Review: 'Last night belonged without question to Christine McVie'

Fleetwood Mac proves triumphant at MTS Centre
Winnipeg, MB - November 10, 2014
By Nigel Moore
Metro

The chain has kept them together, after all these years. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Fleetwood Mac – the classic 1970s lineup of five – thrilled many baby boomers on a date night yesterday, as the band’s On With The Show tour triumphantly landed at the MTS Centre for a 2½-hour concert.

The mischievous 6’6” drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and his band co-founder, bassist John McVie (hence the Mac’s name), Lindsey Buckingham (guitars and vocals) and Stevie Nicks (vocals), who both joined back in ’75, and the returning songbird, Christine McVie (keyboards and vocals): five distinct personalities who have somehow stayed together and made it work, going on almost four decades. Buckingham came back after quitting for several years in the late ‘80s, but last night belonged without question to Christine McVie, who is touring for the first time in 16 years after a hiatus brought on by her fear of flying.

Photos: David Lipnowski
VIEW GALLERY

Fleetwood Mac opened with “The Chain” from Rumours (1977), silencing any doubts they’re still a ferocious rock band. The follow-up song was Christine McVie’s “You Make Loving Fun”, which got a roar of approval from the audience to welcome her back. “Thank you for giving me a second chance; you don’t often get that,” she said before “Everywhere” from 1987’s Tango in the Night. Still sounds great, by the way.

Many came to see Stevie Nicks, whose sexy, raspy voice on “Dreams”, followed shortly by “Rhiannon”, doesn’t quite soar as it once did, but has gained a smoky quality that she makes work. Nicks can still twirl the heck out of a shawl and, at times, when she was dancing she looked eerily like her 20-something self, shimmying under her black top hat.

Buckingham led the band in an explosive “Tusk”, the title track from their 1979 double LP, which sounded surprisingly current and vital, then a heavy version of “Sisters of the Moon” from the same album – a damn cool song that Nicks really sold on vocals.

Mid-way through their set, the Mac stripped it down for a few self-indulgent acoustic numbers that slowed things down a bit too much. Nicks took the stage for a truly gorgeous “Landslide”…she is “getting older too,” but the gypsy hasn’t lost any of her mystery, nor magic. There were a few other, shall we say, less-than-exhilarating parts of the show. The worst offender was Buckingham, whose solos – one in particular that seemed to go on forever (another beer, anyone?) – were clearly appreciated most by the notoriously egotistical guitarist himself. But still, seeing him sing “Go Your Own Way”, the mother of all bitter break-up songs, with Nicks some 37 years after their split is still a blast.

Fleetwood left his gigantic drum kit in the back of the stage for a smaller one up front. Watching him play in person, you can see he’s a fluid, effortlessly powerful drummer. His trademark fills put the punctuations on his status as one of rock’s greatest drummers. Later for the encore, his extended drum solo within “World Turning” from Fleetwood Mac (1975) was both awe-inspiring and hilarious, as only Fleetwood himself can be.

Meanwhile, apart from a couple of short bass breaks, John McVie hung back near the drums and made almost no impression on stage. He could have been mistaken for a session player, which is probably just as he likes it.

Review | Photos: Fleetwood Mac Live in Winnipeg

Fleetwood Mac's terrific live show more than just Rumours
By: Jen Zoratti
Winnipeg Free Press
MTS Centre
November 11, 2014

Photos above: John Woods - View Gallery

Fleetwood Mac is easily one of the most rock ’n’ roll bands in rock ’n’ roll.

From the cocaine binges to the in-fighting to the affairs to the cults (founding member Jeremy Spencer left to join one in 1971) to the extravagant contracts (Nicks and McVie reportedly wanted their hotel rooms freshly painted in specific colours before they arrived), the band has the kind of history rock biographers dream of.

Dishy drama aside, Fleetwood Mac is also responsible for one of the best-selling albums of all time — 1977’s landmark Rumours — and a catalogue of enduring classics. And then, of course, Fleetwood Mac also has Stevie Nicks — that quintessential blonde California girl in her shawls and fringes, who inspired a thousand imitators with both her songwriting prowess and her iconic image.

It’s easy to get romantic about Fleetwood Mac, whose current (and aptly titled) On with the Show tour rolled into the MTS Centre on Monday night, the band’s second show in Winnipeg in less than two years. As Jada Yuan wrote in a Vulture profile of Nicks, "you don’t come to one of their shows just for the music; you come to watch them masochistically stare down their past before a live audience." The history onstage is palpable.

And with Christine McVie back in the band rounding out the most famous Mac lineup of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Nicks, Monday night’s show felt even more significant.

After opening with The Chain — which boasted a blistering Buckingham solo; the man is ageless — Christine was given a warm welcome back when she took over the mic for You Make Loving Fun. "Welcome Winnipeg! And welcome back Chris!" Nicks shouted before launching into Dreams.

As one would expect, the sprawling two-and-a-half-hour show was mostly a greatest hits package; if you came to hear Rumours in nearly its entirety, you were rewarded — the band played everything but Oh Daddy and I Don’t Want to Know.

Much-loved McVie songs — such as Everywhere, Say You Love Me and Over My Head — are also obviously back in rotation this time out, which was another treat; it’s been 16 years since we’ve heard Christine’s fine-wine pipes live. (She quit the band in ’98, apparently due to a crippling fear of flying.) And she delivered; her presence made the performances feel more "complete," to borrow a word from Mick Fleetwood.

She might not be able to reach the heights she used to, but Nicks’ voice has also gotten deeper and richer with age, as evidenced on Rhiannon, a purring Sisters of the Moon and, later on in the night, show-stopping performances of Landslide and the ever-haunting Gold Dust Woman. The latter, in particular, will go down as one of the year’s best concert moments. She sent shivers down this reviewer’s spine.

If Stevie Nicks, twirling in her shawls and her ribbon-festooned tambourine, is a rock ’n’ roll goddess, then Buckingham is a bona fide guitar god. I Know I’m Not Wrong — with the guitarist turning in a positively punk rock performance — was an early set highlight, as was the driving Tusk. An arresting solo-acoustic reading of Big Love — from 1987’s Tango in the Night — was a stunning reminder of what an agile guitarist he is. It’s a bit of a shame that he wasn’t given more room to stretch out on more extended jams; the solo on I’m So Afraid was a scorcher.

The energy barely waned over the course of what was a marathon show, but it never felt like it. A boisterous Little Lies had the folks in the first few rows on the floor dancing their hearts out. Main set closer Go Your Own Way — with Nicks in her top hat — was similarly resplendent.

The band returned for a sizzling four-song encore that included World Turning (which, like last time, featured a pummelling Fleetwood drum solo), a bouncy Don’t Stop, Silver Springs — written for Lindsey, according to Mac lore — and, fittingly, closed with a spare, stripped-down version Christine McVie’s lovely Songbird.

Maybe Buckingham was right when he said this was the start of a new chapter for Fleetwood Mac earlier in the night. This isn’t a mere nostalgia act. This is a band renewed.

Photo by Sarah Taylor | Chrisd.ca - VIEW GALLERY

Fleetwood Mac Announce Europe/UK Dates Through May - June 2015

MAY 2015
May 27 - The O2, London
May 28 - The O2, London

JUNE 2015
June 01 - Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam
June 04 - Lanxess Arena, Cologne
June 06 - Sportspaleis, Antwerp
June 08 - Genting Arena, Birmingham
June 12 - Manchester Arena, Manchester
June 16 - SSE Hydro, Glasgow
June 20 - 3Arena, Dublin
June 30 - First Direct Arena, Leeds

- 02 Priority Ticket Pre-sale begins Nov 12th at 9:00 AM (for London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds)
- Live Nation Pre-sale begins Nov 13th at 9:00 AM (UK Dates only)
- Tickets go on general sale Friday November 14th at 9:00 AM.

Ticket will be available either with Ticketmaster or Livenation

There are a lot of spaces between dates so there will either be multiple shows in certain places added or more dates announced.

Fleetwood Mac will announce a new UK tour on Monday (November 10th) 9am

Mick Fleetwood says Fleetwood Mac will tour the UK next summer, but rules out headlining Glastonbury

Fleetwood Mac will announce a new UK tour on Monday (November 10th), but drummer Mick Fleetwood has ruled out the band headlining next summer's Glastonbury Festival.

The band are in the midst of a huge US tour, their first with Christine McVie since 1997 and look set to announce a new batch of UK dates for next summer.

Fleetwood Mac will be touring through May and June in 2015, the full dossier will be announced on Monday. 

The Mac are back. Fleetwood Mac return with Christine McVie after a 16 year absence. Announcement, Monday at 9am. pic.twitter.com/QWli4rlQcl
— Live Nation UK (@LiveNationUK) November 7, 2014

Fleetwood Mac drummer tells Salon new "Rumours" stories, reflects on Stevie Nicks affair, shares regrets

Mick Fleetwood on “Rumours”-era excess: “I’m damn lucky I never killed anyone!”

Photo: Chris Pizzello

EXCLUSIVE: Fleetwood Mac drummer tells Salon new "Rumours" stories, reflects on Stevie Nicks affair, shares regrets

By David Daley
Salon.com

The Mick Fleetwood pictured on the back of his new memoir, “Play On: Now, Then and Fleetwood Mac,” looks fabulously content. This is the rock star as elegant dandy, stylish in tails, draped in an accent of gold jewelry, a trim white beard. It’s an advertisement for the good life, if not living right.

Crazy, isn’t it? Because the Fleetwood on the cover has a wicked gleam in his eye, as he peers out from under a rakish hat, hair down around his shoulders. This is the Fleetwood of the mid-t0-late ’70s, the drummer whose band was re-energized by the arrival of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, who recorded 1975′s “Fleetwood Mac” with “white powder peeling off the walls of every room” in the studio.

But the madness was only beginning: The relationships of Buckingham and Nicks, along with John and Christine McVie, were unraveling amidst angst, affairs and mountains of cocaine. “Rumours” chronicled the dissolution of it all, selling tens of millions of albums worldwide. They were among the biggest bands in the world, and they lived every moment of it to the extreme. “The drugs of course were plentiful,” Fleetwood writes, “and we partook of the finest Peruvian flake quite a bit, both to numb the pain and to find the energy to persevere.”

Even grander extravagance followed, and I don’t just mean “Tusk.” Their contracts required fleets of limos to be available on demand. Nicks and McVie wanted their hotel rooms freshly painted in specific colors before they arrived; Nicks also required a white piano. Cocaine was measured out to the entire touring party after the show — “everyone who lined up got their packet” — at a specific announced time in each city. “It was fabulously expensive, wonderful and sometimes depraved,” he admits.

The hits, of course, have fueled presidential campaigns and never gone away. Even the albums you think you know are studded with gems. The albums get discovered and rediscovered and continue to influence new generations. (Note to anyone in high school, or ahem, later than that, who I made of fun for loving them, from behind the righteousness of my Smiths shirt: Sorry about that!) And the five-piece band from those iconic albums is now back together and touring into next year — Fleetwood calls it a “victory lap” in the book, so you might check it out while you can — but he also reveals that the band is working on new material.

All of this, of course, is the stuff of great rock memoir, and “Play On” doesn’t hold back on the stories behind the songs or the dramas on the road and in the studio. Fleetwood is also deeply reflective on the relationships he sacrificed to the band, whether as a father, a husband or a son. We talked last week in New York. There was only 20 minutes and he gives long answers. The interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

Continue to the full interview at Salon.com

BBC INTERVIEWS: Mick Fleetwood "Play On: Now Than and Fleetwood Mac"

MICK FLEETWOOD INTERVIEWS

5 Interviews from this past week in London with Mick promoting his new book
 "Play On: Now, Then And Fleetwood Mac

Photo Gallery: BBC Radio 4 Loose Ends with
Mick Fleetwood, Matt Berry, Imtiaz Dharker, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, GoGo Penguin

BBC RADIO 4 
Loose Ends - November 11, 2014

Listen on-line

BBC RADIO OXFORD
Howard Bentham
Friday, November 5, 2014
Listen on-line (advance to the 42:13 min mark)

BBC RADIO SCOTLAND

MacAulay and Co - November 5, 2014

Listen on-line (advance to the 54:00 min mark)

BBC RADIO 6

Radcliffe and Maconie - November 5, 2014

Listen below or at BBC Radio 6

BBC RADIO 2
The Chris Evans Breakfast show - Friday, November 7, 2014
Listen on-line (advance to the 1:40 min mark)

Sunday Concert Series with Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks

Sunday, November 9th 2:25 PM ET
(Repeats Mon, Nov 10th 4:30 AM ET)
Stevie Nicks - Live in Chicago

A radiant Stevie Nicks captivates in her first solo performance to be filmed since 1987. Clad in her trademark look of high heels and lace, she elegantly showcases her vocal abilities with stunning performances of her best, along with carefully chosen covers for a comprehensive career retrospective.

Sunday, November 9th 3:25 PM ET

Rock Legends: Fleetwood Mac

Rock Legends features archive material, music videos "Dreams" and "Landslide" to detail the storied career of Fleetwood Mac.

Sunday, November 9th 3:55 PM ET

Fleetwood Mac, Live In Boston

Mick, John, Lindsey and Stevie unite for a passionate evening playing hits from Say You Will, as well as "Go Your Own Way", "Dreams" and "Don't Stop". The combination of harmonious delivery and purposeful melodies show why they will always remain a classic. Other hits include "Rhiannon" and "Landslide".