Review: Fleetwood Mac 'Rumours' 41/2 Stars (out of 5)

Album of the week: Fleetwood Mac's Rumours
36 years on, 40 million people can’t be wrong
Herald Sun
By Cameron Adams
★★★★1/2 Stars (out of 5)

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Rumours is one of those albums where you know every song. Even if you think you don't, they've crept in by soft rock radio osmosis.

The band work on Mac time, so this 35th anniversary reissue actually arrives 36 years after the album was released in February 1977.

Rumours - already in 40 million homes - is one of the most complete albums in history and was fuelled by class A harmonies, class A drugs and beautiful music being made in studios and bedrooms between band members.

The vaults have been raided for more unreleased demos to show rock classics as works in progress. Lindsay Buckingham sniffles his way through an early take on Second Hand News with mumbled vocals and a runny nose and there's Go Your Own Way with lyrics - and vocals - that were yet to be polished. Buckingham says "That was good" at the end - he clearly hadn't heard his flat vocals back yet.

An early demo of Stevie Nicks' timeless Dreams manages to be acoustic but also intense. The album was so strong gems such as Nicks' Planets Of the Universe were left off - she'd later finish it and release it in 2001. "Did you get that? It wasn't wonderful or anything," Nicks says at the end of this demo. She's wrong. Her early Gold Dust Woman rocks too.

There's Christine McVie's Keep Me There (once called Butter Cookie) which ended up being an album highlight and The Chain (a Nicks solo version of which is a find here).

One of McVie's songs that did make the album (and made the album), Songbird is here in simple demo form - it'd be honed vocally later to become a soundtrack to weddings for decades to come. There's also an instrumental Songbird for Mac trainspotters' karaoke competitions.

Deluxe versions have a warts-and-all, un-airbrushed live concert from 1977 (check out Rhiannon), which captures a band who really loved each other flying high in their prime.

In stores in Australia - Friday, February 1st.

Fleetwood Mac Live in Spokane, WA June 29th - Pre-Sale begins 10am Thursday

TicketWest Pre-Sale for Fleetwood Mac Live in Spokane, WA begins Thursday January 31st.

Code is RUMOURS and tickets begin selling for this pre-sale at 10am local time.  Use this link here.

There is currently an American Express Pre-sale running. American Express Preferred Seating Presale: please enter the number on the back of your card without any dashes, click here

Here's a detailed seating chart

Spokane ticket prices are amazingly low and amazingly all over the place ranging from $27.50 for the Upper Bowl High Ends to $125.5 for Front Floor.

Public on Sale February 2, 2013

High Praise For Fleetwood Mac's song "Tusk" from @TheAVClub

Fleetwood Mac’s strangely savage “Tusk” was the band’s weirdest hit

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing.

For most of Fleetwood Mac’s life, the band has been a hits machine, and it used that reputation to propel a singularly weird song—one vastly different from its usual output—into the Billboard top 10 in 1979. “Tusk,” which is featured prominently and often in the première of FX’s The Americans tonight, is a work of strange savagery, overlaid with jungle sounds and a thudding, endlessly repetitive drum riff that drives everything that happens in the song. The lyrics are simple enough to be a Dr. Seuss exploration of a relationship that’s crumbling, Lindsey Buckingham softly crooning “Why don’t you ask him if he going to stay? / Why don’t you ask him if he’s going away?” over the horrors building up beneath him.

Continue to the full article

Mick Fleetwood Interview TODAY 2pm on Planet Rock UK #Fleetwoodmac

Tune in at 2pm to PLANET ROCK - Join Darren Redick on his show TODAY when he'll be interviewing drummer and band-namesake Mick Fleetwood.

They will be discussing the Rumours reissue, fear and loathing within the band (Mick's words, not ours), the upcoming tour and the possibility of Christine McVie returning to the band.

LISTEN LIVE HERE

updated 1/30 5pm:  Not sure if anyone caught Mick's interview this afternoon in the UK (early morning in North America, but regarding Christine McVie's visit with him in Hawaii, he was bringing her back to Hawaii for a 3 week visit and that she hasn't been back there in 25 years so he was looking forward to spending quality time with her.

See Which Fleetwood Mac's Tracks Are The UK's Most Downloaded

35th Anniversary Of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours Headed For UK Top 10
Contact Music
35 years after it first became a UK number one, Fleetwood Mac’s classic album Rumours is on the right path to re-entering the UK Top 10. 

A statement from the Official Charts Company today (January 29, 2013) read “35 years after it first went to Number 1, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is set to re-enter the Official Albums Chart Top 10 this Sunday. Rumours is not only one of the Top 20 biggest selling albums of all time, it is also the most charted album in British history, spending a staggering 493 weeks on the Official Albums Chart.”

Fleetwood Mac’s Top 10 most downloaded tracks in the UK
The Official Charts
Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours looks set to re-enter the Official Albums Chart Top 10 this Sunday, 35 years after if first reached Number 1 in the UK. To celebrate, OfficialCharts.com reveal the band’s Top 10 most downloaded tracks of all time.  Check them out here

Looking back on Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' more than 35 years later  
A new deluxe set drills deep on the classic album
By Melinda Newman
Hitfix

Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” came out in 1977, before the internet and tabloid TV.  Instead, all we had to do was listen to the lyrics to get all the drama.  The album, which celebrates its 35th anniversary  (one year late) with today’s release of a four-CD deluxe edition, chronicled the break-ups of three relationships: singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham were splitting after seven years together, keyboardist/singer Christine McVie and hubby/bassist John McVie had just divorced. Drummer Mick Fleetwood’s marriage to wife Jenny, who was not in the band, was unraveling, in part because she was having an affair with his best friend.
Full Article at HITFIX

Fleetwood Mac To Play UK Shows in Autumn 2013
Mick Fleetwood gives indictation of live plans - which will miss UK festival season
by Michael Baggs
Gigwise

Fleetwood Mac confirm UK shows for September
Digital Spy
by Lewis Corner
Mick Fleetwood revealed that the reformed band will travel to the UK in September, as well as releasing new material online within the coming months.

Fleetwood Mac confirm UK visit for September
Live4ever
Mick Fleetwood has confirmed Fleetwood Mac will be in the UK this September after the completion of a long run of North American tour dates.

“We’re doing a big world tour that starts in April,” Mick Fleetwood has told BBC 6Music. “We’re coming here in September, October and maybe a bit longer. We’re doing a lot of work here so we are coming.”

[Pics] Tonight in LA - Lady Antebellum with Stevie Nicks - CMT's Crossroads Taping

Lady Antebellum Joins Forces with Stevie Nicks for "CMT Crossroads" Taping in Culver City, CA

Here are some early shots from the night thanks to attendees, their smarty phones, Instagram and Twitter:  Photos by: Kate OHare, Deva Kehoe, Kristen Kee, Leah Ashley - Thanks ladies!

Lady Antebellum taped their CMT Crossroads performance with Stevie Nicks Tuesday night in Los Angeles 
The show will premiere in the coming months.  While in town for the taping, Lady A is also getting some serious hang time with the rock legend.

The group's Charles Kelley says, "She invited us to her house one night.  So, we're gonna go hang out with her at her house, which I'm gonna die."

It was actually Stevie's idea to do the CMT Crossroads with Lady Antebellum, and they all hopped on a conference call a few weeks back to prepare the show.  The members of Lady A were floored that Stevie is a big fan of their music.  Hillary Scott , who is expecting her first child in July, was very taken with Stevie's spirit in that call.

"I joked, and I'm kind of not kidding, with my husband when I got home after the phone call, I said, 'I really kinda want her to be the honorary godmother of our child,'" Hillary says with a laughs.  "She was just this amazing presence and person to talk to."

Charles cut his musical teeth on Stevie's classic album with her band Fleetwood Mac , Rumours .  He discovered the LP in his parents' record collection, and Charles says, "I just was like, 'Oh my gosh.  Who in the world are these guys?'  Just played it over and over in my room."

Charles adds that performing this show with Stevie Nicks is a real full circle moment for him.  We'll keep you posted when CMT announces an airdate for this installment of Crossroads .

Stevie Nicks and Lady Antebellum Team for 'Crossroads' Taping

Ten-song set includes Fleetwood Mac and solo hits

By Steve Baltin

January 30, 2013

Rolling Stone

When rock icon Stevie Nicks and country trio Lady Antebellum convened at L.A.'s Sony Pictures Studios Tuesday to tape an upcoming episode of CMT's Crossroads, the most excited people in the room of a thousand or so were clearly Nicks and the Nashville trio.

In fact, it was hard to tell who was the bigger fan, with both consistently praising the other's work. It started from the very outset: after Nicks apologized for flubbing the opening lines of Lady Antebellum's "Love Don't Live Here," Charles Kelley let her know all was forgiven by shouting "Stevie Fucking Nicks!"

100 Greatest Singers: Stevie Nicks

Though no one in the audience seemed to mind starting off with five Lady Antebellum songs, Kelley commented at least three times on the format: "You're gonna have to suffer through a few Lady A songs first," he joked.

Nicks certainly did not mind. She told the audience she spent three months listening to the band's songs in preparation for this show. "These songs are amazing," she said. "These songs make you feel like you're in love."

Her biggest praise came for the new ballad "Golden," a song that Kelley explained is on their forthcoming album, which they sent to Nicks in hope of doing it on this night. She said that after a half a minute of listening to the song she was crying. She called it "their 'Landslide.'" To which Kelley responded, "Now we might cry."

When a piano was rolled out, while Kelley was tinkering around with Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind," Nicks hung over the piano. "This is every man's fantasy – Stevie Nicks draped over a piano," he said. "I would like a picture of this."

After Nicks left the stage for the upbeat "Downtown," she and her band returned for her turn. Kelley let everyone know the cultural significance of these songs by introducing "Gold Dust Woman": "If you don't know this next song, you suck."

Swept up in the night, Kelley had several humorous moments, from his attempt at the trademark Nicks twirl to recounting listening to Fleetwood Mac records in his bedroom at age 10. "Now we're hanging out. We're besties," he quipped.

Maybe they're not besties yet, though Nicks did tell the audience she had gifts backstage for Lady Antebellum's pregnant frontwoman, Hillary Scott. "Edge of Seventeen," one of her biggest solo hits, is a song she doesn't like to share with anybody because it is so personal, she said.

"I'm proud to share it with Lady Antebellum, because they're good enough to do it," she said.

Nicks took the time to recall the stories behind each of her songs, like how she wrote "Landslide" in Aspen, Colorado in 1973 and how she felt "a twinge of something, that this song is gonna be super-important in my life." She called it "the foundation of Fleetwood Mac," while Kelley called it "the greatest song ever." After a sublime rendition, Scott said, "Makes me cry every time."

Before a raucous "Stop Dragging My Heart Around," a song she originally performed with Tom Petty, Nicks told of producer Jimmy Iovine's insistence on finding a single for her debut solo album, Bella Donna. If it hadn't been for that demand, she said, she might not have had a solo career. She learned a lesson, she said, about listening to others and not letting pride get in the way. To which Kelly added, "Every person at our label has a huge smile right now." So did everyone in the venue by the time they finished "Rhiannon."

Set list:

"Love Don't Live Here

"Need You Now"

"Golden

"Cold As Stone"

"Just A Kiss

"Downtown"

"Gold Dust Woman

"Landslide"

"Edge Of Seventeen"

"Stop Dragging My Heart Around

"Rhiannon"

Photos by John Shearer