Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Year Everyone... All the best to you in 2015....

Thanks for checking in with Fleetwood Mac News all through 2014! I appreciate you taking the time and I thank you for all your comments on posts (the good and the bad) and messages by email. Also a massive thank you to Fleetwood Mac for another unforgettable 2014 of great shows and great music.  2015 is shaping up to be just as spectacular with plenty of shows and hopefully that new album we keep hearing about!

Just think... If Stevie and Lindsey didn't join Fleetwood Mac 40 Years Ago Today, New Years Eve 1974, you may not even be reading this right now.... So a special thanks to Stevie and Lindsey for changing a band... and changing lives for the past 40 years.  And a special special thanks to Christine McVie for returning to the music world in 2014 and gracing the Fleetwood Mac stage once again.


Tuesday, December 30, 2014

The Year in Music 2014 -- Fleetwood Mac: The Return of Christine McVie

2014 saw a reunion that Fleetwood Mac fans were hoping for more than a decade would happen -- Christine McVie officially rejoined the band's lineup.  The singer/keyboardist had gone her own way in 1998, retiring from the group to live quietly in the English countryside.  However, Christine apparently had gotten bored with her life away from the band.

Fleetwood Mac officially announced Christine's return to the fold in January, but the reunion had been brewing for quite a few months.  In September of 2013, she made guest appearances at a couple of the group's U.K. concerts, and then revealed in an interview in November that she missed her band mates and would consider rejoining them "if they asked."  They asked.

Not long after the news broke that Christine was back in Fleetwood Mac, the band not only announced dates for a new North American tour with the reunited lineup, but revealed they also were recording new music.  The trek kicked off on September 30 in Minneapolis, and by all reports audiences have been overjoyed to get to hear McVie singing with the group again.

Her band mates also are thrilled to have Christine back.  As drummer Mick Fleetwood recently told ABC News Radio, "It's outrageously great, balanced, musically really gratifying playing all Christine's lovely songs again.  And it's been nothing but really healthy for everybody."

The band wound down its 2014 itinerary with a December 20 show in Tampa, Florida, but they won't be idle for long.  Fleetwood Mac begins another North American leg on January 16 in St. Paul, Minnesota, that's mapped out until an April 11 concert in Las Vegas.  The group also has a tour of the U.K. and Ireland that's slated to run from late May to early July.

Source: The Loop

Lindsey Buckingham hints Fleetwood Mac album will be studio swan song


Lindsey Buckingham hinted that Fleetwood Mac's next album might be the band's studio swan song. During a chat with PBS' Tavis Smiley, Buckingham spoke about the new material he's been cooking up with returning keyboardist Christine McVie, revealing, "Before we started rehearsing the show with Christine, she came over and said, ‘Lindsey, I’ve got some rough ideas for new songs. She gave me a bunch of stuff to take home after we saw her in England when we played there. And I worked on it at home, took lots of liberties, came back. She loved it. We went in the studio for two months and came up with probably the best group of songs that were co-written that we’ve done in years. So we are going to continue working on a new album and (my) solo stuff will probably take a back seat for another year or so.”

He went on to say the still unfinished album "would be a beautiful way to kind of wrap up this last act."

Although Lindsey Buckingham is marking his 40th anniversary of joining Fleetwood Mac, at 65, he still feels like he's at the top of his game: “A lot of the idea of (laughs) being in a rock n’ roll band and getting to be one of, sort of the people who’s been around for a while, y’know, you can manage that equation any number of ways. Y’know, it’s hard for me to sort of. . . I feel the same physically as I did 25 years ago. I think I’m mentally, somewhat in arrested (laughs) development - y’know, in a good way, I hope!”

Fleetwood Mac North American tour dates (subject to change):

January 16 - Saint Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
January 17 - Lincoln, NE - Pinnacle Bank Arena
January 20 - Grand Rapids, MI - Van Andel Arena
January 22 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden Arena
January 24 - Atlantic City, NJ - Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall
January 25 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
January 28 - Providence, RI - Dunkin' Donuts Center
January 30 - Washington, DC - Verizon Center
January 31 - Buffalo, NY - First Niagara Center
February 3 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
February 5 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
February 7 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
February 8 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
February 11 - Des Moines, IA - Wells Fargo Arena
February 12 - Milwaukee, WI - BMO Harris Bradley Center
February 14 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena
February 17 - Louisville, KY - KFC Yum! Center
February 18 - Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena
March 1 - Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center
March 3 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center
March 4 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
March 7 - Charlotte, NC - Time Warner Cable Arena
March 8 - Knoxville, TN - Thompson-Boling Arena
March 11 - North Little Rock, AR - Verizon Arena
March 12 - Oklahoma City, OK - Chesapeake Energy Arena
March 15 - Charlottesville, VA - John Paul Jones Arena (JPJ Arena)
March 17 - Greensboro, NC - Greensboro Coliseum
March 18 - Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena
March 21 - Miami, FL - Time Warner Cable Arena
March 23 - Orlando, FL - Amway Center
March 25 - Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena
March 27 - St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center
March 28 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
March 31 - Wichita, KS - Intrust Bank Arena
April 1 - Denver, CO - Pepsi Center
April 4 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena
April 6 - Bakersfield, CA - Rabobank Arena
April 7 - Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena
April 10 - Inglewood, CA - Forum
April 11 - Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena

Side Notes:

MORE ON "ONE MAN SHOW"
Out now is Lindsey Buckingham's first ever solo live album -- Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show. The set was recorded on September 1st, 2012 in Des Moines, Iowa at Hoyt Sherman Place, and chronicled the set Buckingham has playing on his last solo tour.

The album features Buckingham tapping into his solo work with tracks like "Go Insane" and "Trouble," Fleetwood Mac with "I'm So Afraid," and "Go Your Own Way" -- and even a rare dip into the Buckingham Nicks catalogue with "Stephanie."

The tracklisting for Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show is: "Cast Away Dreams," "Bleed To Love Her," "Not Too Late," "Stephanie," "Come," "Shut Us Down," "Go Insane," "Never Going Back Again," "Big Love," "I'm So Afraid," "Go Your Own Way," "Trouble," and "Seeds We Sow."

Source: K-Hits

Monday, December 29, 2014

With Christine McVie's return, the Mac is back and better than ever.

Fleetwood Mac lands at Amalie Arena in Tampa
By Gabe Echazabal and Tracy May
Creative Loafing

The rumors are indeed true: with Christine McVie's return, the Mac is back and better than ever.

Photo: Tracy May
VIEW MORE PHOTOS

It's often said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That age-old adage is particularly relevant in reference to rock bands that attempt to forge ahead and record or tour without a key member in tow; the results can be uneven or sub-standard at best. While Fleetwood Mac already had a lengthy catalog to their credit by the time they revamped their lineup and adopted more of a pop sound in the mid-1970's, the UK-spawned blues/rock group's greatest success came when the dynamics of all its different personalities meshed and translated into hit singles and million-selling albums.

Fleetwood Mac reached unimaginable heights when breezy, laid-back Californians Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were welcomed to the fold and the band debuted their new look, sound and feel to the world with a magnificent 1975 self-titled album. A major factor in the band's newly attained success was the emergence of veteran songwriter and vocalist Christine McVie. With her cool vocal delivery and impressive keyboard work, McVie's presence was as much a factor in the band's dominance of sales charts as Buckingham and Nicks.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Text In To Win: Fleetwood Mac Tickets Jan 28th, Providence, RI

Catch Fleetwood Mac At The Dunk Next Month!

It’s a Text In To Win Weekend, and Heather and Steve will award two tickets to this show Monday morning at 7:25!

To win, text FLEETWOOD + your name to 68683, then be by your phone Monday morning, because Heather and Steve could be calling you to win tix to see Fleetwood Mac January 28 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island!

Courtesy of Metro Motor Group, and Lite Rock 105.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Reviews: Fleetwood Mac Live in Tampa December 20, 2014

Fleetwood Mac reunion tour a landslide hit with Tampa fans
by Tim Chong
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA — It has been nearly 40 years since the classic lineup of Fleetwood Mac first performed together. The band has been in existence even longer, but when most people think of “Fleetwood Mac” they think of eccentric guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, mystical songstress Stevie Nicks, crazed drummer Mick Fleetwood, quiet bassist John McVie and down-to-earth keyboardist Christine McVie.

Photo: Andy Jones - View More
Four decades is a long time for any group of people to stay together, and members of the notoriously combustible Fleetwood Mac, not surprisingly, have spent much of that time in and out of the group. The past couple of tours and the last album, with everyone but Christine McVie, was the closest many thought there would be to a reunion.

Christine McVie’s full-time return is enough to celebrate a tour — there’s no new album to promote — and on Saturday night at Amalie Arena fans were ready to welcome her back, giving McVie her own ovation.

Unsurprisingly, the set list leaned heavily on “Rumours,” still one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. Starting with a thundering ”The Chain,” the band defied age and its reputation as a soft rock band.

The biggest surprises were songs from “Tusk,” the follow-up to Rumours considered by some to be a flop. The songs aren’t as familiar, but the band seemed to enjoy playing them and stretching out “I Know I’m not Wrong” and “Sisters of the Moon,” and reinventing “Tusk” as a blues guitar workout.”

The group seemed more enthusiastic than on previous tours. Perhaps everyone being together has re-energized the Mac. There’s talk the group will return to the studio. If so the enthusiasm displayed at Tampa’s show is a good sign of things to come. The night was a welcome back party; to the band from the fans, to Christine from her bandmates, and to the music from the band.

View Photos at The Tampa Tribune

Mick Fleetwood Book Signing Monday, Dec 22, 2014 at Fleetwood's on Maui


Musician and Maui resident, Mick Fleetwood will be at Fleetwood’s General Store on Front Street on Monday, Dec. 22, where he will sign copies of his new book.

Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography, was released in October and tells the story of his life as a musician, playing drums since his teen years, to his long career as co-founder and member of the group Fleetwood Mac.

Born Michael John Kells Fleetwood in Cornwall, England, in 1947, Fleetwood now enjoys life on the Valley Isle where his Lahaina restaurant and general store bear his name.

The 352 page book takes a look at his life and love of music, as well as the “raucous history” of Fleetwood Mac, and the story behind the band’s longevity and success.

The in-store book signing event runs from 5 to 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 22, 2014.

Source: Mauinews.com

MICK FLEETWOOD BLUES BAND 
Featuring RICK VITO
Mick and Rick perform live on December 28th on the rooftop at Fleetwood's on Front St. For tickets, call 808-669-MICK.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Sunrise, FL December 19, 2014

Finally, 16 years after playing her last gig with Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie is back in the band.
By Howard Cohen
Miami Herald


Hard to tell who seemed happier for her return, the fans or the band members. Drummer Mick Fleetwood said in a pre-concert interview with the Miami Herald that this enduring band’s autobiographical music has served as a soundtrack for its audience’s own similar experiences. Love, loss, joy, heartache.

“It’s astoundingly powerful that for the vast majority of that audience their lives are unfolding in their own world and we’re triggering that.”

These fans have made the superstar group’s On With the Show Tour one of the year’s top touring attractions. At Sunrise’s sold-out BB&T Center Friday night, a crowd of 16,000 or so lustily cheered reinvigorated classics like Rhiannon, Go Your Own Way and Landslide.

Immediately after the standard Fleetwood Mac opener, The Chain, fans got their first taste of McVie’s burgundy warm, bluesy alto, which, reassuringly, sounds much as it did on Rumours 38 years ago. “Sweet, wonderful you/You make me happy with the things you do,” she sang in the opening line of You Make Loving Fun, the fourth Top 10 single from the landmark Rumours album. Back then, the song was about her lover, the band’s former lighting director, whom she briefly turned to as her marriage to bass player John McVie ended. Now, the lyric seems directed at her fellow musicians, including her ex, as well as the fans.

“Usually I’d say, ‘Welcome back, Christine,” a genuinely friendly, chatty Stevie Nicks said, referring to her previous stage patter early in the tour’s run. “But since this is the 39th show, we can safely say, She’s back!

Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, Nicks’ ex and the subject of many of her songs like Dreams and Silver Springs — much as she is the subject of his biting numbers, Go Your Own Way, Never Going Back Again and Second Hand News — has always had a particularly symbiotic musical relationship with McVie. The chemistry in the way their voices intertwine — McVie’s out of British blues, Buckingham’s inspired by ’50s folk — on the blues-rock stomp of World Turning and the rock shuffle, Don’t Stop, proved intact.

A couple hours earlier, just after McVie’s power pop charmer, Everywhere, and his own edgy rocker, I Know I’m Not Wrong, Buckingham delivered Fleetwood Mac’s State of the Union. He singled out McVie for providing a reason to think about tomorrow.

“With her return I believe we begin a profound, poetic and prolific new chapter in the life of this band,” Buckingham said. Encouraging, and inspiring, given he’s 65, McVie’s 71, Nicks is 66 and the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are 67 and 69, respectively. Given how well these men and women performed, for nearly three hours, you fully believe Buckingham.

Indeed, McVie’s contribution is the necessary sunlight amid Nicks’ and Buckingham’s darker ruminations. This additional voice made the harmonies on her Say You Love Me, Over My Head and Little Lies, the latter done with considerably more edge and kick than its stuck-in-the-’80s studio version, as well as Nicks’ Dreams and Rhiannon, ring with clarity. She also seemed to have inspired the others to deliver the best vocal performances we’ve heard from anyone in this outfit since the Reagan administration.

Sure, Nicks has lost her top range on Dreams and Sisters of the Moon. Buckingham’s voice is deeper.

But Nicks sang full-bodied and in-tune throughout, including on her showcase Gold Dust Woman and Seven Wonders, reintroduced thanks to its prominent use last season for Nicks’ witch character on FX’s American Horror Story: Coven. She dedicated Landslide to a fan who held a sign that said she’d had a stroke and that her bucket list wish was to see a Fleetwood Mac concert. Nicks responded, “I feel it in my heart. You’re going to be just fine.”

Buckingham had a regained suppleness and adventure in his phrasing that gave fresh nuance to Never Going Back Again, Big Love and the anguished I’m So Afraid. His inventive lead guitar playing, Flamenco style on Big Love; blues on I’m So Afraid; or classic rock soloing on Go Your Own Way, all played without a pick, elevates him among the greatest to play the instrument.

After an expertly paced 150-minute set, closed by McVie’s trademark promise of undying love, Songbird, a clearly grateful Fleetwood roared, “And remember, the Mac is most definitely back.”

No doubt, at 100 percent.





Fleetwood Mac returns March 21 at AmericanAirlines Arena in downtown Miami.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Fleetwood Mac has outlasted the drugs, inner turmoil, and hiatuses to remain one of the greatest rock outfits in the world

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Atlanta, GA
December 17, 2014 - Philips Arena
By Collin Kelley
Atlanta In Town





















When I saw Fleetwood Mac at the old Omni Coliseum in Downtown back in 1987, the souvenir stand was selling a button with the band’s familiar penguin logo and the proclamation that “The Mac Is Back.” Flash-forward 27 years (gulp!) and band namesake Mick Fleetwood was  standing at the lip of the stage at Philips Arena (which sits on the former site of The Omni) proclaiming the very same message to a sold-out audience at last night’s show.

The difference between last night and 1987 was that this was indeed the “full Mac” lineup that everyone knows and loves. Earlier this year, songwriter and keyboardist Christine McVie came in from the cold after a 16-year hiatus to rejoin the band, which immediately set out on a world tour to celebrate. Fleetwood Mac has carried on recording and touring in the intervening years, but without her voice behind the hits of “You Make Loving Fun,” “Don’t Stop,” “Say You Love Me,” “Over My Head,” “Little Lies, “Everywhere” and emotional encore “Songbird.” Those songs were all back in action last night, with McVie’s smoky contralto rendering of each bringing some of the night’s biggest cheers.

But the band’s other two songwriters – Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks – were also in fine voice, with Buckingham offering  up his frenzied guitar solo version of “Big Love” and an ominous “Never Going Back Again,” which he seemed to be directing toward former flame Nicks. While the Buckingham-Nicks split back in the 1970s offered fuel for the Rumours album, they have been milking their still combative relationship for more than 30 years now. It does make for great stage drama, especially when Nicks turns and stares him down for “Silver Springs” (“You’ll never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you…”) and Buckingham yowls through “Go Your On Way” (“Packing up, shacking up is all you wanna do…”).

Pop Tart: The pure 24 Karat Gold of Stevie Nicks

by Richard Burnett
Montreal Gazette

When my boozing buddy Jamie and I made our entrance at the absolutely packed, internationally-famed annual Stevie Nicks drag queen rock’n’roll tribute Night of a Thousand Stevies in New York City some years ago, New York hadn’t seen so much trash since the Teamsters’ citywide garbage strike of 1990.

No, I didn’t trip and slide face-first into the gutter like I did on Bourbon St. in New Orleans one Halloween, but I knew I was in deep trouble when my bartender told me she couldn’t serve me triple vodka-sodas because her glasses weren’t big enough.

As beautiful as the audience was – girls and boys everywhere dressed in Stevie’s trademark leather and lace – the real entertainment was on the stage. There were lip-syncing drag queens and kick-ass live performers. Then to close the show, Goon Squad – featuring Blondie’s Debbie Harry on lead vocals – destroyed the place with their balls-to-the-wall punk version of The Chain.

I have been to every major drag event in London, Sydney, Paris, New Orleans, Vegas and Montreal, and I’m telling you, NOTS is hands-down the most fun drag event I’ve ever been to. Revellers get dolled up à la Stevie, including past attendees Courtney Love, Cyndi Lauper and Boy George. Even I wore a blond wig.

“I hope next year maybe Stevie will come,” ab-fab NOTS co-hostess Hattie Hattaway (a.k.a. Brian Butterick), who produces NOTS with her fellow Jackie Factory NYC co-founders Johnny Dynell and Chi Chi Valenti, told me after the show.

Now flash-forward to Stevie’s new critically-hailed 2014 solo album 24 Karat Gold –Songs From The Vault, produced by Dave Stewart, Waddy Wachtel and Nicks, and recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles. The songs were written between 1969 and 1995, and the artwork for the CD includes never-before-seen Polaroid photos snapped by Nicks throughout her career. The album leads off with Starshine, for my money Stevie’s best rock number since Edge of Seventeen, and the emotional highlight is the country-soul of Blue Water, with backing vocals by Lady Antebellum.

VIDEO: Mick Fleetwood Interview with CBS 46 Atlanta on his Photography Collection

Reflections of Life: Mick Fleetwood at the Ann Jackson Gallery - Atlanta December 16th

Mick Fleetwood spoke exclusively with me at Ann Jackson's Art Gallery in Roswell, GA. The legendary drummer and founding member of Fleetwood Mac has started to exhibit his photography in art galleries in towns where the band will perform. This began after his friends and family urged him to display his talent. Mick has received a welcoming response from fans that turn out to witness and support his new outlet of art.




Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Atlanta Dec 17, 2014 "Twizzler-thin Buckingham was a riveting presence"


Concert review: A fresh, fun Fleetwood Mac dazzles Atlanta
by Melissa Ruggieri
AJC.com

Fleetwood Mac has never been considered a “fun” band.

Between the tempestuous relationships among its members and the differing opinions about musical direction over the decades, the collective of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham was never the cheeriest bunch.

But wow, did that drama make for some amazing music.

The band returned to the road in October after taking some off late last year for John McVie to combat cancer, and this time they had a secret weapon that has elevated Fleetwood Mac to a new level of vitality – Christine McVie.

Back with the gang after a 16-year gap, McVie, an unbelievable-looking 71, injected a palpable energy into the band, both by allowing them to further open their songbook and by providing Nicks with her perfect female vocal foil.

When was the last time you heard Nicks girlishly squeal, as she did when welcoming McVie with an enthusiastic, “She’s baaaaaack!”? For that matter, when was the last time Mac fans heard “You Make Loving Fun” and “Everywhere” played live (OK, it was 1997’s “The Dance” tour, but you get the point)?

From the moment Mick Fleetwood ushered in the band’s standard opener “The Chain” with his heartbeat bass drum, to more than 2 ½-hours later when McVie closed the show with her tingly “Songbird,” the show felt fresh and alive and yes…fun.

The sold-out crowd at Philips Arena Wednesday night erupted into cheers for McVie before the complete opening phrase of “You Make Loving Fun” –  “Sweet wonderful you” – exited her mouth, setting the appreciative tone of the night.