Fleetwood Mac's famously fractured family is together, including Christine McVie

Photo: Danny Clinch

by: Jon Bream
Star Tribune 

Christine McVie is back in the picture after a 16-year separation. Fleetwood Mac talks about their oft-fractured ties and the reunion tour opening in Minneapolis Tuesday.

She’s back! Finally. After a 16-year retirement, singer/keyboardist Christine McVie has returned to Fleetwood Mac.

The “Rumours” lineup is intact. The band can perform “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Lovin’ Fun” the way they were meant to be played. Fleetwood Mac will be whole once again.

Wait a minute, sister. It’s not that simple.

This is Fleetwood Mac, rock’s famously fractured family. You can’t just write McVie — one of the group’s three singer-songwriters — back into rock’s longest-running soap opera.

It’s a process. You need meetings, and maybe a little therapy, and more discussions. It wasn’t enough that McVie sat in with the Rock Hall of Fame band for one song in London last year.

“There were conversations,” McVie said before a recent rehearsal for the band’s On With the Show Tour that opens Tuesday in Minneapolis. “And we had conference calls, and everybody thought it was a great idea and asked, was I committed seriously? I couldn't go in and out. I said: ‘I don’t have a problem with that.’ So next thing you know I was sending my demos to Lindsey [Buckingham] and he was sending them back with his guitar and his voice.”

Book excerpt: "Play On" by Fleetwood Mac Drummer Mick Fleetwood

Mick Fleetwood, the drummer and co-founder of Fleetwood Mac, has written a new autobiography about his music-filled life.

The following is an excerpt from the introduction of "Play On: Now, Then and Fleetwood Mac" by Mick Fleetwood & Anthony Bozza. Copyright © 2014 by Constant Endeavor LLC.

If Music Be The Food Of Love . . .

Play on. Two words, no more, but they've said it all to me.

They've been, at different times, a simple direct order, a call to action, a mantra and a comforting concept that promised rebirth. I first read them in the most beautiful and romantic couplet in "Twelfth Night," my favourite of Shakespeare's works. I've never forgotten it; in fact I took it to heart immediately because it spoke to me. When things have moved me so profoundly in this life, be they people, places or things, no matter how they've come to me, I've made them forever a part of me. I've signed countless autographs with the phrase "Play on." I've said it to many people in many contexts. As I've made my way through life, as intricate and difficult as it has often been, as ecstatic and debauched as it has too often been, those words have always been with me. What they've come to mean to me has been a rock when the rest of my world was set adrift.

The entire couplet is the inspiration behind the title of Fleetwood Mac's fourth studio album, "Then Play On," released in 1969, which I still count as my favourite record. My second favourite is easy to choose: it's "Tusk," released ten years later by a very different incarnation of the band -- the only one that many of our fans are familiar with. To those fans reading these words, please do stick around, you'll be amazed to learn how many roads we travelled before we met you.

On the surface, "Then Play On" and "Tusk" have little in common sonically, but listen deeper and you'll hear a band with its back against the creative wall, recording music at the brink of its existence. Both of those albums were made when we would either play on or cease to be, and when the idea of overcoming the insurmountable through creating anew was the only way out for us. I can't say that I saw it as a solution, but I felt it as my faith, and I preached to my compatriots to play on -- and that's what we did.

I'm still here, lucky enough to be partnered with the greatest musical comrades I could ever hope to have. We have been through so many ups and downs, and though I denied it for years, particularly to my loved ones, I know now that since this band began, I have devoted my entire life to it. In every incarnation Fleetwood Mac has brought me so much joy that I hope whatever our fans have taken from the music is a fraction of what I've got from it. I've also realized, through trial, lots of error, growing older and hopefully wiser, how much that choice has weighed on my family. It's hard to devote yourself to a musical family of our magnitude while trying to nurture one of your own; it's an unfair tug-of-war I am still working out.

Source: CBSNews.com

• "Play On: Now, Then and Fleetwood Mac" by Mick Fleetwood & Anthony Bozza will be published in hardcover by Little, Brown on Oct. 28. It will also be available in Hardcover Large Print, e-Book, Audio Download and Audio CD formats.
• Pre-order via Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
• Mick Fleetwood's Official Site
• Follow Mick Fleetwood on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube
• fleetwoodmac.com

STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"

Pre-Order from Stevienicksofficial.com Available October 7th.

LISTEN: "Twisted" the NEW version from Stevie Nicks "24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault"

via Warner Bros. Records here's "Twisted" from Stevie's new album "24 Karat Gold - Songs From The Vault".  I like it!  It'll take me a bit to get used to, I'm so used to the duet version she sang back in 1996 with Lindsey on the "Twister" soundtrack... But this is good!  It's a great song.

[UPDATE] Warner Bros. removed "Twisted" and replaced it with Watch Chain.

STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"

Pre-Order from Stevienicksofficial.com Available October 7th.

Stevie Nicks Brings 24 Karat Gold Polaroid Self-Portrait Exhibit to Hollywood

Rock Legend Stevie Nicks Strikes Gold in Polaroid Self-Portraits
By Sarah Kobos
ABC News

Take a sneak peek at never-before-seen self-portraits from Stevie Nicks' personal Polaroid collection, which will be coming to the Morrison Hotel Gallery in New York City and West Hollywood.

NEW YORK CITY:

October 10th - 11th: The exhibit opens at 201 Mulburry St.. (11am - 7 pm)

October 12th - 31st: The exhibit can be viewed at Morrison Hotel Gallery Loft at 116 Prince St. Mon-Sat: 11-7pm; Sunday: 12-6pm

WEST HOLLYWOOD:

The exhibition is also open to the public beginning Oct. 10, 2014 running until October 21, 2014 at Morrison Hotel Gallery's West Hollywood location in the lobby of the Sunset Marquis Hotel located at 1200 Alta Loma Road, Los Angeles, CA Mon-Wed: 11am - 8pm; Thu-Sat: 10am - 11pm; Sun: 11am - 7pm

Visit Morrison Hotel Gallery to view more examples of what will be on display and also if you are interested in purchasing prints.

Stevie Nicks, 66, is renowned for capturing emotions through her music (including Fleetwood Mac), but she also captured it through a camera during what many call the golden age of rock. Nicks was a night owl who needed another artistic outlet and eventually began creating self-portraits. The images in Nicks' debut photography exhibition, "24 Karat Gold," were taken from 1975 to 1987.

Nicks wanted to learn how to become a photographer and because she doesn't sleep at night, she started thinking; "Who am I going to ask to stay up all night and then do a show the next night? I'm not going to get [bandmate] Christine [McVie] to be my model. She's going to say, 'Are you crazy? I'm going to the bar. Bye.' Then I thought, well, why not use a plant and I moved on from there."

Nicks used to put the Polorid camera on a tripod and attached a long shutter release cable to capture the shots. Nicks said: "I would sit with the button in my hand so that I could be completely dressed in a long white gown with red lipstick and big hair. Remember, this was the middle of the night. I was usually in the presidential suite and if the light on the plant wasn't bright enough, I'd go into the bedroom, find a huge lamp and drag it into the living room and I'd put it on the plant. Then I'd hop back in the picture and press the button. I usually had to take about 12 shots until I got it just right. Lots of times I'd run out of film and I would send people out to buy me film in the middle of the night. I was doing this forever and I didn't stop until Polaroids were almost impossible to use because they all eventually broke down and we couldn't find film anywhere."

The photography exhibition coincides with the Oct. 7, 2014, release of her new album, "24 Karat Gold - Songs From the Vault," and the upcoming tour with the fully reunited Fleetwood Mac. 

STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"

Pre-Order from Stevienicksofficial.com Available October 7th.

Official Commentary Video: Stevie Nicks - "I Don't Care"

STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"

Pre-Order from Stevienicksofficial.com Available October 7th.

Mick Fleetwood on CBS Sunday Morning Sept 28th (9AM ET)

CBS Press Release (September 26, 2014)

“CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD” CATCHES UP WITH MICK FLEETWOOD AS THE LEGENDARY BAND FLEETWOOD MAC PREPARES FOR A NEW CONCERT TOUR

FLEETWOOD TELLS JOHN BLACKSTONE: “I THINK IT’S ABOUT GETTING YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER, WITHOUT BEING OVERLY HEAVY”

As the legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac prepares for a new tour, drummer and band co-founder

Mick Fleetwood says it was time to get his house in order, he tells John Blackstone in an interview for CBS SUNDAY MORNING WITH CHARLES OSGOOD to be broadcast Sept. 28 (9:00 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network.

In Stores October October 28th
AMAZON

The tour marks the first time in 17 years that Christine McVie has rejoined John McVie, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham on stage, and also comes as Fleetwood is preparing for the release of a new autobiography.

“I think it’s about getting your house in order, without being overly heavy,” Fleetwood tells Blackstone. “The reality is I’m sitting here, 67 years old, I’m certainly not planning on leaving anytime that I know of, but you see the picture in a different way, just because you’re older.”

In the book, Fleetwood writes about his marriages, his divorces, his failures as a father, and some of the excesses that characterized the band’s early years.  

“I don’t write songs,” Fleetwood says. “So this is a version of me writing a song.”

Fleetwood talks with Blackstone about his life, the formation of Fleetwood Mac, which led to the hits “Rhiannon” and “Say You Love Me,” and the unique personal dynamics that emerged within the group. Among them, an affair Fleetwood had with Nicks while the band was touring behind the album “Rumours.”

“I was certainly in love with Stevie, and I think it’s fair to say that she was likewise. We know that that time existed, and it was powerful and crazy,” Fleetwood recalls.

Blackstone also talks with Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie about how the band has regrouped after 17 years to make beautiful music yet again.

Nicks tells Blackstone Fleetwood ended the affair because “we both knew that Fleetwood Mac was gonna go on, probably longer than anybody’s marriage, and that it was important that we be friends, so Mick and I just put our friendship back together.”

CBS SUNDAY MORNING is broadcast Sundays (9:00-10:30 AM, ET) on the CBS Television Network. Rand Morrison is the executive producer.

CBS Press Release

Stevie Nicks Admits Past Pregnancy With Don Henley and More About Her Wild History

By Rob Tannenbaum
Billboard.com

In the ’80s, a doctor warned Stevie Nicks that if she did one more line of cocaine, she’d have a brain hemorrhage. Three decades later, she's still here -- and she has plenty of stories to tell.

Stevie Nicks was sitting in her den in Los Angeles' Pacific Palisades recently, overlooking the ocean, when the 66-year-old peered out the window and saw black angel wings. The wings were so pretty, she thought about taking a photo. But after several minutes, she heard ambulance sirens and realized that a boat had caught fire: The angel wings were in fact black smoke.

It’s telling that she saw beauty in a disaster. Rumours, the 1977 Fleetwood Mac album, is both one of the most elegant pop albums ever made, and one of the most savage. The record chronicles the romantic crossfire between Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, a pair of Americans who'd joined the venerable British group two years earlier, and bassist John McVie and keyboardist Christine McVie, who'd broken up and weren't speaking to one another, following her affair with the band’s sound engineer. (Drummer Mick Fleetwood didn’t escape the melodrama -- his wife had an affair with Mick's best friend.) Though the Nicks-Buckingham romance ended long ago, it continues to yield great songs: On her new album, 24 Karat Gold - Songs From the Vault, due Oct. 7, Nicks has recorded lost songs she wrote between the late '60s and mid-'90s, at least one of which, she tells Billboard, is about Buckingham.

Continue to Billboard for the full Q&A

STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"

Pre-Order from Stevienicksofficial.com Available October 7th.

NEW sound bite from Stevie Nicks - "She Loves Him Still"

Sounds gentle and lovely...

"Till his dying day / not even he himself can change this /

she loves him still"

Post by Stevie Nicks.

STEVIE NICKS "24 KARAT GOLD - SONGS FROM THE VAULT"

Pre-Order from Stevienicksofficial.com Available October 7th.

Fleetwood Mac Rocks On

The legendary band talks to USA Weekend about Christine McVie's surprise return and their new tour.

 

USA Today (Sept 26-28)

 

 

Fall's hottest tour: Classic Mac is back!

Christine McVie's return sets the stage for fall's hottest tour

Edna Gundersen

USA WEEKEND

 

"I feel like a lemming going over the cliff with the parachute not quite open," Christine McVie says about her surprise return to Fleetwood Mac after a 15-year absence.

 

With the fan-favorite singer and keyboardist back on board, the storied band's classic lineup is together once more and will be able to unpack its full range of hits when the On With The Show tour kicks off Tuesday in Minneapolis. It's the first tour by this stellar cast since 1997.

 

Despite her initial trepidation, "it was the right decision," says McVie, 71. "The feedback from the public is thrilling. I'm looking forward to the camaraderie, the audience, the noise. I'm not looking forward to the packing and unpacking."
 

Although McVie and singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham have written and recorded new songs, Fleetwood Mac is taking to the road without a new album.

 

"The validity of the tour comes from the fact that Christine is back and we're revisiting the full body of work from the three writers (McVie, Buckingham, Stevie Nicks) in a way we haven't done for many years," says Buckingham, 64. "The only song of hers we did without her (on past tours) was Don't Stop, as an encore. For this tour, 90% of the set list is a no-brainer.

 

In August, the band — including bassist John McVie, Christine's ex-husband, who had been battling cancer — convened in Los Angeles to rehearse and cherry-pick its fat catalog for a career-spanning set list. Fans can expect a few rarities and surprises atop a bedrock of 10 or 11 landmarks, including Rhiannon, The Chain, Go Your Own Way, Big Love, Stand Back and McVie's Say You Love Me, Little Lies and Hold Me.

 

Fleetwood Mac certainly didn't suffer without McVie: The band ranked 10th in Billboard's tally of music moneymakers last year with earnings of $19.1 million. "We spent 15 years making Fleetwood Mac relevant without her," Nicks says. "But with her, we were a force of nature."

 

Nicks recalls her reaction last year when she heard from Christine McVie while vacationing at a monastery on Italy's Amalfi coast: "I get a call from Chris, saying, 'How would you feel if I decided to come back to the band?' I'm like, 'Seriously? Have you just downed a bottle of wine?'

 

"When she left in 1998, she said, 'I don't want this. I don't want to fly anymore. I'm having panic attacks. I'm too old. I'm too tired. I am done.' I knew there was no way we could change her mind. As the years went by, when people asked me about her, I said the world would fly off its orbit before Chris would rejoin the band."

 

"It's been quite profound and painless," McVie says of her return to the fold. "I left to go chill in the English countryside. I realized it was not what I wanted in the end. It was boring. This is where I belong. I'm starting to live again."