REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Atlantic City, NJ March 9, 2019

Review: Revamped Fleetwood Mac in Atlantic City
Dan Deluca | Philly.com | Photos Elizabeth Robertson

ATLANTIC CITY — The Fleetwood Mac concert at Boardwalk Hall on Saturday night began with “The Chain.”

That entrancing vamp from 1977’s Rumours, which started the two-hour, sold-out show, is the only song written together by all five members of the band’s classic lineup: Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham.

Over the years, the song has become a signature of the enduring bond of the hit-making soft-rock act that’s been no stranger to drama, surviving multiple breakups of couples within the group and of the band itself, only to come back together to with a mantra of “never break the chain.”

This version of Fleetwood Mac, however, has one key link missing. That would be Buckingham, the guitarist, singer and arranger, who was tossed last year in a dispute that Nicks has said was simply about scheduling: The band was ready to begin rehearsals for a global tour last June, and Buckingham wanted to wait five months before getting started.

The solution was to replace, with not one but two guys, Buckingham, arguably the principal architect of the massive success the band achieved after he and Nicks joined on New Year’s Eve 1974. (It was founded in 1967 as a straightforward blues-rock band under the leadership of Peter Green.)

The substitutes in the already road-tested unit -- who have been touring since October and are scheduled to play the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on March 22 and April 5 -- are Neil Finn, the New Zealand guitarist known for leading Split Enz and Crowded House, and Mike Campbell, longtime guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Mick Fleetwood “It just wasn’t a happy situation anymore, really for everyone.”

Fleetwood Mac on booting Buckingham: ‘We weren’t happy’
By Chuck Arnold March 7, 2019 | NY Post

“It gets lonely in these hotels,” says Mick Fleetwood with a laugh when he gets on the line. So he’s more than happy to do a phone interview from Atlanta on a day off during Fleetwood Mac’s tour.

Co-founded by its namesake drummer in 1967, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band — which will bring its “An Evening With Fleetwood Mac” show to Madison Square Garden on Monday and March 18, and the Prudential Center on Wednesday — will take a rest day here and there, but after 52 years, there are absolutely no plans to retire from the road.

“This is what we do,” Fleetwood, 71, tells The Post. “That really is where we’re at … In the past, when we literally never stopped, we never even thought of smelling the roses and going on a holiday or something. It was always straight in the studio, straight on the road.”

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Washington, DC March 5, 2019

Fleetwood Mac reminds fans in D.C. that the chain can never be broken (even without Lindsey Buckingham)
By Rudi Greenberg | Washington Post | Photo Brent N. Clarke

Fleetwood Mac opened Tuesday’s show in D.C. with “The Chain,” a song about a relationship that’s imploding, and closed the main set with “Go Your Own Way,” about a relationship that’s imploded.

One way to interpret those setlist choices: as an expert-level troll of ex-bandmate Lindsey Buckingham, the singer and guitarist who was fired last year and replaced by Crowded House singer Neil Finn and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell.

It could also just be business as usual: The last time Fleetwood Mac played D.C. in 2015, when Buckingham was still in the band, the set began and ended with the same two songs.

Either way, it was hard not to feel Buckingham’s absence at times on Tuesday, even if his name was never uttered by anyone onstage at Capital One Arena.

Fleetwood Mac is currently on the second leg of its first tour of the century without Buckingham, who previously left in 1987 before returning a decade later. (The tour returns to the area at Baltimore’s Royal Farms Arena on March 23.) Of course, this is a band that has weathered numerous lineup and stylistic changes over the decades, with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie the only constants throughout the majority of the group’s 50-plus year run.

With Buckingham out of the picture, singer Stevie Nicks took an even more prominent role than usual, singing lead on most songs and drawing the largest ovations from the audience, especially on such hits as “Dreams” and “Rhiannon.”

Fleetwood Mac hasn't stopped thinking about tomorrow

With two new members, the band brings its 50th anniversary tour to Madison Square Garden for two shows.

By Glenn Gamboa | Newsday
Photograph by Randee St Nicholas

Mick Fleetwood remembers sitting backstage with Elton John, hearing about his plans for retiring from touring.

“He said, ‘No one believes me — not even my band,’ but as soon as my children are old enough to go to a proper school, I’m going to hang it up and be that parent that’s available for them,’ ” recalls Fleetwood Mac’s drummer and co-founder. “He’s keeping to his promise.”

It’s a question that a lot of Fleetwood’s contemporaries wrestle with. “For a while, the question was always: ‘Is this the Stones' last tour?’ But here they are going out again in grand style,” he says. “We have our own version of that in this band.”

And Fleetwood, 71, says there was a point last year when the members of Fleetwood Mac were battling about a tour that coincided with its 50th anniversary and wondering if it was time to hang it up as well.

“It was a huge deal that the band should change its dynamic this far down the road,” Fleetwood says. “We thought long and hard — though not too, too long because we knew we had to make our minds up. But we did some serious thinking about whether this was going to be end of the band really. We decided, the four of us, that was not going to be the case.”

Instead, Fleetwood, singer Stevie Nicks, singer-keyboardist Christine McVie and bassist John McVie decided to fire longtime guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who joined the band in 1974 with Nicks, and replace him with Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell.

Even that surprising announcement last April didn’t end the band’s worries. “Then the joyride and the not-knowing ride of ‘this has to be the right decision’ begins,” Fleetwood says. “And it only becomes the right decision with the right chemistry and the right players.”

INTERVIEW Stevie Nicks Rollingstone Magazine

Stevie Nicks on Tom Petty, Drag Queens, ‘Game of Thrones’ and Missing Prince
Wisdom from the first woman to make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice

By ROB SHEFFIELD | ROLLINGSTONE
Photograph by Randee St Nicholas

Stevie Nicks has the only kind of BDE that matters: Bella Donna Energy. The Fleetwood Mac gold dust woman is adding yet another sequin to her top hat by going into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, years after she got enshrined with the Mac. She’s the first woman inducted twice — as she puts it, “at the ripe and totally young age of 70.” She’s also hitting the road with Fleetwood Mac for the 2019 leg of their world tour, in their surprising new incarnation after a sudden split with Lindsey Buckingham.

As eloquent and witty as ever, Stevie went deep with Rolling Stone for an epic late-night chat about her 50 years as a rock goddess, discussing love, loss, female music heroes, her poetry about Game of Thrones, how “Stand Back” makes her miss Prince, drag queens, sexist hecklers, loving Tom Petty, why she wears platform boots and the joys of having two female rock stars in the same band. And also why the story of her life would be titled, There’s Enough Shawls to Go Around. Rock on, queen.

Congratulations on the Hall of Fame. How is it different going in the second time?

It’s 22 to zero. It’s 22 guys that have gone in twice to zero women — Eric Clapton is probably in there 22 times already! So maybe this will open the doors for women to fight to make their own music.

You’re one of the few rock stars with both a band and a solo career.

My solo career is much more girlie. It’s still a hard rock band — but it’s much more girlie-girl than Fleetwood Mac is. I never wanted a solo career — I always wanted to be just in a band. But I just had so many songs! Because when you’re in a band with three prolific writers, you get two or three songs per album — maybe four. But I was writing all the time, so they just went into my Gothic trunk of lost songs.

Christine would walk by me — my totally sarcastic best friend. She’d say [imitation of Christine McVie’s English accent] “Soooo. Writing another song, are we?” To this day, I write all the time. I have a poem that I’ve written about Game of Thrones, and I have a really beautiful poem that I’m writing about Anthony Bourdain.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Returns to Chicago March 1, 2019

Fleetwood Mac Return To Chicago - "It May Get A Little Witchy" Says Stevie Nicks On Night 13 Of Tour
by Jim Ryan | Forbes

Having recently settled a lawsuit brought against them in October of last year by former guitar player Lindsey Buckingham, who was fired from the group at the beginning of 2018, Fleetwood Mac is back on the road for the second leg of their “An Evening With Fleetwood Mac” tour, which runs across the U.S. through April before heading abroad with dates into September.

Buckingham was replaced by Crowded House founding vocalist/guitarist Neil Finn and former Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell amidst much acrimony.

All of which is just the latest chapter in a book that’s been defined by conflict over the course of much of the group’s 52 years.

But what’s defined the most recent twist is just how much fun Fleetwood Mac seems to be having on stage in its latest formation. It was easily apparent on the first leg of the group’s tour last year and it was obvious again on stage Friday night in Chicago.

“This is night 13,” observed Stevie Nicks on stage at United Center in the tour’s second week. “Things might get a little witchy," she added in characteristically mischievous fashion.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Atlanta March 3, 2019

CONCERT REVIEW: Minus Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac returns to Atlanta with energetic replacements
By Rodney Ho AJC.com

Given how tumultuous life was for the five core members of Fleetwood Mac when it was a hit-making machine from 1975 to 1987, it was a miracle to see them all together again in 2014.

When they arrived at what was then Philips Arena late that year, the band was rejuvenated, everyone just thrilled to have captured the magic again. After Christine McVie sang “Songbird,” the band members spent several minutes on stage talking to the exiting audience about how amazing it was to have McVie back after 16 years. 

But those positive vibes didn’t endure. 

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Nashville, TN February 27, 2019

Around the Water Cooler: Dreams and the gypsy that remains
By Andrea Agardy - Tullahomanews
Photos Zach Birdsong

Some little girls dream about being princesses when they grow up. Others want to be astronauts or Wonder Woman or CEOs of enormous tech companies. As for me? I wanted to be Stevie Nicks.

When I was about 8 years old, I was flipping channels one day after school when I stumbled across the video for “Stand Back,” Nicks’ 1983 solo hit. In less than five minutes, my ambition to be a tap dancing brain surgeon (that’s a story for another day) evaporated. The only thing I wanted to do was wrap myself in lace and fringe and spin, spin, spin while a fan dramatically blew my hair like I was living in a shampoo commercial.

And that’s exactly what I did. Well, as nearly as I could manage as a kid in New Jersey. A blanket became my shawl, I snuck one of my mom’s round cake pans out of the kitchen to use as a makeshift tambourine and headed to my bedroom, where I put the radio on and twirled until I was dizzy.

Stevie was captivating. And glamourous. And bold. And ethereal. And that voice, oh my goodness, that voice! Smoky, a little husky and maybe even a touch nasal, but unmistakable and absolutely one of a kind.

RECORD STORE DAY 2019 Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac Alternate

Record Store Day April 13, 2019

Format: 180g Black Vinyl LP
Label: Rhino

Originally released in 1975, Fleetwood Mac' s self-titled release marked the addition of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks into the band' s line-up. Earlier this year it was reissued deluxe edition, featuring previously unreleased alternate recordings. Following the format of previous Fleetwood Mac RSD releases (for Tusk, Mirage and Tango In The Night), this RSD we will release a 1LP album of alternate takes mirroring the original album, from the "Fleetwood Mac" deluxe edition. Alternate takes include early versions of "Monday Morning", "Landslide", "Rhiannon" and "World Turning". On vinyl for the very first time. 

Tracklisting:
1. MONDAY MORNING (Early Take),
2. WARM WAYS (Early Take),
3. BLUE LETTER (Early Take),
4. RHIANNON (Early Take),
5. OVER MY HEAD (Early Take),
6. CRYSTAL (Early Version),
7. SAY YOU LOVE ME (Early Version),
8. LANDSLIDE (Early Version),
9. WORLD TURNING (Early Version),
10. SUGAR DADDY (Early Take),
11. I' M SO AFRAID (Early Version)

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Nashville, TN February 27, 2019

The new Fleetwood Mac finds its groove at Nashville concert
Dave Paulson, Nashville Tennessean
Photos Larry McCormack - view more at The Tennessean

If you attended Fleetwood Mac’s last concert in Nashville back in 2015, there’s at least one moment that probably stuck with you.

In the middle of performing “Landslide,” Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham paused for a moment and held hands. The crowd roared at the gesture, knowing these two had weathered more than 40 years of ups and downs together, both personal and professional.

That audience would have cheered even more loudly if they'd known how the next few years were going to go.

Ahead of the legendary rock band’s latest tour — which stopped at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Wednesday — Buckingham and the rest of the band acrimoniously parted ways.

In concert, his absence is impossible to ignore (unless you’re the members of Fleetwood Mac, who didn’t so much as hint at his existence on Wednesday).

On the other hand, it’s a challenge that has reinvigorated the band as a live act, more than 50 years after it formed.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Charlotte, NC February 25, 2019

At Fleetwood Mac show, Stevie Nicks confuses North and South Carolina. Or... something.
BY THÉODEN JANES | PHOTOS JEFF SINER
Charlotte Observer

Stevie Nicks was threatening to steal the evening, as can tend to happen when Stevie Nicks is in your band.

Not that there’s anything wrong with what the rest of Fleetwood Mac was doing on Sunday night at Spectrum Center in Charlotte.

It’s just that, well, Christie McVie — as remarkably velvety as her voice still sounds, relatively speaking, at 75 — isn’t much of a showwoman; and Mick Fleetwood — while he still seems to be having oodles of fun beating on the drums and shouting “WoooOOOOOOOooooo!,” at 71 — is perhaps too much of a showman, so that his manic persona almost feels like a schtick; and John McVie — I mean, he still can tickle the bass authoritatively, at 73 — but he now blends into the scenery as much as the band’s lesser-known seventh, eighth, and ninth men.

As for Lindsey Buckingham replacements Neil Finn and Mike Campbell, I’ll get to them in a minute.

But for now, like I was saying, it’s kind of hard to take your eyes off of Stevie Nicks. Or your ears.

Something about the way she drifts around the stage, twirling 360 degrees on her toes, shaking her tambourine to what seems like the beat of her own drum, waving her hands like a madwoman — it’s almost like everyone else is performing a show for middle-aged couples in button-down shirts and dressy blouses while Nicks is at Burning Man riding a pot-brownie high.

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Live in Columbia, SC February 22, 2019

Without Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac Offered as Many Gems as Duds
Fleetwood Mac ripped the bandaid right off.

By Jordan Lawrence
Free-times

The bass drum started that familiar thump, keying one of classic rock’s most recognizable slow builds, forming into the bittersweet anthem “The Chain.” But on this night, it wasn’t guitarist Lindsey Buckingham yowling out the opening number’s searing rejoinder — “And if you don't love me now / You will never love me again / I can still hear you saying / You would never break the chain.”

Friday in Columbia, New Zealander Neil Finn, best known for his time fronting Crowded House, took lead vocal duties. He and former Tom Petty backer Mike Campbell joined Fleetwood Mac following Buckingham’s dismissal last year. Finn never quite mustered the frenzied indignation that gives the song its spark, making for an uneven start to an equally uneven concert, one that offered stirring highs and frustrating missteps in equal measure.

Regardless of whether they feel they were justified in firing Buckingham, Mac’s remaining core of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie broke the chain. And while their new hires brought impressive skills to the table, their insistence — displayed during “The Chain” — that they could sub Finn and Campbell in without losing anything marred some of the band’s best songs. It also made them seem like entitled jerks.