Review | Photos: Fleetwood Mac Live in Adelaide, AU October 28, 2015

Fleetwood Mac family finally felt complete
by Nathan Davies
The Advertiser

Photos Simon Cross - VIEW GALLERY

FEW bands have been through as much as Fleetwood Mac and lived to tell the tale.

They took the ’70s ethos of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll to its limit, with the sex and the drugs threatening to end the rock ’n’ roll on more than one occasion.

Perhaps that’s why Wednesday night’s show at Coopers Stadium had such a feel-good vibe – the Mac are like a dysfunctional family who’ve had some therapy, buried the hatchet and turned up for Christmas lunch with smiles on their faces. And the family finally felt complete, with songwriter/keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie back where she belongs after 16 years away from the band.

“This is quite an auspicious occasion,” McVie told the full stadium. “I haven’t been to Adelaide for 30 years.”

The crowd welcomed her with open arms – her voice and her songs are a vital piece of the Fleetwood Mac puzzle.

McVie looked effortlessly cool behind the keys, standing at the right hand of former husband and bass player John McVie who was, together with mercurial drummer Mick Fleetwood, rocking the “Morris dancers on acid” look. Stevie Nicks was front and centre, the eternal waif, and next to her was guitarist and vocalist – and former lover – Lindsey Buckingham, looking youthful and handsome in jeans and a sports coat.

The night began with The Chain, the stomping country rock anthem from Rumours, and from there on it was just a cavalcade of hits – Dreams, Rhiannon, Everywhere, a brilliant rendition of Tusk complete with a big-screen remix of the iconic marching band film clip, Sara and Say You Love Me, a song that showed off the McVie-Nicks-Buckingham harmony machine to full effect.

After that the band went off for a well-deserved breather while Buckingham laid down a truly beautiful solo version of Big Love. His guitar playing is a breathtaking mix of folk-styled fingerpicking and rock riffing, and his voice cut through the warm night as a full moon rose over the stands.

The band came back on for Landslide, and we got the first of Mick’s drum solos on Think About Me, before Nicks told the story of the inspiration behind Gypsy (it’s about an expensive San Francisco dress salon, Janis Joplin, and the moment she knew she was going to be a famous singer). I’m So Afraid saw Buckingham wowing with his guitar antics once more before the main set closed with a rousing rendition of Go Your Own Way that had the crowd on its feet and singing along (and one lady in the front row filming on an iPad. Get a phone, lady!)

There was an encore – that’s a given – and it started with World Turning complete with a five-minute Fleetwood drum solo/comedy routine, followed by Don’t Stop and Silver Springs. The night wound up, fittingly, with Christine McVie on a grand piano singing Songbird, accompanied by Buckingham on an acoustic guitar.

The applause was heartfelt, and the band genuinely seemed to appreciate it. The final word went to Fleetwood, the giant ringmaster, who thanked the fans for their support over almost five decades and implored everyone “in this seemingly crazy world that we live in” to “take such very good care of one another”. Yeah, Mick!

Review: Theaureview.com

Review & Photos: 4kq.com

Fleetwood Mac: Supergroup being pretty low-key ahead of their Adelaide concert

THE members of legendary supergroup Fleetwood Mac are being pretty low- key during their Adelaide stay.

AdelaideNow

Heading out of the band’s city hotel yesterday wearing jeans and a T-shirt Lindsey Buckingham, greeted our shutterbug telling him to stay put because “there will be a raft of people for you to photograph’’.

He wasn’t telling Little Lies eitherbecause soon after appeared Christine McVie, who is back with Mac after 16 years, with an entourage. Like Lindsey, she was casually dressed and looking relaxed as she left to take in some city sights.

Mick Fleetwood was even more chilled out, rocking a beanie.

Fleetwood Mac is performing at Coopers Stadium on Wednesday night and there are Rumours the band will be at the Melbourne Cup Carnival.

“Fleetwood Mac has been invited and inundated with requests to attend Cup Carnival events,” a source close to the band tells Confidential.

Fleetwood Mac Start Australian Tour In Sydney With A Few Rarities

by PAUL CASHMERE
Noise11

Fleetwood Mac kicked off the first shows for their Australian tour in Sydney last night (22-10-15) with two rare songs added to the setlist.

‘Bleed To Love Her’ from the 1997 album ‘The Dance’ was performed for the first time since 1997 and for the first time ever outside North America.

Christine McVie’s ‘Think About Me’ from the 1980 ‘Tusk’ album was performed for the first time in 35 years. It was only the 16th time Fleetwood Mac had ever performed the song. It had previously never been performed live outside of the USA.

Fleetwood Mac will perform again in Sydney on Saturday night.

Fleetwood Mac setlist

The Chain (from Rumours, 1977)
You Make Loving Fun (from Rumours, 1977)
Dreams (from Rumours, 1977)
Second Hand News (from Rumours, 1977)
Rhiannon (from Fleetwood Mac, 1975)
Everywhere (from Tango In The Night, 1987)
Bleed To Love Her (from The Dance, 1997)
Tusk (from Tusk, 1979)
Sara (from Tusk, 1979)
Say You Love Me (from Fleetwood Mac, 1975)
Big Love (from Tango In The Night, 1987)
Landslide (from Fleetwood Mac, 1975)
Never Going Back Again (from Rumours, 1977)
Think About Me (from Tusk, 1979)
Gypsy (from Mirage, 1982)
Little Lies (from Tango In The Night, 1987)
Gold Dust Woman (from Rumours, 1977)
I’m So Afraid (from Fleetwood Mac, 1975)
Go Your Own Way (from Rumours, 1977)

World Turning (from Fleetwood Mac, 1975)
Don’t Stop (from Rumours, 1977)
Silver Springs (b-side Go Your Own Way, 1977)

Songbird (from Rumours, 1977)

Reviews: Fleetwood Mac Sydney, Australia October 22nd

Fleetwood Mac fans cheer, laugh, cry and show love for the band on their Australian tour
by Kathy McCabe
The Daily Telegraph

IF you could harness all the energy devoted to singing Fleetwood Mac songs in loungerooms, cars and bars over the past 40 years, it would create a mighty bang.

The audience at the opening Australian concert by the legendary band at Sydney’s Allphones Arena brought an energy powered by all those moments, whether a solo karaoke of their favourite song, perhaps Go Your Own Way, or the more universally sung-to-the-rafters Don’t Stop.

Their myth is rooted in the reality of their drug-fuelled romantic entanglements and bust-ups as documented so honestly and historically on the greatest breakup album of all time Rumours.

Full Review and photos at The Daily Telegraph

Fleetwood Mac review: too long, sometimes listless, but hey, Christine McVie
by Bernard Zuel
The Sydney Morning Herald
Allphones Arena, October 22

The executive summary would be accurate but also not ever enough: too long and inconsistent of energy; some good sections and a virtual Classic Hits radio playlist; another "seriously, what the ... ?" moment with a drum solo and Christine McVie. Yes folks, it's worth an exclamation mark, Christine McVie!

The return, after 16 years, of the longest songwriting contributor in the band was always going to be more than just another body to accommodate onstage and a few more songs to add to the setlist. McVie's songs, from You Make Loving Fun - appearing two songs in, between Lindsey Buckingham's The Chain and Stevie Nick's Dreams, in the democratic/pragmatic structure long necessary in this complex band - to the show's closer, Songbird, with her at piano and only Buckingham on guitar accompanying her, are not just standards.

They, and she, are also the temperamental, lyrical and melodic balancing point between the very yin and definitely yang of the band's dominant forces, Nicks and Buckingham. That fractious pair these days make a deliberate, almost ostentatious, point of acknowledging each other, even singing to each other. But the more comfortable and frequent interactions are between Nicks and McVie, and Buckingham and McVie.

Full Review at Sydney Morning Herald

Drummer Mick Fleetwood opens up about Fleetwood Mac's longevity

Back Stage With Fleetwood Mac

Mick Fleetwood Interview: This may be John McVie's final tour

Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie: This might be my final tour
By Annette Sharp
The Daily Telegraph

TWO years after pulling the pin on their 2013 Australian tour following bass player John McVie’s cancer diagnosis, Fleetwood Mac’s most famous and most successful line-up landed in Sydney this week ahead of what McVie has indicated might be his last tour with the band that bears his name.

Founding member Mick Fleetwood, 68, was respectful when he spoke of McVie’s recent health crisis during a sound check at Allphones Arena yesterday.

“I raised a toast the other night with Christine (McVie). He’s well as well, absolutely (in) tip top health and that’s pivotal. And outside of it, it’s great to be here and playing.

“It’s a revisitation,” Fleetwood enthused of his 69-year-old creative partner with whom he founded the band in 1963.

“John’s very practical. He didn’t get into it (cancer talk) one way or the other. I’m an old drama queen but John just said, ‘OK, let’s get it fixed’ and that was that. Never heard any more about it and it was fixed, and we’ve been on the road ever since.”

In May, McVie said his playing days would soon be at an end: “How much longer can the Mac be a working band? Not much longer, for me anyway. It’s not the music. It’s the peripherals, the travelling. Mick will go on until they put him up against a wall and shoot him.”

The return to the line-up of McVie’s ex-wife, singer and keyboardist Christine, 72, who parted ways with Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and was retired from the music business, has been described by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham as “really beautiful”. Buckingham also quit the band for 16 years from 1987 to 2003.

“(Christine) just sort of woke up and said, ‘I’m not done. I want to be more alive’,” Fleetwood said.

Fleetwood acknowledges relations within the band, which includes three

ex- couples — Buckingham, 66, and singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks, 67, the McVies and Fleetwood and Nicks — are still fiery 40 years after the most famous Mac five first collaborated in 1975.

“I don’t think Lindsey and Stevie will ever not be able to suppress various emotive buttons that exist. One lives in hope, as I think they do,” he said of the former lovers, who started working together at 16.

“Having Chris back is hugely amazing. I think Stevie’s loving it and Chris is, too.

Touring the world was “sort of” easier today, added Fleetwood, whose battle with cocaine addiction is the stuff of rock legend. (He once estimated that, laid end to end, the cocaine he consumed during his life would stretch seven miles).

‘‘Those, looking back on it, were sort of a bit harder. Harder to juggle feeling good and being professional. Those days are long gone.’’

Fleetwood says this time there will be only just the occasional “little jug” of wine during this tour.

The band plays Allphones Arena on October 22, 24 and 25.