Monthly Archives: January 2015

Lindsey Buckingham, Solo Activity

30 Years Since ‘We Are The World’ – When Lindsey Buckingham Bumped Into Michael Jackson In The Bathroom

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Written by New Zealand broadcaster Tim Roxborogh
28th Jan 2015

It’s 30 years today since USA For Africa’s We Are The World was recorded. The perennially cool Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac) was part of the all-star chorus and I remember him telling me that one of his defining memories of that day was bumping into Michael Jackson in the bathroom.

Lindsey Buckingham 2nd from the right at the top.
Lindsey Buckingham 2nd from the right at the top.

For the record, I was interviewing Lindsey just after Michael’s death in 2009. He said he already could tell – even at that stage in Michael’s life – that MJ was a troubled soul. And a genius too.

Lindsey Buckingham: “I think I walked into the bathroom and he was in there and it kind of freaked him out! He was quite nervous just to be startled by someone walking in and I just nodded my head. I didn’t feel comfortable trying to engage him in a ‘hello’ at that point. He was really at the top of his game and I think probably even then was dealing with a lot of demons that were probably from way back when he was a kid. You know, I just didn’t want to intrude at all on his trip…”

Me: “Certainly not in the bathroom…”

LB: (Laughs) Yeah, especially not in the bathroom but not otherwise either.”

Innocuous as it is, this anecdote does give a sense of how even at a gathering with as much talent and ego as 30 years ago, there was an understanding that Michael Jackson was something altogether different.

Continue reading 30 Years Since ‘We Are The World’ – When Lindsey Buckingham Bumped Into Michael Jackson In The Bathroom →

Fleetwood Mac, Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks

‘When in doubt, be Stevie Nicks’ | Macleans.ca

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The iconic singer releases a record amid fierce interest in her work and persona

Elio Iannacci
January 25, 2015

Fleetwood Mac "On With The Show" Tour - New York City

Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Images

A night owl by nature, Stevie Nicks was unable to sleep on a recent Saturday night in Manhattan and had scheduled a late interview to help pass the evening. So 1:30 a.m. found her looking out on the terrace of her rented penthouse atop the Palace Hotel, with a hypnotic view of the Rockefeller Plaza. Amid a torrent of recollections—of her band, Fritz; of the duo she later created with former lover and Fritz guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham; and, of course, of Fleetwood Mac—Nicks began to hum a hip-hop tune. “Which rapper is it that I love who says, ‘Mo’ money more problems?’ ” she asked, pausing in the midst of Notorious B.I.G.’s biggest hit. “He spoke the truth. Don’t I know it!”

Nicks’s truth is peppered with tales of fate and near-fatalities: Fleetwood Mac’s opulent success, the long nights of work wrought with “enough alcohol and cocaine to guarantee years of addiction,” the speculative stories that followed them around for years (orgies and paganism were favoured topics).

Related: An extended web-only Q&A with Stevie Nicks

The history is relevant; her recent solo album, 24 Karat Gold, reinterprets demos written before, during and after Fleetwood Mac’s rise. In it, Nicks doesn’t simply cover her own work; she acts as a musical necromancer who resurrects old sounds and personal stories of burned love, life on the road and facing demons. The song Twisted, first released on the soundtrack for the 1996 disaster-drama Twister, flicks at the appetite for danger all five band members shared. “It was originally written about a group of tornado chasers who dedicate their lives to hunting down storms,” she said. “The parallels to Fleetwood Mac are so there.” The mix of emotion, narcotics and creative egos brought forth a bounty of songs, and turbulent romances. Nicks ended her relationship with Buckingham in 1975, and had an affair with drummer Mick Fleetwood. Christine McVie, the band’s keyboardist-vocalist, left the guitarist for the sound engineer. “After the show, we wouldn’t go out,” Nicks said. “[Christine] would drink wine spritzers and I’d drink tequila alone in our adjoined rooms. The boys were angry at us [and] we had to see them in the morning to work.” Continue reading ‘When in doubt, be Stevie Nicks’ | Macleans.ca →

Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks

‘I lived that song many times’: In conversation with Stevie Nicks | Macleans.ca

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Stevie Nicks talks with Elio Iannacci on a recent cameo, a Fleetwood Mac reunion and a new solo album decades in the making

Elio Iannacci
January 23, 2015

Today - Season 63
Peter Kramer/NBC NewsWire/Getty Images

Q (Elio Iannacci): Your album 24 Karat Gold took more than 30 years to make. Has there been some sort of cathartic release now that the demos are re-recorded?

A (Stevie Nicks): I haven’t gotten to enjoy it at all. Rehearsal for the Fleetwood Mac tour started the sixth of August, and we made 24 Karat Gold in three five-day weeks in Nashville, and then came back to my house in Los Angeles and did three more five-day weeks.

Q: Rather than have a current photo of yourself taken for the album cover, why did you choose to use a photograph from the ’70s?

A: It takes away the conceptual thing of finding a photographer that you like, that’s going to shoot you right, that’s going to get a picture where you don’t look 9,000 years old. I have all these old Polaroids smashed together in shoeboxes. I pulled out one [photo] and said, “This is the cover; it’s a golden picture. That’s solved.”

Q: Who took them?

A: I took all of them. In those days, Polaroids came with a little [self-shooting] plug that had a button on the end of it. So I can be sitting here and build my set around this couch if I wanted to. I’d usually put flowers or found a lamp to put a shawl over and then start shooting. Continue reading ‘I lived that song many times’: In conversation with Stevie Nicks | Macleans.ca →

Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Stevie Nicks talks cocaine and dating after 60 in Rolling Stone | Daily Mail (UK)

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By Cassie Carpenter for MailOnline
Published: 20:24 EST, 15 January 2015

‘I was the worst drug addict’: Stevie Nicks recalls her cocaine habit and discusses dating after 60 in Rolling Stone

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Before Stevie Nicks checked herself into rehab in 1986, she had snorted so much cocaine it tore a hole through her nose.

‘All of us were drug addicts,’ the 66-year-old rock icon admitted in the new Rolling Stone on newsstands Friday.

‘But there was a point where I was the worst drug addict…I was a girl, I was fragile, and I was doing a lot of coke. And I had that hole in my nose. So it was dangerous.’

‘I had that hole in my nose. So it was dangerous’: Before Stevie Nicks checked herself into rehab in 1986, she had snorted so much cocaine it tore a hole through her nose (pictured in 1985)

Continue reading Stevie Nicks talks cocaine and dating after 60 in Rolling Stone | Daily Mail (UK) →

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Reviews, Tour Info

Mick Fleetwood illness cuts Fleetwood Mac concert short | Lincoln Journel Star

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Lincoln Journel Star – Ground Zero
kwolgamott@journalstar.com

Midway through Fleetwood Mac’s Pinnacle Bank Arena concert Saturday night, drummer Mick Fleetwood suddenly became ill.

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“Mick is really sick,” Stevie Nicks told the crowd, adding that Fleetwood was backstage throwing up. “We feel terrible, but we can’t really make him play. Give us a minute, and we’ll figure out what to do.”

That turned out to be playing two more songs.

A drum tech named Steve took over Fleetwood’s kit for “Go Your Own Way,” which is usually the song the band plays before two encores.

Then, after a short break, Christine McVie returned to the stage at a grand piano, playing and singing “Songbird” accompanied by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

“Poor old Mick is really sick,” McVie said. “I sing this for him and for all of you.” Continue reading Mick Fleetwood illness cuts Fleetwood Mac concert short | Lincoln Journel Star →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks: ‘Lindsey Buckingham and I will always be antagonising to each other’ | Guardian (UK)

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The Guardian
Jan 15th 2015

The Fleetwood Mac singer-songwriter opened up to Rolling Stone magazine about working with ex-boyfriend and bandmate, Lindsey Buckingham

Photograph: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
Photograph: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Despite their onstage pretence to be close friends and inextricably linked, walking on hand in hand and singing to each other, Fleetwood Mac’s shawl-loving singer Stevie Nicks revealed that her relationship with bandmate and ex-boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham remains tense.

“Relations with Lindsey are exactly as they have been since we broke up,” said Nicks, in an interview with Rolling Stone. “He and I will always be antagonising to each other, and we will always do things that will irritate each other, and we really know how to push each other’s buttons.”

Nicks and Buckingham joining Fleetwood Mac was the precursor to their period of greatest commercial success, following the release of their eponymous album in 1975. By the time 1977’s Rumours was released, and spawned four hit singles that catapulted the band – complete with a poppier sound – to stadium-gig fame, Nicks and Buckingham’s romantic relationship had fallen apart, and was documented on the album in songs such as Nicks’s Dreams and Buckingham’s Go Your Own Way.

During the peak of their Rumours-era stardom, the members of Fleetwood Mac earned a reputation for enduring a series of volatile and tumultuous relationships and breakups. Founding member Mick Fleetwood discovered his wife had cheated on him, with his best friend. Bassist John McVie and songwriting keyboard player Christine McVie split, and Christine wrote the song You Make Loving Fun about her new boyfriend, who was part of the band’s touring organisation. Nicks and Fleetwood briefly dated.

“We know exactly what to say when we really want to throw a dagger in,” Nicks said of she and Buckingham. “And I think that that’s not different now than it was when we were 20. And I don’t think it will be different when we’re 80.”

Even with their personal ups and downs, Fleetwood Mac reunited in 2013 to record an album, and begin a series of tours. Christine McVie returned, after leaving the band in 1998, joining John McVie, Nicks, Buckingham and Fleetwood. The five-piece are currently on a North American tour. They are due to play London’s O2 Arena in May.

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Tour Info, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac calling it quits after reunion tour On With The Show | Sunday Express (UK)

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Sunday Express (UK)
Sun 4th Jan 2015

FLEETWOOD MAC could be calling it quits before getting restarted with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham believing their latest reunion tour will be their last.

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News of their current On With The Show tour caused a particular stir after it was announced that keyboardist Christine McVie would be rejoining following a 16-year absence.

And though the group have also revealed plans to release their first new album in 12 years Lindsey, 65, is doubtful that this reconciliation signals a fresh start.

He says: “If you think of this tour as the beginning of the last act. That’s how it feels. The album would be a beautiful way to kind of wrap up this last act.”

Formed in London in 1967 by drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, the band went through a number of line-up changes before settling on the combination with Lindsey, Christine and singer Stevie Nicks in 1974.

Widely considered the definitive incarnation of the band, they achieved great success with albums such as Rumours before Christine announced an early retirement in 1998.

While the band members had a turbulent working relationship throughout, Lindsey admits time apart has healed old wounds and recent recording sessions have been a success.

“We went in the studio for two months and came up with probably the best group of songs that we’ve done in years.”

Fleetwood Mac, Tour Info, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac: new album and tour will be our swan song | The Guardian (UK)

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Tim Jonze
The Guardian (UK)Friday 2 January 2015 12.41 GMT

Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham says that the band is entering its ‘last act’

fm-event-2014

Fleetwood Mac may be heading into their final year. According to the band’s guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, the group will cease to operate in 2015 or soon afterwards. He told the American TV channel PBS that the forthcoming Fleetwood Mac album and tour would be their “last act”.

2014 was a big year for Fleetwood Mac: the original keyboardist and songwriter Christine McVie rejoined after quitting the band in 1998. They played a series of acclaimed gigs, and next year bring their On With the Show tour to the UK – including a headline slot at the Isle of Wight festival. There is also the promise of the band’s first album since 2003, which will feature a number of new songs that McVie and Buckingham have worked on together.

“She gave me a bunch of stuff to take home,” said Buckingham. “I worked on it, came back, and she loved it. We went into the studio and came out with the best songs we’ve co-written in years.” He added: “Christine really fills the gap of the polarity that might exist otherwise, and helps things breathe.”

However, Buckingham did admit to being sceptical when he first heard that McVie wanted to return. He said: “My initial reaction was, ‘OK – we have to take this with baby steps.’ The want to return doesn’t mean you can repeat history; it doesn’t mean all the tools, all the reference points are still there for it all to work.”

The current Fleetwood Mac lineup is the same one that oversaw the band’s most successful period, including the trio of classic 1970s albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk, as well as the poppy 1980s hit Tango in the Night.

Buckingham concluded: “We’re going to continue working on the new album, and the solo stuff will take a back seat for a year or two. A beautiful way to wrap up this last act.”