PHOTOS: Fleetwood Mac Live in Boston - March 11, 2009

Fleetwood Mac Live in Boston 
at TD Banknorth Garden - March 11, 2009

Photos by: {**Kristen**}

(click for more)

FLEETWOOD MAC UNIONDALE CONCERT PICS

Fleetwood Mac Live 
Uniondale, NY - March 13, 2009

Nassau Coliseum

Photos by: Wayne Herrschaft

Newsday.com (click for more)

HEADING TO EUROPE AND AUSTALIA??

Some interesting and really huge information surfaced last night out of the Nassau Coliseum show in Uniondale, NY. This is unconfirmed officially of course, but reports from the "I Love All Access" group of people that paid for the "Meet and Greet" with Mick Fleetwood said that Mick told them that once Fleetwood Mac takes a 12 day break (presumably after the last North American date May 31st in San Diego) the band will be heading to Europe and Australia!! There was no indication given as to which would see The Mac first - but I think this is really exciting....and definitely something for the Australians and Europeans to look out for. 

The shows have been well attended so far in the US with near sell-outs in large arenas across the midwest and east coast - and it seems the idea of going out on the road without backing up new material is paying off for the band.  Make no mistake, the sound and chemistry between Lindsey, Stevie, Mick and John is still alive and well...

FLEETWOOD MAC BACK ON THE ROAD (VIDEO)

Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham talk about life and love with Fleetwood Mac. Denise Quan has the story (after the commercial)

Embedded video from CNN Video

ASK STEVIE NICKS A QUESTION

ASK STEVIE NICKS

UNCUT

Uncut are speaking to the Fleetwood Mac singer, and we’re after your questions.

Stevie Nicks is in the hot seat soon for our An Audience With... feature. As usual, we’d like to know what questions you’ve got for her.

So, is there anything you’ve always wanted to ask Stevie..?

• What’s like being back on the road with Fleetwood Mac?
  
• What did she think of Courtney Love’s version of “Gold Dust Woman”?
  
• And just where does she keep all her hats from the '80s?
  

Send your questions by Thursday, March 19 to:  uncutaudiencewith@ipcmedia.com 

NEW SONGS CAN BE A PAIN

Fleetwood Mac is back on the road and

playing 'songs that people love'

by Jay Lustig/The Star-Ledger

Friday March 13, 2009

Musicians with a new album out will always swear it's their best work, ever, and they can't wait to play the new songs live.

Stevie Nicks doesn't have a new album right now. Her band, Fleetwood Mac, decided to tour without one. So she can speak the truth: New songs can be a pain.

Even when the band was touring behind its 1977 "Rumours" album, which went on to sell more than 30 million copies worldwide, "Nobody wanted to hear the 'Rumours' songs, just 'cause they were new," said the singer, who performs with the band at Madison Square Garden on Thursday and the Izod Center on Saturday.

"New songs always throw the whole set off. What happens is, you put way too many new songs in, and you get out there on the road, and every night you drop one because you're like, 'This isn't going over. People are going to the bathroom or buying T-shirts.' "

So this time around, the band is focusing on its hits: "Don't Stop," "Dreams," "Rhiannon," "Tusk," "Sara," "Go Your Own Way" and so many others.

"In terms of the actual song choices, it's not that hard," said singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who fronts the band with Nicks. "Probably 80 percent of the set is a no-brainer, because one of the things we have the luxury of looking at is a lot of hits. We have a good track record on radio, and if you go down the list of songs that were clearly radio hits, it defines what you're doing, to a certain degree, right there."

Just don't call it a greatest-hits tour.

"That sounds cheesy to all of us, and we hate that," said Nicks. "We're looking at it as an opportunity to go out and play the tapestry of songs that people love."

Buckingham said the tour also represents an opportunity to reconnect, musically, and take a first step toward making another studio album.

The band last toured together in 2004, and coming together without new material "does provide a hang time, or a proving ground," he said. "You get your musical chops up, not only as an individual, but in terms of how you play as a band over a period of time, and I think that we will be throwing some song ideas around."

After the tour is over, he said, "we'll take a break, and then go in the studio. It could be six months from now, it could be a year. But it is the intention to go in and do that."

Nicks discusses the possibility of a new album in a similar way: "Down the road, if this goes well -- which I'm sure it will -- maybe we'll do one last kick-ass Fleetwood Mac record, and then we can start worrying about the new songs again."

The tour represents the latest chapter in an epic rock tale that has been unfolding for more than 40 years.

The band first came together in England in 1967 as a blues-rock combo, taking its name from its rhythm section: drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. The duo kept the band going with various other musicians for the next eight years before finding the golden mix: Fleetwood, McVie, lovers (and soon to be ex-lovers) Nicks and Buckingham, and McVie's wife Christine (soon to be his ex-wife) on keyboards and vocals.

It was a rocky time for everybody, personally. But the quintet's first two albums, 1975's "Fleetwood Mac" and "Rumours," were blockbuster hits. Its next three, 1979's "Tusk," 1982 "Mirage" and 1987's "Tango in the Night," all went at least double platinum (selling more than two million apiece) as well.

The decade from 1987 to 1997 was Fleetwood Mac's dark age, with Buckingham and then Nicks leaving, and the remaining musicians soldiering on with mixed results. Then came a reunion tour, followed by Christine McVie's decision to quit the band, and a new album (2003's "Say You Will") and tour without her.

"I didn't see it coming," said Nicks of Christine McVie's exit, adding that she was "a bit of a leader" in the band.

"When stuff wasn't going right, Christine was able to walk into the middle of the room and say, 'Listen, this is the way it's going to be. You guys have all lost your minds. And this is how we're going to do it.' And everybody listened to her. She was like our Mother Earth."

Nicks said the band now functions like a democracy, though people make their opinions known in different ways. "Lindsey and I are the obnoxious ones: We're the foot-stompers. John and Mick are the ones who look at us and go, 'Ah, there they go again.' But it always comes around, and it's OK. They know that, so they don't worry too much about it."

March 2008 news reports predicted that Sheryl Crow was going to replace McVie in the band. But this did not end up happening.

Nicks said she considers Crow a close friend, loves singing with her, and suggested she join the group. Crow, Nicks said, agreed, and then decided not to do it.

"Joining this band is like joining the army," Nicks said. "There's no time off. It's heavy, it's huge, it's grand, and it never stops once it starts. I told Sheryl this. I said, 'I want you to understand what you're getting into here.' She said, 'Are you trying to talk me out of it?' And I said, 'No honey, but I'm trying to make you understand what it is.'

"She called me back two days later and said, 'I think I'm going to have to pass.' And I said, 'As Stevie Nicks, I'm disappointed that I won't get to work with you. But as your friend, I think you're making the right decision.'"

Buckingham sees this episode differently, calling the idea of Crow joining the band "a complete hypothetical," and accusing her of mentioning it in the press in order to drum up publicity for her own album.

"It had not been decided," he said. "So it was presumptuous, and I think the timing might have been a little self-serving."

Buckingham said that after the Crow news broke in the press there were discussions about the matter that he was not in on, "and the whole thing just went away, which, in my mind, was a good thing. Because to bring in someone else ... it may work from a business sensibility. But from a musical sensibility ... it is problematic doing Christine's material, no matter how you do it, but it's much better for Stevie and I to try to interpret it in some sort of way than to bring in an extra person to do it, which struck me as a bit lounge-y."

Nicks and Buckingham both said Christine McVie is always welcome back in the band. Nicks in particular would love it if she returned.

"I really miss having the other girl in the band," she said. "Since 1975, I had this buddy: Christine was my best friend and my travelin' buddy -- the girl that you can talk to about everything that's going on."

That's part of what made her reach out to Crow. "It didn't come from the boys," she said. "The boys are always fine for it just to be the boys club. It was me that wanted another feminine energy."

Buckingham said the band invited Christine McVie to participate in this tour "as a matter of course," but that "there was not any real expectation that she would accept."

When the band finished touring in '98, he said, she let everyone know that she had simply had enough. Period.

"I certainly understand it," said Buckingham. "There are days where I think maybe that's what I should be doing, too. But I don't seem to have it in me. There's still something bubbling in there."

"Crash" The Single Release

Stevie Nick's cover of Dave Mathews "Crash" taken from her "Soundstage Sessions" cd will be released as a single through Amazon.com on March 17th. Previews of the two track single are up on the Amazon site.

The two track disc including "Landslide" has been serviced to Triple A Radio stations in the US and is "Available For Airplay" 3.16-17. That basically means it's available for the Music Directors of the Triple A radio stations to consider adding to their rotation. So if you have a Triple A station in your city or town - Request it be played...

The track is making some impact at radio, but it's early days. This week (3/11) in order for a song to hit the top 50 of the Triple A Radio Play Chart - a track would need to have a minimum of 192 spins at radio. "Crash" currently has 12 spins this week at radio & building. Last week it was played three times on the Triple A stations that are tracked. So hopefully within the next couple of weeks it picks up the pace and cracks the top 50 if the Music Directors are successful in adding it to their rotation, and if the feedback from their audience is positive.

To check if you have a Triple A radio station in your city or town to request that "Crash" be played, check out the Radio and Records site, scroll down and hit the "Station Links".

MATT PINFIELD WITH MICK FLEETWOOD

MICK FLEETWOOD

INTERVIEW ON 101.9 RXP

Matt Pinfield of 101.9 RXP in New York City interviewed Mick Fleetwood in early March, 2009 about the release of "Blue Again" Mick's new CD.  Mick also spoke in great detail about Fleetwood Mac's early days, the details leading up to Lindsey and Stevie joining the band - as well as the Fleetwood Mac "Unleashed Tour".

Interview is approximately 18 minutes in length uninterupted by commercials.

You can stream the interview here at the 101.9 RXP Site.

Or Download the interview here: (Mick Fleetwood Interview)

(MORE) BOSTON FLEETWOOD MAC CONCERT PICS

FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE IN BOSTON 
MARCH 11, 2009
These are pretty awesome - taken from the opposite end 

of the arena from a distance.  Some nice views of the overall stage:

Images by: J-CIO (click for more)

MICK FLEETWOOD DEBUTS AT #4 ON BLUES CHART

FLEETWOOD MAC PART 2: The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band featuring Rick Vito arrives at No. 4 on Top Blues Albums with the digital release of "Blue Again," granting the Fleetwood Mac drummer his first appearance on the chart. He graced the Billboard 200 once on his own, when his solo set "The Visitor" hit No. 43 in 1981. Expect "Blue Again" to grow in the coming weeks, once its physical version hits retail March 17.

Featured artist Vito was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1987 until 1991, when he left for a solo career. His single "Desiree" debuted and peaked at No. 36 on the March 7, 1992, Mainstream Rock chart.

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE

Fleetwood Mac Review - Patiot Ledger (Boston)

Fleetwood Mac unleashes their best

By JAY N. MILLER

For The Patriot Ledger

The "other" multi-platinum rock band from across the Atlantic in town Wednesday night didn’t play just a brief sample off their new record.

Fleetwood Mac doesn’t even have a new album yet, but the ``Unleashed'' tour that hit TD BankNorth Garden sure had plenty of music, as the quartet delivered two hours and 20 minutes of their best.

And if anyone has smart remarks about soft-rock, be advised Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham uncorked one of the most incendiary and lengthy guitar solos we’ve heard anywhere in the past decade.

The current version of Fleetwood Mac is a foursome because keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie retired in 2003, petrified of flying. The core band made up for McVie’s absence by adding Brett Tuggle on keyboards and Neil Hayward on guitar, along with a three-woman vocal trio. There were times when McVie’s vocals – especially in contrast or harmony with Stevie Nicks – were missed, and a few times her uniquely melodic keyboard sound also was missed. But time moves on, and the overall sound was excellent, aided by a superb mix.

While the concert got a minimum of publicity with our friends from Ireland invading Davis Square, the Garden was within a couple hundred seats of a sellout, and the 24-song show touched upon every Mac era.

One thing longtime fans will notice, as was true about their 2003 ``Say You Will'' album – the first without McVie – is that the four-person Mac tends to veer between Nicks songs and Buckingham songs.

But there didn’t seem to be any tension between the two famously star-crossed ex-lovers, and each seemed to support the other’s solo turns.

Nicks had the spotlight early with an easy-thumping "Dreams" and then a marvelously soaring "Gypsy". Buckingham’s really shone with the older tune "Go Insane", ripping off brain-curdling guitar lines. Right after that Nicks came gliding out for a "Rhiannon" that the rhythm section of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie pushed into a pounding rock finish.

Nicks, 60, and Buckingham, 59, both looking and sounding superb, sang precise unison vocals on "Second Hand News". Buckingham did a segment with just acoustic guitar, ranging from a raucous "Big Love" to a delicately fingerpicked "Never Going Back Again" with Nicks.

Nicks’ eerie rendition of "Gold Dust Woman" led into a rowdy Buckingham take on the ancient (pre-Buckingham-Nicks) Mac tune "Oh Well". But it was the spacey ballad "So Afraid" that saw Buckingham rip into that 10-minute guitar solo, torrents of screaming notes that never lost the essential melody, and had the throng roaring at the end.

"Stand Back" and "Go Your Own Way" had a massive chorus of 20,000 to help the singers in a grand finale. The encores included a drum-drenched "World Turning", a rollicking "Don’t Stop" and finally a killer take on "Silver Springs", Nicks heart-wrenching vocal enhanced by more fine Buckingham guitar.

MAC READY TO UNLEASH "UNLEASHED" ON THE WORLD

After five dormant years, Fleetwood Mac has regrouped to hit the road on the band's first-ever tour without a new album to promote.

By ERIC R. DANTON | The Hartford Courant

So why now?

That's easy, Stevie Nicks says: The universe was ready for what Fleetwood Mac is calling "Unleashed."

"'Unleashed' to me meant unleashing the furies, unleashing us back into the universe," she says on a rambling conference call with reporters before starting the tour that comes Saturday to Mohegan Sun. "'Unleashed' to me was an edgy term of throwing this amazing musical entity back into the world that we had been away from."

There you have it. With no new songs to slot in, Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie have drawn up a set list of greatest hits, mostly from the '70s. There's a lot to choose from. Fleetwood Mac's 1977 album "Rumours" is one of the biggest records of all time, with sales of more than 19 million copies in the United States, and the band's self-titled 1975 album and 1979's "Tusk" yielded plenty of fan favorites, too.

"This is truly a new experience for Fleetwood Mac to go out ... and play songs that we believe and hope that people are really going to be familiar with," Fleetwood says.

Fans are bound to appreciate a hits-heavy set, but playing shows without the pressure of rehearsing and fitting in new songs relieves the band of a certain burden, too.

"What it does is it kind of frees you up to kind of enjoy each other a little bit more as people," Buckingham says. "The mantra is really more 'Let's just have a good time' and value, you know, the friendships and the history that really underpins this whole experience that we've had over these years."

The band has a famously fractious history, with near-constant lineup changes since its founding in 1967, and various intra-band romantic relationships disintegrating during the period of Fleetwood Mac's biggest success in the mid-'70s. Christine McVie, who was there for the huge hits, left in 1998. Even now, there are flare-ups: Buckingham says that after the band's previous tour, for the 2003 album "Say You Will," "there was some discontent over how things were left."

He continues, "You wouldn't think it would be possible all these years later, but it is still to some degree a work in progress in terms of how we all interact as people."

Since rehearsals for this tour began, though, everyone is all smiles.

"Lindsey has been in incredibly good humor since we started rehearsal on the fifth of January," Nicks says. "And when Lindsey is in a good humor, everybody is in a good humor. When he's happy, everybody is happy."

Although the band has been dormant, the musicians haven't. Nicks has released a greatest-hits record and toured, Fleetwood put out a solo album in 2004 and Buckingham has been something of a road warrior, crisscrossing the country in support of a pair of recent studio albums. Those side projects, they say, help them to stay sharp.

"It's like it's you never get bored," Nicks says. "And so you can do your thing until you start to get bored and then you can go to the other thing. And then you can do that until you start to get bored and then you can go back to the other thing."

It's possible, though not certain, that the first other thing — Fleetwood Mac — will work on a new album after this tour is over.

"There have been discussions for sure that we would love to make some more music," Fleetwood says. "And I think it's really down to the whole sort of bio-rhythms of how everyone is feeling and what's appropriate. We have careers and families and whole different sort of perspectives from what it would have been you know 20, 30 years ago."

First things first, though: the tour. Fleetwood Mac outings are relatively rare, which gives the musicians added motivation to put on the best show possible.

"We don't do this that often," Fleetwood says. "But when we do it, we try to do it right, even with some of the complications that come with. But we don't do it when it's not possible and it doesn't feel right. And this feels really right to be doing this now."

•FLEETWOOD MAC performs Saturday at Mohegan Sun. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are $175, $150 and $125. Information: 860-862-7163.