PHOTOS: Fleetwood Mac Live in Copenhagen October 8, 2009

FLEETWOOD MAC

LIVE IN COPENHAGEN

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Photos by: Henrik Madsen (link to gallery)

A really nice collection of clear up-close shots of the band

GLASGOW BLOG REVIEWS - FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE AT SECC

Thank you for the music

"Stevie Nicks, voice just the same, dripping smoke and honeyed gravel around the room.... Lindsey Buckingham as the perfect foil."

Full Review at CRIVENS, JINGS AND HELP MA BLOG

Fleetwood Mac

"Fantastic, glorious concert that I am thrilled to have seen. But... too much Stevie/Lindsey and not enough John/Mick."

Full Review at POLLIANICUS

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC - GLASGOW, SCOTLAND

Don’t stop ... 
Fleetwood Mac wow fans
at SECC

Catriona Stewart

Heraldscotland

To bow out gracefully or to keep trading on long-since earned laurels.

That must surely be a dilemma for the spate of ageing rockers re-emerging to tour their 30-year-old reputations.

But Fleetwood Mac have put such thoughts to one side and are now in the middle of a world tour, the dates for which would make a younger band exhausted to contemplate.

Having played America and mainland Europe, the group kicked off the UK leg of their tour last night at Glasgow’s SECC, their only Scottish date.

The band are different in that they are not reforming. Fleetwood Mac never broke up but instead worked their way through a remarkably fluid line-up that saw them lose two guitarists to mental institutions and one to a cult.

Their current incarnation includes four from the 1977 Rumours tour; Bassist John McVie, Mick Fleetwood on drums, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks minus singer Christine McVie, who has chosen retirement rather than touring with her ex-husband.

They are rowdy, they are enthusiastic and they convincingly vow to get the party started. However, they still look, and there is no way of phrasing this delicately, old.

Fleetwood’s grey beard and Nicks’ witchy dark frock aside, the group performed a slew of hits with energy belying their years and played with powerful conviction.

Nicks’ ethereal tones have dimmed slightly with age but the years have not withered Fleetwood’s drums.

Fans no doubt turn out, not only for the music, but also to see whether the legendary tensions in the group still exist. From the on-stage rapport and affection between Buckingham and Nicks, it would seem not. However, the emotion of the songs is what gives them their edge and stops the re-emergence of Fleetwood Mac from being jaded.

The crowd, who mainly matched the band in years, were beyond delighted with a fast-paced The Chain, an ethereal Rhiannon and a spine-tingling Big Love.

And surely that’s reason enough to keep rolling out those greatest hits.

REVIEW:
Fleetwood Mac at the SECC

by Catriona Stewart
Evening Times

IT'S been six years since their last world tour but it was like Fleetwood Mac had never been away as they rocked a packed SECC Glasgow.

The foursome are in the middle of a world tour which sees them travel to enough countries to make a band half their age exhausted.

Last night, their only Scottish date among seven UK stops, the band played a slew of greatest hits with energy defying their years.

During their history spanning more than 40 years, Mac have worked their way through an ever-changing line-up that saw them lose two guitarists to mental institutions and one to a cult.

Their current incarnation includes four members from 1977's Rumours tour; John McVie, drummer Mick Fleetwood, vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

Singer Christine McVie is the only one missing, having chosen retirement rather than touring with her ex-husband.

The group, now aged in their 60s, vowed they'd get the party started but they look (there's no nice way of putting it) old.

Nicks was in a witch-like lace dress while Mick Fleetwood's grey beard and ponytail make him look like a badly-ageing rocker.

Appearances aside, Fleetwood's drums are as powerful as ever and he even rocked out a 10-minute solo.

They were notorious for their rock'n'roll band bad behaviour in the 70s but when Linsey and Nicks took the stage holding hands it seemed old rivalries had gone.

But the emotional edge to their songs gives the hits their enduring power and stops Fleetwood Mac becoming jaded.

The crowd, who match the band in years, are beyond delighted with a fast-paced The Chain, an ethereal Rhiannon and a spine-tingling Big Love.

After a rousing version of Go Your Own Way, satisfied fans headed off into the night after a thrilling evening.

(REVIEW) FLEETWOOD MAC - GLASGOW, SCOTLAND "THE SCOTSMAN"

Gig review: Fleetwood Mac

The Scotsman

By DAVID POLLOCK

SECC, GLASGOW

****

Photo by: Ross Gilmore

THE subtitle of this reunion tour claims we can expect Fleetwood Mac Unleashed, but it might just as easily be considered Fleetwood Mac Lashed Back Together. Few bands have been through such interpersonal upheaval and still managed to take to a stage together some 40 years after their formation. Gratifyingly, old enmities and possible past mistakes weren't just glossed over with a few platitudes.

"(The album] Rumours was recorded when we were going through such emotional turmoil," notes Lindsay Buckingham diplomatically. "So yes, there was a lot of aggression in this song." The following Second Hand News was one of the night's more impassioned tracks, regardless of the band's seeming newfound comfort with one another.

Buckingham, guitarist and often the lone singer, and singer Stevie Nicks still appear to be the kind of polar opposites you'd never normally place together. Nicks is a loveable Bohemian in shawls and floaty floor-length dresses, and bleached-blonde soft focus on the big screens.

Buckingham's thousand-yard stare and gritted teeth give a certain frightening perspective to the fact that he says Big Love described the person he was in the Eighties and that he's now merely an echo of that man. Performed solo, the song is roared, lascivious, almost confrontational.

Next to such huge personalities, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie form a prosaic backlines. Yet they switch with accomplishment between the two Fleetwood Macs on display here: the folksy, sweet feminine pop of Nicks, which runs through songs like Gypsy, Sara, Rhiannon and I Have Always Been a Storm – unplayed before this tour – and Buckingham's gruff, alpha-male rock.

Whichever of the pair is singing, large swathes of pop songwriting excellence eclipse infrequent sections of dated MOR. Before the closing Don't Stop, Fleetwood announces: "We'll see you next time". Once more, we look forward to it.

ALBUM REVIEW: FLEETWOOD MAC -THE VERY BEST OF

After years of being dismissed as bloated, coked-up rock dinosaurs, even the most jaded punk purist will quietly agree that Fleetwood Mac’s late-’70s trilogy – 1975’s Fleetwood Mac, 1977’s Rumours and 1979’s Tusk – are works of unalloyed studio-pop genius.

All are adequately represented (“Rhiannon”, “The Chain”, “Sara”, etc) on this two-CD best-of, but we’re also encouraged to reappraise the guilty pleasures in their slick ’80s canon (“Little Lies”, “Don’t Stop”, “Everywhere”).

Would’ve been nice to hear something from the Bob Welch or Peter Green eras, of course, but there’s still not a duff track here.

JOHN LEWIS
UNCUT MAGAZINE

PLAY: STEVIE NICKS COVER "IN GOOD NICKS"

I think I missed something!

I'm pretty sure I've read the article in this magazine, but can't see that I've posted it anywhere... I'll look further. But here's the cover of the magazine. It's from the August 23rd edition of the Austrailian Sunday Herald.

(click for a larger version)