Monday, September 30, 2013

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in London Sept 27 - Uncut

Fleetwood Mac Live in London
September 27, 2013 - The O2 Arena
by Michael Bonner

“Life is good,” reflects Mick Fleetwood. We are over two hours into Fleetwood Mac’s third and final show at the O2, and it has fallen to Fleetwood to introduce his fellow bandmates on stage.

While Fleetwood was talking for the most part about the enduring friendships that exist between the various members of Fleetwood Mac, he could just as easily be surveying the last, remarkable 12 months in the band’s career. This sprawling world tour has been a tremendous success – “We’re doing the best business we’ve done in 20 years,” Lindsey Buckingham recently told Rolling Stone. The 35th anniversary of Rumours earlier this year provided a useful reminder of the band's most successful and notorious period, while the Extended Play EP showcased a clutch of new songs that seem redolent of the Rumours-era sound. Elsewhere, there are the broader cultural threads that have pillowed Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 – the revival of the soft rock aesthetic, and the kind of West Coast vibes evoked on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories and Haim’s Days Are Gone.

But in many respects Fleetwood Mac are actually a more interesting proposition away from the Rumours material. The reissue a few months ago of the band’s 1969 album, Then Play On was a terrific reminder of the magical guitar interplay between Peter Green and Danny Kirwan. Indeed, while it’s nice enough to watch Christine McVie join her old band for “Don’t Stop”, it would have been more remarkable if Green had strolled on stage to play “The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)”. Tonight, the band’s decision to foreground songs from Tusk is sort-of brave – a great chunk of the audience seem bewildered by this – while the weird tensions between Buckingham's songs and Nicks' is actually quite compelling. To some extent, Buckingham and Nicks might as well be in different bands. Buckingham (who, I should point out, plays without a plectrum) seems to think he’s in some early 80s New Wave band for great chunks of the set, throwing punk rock shapes or shredding; at one point, during the extended coda for "I'm So Afraid", he seems to think he's in the middle of some wonderful, digressive Crazy Horse jam. His introduction to the Tusk section of the show involves a lecture in the merits of art against commerce; he clearly still has an almost neurotic attachment to that particular material, as his need to explain – or, perhaps, defend – it suggests. Later, his acoustic treatment of “Big Love” displays his extraordinary fretwork skills (incidentally, those solo albums are amazing). He and Nicks are gracious with each other – if, say, she’s singing a song, she’ll step back a little from the mic to let him play a solo – it’s slightly formal, a little awkward, you might say. Nicks, meanwhile, doesn’t entirely seem comfortable during the faster Buckingham numbers – she totters visibly during “Not That Funny”. Sounding a little like Edie Falco in The Sopranos when she speaks, and dressed as if she’s going for dinner with Big Edie and Little Edie at Grey Gardens, she seems clearly more comfortable with the soft focus Laurel Canyon Goth of “Rhiannon” and “Gypsy” than Buckingham’s angrier compositions. Her attempt to explain the provenance of the Extended Play track “Without You”, originally written by Nicks in the early Seventies, lasts longer than the song itself.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Fleetwood Mac Review: Stevie Nicks has, gratifyingly, lost none of her hippy charm, she’s all drippy scarves, butterfly gestures

Fleetwood Mac joined by Christine McVie 02 Arena, final night
by: festivals, food, over forties

One of my earliest music memories is Peter Green singing Need Your Love so Bad, and his composition Green Manalishi (with the two prong crown), which to my pre-teen brain sounded bewilderingly mystical. Strange to now see Fleetwood Mac, in its present form, live in 2013, over 30 years later.
own

Mick Fleetwood and John McVie command the audience’s attention as the band opens with Second Hand News. This position is swiftly usurped by flamboyant performers Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks and Buckingham: the two former lovers hold the audience’s attention throughout the performance, their body language indicating that drama, tension and chemistry are alive and well. We can only watch and make of it what we will. Lindsey periodically moves to the front of the stage, crouching down with his guitar, to the obvious delight of the fans clustered at his feet.

Stevie Nicks has, gratifyingly, lost none of her hippy charm, she’s all drippy scarves, butterfly gestures and long hair (at 65 – yes, it still looks great). A tanned Lindsey Buckingham looks as if he’s been whisked straight from a California health spa.

Continue to the full review with some great photos

UK and Ireland Send Fleetwood Mac Albums Back Up The Charts

Ireland - September 26, 2013

The after effects of Fleetwood Mac's two shows in Dublin September 20th and 21st are being felt on the Top 100 Albums Chart in Ireland.  Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" moves up the chart this week to No.27 from No.87. "Greatest Hits" moves down to No.83 from No.76 last week and surprisingly "The Dance" re-enters the chart at No.94 in only it's 8th week on the chart.

Top 100 Albums Chart

# 27 (87)  Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 83 (76)  Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
# 94 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - The Dance

UK - October 5, 2013
With 3 shows last week in London leading up to today's UK Chart Update (dated October 5th), Fleetwood Mac have three albums within the Top 100 - two of these are re-entries.

Fleetwood Mac's 4CD Box Set "25 Years - The Chain" re-enters the chart this week at No.22.  "Rumours" moves up to No.53 from No.74 and "The Very Best Of" re-enters the chart at No.87.  On the Digital Top 40 Albums Chart "Rumours" moves up to No.31 from No.78 last week.  On the Catalogue Albums Chart "Rumours" is top 5 sitting at No.5

Top 100 Albums Chart
# 22 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - 25 Years The Chain [box set]
# 53 (74)   Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 87 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of

Top 40 Digital Albums Chart
# 31 (78) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Top 40 Catalogue Albums Chart
# 5 Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Scotland  - Oct 5, 2013
In Scotland, "25 Years - The Chain" is back in the Top 40 at No.16 this week while "The Dance" continues to be popular in it's 31st week on the chart moving down to No.18 from No.14 last week.

Top 40 Albums Chart
# 16 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - 25 Years The Chain [box set]
# 18 (14)   Fleetwood Mac - The Dance

U.S.A. - October 5, 2013
Fleetwood Mac's Starbucks exclusive Opus Collection in it's 3rd week on the US Top 200 moves down to No.125 from No.79 last week. On the Top 200 Current albums chart which are new releases, the album is sitting at No.119.

Top 200 Albums Chart
# 125 (79) Fleetwood Mac - Opus Collection
# 184 (145) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Top 200 Current Albums Chart
# 119 (79) Fleetwood Mac - Opus Collection

Australia - September 30, 2013
Top 100 Albums Chart
# 14 (7)     Fleetwood Mac - 25 Years The Chain [box set]
# 78 (71)   Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
# 85 (R/E) Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of

Top 50 Catalogue Albums Chart
#  1 (1)  Fleetwood Mac - 25 Years The Chain [box set]
# 19 (11) Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
# 20 (26) Fleetwood Mac - The Very Best Of
# 36 (34) Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Top 50 Digital Albums Chart
# 33 (22) Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits

Top 40 DVD Chart
# 7 (7) Fleetwood Mac - The Dance

New Zealand - Sept 30, 2013
Top 40 Albums Chart
# 5 (5) Fleetwood Mac - 25 Years The Chain

Fleetwood Mac: "If We Were 20 Yrs Old, We'd Wanna Join Our Band!"

This week's NME Digital edition is available... In it Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks speak about Christine's return.

This link at NME has the interview video that provided the text version of the article... If you've seen the video, you've read the article... Nothing new.  If you want the digital version of the mag.. Check out NME


Review: "Old Mac Magic Weaved So Well"... Fleetwood Mac Live in London


Fleetwood Mac – review Sept 24th O2, London

The Guardian
by Kitty Empire
3/5 Stars

They were back – and talking to each other as well. But despite the hits, fine musicianship and Stevie Nicks's array of shawls, there was still one thing missing.

You're looking at your watch, consulting the set list from a recent Fleetwood Mac gig in Dublin and thinking: it has to happen soon. We're running out of songs.

But we're 20-odd tunes into the first of the band's three-night London run and the icing on the cake made of soap has not materialised. We've endured Mick Fleetwood's mammoth drum solo on World Turning, one that has lasted eight minutes at previous stops on this world tour. Tonight it clocks in at four. We've had Don't Stop, one of this outlandishly successful band's most galumphing hits, the song where you assumed It Would Happen. But no. The Mac have gone off, and come back, and Stevie Nicks is trilling Silver Springs, and there is no sign of the return of the second of Fleetwood Mac's two Macs. That Mac is not back.

One of the major draws of these gigs – their first in the UK since 2009 – has been the rumour that Christine McVie might appear as a special guest. The Birmingham melodicist retired from the band in 1998, technically for the second time, citing a fear of flying. Touring with her ex-husband, bassist John McVie, and weariness of the long-running dramas of her band might well have been contributing factors.

But the USP of this umpteenth Fleetwood Mac reunion is that everyone is getting along quite swimmingly. Indeed this Gordian sexual knot of a group have long since put their libidos and coke habits behind them, and tonight are even mining the residues of the chemistry for laughs (and sniffles). Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, the California duo who joined the blues-rock outfit in 1974 and turned it into gold dust, are holding hands, hugging at the end of Sara, and singing at one another. Mick Fleetwood – an increasingly jester-like figure, sitting worryingly near a gong – affectionately clasps hands with Nicks at the end of one song. Their affair in 1977 complicated an already star-crossed love polygon that has defined this band as much as their mellifluous soft rock.

Still, despite all the lovely closure, Christine does not show (although she does the following night). Anyone hoping to hear Little Lies, or the barbed You Make Loving Fun (written about Christine McVie's relationship with the band's lighting guy), or even Hold Me, the band's later-period US hit about another McVie conquest, Dennis Wilson, is going home a little disappointed tonight.

Probably not by much though. This nearly three-hour set is nothing if not generous value, packing in significant swaths of Rumours, the band's most famous album. It has sold something like 40m copies, a figure that, in all likelihood, no one album released in the 21st century will ever match. Its reissue entered the UK charts at No 3 last February. Of its vast riches, Go Your Own Way remains a sulky gem. It ends the band's first set with Buckingham mock-chasing Nicks around the stage and letting the front rows paw at his guitar.

It's salutary to be reminded what a fine player Lindsey Buckingham is. He's lithe and leather-jacketed, full of thoughtful song preambles. Hearing him playing Big Love solo – hollering the words, plucking at his hollow-bodied electric – is one of the unexpected highlights of a set that can sometimes feel like a rewrite of history.

It seems unthinkable now, but there was a time when not everyone thought Fleetwood Mac were cool, or survivors, or ripe for homage by Haim or Florence and the Machine. Indeed, if you were alive in the 1980s, Fleetwood Mac were the grown-ups' music, and as such as attractive as uncooked liver. Mac songs seemed pat, mid-tempo affairs with needless, false harmonies. (They all hated each other!) It wasn't just a question of age – the Rolling Stones were old – it was that Fleetwood Mac's music felt fluffy and smug. At least it did from the vehement hauteur of the spiky, directional 80s.

Now, though, 30 years on, one of their newer songs, Sad Angel, is pacier than you'd imagine. And there is widespread respect for Fleetwood Mac's awkward, angry Tusk album of 1979. Tonight the title track exudes bitterness, evil laughter and deranged keyboard horns: there is nothing pat about it.

Arguably it was Courtney Love who first rehabilitated Fleetwood Mac – or at least Stevie Nicks – thanking "Rhiannon the Welsh Witch" on the sleeve of Hole's Pretty on the Inside album (1991), and often declaring Nicks her hero. At the O2 Nicks recalls being Buckingham's "hippie girlfriend", accepted into the Mac package when Fleetwood hired Buckingham.

She is the sort of woman who paints angels, and wants to set Welsh epic The Mabinogion on the screen with the help of the Game of Thrones creator, but down to earth with it. Tonight her buddy Christine may not be here, but Nicks's throaty husk sounds masterful on Gold Dust Woman. And – living up to billing quite spectacularly – she has a different shawl for nearly every song.

Fleetwood Mac Sept 27th - London
Photos by Muzzy_
Full Gallery






LANDSLIDE:
Dedicated to Christine McVie

RHIANNON: Stevie changed up the ending of Rhiannon a bit during the last show... I thought Friday's performance was exceptionally strong and I really liked what she did with the ending.  

GOLD DUST WOMAN: is still really creepy and eerie at the end when Stevie's voice gets all echoee and she deeply growls into the mic... It's just an awesome song live and this extended version they are doing on this tour is really cool. Most of the video from the last show is posted below.


Friday, September 27, 2013

Photos | Video: Christine McVie's Final Performance With Fleetwood Mac - Live in London 9/27

Fleetwood Mac Live in London
September 27, 2013 - The O2 Arena

Yet one more memorable night!  Big thanks to Fleetwood Mac for another great show... You never disappoint!  And a massive thanks especially to Christine McVie. You've made an extremely large amount of people very happy with your return... Please don't make it another 15 years before we hear from you again with Fleetwood Mac!

Check out Erin Brown's pics from the show... 37 of them in a gallery HERE.


DON'T STOP
THE CHAIN
GO YOUR OWN WAY

London Review 9/25: Love is in the air for return of the Fleetwood Mac

Rock’s greatest soap opera rolled into London this week as Fleetwood Mac began their UK tour with a marathon concert dominated by the hits of the Seventies. Emotional punch was added by the presence of two ex-members who were major players in the Anglo-American group’s chequered history.

For a rollicking encore of Don’t Stop, the band were joined at the O2 Arena by keyboardist Christine McVie — onstage with them for the first time in 15 years.

Earlier, singer Stevie Nicks dedicated a poignant Landslide to original Sixties guitarist Peter Green, who was watching from the wings.

As a generation-spanning audience demonstrated, our love for Fleetwood Mac shows little sign of abating, partly because their biggest hits are still so intertwined with their love lives.


The classic 1977 album Rumours was made amid drug-fuelled excess and personal turmoil, with drummer Mick Fleetwood in the throes of a divorce, the marriage of bassist John and keyboardist Christine McVie on the rocks, and the romance between singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham in meltdown.

To complicate matters, Nicks and Fleetwood later had their own two-year affair.

As the return, albeit for just one song, of Christine McVie confirmed, everyone is the best of friends these days, although the sexual tensions of old lingered in songs like Don’t Stop (Christine’s kiss-off to John) and Go Your Own Way (Lindsey’s bitter adios to Stevie).

The Buckingham-Nicks relationship was also played out for theatrical effect onstage. The former couple, a formidable creative double-act, hugged each other and slow danced during Sara, and walked on holding hands before the encores. At one point, Lindsey — to loud cheers — gave Stevie a gentlemanly kiss on the hand.

Having played 47 American shows in 2013, the band were perfectly cooked. With McVie and Fleetwood providing a fluent rhythmic backbone, Buckingham drove the show musically, setting the tempo with some impressive  soloing in the Rumours-era opening salvo of Second Hand News, The Chain and Dreams.

But it is Nicks who gives the group their charisma. Teetering around in black stiletto boots, her microphone stand draped in hippy beads and scarves, she was mesmerising on  Rhiannon and Landslide, the latter an acoustic duet with Buckingham.

Alongside the enduring excellence of their songs, it is also the presence of Nicks that connects the band — now all in their 60s — with a younger crowd. Most of the junior members of this audience were female, and it is no coincidence that the new acts most obviously influenced by the group’s classic hooks and harmonies are girl bands like The Pierces and Haim.


Fleetwood Mac’s ongoing appeal also says a lot about the value of experience. From the Stones at Glastonbury to Rod Stewart and Springsteen, many of this year’s best gigs have been played by the veterans, and there was certainly an impressive level of artistry on display here.

As Mick Fleetwood bellowed from his drumkit as the 11 o’clock curfew beckoned: ‘The Mac are back!’ Indeed they are.

The Fleetwood Mac tour  continues tonight at the O2 Arena

By Adrian Thrills


Thursday, September 26, 2013

Photos: Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie Attend Jenny Boyd Book Launch

Mick Fleetwood along with Christine McVie attend Jenny Boyd's book launch party for "It's Not Only Rock 'N' Roll 
(Sept 26, 2013 MyHotel in Chelsea)






In this exciting, original and inspiring book, 75 of the world's most iconic musicians reveal - many for the first time - their thoughts on creating music. Psychologist Jenny Boyd has probed the minds and souls of these artists and has delved into the drive to create, the importance of nurturing creativity, the role of unconscious influences and the effects of chemicals and drugs on the creative process. Music legend who contributed exclusive interviews include: Eric Clapton George Harrison Julian Lennon Jackson Browne David Crosby Stephen Stills Graham Nash Don Henley Hank Marvin Keith Richards Ravi Shankar Ringo Starr Steve Winwood Mick Fleetwood Stevie Nicks Joni Mitchell.    


Jenny attended Fleetwood Mac's Sept 24th London show and Stevie dedicated "Landslide" to her.

Stevie's quote on the cover: "All creative people should read this book!"

Christine and Mick contributed below...Part of Christine's is particularly interesting... Is she in therapy?

"I'm seeking help to restore that childlike pleasure I found in creating music" - Christine McVie



Lindsey Buckingham nearly blocked last night’s onstage Fleetwood Mac reunion, reveals Stevie Nicks in MOJO

Fleetwood Mac: The Story Behind Christine’s Live Return
Lindsey Buckingham nearly blocked last night’s onstage reunion, reveals Stevie Nicks in MOJO

Mojo Magazine
By Andrew Male

Stevie Nicks has talked to MOJO about Christine McVie’s on-stage return to Fleetwood Mac last night at London’s O2 Arena.

Speaking in an interview to be published in MOJO 241 (UK shelf date October 29) the diminutive Mac singer confirmed that while McVie, who left the group in 1998, has “just returned to do one song” it could have been “a few songs” if it hadn’t been for one particular stumbling block.

“Lindsey [Buckingham] is very funny about that,” Nicks told MOJO’s James McNair. “I think his words were ‘She can’t just come and go’. That’s important to him, but it’s not quite so important to me. Much as Lindsey adores her; and he does – she’s the only one in Fleetwood Mac he was ever willing to listen to – he doesn’t want the first night reviews to be all about Christine’s one song, rather than the set we rehearsed for two months.”

McVie was met with rapturous applause last night when she joined her old band to play keyboards and sing Don’t Stop, and she will be appearing with the group again at their final O2 show tomorrow. But, while the route to the stage hasn’t necessarily been a smooth one, Nicks also added that “it will be wonderful to have her back up there with us. And from there who knows.”

In a candid, funny and emotional interview, Nicks goes on to discuss her childhood, her solo career (“Fleetwood Mac weren’t that impressed”) the “unresolved” aspects of her and Buckingham’s relationship, and the bizarre night she slept on the floor of Prince’s purple kitchen.

... I knew it!  I had a feeling there was something behind Chris only doing one song!  Wish I had of known this earlier today when I passed Lindsey outside of Harrods... I would have asked him about it. (That's him in the green jacket).

I like the way Stevie says "and from there.. who knows"  I think if we as a fan community could somehow make our voices heard - encouraging them to reunite to record again... It just may happen!



New Fleetwood Mac Album up to Stevie Nicks


In a just-published interview with M Music & Musicians, Lindsey Buckingham said, “The way we do things in Fleetwood Mac is always a political mine field. If it’s not Stevie, it’s me—someone is always causing trouble. [laughs] I know Warner Brothers is dying to get an album from us, even though we’re not signed to them anymore. Stevie needs to come to the table with some material. In order to contemplate a new album, she has to want to do it.”


Buckingham went on to say that Nicks’ positive experience making In Your Dreams, her 2012 solo album, complicates the prospects for a new Fleetwood Mac LP. “She had a wonderful experience making that album,” he says. “She hasn’t said this—this is just me—but knowing Stevie, she’s probably thinking, ‘If I have to write five new songs, do I want to give them to Fleetwood Mac?’ And that’s fair enough. I think she’s feeling a bit protective and territorial about the experience she had doing her solo project. And I can totally relate to that.”

Fleetwood Mac is currently on the European leg of their 2013 tour.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Photos | Video: Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird" Christine McVie Returns

Fleetwood Mac Live in London
September 25, 2013 - O2 Arena
Photos by Erin Brown
View Gallery
Christine McVie... Back with The Mac!
You wouldn't think anything special was going to happen... But it did and I'm glad I was there to witness it. This is historical!  The show was great... No different then any other.  You wouldn't even know something big was about to happen.  Stevie dedicated Landslide to Peter Green who was in the audience saying some really nice words about him and thanking him for Fleetwood Mac.

The show progressed as per usual, and right at the end of Mick's intros to the band members they whisked Christine's keyboard up on stage from the side... and Lindsey, Mick and Stevie made some jokes about the commotion that was going on wondering what was up. Lindsey's saying it looks like a very familiar spot. Stevie going over to the keyboard to act as if she was going to play a little something.  The audience started to stir when Mick started his intro by saying "this lady's songs echo throughout Fleetwood Mac's history", calling her "our song bird" then said "without further adieu London, give it up for Miss Christine McVie".

The place went mad as you would expect.  It was so loud!  I was in the upper section and it seemed like in unison that everyone leaped to their feet when Mick said her name. Then they launched into "Don't Stop". Christine sounded great, looked great up there on stage and played the hell out of her keyboard.  In many ways, it looked so normal to see her there playing... but in reality, its been close to 16 years that she's been gone.. After the song they took her keyboard off the stage and all 5 stood in front of Mick's kit, took a bow and Christine left the stage down John's stairs.  She did emerge from the back of the stage for the final bows of the night with the rest of the band, then the show was over.

Amazing ending tonight Fleetwood Mac!!  And THANK YOU Christine for coming back... even if for just one song, it was so cool too see the 5 of them together again.

DON'T STOP
LANDSLIDE (Dedicated to Peter Green)

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

A riveting evening belonged above all to Lindsey Buckingham and his eloquent guitar

Fleetwood Mac, 02 Arena, London – review
By Richard Clayton

After all these years, something still gets Lindsey Buckingham’s goat. Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist and front man tore into “Second Hand News”, barking the words and spitting out the “bams” of the chorus’s vocalese like repeated slaps in the face. Rumours, the gazillion-selling “soft-rock” album that chronicles the band’s – and their generation’s – relationship traumas was given its 35th anniversary reissue in February. There was little soft about this near three-hour show, the first of three nights of controlled catharsis in London.

Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, his former girlfriend and the fans’ erstwhile hippie siren, held hands as they emerged. Their harmonies were on point for “The Chain”, the sound lent a doomy toll and twang like a gothic Creedence Clearwater Revival. When they turned to each other, you couldn’t tell if their deliveries were taunting or imploring. “You know what you lost,” sang Nicks on “Dreams”, the line hanging rueful and accusatory in the air, her voice deeper than in her prime and approaching a Patti Smith-like gravitas. In waistcoats and flat caps, the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie looked like upscale Wurzels, somewhat baffled by the continuing psychodrama unfolding before them, but grateful for its endlessly fascinating power.


For all their colossal self-importance, Buckingham was right to insist there were “still things to discover” about Fleetwood Mac. Not least how time does or doesn’t heal and, as Nicks would sing on the sore, regretful “Landslide”, “Can I handle the seasons of my life?” The woozy rites of “Rhiannon” seemed more curse than enchantment now. Four songs from Tusk, their “difficult” follow-up to Rumours, were prefaced by a self-justifying but apt lecture from Buckingham about the incompatibility of art and commerce. They were played with a kick-against-the-pricks intensity and when they were done, Nicks gave Buckingham a brief, battle-weary hug.

The mooted guest spot for Christine McVie didn’t materialise. Perhaps that’s for another night. This really was Buckingham’s gig. He doesn’t so much solo as argue his case with his guitar. And it’s a knotty, consuming one at that. Alone and acoustic, “Big Love” was haunted, almost hysterical, as spooked as a wild horse. This was the most extraordinary, and impassioned, part of an evening that was sometimes as arduous as it was enjoyable, if mostly riveting nonetheless. Many people took a comfort break during “Without You”, built up by Nicks as a “lost” classic but rather soppy in the event.

The finale, “Go Your Own Way”, felt like the first unfettered singalong. Yet even this was driven by a dark rhythmic energy that pushed the melody uneasily ahead. The honky-tonk gallop of “Don’t Stop” in the encore was preceded by a preposterous mugging of a drum solo from Fleetwood. When, at the last, someone made a request, he was chastised for “vibe corruption” by Nicks and Buckingham, who wanted to finish on the gentle “Say Goodbye”. In this soap opera, the principals write the script.

Photos by Rune Hellestad

RHIANNON