Thursday, October 03, 2013

co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood wants to make at least one more album before they "shut up shop"


Fleetwood Mac co-founder hopes for one final album
The drummer and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, has said he wants to make at least one more album before they "shut up shop".

In an interview with Absolute Radio, Fleetwood said: “I don’t know whether it is five years or seven years or it could be eighteen months. I hope that whenever that happens that it is done gracefully".

The band have been going for almost 50 years and recently toured Britain before embarking upon a series of European dates.

Listen to the full interview on Absolute Radio’s Sunday Night Music Club on 13th October from 10pm or at www.absoluteradio.co.uk/listen/

Reviews: Fleetwood Mac London | Manchester "In the words of Fleetwood, ‘THE MAC IS BACK’ and they’ve certainly not lost it"

The return of Fleetwood Mac to Manchester Arena
by Oliver Kurt

PICK OF THE WEEK: FLEETWOOD MAC @ Manchester Arena

LAST week saw the return of Fleetwood Mac to the north west after nearly four years away from the UK.

As part of a stint of five dates across the country, the legendary band visited Manchester Arena and produced a stunning show.

With no support act on the bill for the night, the band kick-started the set with Second Hand News before leading into the classic that is The Chain.

The start of the set focused heavily on Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours, which was commercially and critically the band’s most successful release.



Fleetwood Mac Manchester Arena 1 Oct 2013

Great show by Fleetwood Mac last night at Manchester Arena. Possibly the best time I’ve seen them. Fleetwood Mac are enjoying a renewed wave of success. It seems everyone wants to see them and demand for tickets for their concerts has been much greater than the last couple of occasions they visited the UK. This gig at the massive 20,000 capacity Manchester Arena sold out in a matter of hours and tickets have been changing hands for twice their (already expensive) face value. There has also been some added excitement in the form of Christine McVie rejoining her old band mates at a couple of the London concerts.

I was sitting in my seat way up in the top level at the back of the arena. This is the 5th time I’ve seen the band, the first being way back in 1972, and I was still pretty excited and really looked forward to it. I was quite a distance away from the stage, but it gave me a great view of the whole arena. This was very much a classic rock show with crowd pleasing songs, drawn largely from “Fleetwood Mac”, “Rumours” and “Tusk”, excellent visuals, and great individual performances by each member of the band. Stevie still manages to pull off her gypsy, hippy rock chick image, all swirling skirts, twirling folk dancing, and even we even saw the return of her top hat towards the end of the show. She may have reworked some of the songs to remove the higher parts, but her vocals remain stunning. It would be easy to say that Lindsey Buckingham is the star of the show.



The Night I saw Fleetwood Mac...
Lolly Does London

We’d gotten the tickets in March: Fleetwood Mac in London town. Don’t mind if I do.

I’d been hooked since watching their documentary.  And much like when Harry Styles got his first tattoo, we all remember where we were the day that it aired, don’t we?  (For me, it was the early hours of a Monday morning, drinking the remnants of the weekend before the onset of a black suit and a headset as the inevitable Brick Lane mouse twerked in the corner).

Continue to the full review/experience (entertaining read)


Live Review: Fleetwood Mac @ London O2 Arena, 24/09/2013
Fan Photos on Facebook
By Rachael Scarsbrook

In 2011, I felt like the luckiest person in the world for being able to see Brit-pop icons Pulp headline Reading festival. Earlier this year I felt even luckier when I witnessed The Rolling Stones headline the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

Yet neither of these majestic live music experiences could have prepared me for the pure perfection that was seeing Fleetwood Mac. A band whose music has been in my life since early childhood courtesy of my dad and a band that tonight, made all of my wildest dreams come true.



Fleetwood Mac – O2 Arena London 24 September 2013
Another Point Of View: Fleetwood Mac (Paul Hutchings)
by MBlade

It was time for a rare to visit to the vacuous O2 arena in London for an equally rare visit from the British-American super group Fleetwood Mac as part of my year of classic rock and oh my, were they good. The Mac are a band that I’ve lived with for a long time, with Rumours possibly my favourite non-metal album of all time. However, I’ve never seen them live before and given their history it appeared likely that I would never get to witness them in the flesh. When the opportunity presented itself earlier in the year it was just a case of making sure tickets were purchased. No easy task given the speed they sold out. We spent a while before the show marveling at the age range of the audience. A few metal heads, many old hippies and I suppose the type of audience you would expect them to attract; a real cross section and many there for the event as opposed to real fans of the band. However, just for once I shall concentrate on the events on stage rather than the annoying fucks sat around me.



Wishing a Very Happy Birthday to Fleetwood Mac's Leading Man Lindsey Buckingham! (October 3rd)

Ok Glasgow... Fleetwood Mac are playing your town on October 3rd... Don't forget to sing Happy Birthday to Lindsey... Front Row, you get the ball rolling!

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Manchester: "Three hour tour de force of anger, pain, love and stunning music"

Fleetwood Mac Live in Manchester, UK
October 1, 2013 - Phones 4U Arena

A friend of mine told me that if I thought the London shows were wild... wait for Manchester!  Turns out she was right!

Not sure at what point in the show this happened, but someone in the crowd within earshot of Stevie shouted out "We fu**ing love you Stevie" to which Lindsey replied with the same comment...and Stevie replied with "I Fu**ing love you too! It's a Fu**ing affair!" - but prior to this Stevie gets quite stern with a heckler in the audience asking: "can I finish the story or do I have to come down there and beat the hell out of you" Then tells them to "be quite for a minute".  Then in Stevie's goodbye message to the audience right at the end of the show, Stevie stated: "YOUR A ROCKING GREAT FU**ING AUDIENCE!!"...then covered her mouth and said "Just know I've never said that on stage ever". Exciting night!!.... Check out the video snippet on Tumblr

Full "Without You" Intro - Funny stuff!!

Photos by Ellisroger: VIEW GALLERY - 9 Photos
Fleetwood mac live @ phones4u arena, manchester 1st october 2013
by Jimmy Coultas'
Skiddle.com

Jimmy Coultas’ review of the return of rock and roll’s tempestuous behemoth to the live arena.

Music is becoming increasingly shorn of its legends. You can blame the internet, Simon Cowell, genetically modified food or any one of another myriad of reasons, but in the wider consensus there are few artists and bands that straddle the stratosphere of greatness quite like they used to. One group though that do, back catalogue basing at least, is Fleetwood Mac.

Rock Music’s most alluring soap opera, Fleetwood Mac’s near five decade spanning career has included what is essentially two different bands with the same backbone, a cavalcade of affairs and in-loving (and fighting), and some of the most apocalyptic drug meltdowns popular culture has ever witnessed. In the midst of all that, and mainly because of it all, they created some of the most beautifully evocative material in Popular Music history, an almost never ending list of albums and songs etched onto the hearts of millions across the globe.

Many have mused what the sixties and seventies would have been like amid the social networking era of late (Lynyrd Skynyrd sniping with Neil Young over 140 characters would certainly have been interesting), but this was a group that fleshed out the breakdowns and arguments very much in public. Their 1977 colossus Rumours (stream below on Spotify) bristles beautifully to expose the lies, infidelity and paranoia that eclipsed the in-fighting and tempestuous relationships of the group at that point, a triumph borne of the ashes from the combustion of what happens when ego, sexual desire and a truckload of narcotics collide.

2013 has marked the return of the Mac to the live arena, and it hasn’t come cheap. Tickets were exchanging hands for amounts well into three figures beforehand, and with an audience at the Phones4U arena spanning young adults right up to pensioners, the appeal certainly hasn’t dimmed across the ages. The question is whether they still can cut the mustard.

At first it seems that the cost and sheer scale of the process might be overblown. Their entrance isn’t quite injected with the level of fanfare their reputation deserves, the group quickly blustering through ‘Second Hand News’. The sharp twangs punctuate brilliantly but with no real great vocal presence from the group’s eponymous frontman Lindsey Buckingham, and straight away there’s this slight sense that they may be weighed down by age and expectation

The second performance subverts that theory, but even though we knew it from the widely published setlist beforehand, there’s still tangible disappointment in hearing ‘The Chain’ so early. The tremendous intro, all folksy foreboding and Americana drenched menace, hurtles into the foreground before slowly picking up the pace and finally disintegrating into that infamous bassline. It’s thrillingly absorbing, but surely this would have worked better drawn out as an epic encore?

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The next problem is the group’s enchantress Stevie Nicks’ voice. Whilst it would be unrealistic to expect it to retain the ethereal qualities of old, ‘Dreams’ follows on and she drifts almost incoherently in and out of focus, reducing one of the most enchanting records within their arsenal to the blasé. She’s similarly off kilter on ‘Rhiannon’, and with that dreaded bugbear of the iconic group’s live performance, new material, sandwiched in-between, there’s this sense that this is going to be an anodyne experience.

Those fears though are slowly assuaged. Buckingham imparts his relief that 1979’s critically mauled Tusk has since been viewed with a different light, and when they play the album’s title track it marks a sea change in the intensity of the concert. Suddenly on this carnal, animalistic hoedown of a record the raw power the group is evidently in focus, a brutal almost ugly blood rush of a song that causes the band to explode into our consensus.

Nicks too is now sharply jolted into the right groove, particularly when the romanticism of her relationship with Buckingham is bared so obviously for the first time. ‘Sara’ sees the duo singing together, and whilst it’s never known how much of the lingering looks and touching embraces are staged, that doesn’t stop them being lavishly lapped up by the audience. Either way, the shaky vibes of her earlier mishaps are blown away in a hugely transfixing performance, the catalyst for a blisteringly brilliant couple of hours.

Never to be outdone, Buckingham follows with arguably the standout moment of the entire show. Emerging alone, he talks about how the next record, taken from 1987’s blissfully short power punch opus Tango in the Night, was wrote at a point where he was scared to embrace something, the lyric of the track redolent of a man fearsome of being hurt after so many tarnished encounters with emotion.

That lyric is “Looking out for love”, and as the familiar refrain whittles in and out of a virtuoso rendition of ‘Big Love’ it is quite simply one of the most astounding five minutes of music this reviewer has ever witnessed. His frantic solo plucking adds a timeless zeal to what is essentially a very eighties slab of power rock, and the physical impact of him chanting side by side with his visceral twangs is mesmerising. It’s one of the true greats of rock at his glorious best.

The highlights then stack up. The touching gaze of love between the duo reappears on ‘Landslide’, and the stadium shaking rock of ‘Eyes of the World’ allows Mick Fleetwood’s powerhouse drumming to reverberate around the arena. Interspersed with it is the occasional monologue about the anguish that perforated their songwriting; they’re constantly playing on all the pain and it adds to the feeling of being very much engrossed in this never ending saga, regardless of the apparent resolutions.

Nicks continues her revitalisation with stunning aplomb when left to her own devices as well, the heartbreak echoing from her voice throughout ‘Gypsy’ before her status as a dark folk witch is ratified during an astounding 'Gold Dust Woman’, her turn as a pre-goth queen bedecked in gold shawl infused with desire that allows her to transcend her age.

‘Go Your Own Way’ sees the group leave the stage for the first time, a rambunctious parting shot that lifts everyone to their feet in unison. When they return it’s for an epic portrayal of ‘World Turning’ with Mick Fleetwood, who has been oddly adorning more and more clothing throughout like a manic human buckaroo, slipping into a trancelike state as he batters his drums. ‘Don’t Stop’ then follows, the group saying goodbye with Rumours’ most upbeat but no less acerbic song.

They return for two more songs, Rumours offcut ‘Silver Springs’ and the clichéd but appropriate ‘Say Goodbye’. By no means the most powerful or memorable record in the group’s arsenal, it serves as a poignant ending to a truly memorable showing, a triumph that somehow despite the searing feelings that have encapsulated the group they are still there, but with that lingering agony rippling throughout every note and word ushered through our ears. 

This wasn’t a perfect show by any stretch, the lack of Christine McVie’s counterpart lyricism (aside from ‘Don’t Stop’) and pop perfection voice dims the overall Mac experience, particularly due to the fact she has reunited (albeit briefly) with the band on certain tour dates (the above video shows her at an earlier date at the O2 arena in London). And whilst the opening troubles are quickly consigned it’s a shame that both ‘Dreams’ and ‘Rhiannon’ aren’t as evocative as they truly deserve to be.

Overall though that’s splitting hairs - this is a near three hour tour de force of anger, pain, love and stunning music that is arguably the most unflinchingly awkward experience of nostalgia you’ll ever witness. It’s part rock extravaganza, part fly on the wall therapy session, and wholly gripping entertainment that is as good value as the excessive pricing can create.

It’s unlikely we will ever see a group possessing such an innately human struggle as its artistic backbone quite like this, even less plausible they’ll deliver that story with such searing conviction in their twilight. Fleetwood’s final words sum it all up… “the Mac is Back”.

THE CHAIN
DREAMS

LANDSLIDE: Did Stevie dedicate Landslide to JC (John Courag) again tonight in Manchester? She dedicated the song to him in Birmingham on Sunday as well.

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Review: Fleetwood Mac London - Sept 25th Stevie Nicks "It's an incredible sight to see her kick the air"

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE IN LONDON
September 25, 2013 - O2 Arena
by Vet Sounds


Amongst the barrage of glowing tweets about the show, I noticed a tweet from Jeremy Clarkson, who was also there that night, complaining something along the lines of “Since when did Fleetwood Mac become a Lindsey Buckingham tribute band?”. You have to wonder what he was expecting. Christine McVie leaving the band in the late 90's has, in effect, reduced their repertoire rather considerably. It knocks out, “Songbird”, “Little Lies”, and “Everywhere”, to name a handful; a lot of their softer AOR moments actually. Stevie Nicks, although a vital component to their on-stage presentation, a crucial foil for Lindsey, and responsible for some key moments in their back catalogue, doesn't play an instrument (tambourine excepted) on-stage. This leaves Lindsey Buckingham, like it or not, as the key musical driving force for the show. In fact, he's the only member of the Mac who's on-stage for every song of their almost three hour show, and boy, is he driven. I saw another reviewer describe him as essentially battling with his guitar on-stage. This is an apt description. At one point, he appeared to be physically beating the strings, both arms flailing.

Full Review at Vet Sounds

68 Photos: Fleetwood Mac Live in London and Birmingham, UK - Sept 27th and 29th

Fleetwood Mac Live in Birmingham
September 29, 2013
Photos by: LCRaymond
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Fleetwood Mac Live in London
September 27, 2013
Photos by Peter H.
When Stevie swoops down in front of the audience during the Stand Back twirl, she comes so close to the edge of the stage and the audience almost tauntingly, telling her subjects to "Stand Back" She almost grazes the tops of peoples heads with that cape! 
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Fleetwood Mac Live in London
September 27, 2013
Photos by: Simon Goldsworthy
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