Review: Fleetwood Mac Flirts, Revives ‘Rumours’ on Tour ★★★★★ Stars "Buckingham’s guitar playing is a wonder"

Fleetwood Mac Live in Birmingham
Sunday, September 30, 2013 - LG Arena
by Robert Heller
Bloomberg

Fleetwood Mac’s tour is a triumph of inspirational rock, new songs and band hugs.

The band that created “Rumours,” a classic album of impeccable 1970s rock, was always likely to deliver the songs and the playing. The group’s history of divorces, disagreements and excess made the hugs less certain.

The tour features four of the key musicians from “Rumours”: Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, Stevie Nicks on vocals and Lindsey Buckingham on vocals and guitar.

There’s always the chance of an appearance by McVie’s ex-wife Christine, who turned up on stage last week at London’s O2 for the first time in 14 years for an encore of “Don’t Stop.”

They’re aided by two additional musicians and two backing singers. The set draws primarily on mid-1970s albums “Fleetwood Mac,” “Rumours” and “Tusk.”

The band bonhomie isn’t immediately obvious. Buckingham sings “Second Hand News” and “The Chain” with grit and snarl. The latter’s bassline is as mean as ever.

Nicks is dressed in a long black skirt and black velvet top. A tambourine, strewn with flowing ribbons, is draped on her arm. (Buckingham is dressed in utilitarian blue jeans and a black leather jacket.) Her voice is simple and unadorned, more folk than soul, full of emotional nuance and subtle phrasing.

“Sad Angel,” a chirpy new song from this year’s “Extended Play” EP, is easily enjoyable. Buckingham talks about the band’s return to the studio, hinting at new recordings: “There are quite a few more chapters left in the book of Fleetwood Mac.”

Eloquent Anger

The demented riffs on “Tusk” bristle with an eloquent anger that would not be out of place at a psychology clinic.

Usually the acoustic section is a signal to head to the bar. Not with Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham sings “Big Love” armed only with an acoustic guitar. His performance generates a raw electricity that electronic-dance artists would melt their synthesizer circuitry to deliver.

Nicks sings “Landslide” with her ex-boyfriend Buckingham behind her shoulder. Their dynamic is thick with the flirtation of musical communion.

With a recurring set list for the shows, the rest of the concerts are a whirl of pop-rock pleasure. Fleetwood’s drumming provides the mid-tempo beats with a volcanic power while McVie’s bass playing is supple. (Both are dressed in white shirts and black waistcoats.)

Buckingham’s guitar playing is a wonder, bringing flamenco dexterity to acoustic numbers.

After the quiet of “Say Goodbye,” Mick Fleetwood comes to the front of the stage to thank both the band and the audience with 1970s sentiments and a pristine English accent.

“Be kind to one another,” he says. “We love you very much. And remember: The Mac is back!”

Rating: *****.

RHIANNON

Ahead of Fleetwood Mac's sold out show at Glasgow's Hydro - Herald Scotland talked with Stevie Nicks

Photo by urbancowgirl

[Reprint of an earlier posted interview - that seems to have a bits and pieces taken from the Telegraph interview] 

Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks on music, Game of Thrones and her relationship with Prince

Fleetwood Mac have been touring for much of the year - how's it been?

"Great. But the last 15 shows in America were particularly gruelling. Shows got added so the routing was difficult - you're in Canada, then you're in Dallas, then you're in Florida, then Portland. So it was very hard.

"We'd fly after the show most nights, a two-hour flight, then the drive to and from the airport. We all got terribly jet-lagged. But for me, it's not such a big deal 'cause I stay up really late every night anyway. But for Lindsey [Buckingham] and Mick [Fleetwood] and John [McVie], they don't stay up late - they go back to their rooms and go to sleep.'"

This is the first Fleetwood Mac tour since 2009…

"At the beginning of 2012 I told everyone I wouldn't tour with the band that year, because I wanted to give [2011 solo album] In Your Dreams another year, because I thought it deserved it. And because I thought Fleetwood Mac should stay off the grid for three years.

"It's a good idea; it's just smart to keep us out of the spotlight for three years. Everyone went along with it. And now they all know it was really a great idea - because we were gone long enough that it was us coming back.

"I told the press last year that 2013 was going to be the year of Fleetwood Mac. And I was just hoping with all my heart that this big statement was gonna come true!"

The band released an iTunes EP earlier this year, which was recorded just after your mother died. Was that a difficult time for you?

"I didn't go [to the studio]. I didn't want to go. But it wasn't just that - I didn't want to go anywhere. I didn't leave the house for almost five months.

"I worked on the edit of my documentary about the making of In Your Dreams. And then I got pneumonia. With my pneumonia and my mother's death I watched the entire first season of Game Of Thrones - so that was great! That certainly took my mind off everything."

Full Q&A at Herald Scotland

Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams at CBGB Festival: Film Screenings Oct 10th and 12th - NYC

On October 10, 11, 12 and 13, the 2013 CBGB Festival will present film screenings of some of the best rock films/documentaries ever made and some that have never been seen in New York before. Over 120 film screenings will be shown in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Stevie's "In Your Dreams" Documentary will be screened two nights October 10th and 12th.

STEVIE NICKS: IN YOUR DREAMS

Wythe Hotel Thursday, October 10th - 5:00 PM
Tickets $13.50

STEVIE NICKS: IN YOUR DREAMS
Anthology Film Archives Saturday, October 12th - 11:00 AM
Tickets $13.50

Purchase Badges and Tickets

Stevie Nicks: "I am drawn back again and again to the woozy narcotic of her sound"

Not Fade Away 1979: Sara, Fleetwood Mac

Richard E. Aaron

by Teddy Jamieson

Herald Scotland

Wait a minute baby

Stay with me awhile

This is where things get seriously biographical. In 1979 I turn 16. I'm obsessed by Marvel comics, Michael Moorcock fantasy books and Jenny Agutter. My musical tastes are .. umm indiscriminate. I like almost everything. But then there's so much to like.

Even in retrospect 1979 shapes up as one of the truly great years in pop history. The length of the list of other contenders below this isn't only down to nostalgia (although I'll accept it might be a factor - one that's likely to continue over the next few weeks/years). In 1979 we've got American punk, British post-punk, high-end disco, lovers' rock, the best of what was known as new wave, the last truly great single by Motown's greatest artist and the first great single by the star who would become the brightest talent of the decade to come (no, it's not Michael). We've got Bowie and Kate Bush, Chrissie Hynde (one of my favourite voices in pop) and Debbie Harry, weird synthy one-hit wonders from M and Flying Lizards and itchy electronica from Cabaret Voltaire and the Human League.

We are beyond punk by now. Suddenly all the rules and restrictions - necessary as they may have felt at the time - are gone. It feels like anything is possible.

And yet here I am choosing chiffon-draped, cocaine-fuelled soft rock. What gives?

Blame the 16-year-old me. The boy whose favourite comic was Master of Kung Fu. The writer of said comic, Doug Moench, was obsessed by Fleetwood Mac. He seemed to have his characters listen to Rumours every month. And I was soon indoctrinated. So much so that I rushed out to buy the Tusk double album as soon it came out and played it again and again and again and ...

I still like a lot of the album. There are tracks like Save Me A Place where the (undoubtedly expensively produced) DIY feel of the music and the lachrymose luminosity of the harmonies gets me every time. (On the basis of absolutely no evidence whatsoever I always want to say alt-country starts here).

But, really, what I tuned in to were the Stevie Nicks songs. And Sara more than the rest. I've written before in this place about how Nicks should be the antithesis of everything I like in pop. But I just can't help myself. I am drawn back again and again to the woozy narcotic of her sound, what the music critic Simon Reynolds once called her "grain-of-the-voice viscosity".

Check out the full article at Herald Scotland

Reviews: Fleetwood Mac Live in Birmingham "Big personalities and classic songs give fans an evening of pure energy"

Fleetwood Mac Live in Birmingham
Sunday, September 29, 2013 - LG Arena
by Enda Mullen
Birmingham Post

Big personalities and classic songs give fans an evening of pure energy

Fleetwood Mac might be middle of the road musically speaking but the soap opera that’s the story of the band is about as rock ‘n’ roll as it gets.

It’s a saga characterised by battles and broken relationships and the kind of hard living that would put even the most notorious rock star to shame.

The hell-raising might be no more but the love/hate relationship of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham lives on in many of the songs.

And what songs they are too, with the band producing a soundtrack for a whole generation.

This was a concert of epic proportions, 23 songs in total and not far short of three hours from start to finish, with the band on fire as they plundered the riches of their amazing back catalogue.

There was room for a new song in the shape of Sad Angel, which sounded good but didn’t really get the crowd to their feet in the way The Chain, Rhiannon, Tusk and Landslide did.

Given the big personalities and talents of Nicks and Buckingham it would be easy to overlook founder members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie who give the band its beating heart and clearly still relish playing live.

Other musical highlights included Sara, Big Love, Gypsy, Gold Dust Woman and Don’t Stop, although Say Goodbye, while an appropriate song to end on, didn’t offer the kind of rousing finale the show deserved.

After an evening of pure energy and exemplary musicianship that would put many bands half their age to shame Fleetwood Mac signed off with a lingering farewell that made one wonder whether it may be the last time they take to the stage.

Fleetwood Mac, at LG Arena, Birmingham

By Steve Adams 

Birmingham Mail

Rocks greatest soap opera goes on and on...

Forget Downton Abbey, if you wanted Sunday night drama then the LG Arena was the place to be this weekend, as Fleetwood Mac offered another episode in rock’s longest-running soap opera.

The Anglo-US act will forever be remembered for Rumours, one of the greatest and biggest-selling albums of all time, which was inspired by the band members’ dissolving relationships - and for some reason they feel compelled to milk the melodrama at every opportunity.

Singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham – whose break-up provided by many of the songs on that album - arrived on stage holding hands, turned to face each other during several poignant numbers and even shared a hug during Sara.

It was frankly overkill – as were some of the extended introductions – and detracted from an otherwise excellent show. 

Sara itself was a highlight, and while Nicks can no longer hit the high notes on tunes such as Rhiannon (Buckingham largely did that for her), she remains a captivating performer with a great set of pipes, gloriously exemplified on Landslide, Silver Springs and new – but old – song Without You.

That said, Buckingham was the undoubted star of the show, and while he remains a frustratingly pompous figure – he’s as aware of his talent as we are – there’s no escaping the brilliance of his guitar playing, notably during an extraordinary acoustic rendering of Big Love and electric wig-outs on I’m So Afraid and Go Your Own Way.

The band did just that on this gig – there was no room for a Christine McVie guest slot, as at the London shows – and with material as strong as Tusk, Second Hand News, The Chain and Don’t Stop, come the end no one in the packed house was quite ready for them to Say Goodbye.

Above Photos by Della Wilson (Thanks Della!)

DON'T STOP

GOLD DUST WOMAN

WORLD TURNING (Micks Drum Solo)

Plus... Say Goodbye | Go Your Own Way | The Chain

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in London Sept 27 - Uncut

Fleetwood Mac Live in London

September 27, 2013 - The O2 Arena

Uncut Magazine

by Michael Bonner

“Life is good,” reflects Mick Fleetwood. We are over two hours into Fleetwood Mac’s third and final show at the O2, and it has fallen to Fleetwood to introduce his fellow bandmates on stage.

While Fleetwood was talking for the most part about the enduring friendships that exist between the various members of Fleetwood Mac, he could just as easily be surveying the last, remarkable 12 months in the band’s career. This sprawling world tour has been a tremendous success – “We’re doing the best business we’ve done in 20 years,” Lindsey Buckingham recently told Rolling Stone. The 35th anniversary of Rumours earlier this year provided a useful reminder of the band's most successful and notorious period, while the Extended Play EP showcased a clutch of new songs that seem redolent of the Rumours-era sound. Elsewhere, there are the broader cultural threads that have pillowed Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 – the revival of the soft rock aesthetic, and the kind of West Coast vibes evoked on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories and Haim’s Days Are Gone.

But in many respects Fleetwood Mac are actually a more interesting proposition away from the Rumours material. The reissue a few months ago of the band’s 1969 album, Then Play On was a terrific reminder of the magical guitar interplay between Peter Green and Danny Kirwan. Indeed, while it’s nice enough to watch Christine McVie join her old band for “Don’t Stop”, it would have been more remarkable if Green had strolled on stage to play “The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)”. Tonight, the band’s decision to foreground songs from Tusk is sort-of brave – a great chunk of the audience seem bewildered by this – while the weird tensions between Buckingham's songs and Nicks' is actually quite compelling. To some extent, Buckingham and Nicks might as well be in different bands. Buckingham (who, I should point out, plays without a plectrum) seems to think he’s in some early 80s New Wave band for great chunks of the set, throwing punk rock shapes or shredding; at one point, during the extended coda for "I'm So Afraid", he seems to think he's in the middle of some wonderful, digressive Crazy Horse jam. His introduction to the Tusk section of the show involves a lecture in the merits of art against commerce; he clearly still has an almost neurotic attachment to that particular material, as his need to explain – or, perhaps, defend – it suggests. Later, his acoustic treatment of “Big Love” displays his extraordinary fretwork skills (incidentally, those solo albums are amazing). He and Nicks are gracious with each other – if, say, she’s singing a song, she’ll step back a little from the mic to let him play a solo – it’s slightly formal, a little awkward, you might say. Nicks, meanwhile, doesn’t entirely seem comfortable during the faster Buckingham numbers – she totters visibly during “Not That Funny”. Sounding a little like Edie Falco in The Sopranos when she speaks, and dressed as if she’s going for dinner with Big Edie and Little Edie at Grey Gardens, she seems clearly more comfortable with the soft focus Laurel Canyon Goth of “Rhiannon” and “Gypsy” than Buckingham’s angrier compositions. Her attempt to explain the provenance of the Extended Play track “Without You”, originally written by Nicks in the early Seventies, lasts longer than the song itself.