INTERVIEW Mick Fleetwood and Neil Finn Sunday TV New Zealand

Kiwi music legend Neil Finn is famed for his bands, Split Enz and Crowded House.  But when one of the world's biggest acts, Fleetwood Mac, offered him a lead role in their group, he couldn't say no.

Next thing, he was stepping straight into playing alongside Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood with the band who've bewitched audiences on and off the stage for more than 50 years.

Originally aired on Sunday TV New Zealand

Fleetwood Mac concert-goers are demanding refunds

Fleetwood Mac concert-goers are demanding refunds after the iconic band performed at two London shows at Wembley Stadium on Sunday and Tuesday evening.
Evening Standard
By Rebecca Speare-Cole

Some fans praised the “absolutely fantastic” and “incredible” event from parts of Wembley Stadium, but others complained that the band's music sounded “terrible” due to the audio set-up.

The legendary band performed in the capital as part of their 28-date tour around the world.

The Pretenders also performed as the band's supporting act and Harry Styles from One Direction made a surprise appearance on Tuesday, even bringing along his mother to the gig.

Stevie Nicks dedicated the song Landslide to the One Direction star, saying: "He’s really a gentleman, sweet and talented and boy that appeals to me.”

However, hundreds of the 90,000 people in the crowd, who paid up to £150 for a ticket, are demanding a refund after claiming they were unable to hear “anything but echo”.

Sue Allen tweeted on Wednesday morning after the show: “Shocking sound quality at #FleetwoodMac at Wembley last night. Left early. V disappointed and will be pursuing a refund."

Another fan who said the bought three tickets costing £51.70 tweeted that: “the sound system was terrible. It was one of the most expensive concerts I have ever been too and am so upset at how bad the sound was.

“I do feel under the circumstances that some sort of refund is due.”

On Sunday Jules Swain posted a video which appeared to support their claims of poor sound at the show, saying “You need to fix the sound!!! Can’t tell a word they’re singing.”

“At Wembley – can’t hear anything but echo - £300 on tickets – you are awesome but sadly your sound people have massively let you down,” one twitter user said.

Helen Murray said: “Sound system at Sunday concern in block 122 row 39 was DREADFUL. The echo was painful and completely spoilt the show.”

According to fans, Live Nation, the concert’s organisers, are refusing to offer refunds.

Despite the sound issues, many people celebrated their experience on Twitter, with one user saying: “Best experience of my life to date! @fleetwoodmac were absolutely fantastic.”

Another wrote: “Fleetwood Mac last night @wembleystadium were absolutely incredible. Have to say when Stevie Nicks began singing I got literal goosebumps. Such a special evening thank you."

The Mac produced nothing short of a spectacle in a packed-out Wembley Stadium.

Fleetwood Mac put the past to bed at their second and final Wembley Stadium show
By Bobby Rathore
The Line of Best Fit

The turbulence of Fleetwood Mac off-stage is essential to their energy, chemistry and intimacy on-stage; it's fuelled them for over 50 years. Tonight, the angry ghost of Lindsey Buckingham was keenly felt, but nonetheless, The Mac produced nothing short of a spectacle in a packed-out Wembley Stadium.

A tour set against the backdrop of Buckingham's looming absence did not derail this battle-scarred band. It was difficult not to feel a fleeting twinge of sadness at the erstwhile frontman; his distinctive voice and masterful guitar-playing undeniable; his tension and on-stage chemistry with Stevie Nicks achingly romantic.

Despite this undercurrent of loss, tonight Fleetwood Mac demonstrated that the band is bigger than the sum of its parts - an idea already developed through their shifting line-ups through the ages. Tonight’s show was a careful balance of nostalgia and restoration, as the two newest members, Neil Finn from Crowded House and Mark Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, showed their worth. Their clever use of these two replacements to do something different worked tonight in a way that left the audience both surprised, heartwarmed and elated.

The band start off steadily, despite the racing tune “The Chain” opening the night - after sixty-one shows this year already, weariness could be rearing its ugly head. Before any of the audience members can even formulate this thought into a lasting opinion, Stevie Nicks unleashes her wild on-stage persona, shaming 90,000 people for even toying with the idea that this would not be worth the ticket price. “Second Hand News” transforms Nick’s famous tasselled sleeves into air drumming drum sticks as she bangs them through the air, encouraging Mick Fleetwood’s relentless energy on percussion.

From hereon in, the show was set. “World Turning” is welcomely interrupted by the elected showman for the night - “don’t be shy” screams Mick Fleetwood during a close-to-ten-minute solo and drum battle with Taku Hirano. Fleetwood jumps up from his impressive percussion set and starts banging on a handheld drum, inciting Taku and the crowd even further, and just when the drumming is beginning to sound like thunder, the band take us back to “World Turning”. The sound issues that plagued Sunday's show are mercifully absent throughout. It's a moment that drives home Fleetwood Mac’s sheer energetic agelessness - they are a band that do not grow old.

With songs being dedicated to Tom Petty, Jimmy Iovine and Harry Styles, and an audience comprised of millenials with their grandparents, Fleetwood Mac’s performance tonight showcased their timelessness in a fashion that only the likes of The Rolling Stones can match.

• The Chain
• Little Lies
• Dreams
• Second Hand News
• Say You Love Me
• Black Magic Woman
• Everywhere
• Rhiannon
• World Turning
• Gypsy
• Oh Well
• Don't Dream It's Over (Crowded House cover)
• Landslide
• Hold Me
• You Make Loving Fun
• Gold Dust Woman
• Go Your Own Way

Encore:

• Free Fallin' (Tom Petty cover)
• Don't Stop

After 52 years Fleetwood Mac can still sell out Wembley - June 16, 2019

Fleetwood Mac at Wembley Stadium — has the chain been broken?

Ludovic Hunter-Tilney
Financial Times
★★☆☆☆

After 52 years the band can still sell out Wembley Stadium but the latest line-up change may be a rupture too far.

A tour by one of the biggest bands in rock history is always notable, but “An Evening with Fleetwood Mac” might have been particularly special. When it was conceived, there were suggestions that it could have been Fleetwood Mac’s swansong. A new album was in the offing too, a final recording. But the band’s penchant for volatility has once again intervened.

It is the second tour since Christine McVie officially rejoined their ranks in 2014. The keyboardist-singer played a key role writing some of their biggest hits, and the new Fleetwood Mac album was to have been written by her and guitarist-singer Lindsey Buckingham. But singer Stevie Nicks did not want to record a new Mac album, so instead it appeared under McVie’s and Buckingham’s joint name in 2017.

The next twist came with Buckingham’s exit from the group, reportedly after reigniting his long-running feud with his ex-lover Nicks. He stomped off to play solo shows in the US last year, where his setlist included a pointed rendition of the Fleetwood Mac song “Never Going Back Again”. Meanwhile, his septuagenarian former bandmates are touring the world with a nostalgia-circuit setlist and no talk of farewells.

Fleetwood Mac review, Wembley Stadium: Band perform with too much zest for this to be a simple exercise in nostalgia
It is difficult not to occasionally feel the lack of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, less for his guitar wizardry than for the tense, loaded chemistry he always shared with ex-partner Stevie Nicks

Alexandra Pollard
Independent
Photo by looper23

“It’s unbelievable that we’re all still doing this,” proclaims Mick Fleetwood from behind his vast drum set onstage at Wembley Stadium. The “all” isn’t quite accurate – for one thing, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham was unceremoniously ousted from the band last year, reportedly after smirking at Stevie Nicks – but he has a point nonetheless. Fleetwood Mac have come to the brink of self-destruction more times than there are people in this enormous stadium.

Fifty-one years after the band first formed (though Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are the only founding members remaining), this is “the 61st show of a long trip we’ve been on since September”, announces Stevie Nicks. She says so with just a hint of weariness – the energy, at first, is a little fatigued, the first few songs sung seemingly by rote. But things take a turn by the time “Second Hand News” comes around, taken from their seminal 1977 album Rumours, which was recorded when the band were tied up in romantic knots and barely speaking to each other. Nicks, an occult leader all in black, suddenly clicks into gear, air drumming along to Fleetwood’s hugely impressive percussion.

Fleetwood Mac Live at Wembley Stadium June 16, 2019

Review: still going their own way
Even without Lindsey Buckingham, the band's unmistakable sound, as promised, lingers on

By John Clarke
iNews

Fleetwood Mac
Wembley Stadium, London
★★★★

Like a mighty ship of state, Fleetwood Mac finally sailed into London over the weekend. One crew member, Lindsey Buckingham, had been cast adrift but two new shipmates – Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell – had signed up.

It had been a lengthy voyage. “This is the 61st show of a long trip that started last year,” said Stevie Nicks, “and we’re glad you’re all here. Let’s get this party started.”

The fear was that with Buckingham’s departure – he left under less than happy circumstances last year – Finn and Campbell would change the shape of a band that has already sold 100 million records worldwide. Mick Fleetwood wasn’t worried. “We jammed with Mike and Neil and the chemistry really worked… We know we have something new, yet it’s got the unmistakable Mac sound,” he said on the band’s website.

It was hard to argue with that, as they promptly emerged on stage and launched into a supercharged “The Chain” that immediately had everyone out of their seats.

The sound, despite the huge open spaces in Wembley Stadium, was big, thick and impressive. It even got intimate when Christine McVie, regal as ever all in black, gently sashayed into “Little Lies”. Crowd pleaser, “Dreams” was next, with a vocal chorus that came more from the audience than it did the stage.

It was a reception that seemed to energise an already hyperactive Nicks as she darted around the stage, her peerless vocals on the still enormously effective “Rhiannon” and admitting “I’m the black magic woman” on a reboot of a hit from 1968, and what now feels like the band’s distant past.

New boy Finn proved his worth with a melodic and touching version of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (with vocal support from Nicks) which fitted seamlessly into the Fleetwood Mac oeuvre. Campbell got his chance later in the evening with “Free Fallin’”, an emotional and moving tribute to the late Tom Petty.

It wasn’t all plain sailing. Mick Fleetwood appropriated “World Turning” for a drum solo, complete with screams which segued into a conga-driven battle with percussionist Taku Hirano as the rest of the band ambled off stage. It was interesting, but a tad too long for comfort. And while Campbell made a brave bid to tackle another earlier Fleetwood Mac classic, “Oh Well” it lacked the grandeur of Peter Green’s original version.

The band were on safer ground with “Go Your Own Way” which saw Finn step neatly and almost imperceptibly into Buckingham’s shoes. “Don’t Stop” closed the night. The music may have had to, but the good-time feeling lingered.