BUCKINGHAM NICKS IN FINE FORM (Mohegan Sun Review)

Fleetwood dazzles
Monday, March 16, 2009
By KEVIN O'HARE
Masslive.com

If you're sick of superstar bands going out and playing too many obscure songs during their concerts, then Fleetwood Mac's first tour in five years will hold a whole lot more appeal for you.

The 1970's superstars are out on the road and bringing a truckload of hits with them on their "Unleashed" tour, which was unleashed Saturday at the Mohegan Sun Arena.

While the Mac went through plenty of personnel changes during decades of rockin', this tour features four-fifths of their most famous lineup. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, singer Stevie Nicks, and founding fathers Mick Fleetwood on drums on John McVie on bass are all there. Unfortunately the great keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie, who retired from the band in the late 1990s to return home to England, is not back on board for the latest reunion and early rumors that Sheryl Crow would take her place blew up when Crow blabbed about it before the agreement had been finalized.

Nevertheless, there's plenty to like about this tour, which finds Buckingham in particular as well as Nicks out front and in fine form.

With tickets priced between $125 and $175, this wasn't a cheap seat, but the band nevertheless played to a packed house.

Accompanied by two additional musicians and three female backing vocalists, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees opened the two-hour and 20 minute performance with "Monday Morning" before Fleetwood's huge, pounding beat drove "The Chain," and Nicks said it was time to "get this party started" with a crowd-pleasing take of "Dreams."

Early in the concert, Buckingham acknowledged Fleetwood Mac's "convoluted and complex emotional history." It was a supreme understatement for anyone who's followed the band's soap opera-like journey through the decades.

"Because there is no new album to promote - yet," he said, teasing the audience with the implication, "we're just going to do the things that we love and hopefully you love as well."

It appears they succeeded on all levels.

Centered between two of Nicks' signature songs, "Gypsy," and "Rhiannon," Buckingham turned in a drop-dead brilliant "Go Insane," filled with the mesmerizing finger-picking and pure passion that he exhibited nearly every time he stepped into the spotlight Saturday.

"Tusk" started slow and somewhat eerie but built to a huge ending before Nicks brought her raspy lower range into focus for "Sara," while Buckingham offered the high harmonies.

An acoustic triad featuring "Big Love," "Landslide" and "Never Going Back Again," was placed perfectly into the set, which also included a few genuine rarities, including one they had never played live before this tour, 1979's "Storms."

While this is definitely a Buckingham and Nicks kind of tour, they did acknowledge Christine McVie with a sharp arrangement of the latter's "Say You Love Me."

Buckingham's firepower reached staggering heights when he did "Oh Well (Part 1)" from the days when Peter Green played lead guitar for Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham's take brought the house down, as did the follow-up "I'm So Afraid."

The night wound down with highlights that included "Go Your Own Way," and encore faves such as "World Turning," complete with a very amusing tribal drum solo courtesy of Fleetwood; "Don't Stop;" and a moving version of "Silver Springs."

CRAZY FLEETWOOD MAC JOURNEY - Mick Fleetwood Interview

Fleetwood Brings Back Blues And Beats Pop Icons In The Process

ANDPOP.COM
by: Ilan Mester

You may know Mick Fleetwood as a blues artist, a legendary rock drummer or as one of the founders of the Grammy Award winning band Fleetwood Mac. But you may not know that this drummer has his own line of wine and that he recently beat out the Jonas Brothers, Nickelback and Britney Spears on iTunes the day his latest album “Blue Again” became available for download.

In a recent phone conference, Fleetwood reminisced about his blues roots. “We were very much just a formatted blues band,” says Fleetwood. “Our love for the genre of music was extreme.”

As the drummer explained, since Fleetwood Mac started off as a blues band in 1967, he was able to return to his blues roots with “Blue Again.”

And in what he defined as the “crazy Fleetwood Mac journey,” there were members that came and gone, one of them being guitarist/singer Rick Vito. “I got to know him as a player and as a friend,” says Fleetwood of Vito. The two friends worked together on Fleetwood’s album.

“How we got here is really an affinity and a love from Rick and myself with blues music,” says Fleetwood. “And hence ‘Blue Again,’ you know, blues once more.”

The album features new takes of classics like “Looking For Somebody,” “Rattlesnake Shake” and “Black Magic Woman.”

But that’s not all the drummer has going on for him. Fleetwood is currently on the road with Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and John McVie for Fleetwood Mac’s sold-out North American tour — a first in five years.

“We’re right at the beginning of our tour which is going great, and as with anything you’re sort of nurturing some of the technical stuff and the production stuff to make sure everything is going,” tells Fleetwood. “So we try to pay as much attention to that until everything is as right as it can be.”

The tour kicked off on March 1 in Pittsburgh and features seven Canadian dates including Ottawa (March 23), Montreal (March 25), Toronto (March 17 & 26), Calgary (May 12), Edmonton (May 13), and Vancouver (May 15), before wrapping up in San Diego on May 31.

But until then, the band has plenty of shows to put on, and plenty of time to play around with the set list. “As the months go by we may, you know, have fun changing around the set, cause we are blessed with a chunk of excessive amount of songs,” jokes Fleetwood.

He says the set list was carefully thought about, and they made sure to include songs that had never been heard live before. “It’s all about what we’ve thought would be an interesting set, we’re doing ‘Storms’ which we’ve never done on stage.”

The concert will open with the hit “Monday Morning,” a song which they haven’t performed in about 30 years according to Fleetwood.

During the phone conference, Fleetwood also answered the question that’s probably on everyone’s mind: Why did it take them so long to return to the stage as a band?

“We had talked about this probably about 18 months, nearly two years ago and in truth, Lindsey did not put out a double album, he put out two single albums and that sort of put a dent in the planning of the timing of it.”

Fleetwood says this five-year gap worked out for the best, adding they have all “ended up happy and brought that energy” to the stage.

“We’ve all brought sort of things back into Fleetwood Mac, you know, certainly the fact that I’ve been very active playing as a musician, you know, I’ve gotta be in good shape to do this,” Fleetwood admits.

However, he says there was a time period in the 80’s where he ditched practicing to party. “I confess I was so busy sort of galavanting around and partying way too much that [drumming] got put by on the sideline.”

But this has obviously changed today, as the drummer says he’s been playing more today than in his early 30’s.

And when Fleetwood isn’t busy with his music, he’s busy with his wine. The musician has one of the most sold celebrity-branded wines and says that letting go of his wine, is like “letting go of a song or letting go of an album. You do what you feel you can do with hopefully the right integrity.”

For more Mick Fleetwood news visit mickfleetwood.com.

MOST OF THE BIG SPOTLIGHT MOMENTS CAME FROM BUCKINGHAM

Fleetwood Mac Focuses On Familiar In Uncasville
By THOMAS KINTNER
The Courant
March 15, 2009

There is no false pretense to the current Fleetwood Mac reunion tour. With no new album to push, it is a pure nostalgia play, a look back and the band's considerable height of popularity in the 1970s and '80s. At Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville Saturday night, the group focused on precisely that, a parade of hits that retained their accessible appeals even when the people forging them showed signs of wear.

With four of the five members from its commercial heyday on hand, the act leaned heavily on the familiar from the outset, opening with the contoured pop rock of "Monday Morning" as a showcase for guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who recalled the greatest part of his past appeals when barking lyrics. He was the sharpest part of the vocal harmony as he joined with vocalist Stevie Nicks for "The Chain," which John McVie's plump bass line pushed toward its familiar driving finish.

Always a somewhat unconventional vocalist, Nicks retained some of the ragged sweetness that was her hallmark, but made her offerings with limited intonation that stiffened the otherwise fluid pulse of "Dreams." The musical backdrops over which she hovered were sturdy and smooth, strong enough to cover for her flattening the lyrics of "Gypsy" and a brittle reading of the otherwise supple "Rhiannon."

Drummer (and lone original from the band's initial 1967 incarnation) Mick Fleetwood manufactured robust pacing for the likes of the rattling "Second Hand News" and the bounding "Tusk," the latter of which saw its marching band passages replicated by keyboard player Brett Tuggle, one of two support musicians who, along with three vocalists, filled out the show's arrangements.

Alongside such familiar fare as a Nicks/Buckingham acoustic duet on "Landslide" and a jaunt across "Say You Love Me," the show also ranged a bit off the beaten path, forgoing bigger hits (including some sung by the now-retired Christine McVie) for the likes of the flowing ballad "Storms" and the rumbling, propulsive 1969 number "Oh Well." Buckingham and Nicks also dipped into one solo catalog tune apiece; he strummed hard on an acoustic guitar for "Go Insane," while Nicks yelped at the synthesizer backbone of "Stand Back."

Most of the big spotlight moments came from Buckingham, who extended "I'm so Afraid" with an indulgent electric guitar solo, and turned the set closer "Go Your Own Way" into a finale that amounted to little more than everyone else in the band watching him work out. After an initial encore that included a full-bore trip through "Don't Stop," the group returned a second time, stretching its show to two hours and twenty minutes with "Silver Springs," an outtake from its 1977 album "Rumours." The show featured seven other tunes from that popular album, and not a one from the most recent Fleetwood Mac disc in 2003, a tally certainly in keeping with the show's greatest hits theme.

Fleetwood Mac's performance Saturday night included the following songs: "Monday Morning," "The Chain," "Dreams," "I Know I'm not Wrong," "Gypsy," "Go Insane," "Rhiannon," "Second Hand News," "Tusk," "Sara," "Big Love," "Landslide," "Never Going Back Again," "Storms," "Say You Love Me," "Gold Dust Woman," "Oh Well," "I'm so Afraid," "Stand Back," "Go Your Own Way," (Encore) "World Turning," "Don't Stop," (2nd Encore) "Silver Springs."

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC LIT UP LONG ISLAND

Fleetwood Mac Lights Up Nassau Coliseum on Long Island
by Debora Toth - Examiner

Four of the five original members of Fleetwood Mac lit up Long Island's Nassau Coliseum on March 13, 2009 during their one-night show in Hempstead. Embarking on their first concert tour in five years, the group chose to call the tour "Unleashed", which was a perfect description for the crisp, focused vocals and solid musicianship displayed on the stage. Without having to support a new album, the group was able to play all of the crowd's favorite hits and show off each member's unique personality.  Stepping to the front of the stage where they produced highlight vocals and sincere duets were former-couple Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Long parted, the two produced many fine memborable moments during the evening. Toward the end of the sweetly-sung "Sara", Nicks walked toward Buckingham on stage and let him lay his head on her shoulder as he smiled at the audience. During many of their songs, they earnestly looked toward at each other, giving the audience an up-close view into the dynamics of this duo. Before she sang "Landslide", Nicks told the crowd that she was switching from dedicating the song to her father to dedicating to Alicia Keys, "one of the most talented artists out there." On "Tusk", Buckingham started slow and quietly by singing, "Why don't you tell me who was on the phone; Why don't you tell me what's going on," then put all of his emotions into the song's refrain with wrenching animal cries that fit into Fleetwood's drum beat.  Throughout the show, Mick Fleetwood kept the band cooking with fine drumming while the audience was kept amused with his bug-eyed expressions or teasing facial tics. During one of the final songs, World Turning, Fleetwood was given a drum solo to display why he is still considered one of the leading drummers in the world. Fittingly, as the founding member of the group, it was Fleetwood who introduced everyone on stage, even "Stephanie" Nicks, better known to all of us as Stevie. He called John McVie his partner in crime and joked about how they've been playing together for 40 years.  John McVie was the more reticent member of the group. Even with a spotlight showing on him all night long, he remained toward the back of the stage, playing bass, but never making eye contact with the crowd or any of his band mates.  Missing from the group was Christine McVie, who has retired from the stage. Her vocals were replaced in the song she wrote "Say You Love Me" by a solid duet between Nicks and Buckingham. These two, plus Mick Fleetwood, carried the night with strong voices, incredible guitar and drum work, and an unabashed love for the audience, which was sent right back to the legendary group. The evening ended on a high note with the upbeat "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" anthem giving everyone a positive lift to a very positive show.

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)