FLEETWOOD MAC
LIVE
PRESS KIT
Since the start of 1977 and the release of the multi-platinum Rumours album, Fleetwood Mac has completed two world concert tours, appearing live throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the Far East. Several million fans have seen the band perform during some 300 shows in 13 countries around the world during that time period. Their most recent tour, in conjunction with the release of the double album Tusk, spanned one year from start of rehearsals in September, 1979 to the last concert on the stage of the famed Hollywood Bowl
in their hometown--Los Angeles--on September 1, 1980.
Intermittently during their various concert tours, Fleetwood Mac has recorded selected concerts and stock piled the recordings for a future project. Now the time for that project has arrived with the completion of Fleetwood Mac Live
Opening Comment
"As far as I am concerned," explains drummer/manager Mick Fleetwood, "if ever Fleetwood Mac was going to release a live album--and Fleetwood Mac has never done one in any form of this band--it seemed to me that after a year on the road there was no better time. I doubt we will ever again do a tour that long and all-encompassing, and this is a way of documenting it."
The Basics
Fleetwood Mac Live is a double album, produced by Richard Dashut, Ken Caillat and Fleetwood Mac, a reversal of the production credits of the last two albums, Rumours and Tusk, due to the band's acknowledgement of the major contribution of the engineers in the live concert recordings.
There are 18 songs on the album, narrowed down from dozens of possibilities. As with the band's previous album, Tusk the live album was mixed down to a digital two-track master at Soundstream, Inc. in Salt Lake City. The entire project was completed in less than two months, including the recording of three new songs, the selection of the remaining tunes, limited overdubs, mixing and mastering.
Fleetwood Mac is: Mick Fleetwood, drums; Lindsey Buckingham, guitar and vocals; Christine Mcvie, keyboards and vocals; Stevie Nicks, vocals; and John Mcvie, bass. The sound system used by Fleetwood Mac is by Clair Brothers audio with live engineering by Trip Khalaf and Richard Dashut. Live recording was handled by Ken Caillat and Biff Dawes.
The Concept
Fleetwood Mac Live consists of performances recorded in 11 separate venues throughout the world. including an audience-less sound-check rehearsal at Paris Pavillion and the performance of three new songs--"Fireflies," "One More Night" and "The Farmer's Daughter"--before an intimate gathering of friends and crew at the Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California.
The various locations--frun Cleveland to Las Cruces, from Tokyo to London-- and the five songs recorded without benefit of audience response rather than one continuous 'evening with' posed a problem of continuity, one that became a challenge for the band to overcome. "It doesn't feel like a concert, yet it doesn't jolt you or feel disjointed," says Fleetwood. "You do get a sense of continuity as an album.
"He put the running order together just like we would a live concert set or a normal studio album--just by what felt right. Actually, the album feels more interesting than if it was just one entire concert because there are lots of different atmospheres. While you are not drastically aware of them. they are there, and you unwittingly become part of it."
"At certain instances we faded out of one song and faded into another one-—an- other concert recorded on another night--and even though the cover tells you they're not the same concert, it all could be one show. There is a certain amount of rapport, and it does feel like everything belongs. You feel like you are witnessing something, and even the songs without an audience fit into that flow."
"Live albums have become albums that are, in reality, half and half--half live and half studio--so we tried to avoid that. we did a few harmony bits and left everything else alone. This was our preference. On the tracks where there was no audience, we could have put one in very easily and made it sound authentic. but we chose not to do it. It's made the album a little bit more than just a live album."
The Content
There are 18 songs included on the two-record set. chosen from the volumes of tapes recorded by Fleetwood Mac over the last three years of touring. Some of the choices are obvious--the hits, the tunes commanded by the public. Then there are three new songs and some lesser known ones, and, finally, some band favorites.
The selection of the tunes was done by listening to the various tapes available. "It took us two and a half weeks of doggedly listening to the tapes of what we had and whittling them down," Fleetwood says. "we were trying to pick out the best moments of all the tapes. and the choices were made based mainly on delivery and feel and what felt to be, atmospherically, the best rendering of each song.
"As with our studio albums, there are always some songs left off. It's an inherent problem with this band because we have three prolific songwriters whose styles are so different. Actually. that's a nice problem to have."
The Songs
The album opens with Lindsey Buckingham's "Monday Morning," followed by Christine McVie's "Say You Love Me." the tunes that alternately opened the majority of Fleetwood Mac's shows in 1977. Then comes Stevie Nicks' "Dreams," the band's first million-selling single, and into "Oh Well," perhaps the best known Fleetwood Mac song to pre-date the current band line-up, written by the group's original lead guitarist Peter Green. McVie's "Over And Over," the ' first song on the album frcm Tusk, closes out Side One.
The second side begins with Nicks' "Sara" and goes into a raucous expanded version of Buckingham's "Not That Funny." Lindsey's solo version of "Never Going Back Again" from Rumours became a concert favorite on the last tour and opens the acoustic portion of the show, followed by Stevie's poignant "Landslide."
Stevie's newest composition, "Fireflies," opens Side Three, and into Christine's "Over My Head," noted in her introduction as the first hit from the white Fleetwood Mac album that launched the band's international success. "Rhiannon," from the same album is next in its longer concert version that includes more verses than the original studio form. The little-known Buckingham gem, "Don't Let Me Down Again" from the overlooked 1973 album Buckingham-Nicks follows. This was one of the tunes that convinced Mick Fleetwood to invite the California duo to join the basically British band in 1975. Christine's new ballad "One More Night" closed out the side.
A very "up" Side Four begins with Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way," the first single from the Rumours album, followed by McVie's "Don't Stop" from the same album. Buckingham's "I'm So Afraid" in its elongated live version is next and the Fleetwood Mac rendition of the Beach Boys' "The Farmer's Daughter," written by Brian Wilson, brings the album to an end.
Below the listing of songs on Fleetwood Mac Live is a dedication to Brian Wilson thanking him for. "The Farmer's Daughter." Buckingham explains: "It's simply a thank you for the song, which was from one of their first albums, Surfin' U.S.A. I wanted to do it because it was an old song that was not a hit, and it was one of the few songs from that period that I think was just a classic that, basically, no one heard. Doing it was just a way of thanking Brian for all the inspiration over the years."
Closing Comment
"I think this is a real band statement," concludes Mick Fleetwood. "After working that amount of time on the road, we felt this was a relevant time to put out a live album. If ever there was going to be a time for us to put one out, this was it.
"There's a great difference between Fleetwood Mac on record and Fleetwood Mac on stage. I think a lot of people will be surprised at the band stretching out. We don't duplicate everything we do on record note-for-note and arrangement-for-arrangement. which is often the case on a live album. I think we managed to capture the atmosphere of the band playing--not so much the concert themselves, but the band glazing live. as a unit."
1280
Warner Bros. Records Reprise Records 3300 Warner Blvd. Burbank. California 91510 (213) 846-9090/3
East 54th Street New York, New York 10022 (212) 832-0950
