Fleetwood Mac review, Wembley Stadium: Band perform with too much zest for this to be a simple exercise in nostalgia
It is difficult not to occasionally feel the lack of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, less for his guitar wizardry than for the tense, loaded chemistry he always shared with ex-partner Stevie Nicks

Alexandra Pollard
Independent
Photo by looper23

“It’s unbelievable that we’re all still doing this,” proclaims Mick Fleetwood from behind his vast drum set onstage at Wembley Stadium. The “all” isn’t quite accurate – for one thing, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham was unceremoniously ousted from the band last year, reportedly after smirking at Stevie Nicks – but he has a point nonetheless. Fleetwood Mac have come to the brink of self-destruction more times than there are people in this enormous stadium.

Fifty-one years after the band first formed (though Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are the only founding members remaining), this is “the 61st show of a long trip we’ve been on since September”, announces Stevie Nicks. She says so with just a hint of weariness – the energy, at first, is a little fatigued, the first few songs sung seemingly by rote. But things take a turn by the time “Second Hand News” comes around, taken from their seminal 1977 album Rumours, which was recorded when the band were tied up in romantic knots and barely speaking to each other. Nicks, an occult leader all in black, suddenly clicks into gear, air drumming along to Fleetwood’s hugely impressive percussion.

Fleetwood Mac Live at Wembley Stadium June 16, 2019

Review: still going their own way
Even without Lindsey Buckingham, the band's unmistakable sound, as promised, lingers on

By John Clarke
iNews

Fleetwood Mac
Wembley Stadium, London
★★★★

Like a mighty ship of state, Fleetwood Mac finally sailed into London over the weekend. One crew member, Lindsey Buckingham, had been cast adrift but two new shipmates – Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell – had signed up.

It had been a lengthy voyage. “This is the 61st show of a long trip that started last year,” said Stevie Nicks, “and we’re glad you’re all here. Let’s get this party started.”

The fear was that with Buckingham’s departure – he left under less than happy circumstances last year – Finn and Campbell would change the shape of a band that has already sold 100 million records worldwide. Mick Fleetwood wasn’t worried. “We jammed with Mike and Neil and the chemistry really worked… We know we have something new, yet it’s got the unmistakable Mac sound,” he said on the band’s website.

It was hard to argue with that, as they promptly emerged on stage and launched into a supercharged “The Chain” that immediately had everyone out of their seats.

The sound, despite the huge open spaces in Wembley Stadium, was big, thick and impressive. It even got intimate when Christine McVie, regal as ever all in black, gently sashayed into “Little Lies”. Crowd pleaser, “Dreams” was next, with a vocal chorus that came more from the audience than it did the stage.

It was a reception that seemed to energise an already hyperactive Nicks as she darted around the stage, her peerless vocals on the still enormously effective “Rhiannon” and admitting “I’m the black magic woman” on a reboot of a hit from 1968, and what now feels like the band’s distant past.

New boy Finn proved his worth with a melodic and touching version of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (with vocal support from Nicks) which fitted seamlessly into the Fleetwood Mac oeuvre. Campbell got his chance later in the evening with “Free Fallin’”, an emotional and moving tribute to the late Tom Petty.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. Mick Fleetwood appropriated “World Turning” for a drum solo, complete with screams which segued into a conga-driven battle with percussionist Taku Hirano as the rest of the band ambled off stage. It was interesting, but a tad too long for comfort. And while Campbell made a brave bid to tackle another earlier Fleetwood Mac classic, “Oh Well” it lacked the grandeur of Peter Green’s original version.

The band were on safer ground with “Go Your Own Way” which saw Finn step neatly and almost imperceptibly into Buckingham’s shoes. “Don’t Stop” closed the night. The music may have had to, but the good-time feeling lingered.

LIVE REVIEW FLEETWOOD MAC LONDON JUNE 16, 2019

Fleetwood Mac review – latest lineup makes loving them fun
Having weathered the acrimonious departure of Lindsey Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac seem to be enjoying themselves more than ever

By Alexis Petridis
The Guardian
Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Wembley Stadium, London

Happy Father’s Day, London,” offers guitarist Mike Campbell, one of Fleetwood Mac’s two new recruits. “I know,” he adds meaningfully, “there are some fathers out there.” There certainly are, but perhaps not as many as you’d think. The crowd packing out Wembley to see what – at a conservative estimate – is something like Fleetwood Mac’s 13th lineup is far from entirely comprised of the middle-aged-to-pensionable.

If you want proof of how wrong the recently departed Lindsey Buckingham was when he suggested the band were “incredibly unhip”, here it is – fans visibly too young to remember Fleetwood Mac’s late-80s resurgence with Tango in the Night, let alone the release of Rumours; twentysomething women dressed up as Stevie Nicks in top hats and scarves. On stage, the actual Stevie Nicks – no top hat, but very much dressed up as Stevie Nicks – is dedicating Landslide to Haim, one of umpteen latter-day bands under the spell of the music Fleetwood Mac made 40-odd years ago.

She says that Haim, too, might be on stage in their 70s, to which the obvious response is: only if they write more songs like these. Little Lies, Dreams, You Make Loving Fun – they’re built to withstand anything, from human resources issues to the sound at Wembley, which tonight recreates the experience of trying to listen to Fleetwood Mac with your head submerged in a tureen of soup. The visuals appear to be broadcast direct from Nicks’s brain – trees silhouetted against misty moons, stallions galloping through the surf in slow motion, mysterious ladies holding crystal balls etc – but more striking is the atmosphere emanating from the stage.

Over their 52-year career, being a member of Fleetwood Mac has always looked like a fraught business, but tonight, at least, they seem to be enjoying themselves. Mick Fleetwood is a constant blur of eye-popping, tongue-waggling and grinning; Nicks unguardedly plays not just air guitar, but air drums; Christine McVie, who gave a dislike of touring as the reason for her 15-year absence from the band, seems untroubled by such concerns, whether playing bluesy electric piano or standing front and centre to deliver her peerless song Everywhere.

The setlist is designed to subtly accommodate Buckingham’s acrimonious departure – it lightly steps around Tusk (1979), an album that was the guitarist’s baby; Big Love is noticeable by its absence from the cavalcade of hits – but both new members are what a football manager would call strong signings. Campbell storms confidently through the Peter Green-era anthem Oh Well. Neil Finn, meanwhile, brings with him not only a voice that sounds pretty much perfect standing in for Buckingham on Second Hand News, but also his own back catalogue. When the rest of the band cede the stage to him and Nicks for an acoustic version of Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over, it provokes the audience into the latter-day lighters-aloft moment that is waving your mobile phone with its torch activated.

Perhaps they’re just relieved Fleetwood’s solo turn is over. A drum duet with percussionist Taku Hirano, decorated with a lot of extempore grunting and whooping, it goes on long enough to accommodate not merely a visit to the lavatory and a queue for the bar, but a trip back home to check whether you’ve left the gas on, although in fairness, sections of the crowd respond as though a drum solo with extempore grunting is precisely what they’ve ponied up £200 to see. Behind him, the screen fills with images of past Mick Fleetwoods, favouring the world with drum solos over the decades, which gives his interlude as much of a symbolic air as the concluding run at Don’t Stop. If it seems as if it could go on for ever, well, so do Fleetwood Mac themselves.

LIVE IN LONDON - FLEETWOOD MAC JUNE 16, 2019

Fleetwood Mac review – all the hits, with a sour aftertaste
Kitty Empire
The Guardian
Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Wembley Stadium, London

Lindsey Buckingham’s absence casts a pall over a singalong show, despite sterling work from subs Neil Finn and Mike Campbell

There is no arguing with the numbers. Wembley Stadium is brimming with fans, even on a wet Tuesday. A dozen people fill the vast stage, reproducing some of the most opulent harmonies and venomous kiss-offs of the late 20th century. On Dreams, a bittersweet classic written by an enduringly swirly Stevie Nicks, a chandelier descends from the rigging. Amusingly, it goes back up afterwards, reappearing and disappearing with every one of her compositions on the final night of Fleetwood Mac’s European tour.

Superfan Harry Styles has brought his mum, Nicks reveals, complimenting her on what a well-brought-up young man he is. Super-producer Jimmy Iovine (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Nicks’s 1981 solo album Bella Donna) has flown over from the States, she says. The Fleetwood Mac setlist – barely varying from Berlin to London – is replete with peak-period hits and refreshed by a couple of deeper cuts. One, the Peter Green-era blues Black Magic Woman, made famous by Carlos Santana, finds Nicks vamping her way through a female reading of the tune as the chandelier glitters darkly.

You can’t help but wonder, though, what constitutes a quorum in Macworld – a notoriously fickle place, which has seen a number of key personnel go missing. The reunited classic 70s lineup of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie (back in the fold since 2013) has been touring for a year without guitarist and songwriter Lindsey Buckingham. Fleetwood asked Buckingham to join his band in 1974. Buckingham assented, but only if he could bring Nicks. The results were immediate: two of the biggest albums in rock history, sacks of cash, dangerous liaisons, mucous membranes caked in “booger sugar”.

LIVE IN DUBLIN - FLEETWOOD MAC JUNE 13, 2019

Fleetwood Mac in Dublin: ‘We’re a bunch of crazy people with a crazy history’
Breathtaking songs sum up the turmoil and happiness of the band’s break-ups and make-ups

Louise Bruton
The Irish Times

An Evening with Fleetwood Mac is a brave title for a tour, given that some members of the Fleetwood Mac family can’t even stand to be in the same room as the others. But for this tour and this their 60th gig of their tour, an evening with Fleetwood Mac is an evening with Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn.

Emerging from backstage, they come in hard with The Chain, a song that drums up fervour even if it’s just on a mid-afternoon repeat of Top Gear on Dave.

Immediately, Fleetwood’s facial expressions become a star in their own right, beaming as he cues in the always thrilling break of The Chain. In the unseasonably cold June breeze, the ribbons draped on Nicks’s mic stand and tambourine billow during Dreams, as does her long, honey blonde hair, building up her air of being the true witch supreme.

Her husky voice hits the same soft purrs she’s been hitting ever since she joined the band, a timeless icon. Batting the chorus of Second Hand News back and forth with Finn, there’s a warmth between them that was vaguely absent from their last visit to Dublin with Buckingham in 2015.

Retrieving Black Magic Woman from the archives, there’s a distinct playfulness between Nicks and Christine McVie as Christine wraps a scarf around her friend’s shoulders. This time, says Nicks, we “Sing it through the eyes of the woman ... so that’s me and Chris”.

Passing on the good karma, Campbell takes off his hat in appreciation of Christine’s work on the keyboard. And in general, there’s a reverence for the ever silent John and a universal adoration of the larger than life Fleetwood, who shows more than a glint of madness during his 10-minute long drum solo, shouting out things like “hanky panky!” and “unleash the hounds!”.

It’s almost like they’re telling no one in particular and the entire world at once that it’s nice to play nice.

Historically, the group has a revolving door policy with members coming, going or getting fired due to: affairs, divorces, drunken brawls, break-ups, make-ups, creative differences, dalliances with the Children of God cult, drug abuse or health issues.

The core set though, consists of Nicks, the McVies, Fleetwood and Buckingham, who stuck together for a winning streak between 1974 and 1987, releasing the seminal Rumours and Tusk albums during this period. Their capacity to work together continued to fluctuate over the years.

A two-year touring stint reunited them in 1996, until Christine decided to step away from the public eye. Sixteen years later, she rejoined the group and the five-piece had a four-year run of touring until Buckingham was fired – although Mac says that’s too ugly a word to use – for a plethora of allegations, including smirking at Nicks during a thank-you speech at an awards ceremony. He also refusing to sign off on a tour that they’d been planning for over a year, which led to Buckingham filing a lawsuit against the group for breach of oral contract.

It’s not easy carrying the burden of being a rock star, is it? So with Buckingham out, Finn and Campbell fill his boots instead, and with these welcome additions onstage, Crowded House’s Don’t Dream It’s Over sneaks onto the setlist and Nicks takes the lead on Free Fallin’, an emotional tribute to Campbell’s former bandmate and friend Tom Petty.

Fleetwood Mac’s music transcends generations. Everywhere is a borderless anthem that can be played at a wedding, in Coppers, the Róisín Dubh and the queer night club Mother and it will always incite the same rush to the dance floor.

Landslide, written by Nicks, is a breathtaking song and as she says herself, she wrote this song at 27 when she thought she was old but now that she’s 71, she feels like she’s got so much more to give. The show ends with Don’t Stop, a song that Christine wrote in 1976 about her separation from John after eight years of marriage.

As they take their final applause, grinning through the happiness and the turmoil that each song represents, there’s no better example of “the show must go on” than Fleetwood Mac.

“We’re a bunch of crazy people with a crazy history,” says Fleetwood, getting the last word in, “but it’s nights like this that give us life’s breath”.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by FLEETWOOD MAC NEWS (@fleetwoodmacnews) on Jun 14, 2019 at 5:49pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by FLEETWOOD MAC NEWS (@fleetwoodmacnews) on Jun 14, 2019 at 8:00am PDT

FLEETWOOD MAC Live in Dublin June 13, 2019

Fleetwood Mac roll back the years with RDS stunner
BY: STUART CLARK
Hotpress

Despite the Lindsey Buckingham-shaped hole on stage, the band were in serious crowd-pleasing mood, says Stuart Clark

When they last played Dublin in 2015, it was obvious from the body language and the yawning space between them on stage that all was not well between Lindsey Buckingham and the rest of Fleetwood Mac. Even so, it was still one hell of a shock when his services were dispensed with before this latest lap of the world.

I know of quite a few conscientious objectors who aren't in the RDS tonight to see whether Tom Petty's former Heartbreakers lieutenant Mike Campbell and Crowded House's Neil Finn can between them fill the Lindsey-shaped hole to the right of the drum-riser. The answer is they can’t – nobody can - but let us not forget that four of the people who magicked up the likes of Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage and Tango In The Night are still present and correct.

Opening with a rambunctious version of ‘The Chain’ – the Mac have always kicked considerably more ass live than in the studio – and following it up with the close harmony swoon of ‘Little Lies’, it’s evident that the reconfigured band are in serious crowd-pleasing mood tonight.

Occupying as she does that middle ground between Homer’s The Odyssey and Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings, I was a bit taken aback to see Stevie Nicks wandering past the Permanent TSB on Grafton Street on Wednesday afternoon. Tonight, though, in front of a seriously sold-out Showgrounds she is once again not quite of this world. Her first solo turn is ‘Dreams’, a song that despite being played approximately every 27.2 minutes on classic hits radio has lost none of its spellbinding allure.

Neil Finn takes care of the vocal heavy lifting for the first time on 'Second Hand News', and proves himself to be more than able for the task. Dublin being a lot colder at this time of year than L.A., he's wrapped up in a Rupert The Bear-style green scarf. The crowd's cockles are warmed by the rendition of 'Black Magic Woman', which features some fabulous interplay between Finn and Campbell - who's one hell of a cool dude guitarist. Quite how much he can see from beneath the heavy duty shades he's wearing is debatable. The song also serves as a reminder of how fine a keys player the perma-smiling Christine McVie is. She struggles to hit the high notes on the following 'Everywhere', but hey...

Nicks is at her sublime best again on ‘Rhiannon’, with the "Would you stay if she promised you heaven?” line a seductively delivered tease that puts goosepimples on this writer’s goosepimples.

The first call and response of the show comes when Mick Fleetwood, sounding uncannily like Chas Smash at the start of 'One Step Beyond', commandeers 'World Turning'. His exhortations to "unleash the hounds" as a bongo is pulverised don't go unheeded. The greatest showman drummer of all time? He's definitely there or thereabouts.

Having told us he loves our dirty old town, Mike Campbell lends 'Oh Well' a distinctly southern Elmer Fudd-ish drawl. Five decades on, it remains a fine slice of dirty blues.

A reminder of Neil Finn’s other job comes halfway through when, following a Mick Fleetwood big up, he strums the opening notes of 'Don't Dream It's Over'. When Stevie joins in, it's genuinely gobsmacking. She dedicates 'Landslide' to "my good friend Joe Elliott who's from here... well, I hope he is." She's sort of right. Anyway, it's easily her best performance of the night.

There's laughter from the band as they fluff the intro to 'Hold Me': the execution thereafter is pure pop perfection. Also falling into that category is 'Go Your Own Way', inadvertently the cheeriest break-up song ever, which survives not being sung by its author Lindsey Buckingham.

The double-whammy encore of ‘Freefallin'' – somewhere up above us Mr. Petty is shaking a serious leg – and ‘Don’t Stop’, another song that still sounds factory fresh after all these years, bring the curtain down on what, by even Fleetwood Mac’s high standards, is a stunning show.

THE MAC CHECK INTO PLUSH DIGS AHEAD OF SOLD-OUT DUBLIN GIG

Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie, Neil Flynn and Mike Campbell were pictured entering the five-star Merrion Hotel in Dublin on Tuesday June 11th.

Singer songwriter Stevie Nicks is staying at a different hotel.

PHOTOS Fleetwood Mac Live in Landgraaf, Netherlands June 10th at Pink Pop Festival

June 10 - Landgraaf, Netherlands - Pink Pop Festival

Fleetwood Mac Live in Werchter - June 8, 2019

Fleetwood Mac offered a refined best of Werchter Boutique
LUC LORFÈVRE
Moustique

Elegant and enthusiastic, the Anglo-American group celebrated with emotion fifty years before 45,000 fans. Mosquito was in the plain of Werchter to witness what looked like the last Belgian concert of a rock legend.

Despite the qualifying match of the Red Devils, despite the threats of the storm Miguel, more than 45,000 Belgians were present this Saturday at Werchter Boutique. This 2019 edition featured more musical aperitifs ( The Pretenders ) or less (the others) digests before welcoming Fleetwood Mac for the second European leg of his tour fiftieth anniversary and for, no doubt also, his last appearance in Belgium.

Fleetwood Mac on stage in 2019 is an enthusiastic group whose timeless "classic rock" repertoire always lights up with one or the other surprise. Fleetwood Mac, after fifty years of a story worthy of a soap with all that it includes excesses, betrayals, ruptures and reconciliations, it is a formation that brings together today the elite. Either the two irremovable founding members who gave their name to the group (71-year-old drummer Mick "Fleetwood", 73-year-old bassist John "Mac" Vie), English keyboardist / singer Christine McVie, the cultured Stevie Nicks, the guitarist Mike Campbell (former right-hand man of Tom Petty and Heartbreakers member) and Neil Finn (leader of Crowded House). Yes, a band of rock stars accustomed to stadiums able to play everything with their eyes closed but who, as with the Stones or the side of the E Street Band, remember that to last you must also continue to live and enjoy.

Logically, Fleetwood Mac focuses his repertoire on his two albums that brought him glory. No less than five songs are taken from the LP "Fleetwood Mac" (1975) and seven are from the huge "Rumors" (1977) which, with its 40 million copies, remains one of the most popular albums. sold out of history. The highlight of Werchter's two-hour concert is without hesitation any of Stevie Nicks' poignant interpretation of Rihannon . Covered with dark-colored shawls and a black dress of pity, Stevie Nicks puts all her emotion into this " song about a Welsh witch " as she presented it in the 70s. Behind, on the screens, wild horses gallop in the waves while the guitars Mike Campbell and Neil Finn duel. And to add more in the format " postcard" , it will be specified that it is pile-pile at the end of Rihannon, that the dark night fell on Werchter. Very very strong…

Rihannon arrives at the first hour of the show. A perfect first hour where the pieces are linked without taking into account the times: The Chain in intro; the MTV Little Lies hit Nick echoes his accomplice - especially moved this Saturday night - Christine McVie; Everywhere sung at the center of the stage by the same Christine McVie, Gipsy performed by a weightless Stevie Nicks or Second Hand News , a break song from "Rumors". The double album "Tusk" is, however, not visited. Probably because it symbolizes too much the investment of the guitarist / producer Lindsey Buckingham, a great absentee of this anniversary tour. On the other hand, Fleetwood Mac unearths the Black Magic Woman of its blues period. Written by Peter Green in 1968 and popularized by Santana on her first album released a year later, Black Magic Woman is now "the point of view of a woman" in the voice of Stevie Nicks who is completely embracing this prayer hippie evoking a mesmerizing female creature " who has the power to make blind" .

Fleetwood Mac version 2019 is not immune to clichés and tributes. Mick Fleetwood's long drum solo works well in a plain but you can do without it. Tube among the tubes, Go Your Own Way is one of the few titles that seems to run in autopilot, but Fleetwood Mac had to play it. The Crowded House Neil Finn has the opportunity to remember his science pop on the ballad for lighters and smartphone Do not Dream Is Over, included in a setlist that also includes a salute to the late Tom Petty with his cover of Free Fallin sublimated a new once by Stevie Nicks. Other highlights of this " back to seventies" evening include Christine McVie's You Make Lovin Fun and the "Cocaine" song by "Rumors" Gold Dust Woman . A very nice evening. 

REVIEWS - FLEETWOOD MAC Live in Berlin June 6, 2019

Fleetwood Mac in the forest stage
Go your own way
Powerful and dignified in spite of little wobbly: Fleetwood Mac gave a fine concert in the Berlin 

Waldbühne. NADINE LANGE
Der Tagesspiegel

Drama, quarrels and rearrangements - they are part of Fleetwood Mac even in old age. Just like their constant since 1967 rhythm section, consisting of the two founding members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. In the preliminary final chapter of the sometimes soap opera-mature band biography guitarist Lindsey Buckingham had to go because he and his ex-sweetheart Stevie Nicks just could not get along. At first he threatened to sue the rest of the band, but then settled out of court with her.

Buckingham, who played a key role in the most successful phase of Fleetwood Mac as a musician, composer and producer, is being replaced on stage by two newcomers. His vocal parts are taken over by Neil Finn, formerly of Crowded House, on guitar replaced by Mike Campbell, who once played for Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. The two are doing well at the only Germany concert of the group on Thursday evening in the Berlin Waldbühne. Although Finn irritated in the opening piece "The Chain" first by a slightly too dashing and over-motivated lecture, but that is soon, also because the pieces with female lead vocals move into the foreground.

Full Review




Great singalongs and little magical moments: That's how it was with Fleetwood Mac in Berlin
by Christina Wenig
Discover

Almost everything would have been all right: While heavy rain and storm clouds hung over Berlin, the beginning of the current European tour of Fleetwood Mac threatened to fall into the water. The band still came to the Berlin Waldbühne, as well as about 20,000 fans, the storm subsided - and it was followed by an unforgettable evening.

Full Review


Fleetwood Mac in the forest stage
by Frank Junghanel
Berliner-zeitung.de

The Fleetwood Mac show on the Waldbühne was opened with a special effect that you would not have liked. "Thunder only happens when it's raining" Stevie Nicks sings in "Dreams". Donnerregen formed the meteorological supporting program for the performance of the - here fits the superlative once - legendary band, which on Thursday (!) In Berlin has given the first of only three European concerts.

Full Review


Fleetwood Mac rock the forest stage despite rain
At the only German concert, the mega band of the seventies and eighties plays with many hits through 52 years of band history.

by Ulrike Borowczyk
Morgenpost.de

Both arms raised in greeting, Mick Fleetwood is a fleshed victory sign. A good omen. And in fact, Fleetwood Macs do it. Already in the second song "Little Lies" is the sold out Waldbühne head. The smartphones at the ready to record the gig for eternity sing and dance with the audience.

Full Review

INTERVIEW Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie speak with the UK's Independent

Fleetwood Mac: ‘We’ll burn in hell if we don’t play Glastonbury one day’
Cocaine, fights, love affairs and break-ups. Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie speak to Chris Harvey about the success, the hardship and the torment of the band as they prepare to play Wembley in June

The Independent

This strange, funny band is complicated,” says Mick Fleetwood. “It’s all about people, it’s not horrific.” I’m talking to the man who has been the only member of Fleetwood Mac to appear in every line-up of the band since they were formed. When they step out on stage at Wembley Stadium in June, that will be coming up to 52 years ago.

We’ve been chatting about the period when Fleetwood Mac moved from stars to superstars with the release of Rumours in 1977. It was during the era of Seventies rock excess, when band mythologies are wreathed in tales of groupies, sexual exploitation, drug addiction and death.

Fleetwood Mac were no strangers to drugs: LSD had cost the group its original leader, Peter Green, at the end of the Sixties, and cocaine was an integral part of the band’s Seventies. Fleetwood wrote in his autobiography that Rumours was written with “white powder peeling off the wall in every room of the studio”.

“I think we were damned lucky that our music never went down the drain because we went down the drain,” the 71-year-old drummer says now, “and I think in truth there are moments where you could have said we got pretty close, you know.

“Cocaine was everywhere, people who worked in banks [used it]. Personally, I had a run on that lifestyle, but fortunately, I didn’t get into any other type of drug that would have been more damaging – I don’t even know why, but I’m very thankful. Brandy and cocaine and beer,” he says, naming his poisons, as he describes the 20 years of “high-powered lunacy” that he put his body through. “That lifestyle became something that had to come to an end… hopefully, you come out of it with your trousers still on, and not taken out in a plastic bag.”

Running Order of Rock Hall of Fame Show April 27th

They fixed it in the mix.

Stevie opened the show when they taped the special and it looks like all her performances will air and she will open the show when it airs tonight on HBO.

Stevie Nicks
Induction: Harry Styles
Performance: Stevie Nicks performs "Stand Back," "Leather and Lace" (with Don Henley), "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (with Harry Styles) and "Edge of Seventeen."

Cleveland.com
By Chuck Yarborough

How fitting is it that one of the most cliched phrases in the music business applies to a show honoring the best in the music business, HBO’s production of the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

The result: a tighter, better-sounding version of the bone-wearying actual ceremony held in March in Brooklyn, New York, at the Barclays Center. The program premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 27, on the cable network, and will re-air throughout the month.

But to understand how we got there, take yourself to Brooklyn and pretend that you are the person in charge of that as-it-happens event. Consider:

This is a live show that honors seven acts, with the accompanying egos that exist despite what the press releases and online bios say. Who goes on first? Who goes on last? Who wants to go on first and who wants to go on last? Who gets the preshow sound check? Who just has to plug ‘n’ play? How much of the allotted chunk of time do you give one act over another? And how do you expedite the changeover from one act to the next, getting all the instruments set up, miked, etc?

This time around, those acts are the Cure, Def Leppard, Janet Jackson, Radiohead, Roxy Music and the Zombies, the Class of 2019 for this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Now, I can get around the egos of the artists and their management just by listing them alphabetically, as I’ve done here. Good luck doing it in real life, in real time.

The first thought is that you should get everything in within the five hours or so that’s allotted for a show that begins at 7 p.m. Somebody gets paid to make the decisions, so whoever that was in New York decided that the order would be Nicks, Radiohead, Roxy Music, the Cure, Jackson, the Zombies and Def Leppard.

At the surface, that made pretty good sense, as Radiohead and Jackson opted against performing. That meant structuring it this way – and with a killer opening set from Nicks, the first woman to be twice inducted into the Rock Hall – it should have worked out just fine because it left plenty of time for stagehands and instrument techs to do their thing.

So what if it took a full five hours-plus, with all the inductions, performances and a final jam with Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter fronting a show-ending all-star jam to “All the Young Dudes?” It only seemed like 10 hours.

Now, let’s redo it for TV. That job fell to director-producer Alex Coletti from HBO and the editors under him, and frankly, they succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations.

The first and best move was cutting that five hours to three. Yep, three. And trust me as one who was present for those original five-plus hours, nothing worthwhile ended up on the cutting room floor.

Nicks got her 37 minutes, by far the largest chunk of time. None of the other inductees got more than 30 for their closeups, Mr. DeMille. But again, the only thing you missed (but didn’t really) was drag-on speechifying so common in awards shows.

Coletti’s other move was something you couldn’t really determine till after the fact: Putting the show in order of quality. Yes, Nicks opened the show, so yes, her position was a necessary lock. But it was also far superior to some of her latest gigs with her usual band, Fleetwood Mac, especially with an appearance by Eagle and Hall of Famer Don Henley on her hit, “Leather and Lace.”

But by far, though, the performance of the night from opening note to final round of applause came from Robert Smith and the Cure. Best music, best vocals, best best.

So Coletti re-structured the show so that the order of appearance was Nicks, the Cure, Jackson (who was probably the most boring presence onstage the entire night), Roxy Music, Radiohead, the Zombies and Def Leppard.

And it all took away from the real tedium of a pure awards show and turned it into a performance. I can’t say that the three hours flew by, but it didn’t feel like a root canal.

Ah, and that fix it in the mix thing? One of the issues many had was in the somewhat shrill tones of Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone during the 1960s’ band’s big hits “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No.”

Now in his 70s, Blunstone no longer has the voice of an 18-year-old (do any of us?). But he knows to treat his vocal chords as an athlete would treat his body, which means warming up. Sitting in an audience for four hours as he did, there was no way he’d be able to hit all those melodious notes from five decades ago.

But Coletti and his engineers were able make the right adjustments. Perfect? No. But not nearly as shrill as it was live, which turned a respectable performance into a respectful one.

Fix it in the mix, indeed.

2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
When: Premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 27.