(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC GLASGOW by: BRYAN DUNCAN

Review: Fleetwood Mac @ SECC

Written by Bryan Duncan

Strathclydetelegraph

REUNION tours have become a fashion recently, some more welcome than others, but only a band as dysfunctional as Fleetwood Mac could reunite once again, just five years after their last tour.

After a 42 year history of guitarists joining religious cults, substance abuse, radical musical shifts and inter-band affairs, it‘s amazing that they still play together. Guitarist/singer/pop maestro Lindsay Buckingham tells the Glasgow audience that the band have never really broken up, highlighting that it’s been different every time they’ve “reunited”. This runs parallel with the band’s relationships: despite divorces and break-ups, they managed to create arguably the perfect pop album, 1977’s Rumours (see this edition of the Telegraph’s Classic Album). Before breaking into the LP’s first track “Second Hand News” - one of the highlights of the night - Buckingham describes the song as “sad, angry and humourous”, written at a time where the band went through “emotional turmoil”. You could see the ghosts of the past etched on his face, as he performs alongside ex-girlfriend Stevie Nicks, and founding rhythm section John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

Despite this, the band created an energy undermining any tension, as “Monday Morning” kicked off the gig with its radio-friendly soft-rock. Next up was “The Chain”, a classic in which McVie’s famous bass line (used as BBC’s Formula 1 theme tune) literally rumbles through the SECC, complementing Fleetwood’s thundering drums. Singer Nicks asks to “get this party started,” as “Dreams” and “Gypsy” shows her knack for writing polished pop tunes.

Their flawless nature does not match the intense nature of the band, but the acoustic numbers dig a lot deeper with “Big Love”, a personal song by Buckingham which he states “describes the person I was back in 1987”.

With a wave of jaw-dropping guitar picking washing over his raw but impassioned vocals, it cements his status as one of rock’s most underrated guitarists. A mellower version of “Never Going Back Again” follows a melodic “Landslide” sung delicately by Nicks. It shows how their songs float between light and dark, and how deep lyrics lie behind the pop exterior.

Some dismiss them for being middle-of-the road, but songs like “Gold Dust Woman”, show a level of music transcending their soft-rock persona. Ten minute guitar solos and raw blues rock dominated the latter half of the concert, on songs like “I’m So Afraid” and “Oh Well” - the latter a song hand-picked from the Peter Green era. Buckingham’s inner guitar god was again unleashed to the crowd.

An epic “World Turning” featured an ambitious drum solo from Mick Fleetwood, and at moments like this you forgot what you came to see; perfect pop-rock or grass-roots blues.

As the night drew on eager fans left their seats and became a collective in front of the stage, showing that Fleetwood Mac still have a spark in their live performances with songs like “Go Your Own Way”, despite burning out through the years. Of this classic Rumours line-up, Christine McVie was the only absent member, deciding to take retirement over touring. This didn’t diminish the set, but Rumours favourites like “Songbird” would be impossible to replicate without her.

With or without McVie, the Mac certainly sounded like they were back. Buckingham cheekily hinted at a new studio effort, as he declared for this tour “we haven’t made an album for this…yet”.

As Nicks and Buckingham embraced near the end, it seemed as though a sombre cloud was hanging over the stage. Their history is so complicated it makes the uplifting closer “Don’t Stop” deliciously ironic. Granted, there is still a tension, but as the ever enthusiastic Mick Fleetwood signs off the gig by asking the crowd to look after one another in “this crazy world we live in”, it stands as testament to this legendary band’s enduring, albeit rocky, relationship. This is how a reunion should be.

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC - GLASGOW

FLEETWOOD MAC REVIEW
SECC, Glasgow, Thu 22 Oct 2009
by: Amber Baxter
List.co.uk

Most bands go through their fair share of drama. Some have inter-band relationships of a non-platonic nature, a few manage to forge successful careers at the top of the charts, even fewer manage to amass a back catalogue that spans decades.

Fleetwood Mac have done all this and more. Their personal history is as compelling as it comes, and alongside this they have scored hit after hit. They’re a songwriting arms factory that has produced lethal pop weapons such as 'Gypsy', 'Second Hand News' and 'Gold Dust Woman' - and they’re back.

It’s in the pursuit of showcasing these classic songs that four-fifths of the most commercially successful combination of Fleetwood Mac take to the stage at the SECC.

Without Christine McVie, vocal duties are left to Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham meaning McVie’s musical contributions are omitted, so no 'Little Lies', no 'Songbird' and no 'Everywhere', this doesn’t put a damper on the evening though, as there’s still plenty to keep everyone happy.

Early renditions of 'Monday Morning' and 'The Chain' from their second and most tempestuously recorded album Rumours, along with Buckingham’s words on the making of the album itself, warms up the sold out arena crowd nicely. ‘We were going through such emotional turmoil,’ Buckingham recounts. Thankfully, going by tonight’s onstage comradeship, with Buckingham and Nicks holding hands and singing to each other, all this seems to be in the past.

Highlights include Buckingham’s solo acoustic rendition of 'Big Love' which showcases his technical ability as a guitarist, Nicks' faultless performance of 'Landslide' and pre-encore set finisher 'Go Your Own Way', which easily commands the biggest applause of the night.

After thanking the rest of the band, Mick Fleetwood delivers one of the most confusing drum solos ever in encore opener 'Worlds Turning' by shouting in a Scottish accent and (what sounds like) rapping in a Jamaican accent.

Closing the set with a few too many words, Fleetwood thanks the crowd, which is a sweet, if slightly drawn out touch.

He can be forgiven though - if I’d been feeding and nurturing the cash cow that is Fleetwood Mac so successfully for forty years, I’d be looking to milk it too.

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC GLASGOW "They Keep Going Their Own Way"

Fleetwood Mac, SECC, Glasgow
(Rated 4/5)
Independent.co.uk
(Page 17 Indendent Life)

Reviewed by David Pollock

To those familiar with their patchwork history, the fact that this current incarnation of Fleetwood Mac has remained stable for a little over a decade is something approaching a miracle.

Guitarist, sometime singer and key songwriter, Lindsey Buckingham, alludes to previous traumas with mention of recording their classic album, Rumours, during which period he and Stevie Nicks were breaking up their relationship: "there were a lot of emotional opposites between us". Yes, there was "aggression" to be worked out during "Second Hand News", but rarely has such spite sounded as joyful as it did here.

Whatever bridges may have been burned during this era and Buckingham's departure from the band following 1987's Tango in the Night have obviously been long since rebuilt. At the end of "Sara", Nicks – a hippyish figure in a changing array of sequinned shawls and dresses, her eyes dreamy and her hair a fresh bottle-blonde – takes Buckingham in a tender embrace of friendship. To applause and camera flashes from the audience, words are whispered between the pair, and it's another moment for the photo album when they emerge holding hands for the encore an hour later.

These two have clearly settled into a lifelong friendship, but many might have noticed the opposite attraction of their musical relationship. While the pair's voices manage a beautifully rootsy combination on duets like "Don't Stop" and particularly a stripped-back acoustic pairing for "Never Going Back Again", their individual contributions are markedly different.

Nicks, spinning gently on the spot, is a folky bohemian, a rustic chanteuse during familiar tracks like "Gypsy", "Rhiannon" and an acoustic "Landslide". While the musical styles of the Janis Joplin-esque "Gold Dust Woman" and "Stand Back"'s alarmingly contemporary electronic keyboard riff are markedly different, Nicks's persona doesn't shift.

Buckingham, on the other hand, is a study in almost manic intensity, particularly when Nicks has walked off to effect another costume change and he's left alone to indulge himself with the stalwart rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Perhaps over-fond of the extended instrumental, he plays with a serious stare and punctuates each song with whoops and stamps of the feet. It's a little overwrought, but Buckingham conjures a young man's vitality during "Tusk", "Go Your Own Way", "Oh Well" and a truly spine-tingling acoustic take on "Big Love".

For a band who deal in definitively enduring pop classics, there was the odd clunking moment – a dull "Go Insane", Fleetwood's literally barking drum solo during "World Turning". Yet the magic far outweighed these brief lulls, and the drummer's assertion at the end that "we'll see you next time" was a promise we'd like to hold him to.

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC - GLASGOW.... "Landside dedicated to Bird Handler"

Fleetwood Mac in Glasgow, Thursday 22nd October 09

October 24, 2009 — matildagretchen

My first thoughts when I saw them – they looked OLD, Lindsey in particular. Now, I know they ARE old, but I just mean compared to 5 years ago I could see a tiredness about them. Not that that’s a criticism at all, they still played an amazing show that would shame most of the younger bands out there. I just thought, “oh shit, they might not do this again, it might be taking too much out of them”. But as the show went on, they managed to find even more energy, and seemed to really be enjoying themselves.

Stevie was beautiful in her goth frocks (I counted 4 costume changes, all similar dresses with slight variations on the sequin/lace adornments), and I had hair envy – her mane always seemed to be freshly brushed, with not a lock out of place. I hope I have hair like that at her age – blue rinses are for losers! (sorry grannies).

Highlights of the show for me were -

You'll find the full review here along with a few photos.

(REVIEW) "CAN FLEETWOOD MAC STILL THRILL" (GLASGOW)

Can Fleetwood Mac still thrill without the chemical and emotional charges of old? Rating: * *

SECC - Glasgow

By Matthew Magee

Telegraph.co.uk

Fleetwood Mac are almost as famous for the bed-hopping, powder-sniffing emotional trauma they have inflicted on each other over the years as they are for their era-defining monster hits. But with their heydays now 20 and 30 years behind them, can the music still thrill without the chemical and emotional charges of old?

In their most famous incarnation, featuring Lyndsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac were million-selling megastars of soft rock in the 1970s and masters of airy synth anthems in the 1980s.

Nicks, Buckingham and rhythm section stalwarts Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are back on the road touting a greatest hits tour with no distracting new album to promote. “Yet,” said Buckingham, teasing. The expected roar of anticipation petered out almost before it had begun.

The crowd in Glasgow was a muted mirror of the band themselves, reflecting back what they were given. In the many long, baggy, drawn-out echoes of songs that peppered a flabby set they were silent in their thousands, still and mooning at the stage, clapping politely between numbers. But on the few occasions when the band came to life the crowd went off like firecrackers.

Buckingham’s maudlin posturing and hammy vocal theatrics had many on their feet and cheering, while the sudden liveliness of Tusk or the let-rip relief of the bluesy Oh Well brought roars of delight. The likes of Don’t Stop, The Chain and Go Your Own Way were full of real energy.

But for every one of those tracks there was a Sara or a Landslide, in which a listless and heavy-lidded Nicks struggled to push much range or power from her voice. Or an I’m So Afraid, with a bland and seemingly never-ending guitar solo.

The musical star of the night was Fleetwood, whose drumming lent every song dynamics, energy and, in Tusk and the last section of World Turning, some unexpected groove. He looked as if he was having a riot throughout.

It’s a shame his enthusiasm wasn’t more infectious – this canny dinosaur of a band had the good sense and good grace to snap into focus for arresting performances of the landmark songs, but its brio was too often short-lived.

NO SILVER SPRINGS IN GLASGOW???

Wow! No Silver Springs in Glasgow last night!

What's up with that?!... Were there time restraints on the show - like maybe they couldn't play past 11pm or something? Odd... She's been knocking that one out of the ballpark recently... and with two days off prior to Glasgow, you would think Stevie's voice would be rested up.

I hope it's just an isolated situation.. It's such a great tune live!

GLASGOW BLOG REVIEWS - FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE AT SECC

Thank you for the music

"Stevie Nicks, voice just the same, dripping smoke and honeyed gravel around the room.... Lindsey Buckingham as the perfect foil."

Full Review at CRIVENS, JINGS AND HELP MA BLOG

Fleetwood Mac

"Fantastic, glorious concert that I am thrilled to have seen. But... too much Stevie/Lindsey and not enough John/Mick."

Full Review at POLLIANICUS

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC - GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

Don’t stop ... 
Fleetwood Mac wow fans
at SECC

Catriona Stewart

Heraldscotland

To bow out gracefully or to keep trading on long-since earned laurels.

That must surely be a dilemma for the spate of ageing rockers re-emerging to tour their 30-year-old reputations.

But Fleetwood Mac have put such thoughts to one side and are now in the middle of a world tour, the dates for which would make a younger band exhausted to contemplate.

Having played America and mainland Europe, the group kicked off the UK leg of their tour last night at Glasgow’s SECC, their only Scottish date.

The band are different in that they are not reforming. Fleetwood Mac never broke up but instead worked their way through a remarkably fluid line-up that saw them lose two guitarists to mental institutions and one to a cult.

Their current incarnation includes four from the 1977 Rumours tour; Bassist John McVie, Mick Fleetwood on drums, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks minus singer Christine McVie, who has chosen retirement rather than touring with her ex-husband.

They are rowdy, they are enthusiastic and they convincingly vow to get the party started. However, they still look, and there is no way of phrasing this delicately, old.

Fleetwood’s grey beard and Nicks’ witchy dark frock aside, the group performed a slew of hits with energy belying their years and played with powerful conviction.

Nicks’ ethereal tones have dimmed slightly with age but the years have not withered Fleetwood’s drums.

Fans no doubt turn out, not only for the music, but also to see whether the legendary tensions in the group still exist. From the on-stage rapport and affection between Buckingham and Nicks, it would seem not. However, the emotion of the songs is what gives them their edge and stops the re-emergence of Fleetwood Mac from being jaded.

The crowd, who mainly matched the band in years, were beyond delighted with a fast-paced The Chain, an ethereal Rhiannon and a spine-tingling Big Love.

And surely that’s reason enough to keep rolling out those greatest hits.

REVIEW:
Fleetwood Mac at the SECC

by Catriona Stewart
Evening Times

IT'S been six years since their last world tour but it was like Fleetwood Mac had never been away as they rocked a packed SECC Glasgow.

The foursome are in the middle of a world tour which sees them travel to enough countries to make a band half their age exhausted.

Last night, their only Scottish date among seven UK stops, the band played a slew of greatest hits with energy defying their years.

During their history spanning more than 40 years, Mac have worked their way through an ever-changing line-up that saw them lose two guitarists to mental institutions and one to a cult.

Their current incarnation includes four members from 1977's Rumours tour; John McVie, drummer Mick Fleetwood, vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

Singer Christine McVie is the only one missing, having chosen retirement rather than touring with her ex-husband.

The group, now aged in their 60s, vowed they'd get the party started but they look (there's no nice way of putting it) old.

Nicks was in a witch-like lace dress while Mick Fleetwood's grey beard and ponytail make him look like a badly-ageing rocker.

Appearances aside, Fleetwood's drums are as powerful as ever and he even rocked out a 10-minute solo.

They were notorious for their rock'n'roll band bad behaviour in the 70s but when Linsey and Nicks took the stage holding hands it seemed old rivalries had gone.

But the emotional edge to their songs gives the hits their enduring power and stops Fleetwood Mac becoming jaded.

The crowd, who match the band in years, are beyond delighted with a fast-paced The Chain, an ethereal Rhiannon and a spine-tingling Big Love.

After a rousing version of Go Your Own Way, satisfied fans headed off into the night after a thrilling evening.

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC - GLASGOW, SCOTLAND "THE SCOTSMAN"

Gig review: Fleetwood Mac

The Scotsman

By DAVID POLLOCK

SECC, GLASGOW

****

Photo by: Ross Gilmore

THE subtitle of this reunion tour claims we can expect Fleetwood Mac Unleashed, but it might just as easily be considered Fleetwood Mac Lashed Back Together. Few bands have been through such interpersonal upheaval and still managed to take to a stage together some 40 years after their formation. Gratifyingly, old enmities and possible past mistakes weren't just glossed over with a few platitudes.

"(The album] Rumours was recorded when we were going through such emotional turmoil," notes Lindsay Buckingham diplomatically. "So yes, there was a lot of aggression in this song." The following Second Hand News was one of the night's more impassioned tracks, regardless of the band's seeming newfound comfort with one another.

Buckingham, guitarist and often the lone singer, and singer Stevie Nicks still appear to be the kind of polar opposites you'd never normally place together. Nicks is a loveable Bohemian in shawls and floaty floor-length dresses, and bleached-blonde soft focus on the big screens.

Buckingham's thousand-yard stare and gritted teeth give a certain frightening perspective to the fact that he says Big Love described the person he was in the Eighties and that he's now merely an echo of that man. Performed solo, the song is roared, lascivious, almost confrontational.

Next to such huge personalities, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie form a prosaic backlines. Yet they switch with accomplishment between the two Fleetwood Macs on display here: the folksy, sweet feminine pop of Nicks, which runs through songs like Gypsy, Sara, Rhiannon and I Have Always Been a Storm – unplayed before this tour – and Buckingham's gruff, alpha-male rock.

Whichever of the pair is singing, large swathes of pop songwriting excellence eclipse infrequent sections of dated MOR. Before the closing Don't Stop, Fleetwood announces: "We'll see you next time". Once more, we look forward to it.