For a band whose career has been so assiduously documented, Fleetwood Mac have always had a knotty relationship with their past. Great swathes of it are essentially ignored, while the domestic dramas of four decades ago are still the pivot for Fleetwood Mac’s live shows in 2015. Last time they played in London, for instance, the narrative privileged Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks as the tragic star-crossed former lovers reunited; this time round, it’s the return of Christine McVie after a 16 year absence that provides the show with its motor. Not that you’d necessarily forget such a momentous occasion, of course: the band have a weird, almost neurotic need to constantly refer back to the narrative in hand. Tonight, for instance, we are routinely told how delighted they are that McVie is back in the fold, while it falls to McVie herself to spell out the specifics of her return to the band: “It was two years ago I stood on this very stage and played ‘Don’t Stop’…” Meanwhile, Buckingham is eager to present McVie’s return as part of “a karmic, circular moment” in the band’s evolution. “We are a group of individuals that have seen their fair share of ups and downs,” he explains to anyone who’s not been paying attention since Rumours came out. “But we’re still here! And that’s what makes us what we are. With the return of the beautiful Christine, there is no doubt that we begin a brand new, prolific and profound and beautiful chapter in the story of this band, Fleetwood Mac.” Continue reading Fleetwood Mac, live in London | Uncut →