A colorful history plays out in song

Fleetwood Mac Tour the Emotional
Road Once Again
Written by: Robyn Chelsea-Seifert
CelebrityCafe.com

A colorful history plays out in song for veteran band Fleetwood Mac.

“Somebody’s playing a song, and everybody in the room is going, that’s about me right? And of course it’s about you, but what you have to do is let that go, ‘cos if you don’t let that go, you can never play these songs for anybody.” Stevie Nicks is being pragmatic during her BBC 6 interview while reflecting on the emotional turmoil Fleetwood Mac spun into AOR gold during the 70’s and 80’s. The band was at their most prolific but privately they continued to spiral out of control. This was a band that had already experienced its lion’s share of personnel changes, losing founding members to mental instability, religious cults and alcoholism eventually adding cocaine, bed hopping and break-ups to the lyrical mix. Lindsey Buckingham confirms it was never an easy choice to leave the band nor to walk back in again and think you could pick up where you left off without some emotional baggage. But for him, what’s most important these days are the shows. “It was kind of an exercise in denial that really was the only way to get through it, you really had to put your feelings over here and get on with what needed to be done in the rest of the room,” he said. The “Unleashed” tour is Fleetwood Mac’s first in five years and represents the most successful lineup audiences have grown to love with Buckingham, Fleetwood, Nicks and John McVie. Christine McVie left the band on friendly terms after the release of the 1997 album, “The Dance.” She has since relocated to England. Dipping into four decades of songs the band won’t shy away from anything meaning no song is off limits. And the tour has been a successful one. Fans are receiving them well. They want to go back to the "Rumours" and "Fleetwood Mac" albums and relive those moments in time. That’s what fans do. It’s clear the band has not resolved any of the personal issues that eat away at them. But the love of what they’ve accomplished and playing live remind them to keep it together and keep it professional. So far so good.

FLEETWOOD MAC - Tour finishes on Friday at Wembley Arena in London

Fleetwood Mac Lift The Lid
BBC RADIO 6 MUSIC

Despite a rocky past, Fleetwood Mac look set to finish their UK tour this week without incident.

The band have pulled off a series of comeback dates that wrap up in London on Friday, but as Stevie Nicks explained, it hasn’t always been such a smooth ride for them with many rows and in-fighting within the band:

“Somebody’s playing a song, and everybody in the room is going, that’s about me right? And of course it’s about you, but what you have to do is let that go, ‘cos if you don’t let that go, you can never play these songs for anybody.”

"Somebody’s playing a song, and everybody in the room is going, that’s about me right?"  Stevie Nicks on troubles in the band.

The band have not shied away from any of their hits on the tour, including songs from all four decades at the shows, which have been hailed a triumphant return for the band. They've managed to overcome several changes to the line-up and had to contend with breakups, drug problems and even a religious cult during their time together.

Lindsey Buckingham says reforming wasn’t a walk in the park, and he didn’t really face up to the full force of their previous problems in doing so: “It was kind of an exercise in denial that really was the only way to get through it, you really had to put your feelings over here and get on with what needed to be done in the rest of the room.”

The band re-released "The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac" last month, which went in at number 6 in the UK album charts. But Ken Caillat who produced their classic album Rumours, and said even during the recording Stevie Nicks, and then partner Lindsey Buckingham, were falling out in a big way:

“They were both sitting on stools next to each other and singing into two microphones, and we had to stop the tape or something, and suddenly they were screaming at each other, “Damn you, damn you, go to hell,” and I was honestly embarrassed, I didn’t know what to do, so I just rewound the tape as fast as I could and the moment I hit play they were back into singing, You Make Loving Fun Again, which I thought was very ironic.”

Since going on tour - now without singer Christine McVie - the band have been able to bury some old hatchets, according to John McVie and Lindsey Buckingham.

“We’d just come back from New York, and I don’t think the band has played better. This is a great body of work we’ve got and that allows you to sort of, all the other good feelings, and the other more objective and positive aspects of how you feel about the people, to follow.”

The tour finishes on Friday at Wembley Arena in London.

FLEETWOOD MAC - A FLEET IN GLIMPSE...

A Fleet in glimpse
By david dunn
Sheffield Star

MICK Fleetwood makes no excuses for having no new music to put our way when his legendary band get to the UK.

In fact, as the tour that has already thrilled cities across the USA crosses the 'pond', he'll go as far to say he is glad.

"For the first time we've gone on the road without a new album and there's less pressure for us," he says.

"There's no one thing no-one knows. People are loving it, probably because they are not sitting through five or six songs they don't know and are not as emotionally connected with.

"Because there's less pressure, we are in a healthy position and the energy is up a few notches."

For now The Unleashed Tour coincides with a re-mastered double greatest hits album, but the plan is to make new music.

"There are a lot of bands who have been completely resting on their laurels for a long time because they've not made new music.

"We all turned around and said 'We actually did do something worth half a damn'. It was like looking into the mirror. We are older and some of us have young families. Certainly we're more responsible second time around – you try to do a better job second time around."

Fleetwood Mac intended to tour before now, around the time they released Say You Will, the first album without Christine in the band.

But with a solo career flourishing, Lindsey Buckingham was making a double album that turned into two single albums and he toured both.

Then Stevie Nicks toured.

"Getting us all on the same page was easier for me and John. He is sitting there sailing his boat," recalls Mick. "But five years went by before we realised it was five years."

Mick, Cornwall-born and now 62, says he is glad the tour brings the band back to Sheffield on Monday and recalls some of his earliest career gigs at Peter Stringfellow's Mojo club.

The lofty drummer was in a short-lived band called Shotgun Express with Rod Stewart and Beryl Marsden.

"Those were brilliant days. The club was so advanced in terms of the way music was presented – they fed you and did the things other people were not doing.

"Peter and his wife were brilliant promoters.

"They used to give us records to listen to and say 'You should do this as a song'. They turned us on to all sorts of great music.

"Everyone had an energy about music – that place reminds me of an energy that was so important."

Both he and Rod went on to become major stars, of course.

And, much like his Scottish friend, Mick has no intentions of calling it a day just yet.

"If you enjoy playing your music and people want to come and see you… I hope I can do this for another 10 years.

"About 20 years ago the Stones said 'This is our farewell tour'. Then they said it a few more times. Then they stopped saying it and have carried on.

"We have not said it yet.

"Jagger is like a freak of nature, though. I'm 62, practically no different than the Stones. Physically I think, touch wood, I'm in pretty good shape to do what I do. Maybe I will not be banging the drums so loud at 70.

"I will never think I will not play again, though – I will play at the local bar.

" I hope we do another couple of tours and I hope we don't implode where we say 'I can't stand to see your face anymore'.

"It has happened before and I hope it won't happen again.

"But we are older now; we are ex-lovers and old friends."

Hawaii home suits Mick

HOME these days for Mick is Maui – the same Hawaiian island base as US country legend Kris Kristoffersson, the late George Harrison and fellow Mac John McVie.

"It's a reclusive place," says Mick, "but I did not move for that reason. I like the people and I'm living a very social life here.

"I came in the '70s when it was a lot less commer-cialised and I've been coming ever since.

"Life got crazy, the rock and roll time, and we never made the move way back then.

"We bought property here years ago and it was always my dream to one day make the move."

And he did, with his twin daughters from his third marriage.

"From time to time I miss the culturally solid feeling I get when I go to England – by the nature of the oldness, not that the Hawaiians don't have an old culture."

As well as his side project, the touring Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, the legendary drummer also maintains a 10-piece Hawaiian band.

"We play Mac stuff in a Hawaiian style," he says.

"We have a lot of fun."

FLEETWOOD MAC - THE MAC IS BACK (Sheffield Star)

The Mac is back
By david dunn
Sheffield Star

MICK Fleetwood is the first to admit his band is not entirely normal.

"We are sort of like a dysfunctional family, a unique bunch of people," he tells The Star from Hawaii ahead of Fleetwood Mac's first UK dates in six years.

And looking at the headlines down the years the people behind some of the best-known music in the western world – Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie – were not exactly short of excitement off stage.

"We've all been extremely close but we also had to become friends and ex-lovers and all the rest of it.

"The bottom line, the umbilical chord that links us, is not about business.

"Stevie and Lindsey were pretty much married for 20 years – it was part of the Fleetwood Mac soap opera."

Beyond the sometimes complicated romance issues, the drugs and the rows, Mac have been an incredible success story with global hits like Don't Stop and Go Your Own Way. The landmark Rumours album alone accounts for 25 million of their album sales.

"We're not a bunch of guys who hate each other but make great music and turn up and play. We cannot do that.

"Because we were probably too forthcoming while washing our laundry in public the upside now is not having to talk about it. We are sort of lucky we were talking too much before.

"Now the great thing is people identify with us being human beings and not iconic, rock and roll untouchable creatives.

"After the blood and guts of drugs and alcohol abuse there's a real connection with us as people.

"We are no different to someone who has had a love affair in the office. It has to be worked out.

"We are hearing and feeling - we are having a good comfortable celebration and that's a good feeling."