I miss Maui," said Mick Fleetwood

FLEETWOOD AND MAC ON ROAD

Starbulletin.com

"I miss Maui," said Mick Fleetwood over the phone from Chicago. Fleetwood and John McVie, who lives on Oahu, have reunited with their Fleetwood Mac bandmates for a "Greatest Hits Unleashed North American Tour."

Fleetwood Mac is readying a special DVD/CD boxed edition of their 1977 album, "Rumours," which has sold 30 million copies already.

The band's four dates into the tour. "Business is incredible," notes Mick. "We are truly blessed to have loyal fans in this strange economic time." But, he notes, both he and McVie now have "too thin blood" to be happy in cold climes.

He's going to take advantage of a break in the Fleetwood Mac touring schedule to fly back and do a few island dates with Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, the members of which now, like Fleetwood, live on Maui. Their "Blues Again" album, not yet released as a CD, climbed to No. 18 on the iTunes sales chart immediately after release.

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Also, from BlogTalkRadio - here's an interview with Mick Fleetwood from March 6th to promote his "Blue Again" cd to be released March 17th. Mick speaks briefly about how the Fleetwood Mac tour is going and how they are getting along.

THEY make singin' fun

Newsday.com Full Article

One thing that's sure to happen is a new Fleetwood Mac record, though the timing of it hasn't been worked out, since it depends on how long the current tour goes. "We will have time to hang and maybe throw some new material around, whether it's after 46 dates or after we do some playing in Europe and some other places," Buckingham says. "Eventually, we will get down to making an album, but it will be after we've had time to be not only close as people but sharp as musicians, too."

And Nicks says she is just as determined.

"I think the world should have one more kick-ass Fleetwood Mac record," she says. "We're going to do it so the world can have it."

THEY make singin' fun

For its new tour, Fleetwood Mac is planning to play songs by former member Christine McVie, with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks handling the vocals, for the first time since McVie retired from touring in 1998. "Christine really was the singles queen," says Nicks.

Here are some of the songs they've considered:

"Say You Love Me" (1975) - Sweet harmonies and "Fallin', fallin', fallin'."

"You Make Loving Fun" (1977) - "Oh, woh-oh, can it be so?"

"Don't Stop" (1977) - A smash even before the Clintons.

"Hold Me" (1982) - Videorific, harmony-filled single from "Mirage."

"Little Lies" (1987) - Classic Mac updated with '80s pop.

-Glenn Gamboa

BRAND NEW "STUDIO" VERSIONS OF CLASSICS

Here's an interesting bit of information on Stevie Nicks' "Soundstage Sessions" CD that is being released on March 31st. The 10 track CD being released in conjunction with the "Live in Chicago" DVD appears to be studio versions of Stevie's classics along with two new songs "Crash" by Dave Mathews and "Circle Dance" by Bonnie Raitt. Triple A Radio Stations have already been serviced with a two track promo CD containing "Crash" and "Landslide" (orchestra version). Both tracks on the promo CD were assumed to be the audio taken directly from Stevie's live Soundstage show in Chicago. And that very well still may be the case, where they used her live vocals from the show.

But a Stevie fan has heard the promo CD and confirmed that the vocals DO NOT appear to be live vocals and are not the same as what is on the DVD.

This adds a whole new twist to this release... So are all the tracks on the CD really NEW updated studio versions of old Stevie tracks? Are they the vocals from the live Soundstage show but without the audience? Many many questions!!! Might explain why Stevie's website The Nicksfix says "The CD includes brand new studio versions of classics like "Stand Back", "Sara", "Landslide" and MANY, MANY MORE!"

1. Stand Back
2. Crash (Dave Matthews Band cover)
3. Sara
4. If Anyone Falls in Love
5. Landslide (orchestra version)
6. How Still My Love
7. Circle Dance
8. Fall From Grace
9. Sorcerer
10. Beauty and the Beast

REVIEW: Nicks is at an age where her voice is robust and layered

Chicago Sun Times
BY MARK GUARINO

The grab-n-go revenue stream of aging rock bands is the greatest-hits tour. You spend the first half of your life creating groundbreaking hits; then you spend the second half performing them each time a new wife requests alimony or Bernie Madoff made off with your fortune.

Fleetwood Mac's current revival on the tour circuit has those hallmarks -- it is the Anglo-American band's first since 2003, when core members Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood reunited for a new album that was surprisingly very good.

Their return is not featuring any of those songs, only hits from their blockbuster albums of late 1970s: "Tusk," "Rumours" and "Fleetwood Mac." Thursday night at the Allstate Arena, the first of two consecutive nights, Buckingham admitted there was "no new album -- yet" and the two-hour show would concentrate on "things we love and hopefully stuff that you love, as well."

It was a love affair to last. Unlike most outings like these, the band steered through its hits with interest that went well beyond professional courtesy. While the last tour was more like a revue, with secondary players crowding out the band, this outing was nicely subdued, with even the clownish Fleetwood kept in check.

Forty-one years past its earliest incarnation, the band wisely chose not to dwell on the same old references. Instead, it let the body of work stand on its own ground. At 60, Nicks is at an age where her voice is robust and layered with lovely textures; she sang "Landslide," as a blues song, tarnished but with strength.

She and Buckingham sang lead vocals together on many songs, harmonized sweetly on others, but made the unfortunate decision to trade vocals on "Say You Love Me." Their reconstruction did not suit their voices, and the interchange was strained.

The night belonged to Buckingham, who injected paranoid intensity into every guitar lick, whoop, holler, growl and foot stomp. His peers may have been knighted early in their careers for their guitar flash and mastery, but at age 60, Buckingham has emerged as the only one who still carries it forward with sparkle and commitment.

He elevated even his own revenue generators when the night's highlight became a pairing of the band's lesser-known songs: "Oh Well" and "I'm So Afraid." Played back-to-back, they built into an emotional purging of volume and odd detouring. As Buckingham stalked the width of the stage, he injected an edge-of-cliff abandon into his playing, yet maintained a remarkable technique.

Near the end, his body worked in convulsion over his instrument until he stopped to skip back to his spot -- a concluding image that was peculiar but well-deserved.

Mark Guarino is a Chicago-based journalist. Visit mark-guarino.com.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Guitarist Played Like His Graying Hair Was On Fire

Chicago Tribune
by: Greg Kot

Fleetwood Mac at Allstate Arena Lindsey Buckingham burns through nostalgia

The Fleetwood Mac set list Thursday at the packed Allstate Arena was straight out of the ‘70s, but Lindsey Buckingham was very much in the present tense on the quartet’s latest reunion tour.

The leather-jacketed guitarist played like his graying hair was on fire most of the night, throwing himself into the songs with a gusto that frequently erupted into manic howls and fleet-fingered, shrapnel-tossing solos. Buckingham pulled the 23 creaky songs out of the long-lost “Rumours” era and into the now, with enthusiastic assistance from drummer Mick Fleetwood.

With the stalwart bassist John McVie at his side, Fleetwood looked like he had just popped out of a Dickens novel, a towering, pony-tailed Fagin in knickers. For all the mugging and preening, he pounded the drums with maniacal glee, blending bluesy firepower with orchestral flair. The inventively propulsive drum parts on songs such as “Rhiannon,” “Go Your Own Way” and “World Turning” colored the arrangements with authority, and matched Buckingham’s passion.

Stevie Nicks was the only member of this revived version of the band’s classic ‘70s lineup (minus singer-songwriter Christine McVie, who retired from the business years ago) who wasn’t quite up to speed as the show began. Her voice has not only deepened, it has lost much of its flexibility, and her performances of “Gypsy” and “Rhiannon” fell flat. She re-accessorized continually with boots, dresses, shawls, scarves, tambourines and even a top hat as the show progressed over two-plus hours. Halfway through the set, she finally shook off the doldrums and audibly rose to the occasion on “Landslide,” accompanied only by Buckingham’s guitar.

“I’m getting older, too,” Nicks sang with soaring, if melancholy conviction. By the time she trotted out her solo hit “Stand Back,” she felt frisky enough to revive one of her trademark twirls.

But it all would’ve been little more than a quaint rehash of a bunch of golden oldies were it not for Buckingham. He started strong, pushing his voice hard on “Monday Morning,” and by the end of the set was finger-picking shrieking, gale-force solos from his instrument, reanimating Peter Green’s early Mac classic “Oh Well” and investing “I’m So Afraid” with scarifying intensity. Wired and still wiry, Buckingham looked like he could’ve raved all night with this rhythm section at his back.

Set list for Thursday at Allstate Arena:

1. Monday Morning
2. The Chain
3. Dreams
4. I Know I’m Not Wrong
5. Gypsy
6. Go Insane
7. Rhiannon
8. Second Hand News
9. Tusk
10. Sara
11. Big Love
12. Landslide
13. Never Going Back Again
14. Storms
15. Say That You Love Me
16. Gold Dust Woman
17. Oh Well
18. I’m So Afraid
19. Stand Back
20. Go Your Own Way

Encore
21. World Turning
22. Don’t Stop

Second encore
23. Silver Springs

"I THINK THE WORLD SHOULD HAVE ANOTHER FLEETWOOD MAC RECORD" (Stevie Nicks)

Boston.com
By Sarah Rodman

All iconic rock records begin life as the dreaded "new stuff" fans don't want to hear.

Stevie Nicks vividly remembers a time when Fleetwood Mac fans weren't interested in the songs from the landmark album "Rumours." Granted, it didn't take long for the 1977 release to become a multiplatinum monster, but there was definitely an initial resistance to the charms of "Gold Dust Woman."

"The audience is always going to be like, 'We need to hear the songs we came here to hear,' " says the 60-year-old singer-songwriter. And at the start of the "Rumours" tour, the songs they came to hear were hits like "Rhiannon" and "Say You Love Me" from Fleetwood Mac's eponymous 1975 album, the first to feature Nicks and her then boyfriend, singer-songwriter-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

As the title of the current road show makes clear, Fleetwood Mac's "Unleashed: Hits Tour 2009," which comes to the TD Banknorth Garden on Wednesday, will not feature any new stuff. "We've had incredibly good luck with successful radio songs, so if you start with that and make a list, it's not a short list," says Buckingham, 59.

But this is no farewell jaunt for the band, which also features the namesake rhythm section of drummer Mick Fleetwood, 61, and bassist John McVie, 63. (Singer-songwriter-keyboardist Christine McVie retired from the group in 1998 but performed on the 2003 album, "Say You Will.") In separate back-to-back interviews, we talked to Buckingham and Nicks about the past, present, and future, and they made it clear that the British-American band that has withstood more than a half-dozen permutations will continue to make new music for the masses to disregard - at least at first.

Singing McVie's praises

This tour is the group's second go-round without McVie. The absence of her harmonies and keyboards was definitely felt on the "Say You Will" tour, as were her songwriting contributions, including the hits "Say You Love Me," "Over My Head," "Hold Me," "Everywhere," and "Little Lies." This time out, the group has decided to add some of her tunes to the set list.

Buckingham: "I think she would want us to do that. I think she's going to be flattered as well."

Nicks: "She's delighted. Chris is the greatest, she's not selfish and she's not conceited. She's just a wonderful, wonderful girl. She doesn't like to fly and you just have to. She was having panic attacks and she didn't tell us, so we were all very surprised when she said 'I can't do this' because we never knew she was having a hard time."

The Stevie/Lindsey dynamic

McVie's absence was also felt on a personal level, especially by Nicks, who felt adrift as the band's gender balance shifted. Buckingham was having a blast, however, digging into his songs and guitar playing. Onstage in Worcester in 2003, the former lovers could be seen shooting intense glares at each other.

Buckingham: "When we got off the road in 2004 with Fleetwood Mac, I know Stevie was not very happy with me. I think she maybe wasn't that comfortable onstage in a situation where, without Christine, I had half the material to do and I was just up there being a guy. I think her sense of herself, the context kind of got blurred for her without the female compadre. I had a great time; she didn't."

Nicks: "It went from being a band with two powerful women and a bunch of guys to a bunch of guys with one powerful woman. And Christine really was the powerhouse anyway, she really was the leader of the pack, our Mother Earth. So without Chris it definitely changed the dynamic. And I was lonely because I was obviously so used to having her there since 1975."

Buckingham: "That was one of the reasons we decided we would do a few more Christine McVie songs this time and that we would find ways to do them that are more about Stevie's and my dynamic. I've been talking to Stevie a lot and it's great, the chemistry, the history; I've known her since we were both in high school. And it's not only intriguing but it gives me a big smile that we're going to go out there as a band, the four of us, and particularly Stevie and myself, and be able to bridge all the crap that maybe we've never been able to completely bridge before. We're talking about a band whose sensibilities are so disparate that probably on some level we don't really have much business being in a band together. . . . It's the synergy of that, that makes it work, that makes it greater than the sum of its parts. I think it becomes important and timely to acknowledge that and to share it with each other."

New record on the horizon

The band members hope to keep that synergy going when they get off the road and into the studio.

Nicks: "There's nothing better than having a totally tight, rehearsed band go in and make a record because you're playing great and you've been hanging out for a long time. I'm excited about it because I think the world should have another Fleetwood Mac record. Even if it doesn't sell one record, what it is for us is the experience of making the record. It really is the journey of making 'Rumours,' of making [her first solo album] 'Bella Donna,' of making these really precious records in the long run that is almost more important than what they did when they left us."

Buckingham: "I think there are chapters yet to be written with this band, and there are chapters that need to be written for the people themselves. There have been some things left hanging out there, and this isn't just a band getting together to do it for the bucks. . . . I'm getting quite excited about it, I have to say."