Category Archives: Reviews

The Critics LOVED Fleetwood Mac’s UK Comeback Gig

It was the gig British Fleetwood Mac fans have been waiting years for – the original line-up back on-stage on UK soil.

So it’s fair to say that expectations were high as the band took to the stage at London’s O2 Arena on Wednesday night (27 May) as part of their ‘On With the Show’ tour.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 27:  Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood (R) of Fleetwood Mac perform live at The O2 Arena on May 27, 2015 in London, England.  (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 27: Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood (R) of Fleetwood Mac perform live at The O2 Arena on May 27, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood on stage at The O2

Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were reunited with keyboard player Christine McVie after sixteen years, and it seems the critics absolutely loved it.

Here’s what they had to say…

The Guardian (4 stars)

“There’s nothing to fault except Nicks’s getting so lost in her cocaine-warning song, ‘Gold Dust Woman’, that it goes on for a week – time that could have been better spent hearing the blaring ‘Tusk’ again. Apart from that, it’s just about perfect.”

The Telegraph (5 stars)

“With that taut, explosive rhythm section, Buckingham’s imaginative flair, Nicks’ wildcard charisma and Christine McVie’s singalong soulfulness restored to the heart of the matter, there is really no way this band could be anything less than extraordinary.”

Daily Star

“With the crowd featuring die-hard fans, teenagers and even Harry Styles, we can’t see Fleetwood Mac ever losing their appeal – especially considering how incredible their live act is.”

Evening Standard (4 stars)

“When the individuals surrendered to the collective, the evening turned celestial. Harmonies sparked off each other on The Chain; the comforting ‘Don’t Stop’ and its dark twin, ‘Go Your Own Way’, were all singalong moments of adult pop perfection.”

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Fleetwood Mac at O2 arena, SE10 | The Times

Ed Potton
Published at 12:01AM, May 29 2015
The Times

Four out of Five stars

After leaving one of the most dysfunctional bands in rock, Christine McVie is back, and Fleetwood Mac’s classic line-up are performing together for the first time in 16 years. “Our songbird has indeed returned,” beamed Mick Fleetwood, and the giant drummer wasn’t the only one feeling elated during a show full of potent renditions of their Seventies standards: The ChainGo Your Own Way, Rhiannon.

John and Stevie, O2 Arena
John McVie and Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac Marilyn Kingwill

Elation or desolation — they don’t really do anything in between.

Their woes, singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham noted wryly, have been “quite well documented”. From past ones — the implosion of Christine’s relationship with bassist John McVie and Buckingham’s with singer Stevie Nicks — to present ones — John is in remission from cancer. When Nicks dedicated a song to Adele (“You’re gonna be me in 40 years”), you could imagine Adele appreciating the sentiment but not envying everything Nicks has been through. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac at O2 arena, SE10 | The Times

Fleetwood Mac, O2 Arena, review: ‘Nothing less than extraordinary’ | The Telegraph

By Neil McCormick
27 May 2015

The soap opera of the band member’s personal lives has always lent a certain depth and texture to Fleetwood Mac, says Neil McCormick

*****

Members of the rock band Fleetwood Mac stand together on stage after performing a concert on NBC's 'Today' show in New York City...Members of the rock band Fleetwood Mac stand together on stage after performing a concert on NBC's 'Today' show in New York City, October 9, 2014. Fleetwood Mac is currently on a world concert tour. From left to right are bassist John McVie, keyboard player and vocalist Christine McVie, vocalist Stevie Nicks, guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and drummer and vocalist Mick Fleetwood.   REUTERS/Mike Segar    (UNITED STATES - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)
Members of the rock band Fleetwood Mac stand together on stage after performing a concert on NBC’s ‘Today’ show in New York City, October 9, 2014. Fleetwood Mac is currently on a world concert tour. From left to right are bassist John McVie, keyboard player and vocalist Christine McVie, vocalist Stevie Nicks, guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham and drummer and vocalist Mick Fleetwood. REUTERS/Mike Segar (UNITED STATES – Tags: ENTERTAINMENT)

The Chain made for a suitably dramatic opening, showing off the restored Fleetwood Mac to full effect with that fantastic bass, thunderous drums, blood quickening guitar solo and gorgeous wall of harmonies insisting the chain cannot be broken. Going straight into You Make Loving Fun drove the point home, showcasing Christine McVie’s smooth vocal and funky keyboards. “I think we can safely say our girl is back” trilled Stevie Nicks.

This tour marks the full reunion of the classic line-up, with the return of Christine McVie after 16 years. The band have become almost the definition of a heritage act in her absence, regularly touring sets of their greatest hits to nostalgic audiences, so you can’t really say she was missed. But there is no doubt she restores some balance, both in musical and pop cultural terms.

Musically, she takes some of the weight off virtuoso guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, her smooth, lush pop songs softening his sharper arty edges. Flowing gems as potent as Everywhere, Little Lies and Songbird were restored to their rightful place in the centre of a Fleetwood set and for that alone audiences have reason to be grateful.

But there is a sense too that the dysfunctional family is back together, healing old wounds with the balm of time and music, a message that, in itself, speaks volumes to lifelong fans

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 07:  Christine McVie performs at Madison Square Garden on October 7, 2014 in New York City.  (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
NEW YORK, NY – OCTOBER 07: Christine McVie performs at Madison Square Garden on October 7, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)

Fleetwood Mac make much of their history of “ups and downs” as Buckingham puts it. Now that Christine is back playing again with ex-husband bassist John McVie there are three former couples on stage, if you take into account that drummer Mick Fleetwood romanced singer Nicks behind the back of Buckingham. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac, O2 Arena, review: ‘Nothing less than extraordinary’ | The Telegraph

25 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac Release ‘Behind the Mask’ Without Lindsey Buckingham | Ultimate Classic Rock

by Jeff Giles
April 10, 2015 10:44 AM
Ultimate Classic Rock Website

By the time they achieved massive mainstream success in the mid-’70s, Fleetwood Mac had already been through more lineup changes than most bands manage in their entire careers, and their best-selling album, Rumours, was partly inspired by a pair of collapsing relationships between bandmates.

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They were accustomed to forging on in the face of personal and professional drama, in other words — but even so, the trials they faced before recording their 15th studio album, 1990′s Behind the Mask, proved particularly threatening.

All things considered, it should have been an easy time for Fleetwood Mac, who battled back from some early ’80s doldrums with 1987′s commercially resurgent Tango in the Night. With another multiplatinum hit at their backs and a fresh slew of Top 40 singles marching up the charts, the band might have been able to settle into the sort of groove that had proven difficult in the years after Rumours‘ unwieldy success, if not for one thing: the inconveniently timed exit of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, whose songwriting and meticulous studio work had increasingly come to define their sound.

Buckingham’s departure was confirmed in the summer of 1988, causing the band to scramble to fill his parts before their tour for Tango. It was just the kind of painful and potentially disastrous conflict that the band had unfortunately become known for, but as drummer Mick Fleetwood later admitted, the split was a long time coming — and exacerbated by moves the other band members had made in the years leading up to it. Continue reading 25 Years Ago: Fleetwood Mac Release ‘Behind the Mask’ Without Lindsey Buckingham | Ultimate Classic Rock

Lindsey Buckingham: Out Of The Cradle – Album appreciation…

It seems as though the first ‘real’ solo album from Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham is not getting the love and attention that this album deserves, recently deleted from the UK iTunes store, no official release of the four music videos and limited appearances of live tracks in Lindsey’s recent solo live shows.

It’s our opinion that it’s about time that this fine collection of songs was re-visited and re-appreciated, but first, here’s some brief history…..

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Out Of The Cradle was released in 1992, five years after Lindsey had departed Fleetwood Mac to concentrate fully on his solo career and could be considered as his one and only true solo album where he was not a member of Fleetwood Mac (all other solo albums were recorded and released whilst he was juggling being a member of the band and releasing solo albums at the same time).

The solo album sessions actually began in the mid-eighties and the early tracks that these sessions produced morphed into what would become the Fleetwood Mac comeback album ‘Tango In The Night’, that was released in 1987, tracks such as Big Love and Family Man were originally recorded for Lindsey’s next solo album with Lindsey and longterm co-producer ‘Richard Dashut’ co-producing again, these tracks were turned over to the wider group effort, as the Tango sessions consumed Lindsey completely as vocalist, writer, guitarist, producer and arranger, the third solo album was put of the back burner whilst the Mac returned to it’s glory days with ‘Tango In The Night’. Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham: Out Of The Cradle – Album appreciation…

Mick Fleetwood illness cuts Fleetwood Mac concert short | Lincoln Journel Star

Lincoln Journel Star – Ground Zero
kwolgamott@journalstar.com

Midway through Fleetwood Mac’s Pinnacle Bank Arena concert Saturday night, drummer Mick Fleetwood suddenly became ill.

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“Mick is really sick,” Stevie Nicks told the crowd, adding that Fleetwood was backstage throwing up. “We feel terrible, but we can’t really make him play. Give us a minute, and we’ll figure out what to do.”

That turned out to be playing two more songs.

A drum tech named Steve took over Fleetwood’s kit for “Go Your Own Way,” which is usually the song the band plays before two encores.

Then, after a short break, Christine McVie returned to the stage at a grand piano, playing and singing “Songbird” accompanied by guitarist Lindsey Buckingham.

“Poor old Mick is really sick,” McVie said. “I sing this for him and for all of you.” Continue reading Mick Fleetwood illness cuts Fleetwood Mac concert short | Lincoln Journel Star

Mick Fleetwood – Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography Book Review

Book Review: Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac: The Autobiography by Mick Fleetwood

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Nice, reflective memoir from Mr Fleetwood

I enjoyed this book, nice to see that the Fleetwood Mac story (from Mick’s perspective) brought up to date, the book did allocate the nearly fifty percent to the early years before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band and really over covered the years post-1990 in the last third of the book, this was a surprise as Mick’s previous book covered up to 1990, but I guess he felt that he needed to tell this story again.

The pre-1990 section could be seen as a duplicate, but I felt that the story was told with a fresher sense of perspective, probably as it included information from Mick’s first wife Jenny Boyd that took the story in a slightly different direction with more emphasis on regrets and acknowledged the dysfunctional family life as opposed to the just being focused on Fleetwood Mac.

The later section that dealt with the post-1990 band was a little rushed, many years were skipped and as this timeframe is really lacking in print, this was a missed opportunity, the book was finished bang up to date with Christine McVie re-joining the band and Fleetwood Mac being out on the road again.

All in all, a good read for a fan of the band, or for a casual observer of Fleetwood Mac and Mick Fleetwood.

Four Stars out of Five

Purchase this book via Amazon

Music Review: Stevie Nicks – Beauty and the Beast (live 1986 Radio Broadcast)

Album Review: Beauty and the Beast (live 1986 Radio Broadcast) by Stevie Nicks

Poor Sound, but it is a bootleg after all….

71rTySi5VRL._SL1064_I was gifted this CD as an Xmas present and was curious hear the quality of this set, I did not expect a stellar live recording and my fears were as expected fully justified, the sound quality is poor for a ‘supposed’ official release (would rate this a B+ in the bootleg world) and the packaging is pretty average.

If you want to hear Stevie singing live I would suggest the official Soundstage set from 2009 is worth your hard-earned money, not this set that is really only a bootleg and i do wonder how the publishers get hold of these recordings and are allowed to sell them via Amazon, I suspect Ms Nicks sees nothing of the royalties here. Also bear in mind that if you look hard enough online or engage with Stevie Nicks fans online, I dare say that this recording (and others) exist as bootlegs that can normally be sourced for free.

Two stars out of five

Track List

1. Outside The Rain
2. Dreams
3. Talk To Me
4. I Need To Know
5. Beauty and the Beast
6. Leather and Lace
7. Stand Back
8. Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
9. How Still My Love
10. Edge of Seventeen
11. Rhiannon

Purchase here via amazon

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Album review: Stevie Nicks – 24 Karat Gold (Songs From The Vault) | London 24

07 November 2014
by Stephen Moore

Stevie Nicks – 24 Karat Gold

Old, half-finished songs picked up, dusted down and fully realised by Nicks in all her croaky, wizened glory.

With her first LP since 2011’s In Your Dreams, Nicks has decided to revisit some old demos to give them the full studio work-up.

Comprising songs almost exclusively written between 1969 and 1987, what could have been a rushed cash-in is instead a crafted, worthwhile document.

Raking over her earlier songwriting chops proves a canny move, and there’s plenty here that will appeal.

Her now gently burnished vocals lend appropriate weight to the weary, wistful casino worker in The Dealer, in which downcast guitar and piano back lines like “If I’d have known a little more I’d have run away,” while she croakily dispenses some hard-won wisdom from a scarred heart over gritty guitar in Hard Advice.

Although it outstays its welcome at 15 tracks, the range is wide enough to take in freaky Hammond organ solos on Starshine – the album’s galloping, bittersweet opener – intimate, stream-of-consciousness frustration and exasperation in Mabel Normand and a hard, funky guitar riff that Rage Against The Machine wouldn’t sniff at (the six-minute barnstormer I Don’t Care).

Her intimate delivery frequently disarms, be it alongside Mac-style vocal harmonies in Carousel, recorded for Nicks’ mother, or the soul-baring uncertainty of Lady, a simple acoustic ballad with plodding piano.

A slinky, upbeat Mississippi bar feel excites in Cathouse Blues and there’s an elegant drive to the title track.

In spite of its length, these reshaped, refined offcuts only serve to bolster Nicks’ impressive catalogue.

Rating: 4/5

Album review: 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault by Stevie Nicks | Yorkshire Evening Post (UK)

Yorkshire Evening Post (UK)
by James Nuttall

Fleetwood Mac may have just started a mammoth tour of the United States, their first with songbird Christine McVie in 17 years, but Stevie Nicks has still managed to release a new solo album, this month.

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24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault, is a collection of 14 songs from Nicks’ enormous back catalogue of demos that never made it onto her records- songs which were written between 1969 and 1995.

Recorded over a three-month period, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart was once again on production duties. After producing her last album, In Your Dreams, which was something of a let-down both musically and lyrically compared to 2001’s Trouble in Shangri-La, 24 Karat Gold makes much more of a statement than both of the aforementioned releases.  Continue reading Album review: 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault by Stevie Nicks | Yorkshire Evening Post (UK)