(VIDEO) FLEETWOOD MAC IN EDMONTON.... FINALLY!!!! JUNE 24th

It only took over 4 months... Finally the first two full length tracks from the final North American show June 24th in Edmonton, Canada (before Fleetwood Mac took the summer off) - have appeared on Youtube.

"Dreams" and "Rhiannon".... Stevie sounds great. Thanks to Misscherrypunk for popping these up on Youtube

PAULINE DOUCETTE MEETS STEVIE NICKS... FINALLY!

Fleetwood fabulous

LORI A. MAYNE

The Journal Pioneer

SUMMERSIDE – Pauline Doucette tried to bring back more than memories when she met her Fleetwood Mac idols.

She tried to bring back the band.

Doucette, 44, had the chance to chat with Stevie Nicks backstage at the band’s recent concert in Edmonton. Doucette wasted no time after learning Nicks needed some down time.

“If you want a nice, quiet place where there’s not a lot of traffic, why don’t you come to P.E.I.?” Doucette suggested. “Everybody loves Fleetwood Mac, but we’ll give you your space.”

Doucette fulfilled a lifelong dream seeing Fleetwood Mac perform.

The former Summerside resident, who now lives in Chelton, gained the name “Black Cloud Polly” for notorious bad luck. That unfortunate streak continued when she travelled to Edmonton for the Fleetwood Mac concert in May and it was postponed. Doucette, a single mom on disability pension, saved for months to cover the flight.

Hearing her story, the band promised an unforgettable concert experience.

An Alberta woman had donated air miles for Doucette’s flight this time. So the band ensured Doucette had luxury hotel, special seating, memorabilia and time with both Mick Fleetwood and Nicks.

Doucette and friend Shannon “Sugar” Doyle met Fleetwood on stage before the show. Doucette marveled at the drummer’s height and the casual way he sat on a stool, chatting and joking about insurance on his hands.

“He kissed me on the cheek twice!”

Doyle and Doucette got ushered backstage after the show to meet Nicks, who greeted Doucette with a big hug.

“She was exactly what I expected her to be.”

Doucette found Nicks’ voice sultry, her eyes like “black jewels.”

When Doucette asked for an autograph for her daughter, Jessica, Nicks noted she had a niece by the same name.

“I know that already,” confessed the die-hard fan.

Nicks held Doucette’s shaking hands as they chatted and said she was glad Doucette returned for the show.

Doyle teared up seeing Doucette fulfill her dream because she’s always the type to worry about others.

“This trip was all about her,” Doyle said.

Now back on the Island, Doucette has new nicknames.

Friends ask if they should call her Silver Lining Polly.

“A few of them call me Gold Dust Woman,” Doucette quipped.

49 SECONDS.... THAT'S IT!

12,000 fans in Edmonton, Alberta Canada apparently saw Fleetwood Mac's last show of the north american leg of the tour... and all that is on youtube as evidence is 49 seconds! LOL

STEVIE NICKS FAN SEES EDMONTON CONCERT

Fleetwood Mac ensures P.E.I. Steve Nicks fan sees Edmonton concert

THE CANADIAN PRESS

EDMONTON — A lifelong dream finally came true Wednesday night when a fan from Prince Edward Island finally saw her idol Stevie Nicks up close and personal at a Fleetwood Mac concert in Edmonton.

“I am beside myself, I’m ecstatic,” Pauline Doucette said before the show, wearing a black T-shirt bearing the singer’s image and holding a bag of gifts for the band.

“This is unbelievable, a memory of a lifetime.”

Doucette originally held tickets for Fleetwood Mac’s May 13 concert in Edmonton. She had saved money for months to pay the airfare.

But the concert was cancelled at the last minute when a member of the band fell ill.

In some ways, it didn’t surprise Doucette — in her hometown of Summerside, P.E.I., her nickname is “Black Cloud Polly,” an indicator of a long string of bad luck and her struggle as a 45-year-old single mother living off a disability pension.

But her luck changed when the band heard her story.

For the rescheduled concert, they ensured she had a room at a posh hotel, filled with band memorabilia including T-shirts and autographed photos, as well as a chance to meet the band members with a backstage pass.

The band had also offered to fly her back out to Edmonton, but she had already accepted an offer from a woman — a complete stranger — who offered to give Doucette her Air Miles for free.

“I’m still speechless,” Doucette said Wednesday. “It’s beyond anything I had expected.”

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC EDMONTON "A Study In Contrast"

A study in contrasts
By MIKE ROSS, Edmonton Sun

It was the last date of this particular leg of this particular tour -- till Denmark in October -- and Fleetwood Mac didn't seem the least bit tuckered out.

It was more like one last hurrah. It was drummer Mick Fleetwood's 66th birthday last night. Perhaps that explains it.

Actually, Stevie Nicks has always seemed a bit sleepy on stage, but that's just her style, you know?

While she omitted a few high notes during the show at Rexall Place last night, her sultry, sleazy, captivating voice was largely intact.

There's no one quite like this singer. She often plays with her notes in the manner of a bored cat toying with a doomed mouse, which might be an unpleasant image to associate with such a beautiful voice, but at heart I think Stevie Nicks is a cat person. She'd understand.

Anyway, her ex Lindsay Buckingham provided most of the fireworks during the extra-long hit parade (rescheduled from a date cancelled in May).

He comes off a bit too much in love with himself, but he's such an awesome guitarist that he's entitled, don't you think?

GREY PONYTAILS

The grey ponytailed rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, meanwhile, provided an oblivious rock solid accompaniment to this rock 'n' roll study in contrasts: the laid-back Stevie vs. the fiery Lindsay, the witchy woman vs. the howling wolf, pick your metaphor.

How these two ended up together is a mystery, but they did, the tension of their relationship and ensuing break-up supposedly providing some kind of magical, creative juice that resulted in one of the finest rock records ever made, Rumours.

Would it have been the same if they hadn't split? We'll never know. Fans should be pretty sure, however, that without this colourful couple, Fleetwood Mac would've probably been just another garden variety British blues band.

The pair of frontpeople made hash of their stormy past onstage -- for our amusement, surely.

In one of his bits of canned patter, Buckingham laughingly referred to the band's "complex and convoluted emotional history." He would expand on the theme later.

You can try to read body language into it. While Nicks gave Buckingham a hug at one point -- was this, too, rehearsed? -- the two largely kept to their respective sides of the stage, and their respective musical domains, too.

At times, she also twirled like a tasselled ballerina and played air guitar during his solos. Lindsay made a lot of guitar face, sometimes howling "oh yeah!" at the end of a particularly great solo.

Like I said, it was a study in contrasts, two concerts in one, really. Buckingham got the up-tempo, high energy stuff and the blistering solos -- especially shining in songs like I Know I'm Not Wrong, Go Insane and the distinctive Big Love.

Stevie took the mellow side of the road, haunting hits like Gypsy and Rhiannon (no relation to Chris Brown's girlfriend). She was especially "sleepy" -- let's just say hypnotic -- in one of her signature songs, Landslide.

TWO-HOUR HIT PARADE

Overall, it was a two-hour-plus hit parade that was promised to contain no new music, only "songs that we love to play and I'm sure you want to hear!" Buckingham declared. (Bachman Cummings take note.)

They played a bit with the arrangements, but not so much that you'd have to play "guess that tune" after the song kicked in.

The Chain -- with huge vocals provided by a trio of backup singers who couldn't possibly replace departed singer Christine McVie (talk about complex, convoluted emotions) -- came early.

The tribal groove of Tusk had the crowd cheering with joy. The canned horns filled the arena.

There are always things to nitpick about a bunch of 60-ish millionaires touring on their laurels -- they're doing it more for money than fun, let's get real here -- but this is Fleetwood Mac.

I always say that rock stars don't become famous by accident. They're up there for a reason. They're up there because they're great.

By the two-hour mark, Buckingham was still uncorking one wild solo after another, Nicks was still in good voice -- and several different outfits -- and Mick was still banging out the beat (and that damn gong) like a champ.

You couldn't ask for more. Well, you could, but let's not get greedy.

Fleetwood Mac

IN THE SEATS

12,000 in Rexall

NOTE PERFECT

One last hurrah for the last date of the tour -- and happy birthday to Mick Fleetwood.

RATING

4 out of 5

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC EDMONTON JUNE 24th

EDMONTON — So, was it worth the wait, you ask?

BY TOM MURRAY, EDMONTON JOURNAL

Where: Rexall Place

When: Wednesday night

With multiple stories running in all media about fans distraught at last month’s postponement of Fleetwood Mac’s Edmonton date, you just knew that anticipation would be running high when they finally rescheduled — and that the band would be fully aware they had to deliver.

Well, deliver they did, with a stomping two hours plus set of hits that eschewed almost all recent material and honed in on the hits.

Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham in particular was on fire from opener Monday Morning on, playing as though his life depended on it, sizzling leads igniting The Chain and Second Hand News, vocals coming straight from the heart. His ex-girlfriend and constant foil Stevie Nicks was a step behind, a strong singer but unable to hit the notes she once did on Rhiannon and Sara, or sharing missing member Christine McVie’s Say You Love Me with Buckingham.

Even with these slight reservations it was still an at times powerful experience — made so in part by one of the greatest and oft overlooked rhythm sections in rock history, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood — with songs that could’ve been glossed over after over thirty years of constant radio and live play. It was especially impressive considering the fact that all of the interior drama that made Rumours and Tusk such fantastic albums has now dissipated over the years as the various members have reconciled with each other. And although Buckingham made a special point of noting those tensions, you could still feel those old emotions rise up on songs like Second Hand News — or maybe it was simply the combined memories of 12,000 fans as up to date on the band’s romantic entanglements as they are.

A strange, strange situation to be in — personal hurts played out for entertainment — but then that’s where the band has always excelled.

And it has to be said that while they have little competition when it comes to muscular California pop, Nicks and Buckingham also slay when the acoustic numbers come out. Buckingham started it off alone with an impassive, almost vengeful Big Love that fully deserved the near unanimous standing ovation it got, with Nicks joining him for Landslide — good, but almost a letdown in comparison.

Buckingham’s intense performance reminded that while he was lumped in with the California folk pop movement of the ‘70s he always considered himself in some ways allied with the British punks — and that Tusk, their experimental to Rumours, was meant to take the band out of formula. It never did, but a few cuts have survived into the stage show — a long version of the hit Sara, and a reserved take on Storms.

To see a group as involved in their back catalogue as Fleetwood Mac is a heartening thing — especially with so many other bands simply playing by rote. They may not be breaking new ground as they once tried, but Buckingham did acknowledge with a wink that there is something in the works — fingers crossed that playing these old classics will give us a new Rumours and not, say, Mirage.

FLEETWOOD MAC SAID IT WILL MAKE UP FOR CANCELLATION

There's a silver lining for Black Cloud Polly: Fleetwood Mac says it'll make up for cancellation with 'unforgettable concert'

By ANDREW HANON

Edmonton Sun

Black Cloud Polly finally found a silver lining.

Polly, a.k.a. Pauline Doucette, earned her nickname in her hometown of Summerside, P.E.I., where her rotten luck is legendary.

But that all changed yesterday when her lifelong idols, Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac, sent her a personal message through Sun Media, promising her "an unforgettable concert experience."

This week's trip to Edmonton to see Fleetwood Mac perform at Rexall Place last night was supposed to give her a break from all the hardship she's endured in her life.

Instead, it seemed like the hardship followed her.

The concert she had been waiting her entire life to see was postponed due to an illness in the band.

"She was just crushed," said best friend Shannon Doyle, who moved to Edmonton three years ago and got her the tickets. "She'd worked so hard to save the money for plane fare."

Doucette, 45, said she's been a huge fan since she was seven years old, but has never had the opportunity to see Nicks perform live.

But when Sun Media contacted Fleetwood Mac's spokesmen yesterday to tell them Doucette's story, they passed the word on to the artists.

Last night the band issued a brief statement:

"Fleetwood Mac's heart goes out to Pauline Doucette and her unfortunate circumstance. We are taking steps to accommodate her needs for an unforgettable concert experience at a future date on the 'Unleashed' tour."

Spokesman Eve Samuels said the exact details have yet to be worked out, and she couldn't say anything more last night.

Doucette melted into joyous tears after hearing the news that her idols had taken an interest in her, uttering, "thank you. Oh my god. That's amazing."

Doucette, a single mom trying to get by on a disability pension, spent four months collecting nickels, dimes and quarters to pay for her airfare to Edmonton.

But after hearing news of the postponement, she lamented, "I don't know if I'm going to have enough time to save change for the plane ticket again."

Doyle, who has known Doucette for 12 years, said everyone in Summerside knows what a big Fleetwood Mac fan she is - and how plagued she is by misfortune.

"Whenever I left the island, she'd ask me to look for Fleetwood Mac stuff - T-shirts, hats, anything I could find," he said with a chuckle.

Her rabid fandom is a happy distraction from a hard life.

Eight years ago she slipped into a mysterious coma for two weeks. It turned out to be encephalitis, the same disease depicted in the Robin Williams/Robert De Niro film Awakenings.

"When I finally started to come around," she recalled, "I didn't know how to do anything, so I had to learn everything again. I was in a wheelchair for six months and had to get a speech therapist to talk again."

Then, just as she was ready to resume her life, Doucette was in a car accident that left her with a brain injury and short-term memory loss, leaving her unable to work.

Doyle said bad luck just seems to follow her.

"Summerside is a quiet, laid-back place with almost no crime," he said. "But if some car gets randomly vandalized, you can bet it'll be hers."

But Doucette doesn't want to be considered a "pity case." When times get tough, she turns to her favourite musician for comfort.

"First time I ever heard her sing, it was so inspiring to me," Doucette said. "I don't know, something about her just inspires me. That's the only way to explain it. I live for Stevie Nicks."

Her daughter Jessica bought her a black, bejewelled rosary because it looked like something Nicks would wear.

"I had it with me on the flight," Doucette said, laughing. "I know some people think that I'm silly. It's even on my Facebook profile that my lifelong dream has been to see Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks especially."