Thursday, August 08, 2019

LIVE IN DUBLIN - FLEETWOOD MAC JUNE 13, 2019

Fleetwood Mac in Dublin: ‘We’re a bunch of crazy people with a crazy history’
Breathtaking songs sum up the turmoil and happiness of the band’s break-ups and make-ups

Louise Bruton
The Irish Times



An Evening with Fleetwood Mac is a brave title for a tour, given that some members of the Fleetwood Mac family can’t even stand to be in the same room as the others. But for this tour and this their 60th gig of their tour, an evening with Fleetwood Mac is an evening with Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn.

Emerging from backstage, they come in hard with The Chain, a song that drums up fervour even if it’s just on a mid-afternoon repeat of Top Gear on Dave.

Immediately, Fleetwood’s facial expressions become a star in their own right, beaming as he cues in the always thrilling break of The Chain. In the unseasonably cold June breeze, the ribbons draped on Nicks’s mic stand and tambourine billow during Dreams, as does her long, honey blonde hair, building up her air of being the true witch supreme.

Her husky voice hits the same soft purrs she’s been hitting ever since she joined the band, a timeless icon. Batting the chorus of Second Hand News back and forth with Finn, there’s a warmth between them that was vaguely absent from their last visit to Dublin with Buckingham in 2015.

Retrieving Black Magic Woman from the archives, there’s a distinct playfulness between Nicks and Christine McVie as Christine wraps a scarf around her friend’s shoulders. This time, says Nicks, we “Sing it through the eyes of the woman ... so that’s me and Chris”.

Passing on the good karma, Campbell takes off his hat in appreciation of Christine’s work on the keyboard. And in general, there’s a reverence for the ever silent John and a universal adoration of the larger than life Fleetwood, who shows more than a glint of madness during his 10-minute long drum solo, shouting out things like “hanky panky!” and “unleash the hounds!”.

It’s almost like they’re telling no one in particular and the entire world at once that it’s nice to play nice.

Historically, the group has a revolving door policy with members coming, going or getting fired due to: affairs, divorces, drunken brawls, break-ups, make-ups, creative differences, dalliances with the Children of God cult, drug abuse or health issues.

The core set though, consists of Nicks, the McVies, Fleetwood and Buckingham, who stuck together for a winning streak between 1974 and 1987, releasing the seminal Rumours and Tusk albums during this period. Their capacity to work together continued to fluctuate over the years.

A two-year touring stint reunited them in 1996, until Christine decided to step away from the public eye. Sixteen years later, she rejoined the group and the five-piece had a four-year run of touring until Buckingham was fired – although Mac says that’s too ugly a word to use – for a plethora of allegations, including smirking at Nicks during a thank-you speech at an awards ceremony. He also refusing to sign off on a tour that they’d been planning for over a year, which led to Buckingham filing a lawsuit against the group for breach of oral contract.

It’s not easy carrying the burden of being a rock star, is it? So with Buckingham out, Finn and Campbell fill his boots instead, and with these welcome additions onstage, Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over sneaks onto the setlist and Nicks takes the lead on Free Fallin’, an emotional tribute to Campbell’s former bandmate and friend Tom Petty.

Fleetwood Mac’s music transcends generations. Everywhere is a borderless anthem that can be played at a wedding, in Coppers, the Róisín Dubh and the queer night club Mother and it will always incite the same rush to the dance floor.

Landslide, written by Nicks, is a breathtaking song and as she says herself, she wrote this song at 27 when she thought she was old but now that she’s 71, she feels like she’s got so much more to give. The show ends with Don’t Stop, a song that Christine wrote in 1976 about her separation from John after eight years of marriage.

As they take their final applause, grinning through the happiness and the turmoil that each song represents, there’s no better example of “the show must go on” than Fleetwood Mac.

“We’re a bunch of crazy people with a crazy history,” says Fleetwood, getting the last word in, “but it’s nights like this that give us life’s breath”.

FLEETWOOD MAC Live in Dublin June 13, 2019

Fleetwood Mac roll back the years with RDS stunner
BY: STUART CLARK
Hotpress



Despite the Lindsey Buckingham-shaped hole on stage, the band were in serious crowd-pleasing mood, says Stuart Clark

When they last played Dublin in 2015, it was obvious from the body language and the yawning space between them on stage that all was not well between Lindsey Buckingham and the rest of Fleetwood Mac. Even so, it was still one hell of a shock when his services were dispensed with before this latest lap of the world.

I know of quite a few conscientious objectors who aren't in the RDS tonight to see whether Tom Petty's former Heartbreakers lieutenant Mike Campbell and Crowded House's Neil Finn can between them fill the Lindsey-shaped hole to the right of the drum-riser. The answer is they can’t – nobody can - but let us not forget that four of the people who magicked up the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage and Tango In The Night are still present and correct.

Opening with a rambunctious version of ‘The Chain’ – the Mac have always kicked considerably more ass live than in the studio – and following it up with the close harmony swoon of ‘Little Lies’, it’s evident that the reconfigured band are in serious crowd-pleasing mood tonight.

Occupying as she does that middle ground between Homer’s The Odyssey and Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings, I was a bit taken aback to see Stevie Nicks wandering past the Permanent TSB on Grafton Street on Wednesday afternoon. Tonight, though, in front of a seriously sold-out Showgrounds she is once again not quite of this world. Her first solo turn is ‘Dreams’, a song that despite being played approximately every 27.2 minutes on classic hits radio has lost none of its spellbinding allure.

Neil Finn takes care of the vocal heavy lifting for the first time on 'Second Hand News', and proves himself to be more than able for the task. Dublin being a lot colder at this time of year than L.A., he's wrapped up in a Rupert The Bear-style green scarf. The crowd's cockles are warmed by the rendition of 'Black Magic Woman', which features some fabulous interplay between Finn and Campbell - who's one hell of a cool dude guitarist. Quite how much he can see from beneath the heavy duty shades he's wearing is debatable. The song also serves as a reminder of how fine a keys player the perma-smiling Christine McVie is. She struggles to hit the high notes on the following 'Everywhere', but hey...

Nicks is at her sublime best again on ‘Rhiannon’, with the "Would you stay if she promised you heaven?” line a seductively delivered tease that puts goosepimples on this writer’s goosepimples.

The first call and response of the show comes when Mick Fleetwood, sounding uncannily like Chas Smash at the start of 'One Step Beyond', commandeers 'World Turning'. His exhortations to "unleash the hounds" as a bongo is pulverised don't go unheeded. The greatest showman drummer of all time? He's definitely there or thereabouts.

Having told us he loves our dirty old town, Mike Campbell lends 'Oh Well' a distinctly southern Elmer Fudd-ish drawl. Five decades on, it remains a fine slice of dirty blues.

A reminder of Neil Finn’s other job comes halfway through when, following a Mick Fleetwood big up, he strums the opening notes of 'Don't Dream It's Over'. When Stevie joins in, it's genuinely gobsmacking. She dedicates 'Landslide' to "my good friend Joe Elliott who's from here... well, I hope he is." She's sort of right. Anyway, it's easily her best performance of the night.

There's laughter from the band as they fluff the intro to 'Hold Me': the execution thereafter is pure pop perfection. Also falling into that category is 'Go Your Own Way', inadvertently the cheeriest break-up song ever, which survives not being sung by its author Lindsey Buckingham.

The double-whammy encore of ‘Freefallin'' – somewhere up above us Mr. Petty is shaking a serious leg – and ‘Don’t Stop’, another song that still sounds factory fresh after all these years, bring the curtain down on what, by even Fleetwood Mac’s high standards, is a stunning show.



THE MAC CHECK INTO PLUSH DIGS AHEAD OF SOLD-OUT DUBLIN GIG

Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie, Neil Flynn and Mike Campbell were pictured entering the five-star Merrion Hotel in Dublin on Tuesday June 11th.

Singer songwriter Stevie Nicks is staying at a different hotel.








PHOTOS Fleetwood Mac Live in Landgraaf, Netherlands June 10th at Pink Pop Festival

June 10 - Landgraaf, Netherlands - Pink Pop Festival












Fleetwood Mac Live in Werchter - June 8, 2019

Fleetwood Mac offered a refined best of Werchter Boutique
LUC LORFÈVRE
Moustique


Elegant and enthusiastic, the Anglo-American group celebrated with emotion fifty years before 45,000 fans. Mosquito was in the plain of Werchter to witness what looked like the last Belgian concert of a rock legend.

Despite the qualifying match of the Red Devils, despite the threats of the storm Miguel, more than 45,000 Belgians were present this Saturday at Werchter Boutique. This 2019 edition featured more musical aperitifs ( The Pretenders ) or less (the others) digests before welcoming Fleetwood Mac for the second European leg of his tour fiftieth anniversary and for, no doubt also, his last appearance in Belgium.

Fleetwood Mac on stage in 2019 is an enthusiastic group whose timeless "classic rock" repertoire always lights up with one or the other surprise. Fleetwood Mac, after fifty years of a story worthy of a soap with all that it includes excesses, betrayals, ruptures and reconciliations, it is a formation that brings together today the elite. Either the two irremovable founding members who gave their name to the group (71-year-old drummer Mick "Fleetwood", 73-year-old bassist John "Mac" Vie), English keyboardist / singer Christine McVie, the cultured Stevie Nicks, the guitarist Mike Campbell (former right-hand man of Tom Petty and Heartbreakers member) and Neil Finn (leader of Crowded House). Yes, a band of rock stars accustomed to stadiums able to play everything with their eyes closed but who, as with the Stones or the side of the E Street Band, remember that to last you must also continue to live and enjoy.

Logically, Fleetwood Mac focuses his repertoire on his two albums that brought him glory. No less than five songs are taken from the LP "Fleetwood Mac" (1975) and seven are from the huge "Rumors" (1977) which, with its 40 million copies, remains one of the most popular albums. sold out of history. The highlight of Werchter's two-hour concert is without hesitation any of Stevie Nicks' poignant interpretation of Rihannon . Covered with dark-colored shawls and a black dress of pity, Stevie Nicks puts all her emotion into this " song about a Welsh witch " as she presented it in the 70s. Behind, on the screens, wild horses gallop in the waves while the guitars Mike Campbell and Neil Finn duel. And to add more in the format " postcard" , it will be specified that it is pile-pile at the end of Rihannon, that the dark night fell on Werchter. Very very strong…

Rihannon arrives at the first hour of the show. A perfect first hour where the pieces are linked without taking into account the times: The Chain in intro; the MTV Little Lies hit Nick echoes his accomplice - especially moved this Saturday night - Christine McVie; Everywhere sung at the center of the stage by the same Christine McVie, Gipsy performed by a weightless Stevie Nicks or Second Hand News , a break song from "Rumors". The double album "Tusk" is, however, not visited. Probably because it symbolizes too much the investment of the guitarist / producer Lindsey Buckingham, a great absentee of this anniversary tour. On the other hand, Fleetwood Mac unearths the Black Magic Woman of its blues period. Written by Peter Green in 1968 and popularized by Santana on her first album released a year later, Black Magic Woman is now "the point of view of a woman" in the voice of Stevie Nicks who is completely embracing this prayer hippie evoking a mesmerizing female creature " who has the power to make blind" .

Fleetwood Mac version 2019 is not immune to clichés and tributes. Mick Fleetwood's long drum solo works well in a plain but you can do without it. Tube among the tubes, Go Your Own Way is one of the few titles that seems to run in autopilot, but Fleetwood Mac had to play it. The Crowded House Neil Finn has the opportunity to remember his science pop on the ballad for lighters and smartphone Do not Dream Is Over, included in a setlist that also includes a salute to the late Tom Petty with his cover of Free Fallin sublimated a new once by Stevie Nicks. Other highlights of this " back to seventies" evening include Christine McVie's You Make Lovin Fun and the "Cocaine" song by "Rumors" Gold Dust Woman . A very nice evening. 

REVIEWS - FLEETWOOD MAC Live in Berlin June 6, 2019


Fleetwood Mac in the forest stage
Go your own way
Powerful and dignified in spite of little wobbly: Fleetwood Mac gave a fine concert in the Berlin 

Waldbühne. NADINE LANGE
Der Tagesspiegel

Drama, quarrels and rearrangements - they are part of Fleetwood Mac even in old age. Just like their constant since 1967 rhythm section, consisting of the two founding members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. In the preliminary final chapter of the sometimes soap opera-mature band biography guitarist Lindsey Buckingham had to go because he and his ex-sweetheart Stevie Nicks just could not get along. At first he threatened to sue the rest of the band, but then settled out of court with her.

Buckingham, who played a key role in the most successful phase of Fleetwood Mac as a musician, composer and producer, is being replaced on stage by two newcomers. His vocal parts are taken over by Neil Finn, formerly of Crowded House, on guitar replaced by Mike Campbell, who once played for Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. The two are doing well at the only Germany concert of the group on Thursday evening in the Berlin Waldbühne. Although Finn irritated in the opening piece "The Chain" first by a slightly too dashing and over-motivated lecture, but that is soon, also because the pieces with female lead vocals move into the foreground.

Full Review




Great singalongs and little magical moments: That's how it was with Fleetwood Mac in Berlin
by Christina Wenig
Discover

Almost everything would have been all right: While heavy rain and storm clouds hung over Berlin, the beginning of the current European tour of Fleetwood Mac threatened to fall into the water. The band still came to the Berlin Waldbühne, as well as about 20,000 fans, the storm subsided - and it was followed by an unforgettable evening.

Full Review


Fleetwood Mac in the forest stage
by Frank Junghanel
Berliner-zeitung.de

The Fleetwood Mac show on the Waldbühne was opened with a special effect that you would not have liked. "Thunder only happens when it's raining" Stevie Nicks sings in "Dreams". Donnerregen formed the meteorological supporting program for the performance of the - here fits the superlative once - legendary band, which on Thursday (!) In Berlin has given the first of only three European concerts.

Full Review


Fleetwood Mac rock the forest stage despite rain
At the only German concert, the mega band of the seventies and eighties plays with many hits through 52 years of band history.

by Ulrike Borowczyk
Morgenpost.de

Both arms raised in greeting, Mick Fleetwood is a fleshed victory sign. A good omen. And in fact, Fleetwood Macs do it. Already in the second song "Little Lies" is the sold out Waldbühne head. The smartphones at the ready to record the gig for eternity sing and dance with the audience.

Full Review