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Stevie Nicks: The Fleetwood Mac Siren Finds Solo Stardom | BAM Magazine

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Fleetwood Mac’s siren soars with her first solo album Bella Donna.

by Blair Jackson
September 1981
BAM Magazine

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THE VIEW FROM THE living room of Stevie Nicks’ Marina del Rey condominium is spectacular. As far as the eye can see there is nothing but an endless expanse of sand, ocean and sky. It is probably as close to a truly peaceful place as can be found in the Los Angeles area. Inside, the golden rays of late afternoon sun cast a glow on the warm pinks and beiges that dominate the room. Two rooms away is the bustling nerve center of the household, where workers have been handling phone calls and a stream of interviewers awaiting an audience with the hottest-selling artist in rock and roll.

Actually, the word “audience” is terribly unfair, because it implies pretension, and Stevie Nicks doesn’t leave a pretentious bone in her body. Though she has been a platinum selling artist for six years as a member of Fleetwood Mac, and her face has been steadily gracing the covers of magazines as long, the Stevie Nicks I interviewed for two and one-half hours recently seemed remark­ably unaffected by success and candid! almost to a fault.               ,

Her first solo album, Bella Donna, is already a smash hit — it is sitting at – Number One on Billboard’s chart as this is being written, and it looks like it will only he a week or two before –Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,– the gutsy, rock single that she sings as a duet with the song’s author, Tom Petty, also hits Number One. A new Fleetwood Mac album is due this fall, too, so it looks, as though the airwaves will belong to Stevie Nicks for the next several months.

Nicks’ rise to fame was a relatively-quick one. She and Lindsey Buckingham moved to Los Angeles in the early ’70s after several years as members of the once-popular Bay Area hand Fritz. ‘They cut an album as a duo (still available on Polygram) and then were asked to join Fleetwood Mac, which was struggling following the departure of Bob Welch. The first album the new five-piece Mac made Fleetwood Mac, was an enormous hit, thanks largely to the presence of Nicks and Buckingham, whose songwriting and singing totally dominated the LP. “Rhiannon,” a swirling Nicks tune about a Welsh witch, immediately established Nicks as one of the top women singer-songwriters in rock. Continue reading Stevie Nicks: The Fleetwood Mac Siren Finds Solo Stardom | BAM Magazine →

Article Archive Pages, Fleetwood Mac, Reviews, Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks Steals the Show – Atlanta Journal Review, 1980

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Atlanta Journal
August 11, 1980
By Andrew Slater

Standing in a backstage room at the Omni, Stevie Nicks stared longingly at a bowl of Cheetos cheese balls. “I love these things,” she said as a small group of anxious post-concert party guests waited their turn to talk with Fleetwood Mac’s lead singer. “These are great to eat when you’re not on a diet.”

“However,” she added with a sardonic whine, “I am on one, so keep me away from them.”

That was not a difficult task for Ted Cohen, the Warner Bros. Press liaison who is travelling with the group and who acted as ringmaster for Fleetwood Mac’s Friday night gathering. At this reception, following the band’s first Atlanta performance in almost two years, Miss Nicks was the centre of attention, after strolling into the room fashionably later than the other band members.

Manager/drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, and vocalist/keyboardist Christine McVie had been milling about the room, talking with members of local radio stations and Atlanta representatives from Warner Bros. Records. The trio has served as the muscular rhythm section and spinal chord for three incarnations of Fleetwood Mac: the first during the late ’60s, when the group was a British blues band with guitarist Peter Green; the second as early ’70s melody makers with California guitarist Bob Welch; and now with their most successful aggregation, featuring third-generation Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and Miss Nicks.

Continue reading Stevie Nicks Steals the Show – Atlanta Journal Review, 1980 →
Article Archive Pages, Fleetwood Mac, Release Info, Reviews, Tour Info

Fleetwood Mac – Can’t Go Home Again | Trouser Press

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April 1980
By Chris Salewicz

Of course, Fleetwood Mac is the American Dream. The band’s success story is the stuff of which the mytho-logy of modern day America is made: Mick Fleetwood, John and Christine McVie, down on their luck in the Oulde Country, make the decision to move to the Promised Land. Traveling as far west as possible, these humble immigrants settle on the most advanced technological frontier in the world, Los Angeles.

Operating within rock ‘n’ roll’s picaresque tradition, a surprise encounter teams up the three Britishers with two down-and-out American natives, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Within a year, following closely the WASP work ethic, their fortunes change for the better.

Within three years of moving to America they have become part of the aristocracy to which you are granted entry in the United States by virtue of your material rather than your blood. In Washington Fleetwood Mac is invited to the White House for social chit-chat with President Jimmy Carter.

By now they are so rich that Mick Fleetwood tells a friend he knows he need never work again in his life. It’s like a good made-for-TV movie!

Continue reading Fleetwood Mac – Can’t Go Home Again | Trouser Press →
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Tusk Tour Starts | Rolling Stone

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Fleetwood Mac’s world tour begins on October 26th

Rolling Stone (issue 303)
November 1, 1979

Fleetwood Mac’s first world tour in two years will begin in Pocatello, Idaho, on October 26th, about a week after the release of their new album, Tusk. The group will play thirty-one concerts in twenty-three cities before heading to Japan, Australia and New Zealand; the band will return to the U.S. next year for more dates.

Most of the two-hour sets will be in arena-sized halls. Danny Douma, whose debut solo album features appearances by all the members of Fleetwood Mac, will open the majority of the shows.

Their U.S. itinerary is as follows:

October 27th, Ogden,UT;
October 28th, Salt Lake City, UT;
October 31st, November 1st, Denver, CO;
November 2nd, Albuquerque, NM;
November 5th, 6th, St. Louis, MO;
November 7th, Cincinnati, OH;
November 10th, New Haven, CT;
November 11th, 12th, Hempstead, NY;
November 15th, 16th, NYC;
November 17th, Boston, MA;
November 20th, Rochester, NY;
November 21st, Philadelphia, PA;
November 22nd, Providence, RI;
November 25th, Washington DC;
November 26th, Pittsburgh, PA;
November 29th, Ann Arbor, MI;
November 30th, Champaign, IL;
December 1st, Cedar Falls, IA;
December 4th-6th, Los Angeles, CA;
December 9th, San Diego, CA;
December 10th, 11th, LosAngeles, CA;
December 14th-16th, San Francisco, CA.

With thanks to Dark Angel who sent me this article

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Tusk – Warner’s Largest Campaign Ever | Rolling Stone

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Warners’ largest campaign ever
Fleetwood Mac’s ‘TUSK’ LP gets big push

Rolling Stone (issue 303)
November 1, 1979
by Steve Pond and James Henke

Warner Bros. Records is unveiling its largest promotional campaign ever to accompany the release of Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk on October 17th. The record company originally hired a New York advertising agency ‘Lord, Geller, Federico and Einstein ‘ to develop a marketing strategy, but after reviewing the plan, Warners and Fleetwood Mac decided against using it. This was the first time in its history that the company went to an outside firm for an ad campaign.

“We felt we owed it to the band to exhaust every conceivable outlet,” said Shelly Cooper, director of advertising for Warners. “We thought we might get a more creative campaign by going to an agency that has experience selling more than just records.”

But Cooper said that the band, which has been heavily involved in planning the campaign, “felt it was being oversold, so the entire campaign is now being done in-house. It’s more understated.”

Added a source close to Fleetwood Mac: “When the group saw the agency’s plan, they thought it was outrageous. They felt that they were being sold like a product ‘ like chewing gum.”

The advertising agency, which specialises in paperback books, hadn’t done any work for the record industry for about a dozen years, according to its executive vice-president, Ed Yaconetti. “We developed a campaign and now it’s in the hands of our client,” he said. “We don’t know whether they’ll use it or not.”

Continue reading Tusk – Warner’s Largest Campaign Ever | Rolling Stone →
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Rumours reaches the magic million in Canada | RPM

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RPM MAGAZINE – May 20, 1978
by J.J. Linden

Warner Bros. album Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, this year’s Juno Award winner as top selling international album, has become the first album in history to ever sell one million units in Canada. The milestone was announced recently by WEA Music of Canada, who noted, “This unprecedented accomplishment of 1,000,000 units not only reflects the unparalleled artistry of Fleetwood Mac, but also reflects the enormous potential of the Canadian market to those who can fully tap it.”

The album was released in February of 1977. At that time, WEA Music quickly implemented a full-scale marketing program, with promotion and sales teams throughout the country working full-force to national exposure gain and visibility for the album. The sales force concentrated on obtaining prominent displays from tiny independents to the largest chain stores. The promotion and publicity team embarked on a virtually unequaled media campaign to break the album in Canada.

The company’s marketing efforts began to pay off almost immediately. Go Your Own Way, the first single released from the album, became a major hit across the coun try. It was followed quickly by three more hit singles, Dreams, Don’t Stop and You Make Lovin’ Fun. As each subsequent hit showed the commercial value of the album, sales began to increase rapidly. WEA’s national promotion manager Larry Green notes, “We were very conscious of the possibility of the album going five or six times platinum by the second single. The Eagles do it and Queen does it – we really saw this thing flying bỳ the second single. By the third single, it was a pretty tremendous growth situation, and by the fourth single…

Continue reading Rumours reaches the magic million in Canada | RPM →
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Big Mac……..Over 8 million sold | Rolling Stone

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Rolling Stone Magazine (issue 256)
January 12, 1978
By Dave Marsh

There is nothing mysterious about Fleetwood Mac sweeping Rolling Stone’s 1977 Readers’ Poll. Rumours, the album that topped the charts for six months, has sold almost 8 million copies and still sells over 200,000 copies weekly. Released in February, Rumours sold enough copies at its peak to go gold twice a month, platinum every thirty days. (They’ve also got a platinum eight-track and gold cassette.) Four of the album’s eleven songs have become hit singles: “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” “Don’t Stop” and most recently, “You Make Loving Fun.” Over in Burbank, the biggest problem the band has created for its record company, Warner Bros., is deciding whether to release a fifth single. Should it be “The Chain” or “Second Hand News,” or should they forget about it altogether to avoid saturating the market?

Multimillion monsters have become commonplace in the record business. Consider the history of the gold and platinum awards the industry (through the Recording Industry Association of America) makes for LPs that move heavy tonnage. Prior to 1969, only gold records (for $1 million in sales, about 450,000 copies) were awarded. That year, Atlantic gave Cream’s Wheels of Fire the first unofficial platinum record (for sales of one million units or more). Unsanctioned platinum awards appeared sporadically for the next several years despite RIAA protests. But in 1975 the RIAA raised the gold standard to 500,000 units to compensate for increases in wholesale record prices, and because of the increasingly large market was forced to officially sanction platinum. Platinum has replaced gold as confirmation of star status, and record companies advertise LPs as double, triple and soon (who knows?) octuple platinum.  

Continue reading Big Mac……..Over 8 million sold | Rolling Stone →
Article Archive Pages, Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Richard Dashut

The Making of Rumours

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The Recording of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours

Memories of the Making of Rumours

Richard Dashut (co-producer)
I’d worked with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks since their debut album, Buckingham-Nicks. After they joined Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey invited me to do their live sound. They started recording Rumours in Sausalito, across the bay from San Fransico, with the Record Plant’s engineer, but they fired him after four days for being too into astrology. I was really just around keeping Lindsey company, then Mick takes me into the parking lot, puts his arm around my shoulder and says, Guess what? You’re producing the album. The funny thing was, I never really wanted to be a producer. I brought in a friend from wally Heider’s studio in Los Angeles, Ken Caillat, to help me, and we started co-producing. Mick gave me and Ken an old Chinese I-Ching coin and said, Good luck.

Cris Morris (recording assistant):
I’d helped build the Record Plant. I knew every nail, because I’d driven most of them in. I’d helped make what became known as Sly Stone’s Pit, a control booth sunk into the floor, so the musicians could sit and play around it. When we recorded Sly there, he had his own personal tank of nitrous oxide installed, and that was still there.

Mick Fleetwood (Fleetwood Mac):
It was a bizarre place to work, but we didn’t really use Sly Stone’s pit. It was usually occupied by people we didn’t know, tapping razors on mirrors.

Continue reading The Making of Rumours →
Article Archive Pages, Fleetwood Mac, Tour Info

Fleetwood Mac Goes Back To Where They Once Began | Circus Magazine

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Circus Magazine
July 21, 1977
Mick Houghton

LONDON: Their current world concert tour has taken Fleetwood Mac to Great Britain and Europe for the first time in five years, and will bring them to Japan and Australia for the first concert tour before this year is out. In their adopted homeland, American fans have been swarming to Fleetwood Mac shows. The June 29 and 30 gigs in New York’s Madison Square Garden were sold out more than a month in advance. While the current U.S. touring is an expected success, their return to the continent is to reintroduce the group to a home country that had largely forgotten that Fleetwood Mac ever existed.

Promotional visits often seem to achieve little, for Fleetwood Mac the trip home paid big dividends. The year-old ‘Fleetwood Mac’ album which had till their return sold less than 10,000 copies, crept into the album charts. A few months later, the follow up album, ‘Rumours’, leapt straight into the top ten. The single “Go Your Own Way” even gave the group their first chart entry since “Green Manalishi” in 1970, when Peter Green was still with the group. And, a major hit single seems likely before the year is out if the critical and popular reaction to their sell-out tour is anything to judge by.

Continue reading Fleetwood Mac Goes Back To Where They Once Began | Circus Magazine →
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Best Fleetwood Mac Ever – An Interview With Mick Fleetwood | Hit Parader

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May 1977
Hit Parader
by Jim Girard

Speak about Fleetwood Mac these days and you are liable to set off a series of long-winded, laudatory extrapolations about how diverse, fussy, complex and inspiring the five members really are. All that from people who have probably never even seen the band play live. This is especially true in the music business (within these very pages over the last several issues, thousands of words have been written about the band). This is a time when rock writers and music business people are cramming for finals — just trying to brush up on their Fleetwood Mac history. It is, you see, quite unhip to NOT be aware of the band that rose to unparalleled heights this past year, after knocking around the minor leagues (so to speak) in various. aggregations for the past nine years. Rock writers especially get insecure about not being aware of the varied past this band led by Mick Fleetwood and John McVie has had.

Currently, Christine McVie (a member of the band for the past four and a half years), Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are the other members of the band. It is this lineup that produced last year’s monster album, entitled FLEETWOOD MAC, and has recently released their second album RUMOURS. Mick Fleetwood has considered using his gold records for doorstops, as the continued success of the band is inevitable.

In the following interview, leader and drummer Mick Fleetwood tells HIT PARADER about his band, his longtime relationship with bassist. John McVie (the “Mac” in Fleetwood Mac) and the various things that make Fleetwood Mac an entity in and of itself:

* * * * *

HP: Now that the band has finished RUMOURS, could we talk about the how and why of the album taking so long to finish?
Mick: Well, when we started the album RUMOURS there were a lot of things going on in the band — for everybody involved. Needless to say, it was a very strange time. Things weren’t all that bad with all the personal problems, but needless to say, things just took a lot longer than expected as a result. Lindsey and Stevie broke up, John and Christine had broken up and I was going through some changes too. Then, after two months of laying down basic tracks, we went back on tour for a white. Luckily, sometimes when you overwork at something and don’t get away from it, you get to a point where you lose it. That didn’t happen with us this time; everything we did just kept getting better and better. Since all of the original tracks were done in the first two months, the initial vibe of the album is still there. The energy isn’t gone. It hasn’t been tampered with. Mainly, there were a lot of strong feelings going on in the band, and then on the album. Unwittingly, the songs and moods on RUMOURS are connected to what various people in the band were going through. From that point of view, this is a very emotional album; more than the last one.

HP: RUMOURS was amazingly expensive to record I hear.
Mick: We worked on the album for over six months physically, but we worked on it for over ten months in total. We spent a lot of time on the album and it cost us a lot of money, yeah. However, we didn’t compromise anything on the album. We got past the point of worrying whether or not things cost too much. We didn’t want to quit until everything was as right as it could possibly be. One reason we were able to work on RUMOURS as long as we did was because the FLEETWOOD MAC album was selling so sensationally and it allowed us to keep working on the new one. If we would have put out the new album when we were supposed to, we would have killed the sales of the FLEETWOOD MAC album and there was no point in doing that. It is still selling a lot, although it is starting to drop off now.

Continue reading Best Fleetwood Mac Ever – An Interview With Mick Fleetwood | Hit Parader →