Christine McVie Interview on Mirage, Fleetwood Mac's new album and touring future

Christine McVie on Fleetwood Mac's 'Peculiar' 'Mirage' Sessions, New LP
Singer-songwriter looks back on heady days at Château d'Hérouville, discusses band's future plans
By Richard Bienstock
Rollingstone

Christine McVie has a confession to make. The 73-year-old singer, songwriter and keyboardist is on the phone with Rolling Stone to discuss the new deluxe reissue of Fleetwood Mac's 1982 effort, Mirage; but, she admits, she hasn't actually listened to it yet. "I just now got my copy of the remastered edition in my hands," McVie says, calling from her home in the U.K. "But I just moved to a flat where I don't have my DVD or CD player yet. So I'm unable to play it. And there's all these outtakes and demos and things in there that I certainly haven't heard since we made them. So I'm most curious to listen."

Indeed, the new package is a treasure trove for Mac completists (and, apparently, band members). In addition to presenting the original 12-track album – which spent five weeks at Number One and spawned two of the group's biggest and enduring hits in McVie's "Hold Me" and Stevie Nicks' "Gypsy" – in remastered form, the three-CD and DVD set offers up a disc of B sides, titled "Outtakes and Sessions," as well as a live collection culled from two nights at the L.A. Forum in October 1982 on the Mirage tour. The whole thing is rounded out by a vinyl copy of the album and a DVD in 5.1 surround sound, as well as a booklet with extensive liner notes and photos from the era.

An impressive package, to be sure, and one that is perhaps necessary for an album that, for all its multi-platinum success, never quite gets its due, having been overshadowed in the band's canon by the career-defining trio of records that preceded it – 1975's Fleetwood Mac, 1977's mega-smash Rumours and 1979's sonically adventurous double album Tusk. In an earlier interview with Rolling Stone, drummer Mick Fleetwood acknowledged that, in such imposing company, Mirage often gets overlooked – a notion that McVie seems to agree with. "It does, and I don't know why," she says. But, she adds, "As it stands today, a lot of people know every track on it. Which is quite unbelievable. So I just take it for what it is."

McVie spent some time reminiscing about the album with RS, from the "unusual" experience of recording at the Château d'Hérouville outside of Paris, to the "nightmare" of filming the video for her song "Hold Me" in the Mojave Desert outside of Palm Springs. But she wasn't only looking backward. McVie also discussed Fleetwood Mac's plans for the future, which may include a new album and another world tour. "We're just gonna keep on doing what we do best," she said, then laughed. "Which, I'm not really sure what that is!"

What was the state of Fleetwood Mac going into the making of Mirage?

Stevie Nicks to perform Oct 3rd on Ellen and Oct 7th on The Late Late Show with James Corden

Look for Stevie in early October on The Late Late Show with James Corden October 7th (Late night October 6th) and also on daytime TV with Ellen October 3rd.

GET TICKETS

Lindsey Buckingham On Writing With Christine McVie on 'Mirage'

Arriving in store today (September 23) are deluxe editions of Fleetwood Mac's 1982 album Mirage.

The new set comes as a single-disc remastered version of the album along with a two-disc Expanded edition and a Deluxe package that includes three CDs, a DVD and an LP. The latter two include bonus demos, rarities and alternative tracks, while the Deluxe also features a 1982 concert from Los Angeles.

Mirage was the more "traditional" follow-up to 1979's experimental Tusk and hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, going on to be certified double platinum. Lindsey Buckingham tells us that it was also on album on which he and singer-keyboardist Christine McVie -- who wrote the first single "Hold Me" -- clicked in a way that was different from the way he worked with Stevie Nicks:

"I would say that it's...an intangible thing. It's a very strong thing of what I always thought was, for lack of a better term, the whole being greater than the sum of the parts...and I think in that sense Christine and I as two musicians who are very well-grounded in their craft have a kind of symmetry of respect and love for each other on a creative and a musical and a personal level, and I think that was a big part of what that whole being greater than the sum of the parts was at the time. The fact that what I could do for her, I did it for Stevie too but the fact that she (McVie) could infuse her sensibilities into my stuff and I could tap into what I do as a producer, say, and give back so much to her."

McVie rejoined the band in 2014 following a nearly 16-year leave of absence. Fleetwood Mac has been working on new material but no release plans have been announced.

 - Gary Graff

Mick Fleetwood on if he's listened to the expanded version of Mirage

Released today (September 23rd) is the deluxe and expanded version of Fleetwood Mac‘s 1982 chart-topping Mirage collection. The album, which was released on June 18th, 1982, was the group’s first studio set of the decade and topped the album charts for five straight weeks. Mirage, which was released in the wake of Stevie Nicks‘ 1981 solo breakthrough, Bella Donna, was pushed by constant airplay of its first two singles and videos — Christine McVie‘s “Hold Me” and Nicks’ “Gypsy.” A third song from the set, McVie’s opening track “Love In Store” stalled at Number 22. In Britain, Lindsey Buckingham‘s neo-rockabilly track, “Oh Diane” was released as a single and scored the band its only Top 10 hit off the album there, when it peaked at Number Nine.

The newly expanded version of Mirage, features the remastered original 1982 album, a second disc of 19 alternate versions and outtakes, along with a third disc featuring highlights from the band’s brief U.S. tour in support of the album.

We caught up with Mick Fleetwood and asked him if he’s actually gone through the entire deluxe reissue of Mirage: 

“Oh yeah, we’ve all heard it — a while ago, to be quite blunt. So, we’re very happy with the way Warners. . . they do a lot of leg work. Y’know, we don’t actually have anywhere near — sadly — we don’t have anywhere near the archive (the) Beatles, and (Rolling) Stones, and Eagles and. . . I’m always happy when we do find something with outtakes and stuff like that that have been kept, and also it’s that time to do that. We’ve never really got into it. The Stones and the Beatles, they’ve been doing this for a long time.”

Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage has been re-released in three different configurations:

Deluxe: Three CDs, DVD and LP. Original album remastered, plus B-sides and rarities; the original album on LP; live performances; and a 5.1 mix on DVD

Expanded: Two CDs. Original album remastered, plus a disc of B-sides and rarities

Remastered: Original album remastered. A digital version is also be available.

LISTEN New Interview with Christine McVie on BBC Radio 2

Steve Wright in the Afternoon
BBC Radio 2

Steve and the team are joined by Christine McVie to talk about the deluxe reissue of the classic Fleetwood Mac album Mirage that was originally released in 1982.

BBC Radio2

REVIEW Fleetwood Mac Mirage (Expanded Reissue)

Fleetwood Mac - Mirage (Expanded Reissue)
(Warner Brothers/Rhino)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
American Songwriter
Written By Hal Horowitz

Often considered the belated follow-up to 1977’s mega platinum Rumours, 1982’s Mirage was a clear retreat from the somewhat abrasive, occasionally commercial avant-pop of the controversial Tusk. While that album has, over the decades, come to be respected as Lindsey Buckingham’s creative zenith, it appears Warner Brothers was less enthusiastic about their star act’s detour into the artsy abyss. Perhaps Mac were tired of it themselves, because the slick, glossily produced Mirage seems a capitulation to an audience who might have found the dense, inconsistent, but bold Tusk a musical and drug-fueled bridge too far.

While Mirage was no Rumours, its dozen sophisticated pop songs include such near-classics as “Love in Store,” “Gypsy,” and “Hold Me,” the latter two appearing on most subsequent Mac hits packages. But there are other, often unappreciated gems here too. Selections such as Buckingham’s folksy “Can’t Go Back,” Stevie Nicks’ surprisingly effective foray into country “That’s Alright,” the frisky pop/rock and sumptuous harmonies of “The Eyes of the World” and the closing “Wish You Were Here,” one of the always dependable Christine McVie’s more affecting and least appreciated pieces, are well worth reexamining.

It’s not a great album but it’s a good one, especially for Mac’s avid pop fans, and ripe for rediscovery on this newly remastered and expanded edition. A second disc with 20 previously unreleased rarities includes early, stripped down demos, alternate arrangements and outtakes of nearly every tune, plus some that didn’t make the final cut, and is well worth the price of admission. The no-frills versions are a welcome contrast to the finished product’s often over-produced slickness, and such oddities as a four minute in-studio jam on drummer Sandy Nelson’s 1959 instrumental “Teen Beat” with Buckingham at his most frazzled and unhinged is a major find.

But the real excitement is relegated to the pricey “deluxe” package that includes not only a 5.1 surround audio-only DVD of the album and a remastered vinyl reproduction, but a live show from the ‘82 Mirage tour. This 74-minute concert catches the band on a particularly inspired and improvisation filled night in LA as Mirage was ensconced atop the Billboard charts. It kicks off with a propulsive seven-minute “The Chain” that smokes the studio take into oblivion and features extended performances of two Tusk tracks with a nearly 10-minute “Not That Funny” along with another 8 minutes of “Sisters of the Moon,” closing with an unplugged emotional “Songbird” all in front of a clearly engaged audience.

Whether that’s worth dropping nearly $90 is up to you, but this is an invigorating presentation. It captures these five musicians (before they added an unnecessary backline to bolster the live sound) bouncing energy off each other and feeding from the crowd with exhilarating results.

MORE REVIEWS:
Fleetwood Mac – Mirage
The weakest album produced by the Rumours line-up? Or an essential chapter in the Fleetwood Mac story...
Sam Richards
Uncut


The deluxe edition of Mirage is out on September 23rd on Warner Brothers
Mirage (Deluxe) (3CD/1LP/1DVD-Audio)
http://smarturl.it/MirageDeluxe

Mick Fleetwood on Fleetwood Mac's 'Overlooked' Smash 'Mirage'

Ahead of new reissue, drummer talks "wild and romantic" France sessions, opulent video shoots and more
By Richard Bienstock
Rollingstone

"I don't think it would be wrong to say it sort of got overlooked," says Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, reminiscing about his band's 1982 album, Mirage, which will be reissued in a deluxe package via Warner Bros. on September 23rd. It's something of an odd statement to make about a record that charted at Number One on the Billboard 200, spawned multiple hit singles and went on to sell more than three million copies. Of course, when you're in Fleetwood Mac, the definition of what constitutes success is relative.

The album, the band's 13th studio effort overall and fourth to feature singer Stevie Nicks and singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham alongside longtime members Fleetwood, bassist John McVie and singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, came on the heels of one of the more impressive runs in rock: the lineup's smash 1975 "debut," Fleetwood Mac; the now-more-than-40-million-selling follow-up, Rumours; and the sprawling and sonically adventurous Buckingham-helmed double–LP Tusk (a commercial "failure" that still managed to move several million copies). By the time the band reconvened for Mirage in May 1981, they had been off the road for close to a year, during which time three members had recorded – but not yet released – solo albums (Buckingham's Law and Order, Fleetwood's The Visitor and Nicks' eventual chart-topping, multi-platinum Bella Donna). That time apart, combined with the tensions that had been brought on by the experimental nature of the Tusk album, left them ready to recapture a bit of the old Rumours magic, so to speak.

Full interview with Mick at Rollingstone

The deluxe edition of Mirage is out on September 23rd on Warner Brothers

Mirage (Deluxe) (3CD/1LP/1DVD-Audio)

http://smarturl.it/MirageDeluxe