Review | Photos | Video: Fleetwood Mac Live in L.A.

Fleetwood Mac Live in Los Angeles
December 6, 2014
The Forum

PHOTO BY TIMOTHY NORRIS

LA Weekly
By Andy Hermann

On Saturday, Fleetwood Mac played their last of three sold-out shows at the Forum. And who cares, right? Reunion tours at the Inglewood arena are as plentiful as scarves on Stevie Nicks' mic stand.

But in the 16 years since a Fleetwood Mac tour featured the entire Rumors lineup, something notable happened: The band, long a favorite among baby boomers and Gen X'ers, got discovered by a new generation of fans, many of whom are themselves making emotionally dramatic pop music laced with lush harmonies and fiery guitar parts.

Tame Impala, Haim, the Entrance Band, even Miley Cyrus: all have worshiped at the altar of the Mac. Foxygen told L.A. Weekly that they recorded their new album while listening to Tusk on repeat, and Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino breathlessly tweeted out "Fleetwood Mac is honestly THE most important band in my entire life" after one of the band's first two Forum shows.

So Saturday's show — not their last in L.A., as we had originally described it, since they announced an additional Forum date next April just a few days ago — felt important. With the return of singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac are now the biggest band of their era whose "classic" lineup remains intact. And they've become, arguably, the most influential.

The importance of McVie's return can't be overstated. Though far less flashy than her fellow lead singers, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, her cool alto, underrated piano skills and flair for an irresistible pop hook provided the perfect foil to Buckingham's histrionics and Nicks' witchy balladry. She wrote the first and last hit singles of the quintet's remarkable 12-year run ("Over My Head" and "Everywhere," respectively) as well as their signature anthem, "Don't Stop." More than once, her bandmates expressed elation over her return — though no words could convey more than the ear-to-ear grin Buckingham wore for much of "Say You Love Me," one of Christine's most indelible tunes and perhaps the evening's best showcase of the band's pinpoint harmonies.

Though the night in many ways belonged to McVie, Buckingham and Nicks still provided most of the highlights. After nearly 40 years, Buckingham remains the band's wild card, a guitarist so brilliant — and so clearly enamored of his own brilliance — that his admittedly jaw-dropping solos at times threatened to hijack the whole show. The shrieking cascades of notes pouring forth from his signature Renaissance Model One guitar earned their fair share of cheers from the crowd — but no moment of the show got a bigger cheer than Stevie Nicks' first twirl during "Rhiannon."

It is Nicks, more than any other member of the Mac, who has captured the imagination of a younger generation of fans. During her songs "Dreams," "Gypsy" and especially "Landslide," women who clearly weren't even born when Rumors came out could be seen throughout the crowd, singing along rapturously with every word.

Wisely and graciously, the band let Christine McVie have the last word, rolling out a baby grand piano on which she delivered a haunting rendition of "Songbird," the prettiest song on Rumors, accompanied only by some admirably restrained acoustic guitar by Buckingham. 

Afterward, when the band came out to take their final bows, Stevie Nicks credited Fleetwood Mac's fans for McVie's return. "You made this happen. You're magic! You have magical powers," Nicks declared. And maybe she's right, but our magical powers pale in comparison to those of a reunited Fleetwood Mac.

Overheard in the crowd, after Stevie Nicks' twirling performance of "Rhiannon": "She knows how to work a shawl."

Random notebook dump: The giant floating Lindsey head on the projection screen during "I Know I'm Not Wrong" is freaking me out. It's like his ego made manifest.

Photos by: Lisa Wellik - View Gallery

EVERYWHERE

RHIANNON

LANDSLIDE

WORLD TURNING / DON'T STOP

WIN Fleetwood Mac Tickets: Denver, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Oklahoma City

DENVER - KBCO 97.3FM
Fleetwood Mac: 5-4-3-2-1
Play 'My 3 Songs' with Ginger all week for your chance to get tickets in the first five rows.

All this week, (Monday, December 8 - Friday, December 12), score tickets in the first 5 rows to Fleetwood Mac at Pepsi Center on December 12, during My 3 Songs with Ginger.

KBCO is going 5-4-3-2-1, with tickets in the fifth row on Monday, up to the first row on Friday.


DENVER - THE BEAR 107.9
Listen to Win Fleetwood Mac Tickets

Fleetwood Mac is coming to Pepsi Center on Friday, December 12. Did you miss your chance to get tickets? Is one of your Dreams to see Fleetwood Mac in concert?

What is we told you that we had some tickets to give away? We aren't telling any Little Lies here. We have some tickets to Fleetwood Mac to give you starting Monday Morning.

How to Win 
It's easy to win your tickets!

All you have to do is listen during the Woody & Wilcox show on 107.9 The Bear starting Monday, December 8. When you hear the cue to call, be the 10th caller in The Chain to 221-1079, and you will Say You Love Me (or us) when you get your tickets!

If you don't win on Monday, Don't Stop trying to win. We'll have chances to win everyday until Friday morning!

Want to get a hint when we'll play the cue to call? Join us on Facebook  and Twitter @1079thebear. We might post a hint or two when you might hear the cue.

LOS ANGELES: THE SOUND 100.3FM
Fleetwood Mac 7:30am Giveaway

Fleetwood Mac concerts keep selling out!  Lucky for you, they’ve added another concert date on April 10th at the fabulous Forum.

Christine McVie is back, and they’re sounding great, selling out everywhere.  Listen at 7:30 am every morning this week (week of December 8, 2014 - December 12, 2014) for Uncle Joe to give you the cue, then if you’re not driving, text “Forum” to the number 21003, and he will put you in the drawing.

Standard messaging and data rates apply.  That’s “Forum” to 21003.  Good Luck!
Each day’s winner will receive a Pair of tickets to see Fleetwood Mac at the Forum on April 10th!

Tickets on-sale Saturday, December 13th at 10am

VANCOUVER: 103.5 QM/FM
Win Tickets To See Fleetwood Mac! 

The rumours are true Vancouver, Fleetwood Mac will be performing at Rogers Arena on Saturday April 4th, 2015!

Listen in from Monday, December 8th to Wednesday, December 10th during Middays with Olivia Jones and Afternoons with Ray Grover for your chance to win a pair of Beat The Box Office Tickets!

You also have a chance to win 1 of 4 pairs of tickets online! Enter HERE!

Online Contest ends 11:59pm PT December 14, 2014.

OKLAHOMA CITY: 103.3 THE EAGLE

The Eagle Fleetwood Mac Contest

Register to win a pair of tickets to see Fleetwood Mac live at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on March 12, 2015.

Contest closes Monday, March 9, 2015 at 12PM.

Interview: Mick Fleetwood is as thrilled as anyone to see the soft-rock dream team back together

Mick Fleetwood on photography, Fleetwood Mac
by Ed Masley
AZCentral

The Fleetwood Mac lineup that gave the world "Rumours" is headed to Phoenix on Wednesday, Dec. 10, with Christine McVie back on board for her first tour of duty since her 1998 departure. And Mick Fleetwood is as thrilled as anyone to see the soft-rock dream team back together — something no one in that dream team thought would happen.

"But she came back and we are now very complete," Fleetwood says. "The chemistry is how it should be. It's truly amazing. I consider it a real pinnacle in this band's history, and thus the people in it, including me. I'm overjoyed that we're doing what we're doing. We are intact."

Having said that, what he'd really like to talk about is the exhibition of his photographs at DeRubeis Fine Art of Metal in Scottsdale, where Fleetwood is hosting a private reception from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9.

The drummer credits his father with having piqued his interest in photography.

DENVER: Fleetwood Mac drummer steps out front with photo show

MICK FLEETWOOD 

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT

Fascination St. Fine Art presents recent work by the founder and drummer of the band Fleetwood Mac through December 26th.  Mick Fleetwood will also appear at the gallery to greet fans from 7:30 to 9:00 PM on December 11th, prior to the band's concert at Pepsi Center on December 12th at 315 Detroit St. The gallery is free but register for the appearance in advance by calling. 303-333-1566 or fascinationst.com.

Stevie Nicks' Polaroid Self-Portraits on Display in Miami Today

After a successful run in New York City, a collection of Polaroid self-portraits -- old school selfies, if you will -- that Stevie Nicks took of herself in the '70s and '80s is going on display starting today in Miami, Florida, as part of the city's prestigious Art Basel show of modern and contemporary art.

Unlike these days, when taking a picture of yourself is as easy as breathing, Nicks says creating her portraits -- featured in the packaging of her current solo album, 24 Karat Gold -- was "a huge deal," adding, "It was like writing a song."

"You know, that Polaroid had a button that plugged into it and then it was on a long cord and that was on a tripod.  So it really was a thing," she tells ABC News Radio of the portraits, for which she styled herself in a variety of costumes and poses.  "So if I was setting up...to take photographs, I could set up a whole scene, and then...leave it set up for two or three days.  So I could take two or three nights after shows, and really go for that one shot."

Review: Fleetwood Mac Oakland, CA December 3, 2014

Fleetwood Mac Leads a Loaded Reunion at Oracle Arena
SFWeekly
Posted By Emma Silvers

Photo by: Noah Graham
VIEW MORE PHOTOS AT SFWEEKLY

Fleetwood Mac
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Oracle Arena

Better than: listening to a cassette tape of Rumours on repeat on a long drive down I-5.

Stevie Nicks is going for it. She's been dressed in all black all night — a confusing, drapey, sequined and, yes, Stevie Nicks-esque shawl over a dress, whose shimmering tendrils she seems to be handling like rosary beads — but for "Gold Dust Woman" she's brought out a sheer gold shawl, and she is putting it to work. With her back to the crowd at Oracle Arena, she spreads her arms out wide before bringing both hands to her blonde head for something that looks like the marriage of headbanging and the gesture one performs when experiencing a migraine; the midway point between rocking the fuck out and being in severe pain.

Which is, really, the main thrust of the mood at a Fleetwood Mac show — at least, at the first Fleetwood Mac show in a decade in a half that includes the original '70s lineup: Christine McVie, notably fresh-faced behind the keyboard after 16 years away; Lindsey Buckingham, whose virtuoso fingerpicking on the electric guitar is rendered nearly unfair when combined with the fact that he apparently doesn't age at all; John McVie, perhaps the only member of Fleetwood Mac who could reasonably be described as understated, despite providing the crucial bass heartbeat to so many hit songs; Nicks, whose stage presence alone makes Lady Gaga seem like John Kerry; and drummer Mick Fleetwood himself, who — dressed in short pants and red sneakers, wispy sideburn hair a-flying, taking indulgent solos — was quite possibly having more fun than anyone in the room, letting out animalistic yelps between taps of the hi-hat and punctuating his between-song banter with a gesture recognizable as the universal sign for "I am on Splash Mountain and we have just started going downhill."

In short, emotions ran high last night. From Nicks dedicating "Landslide" to her first real boyfriend at Atherton High School, to Fleetwood's assertion that things get crazy when you let the drummer up front (his headset mic failed to work at some point, and briefly holding court at the tip of the stage seemed to make many people very happy), the whole thing felt loaded.

This is, of course, difficult to separate from the soap opera that is Fleetwood Mac's history, the romantic entanglements and illicit affairs and buckets upon buckets of cocaine that somehow went up people's noses and came back out transformed into songs as sunny as "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." There's a theatrically implied underbelly to nearly everything they do, and no matter how much you've painted Stevie Nicks into some kind of fantasy-mom corner — and no matter what percentage of the 19,000 people around you appear to be squeaky-clean retirees with varying degrees of former hippiedom in their pasts, all cutting loose with widely varying degrees of rhythm — there's the ever-present knowledge that yeah, she partied way, way harder than you ever will, and the same probably goes for a lot of these old-school fans. Lived to tell the tale, too.

Which is why you indulge Nicks when she starts telling the same story, verbatim, that she apparently told last week in L.A.: About being a poor student at San Jose State University (crowd: "woooooo!") and driving up to San Francisco to shop at the Velvet Underground, which was the coolest and most expensive rock star store in the world, as evidenced by having Janis Joplin and Grace Slick as customers. About how she couldn't afford anything, but she stood there in that store and she knew she'd be able to someday. Cue a curtsy, plus exaggerated fondling of her sequined outfit. Cue "Gypsy," with the opening lines "So I'm back, to the Velvet Underground..."

Can you blame her if it's cheesy? You can't. You can't blame any of them, especially not Christine McVie, her alto and perfect hair seemingly untouched by the ravages of time, when she launches into "Say You Love Me," or sits down at the piano for "Little Lies," and you realize that half the Fleetwood Mac songs you hear so often they've become background music (in the best possible way) are driven by that almost unnervingly sweet, easy voice.

This requires ignoring the weird background visuals — gold dust for "Gold Dust Woman," strange, unnecessary combinations of water droplets and psychedelic swirls of color for nearly everything else. It also requires removing yourself from the reality of, say, things that actually happened earlier in the day, back in 2014, like the grand jury's decision in the horrifying choking death of Eric Garner at the hands of plainclothes police officer in New York. It requires shutting off your brain for long enough to live inside a year when Ronald Reagan was a great hope for a great many people.

This will, you see, help with getting into the proper headspace for receiving Nicks' lines about how Christine McVie came back to the band in January of 2014 — less than two years after Nicks told Rolling Stone that was about as likely as “an asteroid hitting the earth” -— because "when you put something out into the universe, it comes true, and you Fleetwood Mac fans all woke up one day and wanted that. You have magic powers. If you want something bad enough, dreams come true."

If nothing else, it requires believing that Fleetwood Mac believes those things. And last night, there were absolutely zero doubts to be had about that.

Critic's Notebook

— They played for a solid three-plus hours, with minimal breaks. Wide, wide grins all around.

— Three backup vocalists, though tucked at the back of the stage, added a layer of epicness to the most bombastic choruses. Bonus: One of them was Nicks's red-haired sister, Lori Nicks.

Photos by Gloomboy - View Gallery on Flickr

SEVEN WONDERS
LANDSLIDE