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Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Stevie Nicks Interview | Classic Rock Magazine

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Classic Rock Magazine (Issue 246)
By Gary Graff
4th Feb 2018

After going from small fry to big Mac, now she balances the band and a solo career.

Stevie Nicks may appear to have a complicated and ambivalent relationship with Fleetwood Mac, but you’d be bard-premed to find a greater public proponent for the band. Since 1981 the writer and singer of Rhiannon, Dreams, Sara and many more has juggled a successful solo career alongside being in the group and has sometimes frustrated her bandmates with her priorities. But Nicks still swears allegiance to the Mac and is always ready to add a new chapter to the saga – when it fits.

You maintain an active and successful solo career, as well as membership in Fleetwood Mac. What’s the agar of doing both?
Solo work and Fleetwood Mac is a really great thing to be able to go back and forth to. You can do your own thing until you get bored and then you can go to the other thing and do that until you start to get bored, and then you can go back to the other thing. It helps you stay more excited and uplifted for what you do so you’re not just doing one thing year after year.

It keeps it fresh, in other words.
Basically, what we are is entertainers. When we go on stage we’re performers. That’s what we do. Even if this band had never made it big, we’d be playing all the dubs. So it isn’t a question of keeping it fresh, it’s that were doing what we love and we don’t have anything else, basically, to do.

What’s the most difficult adjustment when you move between the two?
From the very beginning, when I was seventeen, I wanted to be in a band. When you’re in a band you’re a team. When I’m in solo work, I’m the boss. I have gone back and forth about it in my head. I’ve decided I do like being the boss, but I’ve been in Fleetwood Mac for so long I understand how to not be the boss and be part of a team and a team player and it’s okay. Part of it knocks your ego down, makes you humble. So there’s a lot of good things about being in a band. Continue reading Stevie Nicks Interview | Classic Rock Magazine →

Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac, UK Articles

Christine McVie Interview | Classic Rock Magazine

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Classic Rock Magazine (Issue 246)
By Gary Graff
4th Feb 2018

The in, out, in songwriting heart of Fleetwood Mac.

Five years ago in September, Christine McVie stepped on stage with Fleetwood Mac for the first time since 1997 and has been touring with them since. More importantly, she went into the studio with the guys in the band for sessions that resulted in last year’s lauded Buckingham McVie duo album with Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham. At 74, the former Christine Perfect is fully in, and it doesn’t sound like she has any plans to go her own way ever again.

Are you still glad that you rejoined Fleetwood Mac almost five years ago?
Oh yes. It’s fantastic. I love it.

In hindsight, do you regret the hiatus?
I quit the band only because I developed this horrendous fear of flying and was run down and tired of touring. I bought a home in England that was being restored. I wanted to move back closer to my family. It was not out of any lack of love for these guys. They’re my musical family.

What brought you back?
I realised that I made a huge mistake, that’s all. I started missing them and playing with them and the interaction, the chemistry of it all. I started to really, tray desire to star/ doing something again, and the only people that I would have any desire to do anything with would be Fleetwood Mac.

Your first step back was writing and recording again with Lindsey. You two clearly have a unique emulation. What is it draw out of each other?
It’s a hard thing to analyse, really. I suppose it’s just a musical rapport Is very easy to work with him_ Although I know people say he can be a difficult bugger, I’ve always found him to be a terrific fellow to work with. I enjoy it.

There are some who would say, with all deference to Stevie Nicks, that it’s the product of your collaboration that is the real sound of Fleetwood Mac.
Lindsey just loves producing other people’s songs. He always has. I think with me he tends to lean slightly towards a romantic side of him musically, I’m speaking – because he describes himself as the brains and me as the heart. Continue reading Christine McVie Interview | Classic Rock Magazine →

Fleetwood Mac, Reviews, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac (reissue, 1975) Review | Uncut Magazine

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By Nigel Williamson
Uncut Magazine
Warners
9/10

Career-changing 1975 album expanded into three-disc deluxe edition

When Lindsey Buckingham was invited to join Fleetwood Mac in late 1974, it was the group’s final throw of the dice. After nine lineup changes in eight years, the previous album, Heroes Are Hard To Find, had barely sold enough “to pay the electric light bill”, as Mick Fleetwood put it. When Buckingham insisted that his girlfriend Stevie Nicks join with him, the group agreed with considerable reluctance. Yet the results were transformative.

The newcomers wrote six of the 11 songs on the next album, including Nicks’ all-time classics “Rhiannon” and “Landslide”, which came to define the Mac’s ‘new’ sound. Their presence also energized Christine McVie, who contributed two of her most enduring compositions in “Say You Love Me” and “Over My Head”. The album was released to initial indifference, but support built slowly. Fifteen months after its release, the album was sitting on the top of the US charts, by which time the group were already back in the studio recording the epoch-defining Rumours.

Extras 8/10. An alternate version of the original album comprising unreleased outtakes and early versions of each of the 11 songs, plus a plethora of 1976 live performances.

Thanks to Stéphane Blanc for providing this review

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Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Stevie Nicks: I will never get over the loss of Tom Petty | Daily Mail

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By Press Association
28 January 2018

Stevie Nicks has paid an emotional tribute to her friend Tom Petty.

The singer was close to tears as she spoke about the Free Fallin’ star, who died last year from an accidental overdose.

Speaking at the MusiCares Person of the Year event in New York honouring her band Fleetwood Mac, she said: “The loss of Tom Petty has just about broken my heart.”

She added: “He was not only a good man to go down the river with, as Johnny Cash said, he was a great father and he was a great friend.

“He was one of my best friends. My heart will never get over this.”

Petty was the honoree at the ceremony in 2017 and Nicks said Petty told her how important it was to him. Continue reading Stevie Nicks: I will never get over the loss of Tom Petty | Daily Mail →

Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Reviews, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Christine McVie says Fleetwood Mac got high to try to numb misery of being together | The Mirror

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By Halina Watts
27th Jan 2018
The Mirror

Christine McVie said failed relationships in the band – including splits and affairs – put them all in the depths of despair in the studio

Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood onstage during MusiCares Person of the Year at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Friday (Image: Getty Images North America)

Rock royalty Fleetwood Mac got high to try to numb the ­misery of being together, Christine McVie has revealed.

The singer-songwriter said failed relationships in the band – including splits and affairs – put them all in the depths of despair in the studio.

They turned to alcohol, cocaine and even quaaludes tranquilisers to “cheer themselves up” and get through sessions.

Her candid words came as Fleetwood Mac were honoured at the MusiCares Person of the Year pre-Grammy event.

Christine, 74, said of wild drug use in their heyday: “Everybody was doing it. I don’t have any regrets at all.

“I would not change those days but you have to remember it was uniform – it was a badge of honour, and everybody was doing that kind of thing.”

Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks perform onstage during MusiCares Person of the Year honoring Fleetwood Mac at Radio City Music Hall on January 26 (Image: Getty Images North America)

Explaining their over-indulgence at work, she added: “Our situation in the studio, that was angst and I think we probably needed a little something to cheer us up in that situation. Continue reading Christine McVie says Fleetwood Mac got high to try to numb misery of being together | The Mirror →

Fleetwood Mac, Release Info

Fleetwood Mac Shares Early Version of 1975 Classic ‘Monday Morning’ | Billboard

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Billboard Online
11th Jan 2018
by Gary Graff

As the opening track on 1975’s five-times-platinum Fleetwood Mac album, “Monday Morning” was the first thing most fans heard from the new incarnation of the band after Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined. But the song also revealed a new Buckingham. You can listen to an exclusive early take of the song, from the upcoming Fleetwood Mac deluxe edition here

The singer-guitarist and his then-girlfriend Nicks joined Fleetwood Mac at the recommendation of co-producer Keith Olsen, after releasing their own Buckingham Nicks album. And Buckingham freely acknowledges that becoming part of a group required him to adjust his approach to music.

“If you go all the way back to before Stevie and I joined Fleetwood Mac, the application of guitar was a lot more prevalent in the whole scheme of the space that was taken and the work that was done by a particular instrument,” Buckingham, who wrote the buoyant, surging “Monday Morning” for a second Buckingham Nicks album, told Billboard previously. “I wasn’t even sure what my role was gonna be at that point; Obviously it was kind of a lesson in adaptation for me, and maybe giving up on certain things and concentrating on other things which were maybe strengths for the good of the band. So part of the exercise of joining Fleetwood Mac was adapting down to not only fit a sound, but I had to get off the guitar I was using and get on to a Les Paul. Their sound was very fat, and the nature of the playing with Christine (McVie) and John (McVie), there was a lot of space taken, so you had to sort of take what was left and fit into it.”

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Continue reading Fleetwood Mac Shares Early Version of 1975 Classic ‘Monday Morning’ | Billboard →

Fleetwood Mac

Miley Cyrus, Imagine Dragons to Honor Fleetwood Mac at MusiCares, Bill Clinton Set to Present Award | Billboard

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Billboard Online
10th Jan 2018
by Melinda Newman

More Artists Join Lorde, Harry Styles And OneRepublic

Imagine Dragons, Miley Cyrus, Little Big Town, Juanes, Portugal. The Man, Brandi Carlile, Zac Brown Band, Alison Krauss and Jerry Douglas have been added to the lineup to fete MusiCares Person of the Year Fleetwood Mac on Jan. 26 at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

They join previously announced performers Lorde, OneRepublic, Harry Styles, Keith Urban and Haim.

Additionally, President Bill Clinton will present Fleetwood Mac their award. The band’s hit “Don’t Stop” was his campaign song while running for president in 1992 and has become his unofficial theme.

Fleetwood Mac is the first band to be honored as MusiCares Person of the Year. Past honorees include Tony Bennett, Bono, Natalie Cole, Phil Collins, David Crosby, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, Don Henley, Billy Joel, Elton John, Quincy Jones, Carole King, Paul McCartney, Luciano Pavarotti, Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, Lionel Richie, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, and Neil Young.

With the Jan. 28 Grammy Awards moving to New York this year for the first time in 15 years, MusiCares will break tradition by taking place in a concert venue instead of a ballroom or convention center.  After the concert, there will be an after-party and silent auction at the New York Hilton Midtown. Individual orchestra seats range from $1,750 to $8,500. Mezzanine seats are on sale to the general public through Ticketmaster with prices ranging from $356 to $606.

Proceeds go to the MusiCares Foundation, which offers health and human services and programs to members of the music community, including emergency financial assistance.

Books, Original Content, Release Info, Reviews, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles, Website Content

Book Review: Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks

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Enjoyed this book and completed it in a few days over the Christmas / New Year period whilst free from work duties.

The book was thorough and covered Stevie Nicks’ life in detail up to the year 2017 and covered a few items that I was not aware of, however, the author as an experienced writer that has written books on other members of Fleetwood Mac and other musical figures the fact-checking here was not very good, which makes me wonder if anything that I did not already know about Stevie’s life is actually accurate.

It is a shame as this book had the potential to be the definitive biography of Stevie Nicks (until she decides to write her own autobiography) but the fact-checking and errors really let this down, so near yet so far Mr Davis, please review with your editors in more detail before completing your next book as these errors really let you and the book down.

As a recommendation, I would say this book is good and thorough, but for a recent book on the life of Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac I would refer anyone to Mick Fleetwood’s recent memoir ‘Play On‘ that was released in 2014, at least you know that much of the content is accurate, or as accurate as Mick remembers, and of course he was there!

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Lindsey Buckingham, Solo Activity, UK Articles

The Songs of Lindsey Buckingham | Promo CD Sleeve Notes

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The Songs of Lindsey Buckingham

Promo CD from EMI Publishing
Released in the UK in 2002

Born on October 3rd. 1949. in the upper-middle class suburb of Atherton, near Palo Alto, CA. Lindsey was the third, and youngest son of Morris and Rutheda Buckingham Morris, known as Buck to his friends, owned a coffee plant and was also a member of the Menlo Country Club, where Jeff. Greg and Lindsey were all encouraged to swim competitively (Greg went on to win a silver medal in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City)

The first Elvis record Lindsey remembers hearing was ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and he began playing along to Jeff’s 45’s on a toy Mickey Mouse guitar Once he’d taught himself to play a few songs on this, his parents bought him a $35 Harmony guitar. Jeff’s record collection became so extensive that Lindsey recalls, ‘It was like having the story of rock n’ roll unfurled in front of me. Continue reading The Songs of Lindsey Buckingham | Promo CD Sleeve Notes →

Lindsey Buckingham, Original Content, Solo Activity, UK Articles

WHAT IF: Lindsey Buckingham “Out Of The Cradle” (expanded deluxe edition)

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Imagine you are working at Rhino and you have been given the project to curate an expanded and deluxe re-release of Out Of The Cradle by Lindsey Buckingham.

Whilst in this dream state, listed below is the content that I would add that has been culled from various releases throughout the years, the media would be a combination of CDs, Vinyl and Blu-Ray DVD as per the recent Fleetwood Mac deluxe sets…

Please note for anyone reading this, this post is a what-if, this release is neither planned nor scheduled. Continue reading WHAT IF: Lindsey Buckingham “Out Of The Cradle” (expanded deluxe edition) →