Daily Archives: July 12, 2015

Fleetwood Mac, Reviews

‘Fleetwood Mac’ (1975) Turns 40 | The Young Folks

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Imagine, if you will, you’re a teenage blues rock fan in 1974 recovering from the odd new melodic sound of one of your favorite bands, Fleetwood Mac. After their 1974 album Heroes Are Hard to Find was much more chart-friendly than previous outings, you start to wonder what kind of band this will become. It’s even more shocking to find out that Fleetwood Mac have apparently changed their scenery from bustling England to sunny California. More so, two new members have joined the band, and when you go to find out what music they’ve done in the past, you’re shocked to find an album cover featuring a couple that look more like models than rock stars. Fast forward to July the next year as you pick up Fleetwood Mac’s brand new album. To you, the blues-rock junkie looking for dirty riffs and Elmore James covers, what you hear is a more shocking musical departure than the last record. But to someone else, say the hot next door neighbor you’ve been crushing on since pre-k with long blonde hair and sunflowers on her sun dress, who rides with top down in her car, it’s the coolest album around.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the album that gave everyone a sneak peek of the sound that would turn Fleetwood Mac into superstars. It makes sense that the band’s first self-titled album (their 1968 debut) has been re-dubbed Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac over the years, since the 1975 self-titled album served as a new identity for the band. Hints of folk, country, and FM-friendly pop rock are all over the 1975 album thanks to the presence of finger-picking Lindsey Buckingham and cooing gypsy woman Stevie Nicks. Funny enough, Nicks only joined the band as a package deal with Buckingham, as he only joined the band on the condition that Nicks (his girlfriend at the time) join too. Since bassist John McVie and keyboardist Christine McVie didn’t want to be hypocrites (they were married at the time), they and drummer Mick Fleetwood (the only man from the original line-up) brought the duo on board, and the rest is history.

Continue reading ‘Fleetwood Mac’ (1975) Turns 40 | The Young Folks →

Fleetwood Mac, Reviews, Tour Info

Review: Fleetwood Mac light up 3Arena Dublin | Independent.ie

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Ed Power
12/07/2015 | 11:58

How fitting that Fleetwood Mac should close the European leg of their latest comeback tour with a brace of sold-out shows in Dublin.

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It was at this very venue in 2013 that erstwhile singer and keyboardist Christine McVie reunited with her bandmates for the first time in 16 years. The success of their soundcheck jam that night persuaded the reclusive Englishwoman to rejoin full-time – and now here she was, back where it started.

The sense of a group operating at full tilt was evident from the outset as McVie, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks plunged into the harmonized introduction to The Chain, a tug-of-love ballad written while Nicks and Buckingham were in the throes of their notoriously messy late ’70s break-up (heartbreaking fuel for the 40-million selling Rumours album). Half a lifetime later the tune still gleamed with acidic vim as Nicks and Buckingham locked gazes and spat accusatorially lyrics at one another.

With McVie in the fold once more, it was as if a missing piece of a puzzle had clicked into place. In her absence, Buckingham’s pop eccentricities wielded an outsize influence over Fleetwood Mac, his oddball histrionics threatening to capsize the ship. Tonight confirmed that McVie’s classic songwriting and calm persona served as a vital counterpoint. Earlier Fleetwood Mac reunions felt like glorified Buckingham solo affairs. This was assuredly no longer the case. Continue reading Review: Fleetwood Mac light up 3Arena Dublin | Independent.ie →

Fleetwood Mac

40 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac Finally Have Their Break Through With ‘Fleetwood Mac’

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Ultimate Classic Rock
By Jeff Giles
July 11, 2015 12:19 PM

Fleetwood Mac released their ninth album, Heroes Are Hard to Find, in the fall of 1974. Although it gave the band their first Top 40 hit in the U.S., it also led to yet another in the seemingly endless series of lineup changes that had dogged them since co-founding guitarist Peter Green quit in 1970. But it also resulted in Fleetwood Mac, which changed the course of their history.

Guitarist Bob Welch departed after Heroes was released, leaving the band in a state of flux that was compounded by the fact that they’d been in the middle of a long legal struggle with ex-manager Clifford Davis, who claimed he owned the Fleetwood Mac name and tried to prove it by sending a “fake” version of the group out on the road. Forced to find a replacement for Welch just as they settled things with Davis, Mac mainstays Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and John McVie ended up adding two new members — and setting themselves up for a massive commercial breakthrough.

It all started, according to Fleetwood, with a trip to the supermarket. In a 1976 interview with Melody Maker, he recalled having a chance encounter with “a guy” he told he was searching for a new studio for the band’s 10th LP. “He told me about a studio, Sound City in Van Nuys,” said Fleetwood, whose tour of the facility included a fateful demonstration of the studio’s gear: “They played me a tape of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham which they had done a couple of years ago. At the time I made a mental note about them, and soon after made a phone call to them asking if they wanted to join.” Continue reading 40 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac Finally Have Their Break Through With ‘Fleetwood Mac’ →