Wednesday, September 25, 2013

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live In London ★★★★/5 Stars - The Guardian

A blissful opening hour of punchy self-confidence is undermined by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham's strange stage intimacy – they need Christine McVie to make it all gel
★★★★/5 Stars

Fleetwood Mac – review
O2 Arena, London

by Michael Hann
The Guardian

Those who have watched just a small selection of the many documentaries about Fleetwood Mac will know their two singer-songwriters, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, don't have a lot to do with each other. In one, Nicks said she'd never even been to her ex's house. But the narrative of the group insists they must forever be remembered as the tragic, star-crossed lovers, and so they are last on stage at the O2, strolling on hand in hand; during Sara they coo choruses to each other, then embrace and slow dance as the song comes to an end.

What makes this forced intimacy even odder is that without the third songwriter, Christine McVie – who seems likely to make a cameo appearance at their next two O2 shows – the dichotomy between the pair's writing is so stark. Buckingham's songs, for all their melodic beauty, are often harsh and angry, and his between-songs banter could have been scripted by a therapist; Nicks's are soft and pillowy, a Laurel Canyon prefiguring of goth, and her chat is rambling and charming.

Nevertheless, for the opening hour, it's blissful – an opening of trio of Second Hand News, The Chain and Dreams is jaw-dropping in its self-confidence. Nicks may no longer be able to reach the high notes of Rhiannon, but the song's construction is sturdy enough to survive the removal of its ornaments. And a one-two punch from the extraordinary 1979 album Tusk is simply jaw-dropping: Not That Funny echoes around the vast room like an invitation to step outside, and Tusk itself is eerie and uneasy and wonderful.

But there's a distinct and rather long sag as the main set winds down – looking down from the top tier, one can see mobile phones being checked on the floor as I'm So Afraid meanders on – and the relief that greets Don't Stop is palpable. It's a victory in the end, but it's a set that would be so much stronger at half an hour shorter.

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in London "There are quite a few chapters left in the book of Fleetwood Mac,"

Fleetwood Mac, O2 Arena - music review
The Evening Standard
By David Smyth



The four ongoing members of Fleetwood Mac performed for the first time since 2009, with an epic set list drawn from the late Seventies. While Stevie Nicks still possessed a voice that bewitched, Lindsey Buckingham was a fiery leader, thumping his chest to celebrate every new solo accomplished

Though a rumoured reunion with the long-absent Christine McVie did not materialise last night, the four ongoing members of one of rock's most turbulent bands looked like firm friends as Fleetwood Mac played in London for the first time since 2009.

It was all gushing introductions, a long hug for Lindsey Buckingham from Stevie Nicks, much hand-kissing and warm saluting. Given that most of their finest songs come from a period when their various couples were splintering painfully, time really is the great healer.

Most of an epic set list was drawn from that peerless period of the late Seventies when the Americans Nicks and Buckingham arrived to turn the bluesy Brits into superstars — The Chain, Tusk and Go Your Own Way all had energy to burn.

Nicks still possessed a voice that bewitched, especially on the acoustic Landslide. While even the engine room of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie had the occasional break, Buckingham was a fiery leader, thumping his chest to celebrate every new solo accomplished.

"There are quite a few chapters left in the book of Fleetwood Mac," he claimed, airing one likeable new song and a long lost rarity. It's been a fascinating read so far.

SECOND HAND NEWS
THE CHAIN
DREAMS
SAD ANGEL
GO YOUR OWN WAY
BIG LOVE
More Video - Thanks to Kristianlw for the quick uploads
Never Going Back Again | Landslide 

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

REVIEW | PHOTOS | VIDEO: Fleetwood Mac Live in London

Fleetwood Mac Live in London
Photo by: Simone Joyner
September 24, 2013 - O2 Arena

Well, one down... two to go London... Great show tonight Fleetwood Mac!  


Nothing out of the ordinary happened tonight when comparing the show to most of the North American dates. The band was clearly happy to be back playing London.  

Stevie made note that there are two places she deems really important places to play, one of them being MSG in NYC and the other being London.  With that, they got the party started! 

It looked like there were a couple of technical issues causing a couple of extended delays between a couple of songs... Nothing too noticeable, but still noticeable. Lindsey's guitar tech jumped up on stage at one point and ran over to him... Don't know what that was about. One noticeable design change on stage. During Landslide and Big Love they got rid of that drop down drape and now their images are projected on the big screen behind them which I think is a lot better and utilizes that screen to show the band members larger than life a lot earlier then waiting for practically the end of the show. 

Stevie whipped out the new boots she's been sporting on this leg during Stand Back, and they were on until the end of the show... She was her usual hilarious self during the "Without You" intro.  It was still long, but she didn't go into the part where she thanks Mick, John and Lindsey for taking her along. It'll be interesting on the nights Christine is there to see what she says.  And speaking of Christine... You all know by now she wasn't there tonight, but what would be even more perfect (see that) then having Christine there for just "Don't Stop", wouldn't it be cool if she partook in "World Turning" and also did the keys on "Silvery Springs".  All the songs are in a row in the overall set - with the intros mixed in there as well... I think that would be a cool segment of the show.... Looking forward to see if they really play this up and how they treat her re-appearing with the band.

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TOUR BOOKS
FINALLY they have a tour book!  And it looks great!  ! (15 pounds) Neal Preston did all the photography.  The book is all photos, with the only writing being the tour credits at the end.  Its basically the size of a calendar, big and square.




Fleetwood Mac The O2 Arena, London
By Will Hodgkinson
The Times

Thirty-six years after Rumours became the soundtrack to the age of divorce, four of the five people that made it are reliving their personal dramas once more. With their soft rock masterpiece from 1977, Fleetwood Mac articulated the new rules of relationships, capturing the reality of affairs, tensions, betrayals and break-ups and selling over 40 million
copies in the process.

They also documented their own reality. Singer Stevie Nicks was splitting up from guitarist Lindsay Buckingham, songwriter Christine and bassist John McVie were getting divorced, drummer Mick Fleetwood was stuck in the middle, and they dealt with it all in the best way Seventies rock stars in Los Angeles could: by taking huge amounts of cocaine. Now all but Christine McVie have come back for more. Without the cocaine.

Buckingham said that Rumours “brought out the voyeur in everyone”. It also spoke to millions: the emotional truth of the music jumped out of the grooves. Judging by the hordes filling a packed O2 arena, it still does. Floaty scarves hung from Nicks’ microphone, but beyond that the stage was bare: fitting for a concert dedicated to an album defined by its simplicity.

Nicks channelled her inner hippy witch in a black sequinned ensemble, emerging from the shadows to launch into Second Hand News, one of the many songs on Rumours expressing the bitterness of being a cast-off lover. Then it was time for The Chain, the most starkly autobiographical song about the love tangle, its irresistibly simple beat sounding as fresh as ever.

After all these years, it was strange to watch Nicks singing Dreams as Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac’s resident tortured artist and the subject of the song’s words, played guitar next to her. Fleetwood, cocooned behind an enormous drum kit, looked, with his flat cap, black tights and lolling tongue, like a cockney jester on day release.

“Every time we come back together it’s different . . . it appears there are still a few chapters left in the story of Fleetwood Mac,” said Buckingham, before giving the audience their cue to rush to the bar: a new number. In the event, Sad Angel was a pretty decent slice of California rock, and Nicks followed it up with Rhiannon, her song about a Welsh witch that put her on the map. Her throaty delivery was perfect for the song’s combination of spooky mystery and Top 40 appeal.

Buckingham gave himself a metaphorical pat on the back when he introduced a few songs from Tusk, the non-commercial follow-up toRumours and very much his album.

“I’d like to have been a fly on the wall when Warner Brothers first heard Tusk,” he chuckled, before celebrating his uncompromising genius by singing It’s Not That Funny.

“That electric crazy attraction between Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks never dies,” Nicks said recently. Whether Buckingham, married with kids, would agree with her is debatable, but the pair did play a touching, tender version of Landslide together. Buckingham managed to silence the arena with a solo acoustic rendition of Never Going Back Again.

As a testament to the power of mainstream rock, it was hard to beat. And after Fleetwood played a drum solo while muttering something unintelligible, the band launched into Don’t Stop, proving there is nothing more powerful than a perfect song.

GO YOUR OWN WAY

DREAMS


REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Dublin. "Nicks keeping the mid-life crisis men enthralled"

By Siobhán Cronin

She’s a drama queen and she knows it. But we love Stevie Nicks all the more for it. At 65, this hot hippie is still able to hold an audience spell-bound. 

It’s the perfect couples night out – with Nicks keeping the mid-life crisis men enthralled and Lindsey Buckingham, a very youthful 62, looking hot in his skinny jeans and leather jacket. 

“I think Dublin is the best place to start up again after 47 shows in the US,” says Nicks, and we really believe her. 

This could easily be dubbed a Greatest Hits tour – such is the outpouring of chart successes over five decades, with staples, ‘Gypsy’, ‘Tusk’ and ‘The Chain’ all featuring in a song list of favourites, with just a few gentle nods at more recent recording sessions. 

The bizarrely complicated love triangles and trysts the members of Fleetwood Mac engaged in down the years have been played out in public, but neither Buckingham nor Nicks seem able to let it go. In what seems an almost therapeutic sharing with the 13,000-strong sell-out audience, the duo reference the troubles in their past several times over. Could they be wearing the band’s dysfunctional history as a badge of rock honour? 

Win one of 10 double passes to see Fleetwood Mac at A Day On The Green in Geelong, Australia

Win one of 10 double passes to see Fleetwood Mac at A Day On The Green in Geelong, Australia on November, 30th.

To celebrate their new gloss GT Magazine, the Geelong Advertiser is giving you the chance to win one of ten silver reserve double passes, valued at $300 each.

For your chance to win, pick up the Geelong Advertiser on Saturday, 28 September.

Fleetwood Mac’s “Then Play On” Remastered 4 Decades Later with the original U.K. tracking list

Some might find it hard to believe that before their success with albums such as Rumours and Tusk, Fleetwood Mac was actually a blues rock band formed by guitarist Peter Green in 1967. Fleetwood Mac’s third album, Then Play On, is often considered by many to be their best effort when Green was in the band. The album is also the last the band would make with Green, as he left the band a year after the album’s release in 1970. Now in 2013, the album has been reissued and remastered with the original U.K. tracking list and segues.

Full Review at The Crown


Turns out Mick Fleetwood is Royalty after all

Prince William and Fleetwood Mac star Mick Fleetwood are COUSINS through Princess Diana's ancestor

Are we surprised?

Full story at the Mirror




Lindsey Buckingham Talks Music... with Malcolm Gerrie on "Talks Music" #FleetwoodMac

Ray Davies, Nile Rodgers and Lindsey Buckingham will be among the guests on a new Sky Arts music show hosted by Malcolm Gerrie.

Talks Music will launch on the channel at 9pm on November 4 and run for 10 weeks.

Talks Music takes an in depth look at key artists who have shaped modern music and shows them in a previously unseen light.  Each week legendary music-TV broadcaster and producer Malcolm Gerrie, whose extensive credits include The Tube, The Brit Awards and The White Room, will be joined by a legendary guest for an exclusive hour-long interview.

They will talk to Gerrie about their music, craft, passions and inspirations, explaining how they write, perform, and survive the pressures of being a popular music star. …Talks Music will feature a diverse mix of artists from different decades and different music genres who have all helped turn the pages of music history.

The series is directed by Jeff Wurtz, the acclaimed director and producer of the series Inside the Actors Studio. …Talks Music will be filmed live in front of a studio audience consisting of music students and fans that are looking for insights and inspirations in order to start their own music careers. Gerrie and his guest take questions from the floor giving the audience members a once in a lifetime opportunity to interact with their music idol.

Talks Music not only has a phenomenal pedigree it’s going to be the  must watch series for Sky Arts viewers who love music icons.”

Malcolm Gerrie, Executive Producer and Host adds “When Sky Arts asked me if I’d like to change my day job and talk to some of the coolest artists on the planet…in front of the camera not behind…I was pretty gobsmacked! The whole experience of talking music to some of my personal music heroes has been a labour of love and I’m delighted that Talks Music will be part of a channel so committed to music and musicians.”

Music Week
Sky Arts

Monday, September 23, 2013

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Dublin "Stevie Nicks reminds her followers she's still the coolest hippy chick in town"

Still going their own special way 

CHRIS WASSER
Herald (Ireland)
Photos by Aaron Corr
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THERE IS a story about a lost Fleetwood Mac demo that ended up on YouTube almost 40 years after it was recorded.

Stevie Nicks found it, showed it to Lindsey Buckingham and they stuck it on an EP. End of. Somehow, Nicks turns this simple anecdote into an epic bedtime story, apologising as a sweaty Buckingham places his hands on his hips and sighs. If the latter is right about there being "a few chapters left in the book of Fleetwood Mac", they'd be doing well to play Without You without the lengthy backstory. Thankfully, it's one of very few slip-ups in a sublime set from the British-American foursome. This is the Rumours line-up, minus Christine McVie. But Buckingham and friends are keen to explore the various guises of their intricate, colourful history together.

Thrilling

You don't expect them to dig into 1979's Tusk. Nor do you expect its experimental leanings to sound better than soft rock beauty Dreams. You sense the shake-up in the setlist was down to Buckingham – a thrilling guitarist who also trades under the "artist" title. The British gentlemen in the gang (bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood) are, it seems, just happy to be here. McVie, the group's backbone, has got the best job in the world. The always-reliable Fleetwood operates from a gorgeous workstation.

And then there's Stevie Nicks. Just as Lindsey likes to squeeze into his tight jeans and wink at the ladies in the front row, Stevie is also in the mood to remind her followers that she's still the coolest hippy chick in town. Prancing about with her scarves hanging from her microphone stand, and spinning in the spotlight like a stoned ballerina, you'd never guess she turned 65 this year. An enchanting songstress, her voice remains up to the task, too, not least on Sara, and acoustic favourite, Landslide.

Refreshed

Again, it's not all perfect – the new material falls flat and a few moments of self-indulgence creep in. They are, however, in the form of their lives; refreshed, re-engaged and ready for the next round. Buckingham's breath-taking solo on I'm So Afraid is incredible, and a crowd-pleasing, marathon version of Go Your Own Way is astounding. A few more chapters? Bring it on.

THE CHAIN

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Fleetwood Mac "Eye Of The Hurricane" 5 Page Spread on "Tango In The Night" - Classic Rock Mag Oct, 2013

Fleetwood Mac: Colossal drug abuse, physical violence, epic strops... Forget Rumours, the Mac's craziest album was Tango In The Night.

Classic Rock Magazine - October, 2013 issue.  Available now


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Fiona Sturges hails the legacy of the Fleetwood Mac, a band who have weathered more storms than the Atlantic

It’s not just a rumour: Fleetwood Mac are back
The Independent

Fleetwood Mac may have had their ups and downs but they sure know a thing or two about timing. Last year singer Stevie Nicks told Rolling Stone that 2013 would be “the year of Fleetwood Mac”. And so it has proved. Thirty-six years on from their 40 million-selling album Rumours, a languid, harmony-laden work about heartbreak which now resides in one in six US households, the Mac are back on top.

Since their Seventies heyday the band have been as famous for broken marriages and drug addictions as their music, and only recently has their back catalogue been deemed ripe for reappraisal. Following a series of re-issued LPs, next week their comeback tour rolls into the UK. Meanwhile, a new generation of artists are making known their appreciation. Below some of them explain the band’s appeal and pick their favourite LP from the back catalogue.

Check it out at The Independent

REVIEW | PHOTOS: First night: Fleetwood Mac, The 02, Dublin

"The mighty Mac are back" 

BY PIERRE PERRONE
The Independent
Photos by Debbie Hickey
Studio 10 Media
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Three songs into the first European date Fleetwood Mac have played since 2009 comes the first of several magical moments as mad-eyed drummer and ringmaster Mick Fleetwood suddenly hits his monogrammed kit harder to underpin the “loneliness of a heartbeat drives you mad” lyric of the US chart-topper ''Dreams'' Stevie Nicks is delivering in her trademark low yearning voice. This perfect marriage of musicians from two different countries united by a common language and purpose is part of what makes the Mac such a compelling concert attraction and must-see act into their fifth decade.

However, the main ingredient remains the soap opera of their intertwined relationships, acknowledged from the off with ''Second Hand News'' from 1977's epochal Rumours, and given a sense of closure with the apposite ''Say Goodbye'' at the end. Not many set lists have a narrative arc or the feel of a group therapy session but no band, not even ABBA, have lived their personal lives in public and used this emotional roller-coaster as inspiration like the Mac. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, wearing a Ramones-like tight jeans and leather jacket combo, admits as much, talking about “the power of change” before an impassionate solo version of ''Big Love''. He has just been hugged by Nicks after a sublime double whammy of ''Sisters Of The Moon'' and ''Sara'', two of four selections from Tusk, the somewhat self-indulgent double set the Mac issued in 1979, since reclaimed by left-field acts like Camper Van Beethoven.

Nicks has made a specialty of these ethereal, floating ballads, mining the same rich seam from ''Rhiannon'' to
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the Velvet Underground-referencing ''Gypsy'', but they all prove so affecting it would be impossible to pick a favourite or indeed to omit any of them. Their inclusion also illustrates why Nicks has been such a strong influence on Florence Welch and Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes. Her writing remains as distinctive as the gothic, timeless look she fashioned for herself in the mid-seventies and she twirls around the stage – without quite essaying an Irish jig, an impossible feat in the high-heel boots she favours – and drapes herself dramatically in yet another shawl during ''Gold Dust Woman''.

Try as he might, including the dazzling solo which rescues a listing ''I'm So Afraid'', Buckingham knows that Nicks is the star of the show, even as she rambles on while introducing the sweet ''Without You'', the mid-70s demo they recently revisited for a digital download EP. She shoe-horns her own eighties electro hit ''Stand Back'' to add pop heft – and a groovy John McVie bassline – to a lengthy, nuanced, contrasting set which closes with the cross-generational audience on its feet for the evergreen ''Go Your Own Way''. Even Fleetwood's demented drum solo can't spoil the fun. The mighty Mac are back.

Fleetwood Mac play the 02 in London 24, 25 and 27 September, the LG Arena Birmingham 29 September, the Manchester Arena on the 1 October and the Hydro in Glasgow on the 3 October

GO YOUR OWN WAY

WITHOUT YOU (With intro)

SAD ANGEL