams," her first solo album in 10 years. A
documentary, "Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams," released on video on demand this week, charts the album's making. The film was directed by Nicks and Dave Stewart, the ex-Eurythmics member and Nicks' collaborator on the album.

They recorded much of the album and shot most of the film in Nicks' huge Southern California house, which appears to have been built in the 1920s. Though the house is accented by the occasional dream-catcher or goddess painting, it is unexpectedly airy and bright, without a scarf-covered lamp in sight.

Thursday, July 04, 2013

VIDEOS | PHOTOS: Fleetwood Mac at Staples Center Los Angeles - July 3rd

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE
LOS ANGELES, CA - STAPLES CENTER
JULY 3, 2013

FAN PHOTOS:
Above Photos by Mindy Harris... Thanks Mindy!
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(below) Photos by Noah Graham
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DREAMS Welcome to the city of Angels!

GOLD DUST WOMAN
My god she's completely transformed this song... SO GOOD!
GO YOUR OWN WAY
DON'T STOP
BIG LOVE
LANDSLIDE
Dedicated to Margi Kent, Christopher Nicks and to both Stevie's and Lindsey's families
MORE PHOTOS FROM LOS ANGELES
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Fleetwood Mac " the Brits in the group liked to drink and the hippies liked to smoke pot."

It’s been a turbulent ride, but the group is back. "We are the kind of people who don’t all belong in the same band together,' says Lindsey Buckingham.

By George Varga

It’s been 39 years since Lindsey Buckingham and his then-girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, joined Mick Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie in Fleetwood Mac.

Faster than you can say “Landslide,” the 8-year-old English blues-rock band and its two new American members shifted gears, changed musical styles and soared to international pop stardom. The 1975 album “Fleetwood Mac” was the group’s first release to top the U.S. charts, while its 1977 masterpiece “Rumours” has now sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and yielded such enduring hits as “Don’t Stop” and “Go Your Own Way.”

Did Buckingham ever imagine then that the band would still be active in 2013 and embarked on a world tour, which includes a Friday stop here at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena?

“Well, time kind of slips by and it doesn’t seem that long,” said the veteran guitarist and singer-songwriter, speaking from a recent tour stop in Boston. “You know, when you’re in your 20s and contemplating that (long an) amount of time, you think: ‘Gee, will I even still be alive by then?’ So, it’s all kind of relative to your perspective. And it certainly is a surprise, although there are bands that have managed to stick around that long.

“The one thing that probably would have disabused me from thinking then that we’d still be around now is that the chemistry was always so volatile. Not just because there were two couples in Fleetwood Mac who had broken up (before ‘Rumours’ was completed), and that whole subtext, but from the point of view that we are the kind of people who don’t all belong in the same band together.”

Those two couples were, of course, Buckingham and Nicks, who split up while making “Rumours,” and the McVies, who separated before recording sessions for “Rumours” began and soon divorced. For any other band, such upheaval would spell the end. For Fleetwood Mac, it was the launchpad to fame, fortune and more upheaval, including drugs, Fleetwood’s bankruptcy, his on-tour affair with Nicks and enough other ups and downs to fuel a rock ’n’ roll soap opera.

“The conception is the volatility would eventually become a divisive force,” Buckingham said. “But I guess it went the other way; that same dynamic has a musical synergy, and we’re still working through things on a personal level.”

He laughed.
Billy and Rick

"There's no way (39 years ago) I thought we'd still be doing this, now, in this form."

Of course, Fleetwood Mac has hardly remained constant since its “Rumours” heyday.

Buckingham, always the most musically adventurous of the band, quit in 1987. He was replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. Nicks and Christine McVie left the group in 1990, followed by Vito a year later, at which point Fleetwood Mac ground to a halt.

Clinton Inauguration
In 1993, Buckingham, Nicks, Fleetwood and the McVies reunited to perform at newly elected President Bill Clinton’s inaugural ball (“Don’t Stop” was his campaign theme song). Burnette quit the same year, leaving Fleetwood and the McVies to soldier on. They were soon joined by singer Bekka Bramlett and, briefly, ex-Traffic singer-guitarist Dave Mason. Burnette returned in 1994 and Christine McVie left.

In 1998, a year after the band’s “Rumours” lineup reunited — perhaps as much for financial reasons as artistic ones — Fleetwood Mac was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Christine McVie quit the band, for good, the same year.
























Lindsey Buckingham says a love-fest vibe has replaced the heavy drama of old

Fleetwood Mac is back
by Randy Lewis
Los Angeles Times

Randy Lewis examines the band’s legacy as it brings its tour to the Southland. For a notoriously perfectionist band like Fleetwood Mac, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that its live show leaves nothing to chance.

Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 tour, which wraps up with a final run of shows this week in California, is built around a song list that’s gone virtually unchanged since the concert run began in April.

“We’re not one of those bands that throws the names of all their songs in a hat and pulls them out right before they go on stage,” guitarist, songwriter and singer Lindsey Buckingham said last week from a tour stop in Charlotte, N.C. (Buckingham and the band play Staples Center on Wednesday.) “Years ago I was hanging out with Peter Buck and went to several shows R.E.M. did and they literally did just that. That’s one end of the spectrum.

“We’ve always had the sensibility that you work on the set and you structure it, much like a play, where once you’ve got the lines down and blocking right, you freeze it, and then you go out and do what you’re doing night after night,” he said. “You want to structure something that has form and that builds the right dynamic from start to finish.”

This time out that set list runs from “Second Hand News,” the “Rumours” opening track that serves the same function on this tour, through cornerstone hits including ““Rhiannon,” “Gold Dust Woman” and “Go Your Own Way” that are interspersed with deeper tracks such as “Not That Funny,” “Eyes of the World” and “I’m So Afraid.”

When it comes to touring, the group stresses a sense of stability onstage that rarely existed for the members off stage. The group famously channeled feelings unleashed by the disintegrating relationship of Buckingham and Stevie Nicks as well as the failing marriage of John and Christine McVie into the songs that catapulted “Rumours” and the band into the commercial stratosphere. Ever since, interpersonal dynamics have been nearly as big a part of Fleetwood Mac’s history as the music it made.

“You could look ... and think these people don’t belong in the same band together,” he said. “But it’s the differences and disparity that creates a kind of synergy where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and that’s what makes Fleetwood Mac what it is, and what makes the politics of the band what they are.”

Certainly the remaining four core members are long past the big drama that fueled their breakthrough 1975 album “Fleetwood Mac,” the first after Buckingham and Nicks joined the lineup with founding members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie and longtime member Christine McVie.

But drama still surfaces — most recently over whether the group would have a full album out in conjunction with the latest tour. After bumping the band’s tour from 2012 to 2013 so Nicks could continue to support her 2011 solo album “In Your Dreams,” Buckingham, John McVie and Fleetwood worked up eight new tracks for what they hoped would be a new album, anticipating several more from Nicks when she returned to the fold.

But she brought just one, and an old one at that: “Without You,” an unreleased song from the days she and Buckingham recorded and performed as Buckingham Nicks before joining Fleetwood Mac. (There’s talk of a possible Buckingham Nicks tour and album reissue to note the 40th anniversary of that group’s one and only release, but it’s too early for any specifics, Buckingham said.)

“Without You” is one of two songs from “Extended Play,” the new four-song EP released in April, that are incorporated into the live shows. The other is Buckingham’s song “Sad Angel.”

“All four are some of the best stuff we’ve done in a long time,” he said. “I think they fit right in alongside the other songs. ‘Sad Angel’ we play very early in the set, and for the song of Stevie’s, she tells a story — a very long story — as an intro about how it predates our involvement with Fleetwood Mac.... Referring back to the past, it becomes an embodiment of how long Stevie and I have known each other, so that has a certain context of its own that fits in very well.”