Fleetwood Mac News

Sunday, August 22, 2010

UK CHART UPDATE: FLEETWOOD MAC MOVIN' ON UP

For the week of August 28, 2010 on the official UK Albums Chart Fleetwood Mac's 2009 double disc release moves up from #93 to #84 in it's 223rd week on the chart (223 weeks combines the 2002 & 2009 release).

STEVIE NICKS RE-ENTERS AUSTRALIAN ALBUM CHART THIS WEEK

AUSTRALIA'S TOP 50 CATALOGUE CHART: WEEK OF AUGUST 23, 2010
"Crystal Visions The Very Best Of Stevie Nicks" re-enters Australia's Top 50 Catalogue Chart this week at #37 after being absent last week.

STEVIE NICKS: "CURRENT PASSION REMAINS NEW CD" EVENTUAL MAC CD AND TOUR ON HORIZON

Fleetwood Mac star Stevie Nicks finds her groove collaborating with Dave Stewart for 7th solo album

Stevie Nicks has gotten her groove back.

NY Daily News

by: Phil Roura

Nine years after her last solo CD, the Fleetwood Mac superstar is deep into her seventh album - which for the first time she is writing with a collaborator, one-time Eurythmic Dave Stewart. Rumors of a romantic liaison notwithstanding, Nicks says it's the best time she has ever had putting out a CD.

"I've never before written anything with anybody else," says the smoky-voiced rock icon. "This is a great opportunity to do something new. I now understand why John Lennon and Paul McCartney worked so well together. You feed so much off each other."

As a result, Nicks has not ventured far from her California cocoon where she and Stewart have been working. The only concession: a short series of summer concerts that includes the Trump Taj Mahal on Friday night and Foxwoods' MGM Grand on Saturday.

"My management pushed me," she explains. "They said I had to take a month away from the record, and I'm glad I listened to them. It's been a good change of pace and a lot of fun."

The untitled CD is "a full-blown rock 'n' roll album with some beautiful ballads. And it's been fantastic and funky working at home."

It wasn't something she had planned. "My last performance was Dec. 21 in New Zealand after 83 shows with Fleetwood Mac," she says. "Coming straight home, the farthest thing from my mind was going straight to work."

Then along came Stewart, whom she had known in other circumstances. "I gave him a book of 50 poems I had written over the years," she recalls, "and he really liked them."

The day after the Grammys in February, they went to work. "I sat on a couch across from Dave. He'd play something on the piano. I'd throw out some lyrics."

Somehow, they got to talking about the Sargasso, a sea within a sea off Bermuda, from a movie she had seen. "He became intrigued with it," she adds. "I started developing lyrics off the top of my head - and a crazy, creepy, weird story began to take form. Dave liked it. In 10 minutes we had a song."

Word is that the CD will drop in the spring and that contributors include Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers, Waddy Wachtel, Steve Ferrone and Mick Fleetwood on a drum solo.

It was on May 26, 1948, that Stephanie Lynn Nicks warbled her first note when she was born in Phoenix to Jess Nicks, a corporate veep, and Barbara Nicks, a housewife. As a toddler, she had trouble pronouncing her name, which came out "tee dee" and eventually "Stevie." It stuck.

Her great initial success was with lover Lindsey Buckingham. In 1974, they joined Fleetwood Mac and by 1977 the "Rumours" album had churned out four top 10 singles - including Nicks' megahit "Dreams," the group's only U.S. No. 1. By 1981, she began a solo career with the album "Bella Donna," but she continued to record and tour with Fleetwood Mac; the band's latest studio album is 2003's "Say You Will," for which Nicks wrote the title track.

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Fleetwood Mac in 1998, the now 62-year-old rocker worries about the future of the industry she loves.

"The Internet has destroyed rock. Children no longer develop social graces. They don't hang out anymore," she complains. "I'm financially stable. I'm okay. But what about the kids trying to make it in this business? If you're not an established band, if you don't have a hit single, they're gonna drop you. There are a lot of people out there as talented as we were, but they can't sustain being in a rock 'n' roll band for long without success. We were able to, but we're going to die out."

Still, her current passion remains the new CD. "Eventually, there will be another Fleetwood Mac record and another tour," says Nicks. "But this record is my moment. All next year, it's going to be this. This is now my turn." It's her groove.

Friday, August 20, 2010

JANET ROBINS AMAZING ADVENTURE... INCLUDES A STINT WITH LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM

From Randy Rhodes To Precious Metal, from Lindsey Buckingham to her own solo career, the ongoing tale of guitarist / singer / songwriter Janet Robin is a fascinating journey.

It’s the tale of how a young girl barely into grade school fell in love with the guitar as she took lessons from an axe-slinger about to make his own mark upon the rock world. It’s a story where the daughter of a Southern California dentist grows up to join the 1980s all-girl band Precious Metal, plays in Lindsey Buckingham’s first solo group and further evolves into the performer she is today.

Full Article on Pollstar

Here's the section that includes Lindsey Buckingham:

A musician’s life is filled with unexpected breaks and this time opportunity came a knockin’ in the form of Lindsey Buckingham.

“He was putting together his first-ever solo band for a record,” Robin said. “A very special ten-piece band that was going to incorporate five guitar players, two percussionists, a drummer, bass player and keyboards.”

The audition took half the day in a studio where the two guitarists spent most of the time talking, as Buckingham instructed her to play specific guitar parts. Five hours later, the audition concluded, Robin went home to wait. And wait.

“I didn’t hear for two weeks until the agent called and said, ‘You got the gig. You’re going on Leno in a week.’”

As it turned out, Robin wasn’t the only woman in the band and she joined a lineup that also included Liza Carbe. First came rehearsals, then “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,” followed by a six-week tour. Robin remembers her time with Buckingham as her “most professional gig.”

“It was semi-pro with Precious Metal. We had some tour buses and we played some good venues,” Robin said, comparing the two experiences. “But it stepped up a notch with Lindsey. That was the 1992 ‘Out Of The Cradle’ tour.”

Robin’s gig with Buckingham lasted until 1994 with the band touring as a headliner as well as supporting Tina Turner. Six years later, Robin recalls the experience as one of the most important times in her career, saying Buckingham demanded nothing less than perfection.

To accomplish this, Buckingham would record rehearsals on individual tracks and then meet with each musician and critiquing his or her work. The message was clear: get it right or get out.

“So you got your shit together,” Robin said. “He motivated me to rise to the occasion, whatever it meant. Like going to vocal lessons or deal with the metronome. I did all that and worked with the other guys in the band and we kind of came together.

“I learned what it takes to be close to perfect, what you do in rehearsals, what you expect from a band, how you put a band together and how to put a show together. I cannot thank him enough. He mentored me and he was very respectful to me. We still stay in touch.”

Here's Janet as part of Lindsey's guitar army - just to Lindsey's left.

Don't Look Down Live 1992
(from Out of The Cradle)