Category Archives: Mick Fleetwood

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Release Info, UK Articles

Tall Stories I Classic Rock Magazine I Apr 2013

By Max Bell
Classic Rock
April 2013

On the eve of Fleetwood Mac’s UK tour to celebrate the 35th anniversary of their astonishing 40-million-selling album Rumours, we catch up with drummer Mick Fleetwood to find out how the band survived drink, drugs and affairs to record it. “We were all fucked up,” he says.

First impressions of Mick Fleetwood are usually something like (to paraphrase the Harry Nilsson song): “Jesus Christ, you’re tall.” Fleetwood doesn’t so much inhabit his swanky Berkeley Hotel suite as loom across the available space. From head toe, he’s immaculately groomed: the silver hair, the Maui suntan, the crisp striped shirt and hand-stitched brown brogues are evidence of his post-psychedelic dandyism. His socks are box fresh and match his scarf. His trademark headwear — today it’s a burnt orange cap — lies on the table underneath a CD copy of his band Fleetwood Mac’s reissued Rumours — the elephant in the room. His ponytail, a reminder of longer-haired days, is constantly teased, as are the opulent Native American bangles on his wrists. He offers water. “Usually I’d have got through half a bottle of good wine by now, but since we’re about to go on tour I’m trying to stay fit.”

Mick Fleetwood has been an American citizen since 2006. He’s lived in California and Hawaii for 40 years, and understandably speaks with a transatlantic accent. Pleasingly, there’s a detectable trace of West Country burr. He was born in Cornwall in 1947 and educated at a public school in Gloucestershire, at one of those institutions where six-of-the-best corporal punishment was the norm — the bat and the cane. No wonder he became a drummer — taken out on those tom-toms.

Suggestions of a whistle-stop tour his life are met with: “Go ahead. I’ll talk about anything. As long as I can get through the jet-lag.”

Does he still see the old gang?

“Peter Green? Once in a while I’ll ring him. I may do once you’ve left. He doesn’t know it and won’t be expecting it.” Continue reading Tall Stories I Classic Rock Magazine I Apr 2013 →

Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Release Info, Tour Info, UK Articles

‘We were never too stoned to play’ Fleetwood Mac: the comeback interview | The Times

The Mac are back, with live shows, songs and a re-release.

Will Hodgkinson meets Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie
The Times

mick&chris_90s

 It is 36 years since Rumours, the soft-rock masterpiece by Fleetwood Mac, became the soundtrack to separation. Songs such as Go Your Own Way, The Chain and You Make Loving Fun articulated the new rules of relationships for the baby boom generation, capturing the reality of affairs, tensions, betrayals and break-ups and selling more than 40 million copies in the process. For much of the 1980s, arguing over who got the copy of Rumours was as much a part of divorce as lawyer’s fees and pretending to like each other in front of the kids.

MAC-MAINn_1665500aFleetwood Mac – from left, John McVie, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks – at the time of Rumours

Sam Emerson

Rumours hit a nerve because it came from a place of truth. Fleetwood Mac’s keyboardist Christine McVie was divorcing its bassist John McVie. The singer Stevie Nicks was splitting with her childhood sweetheart, the band’s guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Stuck somewhere in the middle was the drummer Mick Fleetwood, who was recently divorced from his wife. Everyone dealt with the situation in the only way rock stars in the 1970s knew how: by taking huge amounts of cocaine. Continue reading ‘We were never too stoned to play’ Fleetwood Mac: the comeback interview | The Times →

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Release Info, Tour Info, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac ‘coming to UK in September’

Fleetwood Mac ‘coming to UK in September’

NME.com
January 29, 2013 10:24

Mick Fleetwood confirms band will play UK shows and also hints at new album plans

2011MickFleetwoodPA150312Fleetwood Mac are to play live shows in the UK in the autumn, Mick Fleetwood has confirmed.

The band are due to embark on a world tour from April of this year, with US dates already in place. However, there are yet to be concrete plans for any shows in the UK announced. Speaking to BBC 6Music, Fleetwood confirmed that the group are heading across the Atlantic, most likely in September or October. “We’re doing a big world tour that starts in April. We’re coming here [the UK] in September, October and maybe a bit longer. We’re doing a lot of work here so we are coming,” he said.

The drummer also revealed that there is a new Fleetwood Mac album in the pipeline and that new songs will be released online in the coming months. “We decided, myself and Lindsey [Buckingham], went into the studio and created a calling card for Stevie (Nicks) letting her know we wanted to make new music. We had the greatest time and we made some really good music. Then her mother died and it wasn’t time for her to be singing. Just recently though she has sung on three of them and we’ve recorded one original song of hers. So, we’re going to go crazy and there will be something out that we will play onstage and that might become part of a long term plan over the next year. Our wish is going to come true and we will finish an album. I hope there is a demand for it, after we throw two or three songs out on the internet, and we might make an album.”

FleetwoodMac1PA160712It was long rumoured that Fleetwood Mac would perform at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. However, the booking of a number of US dates on the same weekend in June appears to rule that possibility out.

Meanwhile, a reissued version of the band’s classic album ‘Rumours’ was released this week to coincide with its 35th anniversary.

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

BRIT Awards 1998 – Outstanding Contribution to British Music

Fleetwood Mac

Over thirty years after they were formed and two decades since the release of their most famous and biggest selling album, Fleetwood Mac are being honoured with the BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to the British Music Industry.

The Anglo/American rock group emerged from Britain’s blues boom of the late 1960s, moved to America in the mid 70s, released the 20 million selling album “Rumours” in 1977 and re-appeared last year with their million selling comeback album ‘The Dance,” During that time Fleetwood Mac have featured a total of 16 musicians in more than a dozen different line-ups built around the one remaining original member, drummer Mick Fleetwood. But it is the five piece of Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks (the band that created the award-winning “Rumours” album and re-formed last year) which is acknowledged as the classic Fleetwood Man line-up and the group honoured at this year’s BRIT Awards ceremony. Continue reading BRIT Awards 1998 – Outstanding Contribution to British Music →

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, UK Articles

Mick Fleetwood fought off insecurity | Classic Rock

Classic Rock Website
MARTIN KIELTY
July 30 2012

Mick Fleetwood admits it took him years to stop feeling insecure about his approach to playing music.

But now he’s learned to live with it, he believes his “back to front” attitude is the only way he could ever perform his percussion duties.

The Fleetwood Mac icon tells Music Radar: “I approach my own work in a very emotional, personal way, and so I have to rely on one thing – the essence of feel.

“I didn’t always understand what it was and I used to be insecure about that. But now I truly know that I feel most comfortable when I’m emotionally involved.

“I don’t think about what I’m going to play until I feel a personal and emotional dynamic.”

That attitude has led to a style of performance which has been called “back to front” by some. Fleetwood explains: “The fills are usually not in the obvious places – it’s because I don’t really know what I’m doing. I just do it spontaneously. Through the years I believe I’ve honed it down to an accidental skill. Continue reading Mick Fleetwood fought off insecurity | Classic Rock →

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks

Mick and Stevie at the 20th Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony I Mar 2005

nicks_rrhof2005

20th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
Modern Guitarist
March 19, 2005
Words by Hugh Ochoa
Photographs by Hugh Ochoa and Sean North

The press room was behind the stage of the ceremony ballroom, and it was to this room the inductees and inductors were brought after an induction for photos and interviews. It was a pleasant surprise when Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood arrived and agreed to a Q&A session and photo op in the press room.

When Nicks was asked about her up-coming “Vegas Tour” she replied, “Well, it’s not really a tour, it’s just four days. I am looking forward to it, because it’s a chance to play and do something where you don’t really have to travel. So for me, as an almost 57-year-old woman, this looks very good, because it means you can put all of your energy into the show as opposed to travelling all over the United States. So it would be a nice thing for me to be able to do till I’m a very old little old lady.”

“Where are you doing the shows?” Nicks was asked.

“I think Caesar’s. I’m not a gambler so I’m not really familiar with all that.”

When queried about her participation in the movie “School Of Rock” she replied, “Well I have to tell you, I actually watched that with a 15-year-old who didn’t know I was in it and I didn’t mention that. And it was so trippy and so much fun because though I’d seen it once it was wonderful to see it with someone that young. I felt very honoured to have been the only woman actually mentioned in that movie. So for me, I have to say, you know, it was the neatest thing ever to happen to me.

Mick Fleetwood stated in regards to the band, “The future of Fleetwood Mac…uhh…”

“We’re resting.” Nicks helps out.

“We’re resting.” Fleetwood concurs. “We had a long recording period and then went out and did the better part of 2 years work all over the world. So having a hiatus…”

“135 shows” Nicks interjects.

“…but there’s always a Fleetwood Mac story somewhere,” continues Fleetwood. “But I’m enjoying being at home to tell you the truth.” [laughs]

Nicks adds, “I think, you know, what happened is that we started “Say You Will”, in uh…I started with everybody on February 2, 2002 ,and then it took over a year to record and then 3 months of rehearsal and then 135 shows in a year-and-a-half of touring so we’re just resting right now because we feel that, as all wonderful things go, you come out, and you know, you make a big show of it, and then you go away for a little bit, and rest, so that when you come back, it’s all wonderful again”.

When asked if there was any chance of Christie ever coming back to perform with FM again, Mick replied in a very slow and solemn tone, “I think very, very slim next to nothing, so I will say, ‘No’. Ah, but we miss her.”

Nicks added when asked if they were going to perform or be on stage or if they are just fans, “We’re just here to watch, because we both feel that being in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is our greatest honor and if we can possibly be here for whoever is being inducted, then we will be here. Cause it’s important and it’s our club and it’s very very special.”

Mick adds, “I’m overjoyed Mr. Buddy Guy is being inducted tonight. It’s just great to see a gentle man being inducted and I think Eric is gonna play with him, so I’m thrilled. A blues man at heart I am. So there you go.”

Finally, when asked about the most gratifying part of the band, Nicks concludes, “Well, the most gratifying part is to be a member of a band, especially a band that is as good, I think, as my band is probably the best thing that I’ve ever done in my whole life. Fleetwood Mac is the thing that I am most proud of, and I think that this man would agree that it’s something that we love really deeply and it’s wonderful that everybody loves it too, but for us, it’s like the most…it’s like our life, you know. It’s been our life since 1975 and for Mick even way before, when Fleetwood Mac was first formed. So it’s a long, incredible special, yellow brick road.”

 

Mick Fleetwood, Solo Activity, UK Articles

Mick Fleetwood: Word Of Mouth (Dec 2004)

Word Magazine
December 2004

WordMagazineMick

MUSIC: I listen to Coldplay a lot. I was playing them in the car today here in Hawaii – I’m out here with my wife and my twin daughters. I’ve got a house out here and it’s great. There’s something about the tempo of life that’s timeless and magical: it’s like Ireland with better weather. Coldplay are fantastic driving music. They’re melodic and really creative, they’ve a very strong emotional connection, especially with the vocals, very cleverly done. They’ve obviously done their listening – The Beatles and Pink Floyd by the sound of it – but they’re enough of their own property to sound individual. Everyone has influences, and it’s appropriate to use them. People look to their mentors whether they realise it or not. Marvin Gaye I love – he started off as a session player drummer in fact. If you were a square white guy – which I wasn’t as it happens – you understood Marvin Gaye a lot easier than the Wilson Picketts and Rufus Thomases. If you heard In The Midnight Hour you were either going to instantly get it or it was going to freak you out, but Marvin Gaye transcended a lot of barriers, his whole demeanour, the way he wrote, the elegance, the way he phrases. He covered so many bases. Incredibly handsome and loved this fairly cracked life but a man of style and taste. It was terribly sad when his father shot him. There was a side to him that was very dark. I met him in the 70s after a Radio City show. I want back to his hotel and was amazed to find him surrounded by security guards at this big old
dining-room table counting the money. I was a little taken aback. I don’t know what I rather foolishly expected to find, but in our world this sort of thing didn’t exist! He had this great big attaché case and was counting all the money. About an hour later he came out in his silk dressing-gown, like a prize fighter, and was thoroughly charming. Fleetwood Mac were Continue reading Mick Fleetwood: Word Of Mouth (Dec 2004) →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, UK Articles

How We Met; Mick Fleetwood And Lindsey Buckingham | The Independent (UK)

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The Independent (UK)
8th May 1998
by Lucy O’Brien

Guitarist and songwriter Lindsey Buckingham (far right), 50, made his first album in 1973 with his lover, the vocalist Stevie Nicks. In 1975 the duo joined Fleetwood Mac, and helped transform the band from one rooted in raw British blues to the biggest-selling mainstream rock act of the late Seventies. In 1987 he went solo, and has a new album out later this year. He now lives in Los Angeles. Fellow LA resident and drummer Mick Fleetwood, 51, founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967 with Peter Green. After Green quit in 1970, the band went through several, famously stormy incarnations, before breaking up in 1995. The five members of the Seventies line-up were reunited for 1997’s ‘The Dance’ album and tour
1998 FLEETWOOD MAC ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME 1

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM: I met Mick right before New Year’s Eve in 1974. Stevie and I were living in LA. We’d done an album on Polydor as a duo, which had come out without making much of a splash, and we were trying to figure out what the hell to do next. Anyway, we were doing demos of new tunes one day at Sound City studio in the San Fernando Valley. At one point I walked towards the control room. I heard a song of ours, “Frozen Love”, being played very loudly and I saw this giant of a man standing up, grooving to a guitar solo of mine. I thought, “What is goin’ on?”, and left them to it. That man was Mick.

When he heard my guitar something obviously clicked in his mind, because after their guitarist Bob Welch left, I got a call from Mick asking if I wanted to join Fleetwood Mac. Originally they weren’t looking for a duo, but I said Stevie and I were a package deal.

Continue reading How We Met; Mick Fleetwood And Lindsey Buckingham | The Independent (UK) →

Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Tour Info, UK Articles

Big Mac – Fleetwood Mac talks to Record Mirror (Apr 1988)

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Well, you can’t get much bigger than Fleetwood Mac, can you?
In the wake of Lindsey Buckingham’s much-publicised departure and their combined chart success.
Dave Zimmer talks to the band that just refuses to lay down and die….

Record Mirror (UK)
April 1988

RecordMirror_Apr88_FrontCover_small

Somebody should write a soap opera based on Fleetwood Mac’s career. They’ve been plagued by jealousy, bankruptcy and alcoholism; and when guitarist Lindsey Buckingham left the band last year, it looked like the end of the road.

Buckingham had been with Fleet­wood Mac since 1975 when he and Stevie Nicks helped catapult the rather obscure ‘hippy’ band into the big time with the LP ‘Rumours’. To date, it’s sold over 30 million copies worldwide. But the relationship between Nicks and Buckingham soured, as Stevie explains.

“If Lindsey said the wall in the studio was grey, I’d be absolutely sure it was pink. In order to get one of my. songs on a record I’d have to say ‘Okay, the wall’s grey Lindsey’. Otherwise it was back on the bus.

Continue reading Big Mac – Fleetwood Mac talks to Record Mirror (Apr 1988) →

Article Archive Pages, Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Release Info, Reviews, Stevie Nicks, Tour Info

Fleetwood Mac Return Without Leaving | CREEM Magazine

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Creem Magazine
September 1987
by J. Fordosh

Up in the hills of Bel Air is Lindsey Buckingham’s house, Lindsey Buckingham’s croquet-perfect lawn, Lindsey Buckingham’s pool, Lindsey Buckingham’s radio-controlled toy submarine that’s busted, but could be fun in the pool, Lindsey Buckingham’s home studio, The Slope-where the final work on Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In The Night was done-and, indeed, Lindsey Buckingham himself.

Lindsey, like everyone in Fleetwood Mac, will tell us something of this latest record-and something of this immensely popular band. Their times and their troubles, stuff like that.

Fleetwood Mac’s saga has been a strange one: since Lindsey and Stevie Nicks joined up in 1975, the band’s made five studio albums, including Tango. The first four have sold something like 33 million copies-about 20 million of those courtesy of 1977’s monstrous Rumours.

You can perceive that, despite their relatively sluggish output, this band has a lot of fans. As I write this, Tango is safely ensconced in the Top 10, where it may well remain for eternity or the next Fleetwood Mac album, whichever comes first. But, coming almost five years after Mirage, we can correctly assume that there’s a story behind the story, so let’s start here . . .

Continue reading Fleetwood Mac Return Without Leaving | CREEM Magazine →