Fleetwood Mac kicks off '50 Years' tour

The newly rebooted Fleetwood Mac, with new members Neil Finn and Michael Campbell, kicked off its “50 Years” tour on Wednesday night at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, performing a diverse set list, which drew from the band’s vast 50-year catalog.

It was the band’s first show of the tour without guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, who was dismissed from Fleetwood Mac in February. Addressing that elephant in the room, the band steered clear of most of Buckingham’s songs, but honored his indelible contributions to Fleetwood Mac’s enduring history with his first band composition “Monday Morning” from 1975’s self-titled “white album” and his most famous one “Go Your Own Way,” from Grammy’s 1977 Album of the Year, the almighty Rumours.

The group kept perennial favorites in the set — “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” Say You Love Me,” among many others. But they occasionally delved deep into their back-catalog, pulling tracks from 1973’s Mystery to Me (Bob Welch’s mysterious “Hypnotized”), 1979’s Tusk (Stevie Nicks’ remorseful “Storms), and 1987’s Tango in the Night (the obscure UK single “Isn’t It Midnight”). The message was clear: Fleetwood Mac was a productive entity with and without Buckingham.

That work ethic began 50 years ago when Fleetwood Mac released its first recording on the Blue Horizon label, as a British blues act. In Tulsa, they acknowledged these roots by playing two songs from their formative years with Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green: “Oh Well” and the pre-Santana “Black Magic Woman” (on which Stevie Nicks took the lead); and another two songs for the transitive years that followed (1969-1974) before Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined Fleetwood Mac: “Tell Me All the Things You Do” from 1969’s Kiln House and “Hypnotized” from 1973’s Mystery to Me.

And the tributes continued with the present day, as Stevie Nicks honored the late Tom Petty with a touching rendition of “Free Fallin’,” with former Heartbreakers’ guitarist Michael Campbell strumming right along in memoriam.

The highly accomplished Neil Finn (of Crowded House fame) and Michael Campbell (of the aforementioned Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers) showcased their talents, as well, with Finn taking the male lead on many songs, notably in “Second Hand News.” Finn also played two of his own tracks, Split Enz’s 1980 hit “I Got You” and Crowded House’s 1986 anthem “Don’t Dream It’s Over.” The low-key Campbell served as a strong guitar lead for the band and sang lead on Peter Green’s blues rocker “Oh Well,” a favorite cover tune of Tom Petty.

The surprising show closer, “All Over Again,” from 1995’s Time, paid homage to another period in the band’s history without Buckingham. With lyrics like “Well it’s it’s time to move on to the rain / And finally break the chain / In spite of the heartaches / And troubles in love / I’d do it all over (do it all over),” it will was a fitting counterpart to the show’s opener “The Chain” and, more importantly, upholding the creed that has defined the band all these years, simply “Don’t stop,” or ironically as Buckingham might put it, “Let’s get on with the show.”

(Photos & videos: Tom Dumont)

Black Magic Woman