Fleetwood Mac Live in Werchter - June 8, 2019

Fleetwood Mac offered a refined best of Werchter Boutique
LUC LORFÈVRE
Moustique

Elegant and enthusiastic, the Anglo-American group celebrated with emotion fifty years before 45,000 fans. Mosquito was in the plain of Werchter to witness what looked like the last Belgian concert of a rock legend.

Despite the qualifying match of the Red Devils, despite the threats of the storm Miguel, more than 45,000 Belgians were present this Saturday at Werchter Boutique. This 2019 edition featured more musical aperitifs ( The Pretenders ) or less (the others) digests before welcoming Fleetwood Mac for the second European leg of his tour fiftieth anniversary and for, no doubt also, his last appearance in Belgium.

Fleetwood Mac on stage in 2019 is an enthusiastic group whose timeless "classic rock" repertoire always lights up with one or the other surprise. Fleetwood Mac, after fifty years of a story worthy of a soap with all that it includes excesses, betrayals, ruptures and reconciliations, it is a formation that brings together today the elite. Either the two irremovable founding members who gave their name to the group (71-year-old drummer Mick "Fleetwood", 73-year-old bassist John "Mac" Vie), English keyboardist / singer Christine McVie, the cultured Stevie Nicks, the guitarist Mike Campbell (former right-hand man of Tom Petty and Heartbreakers member) and Neil Finn (leader of Crowded House). Yes, a band of rock stars accustomed to stadiums able to play everything with their eyes closed but who, as with the Stones or the side of the E Street Band, remember that to last you must also continue to live and enjoy.

Logically, Fleetwood Mac focuses his repertoire on his two albums that brought him glory. No less than five songs are taken from the LP "Fleetwood Mac" (1975) and seven are from the huge "Rumors" (1977) which, with its 40 million copies, remains one of the most popular albums. sold out of history. The highlight of Werchter's two-hour concert is without hesitation any of Stevie Nicks' poignant interpretation of Rihannon . Covered with dark-colored shawls and a black dress of pity, Stevie Nicks puts all her emotion into this " song about a Welsh witch " as she presented it in the 70s. Behind, on the screens, wild horses gallop in the waves while the guitars Mike Campbell and Neil Finn duel. And to add more in the format " postcard" , it will be specified that it is pile-pile at the end of Rihannon, that the dark night fell on Werchter. Very very strong…

Rihannon arrives at the first hour of the show. A perfect first hour where the pieces are linked without taking into account the times: The Chain in intro; the MTV Little Lies hit Nick echoes his accomplice - especially moved this Saturday night - Christine McVie; Everywhere sung at the center of the stage by the same Christine McVie, Gipsy performed by a weightless Stevie Nicks or Second Hand News , a break song from "Rumors". The double album "Tusk" is, however, not visited. Probably because it symbolizes too much the investment of the guitarist / producer Lindsey Buckingham, a great absentee of this anniversary tour. On the other hand, Fleetwood Mac unearths the Black Magic Woman of its blues period. Written by Peter Green in 1968 and popularized by Santana on her first album released a year later, Black Magic Woman is now "the point of view of a woman" in the voice of Stevie Nicks who is completely embracing this prayer hippie evoking a mesmerizing female creature " who has the power to make blind" .

Fleetwood Mac version 2019 is not immune to clichés and tributes. Mick Fleetwood's long drum solo works well in a plain but you can do without it. Tube among the tubes, Go Your Own Way is one of the few titles that seems to run in autopilot, but Fleetwood Mac had to play it. The Crowded House Neil Finn has the opportunity to remember his science pop on the ballad for lighters and smartphone Do not Dream Is Over, included in a setlist that also includes a salute to the late Tom Petty with his cover of Free Fallin sublimated a new once by Stevie Nicks. Other highlights of this " back to seventies" evening include Christine McVie's You Make Lovin Fun and the "Cocaine" song by "Rumors" Gold Dust Woman . A very nice evening. 

REVIEWS - FLEETWOOD MAC Live in Berlin June 6, 2019

Fleetwood Mac in the forest stage
Go your own way
Powerful and dignified in spite of little wobbly: Fleetwood Mac gave a fine concert in the Berlin 

Waldbühne. NADINE LANGE
Der Tagesspiegel

Drama, quarrels and rearrangements - they are part of Fleetwood Mac even in old age. Just like their constant since 1967 rhythm section, consisting of the two founding members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. In the preliminary final chapter of the sometimes soap opera-mature band biography guitarist Lindsey Buckingham had to go because he and his ex-sweetheart Stevie Nicks just could not get along. At first he threatened to sue the rest of the band, but then settled out of court with her.

Buckingham, who played a key role in the most successful phase of Fleetwood Mac as a musician, composer and producer, is being replaced on stage by two newcomers. His vocal parts are taken over by Neil Finn, formerly of Crowded House, on guitar replaced by Mike Campbell, who once played for Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. The two are doing well at the only Germany concert of the group on Thursday evening in the Berlin Waldbühne. Although Finn irritated in the opening piece "The Chain" first by a slightly too dashing and over-motivated lecture, but that is soon, also because the pieces with female lead vocals move into the foreground.

Full Review




Great singalongs and little magical moments: That's how it was with Fleetwood Mac in Berlin
by Christina Wenig
Discover

Almost everything would have been all right: While heavy rain and storm clouds hung over Berlin, the beginning of the current European tour of Fleetwood Mac threatened to fall into the water. The band still came to the Berlin Waldbühne, as well as about 20,000 fans, the storm subsided - and it was followed by an unforgettable evening.

Full Review


Fleetwood Mac in the forest stage
by Frank Junghanel
Berliner-zeitung.de

The Fleetwood Mac show on the Waldbühne was opened with a special effect that you would not have liked. "Thunder only happens when it's raining" Stevie Nicks sings in "Dreams". Donnerregen formed the meteorological supporting program for the performance of the - here fits the superlative once - legendary band, which on Thursday (!) In Berlin has given the first of only three European concerts.

Full Review


Fleetwood Mac rock the forest stage despite rain
At the only German concert, the mega band of the seventies and eighties plays with many hits through 52 years of band history.

by Ulrike Borowczyk
Morgenpost.de

Both arms raised in greeting, Mick Fleetwood is a fleshed victory sign. A good omen. And in fact, Fleetwood Macs do it. Already in the second song "Little Lies" is the sold out Waldbühne head. The smartphones at the ready to record the gig for eternity sing and dance with the audience.

Full Review

INTERVIEW Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie speak with the UK's Independent

Fleetwood Mac: ‘We’ll burn in hell if we don’t play Glastonbury one day’
Cocaine, fights, love affairs and break-ups. Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie speak to Chris Harvey about the success, the hardship and the torment of the band as they prepare to play Wembley in June

The Independent

This strange, funny band is complicated,” says Mick Fleetwood. “It’s all about people, it’s not horrific.” I’m talking to the man who has been the only member of Fleetwood Mac to appear in every line-up of the band since they were formed. When they step out on stage at Wembley Stadium in June, that will be coming up to 52 years ago.

We’ve been chatting about the period when Fleetwood Mac moved from stars to superstars with the release of Rumours in 1977. It was during the era of Seventies rock excess, when band mythologies are wreathed in tales of groupies, sexual exploitation, drug addiction and death.

Fleetwood Mac were no strangers to drugs: LSD had cost the group its original leader, Peter Green, at the end of the Sixties, and cocaine was an integral part of the band’s Seventies. Fleetwood wrote in his autobiography that Rumours was written with “white powder peeling off the wall in every room of the studio”.

“I think we were damned lucky that our music never went down the drain because we went down the drain,” the 71-year-old drummer says now, “and I think in truth there are moments where you could have said we got pretty close, you know.

“Cocaine was everywhere, people who worked in banks [used it]. Personally, I had a run on that lifestyle, but fortunately, I didn’t get into any other type of drug that would have been more damaging – I don’t even know why, but I’m very thankful. Brandy and cocaine and beer,” he says, naming his poisons, as he describes the 20 years of “high-powered lunacy” that he put his body through. “That lifestyle became something that had to come to an end… hopefully, you come out of it with your trousers still on, and not taken out in a plastic bag.”

Running Order of Rock Hall of Fame Show April 27th

They fixed it in the mix.

Stevie opened the show when they taped the special and it looks like all her performances will air and she will open the show when it airs tonight on HBO.

Stevie Nicks
Induction: Harry Styles
Performance: Stevie Nicks performs "Stand Back," "Leather and Lace" (with Don Henley), "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (with Harry Styles) and "Edge of Seventeen."

Cleveland.com
By Chuck Yarborough

How fitting is it that one of the most cliched phrases in the music business applies to a show honoring the best in the music business, HBO’s production of the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

The result: a tighter, better-sounding version of the bone-wearying actual ceremony held in March in Brooklyn, New York, at the Barclays Center. The program premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 27, on the cable network, and will re-air throughout the month.

But to understand how we got there, take yourself to Brooklyn and pretend that you are the person in charge of that as-it-happens event. Consider:

This is a live show that honors seven acts, with the accompanying egos that exist despite what the press releases and online bios say. Who goes on first? Who goes on last? Who wants to go on first and who wants to go on last? Who gets the preshow sound check? Who just has to plug ‘n’ play? How much of the allotted chunk of time do you give one act over another? And how do you expedite the changeover from one act to the next, getting all the instruments set up, miked, etc?

This time around, those acts are the Cure, Def Leppard, Janet Jackson, Radiohead, Roxy Music and the Zombies, the Class of 2019 for this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Now, I can get around the egos of the artists and their management just by listing them alphabetically, as I’ve done here. Good luck doing it in real life, in real time.

The first thought is that you should get everything in within the five hours or so that’s allotted for a show that begins at 7 p.m. Somebody gets paid to make the decisions, so whoever that was in New York decided that the order would be Nicks, Radiohead, Roxy Music, the Cure, Jackson, the Zombies and Def Leppard.

At the surface, that made pretty good sense, as Radiohead and Jackson opted against performing. That meant structuring it this way – and with a killer opening set from Nicks, the first woman to be twice inducted into the Rock Hall – it should have worked out just fine because it left plenty of time for stagehands and instrument techs to do their thing.

So what if it took a full five hours-plus, with all the inductions, performances and a final jam with Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter fronting a show-ending all-star jam to “All the Young Dudes?” It only seemed like 10 hours.

Now, let’s redo it for TV. That job fell to director-producer Alex Coletti from HBO and the editors under him, and frankly, they succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations.

The first and best move was cutting that five hours to three. Yep, three. And trust me as one who was present for those original five-plus hours, nothing worthwhile ended up on the cutting room floor.

Nicks got her 37 minutes, by far the largest chunk of time. None of the other inductees got more than 30 for their closeups, Mr. DeMille. But again, the only thing you missed (but didn’t really) was drag-on speechifying so common in awards shows.

Coletti’s other move was something you couldn’t really determine till after the fact: Putting the show in order of quality. Yes, Nicks opened the show, so yes, her position was a necessary lock. But it was also far superior to some of her latest gigs with her usual band, Fleetwood Mac, especially with an appearance by Eagle and Hall of Famer Don Henley on her hit, “Leather and Lace.”

But by far, though, the performance of the night from opening note to final round of applause came from Robert Smith and the Cure. Best music, best vocals, best best.

So Coletti re-structured the show so that the order of appearance was Nicks, the Cure, Jackson (who was probably the most boring presence onstage the entire night), Roxy Music, Radiohead, the Zombies and Def Leppard.

And it all took away from the real tedium of a pure awards show and turned it into a performance. I can’t say that the three hours flew by, but it didn’t feel like a root canal.

Ah, and that fix it in the mix thing? One of the issues many had was in the somewhat shrill tones of Zombies lead singer Colin Blunstone during the 1960s’ band’s big hits “She’s Not There” and “Tell Her No.”

Now in his 70s, Blunstone no longer has the voice of an 18-year-old (do any of us?). But he knows to treat his vocal chords as an athlete would treat his body, which means warming up. Sitting in an audience for four hours as he did, there was no way he’d be able to hit all those melodious notes from five decades ago.

But Coletti and his engineers were able make the right adjustments. Perfect? No. But not nearly as shrill as it was live, which turned a respectable performance into a respectful one.

Fix it in the mix, indeed.

2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
When: Premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 27.

Fleetwood Mac Announced Rescheduled Tour Dates + Add Quebec City!

Oct 28 - Boston, TD Garden
Oct 30 - Quebec City, Videotron Centre *NEW
Nov 01 - Toronto, ON, Scotiabank Arena
Nov 03 - Philadelphia, PA, Wells Fargo Center
Nov 07 - Winnipeg, MB, BellMTS Place
Nov 10 - Calgary, AB, Scotiabank Saddledome
Nov 12 - Edmonton, AB, Rogers Place
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Tickets: Fleetwoodmac.com or Ticketmaster

Fleetwood Mac Postpone The Remainder of North American Tour Dates

Fleetwood Mac is postponing four Canadian tour dates as singer Stevie Nicks deals with the flu.

A statement issued by the band says this week's concerts will be rescheduled including a show in Toronto tonight, Winnipeg on Thursday, and Edmonton on Saturday. A stop in Calgary on April 15 will also be pushed.

The Edmonton and Calgary dates were previously postponed last November when an unnamed band member fell ill.

Concert promoter Live Nation says ticketholders will receive further details shortly and refunds will be made available.

Fleetwood Mac is also cancelling their gig as headliners at Jazz Fest in New Orleans on May 2. They were brought in as a replacement for the Rolling Stones last week after Mick Jagger announced his heart surgery.

Mick Fleetwood says in a statement his band hopes to reschedule all of the Canadian dates in October and November of this year.

"The flu has sidelined Stevie for a couple of weeks but she is on the mend and we look forward to getting back out on the road," he added.

Two US dates, Boston and Philadelphia were also postponed and those are expected to be rescheduled as well.

• Boston TBA
• Philadelphia TBA
• Toronto TBA
• Winnipeg TBA
• Edmonton TBA
• Calgary TBA