Category Archives: Solo Activity

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Solo Activity, Tour Info, Video Clip

Lindsey Buckingham interview with Tavis Smilay | PBS

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Lindsey Buckingham – The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer talks about reuniting with the iconic band, Fleetwood Mac, for its “On With The Show” concert tour.

  • Aired: 12/17/2014
  • 26:36
  • Rating: NR

Interview Transcription via Nicole21290 (re-produced here on this site with permission)

TAVIS SMILEY. 17th DECEMBER 2014.

Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham is of course one of the reasons for the phenomenal success of Fleetwood Mac. He’s been a part of that band for some forty years now with only a slight break to focus, of course, on his highly successful solo career. Fleetwood Mac, with all the bandmates, is now back on tour for the first time in sixteen years. Before we start out conversation, a look at Lindsey performing ‘Big Love’ at the Saban Theatre here in Los Angeles. Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham interview with Tavis Smilay | PBS →

Reviews, Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

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

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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

Reviews, Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

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

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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) →

Reviews, Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Stevie Nicks: 24 Karat Gold | The Times

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Stevie Nicks: 24 Karat Gold – Review

The Times
Album Reviews
Joe Clay
October 4 2014

2/5 Stars

The eighth solo album from the Fleetwood Mac songbird is subtitled Songs from the Vault. It’s a collection of spruced-up versions of demos that Nicks recorded between 1969 and ’87. From the uptempo Starshine to the ploddy AOR of The Dealer it all feels rather half-baked, with only the title track having an ounce of the Mac’s magic. It’s not solely a vanity exercise (Nicks’s raw, nasal delivery is still distinctive), but as with most of these endeavours, there’s a reason why they were originally left in the vault. (Warner Bros, out Mon)

Stevie Nicks 24 K Gold advert

Music Video, Release Info, Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, Video Clip

Stevie Nicks is still going her own way | Digital Journal

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By EARL DITTMAN
Digital Journel

The longtime Fleetwood Mac vocalist opens up about the making of her new solo album, her past pregnancy with The Eagles’ Don Henley, what drove her into rehab, getting older and how she felt going through photos for her upcoming photography exhibition.

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Stevie Nicks readily admits she’s always been a driven woman. And, at the age of 66, she is showing no signs of slowing down. Nicks is about to hit the road with the original Rumours line-up of Fleetwood Mac — Lindsay Buckingham, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie (who left the band in 1998) — for the North American leg of their On With The Show Tour (which begins September 30 in Minneapolis).

Additionally, on October 7, while she’s busy belting out Mac classic such as “Rhiannon,” “Landslide,” “Sara,” “Dreams” and “The Chain” for loyal Big Apple fans, Nicks will unveil her latest solo record, 24 Karat Gold – Songs From the Vault, a collection of lost songs she had written between the late ’60s and mid-’90s.

“When (John McVie) got cancer, we had to cancel our tour of Australia so I had some free time, and I thought, ‘Maybe I should make a record,'” she told Billboard about the origins of 24 Karat Gold. “All over the Internet, there are songs I wrote but never released, and people keep saying, “Why don’t you record these songs for real?” I’d never had time to do that. Now I had an empty, precious three months. Continue reading Stevie Nicks is still going her own way | Digital Journal →

Release Info, Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Stevie Nicks ‘feeling extremely old’ | BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

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Belfast Telegraph
27 September 2014

Stevie Nicks, 66, has spoken about the wisdom she gained over the years.

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The 66-year-old Fleetwood Mac singer is currently promoting her latest solo album 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, which is compiled of new recordings based on demos Stevie sang between 1969 and 1987.

And upon reflection of her life thus far, the songstress believes she stressed out about far too many things as a young woman.

“Part of me is feeling extremely old now, and part of me is feeling extremely young. Because I look at these pictures and realise I worried about things that I shouldn’t have been worrying about,” she explained in an interview with Billboard magazine. “Like the fact that I had little marionette lines around my mouth when I was 29, and I was complaining about them. I wouldn’t go out to the beach without a sarong from my neck to my ankles.

“Now I see a picture of myself from that era in a bikini and I’m like, ‘You looked great. And you missed out on a lot of fun vacations, because you were so sure that you were fat.’”

Mabel Normand is one of the songs from her new LP that holds deep significance for Stevie.

The biographical tune is based on the life of the eponymous actress who died after struggling with a severe cocaine addiction.

“Give Mabel Normand a special listen. Mabel was an amazing actress and comedian from the ’20s, and she was a terrible cocaine addict,” Stevie explained. “She eventually died of tuberculosis, but it was really her drug addiction that killed her. I saw a documentary of her in 1985, when I was at my lowest point with the blow. I was watching TV one night, the movie came on, and I really felt a connection with her. That’s when I wrote the song. Less than a year later, I went to rehab at Betty Ford.”

Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks to display unseen Polaroid self-portraits for first time in New York | The Independent (UK)

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The Independent (UK)
JESS DENHAM 
Friday 26 September 2014

Nicks took the photographs at home and on tour during the Seventies and Eighties

radar-fleetwood-getty]Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks is displaying a collection of self-portraits taken on her Polaroid camera during the Seventies and Eighties.

New York’s Morrison Hotel Gallery will house the 24 Karat Gold exhibition, presented in accompaniment with her forthcoming October album, 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault.

Nicks credits her insomnia for the creation of the photos. “Some people don’t sleep at night – I am one of those people,” she said in a statement.

“These pictures were taken long after everyone had gone to bed – I would begin after midnight and go until 4 or 5 in the morning. I stopped at sunrise like a vampire.”

Nicks added that she “never really thought anyone would ever see” the images, which she stored in shoeboxes.

Continue reading Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks to display unseen Polaroid self-portraits for first time in New York | The Independent (UK) →

Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Stevie Nicks – 24 Karat Gold – Songs From The Vault Review | Uncut Magazine

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Uncut Magazine, November, 2014
by Piers Martin
Rating: 7/10

Fleetwood Mac star heads to Nashville, chasing the songs that nearly got away.

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As if Stevie Nicks hasn’t done enough soul-searching during her 40 years in one of the world’s biggest bands… On her eighth solo album, Nicks immerses herself in her past, gathering 16 of her long-lost songs together like errant children and dressing them in traditional costume – the billowing robes and gypsy shawl – before sending them out, fullyNicksed, into the world.24 Karat Gold – Songs From The Vault finds the 66-year old getting her memories in order with the help of longtime associates Waddy Wachtel (he first played with her on 1973’s Buckingham Nicks) and Dave Stewart, producer of Nicks’ last solo set, 2011’s In Your Dreams, and a band of hired hands in Nashville who knocked out new versions of Nicks’ old songs in 15 days last May. In Your Dreams, somewhat tarnished by Dave Stewart’s sweet tooth, took 14 months. Fleetwood Mac records take far longer.

The songs in question stem from demos Nicks wrote at various stages in her career between 1969 and 1995, intended for her solo or Fleetwood Mac albums. One ballad, the bonus track “Twisted”, written in 1995 with Lindsey Buckingham for the film Twister, she felt deserved a wider audience. “When songs go into movies you might as well dump them out the window as you’re driving by because they never get heard,” she tells Uncut.

Continue reading Stevie Nicks – 24 Karat Gold – Songs From The Vault Review | Uncut Magazine →

Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks to display rare archive portraits in New York in Oct

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The Morrison Hotel Gallery, which specializes in music photography – not only photographs of musicians, but also photography by musicians – will present a show of self-portraits by Stevie Nicks from between 1975 and 1987. The pictures for the show were selected by Dave Stewart, the Eurythmics guitarist, who co-produced her “In Your Dreams” album. The show, called “24 Karat Gold” – also the name of Ms. Nicks’s new album (a version of which will come with a book of Ms. Nicks’s photographs) – is devoted entirely to selfies taken in the wee hours of the night, both at home and on tour, using Polaroid cameras.

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Why self-portraits?

“I wanted to learn how to become a photographer,” Ms. Nicks said in comments forwarded by her spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg. “And I don’t sleep at night, so I thought, who am I going to ask to stay up all night, and then do a show tomorrow? So I’m not going to get Christine,” she said, referring to Christine McVie, her colleague in Fleetwood Mac. “She’s going to say, ‘Are you crazy? I’m going to the bar. Bye.’”

In search of variety, Ms. Nicks used props and costumes, often tinkering with lighting and placement through the night. “I did everything,” she said. “I was the stylist, the makeup artist, the furniture mover, the lighting director — it was my joy. I was the model.”

She continued taking self-portraits for more than a decade, until, as she put it, “the Polaroids were just almost impossible to use, because there was just no more film and they all broke down.”

The pictures have not been exhibited before. Mostly, Ms. Nicks said, they were stored in shoeboxes, where she filed them soon after taking them.

The exhibition will be at 201 Mulberry Street on Oct. 10 and 11, and will move to the Morrison Hotel Gallery at 116 Prince Street on Oct. 13, where it will run for the rest of October.

Continue reading Stevie Nicks to display rare archive portraits in New York in Oct →

Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Stevie Nicks to unveil intimate late-night Polaroids at gallery launch | Daily Express (UK)

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Daily Express (UK)
Published: Sat, September 20, 2014

A collection of candid Polaroids taken of FLEETWOOD MAC star STEVIE NICKS 40 years ago are to be unveiled as part of a new exhibition in New York.

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The 24 Karat Gold showcase at the Morrison Hotel Gallery will coincide with the release of the rocker’s new album, 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault, which will be released in early October (14).

Nicks reveals she took the self-portraits “long after everyone had gone to bed”, explaining, “Some people don’t sleep at night – I am one of those people.”

She adds, “I would begin after midnight and go until four or five in the morning. I stopped at sunrise – like a vampire… I never really thought anyone would ever see these pictures. They went into shoeboxes, where they remained.

“I did everything – I was the stylist, the make-up artist, the furniture mover, the lighting director. It was my joy – I was the model.”

Nicks’ photographer pal Dave Stewart, who also co-produced her new album and 2011’s In Your Dreams, selected the photos which will be on show to fans and the public at the gallery.

The singer reveals to the New York Times that she has boxes full of Polaroids of herself taken between 1975 and 1987 and only stopped snapping them when her Polaroid cameras “broke down”.