Category Archives: UK Articles

Lindsey Buckingham, Release Info, Solo Activity, UK Articles

Lindsey Buckingham | Classic Rock

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Interview: Bill DeMain
Classic Rock Magazine, Dec 2021, Issue 296

Ousted from Fleetwood Mac, the guitarist/vocalist bounced back with one of our albums of 2021. While happy to continue as a solo artist, he’s still hopeful that he can make one more record with the Mac.

We had this legacy that was all about rising above our difficulties,” Lindsey Buckingham tells Classic Rock. “That was always the subtext of Fleetwood Mac – that we stayed together through thick and thin.” Buckingham is reflecting on his lingering disappointment over being forced out of the band in 2018. It couldn’t have been fun seeing the Mac then tour without him, even if it did take two guitarists to fill his absence. “I didn’t see the show, but looking at the set list I thought: ‘Hmm, it’s like a covers band.” Add to that his triple bypass heart surgery, a vocal cord scare and covid, and it’s been a tumultuous few years for the singular 72-year-old-musician and producer. All of which helps make his brilliant new self-titled solo album such a triumph. Deeply personal songs, artful vocal arrangements and fiery guitar work – it has all his trademark touches, and also, as he describes below, a weird prescience about it.

This record totally upends the cliché of a seventy-something artist and diminishing returns and having your best work behind you.

Thank you, that’s very kind. I think a lot of it is about the choices you make along the way, and somehow not losing your perspective, you know? I’ve seen a lot of people do that. I’ve seen people in Fleetwood Mac do that, allowing themselves to be defined by external forces and expectations rather than their inner beliefs and the soul of where all this stuff should come from. Staying creative takes work and not getting distracted by the task of that, for sure.

Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham | Classic Rock →
Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, UK Articles

Lindsey Buckingham blames “disoriented” Stevie Nicks for the lack of new Fleetwood Mac music | Classic Rock

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Dec 6, 2021

Lindsey Buckingham says the fact that Fleetwood Mac haven’t released a new album since 2003 “wasn’t for lack of trying”

(Image credit: Rob Ball/WireImage)

Lindsey Buckingham blames Stevie Nicks for the lack of new music from Fleetwood Mac, telling Classic Rock magazine that the fact that the legendary rock band haven’t released a studio album since 2003‘s Say You Will “wasn’t for lack of trying.”

Buckingham, who released a self-titled solo album earlier this year, was fired from Fleetwood Mac in 2018, and claimed earlier this year that Nicks was the catalyst for that decision: speaking with the LA Times, the guitarist said that Nicks issued a ‘him or me’ ultimatum to the band, in a bid to assert more control over the group, an accusation Nicks has denied.

Now, in a new interview running in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine, on sale on December 7, Buckingham suggests that his former partner’s reticence to get involved in the writing and recording of new Fleetwood Mac material is the reason there’s been no new album from the band in 18 years.

Buckingham claims that work had actually begun on a new Fleetwood Mac album back in 2012.

“I had a bunch of songs, and Mick [Fleetwood] and John [McVie] and I went in with the producer Mitchell Froom and cut a bunch of stuff,” he tells Classic Rock. “This was before Christine [McVie] returned to the band in 2014. We very much wanted to draw Stevie in, and for some reason she refused to participate.” Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham blames “disoriented” Stevie Nicks for the lack of new Fleetwood Mac music | Classic Rock →

Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac 2018/19, Lindsey Buckingham, Release Info, Solo Activity, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham on Stevie Nicks: ‘She’s never been over me’ | The Times

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The Times (UK)
Will Hodgkinson
September 17 2021

Last week the singer revealed he had been fired from the group by Nicks. The reason? She’s probably still in love with him, he tells Will Hodgkinson

Lindsey Buckingham: “It’s hard for me to know what Stevie’s mentality is towards me — but I know what mine is to her”CHANTAL ANDERSON/NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX/EYEVINE
Lindsey Buckingham: “It’s hard for me to know what Stevie’s mentality is towards me — but I know what mine is to her” CHANTAL ANDERSON/NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX/EYEVINE

The soap opera continues. Last week Lindsey Buckingham announced that he was fired in 2018 from Fleetwood Mac because Stevie Nicks made an ultimatum: it was either him or her. They chose her. It was, says the guitarist who joined the band in 1975 with Nicks, then his girlfriend, the result of long-simmering tensions. They reached boiling point after Nicks refused to delay a tour so Buckingham could promote his solo album, and because of a perceived slight during her speech at the MusiCares charity event in New York, when she felt he was smirking behind her back. Nicks responded by stating: “I did not have him fired, I did not ask for him to be fired, I did not demand he be fired. Frankly, I fired myself.”

Rather than fuel the he-said-she-said back and forth, I’m interested to know where all this antipathy came from in the first place. Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 masterpiece, Rumours, was dominated by songs about the pair’s romantic tussles. She wrote Dreams about him, he wrote Go Your Own Way, Second Hand News and Never Going Back Again about her, and since then they have dealt with cocaine addiction, alcohol abuse, solo careers, Nicks going through rehab, Buckingham getting married to the interior designer Kristen Messner, and countless worldwide tours. If they could survive all of that, why should it fall apart in 2018 over a tour delay and a snigger? Continue reading Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham on Stevie Nicks: ‘She’s never been over me’ | The Times →

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

‘Like Trump and the Republicans’: Lindsey Buckingham reignites Stevie Nicks feud | The Guardian

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Ben Beaumont-Thomas
Thu 9 Sep 2021 17.38 BST

War of words takes place between former Fleetwood Mac couple, with Buckingham accusing the band of dishonouring its legacy

Going their own way … Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Composite: Getty

One of the bitterest feuds in pop music rolls on, after Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks – once a couple whose breakup powered the classic album Rumours – have strongly disputed Buckingham’s departure from the band.

In 2018, it was announced that Buckingham would not be appearing on a forthcoming Fleetwood Mac tour. Buckingham sued the band later that year, saying that he was “suddenly cut off” after a dispute over being able to postpone the tour to play solo dates.

The lawsuit was settled out of court, with Buckingham saying: “We’ve all signed off on something. I’m happy enough with it. I’m not out there trying to twist the knife at all. I’m trying to look at this with some level of compassion, some level of wisdom.”

But in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Buckingham has said he was ousted because Nicks “wanted to shape the band in her own image, a more mellow thing”. He added: “I think others in the band just felt that they were not empowered enough individually, for whatever their own reasons, to stand up for what was right. And so it became a little bit like Trump and the Republicans.”

He said the ensuing tour, with Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn replacing him on guitar, “seemed somewhat generic and perhaps bordering on being a cover band … what this did was dishonour the legacy that we built”. Continue reading ‘Like Trump and the Republicans’: Lindsey Buckingham reignites Stevie Nicks feud | The Guardian →

Lindsey Buckingham, Release Info, Reviews, Solo Activity, UK Articles

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM – THEN PLAY ON | UNCUT

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Uncut Magazine
September 2021

There’s not much that can keep LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM down.

Not heart surgery, the pandemic or even his exit from Fleetwood Mac. As he resumes his solo career as one of rock’s most discreet musical radicals, Buckingham tells Tom Pinnock about false starts, his “crisp and dirty” new songs, the death of Peter Green and the ongoing soap opera around his alma mater. “Who knows,

LINDSEY Buckingham steps out into the afternoon heat of west Los Angeles. Surrounded by dogs, he takes the short walk across the yard from his home to his out-house studio.

“We’ve got way too many actually,” he explains. “We’ve got one miniature poodle, a miniature Australian shepherd, a white lab and two Pomeranians. Yeah, I think one is enough…”

Based around an old reel-to-reel tape machine, the studio appears to be a fairly primitive set-up – at least for a man of Buckingham’s wealth and reputation. But then, Lindsey Buckingham has always been one to confound expectations. He hasn’t used the studio much since 2018, when the 10 songs on his new, self-titled solo album – his first in a decade – were recorded. Back then, things were different. Buckingham’s heart was doing fine, Covid was unheard of, and he was still a member of Fleetwood Mac.

In fact, the subject of Buckingham’s departure from the group in 2018 – after he requested a delay to their upcoming tour so he could release his own album – comes up early in our conversation, after Buckingham himself raises it. It is, he explains, inexorably tied in with the origins of this new album. “Once I’d been ousted from the band – which in itself was just so absurd after all the troubles we’d been through and managed to overcome for 40-plus years – I was poised to put the album out. Then / ended up having a bypass operation, so we had to kick it down the road a little further. And then the pandemic hit. So it’s been a sort of running gag, to have so many false starts.”

Continue reading LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM – THEN PLAY ON | UNCUT →
Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Covid: Stevie Nicks cancels US performances to ‘keep healthy’ | BBC News

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11 Aug 2021

Singer Stevie Nicks has cancelled all of her gigs for the rest of the year due to rising Covid cases in the US.

The 73-year-old Fleetwood Mac and solo star had been due to perform at events in Colorado, California and Texas.

“My primary goal is to keep healthy so I can continue singing for the next decade or longer,” she said.

America is currently averaging more than 100,000 new cases a day for the first time since February, due to the Delta variant of the virus.

“These are challenging times with challenging decisions that have to be made,” the singer explained in a statement.

“I want everyone to be safe and healthy and the rising Covid cases should be of concern to all of us.”

‘Extremely cautious’

Nicks made her name in the 1970s as the frontwoman of the second incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, singing hits like Go Your Own Way and Dreams, and went on to enjoy success as a solo star

“While I’m vaccinated, at my age, I am still being extremely cautious and for that reason have decided to skip the five performances I had planned for 2021,” she continued.

“Because singing and performing have been my whole life, my primary goal is to keep healthy so I can continue singing for the next decade or longer.

“I’m devastated and I know the fans are disappointed, but we will look towards a brighter 2022.”

Her cancelled concerts include appearances at the Austin City Limits Music and BottleRock Napa Valley festivals.

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Lindsey Buckingham says he never got “closure” with Stevie Nicks | NME

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By Will Lavin

“We had to spend an awful lot of time together without ever having gotten closure from each other”

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. CREDIT: Lester Cohen/Getty Images

Lindsey Buckingham has said he never got “closure” with former Fleetwood Mac bandmate and ex-parter Stevie Nicks following their much-publicised breakup.

Speaking in a new interview, Buckingham, who was fired from the band in April 2018, discussed his relationship with Nicks and reflected on not getting any closure after their fallout.

“And really, again, that was part of the deal with Stevie and me was that we had to spend an awful lot of time together without ever having gotten closure from each other,” he told Nile Rodgers on his Apple Music 1 show Deep Hidden Meaning Radio With Nile Rodgers.

Buckingham continued: “Most people, when they break up, they don’t see each other for a long time or maybe ever again. But you’re not constantly having to not only see someone but, in my case, make the choice to do right for someone when I didn’t always feel that I wanted to, you know?

“In order to take a song of hers, like ‘Dreams’, which needed so much construction around it to take those same two chords and make them evolve from section A to section B to section C. And the love and the choice to do the right thing and to have the integrity to do that. It comes at a price sometimes, you know? It comes at the price of having your defences come up, and sometimes over a period of time, it’s hard to get those down.

Continue reading Lindsey Buckingham says he never got “closure” with Stevie Nicks | NME →

Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Stevie Nicks – On The Wings Of A Dove | Classic Rock

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Classic Rock Magazine
Issue 288, June 2021
By Bill Demain

Forty years ago, Stevie Nicks stepped out from the chaos and control of Fleetwood Mac with a hit-laden debut solo album that showed she could fly just as high on her own.

It’s September 1980. From the deck of the Pacific Palisades home that Stevie Nicks was sharing with her new boyfriend, producer Jimmy lovine, you could hear the hypnotic push and pull of the ocean. Inside, among the tropical plants, Persian rugs and paintings of dragons and gypsies, there was the even more alluring sound of three siren voices dovetailing in perfect harmony. Stevie and Lori Perry and Sharon Celani, her two closest friends, would spend hours around the upright piano, singing everything from old country and western covers to Stevie’s new songs. It was here that the seeds took root for Bella Donna, the breakout solo record that forever changed both the dynamic in Fleetwood Mac and Nicks’s life as an artist.

Exhausted from the previous two years of high-stakes drama around the recording and touring of Fleetwood Mac’s epic double album Tusk, the 32-year-old singer welcomed the laid-back etting and easy camaraderie with her girlfriends.

“In Fleetwood Mac there’s always a chaos,” Nicks told me in 2003. “It’s not easy for us. It never will be. It hasn’t ever been. Whenever we get back into a room together and start working, we don’t agree on a lot of stuff. And we’ve fought through every single record we have ever made.”

Part of that fight was getting songs on a record. Having three songwriters in Mac meant that after six years in the band Nicks had built up a backlog of unused top-drawer material. “When we’d do an album, they’d hear fifteen of my songs and invariably pick the two that were my least favourite,” she complained. “Some of my favourite songs wouldn’t get used.” Continue reading Stevie Nicks – On The Wings Of A Dove | Classic Rock →

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Release Info, UK Articles

Mick Fleetwood: ‘You’re talking to the dude who never gives up. We’re still a band’ | The Times (UK)

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Will Hodgkinson
The Times

The drummer talks about the soap opera that has been Fleetwood Mac since 1967 — and the all-star tribute to bandmate Peter Green

Mick Fleetwood at last year’s London Palladium concert
ROSS HALFIN

For the past 54 years Mick Fleetwood, 73, has kept Fleetwood Mac going in the face of insurmountable odds. When the guitarist Lindsey Buckingham was fired from the band in 2018, in part linked to his former girlfriend Stevie Nicks announcing that she could not bear to share a stage with him again, it was just the latest hurdle for the soft-rock stadium fillers who have faced everything from divorces to affairs to drug-induced breakdowns.

The problems began when Peter Green, the band’s founder and one of the greatest guitarists, took LSD at a commune in Munich in March 1970 and never recovered. He left Fleetwood Mac a few months later.

“He was a lot of fun, right up until the day he walked out of the band,” says Fleetwood down the line from his home in Hawaii. “He had a real sense of ambition about what he wanted to do. You can listen to Man of the World now and hear the signs [in 1977 Green was diagnosed with schizophrenia], but I thought Peter had just written a sad song about a feeling.”

Perhaps that hindsight helped to spur Fleetwood on to put together a remarkable concert, which took place at the London Palladium on February 25, 2020 — just before the pandemic hit the UK — in honour of Green. Everyone from Fleetwood Mac’s keyboardist and singer Christine McVie to Pete Townshend to David Gilmour joined in, alongside some rather surprising Peter Green fans. Continue reading Mick Fleetwood: ‘You’re talking to the dude who never gives up. We’re still a band’ | The Times (UK) →

Fleetwood Mac, UK Articles

Drug abuse, violence, and the making of Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In The Night | Classic Rock

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Forget Rumours: Fleetwood Mac’s craziest album was Tango In The Night

(Image credit: Barry King/Getty Images)

In December 2012, three members of Fleetwood Mac cried together, in public, at the memory of something that had happened all of 25 years previously.

Singer Stevie Nicks, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and drummer Mick Fleetwood were doing a round of media interviews to announce the band’s 2013 tour when they were asked about the events of 1987, when Buckingham quit the band following the release of the album Tango In The Night.

Buckingham did not respond directly to the interviewer. Instead he turned to Nicks and Fleetwood and reiterated his reasons for leaving the group at a critical stage of their career: foremost among them, his sense that Nicks and Fleetwood had lost their minds and souls to drugs.

“What Lindsey said in that interview was very moving,” Fleetwood says. “He told us: ‘I just couldn’t stand to see you doing what you were doing to yourselves. Did you ever realise that? You were so out of control that it made me incredibly sad, and I couldn’t take it any more.’ It was really powerful stuff. This was someone saying: ‘I love you.’ It hit Stevie and me like a ton of bricks. And we all cried, right there in the interview.”

It was a moment that Mick Fleetwood describes as “profound”. But even after all these years, his memories of that time in 1987 are still raw. For when Lindsey Buckingham walked out on Fleetwood Mac, he did not go quietly. When Buckingham told the band he was leaving, it led to a blazing argument that rapidly escalated into a physical altercation between him and former lover Nicks, in which she claimed she feared for her life. Continue reading Drug abuse, violence, and the making of Fleetwood Mac’s Tango In The Night | Classic Rock →