Fleetwood Mac will celebrate 50 years of service to the music community with their first ever total career package ’50 Years – Don’t Stop’.
After forming in 1967, the first Fleetwood Mac album was released in February 1968. This compilation will open with ‘Shake Your Moneymaker’ from that album.
The original Fleetwood Mac featured Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. John McVie and Danny Kirwan were next to arrive for the first album. Christine Perfect (who married John McVie) was there from the second album.
Fleetwood Mac was a revolving door of musicians. California duo Buckingham – Nicks joined in December 1974 and evolved the sound to the contemporary rock band we know today.
The new compilation features rare photos, includes liner notes by veteran music writer David Wild, and highlights the talented musicians who have recorded under the Fleetwood Mac banner over the years, including Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, Jeremy Spencer, John McVie, Danny Kirwan, Christine McVie, Bob Welch, Bob Weston, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Billy Burnette, Rick Vito, Dave Mason, and Bekka Bramlett.
50 Years: Don’t Stop is released on 16 November 2018.
“Change is not an unfamiliar thing in Fleetwood Mac,” drummer and co-founder Mick Fleetwood tells Billboard as the group gears up for the Oct. 3 launch of its An Evening with Fleetwood Mac tour.
Matt Baron/Shutterstock Mick Fleetwood attends MusiCares Person of the Year Gala on Jan. 26, 2018 in New York City.
But even by Mac standards — 18 members, not counting touring adjuncts, over its 51 years — the latest shift is a doozy.
You’d have to be living under a rock to not know that Lindsey Buckingham is out of the group again, due to disagreements over the timing of the upcoming tour and other issues. Joining Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, singer Stevie Nicks and signer-keyboardist Christine McVie now is the eyebrow-raising duo of Split Enz/Crowded House veteran Neil Finn and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell in his first public endeavor since Tom Petty’s death last Oct. 2
It’s as dramatic a move as any in Fleetwood Mac’s storied career — perhaps even greater than Buckingham’s last departure, in 1987, which brought Billy Burnette and Rick Vito into the band. The schism still rankles, of course, but as the Mac makes ready to hit the road in North America — with dates booked into early April — Fleetwood is accentuating the positive and predicting plenty of, er, future games for what he promises is not a one-off but rather the new lineup of his band.
All parties, including Lindsey, were talking during the past couple of years about a definite tour for 2018. The events that transpired probably weren’t the way you envisioned commemorating the 50th anniversary of Fleetwood Mac’s first two albums.
No, it’s fair to say that it wasn’t. Having said that, the reality was, in simple language, we weren’t happy, and the details of that are part of the fabric, almost, of the story of Fleetwood Mac. We weren’t expecting this time, but it also does not seem surprising. Every man and woman in Fleetwood Mac wish Lindsey well in any ventures he’s doing and also have a huge respect for what he did with Fleetwood Mac; Having said that, it wasn’t working for us and we made the decision as a band to continue, and that’s what we’ve done with open heart. We’ve found two unbelievably talented gentlemen that have more than their own story to tell — which, by the way, is what’s made this work. They’re stylists, and they have their own integrity as artists, which I think was a huge help in what we’re doing. Continue reading Mick Fleetwood Talks Moving Forward Without Lindsey Buckingham, Working a Tom Petty Tune Into Fleetwood Mac’s Setlist | Billboard→
Eyebrows were raised earlier this year when it was announced that Fleetwood Mac had kicked out their longtime member Lindsey Buckingham.
Not only that, but the legendary band added Crowded House’s Neil Finn and The Heartbreaker’s Mike Campbell to their lineup.
Ahead of their North American tour next month, the band performed live on TV for the first time today (September 5), singing their classic track ‘The Chain’ on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Watch a clip from the performance below:
Buckingham was reportedly fired from the band over a disagreement regarding their tour. Instead, Buckingham will go out on his own tour just a few days after the band’s opener.
Last month, Mick Fleetwood said of Buckingham’s departure: “Obviously this is a huge change with the advent of Lindsey Buckingham not being a part of Fleetwood Mac. “We all wish him well and all the rest of it. In truthful language, we just weren’t happy. And I’ll leave it at that in terms of the dynamic.”
On including Campbell and Finn in the group, he said: “We are a week into rehearsals and it’s going really well and we’re looking forward, in true Fleetwood Mac style. “If you know anything about the history of this band, it’s sort of peppered with this type of dramatic stuff. It’s a strange band really.
The new-look Fleetwood Mac also performed their classic hit ‘Gypsy’ on the show, with Stevie Nicks on lead vocals. Watch the full performance below:
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