Saturday, November 14, 2015

Fleetwood Mac are set to wow close to 100,000 fans in Dunedin and Auckland

Rock supergroup Fleetwood Mac are set to wow close to 100,000 fans in Dunedin and Auckland this week at the end of their 15-month On With The Show world tour.


The American band will blast out a 23-song set including hits such as Dreams, Go Your Own Way and Tusk at Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium on Wednesday, and again at gigs at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland on Saturday and Sunday.

Almost half of the 66,000-strong Auckland audience over the two nights will come from out of town, said Mt Smart's director of external relations Paul Brewer. Saturday's concert is sold out but a few tickets are still available for Sunday.

"The influx of fans will mean a significant boost for the local economy," he said.

Fleetwood Mac founding member Mick Fleetwood has said the shows will not be the band's last Downunder.

"This is not goodbye," Fleetwood told the 702 ABC Sydney breakfast show during the band's current tour of Australia. "Stevie [Nicks] mentioned it to me the other night, saying 'this can't be the goodbye tour because no one said that it was'."

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Reviews Fleetwood Mac Live in Brisbane, AU Nov. 10, 2015

Review: Fleetwood Mac, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, November 10, 2015
Noel Mengel
The Courier-Mail

Photo: Marc Robertson

WELCOME back Chrissie.

Not that Fleetwood Mac didn’t play great shows in Christine McVie’s years out of the band. But her return for this tour brings so many big songs back to the party — from You Make Loving Fun to Say You Love Me and Everywhere.

Naturally this first Brisbane Entertainment Centre show last night was sold out — there are a few tickets left for a second tomorrow night.

You know what you are going to get, two-and-a-half hours, mostly of hits, plus some album favourites like Gold Dust Woman.

Yet the addition of Christine’s songs, lead vocals and harmonies lifts the night to another level from their tours without her.

Mick Fleetwood and John McVie remain a powerhouse rhythm section, Lindsey Buckingham ensures the energy levels never flag despite this being show No 114 of a world tour, and Nicks’ voice remains a thing of crystalline wonder, from Dreams to Rhiannon, Sara and Landslide.

It’s a beautiful and tasteful visual production, but with this many big songs, they could play by torchlight and still hold our attention.

As Buckingham reminds the audience they put all their personal dramas out there in their songs. It sure beats singing about moon, June and the lesser concerns which can fill the charts for a week and are just as soon forgotten.

It is a long concert, close to three hours on stage, and at one point they even have a false start to Tusk, which not only shows they are human but only seems to fire up Buckingham further.

After such a long time on the road, you might imagine a band going through the motions. But not at this show, and on stage it’s Buckingham who stokes the intensity with some searing lead work and his virtuoso solo turn on Big Love.

Fleetwood grins from ear to ear during his party piece on World Turning, and by the time the 10,000 plus crowd is singing along with Don’t Stop, it doesn’t feel like this is goodbye.

The old hurts might be way in the past but they still have something to say: the word is that a new album is already recorded and set for release in 2016.



Review: Fleetwood Mac, Brisbane Entertainment Centre, November 10, 2015
by: Simon Holt

About 30 seconds into a song called Tusk, Fleetwood Mac stumbled. Like someone who'd lost their place on a page in a book, the band stopped.

"We're going to say we're not perfect, and we're going to start that one again, OK?" lead guitarist Lindsey Buckhingham said.

Until then, a full house at Boondall wanted badly for the show to be great. But it wasn't. It was pedestrian at worst, ordinary at best.

One of the world's greatest bands seemed to be going through the motions, playing like it was the 114th concert on a long two-year roadtrip.

Chart-toppers Rhiannon, Everywhere and Dreams had all been rolled out, and it was Fleetwood Mac. They had to be brilliant, right?

There was nothing horrible about the first few songs – it was certainly no Meat Loaf moment.

There was just no sparkle – at least not until the second the band hiccupped.

When the group hit silence – a musical brick wall – something magic happened.

It was like they'd been given a wake-up call, a nudge to say they were slightly off their game, an embarrassing kick in the guts.

Full Review at Sydney Morning Herald

Sunday, November 08, 2015

Review Fleetwood Mac Live in Geelong, AU November 7, 2015

Fleetwood Mac’s Geelong Day on the Green a night to remember
by: Mandy Squires
Geelongadvertiser

Photos: PETER RISTEVSKI
View Gallery


FOR those lucky enough to snare a seat or piece of grass on the Mt Duneed Estate knoll on Saturday evening, the Fleetwood Mac show was an affair to remember.

Performing much-loved hits from the Rumours and Tusk albums, Stevie Nicks and the band appeared barely to have aged, delivering an energetic performance that had the 18,000-strong crowd on its feet, singing and dancing for the whole show.

Between songs, the ethereal Nicks also managed to deliver some poignant stories and words of wisdom to aspiring young artists in the audience, encouraging them to believe in, and back, themselves, “find their gypsy” and pursue their dreams single-mindedly.

Clear skies made for a perfect, if slightly chilly, night of entertainment, and Nicks commented more than once that she was cold. But most audience members were snug in beanies and blankets, and warmed by the concert’s generous spirit.

Organisation on the night by Day on the Green was — for the most part — excellent, with plenty of food and drink outlets, toilets and free tap-water stations throughout the venue.

Entry to the picturesque venue was seamless and there was plenty of security and help on hand to direct festival-goers.

Promoter Michael Newton said the event had been “absolutely incredible.”

“It was an 18,000 person love-in,” he said.

He said a lack of available taxis had caused some headaches at the end of the night, with organisers arranging five shuttle buses to drop people in Geelong.

He said patrons had been warned via email not to rely on taxis.

Monday, November 02, 2015

Review Fleetwood Mac Live in Melbourne, Australia November 2, 2015

FLEETWOOD MAC ★★★1/2
Rod Laver Arena, November 2
Sydney Morning Herald

Photo: Pat Scala
Like superheroes. Five mysterious individuals with unique powers, reunited against incredible odds to save the free world one more time. Like Kiss with better tunes, Fleetwood Mac is a band inseparable from its own mythology.

There's mad uncle Mick Fleetwood in his eccentric country gentleman's attire, biting bearded lips with bug-eyes rolling. He's an inseparable bloc with his "truly dearest friend" John McVie, quietly plucking bass in the shadow of a flat golfer's cap.

Messianic ringleader Lindsey Buckingham and witch-fairy Stevie Nicks are another unit: eternal king and queen of the Heartbreak High prom, playing up the sexual tension through misty eyes in the whispers of Landslide then re-enacting the finger-pointing rage in Go Your Own Way.

Then there's Christine McVie, returned at last to quietly steal the show with You Make Loving Fun and the gentle coda of Songbird, as if the 22 songs preceding hadn't already made their case for one of the most fertile hit factories of the modern age.

Sure, some of the moves may have felt a little stilted. Tusk wasn't quite the climactic eruption with its marching band horns caged inside a synthesiser. Nicks did duck out of few high notes in Dreams and elsewhere.

But from Buckingham's psychobabbling song introductions and anguished six-string pyrotechnics to Fleetwood's nutty crowd-baiting drum solo, to nearly every damn track plus B-sides of that album, Rumours, the world felt as harmonious as it'll ever be.




Friday, October 30, 2015

Review: Fleetwood Mac Live in Perth, Australia - October 30th

Mac make loving them fun, even in the rain
The West Australian



Thunder only happens when it rains, according to Stevie Nicks, whose legendary band Fleetwood Mac turned on a dream gig in the wet last night.

Playing to 25,000 adoring fans at Domain Stadium, the megastars promised a party in the rain. “My limousine driver told me it never rains in Perth,” Nicks said. “We bring the rain.”

The mighty Mac also brought the hits, plus an old friend in Christine McVie, much missed on the past two Perth visits.

The English singer, songwriter and pianist retreated from the spotlight after the band’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1998.

Fleetwood Mac were to visit in 2013 but cancelled after bassist John McVie was diagnosed with cancer. During the delay while McVie had treatment, drummer Mick Fleetwood convinced McVie’s former wife to rejoin the band. Christine McVie’s return meant Fleetwood Mac’s three great songwriters — the others being American ex-lovers Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, who joined the English blues band in 1974 —were back in the saddle for the band’s first Aussie tour since 2009.

After hitting the stage with The Chain, the Rumours rocker credited to the whole band, the trio shared the songs.

Other Rumours favourites — McVie’s You Make Loving Fun, Nicks’ Dreams and Buckingham’s Second Hand News — came in quick succession.

Classic pop hits —Landslide, Everywhere, Little Lies — rained down on fans as the Mac clung tight to their golden era.

The famous five, plus extra musicians and singers, delivered a marathon set at the fifth of 13 scheduled Australian dates for their On With the Show world tour. Classic songs, classic line-up and still plenty of drama.

Truly classic.
THE CHAIN

Fleetwood Mac Announce "TUSK" 5CD / 1 DVD 5.1 Surround Mix / 2 Vinyl Reissue - Avail. December 4th

Tusk (Deluxe Edition 5CD/1DVD-A/2 Vinyl)
Fleetwood Mac builds on its formidable legacy as one of rock’s most legendary acts as they re-visit
their most ambitious album with deluxe and expanded editions of TUSK.

Originally released in 1979, the Grammy® Award-nominated, double-album sold more than four million copies worldwide, and reached number 1 in the UK album charts, and included hits like “Sara,” “Think About Me,” and the title track.

The announcement comes as the band – Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham  Stevie Nicks and now of course Christine McVie,  – continues it’s acclaimed, “On With The Show” world tour which recently including 6 sold out shows at London’s 02 Arena.

To follow the historic, global success of 1977’s Grammy-Award winning Rumours, Fleetwood Mac chose to take a more experimental approach on Tusk. The most famous example has to be the unexpected and beloved inclusion of the University of Southern California’s marching band on the title track.



TUSK will be available on December 4 

This DELUXE EDITION delves deep into the vaults with five CDs including the remastered original album, an alternate version of the complete album made up of session outtakes, most of which have never been released, as well as an additional selection of singles, demos and remixes, including an outtake of “Think About Me,” an early version of “That’s Enough For Me” called “Out On The Road,” plus several incarnations of “I Know I’m Not Wrong.”

Also included are two discs loaded with 22 unreleased performances from the band’s 1979 Tusk tour with selections from concerts in London, Tucson, and St. Louis. It includes live versions of album tracks like “Sara, “Over And Over” and “Save Me A Place,” as well as favorites like “Landslide,” “You Make Loving Fun,” “Rhiannon,” “Don’t Stop” and “Go Your Own Way.”

Completing  the Deluxe Edition is a 5.1 surround mix of Tusk on DVD-Audio and vinyl of the original album on 2-LPs. 

The collection comes housed in an elegant box reminiscent of the acclaimed Rumours Deluxe Edition with a booklet that has extended liner notes that feature new interviews with all the band members. 

TUSK will also be available as a single disc of the original album remastered this year by Lindsey Buckingham.

The 3 cd digi-pack expanded edition includes the remastered original album, an alternate version of the complete album made up of session outtakes, most of which have never been released, as well as an additional selection of singles, demos and remixes, including an outtake of “Think About Me,” an early version of “That’s Enough For Me” called “Out On The Road,” plus several incarnations of “I Know I’m Not Wrong.

"Sara" Live in Tucson, AZ 8/28/80

US - Amazon Pre-Order

TUSK: DELUXE EDITION

TUSK: (Expanded 3CD Digi-pack)

TUSK: (1CD Jewel Case - 2015 Remaster)


THE DELUXE EDITION:
Disc One: Original Album Remastered

01. “Over & Over”
02. “The Ledge”
03. “Think About Me”
04. “Save Me A Place”
05. “Sara”
06. “What Makes You Think You’re The One”
07. “Storms”
08. “That’s All For Everyone”
09. “Not That Funny”
10. “Sisters Of The Moon”
11. “Angel”
12. “That’s Enough For Me”
13. “Brown Eyes”
14. “Never Make Me Cry”
15. “I Know I’m Not Wrong”
16. “Honey Hi”
17. “Beautiful Child”
18. “Walk A Thin Line”
19. “Tusk”
20. “Never Forget”

Disc Two: Singles, Outtakes, Sessions

01. “Think About Me” (Single Remix)
02. “That’s All for Everyone” (Remix)
03. “Sisters of the Moon” (Remix)
04. “Not That Funny” (Single Remix)
05. “Sara” (Single Edit)
06. “Walk a Thin Line” (Song #3 – 03/13/79)
07. “Honey Hi” (Alternate Version – 10/18/78)
08. “Storms” (Alternate Version – 11/30/78)
09. “Save Me a Place” (2nd Version -10/10/78) *
10. “Never Make Me Cry” (Version – 04/17/79)
11. “Out On The Road” (aka “That’s Enough For Me” – Demo – 12/19/78) *
12. “I Know I’m Not Wrong” – Lindsey’s Song #1 (Demo)
13. “I Know I’m Not Wrong” (10/10/78 Version) *
14. “I Know I’m Not Wrong” (11/3/78 Version) *
15. “I Know I’m Not Wrong” (4/25/79 Version) *
16. “I Know I’m Not Wrong” (8/13/79 Version) *
17. “I Know I’m Not Wrong” (1/23/79 Version) *
18. “Tusk” (Demo – 01/15/79) *
19. “Tusk” “Stage Riff” (Demo – 01/30/79) *
20. “Tusk” (Outtake Track – 02/01/79) *
21. “Tusk” (Outtake Mix – 01/23/79) *
22. “Tusk” (USC Version – 06/04/79) *

Disc Three: The Alternate Tusk

01. “Over & Over” (04/02/79) *
02. “The Ledge” (03/13/79)
03. “Think About Me” (02/18/79) *
04. “Save Me a Place” (10/18/78) *
05. “Sara” (03/10/79)
06. “What Makes You Think You’re the One” (02/24/79) *
07. “Storms” (06/02/79) *
08. “That’s All for Everyone” (10/20/78) *
09. “Not That Funny” (05/19/79) *
10. “Sisters of the Moon” (11/12/78)
11. “Angel” (04/02/79) *
12. “That’s Enough for Me” (09/29/78) *
13. “Brown Eyes” (with Lindsey & Peter Green, 09/20/78) *
14. “Never Make Me Cry” (02/08/79) *
15. “I Know I’m Not Wrong” (11/02/78) *
16. “Honey Hi” (10/11/78) *
17. “Beautiful Child” (10/09/78) *
18. “Walk a Thin Line” (04/06/79) *
19. “Tusk” (07/19/79) *
20. “Never Forget” (06/29/78) *

Disc Four: Tusk Tour Live 1

01. Intro (Wembley, 06/26/80) *
02. “Say You Love Me” (Wembley, 06/26/80) *
03. “The Chain” (Wembley, 06/20/80) *
04. “Don’t Stop” (Wembley, 06/27/80) *
05. “Dreams” (Wembley, 06/20/80) *
06. “Oh Well” (Wembley, 06/20/80) *
07. “Rhiannon” (Tuscon, 08/28/80) *
08. “Over and Over” (St. Louis, 11/05/79) *
09. “That’s Enough for Me” (Wembley, 06/21/80) *
10. “Sara” (Tuscon, 08/28/80) *
11. “Not That Funny” (St. Louis, 11/05/79) *
12. “Tusk” (St. Louis, 11/05/79) *

Disc Five: Tusk Tour Live 2

01. “Save Me a Place” (St. Louis, 11/05/79) *
02. “Landslide” (Omaha, 08/21/80) *
03. “What Makes You Think You’re the One” (St. Louis, 11/05/79) *
04. “Angel” (St. Louis, 11/05/79) *
05. “You Make Loving Fun” (Wembley, 06/20/80) *
06. “I’m So Afraid” (St. Louis, 11/05/79) *
07. “World Turning” (Wembley, 06/22/80) *
08. “Go Your Own Way” (Wembley, 06/22/80) *
09. “Sisters of the Moon” (Wembley, 06/22/80) *
10. “Songbird” (Wembley, 06/27/80) *

* Previously Unreleased