Fleetwood Mac

Though she left full-time in 1998, Christine McVie will rejoin Fleetwood Mac for a couple of dates on their forthcoming tour.

misery guts wrote:Though she left full-time in 1998, Christine McVie will rejoin Fleetwood Mac for a couple of dates on their forthcoming tour.

She obviously enjoyed it, because she's talked about working with them some more  Been a long time since their last new album, so I wouldn't expect another, but they still seem popular live.

Originally a blues band led by guitar hero Peter Green, they evolved in the 1970's with the help of dynamic duo Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. They created the mega-selling mammoth 'Rumours', had problems with excess, got the Presidential seal of approval from Bill Clinton, and released new material as recently as 2003. Here are some of their highlights:

Oh Well

Songbird (live)

Tusk

Big Love

The Chain (live)

Full comment later ... just BLISS! I adored these... You got Tusk! I smoked A joint with Steve\ie Nicks. She's shorter than me and I'm 5'4. I LOVVVVVE this band! When stoned, Stevie is a witch!

Fleetwood Mac - Gypsy

Fleetwood Mac - Hold Me (Official Music Video)

Fleetwood Mac - You Make Loving Fun

Fleetwood mac - Little lies

Since 'Rumours' is the same age as me (roughly), I first became aware of them with 'Tango in the Night' which my brother bought as an LP (still got it somewhere). Heard 'Little Lies' and 'Everywhere' a lot. I later got it myself on CD. Oh, and 'Rumours', of course. I never get bored of hearing the stories about that album, or the mad mix of personalities in the band.

Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston
From their 'Say You Will' tour in 2004, so the lack of Christine McVie means that Lyndsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are well to the fore. But it was again over an hour and a half, with big hits like 'The Chain' and 'Big Love' in the 1st half, and 'Tusk' and 'Go Your Own Way' in the 2nd, before an inevitable encore of 'Don't Stop'. I'd guess this was their last album, but it was an impressive show, all the more so given the track record of the band.

Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop
Pretty sure I've seen this before, but what the heck - it's the familiar story from Peter Green's blues influence and guitar brilliance, through the infusion of Buckingham-Nicks, the apex of 'Rumours' and the rollercoaster thereafter. It really is the Chain that's keeping them together, even with Christine McVie having thrown in the towel. (BBC4 repeated this twice over the weekend)

Soundstage: Stevie Nicks
A 2008 hourlong show highlighted by 'Rhiannon' and 'Gold Dust Woman' and that I kept expecting 'Dreams' but it never came. Nice show, though.

Discovering: Fleetwood Mac
It now occurs to me that Peter Green fits the same role in this story as Syd Barrett does for Pink Floyd. The early Blues success gave way to an American infusion and the soap opera of 'Rumours' and beyond. I was surprised to hear the sad truth about 'Tango in the Night', and it seems weird that their existence as a touring entity is the chain that now keeps them together.

Behind The Music: Fleetwood Mac
Felt like I've seen this before. It's a familiar story, worth appreciating again, though. There probably won't be another album, but they don't need one. The story that Bill Clinton showed his mediation skills by getting them back together for his inauguration is a fun account.

Heyday TV: Fleetwood Mac - Videobiography
Assorted journos and authors retell the familiar story, alongside actual band members! However these were of the Bob Brunning/Bob Weston variety. Indeed, the story covered the early years in great detail, and was effectively over once they dealt with 'Rumours'. I keep seeing the similarity of Peter Green in this story with Syd Barrett in the Floyd one.

They're going to headline the Isle of Wight Festival next summer

But their only festival date

It was recently confirmed that Christine McVie would be rejoining her bandmates Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie for live shows in 2015 following a guest spot during their highly acclaimed concerts at London's O2 Arena last year.

Seems they did well there

Mac close IoW with a bang

Doubt had lingered over whether the performance would go ahead after they cancelled gigs in Birmingham and Manchester earlier this week due to illness.

Fleetwood Mac: Iconic
Pretty bizarre effort, mostly taken from an interview around 1997 with the 5 main members subjected to an unending litany of tedious questions about how they felt to have got back together, and what their plans were going to be. The unseen interviewer took every throwaway friendly answer and then used that as a basis for a question, beyond the point at which the answer was going to be of any value. How the band didn't burst from their chairs and brain the dumb dude, I don't know. There followed some stuff with Mick Fleetwood about his recent autobiography (not got a copy yet), and then the prog finished with some interview stuff from the mid-70s, it appeared, talking of the recent arrival of Lindsey & Stevie.
Overall, an interesting experience to sit through, though far from essential.

Play On, by Mick Fleetwood (and Anthony Bozza)
Erstwhile drummer and sometime band-leader giant Mick details his views of a legendary band from his viewpoint. It's an entertaining book, although one can draw one's own conclusions about his drug & drink consumption, as well as his many marriages and relationship crises. The book ends positively, with a firm conviction that a new album is on the way. Well, we'll see, I guess.

Jenny Boyd - Staring Into The Face Of God
Another Conscious TV effort, with Mick Fleetwood's other half talking about her life, and her spiritual experiences. Since her sister loved George Harrison, Jenny was part of the many who went to India to meet the Mahirishi. She was able to observe the Beatles at work, and Donovan wrote "Jennifer Juniper" in her honour. She also knew Eric Clapton as her brother-in-law, and says he felt the burden of his talent. She even briefly married King Crimson's drummer, between splitting with Mick and reuniting with him. She now works as an advisor to young people about the perils of drink & drugs. Talks of the importance of finding one's own gift, and of finding someone to nurture your creative spark. Having the nerve to just do something, whether trained or not. The seed is only the beginning. And so on.

SoundStage featuring Lindsey Buckingham with Special Guest Stevie Nicks
Mainly promoting his 2005 solo album, but with a few FM classics along the way, such as Big Love and Go Your Own Way, and a duet with Stevie on Never Going Back Again.

Video Killed The Radio Star: Fleetwood Mac
Mick Fleetwood handled the entirety of discussion here, which didn't always seem to relate to the videos playing between his bits. The only one he spoke directly about was 'Gypsy', and how Stevie made a popular focus for a director.

Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie have got together for a new album:

Album due in June

With singer Stevie Nicks focused on her solo career, the rest of the band pivoted into the Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie project, with bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood offering rhythm section support.

So, a new FM album w/o Stevie Nicks.

That album seemed to go quite well.

Things now going less well for Buckingham:

Fleetwood Mac fire Lindsey Buckingham

Oddly the story starts with a tweet from 4/4 , which takes nearly a week to be picked up as news, and hasn't really made an impact on the news elsewhere, albeit in a somewhat frenzied news atmosphere just now.

Peter Green: Man of the World
Prodigious blues guitarist who set the ball rolling, but began to feel guilty about fame and fortune, and bad drug times in Munich led to a long descent spiral, until finally someone helped him to a better place, and he seems a lot more together since then. Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Jeremy Spencer happily told their tales, and others from the management had their says, as well as Peter himself.

Former guitarist in their earlier years Danny Kirwan has died at the age of 68:

At 18, Kirwan joined the band in their blues-rock era shortly after the release of second album Mr Wonderful. He became the band’s third guitarist alongside Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, and performed on their next five albums.

It was a period of flux for the band – Green left in 1970, followed in 1971 by Spencer, who joined the Children of God cult, while Christine McVie joined the band in 1969. Kirwan developed an alcohol problem, and was eventually fired from the band in 1972, ushering in an even more unstable period before the arrival of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, which led to their period of greatest success.

RIP 

Lindsey Buckingham is now suing his old band for $14m in lost earnings over his firing:

In legal documents filed in Los Angeles, Buckingham, 69, said he was informed by his manager in January the band would “proceed with its upcoming and already organised 2018 to 2019 concert tour without him”.

Interesting that he says it was January when the story broke in April. It does seem off that after 43 years he should be kicked out without anyone in the band talking to him about it (John McVie suggesting that he was told not to talk to him) 

Buckingham got a settlement.

Fleetwood Mac: A Musical History
This series seems to evolve, here with almost all new names to previous episodes. Stevie Nicks, predictably, got more than her usual due. KT Tunstall and Travis' Fran Healy made interesting new choices of contributors.

Buckingham's woes continue, as he's had to have emergency open heart surgery, which his wife says may have damaged his vocal chords 

Brian Johnson's A Life on the Road - Mick Fleetwood
Brian trekked out to Maui to Mick's home, which looks like a slice of England. He talked about the early blues days, the male/female dynamic and his photography hobby. In what I think was unique to this series, an outside guest related most of the Mac story, perhaps because Mick has already had to tell it often enough over 50 years.

In other news, a planned festival appearance which they agreed to make, to cover for the ailing Rolling Stones, has in turn had to be cancelled because Stevie's unwell as well.

Fleetwood Mac's Songbird - Christine McVie
The full treatment, with interviews from everyone alive who's relevant except for Lindsey Buckingham (only in clips). Her blues piano background got more respect than normal, and the Bob Welch years (between Peter Green and Buckingham-Nicks) were amusingly brief. Her song-writing proved a weighty counter to the Stevie & Lindsey Show. So her 15 years out of the band didn't help matters. Her love-life was colourful too.
I described above that her 2017 album with Lindsey was a new Mac album less Stevie, and that is indeed how it came to the band - whether Nicks didn't fancy the first Mac album for 14 years is another question.