(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC - TAMPA, FLORIDA

Mac's still got the knack

TampaBay.com

TAMPA –- When Christine McVie ditched Fleetwood Mac in 1998, the piano-playing songbird took with her any semblance of levity that existed in the bed-hopping, turmoil-tossing band. She made loving fun; the rest of ’em made loving sound like a knife fight.

The remaining quartet, which played the St. Pete Times Forum on Wednesday, is now built solely on headstrong, prickly pieces: the steady apathy of bassist John McVie, the googly-eyed madness of warlockian drummer Mick Fleetwood, the beautifully broken mysticism of singer Stevie Nicks (left), the winning petulance of guitar virtuoso Lindsey.

"As many of you know, Fleetwood Mac has had a complex and convoluted emotional history," Buckingham told the tidy, intense crowd of 10,008 fans. But for this tour, he added, they "just wanted to go out and have fun."

Fun is a relative term when most of your shattered-sunset songs are about how much you once despised the person next to you. For a good part of five decades, the Mac has been dysfunctionally functional. Even though all but one member is now in their 60s, those crazy kids are still working out their junk onstage. That said, they're also really good at their jobs. FULL REVIEW

Video of: Monday Morning, The Chain & Dreams

NO BAND DOES DYSFUNCTION LIKE FLEETWOOD MAC

By Lisa O'Donnell | Journal Columnist and Reporter

No band does dysfunction like Fleetwood Mac.

Tales of cults and cocaine, breakups and bankruptcies, affairs and addictions are as much a part of the band's story as the California brand of rock that made it one of the superstar acts of the '70s.

Some 40 years after forming in the heyday of the British blues revival, Fleetwood Mac appears finally to have put behind it the bad chemicals and chemistry that nearly turned it into an oldies act. (Remember the Fleetwood Mac/Reo Speedwagon/Pat Benatar tour of 1996? We are trying to forget it as well.)

During a recent teleconference, the four remaining members of this famously fractured band -- co-founders Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, along with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks -- sounded as if they have to come terms with each other and are ready to move into an era of good feeling.

"We are a group of great contradictions," Buckingham said. "The members don't necessarily have any business being in a band together because the range of sensibilities is so disparate."

On Saturday, this shiny, happy version of the band will play Charlotte (the Greensboro concert was canceled because of "scheduling conflicts") as part of the "Unleashed Tour." It marks the first time that the band is touring without a new album. Instead of pushing new songs, the set list will be heavy with hits from the Fleetwood Mac and Rumours albums with a few seldom-played deep cuts sprinkled in for good measure.

FULL ARTICLE

FIRST SIGNS OF LIFE IN TAMPA

TWIT-PIC courtesy of: Mattysee 

NEW MyMickTV VIDEO (episode 6)

NEW MyMickTV VIDEO......THE MAKING OF RUMOURS

MyMickTV.com

(link to video)

Mick Fleetwood on the

making of Rumours

MAUI MICK

Mick Fleetwood Hawaii Band Video
by: John Heckathorn
Hawaii Magazine.com

(click for video)

"Maui is the place where I hope to live my long and healthy latter years," says 61-year-old Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, who moved his entire family to Maui's Napili shorefront—wife, two twin daughters and his mother.

But make no mistake. Fleetwood has not retired. He's currently on tour with a (mostly) reunited Fleetwood Mac, currently in Texas, then points West, tour dates now scheduled through May.

However, as we reveal in the Mele section of HAWAII Magazine's May/June issue, Fleetwood can't stop playing, and now has two bands based on Maui. 

First, the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band harkens back to the early days of Fleetwood Mac, when it was a four-man blues ensemble. Fleetwood took advantage of a hiatus in the Fleetwood Mac tour to fly back and rip up a Waikiki venue, Level 4, with the blues band, all of whose members live on Maui. The band's double live album, Blue Again, went to No. 18 on iTunes even before the CD release.

His second band is more Island-style. In addition to Vito, Mick Fleetwood's Island Rumours Band includes an array of remarkable Hawaiian musicians, including Willie K., Eric Gilliom, Lopaka Colon, and one of the strongest talents to emerge from contemporary Hawai‘i, Moloka‘i’s Raiatea Helm. What's it like? See and hear for yourself. 

Here's great footage of the band and a video interview with Mick.

FLEETWOOD MAC - ATLANTA

Classic rockers make trip to Atlanta worthwhile

Fleetwood Mac does not have a new disc to promote, so the hits will be featured this time around. Most of their shows on the “Unleashed” tour have featured “Sara,” “Tusk,” “Monday Morning” and even solo tunes such as Stevie’s “Stand Back” and Lindsey’s “Go Insane.” The “wow!” factor is in full swing too, as most gigs have spotlighted a raucous take on the old Peter Green-era Mac classic “Oh Well.” They perform Tuesday, April 28, at Philips.