Will Fleetwood Mac release a new studio album?
Will Stevie Nicks join the band in recording the album?
Will Stevie Nicks tour again with Fleetwood Mac?
Is there a future for Fleetwood Mac?
So many questions, all without any real answers from the band, other than that Stevie Nicks is touring her 2014 album “24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault” making up time she gave to Fleetwood Mac for the “On With The Show” that brought Christine McVie back into Fleetwood Mac.
However, the rest of the band (well that is not technically accurate as John McVie does not generally say anything to the press) have been talking about recording new music for a new potential Fleetwood Mac studio album and the possibility of another worldwide tour that is likely to be scheduled to co-incide with the 40th anniversary of Rumours, as well as the 50th anniversary of the band being formed and the 30th anniversary of Tango In The Night and 20th anniversary of The Dance (Fleetwood Mac seems to have a thing for years with seven in them!!)
But, Stevie Nicks appears not to be committing to the band, is she about to splinter the group and force a Fleetwood, McVie, McVie and Buckingham version of the band to cement their legacy and exploit the huge commercial opening that will begin next year when the anniversary year for Fleetwood Mac commences, this will likely be the last hurrah for the band before old father time chimes in.
Firstly let’s look at some hard facts, since Christine McVie left Fleetwood Mac back in 1998 after their successful tour and album that was “The Dance”, Stevie Nicks rode the re-established love of Fleetwood Mac for all it was worth with a 3 CD career retrospective “The Enchanted Works Of Stevie Nicks” and commenced a tour playing some her of deep cuts from her back catalogue. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie stayed out of sight and Lindsey Buckingham wrested with what to do with the body of work that he had built up since his last solo release. Stevie Nicks continued her solo activities with 2001’s “Trouble In Shangri-La” album and took the album out on the road for a North American tour.
However, something was brewing within Fleetwood Mac, the four-piece of Fleetwood, McVie (John), Buckingham and Nicks had agreed that another studio album was called for and as Stevie Nicks was completing her touring commitments, the rest of the band started work on a new album that would be released in 2003 and titled as “Say You Will”, the band also commenced a two year worldwide promotional tour to support the album.
Stevie has been on record in the media that she did not enjoy the recording sessions for “Say You Will’, nor did she enjoy the subsequent tour, she spoke of really missing the presence of Christine McVie and even implied that ‘if‘ she were tour with Fleetwood Mac again, then another female would be needed to be drafted into the band, this spawned the bizarre idea that Sheryl Crow would join the band. (Sheryl of course did not subsequently join Fleetwood Mac).
Bringing the story a little more up to date, during 2008/09 and the subsequent solo activities from Lindsey Buckingham (two solo albums, one live album and two solo tours) and from Stevie Nicks (a greatest hits collection, a live album and constant touring) have now passed, the future of Fleetwood Mac was again obeing discussed, Lindsey Buckingham was very keen on following up ‘Say You Will’ with another studio album and subsequent tour, Mick and John seemed to be on-board with this direction, but there was a problem…. Stevie Nicks had decided that due to the internet and music privacy that albums no longer sold and that Fleetwood Mac should not bother recording anything new, her reasoning was “let’s go out and play the hits” and this turned out to the 2009 ‘Unleashed’ tour that was again performed by the four-piece of Fleetwood, McVie (John), Buckingham and Nicks, this was the first time that the Buckingham/Nicks incarnation of the band has ever toured without a new studio or live album to promote. The ‘Unleashed’ tour was successful and brought this phase of Fleetwood Mac to another end.
Again, a period of solo activity commenced again with another new solo album and tour from Lindsey Buckingham and surprisingly a solo album and tour from Stevie Nicks (remember that albums no longer sell, but this did not stop Stevie releasing ‘In Your Dreams”).
In 2013 the time came up again to discuss the future of Fleetwood Mac as a working, touring band, again Lindsey, Mick and John were keen to make a new studio album, but again (do you see a pattern here) Stevie Nicks was not keen, somehow the band agreed that they would release a four-track EP that was imaginably titled as “Extended Play”, this collection of songs contained three tracks from Lindsey Buckingham and an old Buckingham/Nicks outtake that Stevie Nicks contributed. Fleetwood Mac agreed to tour throughout 2013 and this was a greatest hits type of tour again, however something unexpected and magical happened…
At the end of the 2013 tour on the stops in England, Christine McVie requested to join the band on-stage to perform “Don’t Stop”, this led to Christine officially re-joining the band and the hasty booking of another world tour that would be billed as “On With The Show” where the five-piece toured extensively throughout 2014 and 2015.
Just before the “On With The Show” tour, Stevie found time to re-enter the studio and cut a deep cut album of old outtakes and demos from her previous solo album, this was titled as “24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vaults”, but Stevie was unable to tour this record as this clashed with the lucrative Fleetwood Mac “On With The Show” tour with the returning Christine McVie.
As the logistics for the “On With The Show” tour were being prepared, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie found time to re-enter the studio and start working on new tracks for a proposed Fleetwood Mac album, these tracks have working titles such as “Carnival Began”, “Red Sun”, “How I Feel” and “Too Far Gone”. Christine McVie gave an interview to The L.A Times back in May 2014 where it was mentioned that Lindsey and Christine had written and recorded eight new songs, which will help populate a new Fleetwood Mac album along with seven or eight more that the band recorded about 18 months ago while gearing up for the 2013 tour.
“I committed to join the band hook, line and sinker — recording, everything,”
Christine McVie, L.A Times. May 2nd, 2014 .
The band subsequently set off on the “On With The Show” tour that took the five-piece across North America, Europe and Australia/New Zealand, the tour lasted until November 2015 with limited time to pick up the recording of the new album. However once rested after the tour the ‘fan expectation‘ was that the band, including Stevie Nicks would finish off the album, ready for a 2017 release that would tie-in nicely with the commercial window of the various band and album release anniversaries, but one person in the band had other ideas…
Fast track to Sept 2016, and Stevie Nicks announces a live tour to promote her solo album from 2014 “24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault”, this tour initially was scheduled till Dec 2016 and was extended for an additional second leg in 2017, more worrying is that in a recent interview Stevie Nicks has again implied that she does not want a new Fleetwood Mac album and that the band should just tour again, albums don’t sell anyone, so why bother…
“The only reason that I don’t really wanna do a record is because I think that, in a year and a half, we’ll probably go out and do another Fleetwood Mac tour, since Christine has come back,”
“Do we want to go and close ourselves up in a studio for a year, [and] make a record that’s really good but that probably won’t sell, because records don’t really sell that much?” she asks. “And then we’ll have been stuffed together for a year in one room, and…when you come out of that room, we may not want to go on a tour!”
“I think that we should choose the tour over the record,” she tells ABC Radio. “Because touring is much more fun than making a record when you don’t have any idea how that record’s gonna come out.”
Stevie Nicks, ABC Radio. Dec 2nd 2016.
Christine, Lindsey and Mick have stressed their desire to continue Fleetwood Mac as a working, recording and touring band, they feel that a new album will cement their legacy, the fan-base are desperate for a new album, but Stevie Nicks is not on-board. Potentially the newly recorded tracks may get some type of release on a Lindsey Buckingham / Christine McVie collaboration album, with Mick and John playing drums and bass, but isn’t this just Fleetwood Mac! or does Stevie Nicks hold all the bargaining rights and will she decline the band their legacy and the fan-base one last album of the five fireflies.
I hope to write another paragraph to this article within 2017, where Fleetwood Mac collectively come to their senses, put the petty in-band fighting behind them and release a true artistic statement and tour the hell out of new material and their classic hits before calling it a day, here’s hoping that 2017 will bring forward this next chapter…
April 2018 Update
So 2017 has been and gone and as suspected there was no new Fleetwood Mac album, Lindsey & Christine took the opportunity to release their own self-titled album and took their new songs out on tour, there was no place for Mick and John on this tour, instead Lindsey took his solo band out on the road.
The band (including Stevie) are now talking about a new worldwide tour in 2018, but there seems to be some wrangling going on, at the time of writing (April 2018) no tour dates have been announced and the proposed Fleetwood Mac Sirius Station has been delayed indefinitely. Fans are now wondering again what is going on behind closed doors in the Fleetwood Mac camp,
As always nothing in the world of Fleetwood Mac seems easy and straightforward, expect another update to this article as and when any news surfaces
Article originally written and posted on Dec 21, 2016, updated on Apr 1, 2018
Article from Fleetwood Mac UK ‘Go Your Own Way’
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