REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Dublin at the O2

Fleetwood Mac (live in the O2, Dublin)

Claus.com

Review Snapshot: A band that has been on the go for over 40 years, albeit with changes in personnel along the way. While the band may be deteriorating, the music stands the test of time, even without the absent Christine McVie.

The Cluas Verdict? 8 out of 10

Full Review:

Opening with 'Monday Morning' from the pre-Rumours days, it was 'The Chain' and 'Dreams' that got the O2 Arena in a frenzy from the start. "Dublin, you're beautiful, why don't we get this party started" shouted Nicks, before Buckingham and Nicks took it in turns to sing, giving us 'I Know I'm Not Wrong', 'Gypsy', 'Go Insane' and 'Rhiannon' in the early part of the show.

Nicks spoke about forming a band in 1965, "a hard rock San Francisco Band" she proclaimed. "We learnt our trade supporting Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin. We want to put our experience back into a song, back to the gypsies that we were" was how she introduced the aforementioned Gypsy.

Lindsey then told us about the recording of Rumours "it's not a bad little album" he joked, going on to tell us about all the friction in the band at that time and how they all poured their hearts out into the songs. "Fleetwood Mac has had a very complicated history but we said we'd have fun”. He goes on to say that "seen as we don't have a new album to promote yet, let's do all the songs we love and I hope you like them too. This is the first song we recorded for Rumours" was his intro to the brilliant 'Second Hand News'. He gave it his all on 'Tusk' shouting and chanting his way all over the stage, before taking a short breather while Nicks delivered 'Sara', after which she gave Buckingham a big hug as they embraced.

Introducing 'Big Love' Lindsey explained that "this was the first single from Tango In The Night, and it was an important song for me as it described the person I was at that time, when it was written in 1987" he said profoundly.

Nicks returned, wearing a red dress and said "this song is dedicated to you [the fans], because everyone needs a song like this” before delivering 'Landslide' with just Lindsey on acoustic guitar. If that performance was brilliant, Buckingham exceeded it on 'Never Goin Back Again' with a slowed down version of the Rumours classic on acoustic guitar and dominant vocals.

Stevie discussed the rehearsals for the tour adding "when we met up on January 5th this year, to start rehearsing for this tour we wanted to do a song that we hadn't performed before. We like to call this I Have Always Been a Storm" she added, while Mick came to the front of the stage to perform the percussion accompaniment.

'Say You Love Me' and 'Gold Dust Woman' were next, with Stevie now wearing a gold coloured shawl and single black glove for the latter, while Lindsey stayed behind the scenes on this one. 'Oh Well' was truly fantastic. The sound in the o2 Arena was brilliant for the concert, but it shone through on this number as the three lads gave it everything.

Another elaborate guitar solo from Buckingham followed on 'I'm So Afraid', while Nicks (now wearing a white shawl and black dress) done her infamous dance during 'Stand Back' and they closed with 'Go Your Own Way'. The encore comprised of 'World Turning' which put Mick Fleetwood in the spotlight for 10 minutes, and they finished the night with 'Don't Stop' which got everybody on their feet.

You couldn't fault this performance on any level, but this is the Lindsey Buckingham band, and the rest are really only here for the ride. Without him they are nothing, and while Mick and John might share the bands name, it's Buckingham's Palace.

REVIEW: FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE "The most surprising thing about the group" - Dublin

REVIEW of the week: Fleetwood Mac * * * *

DUBLIN, IRELAND - 02

By Ed Power

Friday October 30 2009

Independent.ie

Fleetwood Mac used to be something of a bad joke among the rock cognoscenti, a guilty pleasure best enjoyed with a generous side-serving of irony. However, in recent years a new generation of musicians has stepped forward to claim them as an influence -- Bat for Lashes, Florence and the Machine and The Feeling are among the artists who have publicly acknowledged their debt to the Anglo-American FM rockers and their dreamy sound.

Live, the most surprising thing about the group, back for an umpteenth reunion tour but minus singer and songwriter Christine McVie, is how full-on they are -- "soft rock" has seldom felt this prickly or intense. Snapping the whip and stoking the engine is Lindsey Buckingham, the 60-year-old frontman who throws himself into the performance as though he were a 20-something competing in a battle of the bands contest.

From the opening note of Monday Morning, he's a whirlwind of manic, live-wire energy. He grimaces, shrieks and batters his guitar. At the conclusion of Tusk, Fleetwood Mac's anti-commercial curve-ball from 1979, he's bent over yelling his lungs out, a river of sweat sluicing down his face.

In contrast, vocalist Stevie Nicks, in a chiffon dress similar to the one she sported on the cover of the group's gadzillion selling 1977 album Rumours, cuts a surprisingly slight presence. Her voice is buried in the mix, wavering when it should soar. That's a shame because her dusky croon is the moon dust that elevates Fleetwood Mac's best songs out of the ordinary (nonetheless, she does provide one of the evening's most affecting moments, dedicating Landslide to Stephen Gately).

Solid accompaniment, meanwhile, is provided by drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, the blues veterans after whom the band is named -- though it's clear they are glad to leave the pyrotechnics to Buckingham

Much of the set is drawn from Rumours. Recorded when the two couples in the line-up -- Buckingham and Nicks and John and Christine McVie -- were going through messy break-ups (and hopping in and out of bed with each other), it's the easy listening equivalent of a Tolstoy novel, a multifaceted epic that gains in stature with each passing year.

Not that these tracks are ever in danger of sounding like museum pieces: teetering between Buckingham's guitar and McVie's bass, The Chain verges on proto metal; there's a palpable bitter sweet ache to Don't Stop and a euphoric tingle to Go Your Own Way, surely among the best kiss-offs to a lover ever written.

Standing at the lip of the stage, Buckingham, is as happy to bask in the attention as the rest of Fleetwood Mac are to surrender it. So it's no surprise that the concert's finest moment comes when everyone else is ushered into the wings and he bashes out an acoustic version of their 1987 hit, Big Love. It's one of many stunning turns by the lanky vocalist tonight. If only Nicks had delivered some fireworks of her own.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Performance Takes Cynics by Surprise - Dublin

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE IN DUBLIN

By John Meagher

Friday October 30 2009

Independent.ie

They may have been on the road to make yet more millions off their old songs, but Fleetwood Mac put in a performance at The O2 last weekend that took cynics such as me by surprise.

For two-and-a-half hours Stevie Nicks, a remarkably youthful looking Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie played with an enthusiasm and verve to appease anyone grumbling over the high price of tickets.

Hearing Nicks sing their finest song, Sara, was especially lovely as was the obvious joy Buckingham derived from the middle aged folk in the front rows.

What wasn't nearly so pleasant was having two loudmouth gentlemen in the row behind, both of whom were incapable of keeping their mouths shut during the performance and utterly oblivious to the furious glances of those around them. The situation was made all the worse by their cretinous friend from Cork who came over to them several times to crack schoolyard, homophobic jokes about his county's hurling goalkeeper Dónal Óg Cusack.

If any of you three laminate-wearing buffoons are reading this, stay away the next time someone offers you a freebie -- and give the tickets to someone who would really appreciate them.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac - Dublin "This was what we expected and so much more"

Fleetwood Fans in Awe as Stevie & Co Regroup
By Juno McEnroe
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Examiner.ie

Photo by Andrew Carson

THIS was what we expected and so much more.

With a throw of her slight arm over the microphone stand, a sullen Stevie Nicks took us into The Chain, Fleetwood Mac’s second melody of the night. A sunken O2 arena quickly perked up as a crescendo of cheers rushed over the north Dublin venue.

This was every party song played to its full.

Mick Fleetwood himself barely opened his eyes, tapping cymbals and booting the bass drum into the night.

Back on the road again for the first time in six years, this self-confessed old-time group took time out of their well publicised set to tell Dublin of their tales of mixing with the likes of other bands such as Velvet Underground.

This concert was so much more than just a medley of greatest hits, it was an opportunity for the original 1960s group to settle scores. Despite the fact that group founder Peter Green separately played an arresting set at the weekend in Cork, Fleetwood Mac were not for falling. The band played out the iconic group tune, Dreams, and a slower than usual Rhiannon.

But it was guitarist Lindsey Buckingham’s gripping guitar solo during I’m So Afraid that pushed Irish fans up off their seats to a standing ovation.

As the 60-year-old guitarist blitzed his way along his fretboard, the awestruck crowd shouted for more.

A briefly excited Stevie Nicks brought listeners back to the all-known Go Your Own Way as Fleetwood Mac moved to the end of their set.

In between songs, Lindsay and Stevie satisfied hardcore fans with talk of what the band did before the infamous splits began.

This was more than just a play list.

And an enthusiastic Mick Fleetwood said before courting Stevie off stage: "We’ll see you next time."

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, October 27, 2009

REVIEW: FLEETOOD MAC in DUBLIN Reviewed by: The Irish Times

Fleetwood Mac
02 Dublin
October 24/25, 2009
Irishtimes
by: SEÁN FLYNN

Fleetwood Mac are back on the road, 32 years after the generation-defining Rumours album. This time around, there is no new album to plug and no new songs to roll out. Yesterday’s gone, but those golden sun-drenched songs roll on forever.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, whose combustible relationship sparked Rumours , emerge hand-in-hand and in warm spirits. Heathcliff and Cathy are chilling out.

Wrapped in her familiar shawls, Nicks is still playing the beguiling gypsy queen. Now 61, she meanders across the stage in long, flowing, chiffon dresses. For those of a certain vintage, it’s as if that fabled footage of Nicks belting out Rhiannon in 1976 has come to life.

Buckingham, with that familiar icy stare, is her counterpoint, all darkness and danger.

The set opens with Monday Morning , from the band’s eponymous second (white) album. The second song, The Chain , is the first of seven from Rumours . What is striking is how time and familiarity have not aged the power and beauty of these songs.

A blistering performance of Go Your Own Way is a real highlight. The song is Buckingham’s finest hour; his defiant guitar driving it forward with relish. Buckingham is very much the first among equals, dominating the stage with two underrated songs, Big Love and Tusk , commanding a standing ovation on each occasion.

Nicks is strongest on Dreams and Sara , two soft rock classics. Stand Back , one of her solo hits, has aged much less well.

There is an extraordinary synergy between the band and the middle-aged audience when Nicks sings that poignant, familiar line from Landslide – “And I’m getting older too”. It’s a terrific performance of a great song.

The concert did not work on all levels. Fleetwood Mac has always been a tapestry of different colours, so the absence of Christine McVie, who has retired from public performance, was keenly felt. Buckingham and Nicks dominated the vocal duties but McVie’s unplayed piano and echoey vocal style were conspicuous by their absence. McVie’s best songs – Songbird and You Make Loving Fun – are part of the Fleetwood Mac canon. The band did pay tribute to one former troubled member when Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood rolled out Peter Green’s Oh Well . It was good to see his contribution acknowledged.

The gig was also a reminder that Fleetwood – the mainstay of the band since the Peter Green era, is one of rock’s finest drummers – even if the solo on World Turning veered close to Spinal Tap country.

Fleetwood Mac also encored with the old foot-stomping Bill Clinton favourite, Don’t Stop . The final song was Nicks’s glorious Silver Springs , tossed away as a B-side back in the day, but given its due recognition here.

At the end, the band lingered on stage, revelling in the warm embrace of the crowd long after the music had stopped.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Dublin 2009

Fleetwood Mac – 02, Dublin

By Lisa Hughes

State Magazine

photo by alison mchugo

Ah, the reunion tour – the cash cow that never loses its value. And, based on tonight’s evidence, we can’t say no to them. After all, in the midst of a recession the O2 is packed to the gills with punters, most of whom paid more than a pretty penny to be there. Adding to the long string of comeback gigs to grace these shores in recent years, Fleetwood Mac joined the ranks with a two night stint at the O2. With their last comeback tour somewhat immortalised as a piece of rock history, Mick Fleetwood pulled the original Rumours contingent together for the Unleashed 2009 World Tour (minus Christine McVie of course, who apparently declined the offer).

With no support act lined up and the stage clothed in darkness, all elements were in place for the crowd to nervously anticipate the show to come and as each band member took their place to kick things off with ‘Monday Morning’ the nervous tension peaked. Once the surreal sensation of seeing the Mac in the flesh wore off, it became clear that there was something of a sing-off taking place before us, with FM’s legendary rivalries surfacing. For a significant handful of songs, Nicks and Buckingham split vocal duties, with both guilty of hamming things up in an effort to own the show. As the tassled and shawled Stevie Nicks tottered around the stage in semi-slow motion in 4 inch heels, she almost managed to rekindle her 70s cool yet, despite the earlier murmurs of the crowd ahead of her entrance. Buckingham however was the undisputed show stealer. With his guitar-wielding swagger and powerful solos, the guitarist’s onstage presence, particularly on moments like ‘Big Love’, made him dominate the performance. Meanwhile, Stevie’s vocals remain top-notch (‘Landslide’ affirmed this), so distinctive that even when she occasionally dropped the ball, it only endeared her further.

Let’s not forget the presence of Mick Fleetwood either, whose steady efforts belting away on the drums underpinned the entire performance. Although he looked physically sidelined by the two most famous band members, half of the group’s namesake was certainly not forgotten, as the huge cheer he garnered at the end rightfully displayed. Things were hammed up further with the sermon-like intervals where Nicks and Buckingham digressed on the band’s often troubled history, attempting to add to the symbolism of the event by harking back to their well-versed dramas. Admittedly it was a tactic that worked, reminding us of the rarity of the occasion by reiterating the group’s stature and legendary status, regardless of how wholly theatrical it felt.

When the clash of egos died down (or became less apparent), things instead centred on the music as the setlist hit all the expected high points and was a solid blend of well-known numbers. From the thundering outro of ‘The Chain’ to the note-perfect rendition of ‘Dreams’ through to the bluesy ‘Gold Dust Woman’, musically the band managed to pull it all together as though they’ve been doing this untroubled without a break since 1977. For a reunion tour there was no sense of the band phoning in their performance and, occasional cheese-factors aside, there was a very real sense that, despite Mick Fleetwood’s call of “Until next time”, this could be the last we see of Fleetwood Mac and that made it an occasion to savour. Tonight’s show lacked that certain something to make it a truly unforgettable night, (perhaps due to the obvious impersonal nature of a mammoth venue like the O2) but on the whole it was an impeccable performance hard to fault and one you couldn’t help but feel privileged to witness.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac - 'Landslide' Dedicated To The Late Stephen Gately - Dublin

Fleetwood Mac, The 02, Dublin
by: John Meagher
Independent

THERE have been so many incarnations of Fleetwood Mac over the past 42 years that even the most avowed student of the band may have trouble keeping up.

The current guise comprises four-fifths of the so-called classic line-up that gave the world 'Rumours' in 1977 -- still one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Christine McVie may have quit in 1998, but her ex-husband John McVie, along with Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, are back on the road again for the first time in six years.

With no new album to promote, this Unleashed tour is ostensibly a greatest hits parade and over two-and-a-half hours the foursome duly deliver.

Buckingham, who is looking in very fine fettle for a 60-year-old, is especially up for it, not least when he produces the superb riff on 'The Chain'. It is the first of several occasions where he throws the sort of guitar-god poses one would normally associate with Spinal Tap.

Nicks hasn't lost it either and her voice remains a thing of beauty, not least on 'Gypsy', 'Rhiannon' and 'Landslide'. The latter is dedicated to the late Stephen Gately, much to the appreciation of the crowd.

The night's most spell-binding moment is provided by 'Sara' -- one of Nicks's best compositions -- and she performs it beautifully.

There is a touching moment towards the song's end when she and former lover Buckingham embrace warmly. Later, she's just as affectionate with another ex-lover, Mick Fleetwood. It's a reminder of the band's soap-opera past.

Buckingham alludes to the group's rollercoaster history, not least during the sessions that yielded 'Rumours', as he introduces one of that album's less-celebrated songs, 'Second Hand News'.

In places, the performance drags a little -- Fleetwood's solo drumming and indecipherable chanting towards the end smack of self-indulgence, for instance -- but there are enough tried and trusted songs to reel the audience back in again.

'Don't Stop' has the capacity crowd on their feet and that's where they stay, right until the house lights come on.

VIDEO X 2 FLEETWOOD MAC - DUBLIN "Go Your Own Way" and "World Turning"

FLEETWOOD MAC - DUBLIN - 10.25.09

Drum  Solo/World Turning Finale AND last portion of Go Your Own Way

interesting perspective from the side.  

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac at the Dublin O2

ROY IN IRELAND 

Review of Dublin Gig - Saturday Oct 25th.

Review by: RoyMcC

My first exposure to Fleetwood Mac was in the 6th Form Centre at St Philip's GS. A schoolmate was gamely plucking away at Albatross, the bluesy, dreamy instrumental that charted for the band in 1969.

Last night (Saturday) at the O2 in Dublin two of the original members of that band, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie were still laying down the rhythm for the band forty years later. It's gobsmacking isn't it?

Not so for some of those in the audience, each of whom had paid upwards of €80 to see these legends, arguably the greatest band still on the road. Quite probably never to tour again. A steady stream of punters only intent on travelling to and from the bars for a steady supply of fizzy shite lager. Like it was being discontinued tomorrow. And resulting in further disruption as this resulted in the drinkers having to regularly leave their seats for a piss. Turning their backs on some of the most sublime music ever made. Truly it is very sad, the need to have an alchoholic drink before it is considered that one has a night out. Now, I'm no stranger to alchohol but last night made me ashamed.

But that spoilt my evening only slightly. The gig will remain memorable for howevermuch time I have left. The O2 Arena is a magnificent venue and the atmosphere was electric - the audience comprising younger ones who were only stars in the sky in 1969 as well as us greybeards.

They could have performed anything and we would have been pleased. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham said that, with no album to promote, they had decided just to have fun on this tour and play what the audience wanted. Early on they sung The Chain, long adopted by the BBC for their Formula 1 coverage and happily reinstated now that they have bought back the rights from ITV.

The first of many from the mega-selling Rumours album. Was it just me or did Buckingham appear to falter and compose himself briefly as he spoke about the personal turmoil that the band members were going through at the time and which resulted in such a creative body of work? Go Insane was the first opportunity for Buckingham to really get into the gig and he took it.

Lindsey Buckingham is the focal point of the band. The solid rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie has been the cornerstone of the band for over forty years. But Buckingham is the elemental force and the band would be nowhere without him. His vocals are raw, his guitar work falls short of virtuoso, but by God does he give it his every ounce of energy. And tonight he carried the audience with him and it was fantastic.

Next up was Rhiannon, one from way back and the unutterably lovely Stevie Nicks started to come into her own. Along with Elkie Brooks and Carol Decker, Nicks has long given me the shivers with her voice. Quite incredibly she is now 61 and she still takes the breath away. She has never had a powerful voice (unlike Brooks and Decker) and her contralto now lacks the edge of old. But she is wonderful and no one was going to nitpick on a night such as this.

Nicks performed Sara beautifully, before Buckingham launched into Big Love. Mercifully there was no attempt to replicate the male/female grunting and gasping fadeaway of the original recording - it was all one-sided!

Never Going Back Again, Storms and Say You Love Me followed. Then Nicks picked up Gold Dust Woman from the Rumours album and gave it the full treatment, with a lovely, drawn out ending led by Mick with Nicks bathed in a golden glow from the lights. And immediately followed on by Oh Well - back to the Green/Kirwan days and a faithful rendition by Buckingham.

Now, the Mac are not a band that necessarily have the audience on their feet. They produce well-crafted work and don't go in for rabble-rousing. But as they closed their set everyone was up singing, dancing and rocking along to Go Your Own Way.


And then a surprise. For an encore, rather than belt out another favourite as the audience expected, Mick Fleetwood suddenly took the limelight. The drum solo is a lost art but during World Turning Mick involved us, the rabble, and had us on our feet again. Then a sign-off with another singalong Don't Stop.

At which point the O2 audience, totally wrecked, headed for the exits. But amazingly there was a second encore as the set approached three hours in length and Silver Springs was played to a half-empty auditorium.

Truly the formers lovers and clearly still soulmates Buckingham and Nicks, and the rocks that are Fleetwood and McVie, comprise one of the best blues/rock bands of all time. Their Dublin gig will never be forgotten and the Mac put in a huge effort as if they suspected that they are on borrowed time. We, the audience, had much more than our money's worth. Just a nagging regret that Christine McVie wasn't around with her old mates.

Full review

REVIEW: My night with Fleetwood Mac - Dublin, Ireland

By: Chris

The Word Magazine

So here we go again, we want ... well ... to be transported back to the days before kids and mortgages and middle-age spread. And surely none better to take us there than Fleetwood Mac; to those warm summers soundtracked by Stevie Nicks, singing to us from a million miles away.

And it is a promising start - 'Monday Morning','The Chain', 'Dreams' ... . But the setlist is odd, not so much the content - all the big numbers are present - but rather the running order. Stevie sings 'Rhiannon', so Lindsey sings 'Tusk' to a standing ovation. So Stevie follows with 'Sara', which Lindsey tops with a stunning solo take on 'Big Love'. It dawns on me, it's a competition and we are in charge of the clap-o-meter.

In Stevie's mind this is clearly her band. But everyone else in the room knows that the stage belongs to Lindsey Buckingham. His voice is stronger than ever and his guitar technique is jaw-droppingly brilliant. In her head, and truth be told in mine too, Stevie is that sylph like girl from '77 with the lace shawls and high-heel boots. On stage tonight her voice occasionally grates, she fiddles with the control to her earpiece, and she walks around flat-footed in what appear to be a pair of orthopedic shoes. Lindsey Buckingham on the other hand prowls the stage like a raptor, wringing stinging solos from his guitar.

There is much made of the main players' past relationships, and for the encore Stevie and Lindsey come back on stage holding hands. It's like a Broadway show or a daytime soap. It made me want to see a Lindsey Buckingham solo show, or Stevie with an orchestra, or order the vegetarian option ... give me something without the ham.

Don't get me wrong, it's a slick show, it has the songs, it has the musicianship, it just doesn't click. Maybe it's just me. 1977? I guess I'm never going back again. :-)

Note to the O2 Dublin: When I spend €100 on a ticket to see Fleetwood Mac I don't necessarily expect to have Stevie Nicks blow cocaine up my arse during the interval, but nor do I expect to have a restricted view seat. (We complained, they moved us)

SEX AND DRUGS AND FLEETWOOD MAC . .Superstars are Coming to Dublin

Sex and drugs and Fleetwood Mac. . .
The soft-rock superstars are coming to Dublin -- but in another part of town, original guitarist Peter Green is still playing the blues

By Richie Taylor

Irish Independent

This Saturday and Sunday night, Fleetwood Mac will perform in the O2 venue in Dublin to over 20,000 fans.

Twenty-fours later, on Monday night, Peter Green, the original creative genius behind the band when they formed in 1967, will also play the capital -- probably to a turn-out of around 200 diehard fans in the Academy venue on Middle Abbey Street.

It may be a coincidence but it puts the contrasting fortunes of Green and his former bandmates in sharp focus.

Fleetwood Mac are still living off Rumours, their classic album that won a Grammy over three decades ago. They're billed in the radio ads for the O2 gigs as "the Rumours line-up", but the 2009 version of the Mac are actually missing keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie, a key member who was responsible for writing half the hit singles on Rumours.

Peter Green is living off his reputation as a genius composer and a guitar great. Ranked 38th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", BB King once said of his guitar playing: "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard."

A key figure of the British Blues movement in the 1960s, Green was a sometime member of 1960s supergroup John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers.

But it was his work with Fleetwood Mac that he is best remembered for. Alas, he had long since left the band when they went supernova in 1977.

In the late 1970s, The Mac, as they were known to their fans, personified the idyllic Californian lifestyle: luxury homes in Malibu, crates of booze, an endless supply of cocaine, flash cars and studios block-booked for years until the creative juices finally flowed. There was also plenty of romance between various band members -- something which both got the creative juices flowing but also sowed the seeds of their split.

Lead singer Stevie Nicks -- a blonde beauty whose poster adorned many a teenage boy's bedroom wall in the 1970s -- was originally with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, but they split and she had an affair with lanky drummer Mick Fleetwood, who was married.

Christine McVie had been married to bassist John McVie, but they split and she had an affair first with one of their road crew and later with ill-starred Beach Boy Dennis Wilson.

In the late 1960s Fleetwood Mac set the charts ablaze with a string of hits -- mainly written by Peter Green -- which included 'Albatross', 'Man of The World', 'Black Magic Woman', 'The Green Manalashi (With The Two-Prong Crown)' and 'Oh Well'.

Then on tour in America, one morning pint-sized guitarist Jeremy Spencer left the hotel in Los Angeles and never returned.

He had been sidetracked on the street by members of the Children of God cult, and is with them to this day. Spencer finally broke cover a couple of years ago and revealed his location, declaring he was still happy with them.

After Spencer's departure, further cracks appeared in the band. Peter Green, who later admitted that he had taken one acid trip too many, started to act strange. He gave all his money away to charity, quit the band in 1970 and lived the life of a hermit. He later took a job as a gravedigger in order to make ends meet. He was never to rejoin Fleetwood Mac.

Meanwhile, third guitarist Danny Kirwan had also been behaving weirdly and quit music. When last heard of he was living in sheltered accommodation in London.

The remaining members of Fleetwood Mac -- Mick Fleetwood and John McVie --recruited new members, transforming themselves from an English blues band with pop leanings into an outfit that personified the hedonistic lifestyle of West Coast America.

Their soft rock was full of sunshine and melody and their playing was never less than spellbinding.

Now they're out on tour for the first time since 2004, playing a full Greatest Hits set. Christine McVie left the group in 1998, and bought a plush pad overlooking the Thames in London.

But the others can't seem to give it up. It's not as if they need the money -- 1977's Rumours has sold over 30 million copies to date.

Original member Mick Fleetwood revealed: "This time out we're giving people what they want; it's like a fans' fantasy. The new challenge for us is that we'll be playing some of Christine's songs onstage. These songs are her legacy."

Meanwhile, Peter Green continues to plough a lone furrow, playing the blues music that initially attracted him to first pick up a guitar.

In the late 1960s Green was on a par with greats Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Now he's overweight, has weird facial hair and doesn't say very much. But according to those who have seen him perform with his own band, the guy can still play the blues like he really means it.

Fleetwood Mac play the O2 on Saturday and Sunday. Peter Green and his band play The Academy, Dublin, on Monday

Irish Independent