Category Archives: Lindsey Buckingham

Fleetwood Mac says: ‘Don’t stop’

San Diego U T
By George Varga
4:56 P.M.  JULY 3, 2013

It’s been a turbulent ride, but the group is back. “We are the kind of people who don’t all belong in the same band together,’ says Lindsey Buckingham.

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It’s been 39 years since Lindsey Buckingham and his then-girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, joined Mick Fleetwood and John and Christine McVie in Fleetwood Mac.

Faster than you can say “Landslide,” the 8-year-old English blues-rock band and its two new American members shifted gears, changed musical styles and soared to international pop stardom. The 1975 album “Fleetwood Mac” was the group’s first release to top the U.S. charts, while its 1977 masterpiece “Rumours” has now sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and yielded such enduring hits as “Don’t Stop” and “Go Your Own Way.”

Did Buckingham ever imagine then that the band would still be active in 2013 and embarked on a world tour, which includes a Friday stop here at San Diego State University’s Viejas Arena?

“Well, time kind of slips by and it doesn’t seem that long,” said the veteran guitarist and singer-songwriter, speaking from a recent tour stop in Boston. “You know, when you’re in your 20s and contemplating that (long an) amount of time, you think: ‘Gee, will I even still be alive by then?’ So, it’s all kind of relative to your perspective. And it certainly is a surprise, although there are bands that have managed to stick around that long.

“The one thing that probably would have disabused me from thinking then that we’d still be around now is that the chemistry was always so volatile. Not just because there were two couples in Fleetwood Mac who had broken up (before ‘Rumours’ was completed), and that whole subtext, but from the point of view that we are the kind of people who don’t all belong in the same band together.” Continue reading Fleetwood Mac says: ‘Don’t stop’

Fleetwood Mac’s Buckingham Nicks to re-issue rare album?

Published Wednesday, Jul 3 2013, 18:28 BST  |  By Tom Eames
Digital Spy

Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks has revealed plans to re-issue her debut album with bandmate Lindsey Buckingham.

Before joining the band in 1974, the former lovers recorded a single album under the name Buckingham Nicks in 1973.

However, it has remained out of print for many years and has not seen an official release on CD or download.

Nicks told Rolling Stone: “I went into Lindsey’s house two weeks ago and spent four days there. We recorded a very old Buckingham Nicks song that we loved and couldn’t figure out why it didn’t go on the album. It got brushed under the carpet somehow. We recorded it, so that’s a third song.

“[2013] is the 40th anniversary of Buckingham Nicks, and we’re hoping next year to get the record out. Then we’ll take that lost song and put it on the record.

“That’s kind of exciting, though it doesn’t have anything to do with Fleetwood Mac. People have been waiting forever for that record to come back out. Fleetwood Mac is totally good with us doing that. They know.”

She continued: “It was great spending time with Linds. We’re old enough now that we’ve laid down our weapons. We started this whole thing in 1968 and we’re proud of what we’ve done. We look at each other in a slightly different light now. It’s a good light.”

When asked if they might release a deluxe edition box set of the album, she said: “It is the 40th anniversary, because it was released in 1973. We have this new version of an old demo.

“So, we should put the album back out, and if we can make that happen then Buckingham Nicks should go out on the road next year. It would be great to do it in the 40th anniversary year. This might not just be the year of Fleetwood Mac, but we might throw in the Buckingham Nicks album for a special, sparkly, extra present.”

On whether they may fully reform as a duo on tour, she added: “There’s always a possibility. That is a situation where we would actually go on stage and do the complete Buckingham Nicks album.

“It would be a trip to bring it back with Waddy Wachtel and some other people from San Francisco. It would be trippy for Lindsey and I to revisit those songs.”

Fleetwood Mac released a new Extended Play collection earlier this year

Fleetwood Mac’s back with a love-fest vibe

Pop and Hiss
The L.A Times Music Blog
By Randy Lewis
July 3, 2013, 7:30 a.m.

For a notoriously perfectionist band like Fleetwood Mac, it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that its live show leaves nothing to chance.

John McVie and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac perform at the Prudential Center on April 24, 2013 in Newark, New Jersey.
John McVie and Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac perform at the Prudential Center on April 24, 2013 in Newark, New Jersey. (Brian Killian, Getty Images / April 24, 2013)

Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 tour, which wraps up with a final run of shows this week in California, is built around a song list that’s gone virtually unchanged since the concert run began in April.

“We’re not one of those bands that throws the names of all their songs in a hat and pulls them out right before they go on stage,” guitarist, songwriter and singer Lindsey Buckingham said last week from a tour stop in Charlotte, N.C. (Buckingham and the band play Staples Center Wednesday.) “Years ago I was hanging out with Peter Buck and went to several shows R.E.M. did and they literally did just that. That’s one end of the spectrum.

“We’ve always had the sensibility that you work on the set and you structure it, much like a play, where once you’ve got the lines down and blocking right, you freeze it, and then you go out and do what you’re doing night after night,” he said. “You want to structure something that has form and that builds the right dynamic from start to finish.”

This time out that set list runs from “Second Hand News,” the “Rumours” opening track that serves the same function on this tour, through cornerstone hits including “”Rhiannon,” “Gold Dust Woman” and “Go Your Own Way” that are interspersed with deeper tracks such as “Not That Funny,” “Eyes of the World” and “I’m So Afraid.”

When it comes to touring, the group stresses a sense of stability onstage that rarely existed for the members off stage. The group famously channeled feelings unleashed by the disintegrating relationship of Buckingham and Stevie Nicks as well as the failing marriage of John and Christine McVie into the songs that catapulted “Rumours” and the band into the commercial stratosphere. Ever since, interpersonal dynamics have been nearly as big a part of Fleetwood Mac’s history as the music it made. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac’s back with a love-fest vibe

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 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’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 rumours: What if Nicks and Buckingham hadn’t split?

Classic Rock Website
MARTIN KIELTY
March 25 2013

fleetwoodMacRumours

Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours recently enjoyed a new lease of life in a 35th anniversary box-set release. It’s not only a defining moment in classic rock – it’s the ultimate break-up album, written and recorded as relationships disintegrated between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, while the same happened between Christine and John McVie.

For singer Nicks and guitarist Buckingham the scars have never fully healed. Now, as they gear up for a new Fleetwood Mac tour, they’ve both faced up to their past and considered what might have been if they hadn’t gone their own ways.

Nicks tells Oprah Winfrey: ““We were just finishing up Rumours and I said, ‘We’re done. I think that this is over, and we both know now that no matter what it takes, we’re going to keep Fleetwood Mac together.

“‘Our breaking up is not going to break up this band. I’m not going to quit and neither are you — and we were done.’”

Buckingham tells Mens’ Journal: “All I recall is that Stevie ran after me crying and yelling and kind of beating on my back. I don’t remember any physical confrontation – not to say there wasn’t.”

He continues: “There’s a subtext of love between us. It would be hard to deny that much of what we’ve accomplished had something to do with trying to prove something to each other.

“Maybe that’s fucked up – but this is someone I’ve known since I was 16, and I think on some weird level we’re still trying to work some things out. There will never be romance there, but there are other kinds of love to be had.”

He says he’s long since got used to working with Nicks despite their history, but reflects: “or me, getting married and having children was a positive outcome. I wonder sometimes how Stevie feels about the choices she made, because she doesn’t really have a relationship – she has her career.”

The singer says: “Lindsey always blamed Fleetwood Mac for the loss of me. Had we not joined Fleetwood Mac, we would have continued on with our music. But we probably would have gotten married, and we probably would have had a child.

“It would have been a different life. We were still young enough then that destiny could have taken us another way — but destiny took us straight into Fleetwood Mac.”

The band tour the UK towards the end of the year:

Sep 20: Dublin O2
Sep 24: London O2 Arena
Sep 29: Birmingham LG Arena
Oct 1: Manchester Arena
Oct 3: Glasgow Hydro

As Fleetwood Mac kicks off its first tour in four years, Lindsey Buckingham reflects on the band’s drug-fueled nights

Surviving Fleetwood Mac

As Fleetwood Mac kicks off its first tour in four years, Lindsey Buckingham reflects on the band’s drug-fueled nights, blowout fights, and unbreakable bonds.

By Brian Hiatt – Men’s Journal
April, 2013 issue

LB-MensJournel

For Lindsey Buckingham, recording an album used to mean doing just enough coke to nail a guitar part at 3AM, getting in screaming fights with Stevie Nicks, and, in one case, allegedly throttling an engineer who erased the wrong track.  But that was all long ago.  These days, he wakes up at six, has breakfast with his three young kids, hits his home studio alone, and is done by dinner.  “It’s a nice balance,” says Buckingham, 63, who is reuniting with Fleetwood Mac for an arena tour beginning this month (and has a solo live album, One Man Show, out now).  “That’s the whole lesson for me now.  For many years in Fleetwood Mac, it was a study in life out of balance.”

Q: You had your first child at 48.  Do you recommend late-life fatherhood?
ANS: It depends on the man.  You could almost say I’m someone who doesn’t practice age.  I went to a high school reunion a few years back, and all these people seemed 20 years older than me, physically and mentally.  So having kids late is good if you’re the kind of person who needs to wait – though in 20 years, I may have a different perspective.

Q: Your most recent studio album, Seeds We Sow, got great reviews but didn’t sell.  Why?
ANS: There’s a disconnect between the preconceptions that go with being the age I am and what the music is.  I sent the album to Daniel Glass, who runs [hip record label] Glassnote, and he loved it.  Then he played it for his staff, guys in their twenties, and they said, “Well, what are we going to do with it?”

Q: What do you remember about the argument that led to your leaving Fleetwood Mac for a while in 1987?
ANS: All I recall is that Stevie ran after me crying and yelling and kind of beating on my back.  I don’t remember any physical confrontation, not to say there wasn’t.

Q: Is it safe to say, though, that you had a temper in the past?
ANS: Sure.  It’s been well documented.  But we were doing all sorts of substances, too, that probably had something to do with blowing certain behaviors way out of proportion.

Q: Has age calmed you down?
ANS: Some of it was situational.  You’ve got to understand, it was very difficult for me to have Stevie break up with me and to still be in a band with her, to never get a sense of closure.  It took its toll emotionally.

Q: How come drugs never got too out of control for your?
ANS: The substances that were in the studio were not part of my lifestyle at home.  I had to take them so I could stay up till two our three, and even then, Mick [Fleetwood] would want to go later.  My MO if I really wanted to leave would be to say, “I’m going to the bathroom,” and then walk out the door and drive away.

Q: Now that pot is practically legal in California, are you tempted by it?
ANS: No.  I did a lot of that back then, and it was good for a certain kind of abstract thinking.  But we all thought we had to be altering our consciousness on a daily basis in order to be creative, which turns out to be crap.  It’s just about finding your center, that quiet place.

Q: You and Stevie broke up decades ago, but you have to deal with her forever. What’s that like?
ANS: You get used to it. And for me, getting married and having children was a positive outcome.  I wonder sometimes how Stevie feels about the choices she made, because she doesn’t have a relationship – she has her career.  But there are a few chapters to be written in the Stevie-Lindsey legacy.  There’s a subtext of love between us, and it would be hard to deny that much of what we’ve accomplished had something to do with trying to prove something to each other.  Maybe that’s fucked up, but this is someone I’ve known since I was 16, and I think on some weird level we’re still trying to work some things out.  There will never be romance there, but there are other kinds of love to be had.

Q: It’s about as complicated as a relationship can be.
ANS: Oh, my Lord, yes.

Ringing in the New Year With Fleetwood Mac

Huffington Post
Jane Heller
Posted: 3rd Jan 2013

I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s Eve. There’s so much pressure to do something out-of-this-world fabulous, not to mention have someone out-of-this-world fabulous to do it with. I remember prix fixed restaurant dinners that weren’t worth the money and too-big parties whose forced gaiety made everyone feel tense and champagne hangovers that wrecked me for days. And I remember occasions when my husband was suffering from flare-ups from Crohn’s disease and was too ill to celebrate at all.

My favorite memories are of quiet evenings with him and a few close friends, and this past New Year’s Eve was a case in point. He was in better-than-usual health and good spirits, so out we went.

Our hosts were Martha and Michael Collins, who had lost their house in the 2008 wildfire that destroyed over 200 homes in the Santa Barbara area. After living in a trailer for four years, Martha and Michael rose from the ashes, literally, and moved last month into the spectacular new house they built on the same site — a meticulously-crafted beacon of resilience. Some people would have been thrown by the very notion of losing everything (short of the clothes on their backs and their laptops), but Martha and Michael thrived, their marriage and partnership more solid than ever.

We were in the midst of their scrumptious meal when Michael, a filmmaker whose specialty has been chronicling the lives and music of our most accomplished rock ‘n’ roll artists, mentioned that among the very few material possessions he’d been able to grab before a wall of flames drove him and Martha out of their house was the documentary footage he’d shot 35 years ago of Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 Japanese tour to promote their “Rumours” album.

“I’m finishing up the documentary now,” he told us.

“The public has never seen Fleetwood Mac like this before,” Martha chimed in. “They were so young and it was such an innocent time, and the music is beyond great since they were in their prime.”

I put down my knife and fork (not easy when your hosts have prepared a feast that would rival any restaurant), and said, “Can we see this documentary? Like, tonight?”

Michael hesitated. “It’s still raw — a work in progress. But I guess I could show you clips.”

I was not taking “I guess” for an answer. Fleetwood Mac has always been one of my favorite bands and on this particular New Year’s Eve, when I’d felt barraged by news of Kanye West, the Gangnam Style guy and Rihanna’s latest Twitpic, I was so in the mood for a little boomer music. Continue reading Ringing in the New Year With Fleetwood Mac

Lindsey Buckingham contributes three new songs to “This is 40” soundtrack

Lindsey Buckingham contributes three new songs to “This is 40” soundtrack

This Is 40 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

“This is 40 Soundtrack”: Lindsey Buckingham contributes three new songs that have a similarly nimble instrumental feel. Gently chiming guitars interlock with each other on the shimmering “Sick of You,” the best of the three, though “She Acts Like You” also is first-rate Buckingham. Lindsey also adds backing vocals to the Norah Jones track “Always Judging”

Lindsey Buckinghan