“A parting of company took place, and it had to take place.”
Fleetwood Mac have confirmed that Lindsey Buckingham left the iconic rock group after reigniting his feud with Stevie Nicks.
The singer left the band in acrimonious circumstances last year and said he had been fired by Stevie Nicks, who reportedly became enraged after he was seen “smirking” while she delivered a speech at a benefit concert.
While Stevie reportedly refused to ever share a stage with Lindsey again, founder Mick Fleetwood told Mojo that it was Lindsey who ultimately received his marching orders.
The following is based on a true story. That is to say, there’s just enough reported fact, hearsay and dramatic licence for a really good scene in Rumours: The Fleetwood Mac Story, a future Hollywood biopic doubtless being written by someone, somewhere as we speak.
Scene: Backstage, post-gig, Radio City Music Hall, January 26, 2018.
Stevie Nicks: “Lindsay Adams Buckingham. How dare you smirk when I’m addressing my audience!”
Buckingham: “Babe, that monologue was longer than the super deluxe collector’s edition of Tusk!”
Nicks: “Don’t you ‘babe’ me, mister. I’m telling Mick. You’ll never work in this band again … er, again!” (Storms out.)
Buckingham: “Sigh. Been down one time, been down two times …”
John McVie: “Anybody wants me, I’m in the hot tub!”
As the music cue kicks in — “I can still hear you saying/ You would never break the (never break) the chain” — the subtext is clear: the music of Fleetwood Mac is bigger than the soap opera. It will outlive the “classic” Rumours line-up the world knows and loves, and it will outlast all who came before and after. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac’s world keeps turning | The Age→
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t do another tour and make another record.”
2019-02-13
Words: Will Stroude
With a 50-year legacy of friendship, fallouts and iconic folk-rock hits, the Fleetwood Mac story is as epic as they come in music.
Over the years band members Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks have married, divorced, made up, fallen out, and continued to release some of the most defining pop hits of the last century – and the drama hasn’t waned now most of them are in their seventies.
Disagreements over current world tour ‘An Evening with Fleetwood Mac’ led to Buckingham’s sacking from the group in April last year, with the guitarist and vocalist settling a lawsuit against his former bandmates in December.
Talk of that lawsuit is strictly off-limits as Attitude meets Christine McVie ahead of Fleetwood Mac’s two planned dates at Wembley Stadium this June, but the British-born singer is a characteristically open book when it comes to discussing the legacy of a band that has defined her life since 1970.
Despite standing as the (relative) calm at the centre of the Fleetwood Mac storm, McVie has had plenty her own ups and downs during the course of her career, most notably retiring from the group in 1998 for 16 long years after developing a debilitating phobia of flying
Fans of Fleetwood Mac who missed out when tickets for their Dublin concert sold out this week were disappointed to find touts advertising them for €740.
The band are taking their European tour to the RDS Arena in June and tickets sold out minutes after they went on sale on Ticketmaster yesterday morning.
Seats in the golden circle went on sale for €129.50, standing tickets were €89.50 and seated tickets ranged from €79.50 to €144, all excluding a service charge. Tickets quickly appeared on Viagogo, a secondhand retailer, for between €197 and €740 each.
Noel Rock, a Fine Gael TD, said that the high prices being charged by touts online underlined the need for the government to act faster on touting legislation. “Ticketless Fleetwood Mac fans have been left bitterly disappointed after touts snapped up hundreds of tickets today for next June’s much anticipated RDS concert,” he said.
(LONDON, U.K. Monday 22 October 2018) – Legendary, GRAMMY-award winning band Fleetwood Mac announced today a European tour, set to kick off in June with three exclusive performances currently announced in London, Dublin and Berlin. Produced by Live Nation, the tour will feature the newly announced line-up of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Christine McVie along with newcomers Mike Campbell and Neil Finn.
Tickets for the tour will go on-sale to the general public starting on Friday, October 26th at 9am local time.
A limited number of LaneOne VIP Packages will also be available, including amazing seats with premium benefits such as transportation, preferred entrance and more. LaneOne premium VIP packages are available here.
“Fleetwood Mac has always been about an amazing collection of songs that are performed with a unique blend of talents. We jammed with Mike and Neil and the chemistry really worked and let the band realize that this is the right combination to go forward with in Fleetwood Mac style. We know we have something new, yet it’s got the unmistakable Mac sound,” said Mick Fleetwood.
“We are thrilled to welcome the musical talents of the caliber of Mike Campbell and Neil Finn into the Mac family. With Mike and Neil, we’ll be performing all the hits that the fans love, plus we’ll be surprising our audiences with some tracks from our historic catalogue of songs,” said the group collectively. “Fleetwood Mac has always been a creative evolution. We look forward to honoring that spirit on this upcoming tour.” Continue reading Fleetwood Mac (without Lindsey Buckingham) announce European Tour including Wembley Stadium in the UK→
Fleetwood Mac have announced a new European tour, days after it emerged the band were being sued for millions of dollars by ex bandmate Lindsey Buckingham for sacking him.
The Go Your Own Way hitmakers, who have sold more than 100m albums in a 51 year career, will perform gigs in Berlin, Dublin and London next June.
The iconic band, comprised of Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie – will be joined by newcomers, the Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell and Crowded House’s Neil Finn.
Ushering in a new era for the band, Mick, 71, spoke of the ‘chemistry’ the band has with the new members, saying: ‘Fleetwood Mac has always been about an amazing collection of songs that are performed with a unique blend of talents.
‘We jammed with Mike and Neil and the chemistry really worked and let the band realise that this is the right combination to go forward with in Fleetwood Mac style.
‘We know we have something new, yet it’s got the unmistakable Mac sound.’
The group added: ‘We are thrilled to welcome the musical talents of the calibre of Mike Campbell and Neil Finn into the Mac family. With Mike and Neil, we’ll be performing all the hits that the fans love, plus we’ll be surprising our audiences with some tracks from our historic catalogue of songs.
Fleetwood Mac debuts new members, pays tribute to Tom Petty during tour launch in Tulsa
One year and one day after the loss of gone-too-soon Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac launched a new North American tour and unveiled a new roster at Tulsa’s BOK Center.
The additions, who came aboard following the departure of Lindsey Buckingham, are Mike Campbell, former guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn, vocalist for Crowded House and Split Enz.
“I can’t tell you how much it means to us that you are all here tonight to share this with us,” Campbell told a sold-out crowd.
Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood was asked in a pre-concert interview if the set list would include any Crowded House or Petty songs, or whether there might be a tribute to Petty.
“I can attest that there will be,” Fleetwood said.
Fleetwood didn’t want to cite specific songs — why ruin the surprise? — but answers came when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band, no stranger to personnel changes, began a new chapter Wednesday night.
The Petty tribute, an emotional highlight of the show, came during the encore. The first song of the encore was Petty’s “Free Fallin’” with vocals provided by Stevie Nicks, a longtime Petty friend. Images of Petty were shown on a screen behind the stage as Fleetwood Mac performed the song. Judging by the number of mobile phones held high, it was the most video-ed moment of the night.
“Change is not an unfamiliar thing in Fleetwood Mac,” drummer and co-founder Mick Fleetwood tells Billboard as the group gears up for the Oct. 3 launch of its An Evening with Fleetwood Mac tour.
Matt Baron/Shutterstock Mick Fleetwood attends MusiCares Person of the Year Gala on Jan. 26, 2018 in New York City.
But even by Mac standards — 18 members, not counting touring adjuncts, over its 51 years — the latest shift is a doozy.
You’d have to be living under a rock to not know that Lindsey Buckingham is out of the group again, due to disagreements over the timing of the upcoming tour and other issues. Joining Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, singer Stevie Nicks and signer-keyboardist Christine McVie now is the eyebrow-raising duo of Split Enz/Crowded House veteran Neil Finn and Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell in his first public endeavor since Tom Petty’s death last Oct. 2
It’s as dramatic a move as any in Fleetwood Mac’s storied career — perhaps even greater than Buckingham’s last departure, in 1987, which brought Billy Burnette and Rick Vito into the band. The schism still rankles, of course, but as the Mac makes ready to hit the road in North America — with dates booked into early April — Fleetwood is accentuating the positive and predicting plenty of, er, future games for what he promises is not a one-off but rather the new lineup of his band.
All parties, including Lindsey, were talking during the past couple of years about a definite tour for 2018. The events that transpired probably weren’t the way you envisioned commemorating the 50th anniversary of Fleetwood Mac’s first two albums.
No, it’s fair to say that it wasn’t. Having said that, the reality was, in simple language, we weren’t happy, and the details of that are part of the fabric, almost, of the story of Fleetwood Mac. We weren’t expecting this time, but it also does not seem surprising. Every man and woman in Fleetwood Mac wish Lindsey well in any ventures he’s doing and also have a huge respect for what he did with Fleetwood Mac; Having said that, it wasn’t working for us and we made the decision as a band to continue, and that’s what we’ve done with open heart. We’ve found two unbelievably talented gentlemen that have more than their own story to tell — which, by the way, is what’s made this work. They’re stylists, and they have their own integrity as artists, which I think was a huge help in what we’re doing. Continue reading Mick Fleetwood Talks Moving Forward Without Lindsey Buckingham, Working a Tom Petty Tune Into Fleetwood Mac’s Setlist | Billboard→
Eyebrows were raised earlier this year when it was announced that Fleetwood Mac had kicked out their longtime member Lindsey Buckingham.
Not only that, but the legendary band added Crowded House’s Neil Finn and The Heartbreaker’s Mike Campbell to their lineup.
Ahead of their North American tour next month, the band performed live on TV for the first time today (September 5), singing their classic track ‘The Chain’ on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Watch a clip from the performance below:
Buckingham was reportedly fired from the band over a disagreement regarding their tour. Instead, Buckingham will go out on his own tour just a few days after the band’s opener.
Last month, Mick Fleetwood said of Buckingham’s departure: “Obviously this is a huge change with the advent of Lindsey Buckingham not being a part of Fleetwood Mac. “We all wish him well and all the rest of it. In truthful language, we just weren’t happy. And I’ll leave it at that in terms of the dynamic.”
On including Campbell and Finn in the group, he said: “We are a week into rehearsals and it’s going really well and we’re looking forward, in true Fleetwood Mac style. “If you know anything about the history of this band, it’s sort of peppered with this type of dramatic stuff. It’s a strange band really.
The new-look Fleetwood Mac also performed their classic hit ‘Gypsy’ on the show, with Stevie Nicks on lead vocals. Watch the full performance below:
In their first interview since firing their longtime guitarist, the group discusses balancing lingering tensions with an expanded live palette
Fleetwood Mac discuss life after Lindsey Buckingham and plans for their massive, upcoming tour. Randee St Nicholas
A little over a month ago, the majority of Fleetwood Mac – Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood – quietly gathered at a little theater in Maui with their future in doubt. The band had secretly parted ways with Lindsey Buckingham, the longtime guitarist and voice behind many of their most enduring songs. According to the group, the split came down to a scheduling conflict surrounding a world tour. “We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June and he wanted to put it off until November [2019],” says Nicks. “That’s a long time. I just did 70 shows [on a solo tour]. As soon as I finish one thing, I dive back into another. Why would we stop? We don’t want to stop playing music. We don’t have anything else to do. This is what we do.”
So instead, they invited Mike Campbell, the former guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Crowded House frontman Neil Finn and spent a few days workshopping tunes from their vast catalog to see if this new lineup had the right chemistry. “I immediately felt like I’d known them for years,” says Christine McVie, “even though we’d only just met.”
The new lineup will embark on a massive 52-date tour beginning October 3rd in Tulsa and criss-crossing the country before wrapping up in Philadelphia in April 2019. Tickets for the tour go on sale Friday, May 4th at 10 a.m. local time. (A complete itinerary is listed below.) The group also announced the launch of a SiriusXM channel devoted to the band beginning Tuesday, May 1st. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac Detail New Tour and Talk Life After Lindsey Buckingham | Rolling Stone→
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