A band is more than the sum of its members

by Neil McCormick
The Sunday Telegraph

‘It is impossible to imagine the Beatles with any other configuration than John, Paul, George and Ringo’

Fleetwood Mac have changed their line-up. Again. The vintage rock band have had 18 members over 51 years, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at their willingness to swap things about even at this late stage. Indeed, the latest twist in their convoluted saga has something of a superstar transfer about it. Last week, it was announced that vocalist and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham had left, with a source close to the band alleging the split was a result of “musical differences regarding the tour”. Two new members, singer songwriter Neil Finn, of Crowded House, and lead guitarist Mike Campbell, of the late Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, have been brought in to replace his copious talents.

The question fans will be asking is what impact this latest rejig will have on the integrity of the band. The rest of Fleetwood Mac remains familiar, although the rhythm section of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie are the only members who have been there since the beginning (lending the band their name). Vocalist Stevie Nicks joined in 1974, left in 1991 and rejoined in 1996, while singing keyboard player Christine McVie joined in 1970, left in 1998 and rejoined 2014. And who now remembers Dave Walker, vocalist for the Mac in 1972-73, who subsequently replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath for a year in 1977-78? It’s hard to imagine Sabbath and the Mac existing in the same musical universe, let alone sharing members. Perhaps given their revolving door policy, they should form a supergroup: Black Mac. Did you know that Sabbath have had eight singers and 25 members over their own 50-year career?

Finnishing touch to Mac’s next chapter

Finnishing touch to Mac’s next chapter
by Cameron Adams
Courier Mail - Australia

The music industry is wondering whether Crowded House founder Neil Finn can bring some stability to one of rock’s rockiest bands – Fleetwood Mac

WHEN news that Fleetwood Mac had sacked Lindsey Buckingham and replaced him with Neil Finn broke this week, many music fans thought it was a tardy April fool’s joke.

It was only in January that Buckingham and his bandmates put on a united front in New York at an awards show. Buckingham even told the crowd: “What we are feeling even more now in our career is love. This has always been a group of chemistry.”

Once Buckingham’s surprise exit was confirmed, it became merely the latest chapter for the most dysfunctional band in rock history – it’s not even the first time Buckingham has left, jumping ship in 1987 before rejoining a decade later.

“Fleetwood Mac is rock’s greatest soap opera,” music journalist Jeff Jenkins says. “It’s the Little River Band – with sexual tension.”

The band’s biggest album, 1977’s Rumours, is literally the soundtrack to an on and off workplace romance between hard-living and hard-loving members Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood, as well as Christine and John McVie.

Buckingham and Nicks joined the already-established band in 1974 as a couple, and by the time of Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 album (home to Landslide,

Rhiannon and Say You Love Me), they had split and the McVies’ marriage was ending. Nicks would go on to briefly date Fleetwood, whose marriage also finished.

That Rumours line-up is the most successful, but the band’s revolving door means it has had 12 official former members, including the freshly booted Buckingham. That’s more than AC/DC, but not quite as many as Guns N’ Roses or Iron Maiden. When McVie rejoined the band in 2014, the iconic line-up was back on stage for the 2014-15 “On With the Show” tour, which netted them more than $250 million.

McVie knew it was what fans had been waiting for.

“It’s utter joy,” she said at the time. “You make eye contact with people who are almost crying because they can’t believe they’re seeing the Rumours five back again – they can’t believe their eyes.

“It’s almost like a family reunion on stage, there’s no angst, there’s no animosity, there’s just a tremendous amount of friendship.

“First and foremost, we are a family. Dysfunctional though we might have been, we’re not now. We genuinely enjoy each other’s company.”

Once McVie was back in the band, Nicks gave her friend a silver chain, a metaphorical gift that McVie said represented the fact “the chain of the band will never be broken”, then added “not by me anyway. Not again by me.” It wasn’t McVie who had broken ranks. She took one for the team with last year’s Lindsey Buckingham/ Christine McVie album. It was originally meant to be a Fleetwood Mac album – Mick Fleetwood and John McVie play on the record – but Nicks was notable by her absence.

Rather than work with Fleetwood Mac, Nicks launched an album of unreleased material and went on a solo tour that highlighted her friendship with Tom Petty and Prince, as well as her lengthy history with Buckingham.

Inside the soap opera life of Fleetwood Mac

WORSE THAN RUMOURS Sex cults, the guitarists’ curse and a line of cocaine seven miles long: inside the soap opera life of Fleetwood Mac

Guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham's dramatic departure from the band this week is just another chapter to Fleetwood Mac's scandalous story of entangled love lives, debauchery, drugs and ever-changing line-ups

By Jacqui Swift
The Sun - UK

Their entangled love lives, debauchery, drugs and ever changing line-ups would fill the plot lines of any drama... there has never been a band more like a soap opera than Fleetwood Mac.

So when guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham was dramatically fired and told to go his own way this week, it was just another chapter to their scandalous story.

Lindsey leaving the band is nothing new

It’s not the first time Lindsey, now 68, has left the band - he quit in 1987, but returned to the fold a decade later.

When Lindsey quit in the 80s, after producing their second-biggest selling album, 1987’s Tango In The Night, it was because of his refusal to go out on tour and following a physical altercation – according to Mick Fleetwood’s 2014 memoir, Play On.

When the band announced last spring that a tour this year was planned, Lindsey was reluctant and wanted to focus on his solo work.

And so now, as in 1987 when was replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, Lindsey finds himself replaced by two new members with Crowded House’s Neil Finn and former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell joining Fleetwood Mac for their upcoming tour.

Interviewing the band separately before their gig at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2013 it was clear that Lindsey was the outsider who wanted to do things his way.

First he stopped journalists watching the band sound-check after Mick had invited them into the arena.

Later, he dismissed the rumour that Stevie’s good friend Sheryl Crow might take the place of Christine McVie who had “retired” in 1998.

Lindsey said snarkily: “There aren’t too many people who would be able to fill that bill. With Sheryl I thought it was pretty funny.”

Continue at The Sun

Fleetwood Mac is waging a dicey bet that its beloved hit songs are more popular than its most vital member.

Fleetwood Mac's split with Lindsey Buckingham could be band's most damaging

By Timothy Finn
The Kansas City Star

Fleetwood Mac is waging a dicey bet that its beloved hit songs are more popular than its most vital member.

When the band hits the road later this year, Lindsey Buckingham will not be present. On Monday, Fleetwood Mac bomb-shelled the music world by announcing it had parted ways with Buckingham, arguably the band’s centerpiece for the past 40-plus years. It wasn’t explicitly clear if Buckingham quit or was fired (although the consensus was that Buckingham was given his walking papers).

In his place, the band hired Mike Campbell, guitarist for Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn, instrumentalist and vocalist for Crowded House, Split Enz and the Finn Brothers.

We’ve witnessed this scenario before with Fleetwood Mac. In 1987, Buckingham left the band (creative differences) and was replaced by sidemen Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. He returned 10 years later, for a reunion tour, and remained with the band until this week.

And even before Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band in 1975, Fleetwood Mac went through several significant departures, including Jeremy Spencer, Peter Green and Bob Welch.

This puts Fleetwood Mac among a growing group of classic-rock bands touring with replacement members. The Eagles just visited the Sprint Center with their latest lineup, which includes only one founding member, Don Henley.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks might be the most famous star-crossed lovers since Romeo and Juliet

Lindsey Buckingham, formerly of Fleetwood Mac: Rock’s biggest jerk or misunderstood genius?

By Travis M. Andrews
The Washington Post

It’s rare for Fleetwood Mac — a rock band formed in 1967 — to garner headlines in 2018. Still, the band was in the news not once but twice in as many weeks. Monday’s news that Lindsey Buckingham reportedly has been fired shook the rock community, earning eulogies and angry quips on Twitter.

There’s little question that the iconic band is losing a visionary musician (again) in Buckingham. But during a time when pop culture is reexamining its heroes, it’s important to remember that the guitarist and songwriter’s personal reputation is littered with allegations of controlling, belittling and even abusive behavior.

Rock-and-roll is often steeped in mythology, so, like any stories about the genre, it comes down to whom you choose to believe: the camp that believes he’s a misunderstood genius or the camp that believes he’s rock-and-roll’s premier jerk.

Many of the stories concerning Buckingham come from former romantic partners.

Full article at The Washington Post

Mike Campbell Statement on Joining Fleetwood Mac

Embed from Getty Images

"Though I was sad to hear Lindsey Buckingham is no longer with Fleetwood Mac, I am honored and excited to join the band. Lindsey is one of my favorite musical artists. A true genius at songwriting and guitar playing. I intend to honor his songs while at the same time bring my musicality to the band. After one rehearsal I can tell it’s going to be an amazing collaboration. I am also very happy to have an opportunity to play with Neil Finn, who I greatly admire. Fleetwood Mac not only has one of the greatest rhythm sections in rock history, it also has two of the finest voices and songwriters in Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie. I am looking forward to the tour with great anticipation."