Photos by John Barrett - Fleetwood Mac The Today Show Oct 9, 2014

Fleetwood Mac The Today Show
October 9, 2014 - New York City

Photos by John Barrett
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Sometimes not even 80 percent of a band’s classic lineup is enough to recapture the magic

By Patrick Berkery
The Philadelphia Inquirer

That was seen in Fleetwood Mac’s sporadic tours and limited recorded output after longtime singer-songwriter and keyboardist Christine McVie retired in 1998. Now, after 16 years in the English countryside, McVie, 71, is back with the Mac for the “On With the Show” tour, which played a sold-out Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday. The tour returns to the Wells Fargo Center on Oct. 29 and plays Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall on Jan. 24.

McVie brought a feel-good balance to Stevie Nicks’ witchy ways and Lindsey Buckingham’s tightly coiled guitar heroics, in front of the masterful rhythm section of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. Christine McVie was in fine voice throughout the 24-song, 21/ 2- hour show.

To paraphrase another titan of 1970s rock, Fleetwood Mac ain’t had that spirit here since, oh, 1998.

There would be no show without Buckingham (clad in the tightest jeans you’re ever likely to see on a 65-year-old) and Nicks (dressed in all black and heels). But with Christine McVie’s return, all was balanced, making it feel like the Mac was truly back.

Mc back in the Mac Rockers’ blossom on star return

by Ed Power

Irish Independent Oct 18, 2014
Weekend Review Magazine

Irish Independent
Weekend Review Magazine

When Christine McVie rejoined Fleetwood Mac for the first time since the late 1990s, it was a reminder a great band is more than the sum of its parts, writes Ed Power.

In September 2013, Fleetwood Mac gathered backstage at Dublin’s O2 arena. Several hours later the multimillion-selling soft rockers were to perform the first of two sold-out shows at the 14,000 capacity venue. But Ireland wasn’t on their minds at that moment. Instead, the group were tentatively renewing acquaintances with Christine McVie, the dulcet-voiced keyboard player who had authored some of their biggest hits before leaving the band — fleeing it, really — in 1997.

Nerves were in the air. McVie had barely spoken to the rest of the lineup in the intervening decade and a half. Now, after a gruelling divorce and a spell of depression, she was contemplating a comeback. She’d flown to Dublin to rehearse, with a view to joining Fleetwood Mac on stage in London later in the tour. Deep within the concrete labyrinth that constitutes the O2’s backstage area, the tension was palpable: would the old chemistry still endure? What of old enmities? Fleetwood Mac’s history was notoriously fractious. Was the band broken, impossible to repair?

Fleetwood Mac reunites in Toronto tonight, Mick talks about his photography

TORONTO CONCERT

Toronto Sun

As legendary band Fleetwood Mac reunites in Toronto tonight, Mick talks about his photography.

This is a bunch of people trying to make it work. This is for sure a special moment for this band....

Two weeks ago, in a phone interview from New York, Mick Fleetwood could not hide his disappointment. The dismay was not with the Fleetwood Mac reunion show there. These have been hugely gratifying love-fests, (the first full-member tour by the band since 1997 hits Toronto Saturday night). Rather, Fleetwood-the-nature photographer was chagrined at being as yet unable to capture on film the anticipated glory of leaves changing colour. “I went running through Central Park and the leaves haven't changed at all,” the 67-year-old Fleetwood Mac drummer complained. “Maybe one or two trees. I know it happens very quickly, almost overnight. Boom. It is beautiful and I hope to get some shots up there in Canada.” Fleetwood, who lives on the island of Maui these days, is using the tour partly as a coming-out party for gallery showings of his hand-painted original photos, including one at Toronto's Liss Gallery.

“I've had these shows in Maui for years, some hotels have them in their lobbies, and people there have a fond level of appreciation. The outside world really doesn't know much about it,” said Fleetwood.

“So this is me, putting my nuts on the line. It's exciting. I suppose there'll be some reviews. And I'll know if everybody thinks it's just a bunch of s--- or not. I'm hoping that's not the case.”

In an ironic way, his photography is tied into the history of Fleetwood Mac.

“I got my first nonsnap camera in 1968 just after the band had formed. I do remember that John McVie had a very grand camera. John is quietly a very good photographer. And the urge to get a decent camera was based on if-he's-got-oneI-want-one, more than art at the time.”

Interestingly, Fleetwood doesn't exhibit behind-the-scenes pictures of the band itself.

“That is funny, and I've never thought much about that. Stevie (Nicks) has ... a Polaroid show in New York while we're here ... And that is very much her road stuff she took. Mine is very detached from anything to do with what I do.”

Over time, photography began to gratify Fleetwood in ways music didn't.

“...I've been in a band for nearly 50 years, surrounded by incredibly talented people — part of the support team, by nature of my being a percussionist.

“Photography is the nearest thing to me writing a song and taking responsibility. I don't get that in Fleetwood Mac. I was not the songwriter. I was the band gatekeeper.”

Gatekeeper/peacemaker/negotiator is a role Fleetwood takes seriously.

He was not usually directly involved in the various feuds, romantic entanglements and complications that have plagued the band over the years. And he was instrumental in luring Christine McVie back into the fold, after 17 years away. Fleetwood, who is releasing a new autobiography entitled Play On (October 28th), doesn't necessarily feel past bad blood is best forgotten. “Getting older puts things in perspective that were not in perspective. That's a better approach than shoving it all under the matt ... “Y'know what? Look at us. A bunch of crazy people, often quite dysfunctional, horribly in love, which led to things that have sometimes been hard to handle.

“It's not just business. This is a bunch of people trying to make it work. This is for sure a special moment for this band...”

Audio Interview: Lindsey Buckingham joins Andy Greenwald to discuss 40 years of Fleetwood Mac

Andy Greenwald - Lindsey Buckingham
Lindsey Buckingham joins Andy Greenwald to discuss 40 years of Fleetwood Mac, his insatiable solo career, and the band's current world tour.

Interview conducted post Madison Square Garden shows Oct 6/7th, 2014

Mick Fleetwood hopes Stevie Nicks will find time to contribute to new Fleetwood Mac music

Mick Fleetwood says new Fleetwood Mac music 'profound,' hopes Nicks contributes
By Nick Patch - Canadian Press

TORONTO - Mick Fleetwood says he hopes Stevie Nicks will ultimately find time to contribute to the new music Fleetwood Mac is recording — which could ultimately form the band's first album in nearly 30 years with its entire principal lineup intact.

Chris Young,The Canadian Press

The newly reformed rock titans — who welcomed keyboardist Christine McVie back into the fold for a tour that hits Toronto on Saturday and other Canadian cities in the coming months — went into the studio "many months ago now" to work on new material, Fleetwood said.

Lindsey Buckingham has called the new material "profound," an adjective that Fleetwood agreed with enthusiastically.

"It is profound. It's great," said the 67-year-old drummer Thursday in an interview in Toronto. "The four of us went in ... and had a lot of fun — for Chris, just reconnecting, playing music, with no particular thought in mind.

"I hope it becomes part of something that will make sense. But (bassist) John (McVie), Lindsey and me and Chris, we were all participating. So it's exciting."

The band's last album of new material was 2003's "Say You Will," but the last to feature the band's most successful five-piece lineup was 1987's "Tango in the Night."

Asked whether Nicks would eventually be involved in the recording, Fleetwood replied: "We hope so."

"Right now we've got this tour to do and it's very time-consuming so we'll see," he added. "It will come out one way or another."