Category Archives: Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac, Original Content, Reviews, UK Articles

Music Review: 50 Years – Don’t Stop from Fleetwood Mac

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A new career-defining set from Fleetwood Mac that spans their 50-year existence, released in multiple formats on Nov 16th, 2018.

This career spanning collection from Fleetwood Mac has been released as a single CD, three-CD set, 5-LP vinyl set, digital download and streaming edition and is a fine collection of songs that make up the career of Fleetwood Mac from the blues era of the late 60s, to the transition period of the early 70s, the later adult orientated rock era of the late 70s and 80s, to the final set of songs that make up the swansong of the band’s recording output. Each album is represented on this set, including one song from the  2013’s ‘Extended Play‘ release.

The set is chronological in sequence except for the streaming edition (of which I will cover off later in the piece) and most tracks have been remastered for this collection and sound extremely nice and bright. The highlighted of this set for me is the single mix of ‘Fireflies’ and the first-ever physical release of ‘Sad Angel’ from the 2013 ‘Extended Play‘ release, whereas most other tracks have been made available in remastered form on recent deluxe editions of Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk, Mirage and Tango In The Night, special mention should be made for the early to mid 70s songs that have also been remastered and should appeal to casual observers of the band who would not be familiar with these tracks. Continue reading Music Review: 50 Years – Don’t Stop from Fleetwood Mac →

Fleetwood Mac, Release Info, UK Articles

Don’t Stop: 50 years on, Fleetwood Mac are still rising from the ashes of their own self-destruction | The Independent

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The Independent
Alexandra Pollard
15th Nov 2018

The storied band, who are about to embark on a European tour, have found a home for themselves teetering on the brink of implosion – unwilling, or perhaps unable, to let each other go. Their new anniversary album, ’50 Years – Don’t Stop’, could hardly be more aptly titled.

Fleetwood Mac taking part in a US interview broadcast in 1975 ( Polaris )

Affairs, breakups, terrifying brawls between lovers, damage to instruments (and skulls), divorce, drug abuse, alcoholism, rows about money, musical differences, and lots and lots and lots of hit records: Fleetwood Mac might have sounded mellow at times, but off stage they were anything but.

“We’re a group of people who, you could make the argument, don’t belong in the same band together,” Lindsey Buckingham once said of his fractious group. “It’s the synergy of that that makes it work.”

Whether they’ve triumphed because of their famously volatile relationship, or in spite of it, Fleetwood Mac have risen from the ashes of their own self-destruction more times than seemed possible. In the past 50 years, they have found a home for themselves teetering on the brink of implosion – unwilling, or perhaps unable, to let each other go. Their new anniversary album, 50 Years – Don’t Stop, released a month after they announced a 2019 European tour, could hardly be more aptly titled.

Not that the current members haven’t tried to stop. Stevie Nicks left the band in 1990 over a dispute with Mick Fleetwood, but rejoined a few years later. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham quit in 1987, just before the band’s world tour, to “get on with the next phase of my creative growth” – only to spearhead a reunion a decade later. When Christine McVie packed the whole thing in 1998, she even went as far as moving to a sleepy village in Kent. “There’s no more chance of [McVie returning],” said Stevie Nicks in 2012, “than an asteroid hitting the earth.” A little over a year later, McVie was back in the band, no asteroid in sight. Continue reading Don’t Stop: 50 years on, Fleetwood Mac are still rising from the ashes of their own self-destruction | The Independent →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham

Lindsey Buckingham sues Fleetwood Mac over his dismissal | BBC News

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By Mark Savage
BBC Music reporter
12th October 2018

Lindsey Buckingham sues Fleetwood Mac over his dismissal

Lindsey Buckingham is suing his former bandmates in Fleetwood Mac after they fired him from a US tour.

The group dismissed their former frontman in January, replacing him with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Neil Finn of Crowded House.

In documents filed in Los Angeles superior court, Buckingham said he lost up to $14m (£10.5m) as a result.

The star also claims the band refused to speak to him about the decision, despite their 43-year relationship.

“Not a single member of the band called Buckingham to break the news to him,” the court documents say.

“In fact, not a single member of Fleetwood Mac has returned any of Buckingham’s phone calls to provide him with an explanation for his purported expulsion from Fleetwood Mac.”

Later in the complaint, Buckingham said he had tried to contact bassist John McVie, “who responded that he had been instructed not to speak” to him.

Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham sues Fleetwood Mac over his dismissal | BBC News →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Release Info, UK Articles

Lindsey Buckingham sues former Fleetwood Mac bandmates claiming he lost $14m when he was fired | Daily Mail (UK)

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Daily Mail
12th Oct 2018

He was unceremoniously fired from Fleetwood Mac in January.

Now longtime guitarist, singer and songwriter Lindsey Buckingham has filed a lawsuit against former bandmates: Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Christie McVie and John McVie for ‘breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.’

According to court documents obtained by Radar Online and Us Weekly, Buckingham claims the firing cost him between $12 to $14million.

In the suit, Lindsey claims the lost wages are part of a deal the band signed with events promoter Live Nation for 60 shows over two-years, where members were to earn up to $14million each.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Buckingham said he received a call from band manager Irving Azoff two days after the band was honored at a MusicCares benefit show in New York.

‘Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again,’ Azoff was quoted as saying.

Her gripes reportedly included Buckingham’s outburst over the band’s intro music, and that he smirked during Nicks’ thank you speech at the MusiCares ceremony. Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham sues former Fleetwood Mac bandmates claiming he lost $14m when he was fired | Daily Mail (UK) →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham

Lindsey Buckingham Sues Fleetwood Mac Over Dismissal From Band | Rolling Stone

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Rolling Stone
By Andy Green
11th Oct 2018

Musician alleges breach of fiduciary duty and breach of oral contract, among other charges, after firing earlier this year

Fleetwood Mac’s John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, and Lindsey Buckingham in 1975.
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images


UPDATE (10/12): “Fleetwood Mac strongly disputes the allegations presented in Mr. Buckingham’s complaint and looks forward to their day in court,” a rep for the band said Friday. “The band has retained Dan Petrocelli to handle the case.” Petrocelli, a Los Angeles attorney, had previously represented the Eagles’ Don Henley and Glenn Frey in their lawsuit against Don Felder, who was fired from the band in 2001.

***

Lindsey Buckingham has filed a lawsuit against Fleetwood Mac for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, among other charges, according to legal documents obtained by Rolling Stone. The group parted ways with Buckingham in January and replaced him with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Neil Finn of Crowded House. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, states that he asked the group to postpone their tour three months so he could play shows with his solo band. He says plans were in place for the Rumours-era lineup to play 60 shows across North America when he was let go without warning.

“This action is necessary to enforce Buckingham’s right to share in the economic opportunities he is entitled to as a member of the partnership created to operate the business of Fleetwood Mac,” the complaint states.

The complaint offers a detailed look at the buildup to Buckingham’s departure from the band, going back to late 2017 when the group began plotting a 2018/19 world tour. It claims that Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie wanted it to begin in August of this year, but Buckingham wanted it to start in November so he could tour behind his new solo release. When the others refused to delay the plans, the suit claims, he reluctantly agreed to postpone his album for a year to accommodate their wishes. Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham Sues Fleetwood Mac Over Dismissal From Band | Rolling Stone →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Solo Activity

Lindsey Buckingham: Life After Fleetwood Mac | Rolling Stone

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Rolling Stone
By David Fricke
10th Oct 2018

The singer-guitarist on his new anthology, solo tour and getting fired from the band he helped make famous

LIndsey Buckingham in 2018.
Ryan Pfluger for Rolling Stone


Lindsey Buckingham and his wife, Kristen, were at home in Los Angeles on January 28th, watching the Grammy Awards ceremony on television, when the phone rang. Fleetwood Mac’s manager Irving Azoff was calling with a message for Buckingham from Stevie Nicks. The gist of it, Buckingham says, quoting Azoff: “Stevie never wants to be on a stage with you again.”

Two nights earlier, the most popular and enduring lineup of Fleetwood Mac — Nicks, Buckingham, singer-keyboard player Christine McVie, bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood — performed in New York at a MusiCares benefit show honoring the group. “We rehearsed for two days, and everything was great,” Buckingham claims. “We were getting along great.”

But on the phone, Azoff had a list of things that, as Buckingham puts it, “Stevie took issue with” that evening, including the guitarist’s outburst just before the band’s set over the intro music — the studio recording of Nicks’ “Rhiannon” — and the way he “smirked” during Nicks’ thank-you speech. Buckingham concedes the first point. “It wasn’t about it being ‘Rhiannon,’ ” he says. “It just undermined the impact of our entrance. That’s me being very specific about the right and wrong way to do something.”

As for smirking, “The irony is that we have this standing joke that Stevie, when she talks, goes on a long time,” Buckingham says. “I may or may not have smirked. But I look over and Christine and Mick are doing the waltz behind her as a joke.”

Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham: Life After Fleetwood Mac | Rolling Stone →

Fleetwood Mac, Release Info

Fleetwood Mac To Release Career Spanning Collection ’50 Years – Don’t Stop’ | Noise11

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September 29th, 2018
By Paul Cashmere
Noise11.com


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.

50 Years—Don’t Stop 3-CD track listing Continue reading Fleetwood Mac To Release Career Spanning Collection ’50 Years – Don’t Stop’ | Noise11 →

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, UK Articles

Mick Fleetwood speaks out over Lindsey Buckingham’s departure from Fleetwood Mac ahead of North America tour | The Independent (UK)

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Roisin O’Connor
The Independent
6th Aug 2018

Mick Fleetwood has spoken about guitarist and co-vocalist Lindsey Buckingham’s departure from Fleetwood Mac, ahead of the band’s upcoming tour of North America.

Buckingham left the group in April after a 40-year career, and it was later announced that he would be replaced on tour by Mike Campbell [Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers] and Neil Finn [Crowded House].

His departure from the band caused shock for fans, particularly given the conflicting statements issued by himself and the remaining members of the band.

At the time, Buckingham claimed he was fired and accused the band of “losing perspective”. Speaking to Billboard, Fleetwood has now said he remains positive for the future of the band.

“Obviously this is a huge change with the advent of Lindsey Buckingham not being a part of Fleetwood Mac,” he said.

“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.”

He praised Campbell and Finn as he spoke about rehearsals for the tour, and added: “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.

“It’s ironic that we have a 50-year package coming out with all the old blues stuff with Peter Green, all the incarnations of Fleetwood Mac, which was not of course planned.”

Fleetwood Mac’s tour of North America begins in October this year and runs until April 2019

Fleetwood Mac

Mick Fleetwood Opens Up About His Rock Photography, Fleetwood Mac’s Tour & Lindsey Buckingham’s Departure | Billboard

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by Nicole Pajer
Billboard
5th Aug 2018

When he’s not out drumming alongside Stevie Nicks and John McVie, Mick Fleetwood is paying homage to his favorite hobby: photography.

Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac showcases his music photography at the Morrison Hotel gallery space in Los Angeles on Aug. 4. // Sarah Haywood

The 71-year-old rock drummer, who has been taking his own cameras out on the road with him since the early days of Fleetwood Mac, has always had an affinity for a great rock and roll shot. In order to share that with the public, he teamed up with the Morrison Hotel Gallery in 2016 to open a gallery space inside his Maui-based restaurant, Fleetwood’s General Store, which features a rotating array of fine art music photography.

On Saturday night (Aug. 4) in Los Angeles, Fleetwood — who is in town rehearsing for the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour — popped by the Sunset Marquis Hotel in conjunction with the Morrison Hotel Gallery to showcase a selection of his favorite music shots, which included candid photos of the likes of Keith Richards, John Lee Hooker and bandmate Stevie Nicks.

Billboard caught up with Fleetwood on site to discuss his love of rock photography, his secret mission to infiltrate the stash of early Fleetwood Mac shots that McVie has been holding hostage and what he’s most looking forward to about his band’s upcoming tour.

What inspired your partnership with the Morrison Hotel Gallery?

We’re celebrating our sixth year with my Fleetwood’s, and in a restaurant that’s a lot. That’s another way to lose your hair but we’re part of the fabric there now, which is great. We opened up with the Morrison Hotel Gallery about two years ago and it’s been a huge success. Pattie Boyd, who was married to George Harrison and Eric [Clapton], did a little tour with Peter Blachley, one of the owners of the gallery. I met them in Australia years ago when Pattie was doing a show and I went to support. We were on the road and Christine, myself and John went to a gallery opening to support Stevie who was showing a Polaroid shot. She doesn’t really do that but Peter approached her and she said, “Okay. I’ll do it.” I met Peter again. We talked about one day doing something and then he came on holiday to our gallery. We had a regular gallery with open art at Fleetwood’s and I decided to go into partnership with Morrison Hotel Gallery. I said, “This is it.” For me, it’s a perfect fit. It makes a lot of sense because this is my world. We have a lot of fun. Whenever I’m at the restaurant, I pop down into the gallery and talk about some of the pieces that I know and introduce some of the people in the photographs that I was inspired by Continue reading Mick Fleetwood Opens Up About His Rock Photography, Fleetwood Mac’s Tour & Lindsey Buckingham’s Departure | Billboard →

Danny Kirwan, Fleetwood Mac, Obituary, UK Articles

Danny Kirwan obituary | The Times

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The Times

Distinctive vibrato-style guitarist who helped his band top the charts before succumbing to ‘the curse of Fleetwood Mac’ in 1972

From left: Kirwan with Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood (rear), Jeremy Spencer and John McVie
ALAMY

When Danny Kirwan joined Fleetwood Mac in 1968 his arrival created a three-pronged guitar attack that turned the group into one of the biggest-selling bands in Britain.

His unique vibrato style helped the instrumental Albatross to No 1, and further chart-topping hits featuring his distinctive guitar work followed with Man Of The World and Oh Well. Yet by 1972 Kirwan and both his fellow guitarists had gone, all three of them succumbing to psychotic breakdowns in what came to be known as “the curse of Fleetwood Mac”.

The first of them, Peter Green, quit in 1970, giving away his guitars and his money after a schizophrenic attack brought on by hallucinogenic drugs. Jeremy Spencer disappeared the next year, walking out of the band’s hotel, saying he was going to buy a magazine. He never returned and was later found to have joined a religious cult.

Yet Kirwan’s meltdown was in many ways the most dramatic of all. Sensitive and mentally fragile, he struggled to deal with fame and responsibility, went days on end without eating and developed a crippling stage fright, which in turn drove him to alcoholism.

His career as a rock star came to a shattering halt one night in 1972 on tour in America. Back stage while the band were tuning up before going on, something snapped and he hurled his Les Paul guitar at a dressing-room mirror, showering broken glass over his bandmates. Smashing his fists and head against the wall until they were bleeding, he refused to take the stage and instead spent the gig heckling from the audience as the band struggled on without him. He was sacked and never played with Fleetwood Mac again. Continue reading Danny Kirwan obituary | The Times →