Tag Archives: Mirage

Christine McVie on Fleetwood Mac: ‘Without one of us, we’re incomplete’ | The Guardian (UK)

The Guardian
6th Oct 2016
By Peter Robinson

The singer on the band’s half-finished album, the visitation she had when writing Songbird, and growing up with a psychic mum

Christine McVie: ‘We’re supposed to be talking about – what’s it called? – Mirage.’ Photograph: PR Company Handout
Christine McVie: ‘We’re supposed to be talking about – what’s it called? – Mirage.’ Photograph: PR Company Handout

Hi, Christine. What was it like growing up with the surname Perfect (1)?
It was difficult. Teachers would say: “I hope you live up to your name, Christine.” So, yes, it was tough. I used to joke that I was perfect until I married John.

Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage is being reissued as a box set for £50 (2). Does that seem like a fair price?
It’s a really nice item! It’s quality, isn’t it? It’s good value for money – you’ve got a lot of outtakes, a lot of previously unheard demo versions of songs, you’ve got the vinyl … a CD, I believe, is in there? I mean it’s a nice package! I haven’t had a good look at it, but the label has given me one to take home. I get a free one!

Have you listened to the demos and outtakes?
No. I’m not a big fan of those things. I know people are interested but for my own personal enjoyment I prefer not to listen to them. My songwriting, when I’m writing, is nothing like it is in its finished form – but you have to start somewhere.

Is the new album finished?
No, it’s half-finished. It’s just seven tracks that we’ve got, and they’re only with guide vocals. Continue reading Christine McVie on Fleetwood Mac: ‘Without one of us, we’re incomplete’ | The Guardian (UK)

Reappearance of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Mirage’ top new releases | Miami Herald

By Howard Cohen
Miami Herald
Sept 27th, 2016

Fleetwood Mac, “Mirage (Deluxe).” Oft-delayed remaster of original 1982 album, plus a disc of outtakes highlighted by Christine McVie’s randier take of “Hold Me” and Stevie Nicks’ demos of “Smile at You” and “If You Were My Love.”

Fleetwood_MirageDeluxe Product Shot

The angry “Smile at You,” later rerecorded in a considerably tamer version on “Say You Will” in 2003, would have given “Mirage” the edge some critics said it lacked after the left-field turn of the preceding “Tusk.” Her cut would have been a better choice than Lindsey Buckingham’s pointless and grating side two opening number, “Empire State.”

“I loved ‘Smile at You’ because it was a real rock and roll song,” Nicks said. “Only thing I can say is when it all came to push and shove we had 19 songs [recorded] and it was 12 songs on the real record. That means 13 to 19 had to go. I lost songs all the time I thought should be on records. But when you are in a band it’s a team and it’s a vote and Lindsey always had a bit of a stronger vote and I kind of went with that.”

The attractively packaged “Mirage” reissue also includes a live disc from the Mirage Tour from The Forum in Los Angeles from Oct. 21-22, 1982, originally issued on VHS. A 180-gram vinyl LP is tucked inside, too. Original co-producer Ken Caillat offers a new 5.1 surround and stereo remix.

“Back then we would paint with indelible colors,” Caillat said. “I had a philosophy early on that I wanted to always have the musician hearing the track as closely as possible to what I expected the end result would be. An engineer friend pulled me aside and asked, ‘Have you listened to ‘Mirage’ in awhile?’ I hadn’t played it and I was surprised how great it sounded. I was pleased with our sounds. We were always pleased with our sounds on the records.”

Christine McVie on Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Peculiar’ ‘Mirage’ Sessions, New LP | Rolling Stone

By Richard Bienstock
26th Sept, 2016
Rolling Stone

Singer-songwriter looks back on heady days at Château d’Hérouville, discusses band’s future plans

Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie recalls the "peculiar" making of the band's hit 1982 album 'Mirage.' Tim Mosenfelder/Getty
Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie recalls the “peculiar” making of the band’s hit 1982 album ‘Mirage.’ Tim Mosenfelder/Getty

Christine McVie has a confession to make. The 73-year-old singer, songwriter and keyboardist is on the phone with Rolling Stone to discuss the new deluxe reissue of Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 effort, Mirage; but, she admits, she hasn’t actually listened to it yet. “I just now got my copy of the remastered edition in my hands,” McVie says, calling from her home in the U.K. “But I just moved to a flat where I don’t have my DVD or CD player yet. So I’m unable to play it. And there’s all these outtakes and demos and things in there that I certainly haven’t heard since we made them. So I’m most curious to listen.”

Indeed, the new package is a treasure trove for Mac completists (and, apparently, band members). In addition to presenting the original 12-track album – which spent five weeks at Number One and spawned two of the group’s biggest and enduring hits in McVie’s “Hold Me” and Stevie Nicks’ “Gypsy” – in remastered form, the three-CD and DVD set offers up a disc of B sides, titled “Outtakes and Sessions,” as well as a live collection culled from two nights at the L.A. Forum in October 1982 on the Mirage tour. The whole thing is rounded out by a vinyl copy of the album and a DVD in 5.1 surround sound, as well as a booklet with extensive liner notes and photos from the era. Continue reading Christine McVie on Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Peculiar’ ‘Mirage’ Sessions, New LP | Rolling Stone

Lindsey Buckingham On Writing With Christine McVie on ‘Mirage’ | wror.com

Sept 23rd, 2016
By Erica Banas
wror.com

Arriving in store today (September 23) are deluxe editions of Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 album Mirage.

The new set comes as a single-disc remastered version of the album along with a two-disc Expanded edition and a Deluxe package that includes three CDs, a DVD and an LP. The latter two include bonus demos, rarities and alternative tracks, while the Deluxe also features a 1982 concert from Los Angeles.

Mirage was the more “traditional” follow-up to 1979’s experimental Tusk and hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, going on to be certified double platinum. Lindsey Buckingham tells us that it was also on album on which he and singer-keyboardist Christine McVie — who wrote the first single “Hold Me” — clicked in a way that was different from the way he worked with Stevie Nicks:

“I would say that it’s…an intangible thing. It’s a very strong thing of what I always thought was, for lack of a better term, the whole being greater than the sum of the parts…and I think in that sense Christine and I as two musicians who are very well-grounded in their craft have a kind of symmetry of respect and love for each other on a creative and a musical and a personal level, and I think that was a big part of what that whole being greater than the sum of the parts was at the time. The fact that what I could do for her, I did it for Stevie too but the fact that she (McVie) could infuse her sensibilities into my stuff and I could tap into what I do as a producer, say, and give back so much to her.”

McVie rejoined the band in 2014 following a nearly 16-year leave of absence. Fleetwood Mac has been working on new material but no release plans have been announced.

Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images
Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images

Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.

Fleetwood Mac: Mirage (Expanded Reissue) | American Songwriter

Fleetwood Mac
Mirage (Expanded Reissue)
(Warner Brothers/Rhino)
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

image001

Often considered the belated follow-up to 1977’s mega platinum Rumours, 1982’s Mirage was a clear retreat from the somewhat abrasive, occasionally commercial avant-pop of the controversial Tusk. While that album has, over the decades, come to be respected as Lindsey Buckingham’s creative zenith, it appears Warner Brothers was less enthusiastic about their star act’s detour into the artsy abyss. Perhaps Mac were tired of it themselves, because the slick, glossily produced Mirage seems a capitulation to an audience who might have found the dense, inconsistent, but bold Tusk a musical and drug-fueled bridge too far.

While Mirage was no Rumours, its dozen sophisticated pop songs include such near-classics as “Love in Store,” “Gypsy,” and “Hold Me,” the latter two appearing on most subsequent Mac hits packages. But there are other, often unappreciated gems here too. Selections such as Buckingham’s folksy “Can’t Go Back,” Stevie Nicks’ surprisingly effective foray into country “That’s Alright,” the frisky pop/rock and sumptuous harmonies of “The Eyes of the World” and the closing “Wish You Were Here,” one of the always dependable Christine McVie’s more affecting and least appreciated pieces, are well worth reexamining. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac: Mirage (Expanded Reissue) | American Songwriter

Mick Fleetwood on Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Overlooked’ Smash ‘Mirage’ | Rolling Stone

By Richard Bienstock
20th Sept, 2016
Rolling Stone

Ahead of new reissue, drummer talks “wild and romantic” France sessions, opulent video shoots and more

In advance of Fleetwood Mac's new 'Mirage' reissue, Mick Fleetwood recalls making the comparatively modest 'Tusk' follow-up. Neal Preston
In advance of Fleetwood Mac’s new ‘Mirage’ reissue, Mick Fleetwood recalls making the comparatively modest ‘Tusk’ follow-up. Neal Preston

“I don’t think it would be wrong to say it sort of got overlooked,” says Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, reminiscing about his band’s 1982 album, Mirage, which will be reissued in a deluxe package via Warner Bros. on September 23rd. It’s something of an odd statement to make about a record that charted at Number One on the Billboard 200, spawned multiple hit singles and went on to sell more than three million copies. Of course, when you’re in Fleetwood Mac, the definition of what constitutes success is relative.

The album, the band’s 13th studio effort overall and fourth to feature singer Stevie Nicks and singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham alongside longtime members Fleetwood, bassist John McVie and singer/keyboardist Christine McVie, came on the heels of one of the more impressive runs in rock: the lineup’s smash 1975 “debut,” Fleetwood Mac; the now-more-than-40-million-selling follow-up, Rumours; and the sprawling and sonically adventurous Buckingham-helmed double–LP Tusk (a commercial “failure” that still managed to move several million copies). By the time the band reconvened for Mirage in May 1981, they had been off the road for close to a year, during which time three members had recorded – but not yet released – solo albums (Buckingham’s Law and Order, Fleetwood’s The Visitor and Nicks’ eventual chart-topping, multi-platinum Bella Donna). That time apart, combined with the tensions that had been brought on by the experimental nature of the Tusk album, left them ready to recapture a bit of the old Rumours magic, so to speak. Continue reading Mick Fleetwood on Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Overlooked’ Smash ‘Mirage’ | Rolling Stone

10 Questions for Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac | theartsdesk

The peacemaker of Fleetwood Mac on Mirage, Maui and missing the buzz

fleetwood_mac_24_livepix_0

theartsdesk meets Christine McVie on a sunny Friday afternoon in September; the Warner Brothers boardroom (with generous hospitality spread) is suitably palatial. We’re the first media interview of the day, so she’s bright and attentive. McVie was always the member of Fleetwood Mac who you’d want to adopt: the most approachably human member of a band constantly at war with itself. Readily admitting that she’s the “peacekeeper’ in the band, the singer/songwriter behind such Mac classics as “Everywhere” and “You Make Loving Fun” is as sweet and serene as you’d hope she would be.

She’s here to promote the new deluxe remaster of 1982 album Mirage – the follow-up to the somewhat deranged 1979 Tusk, which was recorded and released as Christine and John McVie, the band’s bassist, were divorcing. She quit the band in 1998 after the hugely successful live album The Dance, after which she started a fairly solitary life of her own in the English countryside for the best part of 16 years. The first four of those, she says, were simply spent working on the house. It was only therapy and the canny, persuasive hand of Mick Fleetwood that coaxed her into returning after a trip to Maui, Hawaii, where Mick lives close to John McVie, his lifelong partner-in-crime.

image001

The former Christine Perfect had a severe fear of flying that she’s now completely beaten, and as we speak, it’s clear that she’s fairly perplexed about having left the fray for so long in the first place. So what was she doing in all that time exactly? “A lot of people ask me that question!” With a brand new album (their first since 2001’s Say You Will) and a new world tour in the planning stages, it’s clear that the Fleetwood Mac story still has several enthralling chapters ahead. Somewhere near Fleetwood’s on Front Street – Mick’s fancy restaurant in Maui – the drummer must be feeling pretty smug that the ragged band of brothers and sisters he founded are finally back together.

Continue reading 10 Questions for Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac | theartsdesk

Fleetwood Mac – Mirage Deluxe Reissue Review | Uncut

Sam Richards
July 25, 2016
Uncut Magazine

The weakest album produced by the Rumours line-up? Or an essential chapter in the Fleetwood Mac story…

image

By the end of the Tusk world tour in August 1980, Fleetwood Mac were in meltdown. The separate limos were just one example of the lengths to which they would go to avoid each others’ company. Ironically, it was that very extravagance – and, perhaps, a sense of loyalty to their bearded leader Mick Fleetwood – that forced them back together less than a year later to begin work on a new album that would placate the accountants still counting the cost of giant inflatable penguins and hotel suites furnished with white pianos.

With Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in the process of launching ambitious solo careers, it was inconceivable that they would reserve their best songs for Mirage. Christine McVie recently confessed to Uncut that the album lacked passion, while Buckingham admitted he was “treading water”. And yet the fact that its principals had one eye elsewhere only seems to enhance Mirage’s flimsy, diaphanous charm.

Nicks’ response at being cajoled back into the studio with two of her ex-lovers was to retreat, profitably, into nostalgia. “Gypsy” wistfully invokes her pre-fame existence of second-hand lace and mattresses on the floor, creating a powerful affirmation of the Nicks brand. The melody may be slight but it’s kept airborne by some classic Mac magic: sighed harmonies, a chiming riff and Nicks’ stunning vocals contoured by a decade of arena tours and emotional turmoil. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac – Mirage Deluxe Reissue Review | Uncut

Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage set for Deluxe Reissue | Press Release

FLEETWOOD MAC’S MIRAGE SET FOR DELUXE REISSUE

May 12 2016

Fleetwood_MirageDeluxe Product Shot

fm_mirage_dlx_shot_1024x1024

3CD/5.1 Surround Mix/LP Set Features Newly Remastered
Sound, Rare And Unreleased Recordings, And More

2-CD Expanded Edition Also Available

Both Versions Set For Release on Sept 23rd From Warner Bros. Records

71-34ppJqQL._SL1500_Fleetwood Mac’s streak of five consecutive multi-platinum albums began in the Seventies and continued in 1982 with Mirage, the follow-up to the band’s 1979 double-album, Tusk. During the summer of 1982, Mirage topped the album chart and added to the band’s already impressive canon of hits with “Hold Me,” “Love In Store” and “Gypsy.”

Following last year’s deluxe edition of Tusk, Fleetwood Mac continues chronologically with the deluxe edition of MIRAGE. Available on July 29, (Sept 23) this new edition expands on the original album with newly remastered sound, a selection of rare and unreleased recordings, as well as the stories and pictures behind the album. Three formats available:

  • Deluxe: Three CDs, DVD and LP. Original album remastered, plus b-sides and rarities; the original album on LP; live performances; and a 5.1 mix on DVD.
  • Expanded: Two CDs. Original album remastered, plus a disc of b-sides and rarities.
  • Remastered: Original album remastered.
  • Digital versions of the Deluxe and Remastered formats will also be available.

In 1982 Fleetwood Mac topped the U.S. Album Chart for five weeks with MIRAGE. Along with instantly recognizable smash hits like “Hold Me” and “Gypsy,” MIRAGE also features great album tracks like “Oh Diane,” a Top Ten hit in the UK, and “Straight Back,” a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Rock Chart.

The new deluxe and expanded editions of MIRAGE both include a second disc that has 19 tracks dedicated entirely to outtakes and rarities. Among the unreleased gems are early versions of several album tracks – “Empire State” and “Book Of Love” – along with outtakes for songs that didn’t make it to the album: “If You Were My Love” and “Smile At You.” There is also an unreleased cover of the Fats Domino classic “Blue Monday,” as well as the rare, extended mix for “Gypsy” that was used in the music video.

Exclusive to the deluxe edition of MIRAGE is a third disc that has more than a dozen live performances recorded in Los Angeles during Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 U.S. tour. Along with early hits – “You Make Loving Fun” and “The Chain” – the collection includes performances of MIRAGE standouts like “Love In Store,” “Eyes Of The World” and “Gypsy.”

The DVD-Audio disc contains both the 5.1 Surround and 24/96 Stereo Audio mixes of the original album. The set also includes a vinyl copy of MIRAGE. Continue reading Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage set for Deluxe Reissue | Press Release

Fleetwood Mac – Deluxe Box Set of Mirage in planning

Warner Brothers are in the midst of planning a new deluxe treatment of Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 Mirage album with a 5.1 audio mix by Ken Caillat

Rumoured release date of June, 2016

KenCaillat-MirageRemix

12891554_990332397687281_877758800008419807_o

Ken has posted on Facebook that he started re-mixing Fleetwood Mac’s Mirage album in 5.1 for Warner Brothers re-release of a new Deluxe Box of that classic album and the 5.1 mix of Mirage is sounding fantastic! You will all hear stuff you never heard on the album!!

This follows the recent re-releases of Rumours and Tusk where they also received the deluxe box treatment and are also available in 5.1 DVD Audio mix.

Wonder what outtakes and extras we may also get in this deluxe re-release, hope that this will include the original Smile At You and If You Were My Love from Stevie, the jam session of I’ve Been Loving You Too Long and of course the full Mirage concert in audio and DVD of the partial live show that was shown on HBO and released on VHS video as Fleetwood Mac In Concert in 1983.

04af1d3e29ee55ccca82a05a669c0aa9.750x750x1