FLEETWOOD MAC VANCOUVER 5/15/09

Had correspondence with Live Nation in BC today - so far the Vancouver show this Friday is still on.

REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac Live in Kansas City - A NIGHT FULL OF MUSICAL NOSTALGIA

The Unleashed Tour Comes to Kansas City
Written by L Much
Photos by BARRY BRECHEISEN

LuminoMagazine

I remember the summer of the Rumors album when the seminal album dominated radio. The album turned the once blues band led by Peter Green into pop superstars. The “Classic line-up” (minus Christie McVie) is back on the road for the first time without any new material selling out arenas and delivering their greatest hits.

Opening up with “Monday Morning,” “The Chain” and “Dreams,” the band set the theme for a night full of musical nostalgia that had the packed audience satisfied, smiling, and on their feet singing along. The Unleashed tour has proved that there is still great interest in a band that’s set list consists of mostly songs that were released from the mid to late seventies. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are now front and center taking turns singing about their fractured history as lovers and band mates. Much has been said that the touring version of Fleetwood Mac these days is nothing more then the Lindsey & Stevie show. Perhaps, however isn’t that part of what has made Fleetwood Mac such a success? A band that some how managed to not implode while they dished out their stories of pain and loss to the world was part of the genius that made them. Without their rollercoaster of breakups, lovers and misery, the classic songs from the 1975 album Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumors would never exist and most likely either would this tour. Fleetwood Mac has proven misery does love company and fans through the years have soaked it all up. Now without the added talent of Christine McVie, who has since retired from touring, we have only Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to take us on their musical journey. McVie is certainly missed on this tour and equally has a catalog of Fleetwood Mac hits. However two out of three aren’t bad and The Unleashed tour has proven they have plenty of songs between the two of them to go around.

One thing that has never changed through the years with Fleetwood Mac is the solid rhythm section of both John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. Who could imagine them not being there in the shadows helping the band to keep time? Buckingham tonight proved he may be one of the most under-rated guitarists of our time. Twice in the evening he stole the show with his amazing guitar picking skills. First time was during the Tango in the Night’s tune "Big Love." Buckingham’s stripped down acoustic guitar version proved to be mesmerizing and at times technically impossible – does that man have more then 5 fingers on each hand? Later in the evening for the extended solo of “I'm So Afraid,” Buckingham delivered some of the most beautiful noise that I’ve ever heard as he dominated the stage with a scorching solo that left the audience both exhausted and begging for more.

Some of the musical highlights were equally delivered by the incomparable Stevie Nicks. Nicks may have benefited by McVie’s absence, allowing her to showcase songs from both her Mac days and solo career. Although Nicks doesn’t twirl around the stage with as much agility as the old days, her take on “Rhiannon,” “Gold Dust Woman” and “Stand Back” proved she could still deliver nice live renditions of these timeless classics.

Christine McVie may have been absent physically from the night but that didn’t mean the show didn’t feel her presence. You could feel her influences with songs like “The Chain” and “Don’t Stop.” Stevie and Lindsey even took on her song “Say You Love Me” by sharing lead vocals with mix-results. It’s hard not wanting to hear the sheer eloquence of McVie‘s vocals that have always shined in the classic 1975 tune.

Call them a nostalgic act, call them what you like but Fleetwood Mac has a catalog of hits that would make any band today envious. Fleetwood Mac has always been a band that feeds under duress and these days all of the internal politics seem to have been healed through the years. Time will tell if the band will venture back into the studios for another album. Perhaps without any inter conflicts the band has lost their artistic edge. Regardless, Fleetwood Mac has delivered a wealth of material that has proven to be timeless.

Singer's illness postpones Fleetwood Mac

Singer's illness postpones Fleetwood Mac concert in Calgary

CBC.ca

Fleetwood Mac cancelled its Tuesday night concert in Calgary due to undisclosed illness.

The legendary rockers are currently on their "Unleashed" greatest hits North American tour and were scheduled to play a sold-out show at the Pengrowth Saddledome at 8 p.m.

Word leaked out about the cancellation on Tuesday afternoon when crews and staff were sent home from setting up for the band's performance. There are reports the cancellation is due to singer Stevie Nicks is being sick.

"A rescheduled date will be announced soon. Tickets that were purchased for the Pengrowth Saddledome show will be honoured at the rescheduled date. Refunds will be available at original point of purchase," said a notice from Ticketmaster posted on its website just four hours before the concert's slated start time.

Fan Marguerite Suchet flew into Calgary on Tuesday morning from Regina to attend the concert with her daughter.

"I'm disappointed, but I understand," she said. "If it's due to illness, what can you do?"

Suchet, who has never seen the band live, said she'd likely not attend the rescheduled Calgary concert but she remains a fan.

"I enjoy them. I like their music. Reminds me of my youth," she said.

Fleetwood Mac, who formed in 1967, are scheduled to play Edmonton's Rexall Place on Wednesday and Vancouver's GM Place on Friday. There were no notices on the Ticketmaster website indicating changes to those shows.

The band scrapped a show in North Carolina on April 26 due to scheduling conflicts.

Edmonton Journal
Calgary Sun

Fleetwood Mac postpones concert
Montreal Gazette

Fleetwood Mac has postponed tonight’s show at Pengrowth Saddledome due to the illness of an unspecified member of the band.

According to a press release from tour promoter Live Nation, the rescheduled date will be announced soon. Tickets that were purchased for tonight’s concert will be honoured for the newly rescheduled date. As well, refunds will be given at the point of purchase.

Despite reports that some shows on the classic rock band’s tour weren’t selling as expected, Libby Raines, spokesperson for Pengrowth Saddledome, said that tonight’s show was “virtually sold out.”

EDMONTON FLEETWOOD MAC SHOW CANCELLED

ALL EDMONTON FANS... 

THE EDMONTON SHOW HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

Stevie Nicks is ill... The show will be rescheduled in June and your original tickets honoured.

News provided by Lynda Steele of Global Edmonton she spoke with Northlands Executives for confirmation.

Rumours redux

BY ELAINE CORDEN, SPECIAL TO THE SUN

Fleetwood Mac, Friday, 8 p.m.
GM Place, Vancouver, BC Canada

In an age when the neighbourhood record store has given way to the digital download site, where listeners can cherry-pick their songs and never bother with a B-side, the incentive for musicians to make albums as events is fading fast.

Arguably, the democratization of music distribution has been a good thing for both artists and fans, removing the gatekeepers that traditionally stood between them. But what is lost, perhaps, amidst this revolution is the idea of a capital-A Album, a body of work to be consumed as a whole.

Anyone attending this Friday's sold-out Fleetwood Mac concert will likely see this as a tragedy. From their blues-y beginnings, to their forays into prog rock, to their most famous incarnation - the chart-topping band that released Rumours and Tusk - Fleetwood Mac have always had more to say than just singles. With some 17 members coming and going since the group started in 1967, this is a band that is more than the sum of its parts.

The iteration of the 'Mac performing at GM Place is almost certainly the most well-known, save the absence of one member. Of the five musical powerhouses that gave the world the triple-assault of Fleetwood Mac (1975), Rumours (1977) and Tusk (1979), four are back to rekindle the magic. Founding member Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are all in for the group's first tour since 2004. Only Christine McVie, seemingly still gun-shy of the group's infamously difficult interpersonal relations, has opted out - a disappointment, to be sure, but not an insurmountable challenge.

Speaking on a conference call in late February, the foursome about to head out as Fleetwood Mac sounded excited to hit the road throughout the United States and Canada on their Greatest Hits Unleashed Tour. With no new album to promote, save a remastered edition of Rumours, the quartet of legendary musicians bubbled with enthusiasm at the idea of playing what they pleased.

"This is truly a new experience for Fleetwood Mac," said Fleetwood, clearly in the mood to wax poetic. "To go out and truly go and play songs that we believe and hope that people are really going to be familiar with and love to do. We haven't done this. Some bands, which is fine, go around doing this year after year, year in, year out."

This translates, practically, into something of a greatest hits tour, though the group is hesitant to look at it that way. While reviews so far have proved that audiences are going to hear their favourites, there's also clearly a mission among the group to really dig in to the "experience" of Fleetwood Mac.

"It takes a little pressure off not having to kind of reinvent anything this particular time," said Buckingham, in his reedy California accent. "And I think because of that we are actually able to just look at the body of work and choose from that [so we can] have a little bit more fun with it than we would normally be able to have."

Chatting to each other between questions from a phalanx of North American journalists, the band members sound like they are getting along famously. But part of the Fleetwood Mac legend is the romantic tensions between members of the group, with Nicks and Buckingham (and the now-divorced McVies) notorious for having group-melting fallouts.

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

Both Buckingham and Fleetwood concur (McVie barely says a word during the whole interview), and indeed it's fairly amazing that the group is able to discuss personal issues so openly, without stepping on any toes. Indeed, the only time anyone in the group prickles is when the subject of Tusk comes up, with one brazen journalist suggesting that the record, at the time the most expensive album ever made, constituted an indulgence on the part of the five musicians who created it.

"We never looked at it as some sort of opulent indulgence," insists Fleetwood, sounding galled by the idea.

"I might absolutely add it was paid for by the individuals that you're talking to, in order, in our world, to present something that was going to be more meaningful and more special . To me it doesn't personally feel like any form of indulgence at all . It's really about the integrity of what we do. And we've always taken the responsibility to make the very best effort to do that . .

"It was a privilege, and in truth everyone you're speaking to paid for that privilege . You can actually be in the studio for, you know, nine months, but you have to pay for it. And the fact that we didn't go in there and say, 'Well, it's been three weeks, get the hell out of here and just shove something out,' I think actually speaks well of where this band puts its mettle."

CALGARY FLEETWOOD MAC SHOW POSTPONED

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

FLEETWOOD MAC POSTPONES SHOW AT PENGROWTH SADDLEDOME 

SCHEDULED FOR TONIGHT, MAY 12TH 

(May 12, 2009) -- Fleetwood Mac has postponed their scheduled show for tonight, May 12th at the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, AB due to illness. A rescheduled date will be announced soon. 

Tickets that were purchased for the Pengrowth Saddledome show will be honored at the newly rescheduled date.

Per: Ticketmaster