The crowd was silvery-haired, young and old, but that did not stop them from rocking out to “An Evening with Lindsey Buckingham” Sunday night at the Verizon Wireless Theater in Houston, TX.
The Fleetwood Mac guitarist opened the night with Shut Us Down from Buckingham’s 2006 release Under the Skin – a nice subtle opener minus the bells and whistles of his backup band. Buckingham then quietly launched into his 1984 hit Go Insane. Go Insane, stylistically-speaking, is an almost-homage to his music he made in 1973 with then-girlfriend Stevie Nicks on their album Buckingham Nicks.
Stevie Nicks spent quite a few moments of Saturday night's performance at the Fillmore marveling that she was onstage at the Fillmore, the place where she once attended concerts by the likes of the Byrds and Jimi Hendrix and dreamed about her own possibilities.
"If you wish on the stars," said the singer and Peninsula native, "you might get a satellite!"
Nicks left no doubt that she appreciated her time there as much as the approximately 1,500 fans that had managed to get inside. And she didn't keep anyone waiting to hear a classic, starting off with "Stand Back" and weaving a set of what she dubbed "all the wonderful old things and some new songs that deserve to be played."
The new songs, including "Secret Love," "For What It's Worth," and "Soldier's Angel," came from In Your Dreams, her critically acclaimed seventh studio album and first since 2001's Trouble in Shangri-La. It's also an extended collaboration with producer Dave Stewart, best known as half of the Eurythmics. She offered extra background when it came to songs like "Soldier's Angel," inspired by visiting with wounded war veterans, and served them all up with as much polish as her seasoned anthems from "Rhiannon" to the closing "Edge of Seventeen."
The Stevie Nicks show at the Fillmore on Sunday night was like a time warp to an early Eighties high school. Although most of the women in the audience were in their 40s and 50s, they were competing for “Best Dressed” like girls more than half their age. They paid tribute to their Queen Stevie in dark velvet, shimmering shawls, and long skirts. If I didn’t know better, I would say they’d kept those clothes in their closets for 20 years just for this occasion. But shopping with my mom has taught me that they sell it all at Chico’s.
When the lights went down all the fashion, pretense, and iPhone surfing ceased. Nicks walked onstage to the roar of an adoring crowd. We were screaming, waving our hands, jumping up and down, and squealing. She was beautiful, charismatic, sexy. Nicks gave us a shy nod then put her game face on: ready to rock.
Rock legend Mick Fleetwood and rising artist Nicole Atkins swap tales of heartbreak, songwriting and legendary tour adventures in the first episode of Cabo Wabo's Off The Record Series. Watch Mick and Nicole bond over a bottle of tequila and perform a song live in Mick's hometown of Maui.
Mick Fleetwood (founder of Fleetwood Mac) talks about the ups and downs of his classic rock band, notoriously plagued with drama and issues. He shares one particularly insane story about the night the band took acid with the Grateful Dead. That night almost ended very badly.
Mick Fleetwood Talks 'Off the Record' & Supergroup With Steven Tyler Billboard Magazine
by Gary Graff, Detroit
On paper, Mick Fleetwood would appear to play the sagely mentor and Nicole Atkins the eager padawan for the initial episode of "Off the Record," a new music and conversation series that debuts today (Oct. 11) on sponsor Cabo Wabo's YouTube channel. But Fleetwood says their summit meeting in Hawaii went quite another way.
"Nicole is not just someone who is gloriously talented and maybe totally unknowing or super-innocent in terms of what she's getting into -- or what she was already in," Fleetwood tells Billboard.com. "I would probably have been worth half a damn with some decent commentary that might have been helpful, but we did not go there because she was not one of those people. It was so apparent she didn't need any of that at all, so we went into, in essence, another level of dialogue, which was great."
The show finds Fleetwood and Atkins essentially interviewing each other, with Fleetwood focusing on "how you hang onto...and reaffirm your personal integrity with what you're doing" and Atkins fishing for some vintage Fleetwood Mac stories out of the percussionist. Fleetwood was also surprised and pleased that Atkins "had a real awareness of early Fleetwood Mac, which... was really mind-blowing for someone that young."
Cabo Wabo's "Off the Record" With Mick Fleetwood and Nicole Atkins
Sean Hotchkiss GQ.com
Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo tequila is launching a new series, today, called "Off the Record," which takes an up-and-coming musician and pits them with one of the greats to talk shop, inspiration, careers, and so forth. The first installment features Mick Fleetwood, and American singer/songwriter Nicole Atkins, over three days at Fleetwood's new restaurant and hangout spot in Maui. We had the chance to talk to Fleetwood about "Off the Record," Fleetwood Mac's upcoming 2012 tour, tequila, and how Atkins, on occasion, remembered more from the old days than he did...
GQ: When did you start coming to Maui?
Mick Fleetwood: I started going to Maui right after we finished the first album with Stevie and Lindsay on board, Fleetwood Mac. We all came to Maui, late 1973, and I never stopped coming.
GQ: You could ask this about anywhere, but has it changed a lot?
Fleetwood: It has certainly changed, but I have no problem with it. Some people get up in arms about it, 'oh well there used to be pineapple fields there, and now they're houses. I get it. But it's so beautiful, and so powerful. It's like talking about New Orleans, saying, 'oh, well I knew it back in the heyday, the 50s, watching the jazz scene unfold, sure, but in my opinion if you go to such a place, the spot itself is so powerful, no matter how many t-shirt shops there are and how many tourist spots exist, it's still Bourbon street and it still has that power, that vibe, it transcends anything that has come up around it. The essence of what it was and continues to be, still resonates.
GQ: Let's talk about the series, "Off the Record," of which you and Nicole Atkins are the first feature...
Fleetwood: Cabo Wabo was started by an old friend of mine, Sammy Hagar. When I heard about the "Off the Record" series, I was immediately listening, because of that fact. The series itself is sort of a sponsoring series, and a mentoring series for up-and-coming or 'emerging' talent, which drew me in. In honesty, I'm opening a restaurant here in Maui called Fleetwood's, so there was a certain sense of business-centric plug-in for us, as well. (The first sit-down took place here). Sammy came to Maui and phoned me up, and I said, 'it's so strange you're calling me now, I've just spoken with your company, Cabo Wabo, about possibly taking part in this mentoring series,' and he said, 'yes, you should do it. No, in fact, you have to do it.' [Laughs] The series has become everything it proposed to be. It was about choosing some artists from a younger generation: Cabo had put together some great research, and I started listening and doing my homework on Nicole, whom I had no idea who she was before this program. Which, I think I was happy about, because it meant I was looking at her in fresh way, without any preconceived knowledge.
Mick Fleetwood and Nicole Atkins Come Together to Launch Cabo Wabo(R) Tequila's Off The Record Conversation Series The Original Rock 'n Roll Tequila Partners Rock Royalty with Rock's Future To Share Untold Stories of Music Industry Beginnings
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 11, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Mick Fleetwood, founder of chart colossus Fleetwood Mac, and singer-songwriter ingenue, Nicole Atkins, have been tapped as the first acts to front the Off The Record music conversation series presented by Cabo Wabo(R) Tequila, founded by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Sammy Hagar. The double-act came together in Mick's hometown of Maui, at his new bar Fleetwood's on Front Street (opening early 2012), to share tales of career beginnings, legendary nights on stage, song inspirations, tour secrets and rumored band romances. Their musical journey together was captured on video for Off The Record, and will launch through Cabo Wabo's YouTube page on October 11th at www.YouTube.com/CaboWabo
Cabo Wabo's Off The Record series pairs rock royalty with buzzworthy emerging artists for an intimate one-on-one conversation, captured on film, giving the viewer a personal, behind-the-scenes view into a life in rock and roll. Off The Record allows music aficionados a chance to get the inside track on the untold stories of the musician's experience.
Mick Fleetwood and Nicole Atkins make for a fascinating introduction to the Off The Record program as they both epitomize the grandeur of blues and rock. Riffing off comparisons with Fleetwood Mac front-woman, Stevie Nicks, and following her recent cover of the band's hit, "Oh Well," Nicole takes Mick to task on the greatness of Fleetwood Mac, amongst his other achievements. Taken en masse, Fleetwood Mac's oeuvre can enchant purists, pop fans and stars alike. Nicole confesses: "Stevie Nicks has had a large influence on my own songwriting and made me comfortable with my singing voice. Fleetwood Mac is that band that is able to write timeless hits with a serious dark side. That's what I strive for in my songs - a contrast between the light and dark."
Stevie Nicks wowed the crowd and rose to the occasion this past weekend at her highly anticipated two night stand at The Fillmore in San Francisco. She played to a packed house both nights... Fans flew in from all over North America to see the two nights unfold... There were no changes to the setlist, on either night, from the Summer tour (a good thing). The show was chalk full of In Your Dreams tracks that deserve to played and heard on this monumental occasion... Stevie took to the stage with feathers in her hair perhaps in an homage to the past greats that have played the venue (Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix) referencing them in her speach as she took to the stage to greet the audience. Stevie introduced each song before singing explaining what each was about. The special Landslide dedications went to 2 people Saturday night, the first was to David Young (her first boyfriend at 17) and comedienne Kathy Griffin who was in the audience. She ended the main set with Edge of 17 with an abbreviated version that we've seen lately from her tv appearances and told the audience at the end that this was all she ever dreamed of right here tonight.
With a chorus hook that seems in equal parts inspired by the hit DNA of U2′s “One” and REM’s “Everybody Hurts,” Stevie Nicks and Dave Stewart have penned a modern classic in “Everybody Loves You.”
The song comes on Stevie Nicks’ new album, In Your Dreams, produced by Dave Stewart. It seems appropriate that for Nicks’ first album in a decade, she’s chosen to tackle aspects of Fleetwood Mac’s complicated past: the romantic entanglements and revolving personnel doors that would lead to the group’s most successful work.
Fleetwood Mac began life as a Peter Green-helmed British blues rock entity, along with the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, for whom Green named the band and who would prove to be the only stable force through years of lineup changes.
By the early ‘70s, Green was out, and the band seemed to be switching guitar-playing singer-songwriters like relief pitchers in a baseball game. (1974’s Kiln House seems a clear high-water mark for the ’50s blues-meets-’70s soft rock transitional period caretaken by Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer.)
By 1975, Mick Fleetwood had moved the band to Los Angeles and was looking for a new guitarist. In a feature story, Nicks tells American Songwriter’s Lynne Margolis that “destiny” brought she and Lindsay Buckingham together.
“[Mick Fleetwood] definitely heard strains of Peter Green [in Lindsay Buckingham] and all the other famous guitar players who had been in Fleetwood Mac for the five years before that. So the fact that this big tall guy would come in and Keith Olsen would play him a song off a Buckingham-Nicks record that never really went anywhere, that two years before had opened to critical acclaim and then was dropped like a rock by Polydor—what are the chances of that? One in 20 million?”
Buckingham and Nicks would join the group and Olsen would produce the new lineup’s first album, Fleetwood Mac (their second eponymous release). The Buckingham-Nicks dynamic would help move the band into Fleetwood Mac’s golden era of ‘70s California smooth rock, which in 1977 produced Rumours, created in the midst of the power couple’s disintegration.
Stewart also headed up a famous formerly-romantic musical duo with Annie Lennox in Eurythmics, and Nicks says there was an unspoken bond between the two when working together on “Everybody Loves You.”
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