Category Archives: Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

Return of the Mac! Why the cool kids love them

Music’s most hip are lining up to pay tribute to Fleetwood Mac, says Ed Power
02 July 2013
Independent.ie

 

Their greatest album was recorded in a blizzard of cocaine, champagne and heartache.

Thirty five years later, Fleetwood Mac are suddenly the name to drop in fashionable music circles. Tickets for this September’s brace of O2 dates sold out in a heartbeat; a ‘lavish’ – i.e. super-expensive – re-issue of their 1977 blockbuster record Rumours is basking in five-star reviews (you get the impression certain journalists would award six stars were that allowed).

So what, you cry. Fleetwood Mac have always been popular. Until Michael Jackson’s Thriller, Rumours was the biggest-selling LP of all time, some 40 million copies residing in record collections around the world. Well, yes. The difference is that today it isn’t merely nostalgia-happy oldies flocking to the band. ‘The group’s fastest growing fanbase is among the under 30s.

In trend-conscious alternative pop, in particular, people can’t get enough of Fleetwood Mac. Natasha Khan of Mercury-nominated outfit Bat For Lashes says her biggest hit, ‘Daniel’, was inspired by their 1987 soft-rock classic ‘Tango in the Night’.

Last year, cooler-than-thou names such as MGMT, Best Coast and Lykki Li lined up to pay tribute to ‘the Mac’ on a covers album. Continue reading Return of the Mac! Why the cool kids love them →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks

After Fleetwood Mac tour: Reissue of ‘Buckingham Nicks’?

Pop and Hiss
The L.A Times Music Blog
By Randy Lewis
July 2, 2013, 12:43 p.m.

la-et-ms-fleetwood-mac-stevie-nicks-lindsey-bu-001Fleetwood Mac is headed down the home stretch of its 2013 tour, with only three shows remaining: Wednesday at Staples Center in L.A., Friday in San Diego and Saturday in Sacramento.

But 2013 represents a milestone of another kind for band members Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks: It’s the 40th anniversary of “Buckingham Nicks, ” the only album they put out as a duo before joining up with Fleetwood Mac in 1975.

That album never made the Billboard 200 album chart, but it’s prized among rock fans as an important moment in California rock history and in the story of Fleetwood Mac’s evolution from respected British blues-rock band to a transatlantic runaway success.

“Buckingham Nicks” remains out of print, but there’s momentum building not only for a reissue of the album on CD but also the a possibility of some performances to go with it.

“There has been some talk about finally getting that out on a CD,” Buckingham told Pop & Hiss when we caught up with him last week at a tour stop in Charlotte, N.C. (The full interview with Buckingham will appear Wednesday in Calendar.) “I think it really comes down to what we want to do with that format.

“Do we want to just release it and that’s it? Do we want to add some bonus tracks? What level of involvement do we take it to? There’s a market for just about anything we want to do, but we have not gotten there yet. It’s something we need some clarity on.

“If it were me, I’d say let’s put a couple of bonus tracks on it, and do some dates. That would be something brand new,” Buckingham said. “The idea of just dropping it as a CD doesn’t quite underscores the gesture enough.”

Likewise, Nicks told Rolling Stone before the current Fleetwood Mac tour started that she’d be interested in reuniting the band she and Buckingham had in the early ’70s, which included guitarist Waddy Wachtel, drummer Jim Keltner and bassist Jerry Scheff, and doing some shows this year or in 2014.

“These are dialogues we’ve had, but only in the hypothetical, and we have not come to any decisions about what we want to do,” Buckingham said. “And all these things will become clear. It’s all from the bottom up. These things tend to take on a life of their own.”

Fleetwood Mac, Tour Info

The return of Fleetwood Mac

By Sarah Rodman
BOSTON GLOBE STAFF
JUNE 20, 2013

Vampire Weekend. Lady Antebellum. Judas Priest. The Lumineers. Best Coast. The Cranberries. MGMT. Dixie Chicks. Smashing Pumpkins. Elton John.

What do all of these artists have in common? Surprisingly enough, the answer is Fleetwood Mac.fleetwood_mac-8

And that list is just the tip of the iceberg of musicians who have either covered a Mac tune or professed their admiration for some aspect of the sound of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group that has gone through several incarnations since its inception as a blues band in 1967.

Drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, singer-songwriter-twirler Stevie Nicks, and singer-songwriter-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham — the steady Mac lineup since the 1998 departure of singer-songwriter-keyboardist Christine McVie, who grew weary of touring — come to the Comcast Center on Friday to play endlessly rotated hits like “Dreams,” “Go Your Own Way,” and “Don’t Stop,” as well as a few new songs from their newly released four song EP.

In recent years, the Mac fever seems to have spread especially wide in the worlds of indie rock and contemporary country, with tribute albums like “Just Tell Me That You Want Me” sprouting up and groups like Little Big Town and Lady Antebellum performing Mac songs either on awards shows or on the CMT cross-genre series “Crossroads” with Buckingham and Nicks, respectively.

Mac guitarist Buckingham isn’t exactly sure why the band’s songs — both those written during his tenure and before his time — have weathered the years and continue to appeal to new generations, but he’s certainly glad they have. Continue reading The return of Fleetwood Mac →

Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks, the Fairy Godmother of Rock

Vulture
By Jada Yuan
9th June 2013
a_560x375Look to the shawls; let them show you the way. All night you’ve been ­anticipating their arrival on the Fleetwood Mac stage: the witchy moment when Stevie Nicks, that blonde chanteuse, abruptly dis­appears from view and, with a simple costume change she’s perfected over 35 years, reemerges a woman transformed, wrapped in fringed silk signaling a visitation by Rhiannon or Gold Dust Woman or the livid spurned lover of “Stand Back,” fine fabric unfurling from her delicate shoulders like the banner of an advancing army, heralding not just a song but the coming of an event. There may also be a wind machine, or perhaps you’re just imagining it. This was all to be expected, and somehow it still thrills. Twirling in the outstretched arms of Stevie Nicks, those shawls have magic in them.

No one rocks a shawl like Stevie Nicks. That much was evident at Madison Square Garden this spring, the third stop of a constantly extending, sold-out Fleetwood Mac world tour (coming to Jones Beach on June 22). Everywhere in the arena were homages to Stevie: top hats, feathers, flowing black fabric. And, of course, shawls. ­Fathers and daughters danced enthusiastically side by side, and the air was thick with the smell of furtive intergenerational pot smoking. Chances are, you or someone next to you was weeping during “Landslide,” with that chorus you might casually dismiss as cliché until you find yourself singing it in unison with 15,000 fans: “Time makes you bolder / Children get older / I’m getting older, too.”

Nicks’s 65th birthday was May 26, and she spent it twirling onstage at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Stevie Nicks, her generation’s great California girl sex symbol, who very publicly fought her way back from drug addiction and weight gain, now an aging rock star unafraid of the passage of time and, having long ago married her music, still an undefeated romantic searching for love. “She’s like your fairy princess godmother,” Courtney Love has said, “who’s gonna save you, and lives in a magical kingdom somewhere, and has, like, fabulous romances.” Continue reading Stevie Nicks, the Fairy Godmother of Rock →

Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Tour Info

Stevie Nicks swears she’ll never leave Fleetwood Mac

The Detroit News
Randall Roberts
Los Angeles Times

Vocalist says her first loyalty is to the band

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Fleetwood Mac is on a rare 34-date American tour that features co-founders Mick Fleetwood and John McVie along with longtime vocalist Stevie Nicks and singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

“This band never breaks up,” Nicks said on the phone from her home in Santa Monica. After their most recent tour in 2009 concluded, she added, the understanding was that the band would take a break, work on other projects and reconvene in a few years to do it again. Continue reading Stevie Nicks swears she’ll never leave Fleetwood Mac →

Fleetwood Mac, Tour Info

Fleetwood Mac talk survival, superstitions and sell-out shows ahead of Aussie tour

News.com.au
The Courier-Mail

FLEETWOOD Mac epitomises the survival spirit.

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“We know how lucky we are,” drummer Mick Fleetwood says. “But we’re very serious about what we do. That’s why were still here.

Of course, the back story, of break ups, make ups, and their insatiable drink and drug habits are as famous as the band itself.

Even Fleetwood admits it’s a blessing they’re still writing, recording, performing and touring stronger than ever.

But as Fleetwood reveals a list of rituals and superstitions he follows when the band tours, it’s a miracle anybody made it to the stage.

“We are all creatures of habit,” Fleetwood says.

“I still do this thing where, if I’m in the toilet, I’ll open the door a certain way, and flush it three times, and, if I haven’t done it, I’ll go back and do it.

“It used to be really bad, though,” he says, laughing. “I would have, on my way to the stage, little things I’d left there. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac talk survival, superstitions and sell-out shows ahead of Aussie tour →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Tour Info

Fleetwood Macs Lindsey Buckingham on his mythology with Stevie Nicks

What is holding up a new album and the latest on Christine McVie

BY MELINDA NEWMAN MONDAY, MAY 13, 2013 2:31 PM
HitFlix Music

lindsey-buckingham-stevie-n_article_story_mainFleetwood Mac is having tremendous success on its current sold-out tour. The band is playing its classic hits with verve and enthusiasm, plus, since the recent release of 4-song EP,  “Extended Play,”  the quartet has new material to sink its teeth into.

Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham spoke to HitFix about the current state of Fleetwood Mac, the delight he takes in his still dynamic connection to Stevie Nicks, the latest on a full album from the band, and if Christine McVie will join her former band mates when they play London in the fall.

Hitfix: I saw the band two weekends ago at Jazz Fest in New Orleans and it seemed like you were on fire. The band was playing in daylight without any of the bells and whistles of an indoor arena show and no one missed them at all. 

Buckingham: There’s a lesson there. We’ve all come to feel that we need to rely on the constructions of quite elaborate set design and the backdrop that changes from song to song and, really, this band, because we are a band of musicians and a great singer, we could go up there and with a couple of spotlights prevail probably just as well. It should be about the music first and, of course, with us, it is.

“Extended Play,” a four-song EP with your first new music in 10 years, came out on April 30 and landed in iTunes top 10.  How gratifying was it that people were so eager to hear new music?

I haven’t paid too much attention to how things are going with it because, really, Mick [Fleetwood] and John [McVie]  and I got together last year and we cut a bunch of tracks and then Stevie came to the table later. Even early on,  Mick and John and I felt that the songs that we were doing were some of the best stuff we’d done in quite a while. Continue reading Fleetwood Macs Lindsey Buckingham on his mythology with Stevie Nicks →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Release Info, Tour Info, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham confirms that they’ll continue to release new material | NME

May 11, 2013 10:13
NME.com

Guitarist says it’s ‘just a matter of how and when’ they follow up the ‘Extended Play’ EP…

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Photo: PA

Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham has confirmed that they plan to continue releasing new material.

The recently reformed band put out their first new material in 10 years with their ‘Extended Play’ EP and, in an interview with Billboard, Buckingham said it was “safe to say” that they would be releasing more new songs in the future.

He said:

It’s safe to say there is more than these four songs that you’re going to hear from Fleetwood Mac. It’s just a question of how and when, you know?

 

Buckingham went on to add: “When I was growing up, EPs were all over the place. When I was growing up, albums were not really an art form; the single was the thing, and in some ways it has gotten back to that a little bit. The whole thing is just kind of wide open now, and it really is tantalising to be able to put together just a few things, three or four songs on an EP. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham confirms that they’ll continue to release new material | NME →

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Press Kits

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Sad Angel’ – Song Review

Earlier today (April 30), Fleetwood Mac released a four-song EP, ‘Extended Play,’ their first new studio material since 2003′s ‘Say You Will.’ While the EP is available for purchase exclusively at iTunes, you can stream the lead track and first single, ‘Sad Angel,’ below.

Written by Lindsey Buckingham, ‘Sad Angel’ opens with some typically kinetic, percussive Buckingham rhythm guitar before his vocals come in, and joined later by the whole band. The rhythm section of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood chug along in typical no-nonsense, muscular fashion, with some keyboards and a few layers of guitars to fill it out.

Even though she sings in tandem with Buckingham for all but the opening 15 seconds, Stevie Nicks is largely invisible. She takes her lines well and the two still blend together very well, but there’s little of her trademark personality on display. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but for a band that has traded so frequently on the duo’s history together, ‘Sad Angel’ doesn’t offer much in the way of tension between its two lead singers.

Not that that’s a bad thing, of course. Throughout the run-up to the release of ‘Extended Play,’ we’ve heard about how those past issues are behind them – note how they’re posed in the press photo above – so what better way to prove it than with a nice, poppy song that is, lyrically, light years removed from their famously autobiographical work.

Or is it? The ambiguous lyrics could be Buckingham acknowledging that he and Nicks need each other, and are never better than when they’re together. “We fall to Earth together / The crowd calling out for more / Hello, hello sad angel / Have you come to fight the war?” they sing in the chorus. It’s hard to tell, because we usually associate Nicks with gypsies or witches, not angels.

If ‘Sad Angel’ is about her, then it’s a nice peace offering as the two of them prepare to write the newest chapter in their incredibly long history together. If not, then it’s still a welcome return to form for one of rock’s most enduring bands.

Fleetwood Mac, Release Info, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac release new four-track EP on iTunes without warning

Fleetwood Mac have unveiled their first new music in a decade. Without fanfare or a marketing campaign, the band released their four-song EP direct to iTunes on 30 April.

The release, simply titled Extended Play, comprises a quartet of tunes: three originals by Lindsey Buckingham and one by Stevie Nicks, written in 1973 when the pair were still the duo Buckingham Nicks. This is hardly a set of sexagenarians’ basement tapes: Without You – not be confused with the Danny Kirwan-written Mac song of the same name – and Sad Angel are as shiny as Rumours, and even the lonely piano ballad, It Takes Time, has a dramatic synths/strings coda.

Buckingham revealed plans for the EP at a gig in Philadelphia earlier this month – the band have been performing some of the new songs on their current tour. “It’s the best stuff we’ve done in a long time,” he said, promising that the record would be out “in a few days”. It took a few weeks, instead, but within hours of appearing on iTunes, Extended Play had appeared in the digital shop’s top 10 chart, though it has since dropped.

“We all felt that it would be great to go into the studio and record new material before embarking on this tour and the result has been remarkable,” Buckingham said in a statement. Nicks has previously indicated that Fleetwood Mac would only record another full-length if she felt certain fans would buy it. “Big, long albums don’t seem to be what everybody wants these days,” she told Billboard in February. “[Let’s] see if the world does want more music from us … If we get that feeling, that they do want another 10 songs, we can reassess.”

One of Buckingham’s new songs is an explicit response to Nicks’s musical reticence. “At the moment [Sad Angel] was being written, I was really thinking about the fact that [Stevie] and I were not agreeing on the idea of an album,” he recently told MSN. “The chorus is, ‘Hello, sad angel, have you come to fight the war?’ It goes on to talk about ‘the crowd’s calling out for more’ … [Sad Angel and Miss Fantasy] are songs about Stevie and me.”

Prior to Extended Play, Fleetwood Mac’s most recent new recording was the 2003 album Say You Will. That record reached No 6 on the UK album charts, and achieved gold sales, but fell well short of the band’s commercial peak from 1975 to 1987. The band have sold more than 100m albums worldwide.

Fleetwood Mac are currently in the midst of a North American tour, with plans to visit the UK and Europe this fall.