Lindsey Buckingham hints Fleetwood Mac album will be studio swan song

Lindsey Buckingham hinted that Fleetwood Mac's next album might be the band's studio swan song. During a chat with PBS' Tavis Smiley, Buckingham spoke about the new material he's been cooking up with returning keyboardist Christine McVie, revealing, "Before we started rehearsing the show with Christine, she came over and said, ‘Lindsey, I’ve got some rough ideas for new songs. She gave me a bunch of stuff to take home after we saw her in England when we played there. And I worked on it at home, took lots of liberties, came back. She loved it. We went in the studio for two months and came up with probably the best group of songs that were co-written that we’ve done in years. So we are going to continue working on a new album and (my) solo stuff will probably take a back seat for another year or so.”

He went on to say the still unfinished album "would be a beautiful way to kind of wrap up this last act."

Although Lindsey Buckingham is marking his 40th anniversary of joining Fleetwood Mac, at 65, he still feels like he's at the top of his game: “A lot of the idea of (laughs) being in a rock n’ roll band and getting to be one of, sort of the people who’s been around for a while, y’know, you can manage that equation any number of ways. Y’know, it’s hard for me to sort of. . . I feel the same physically as I did 25 years ago. I think I’m mentally, somewhat in arrested (laughs) development - y’know, in a good way, I hope!”

Fleetwood Mac North American tour dates (subject to change):

January 16 - Saint Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
January 17 - Lincoln, NE - Pinnacle Bank Arena
January 20 - Grand Rapids, MI - Van Andel Arena
January 22 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden Arena
January 24 - Atlantic City, NJ - Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall
January 25 - Uniondale, NY - Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
January 28 - Providence, RI - Dunkin' Donuts Center
January 30 - Washington, DC - Verizon Center
January 31 - Buffalo, NY - First Niagara Center
February 3 - Toronto, ON - Air Canada Centre
February 5 - Montreal, QC - Bell Centre
February 7 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
February 8 - Newark, NJ - Prudential Center
February 11 - Des Moines, IA - Wells Fargo Arena
February 12 - Milwaukee, WI - BMO Harris Bradley Center
February 14 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena
February 17 - Louisville, KY - KFC Yum! Center
February 18 - Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena
March 1 - Austin, TX - Frank Erwin Center
March 3 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center
March 4 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
March 7 - Charlotte, NC - Time Warner Cable Arena
March 8 - Knoxville, TN - Thompson-Boling Arena
March 11 - North Little Rock, AR - Verizon Arena
March 12 - Oklahoma City, OK - Chesapeake Energy Arena
March 15 - Charlottesville, VA - John Paul Jones Arena (JPJ Arena)
March 17 - Greensboro, NC - Greensboro Coliseum
March 18 - Nashville, TN - Bridgestone Arena
March 21 - Miami, FL - Time Warner Cable Arena
March 23 - Orlando, FL - Amway Center
March 25 - Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena
March 27 - St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center
March 28 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
March 31 - Wichita, KS - Intrust Bank Arena
April 1 - Denver, CO - Pepsi Center
April 4 - Vancouver, BC - Rogers Arena
April 6 - Bakersfield, CA - Rabobank Arena
April 7 - Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena
April 10 - Inglewood, CA - Forum
April 11 - Las Vegas, NV - MGM Grand Garden Arena

Side Notes:

MORE ON "ONE MAN SHOW"

Out now is Lindsey Buckingham's first ever solo live album -- Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show. The set was recorded on September 1st, 2012 in Des Moines, Iowa at Hoyt Sherman Place, and chronicled the set Buckingham has playing on his last solo tour.

The album features Buckingham tapping into his solo work with tracks like "Go Insane" and "Trouble," Fleetwood Mac with "I'm So Afraid," and "Go Your Own Way" -- and even a rare dip into the Buckingham Nicks catalogue with "Stephanie."

The tracklisting for Lindsey Buckingham: One Man Show is: "Cast Away Dreams," "Bleed To Love Her," "Not Too Late," "Stephanie," "Come," "Shut Us Down," "Go Insane," "Never Going Back Again," "Big Love," "I'm So Afraid," "Go Your Own Way," "Trouble," and "Seeds We Sow."

Source: K-Hits

With Christine McVie's return, the Mac is back and better than ever.

Fleetwood Mac lands at Amalie Arena in Tampa
By Gabe Echazabal and Tracy May
Creative Loafing

The rumors are indeed true: with Christine McVie's return, the Mac is back and better than ever.

Photo: Tracy May
VIEW MORE PHOTOS

It's often said that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That age-old adage is particularly relevant in reference to rock bands that attempt to forge ahead and record or tour without a key member in tow; the results can be uneven or sub-standard at best. While Fleetwood Mac already had a lengthy catalog to their credit by the time they revamped their lineup and adopted more of a pop sound in the mid-1970's, the UK-spawned blues/rock group's greatest success came when the dynamics of all its different personalities meshed and translated into hit singles and million-selling albums.

Fleetwood Mac reached unimaginable heights when breezy, laid-back Californians Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham were welcomed to the fold and the band debuted their new look, sound and feel to the world with a magnificent 1975 self-titled album. A major factor in the band's newly attained success was the emergence of veteran songwriter and vocalist Christine McVie. With her cool vocal delivery and impressive keyboard work, McVie's presence was as much a factor in the band's dominance of sales charts as Buckingham and Nicks.

Text In To Win: Fleetwood Mac Tickets Jan 28th, Providence, RI

Catch Fleetwood Mac At The Dunk Next Month!

It’s a Text In To Win Weekend, and Heather and Steve will award two tickets to this show Monday morning at 7:25!

To win, text FLEETWOOD + your name to 68683, then be by your phone Monday morning, because Heather and Steve could be calling you to win tix to see Fleetwood Mac January 28 at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island!

Courtesy of Metro Motor Group, and Lite Rock 105.

Reviews: Fleetwood Mac Live in Tampa December 20, 2014

Fleetwood Mac reunion tour a landslide hit with Tampa fans
by Tim Chong
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA — It has been nearly 40 years since the classic lineup of Fleetwood Mac first performed together. The band has been in existence even longer, but when most people think of “Fleetwood Mac” they think of eccentric guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, mystical songstress Stevie Nicks, crazed drummer Mick Fleetwood, quiet bassist John McVie and down-to-earth keyboardist Christine McVie.

Photo: Andy Jones - View More

Four decades is a long time for any group of people to stay together, and members of the notoriously combustible Fleetwood Mac, not surprisingly, have spent much of that time in and out of the group. The past couple of tours and the last album, with everyone but Christine McVie, was the closest many thought there would be to a reunion.

Christine McVie’s full-time return is enough to celebrate a tour — there’s no new album to promote — and on Saturday night at Amalie Arena fans were ready to welcome her back, giving McVie her own ovation.

Unsurprisingly, the set list leaned heavily on “Rumours,” still one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. Starting with a thundering ”The Chain,” the band defied age and its reputation as a soft rock band.

The biggest surprises were songs from “Tusk,” the follow-up to Rumours considered by some to be a flop. The songs aren’t as familiar, but the band seemed to enjoy playing them and stretching out “I Know I’m not Wrong” and “Sisters of the Moon,” and reinventing “Tusk” as a blues guitar workout.”

The group seemed more enthusiastic than on previous tours. Perhaps everyone being together has re-energized the Mac. There’s talk the group will return to the studio. If so the enthusiasm displayed at Tampa’s show is a good sign of things to come. The night was a welcome back party; to the band from the fans, to Christine from her bandmates, and to the music from the band.

View Photos at The Tampa Tribune

Mick Fleetwood Book Signing Monday, Dec 22, 2014 at Fleetwood's on Maui

Musician and Maui resident, Mick Fleetwood will be at Fleetwood’s General Store on Front Street on Monday, Dec. 22, where he will sign copies of his new book.

Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography, was released in October and tells the story of his life as a musician, playing drums since his teen years, to his long career as co-founder and member of the group Fleetwood Mac.

Born Michael John Kells Fleetwood in Cornwall, England, in 1947, Fleetwood now enjoys life on the Valley Isle where his Lahaina restaurant and general store bear his name.

The 352 page book takes a look at his life and love of music, as well as the “raucous history” of Fleetwood Mac, and the story behind the band’s longevity and success.

The in-store book signing event runs from 5 to 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 22, 2014.

Source: Mauinews.com

MICK FLEETWOOD BLUES BAND 
Featuring RICK VITO
Mick and Rick perform live on December 28th on the rooftop at Fleetwood's on Front St. For tickets, call 808-669-MICK.

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Sunrise, FL December 19, 2014

Finally, 16 years after playing her last gig with Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie is back in the band.
By Howard Cohen
Miami Herald

Hard to tell who seemed happier for her return, the fans or the band members. Drummer Mick Fleetwood said in a pre-concert interview with the Miami Herald that this enduring band’s autobiographical music has served as a soundtrack for its audience’s own similar experiences. Love, loss, joy, heartache.

“It’s astoundingly powerful that for the vast majority of that audience their lives are unfolding in their own world and we’re triggering that.”

These fans have made the superstar group’s On With the Show Tour one of the year’s top touring attractions. At Sunrise’s sold-out BB&T Center Friday night, a crowd of 16,000 or so lustily cheered reinvigorated classics like Rhiannon, Go Your Own Way and Landslide.

Immediately after the standard Fleetwood Mac opener, The Chain, fans got their first taste of McVie’s burgundy warm, bluesy alto, which, reassuringly, sounds much as it did on Rumours 38 years ago. “Sweet, wonderful you/You make me happy with the things you do,” she sang in the opening line of You Make Loving Fun, the fourth Top 10 single from the landmark Rumours album. Back then, the song was about her lover, the band’s former lighting director, whom she briefly turned to as her marriage to bass player John McVie ended. Now, the lyric seems directed at her fellow musicians, including her ex, as well as the fans.

“Usually I’d say, ‘Welcome back, Christine,” a genuinely friendly, chatty Stevie Nicks said, referring to her previous stage patter early in the tour’s run. “But since this is the 39th show, we can safely say, ‘She’s back!”

Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, Nicks’ ex and the subject of many of her songs like Dreams and Silver Springs — much as she is the subject of his biting numbers, Go Your Own Way, Never Going Back Again and Second Hand News — has always had a particularly symbiotic musical relationship with McVie. The chemistry in the way their voices intertwine — McVie’s out of British blues, Buckingham’s inspired by ’50s folk — on the blues-rock stomp of World Turning and the rock shuffle, Don’t Stop, proved intact.

A couple hours earlier, just after McVie’s power pop charmer, Everywhere, and his own edgy rocker, I Know I’m Not Wrong, Buckingham delivered Fleetwood Mac’s State of the Union. He singled out McVie for providing a reason to think about tomorrow.

“With her return I believe we begin a profound, poetic and prolific new chapter in the life of this band,” Buckingham said. Encouraging, and inspiring, given he’s 65, McVie’s 71, Nicks is 66 and the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are 67 and 69, respectively. Given how well these men and women performed, for nearly three hours, you fully believe Buckingham.

Indeed, McVie’s contribution is the necessary sunlight amid Nicks’ and Buckingham’s darker ruminations. This additional voice made the harmonies on her Say You Love Me, Over My Head and Little Lies, the latter done with considerably more edge and kick than its stuck-in-the-’80s studio version, as well as Nicks’ Dreams and Rhiannon, ring with clarity. She also seemed to have inspired the others to deliver the best vocal performances we’ve heard from anyone in this outfit since the Reagan administration.

Sure, Nicks has lost her top range on Dreams and Sisters of the Moon. Buckingham’s voice is deeper.

But Nicks sang full-bodied and in-tune throughout, including on her showcase Gold Dust Woman and Seven Wonders, reintroduced thanks to its prominent use last season for Nicks’ witch character on FX’s American Horror Story: Coven. She dedicated Landslide to a fan who held a sign that said she’d had a stroke and that her bucket list wish was to see a Fleetwood Mac concert. Nicks responded, “I feel it in my heart. You’re going to be just fine.”

Buckingham had a regained suppleness and adventure in his phrasing that gave fresh nuance to Never Going Back Again, Big Love and the anguished I’m So Afraid. His inventive lead guitar playing, Flamenco style on Big Love; blues on I’m So Afraid; or classic rock soloing on Go Your Own Way, all played without a pick, elevates him among the greatest to play the instrument.

After an expertly paced 150-minute set, closed by McVie’s trademark promise of undying love, Songbird, a clearly grateful Fleetwood roared, “And remember, the Mac is most definitely back.”

No doubt, at 100 percent.

Fleetwood Mac returns March 21 at AmericanAirlines Arena in downtown Miami.