Verizon Arena has issued the following statement via its Facebook page regarding Fleetwood Mac‘s recent illness-related postponement of the North Little Rock, Arkansas (3/11), and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (3/12), shows:
“The March 12 Fleetwood Mac On With The Show tour date at Chesapeake Arena in Oklahoma City, OK has been postponed and rescheduled for April 17, due to an illness. The band’s previously postponed March 11 show in North Little Rock, AR has been rescheduled for April 19. All tickets for the two shows will be honored on their new dates.”
The news was first reported on Verizon Arena‘s Facebook page and stated:
“The March 11th, Fleetwood Mac “On With the Show” tour date at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, AR has been postponed to a later date, due to an illness. Details of a new date will be announced soon.”
Mick Fleetwood hoping Fleetwood Mac will release new album ‘within the next couple of years’
Will Fleetwood Mac release a new album with longtime singer/keyboardist Christine McVie? That’s a question on the minds of a lot of the band’s fans. It’s no secret that the group has started amassing some material for a possible new record, but founding drummer Mick Fleetwood admits it may be a “couple of years” before he and his band mates will have the chance to complete the project since they’re currently focused on touring and will be for some time.
“This whole touring stuff is getting sort of totally, in a good way, out of control,” Fleetwood tells ABC Radio. “We’re going all over the world now, so we don’t quite know how we’re gonna finish this [album] out.”
Fleetwood Mac is in the middle of its second North American tour leg since Christine McVie officially rejoined the band last year. The current trek is scheduled to run through an April 14 concert in the Los Angeles area, and that will be followed by a European outing that runs from late May until the middle of July. The group also is expected to visit other parts of the world before wrapping up the tour.
As for the new music Fleetwood Mac has been preparing, Mick tells ABC Radio, “We’re building up this whole sort of dossier of material, a glut of stuff.” He explains that singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham “has a great chunk of wonderful songs, [most of which are] pretty flushed out and finished,” adding that the band also has “been in the studio with Christine in months gone by [and that] worked out amazingly well.”
Fleetwood says the only element that really is missing from the project is some new original songs from Stevie Nicks. For her part, Nicks told ABC Radio late last year that she was unsure whether, after the band wrapped up its tour, she would be willing to keep her solo career on hold and “sign up for another year of making a record.”
And what are Mick’s feelings about the chances for a new Fleetwood Mac album? “I hope it happens,” he says. “My inclination is, the music will not be wasted. It will come out one way or another. And I truly hope, and I quietly believe it will be Fleetwood Mac, and Stevie will do some lovely stuff and within the next couple of years we will get that done.”
Here are the remaining dates on Fleetwood Mac’s current North American tour:
3/11 — North Little Rock, AR, Verizon Arena
3/12 — Oklahoma City, OK, Chesapeake Energy Arena
3/15 — Charlottesville, VA, John Paul Jones Arena
3/17 — Greensboro, NC, Greensboro Coliseum Complex
3/18 — Nashville, TN, Bridgestone Arena
3/21 — Miami, FL, American Airlines Arena
3/23 — Orlando, FL, Amway Center
3/25 — Atlanta, GA, Philips Arena
3/27 — St. Louis, MO, Scottrade Center
3/28 — Kansas City, MO, Sprint Center
3/31 — Wichita, KS, INTRUST Bank Arena
4/1 — Denver, CO, Pepsi Center
4/4 — Vancouver, BC, Canada, Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena
4/6 — Bakersfield, CA, Rabobank Arena
4/7 — Oakland, CA, Oracle Arena
4/10 — Inglewood, CA, The Forum
4/11 — Las Vegas, NV, MGM Grand Garden Arena
4/14 — Inglewood, CA, The Forum
Fleetwood Mac performed at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Sunday night.
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Photos by Paul Efird
Stevie made an interesting dedication for “Landslide.” As she was driving from the airport to the venue, she confused the fog and mist surrounding the Cumberland Mountains for smoke from a fire.
“As we were driving here from the airplane, we went passed these just fantastically beautiful mountains that were like smoking. And I thought that, everybody in my car thought, there was a fire. We’re like, ‘Oh my God, the mountains are on fire!’ And the driver said, ‘No, no, those are the great Smokey Mountains.’ And I said, ‘Well, what is happening over there, and how are they smoking?’ ‘Well, it’s fog and mist.’ So perfect for me. So anyway, I thought, well I could do this. So I would like to dedicate this to you and to your beautiful, beautiful mountain range that we passed today on the way. I’ll never forget it. This is ‘Landslide’”
“Songbird” was dropped from the set at this show.
Date
Venue
Location
Reviews
Show #
Total
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Thompson-Boling Arena
Knoxville, Tennesse
23
63
Videos
Thanks to Ian Allan, angelcrossgarden, auntann96, Valentino Constantinou, joshbrowntube, Rachel McNeese, mike ford, Jim Miller, Pattym902, ZP Pierce, Ashley Taft, thefinalimagechannel, and Patrick Williams for sharing these videos!
After 17 years, Fleetwood Mac returns whole again with Christine McVie
It’s been less than two years since Fleetwood Mac played Time Warner Cable Arena, but the return of the legendary group’s seminal lineup Saturday marked a special occasion. Although it was, as Stevie Nicks noted early on, the band’s 62nd show with Christine McVie since reuniting for the On With the Show Tour in September, it was McVie’s first Charlotte show since leaving the band in 1998.
The warm response she and Mac received as Lindsey Buckingham hit the first note of “The Chain” was electric. The crowd roared with excitement, and I wondered how McVie could have walked away from such adulation presumably forever – Nicks has stated she thought McVie would never return to the band.
Good thing she did. Fleetwood Mac was whole again able to perform McVie-showcasing tunes like “You Make Loving Fun,” “Everywhere,” “Say You Love Me,” and “Over My Head,” McVie, whose voice has remained intact, made the addition of songs like “Little Lies” possible, filled out “Don’t Stop,” and beefed up harmonies elsewhere.
Nicks seemed in stronger voice Saturday than in 2013. She hasn’t bothered to reach for the high notes on “Dreams” and “Rhiannon” for years, but she was in fine form on “Seven Wonders.” She thanked “American Horror Story: Coven” for bringing back (Nicks sang it on the show) the song. She also soared on “Gypsy” and “Landslide.” She dedicated the latter to the people that marched from Selma on the historical march’s 50th anniversary and talked about the impact of that moment. She and Buckingham were 15 and 16 years old. She later shared a story of how they met and their first band while introducing “Gypsy.”
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While the entire band seemed reinvigorated with the always subdued John McVie’s bass lines punching up the backbeat, Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood remained the band’s fire. Buckingham, who stole the 2013 show, was again a tireless showman who seemed to revel in the spotlight, bouncing his guitar against his knee, hopping on one leg, and goofing with fans in front of him. He of course demonstrated his six string dexterity on “Big Love” and “Never Going Back Again.”
Fleetwood’s atypical drum solo, which occurred midway through the encore’s “World Turning,” found him verbally rallying the crowd while taking in their feedback with eyes closed before the solo escalated against a loop of his verbal antics.
Although known best as a mainstream pop-rock band, “Tusk,” “Gold Dust Woman” and “I’m So Afraid” allowed Mac to stretch into psychedelic jam territory with Nicks bucking wildly across the stage in her platforms during “Gold Dust’s” extended jam.
Of course with a collective career – not to mention individual ones – that extend over 40 years, there were omissions. The woman shouting “Hold Me’s” request was unmet. Gone were Nicks and Buckingham’s solo hits. Instead the focus was on Fleetwood Mac’s history from the first album the lineup made together in 1975 to its 1997 hit “Silver Springs” (which Nicks had originally written for Rumours).
The aging pop group (from McVie, who looks incredible for 71 to Buckingham, the baby of the band at 65) relied on the support of two backing musicians, Neale Heywood and Brett Tuggle and three vocalists, including Lori Nicks and Sharon Celani who have been with Nicks since her first solo album.
If it turns out that Fleetwood Mac decides it’s never going back (on tour) again after this, it will have left fans satisfied. But the members seem to be enjoying it and each other so much I doubt that will be the case.
Fleetwood Mac performed at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday night. The band did not perform “Songbird” at this show. There was a report that Christine McVie may have injured her hand.
Stevie dedicated “Landslide” to the people who attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, 50 years ago, on a day of protest that became known as “Bloody Sunday.” She reflected on the tragic events by sharing a poem (“Peace Will Come”) that she wrote on March 7, 2007. The video of Stevie reciting the poem is posted below.
Please, God, show them the way Please, God, on this day Spirits all give them the strength Peace will come if you fight for it Peace will come if you try harder I think we’re just in time to say that Peace will come
Stevie Nicks remains in fine shawl even 60 dates into Fleetwood Mac’s reunion tour. (Jack Gorman)
Fleetwood Mac
Toyota Center
March 3, 2015
Tuesday night marked, according to Stevie Nicks, the sixtieth show on this string of dates for Fleetwood Mac. It’s a hell of a run. It’s even the second time they’ve hit Houston’s Toyota Center. How do they maintain the fire? Even 60 shows in, they are just as energetic, just as vital, and just as masterful as ever.
Nicks’ comment was actually in reference to the fact that she had been welcoming back keyboardist and singer Christine McVie after a 16-year hiatus from the band for 60 shows, and that it was a bit redundant at this point. Put simply, she’s back. The same could be said for the entire band.
It’s not just that this is their second appearance in Houston in a matter of months. This, as the band stated repeatedly throughout the show, is a new chapter for them. It’s the return of the band to their place as a relevant, vital entity in the world of pop music.
How about a little love for Lindsey Buckingham on the guitar? (Jack Gorman)
After so many years of being largely dormant, there are finally plans in the works for a new album, and with their renewed influence in the world of pop and indie-rock, it is a new lease on life for their career.
That being said, you would never know it from the brilliant set list, a career-spanning overview of their most famous work from 1975’s Fleetwood Mac to 1987’s Tango In the Night. Just don’t go in hoping for a taste of new material. Fleetwood Mac knows where their bread is buttered, and they leave any murmurings of even their 2013 EP off the table.
This shouldn’t be a problem for most. The fact is that Fleetwood Mac has more fans in their twenties now, myself included, than they’ve probably netted since their late-’70s heyday. Most of us haven’t had a chance to see them before, so it’s well worth our time and money to see them play a greatest hits set like this, especially when a band is this passionate about their hits.
The #blessings of long-lens photography… (Jack Gorman)
After 60 shows you might start to wonder if Lindsey Buckingham gets bored during the extended guitar solo outro of “I’m So Afraid,” or if Stevie Nicks just wants to get yet another performance of “Landslide” over with. Any thoughts like that were immediately quelled last night.
Fleetwood Mac’s members are all over sixty now and have been doing this longer than many of us have been alive, yet Buckingham and Nicks were as animated and fired up as ever. During “I’m So Afraid,” Buckingham was literally leaping up and down during his solo. Rather than dreading having to play this song again, it seems he relishes each and every opportunity to trot it out.
Nicks similarly gave impassioned renditions of songs like “Gypsy” and “Gold Dust Woman.” The songs filled her with the same life as they seemed to so many years ago. Even telling the same story to introduce “Gypsy” night after night, she still seems to find something new in it that drives her.
The “dramatic mood lighting” shot. (Jack Gorman)
Meanwhile, McVie’s return to the band has reopened a whole other world for the band. No longer must they skip over the hits she sang. That meant we were treated to songs like “You Make Loving Fun” and “Little Lies,” massive tracks which Fleetwood Mac had been unfortunately lacking for so long.
It was a triumphant return to those songs for them, as they not only are recapturing the public eye; they are recapturing themselves. For the first time in many years, Voltron is whole again.
Being the consummate professionals they are (as well as brilliantly talented musicians), they put on a show that is almost impossible to find fault with. That they ended out on a downer ballad like “Songbird” instead of the rollicking “Don’t Stop” is a minor quibble. The only fault I could find is in the fact that the Mac played this exact same show, right down to the stories between the songs, in Houston back in December.
For fans who paid to see both, it might be frustrating to see a repeat so soon after the last one. In this case, however, it might be more a matter of “so nice, you had to say it twice.” The flawless show of master musicianship that Fleetwood Mac displays will never get old, even if every show they play for the rest of their lives consists solely of this exact same setlist.
If nothing else, this tour is proof once again that Fleetwood Mac have crafted enough quality music to last them a lifetime. Yet, they are still restless. They are still moving forward; still creating; still forging new chapters. That the book never ends for them is remarkable even to themselves, something they commented on throughout the show.
While that is something that is nothing but a joy to witness for us, perhaps the greatest joy to be found in their show is the love. After all the years, all the breakups, all the divorces, and all the bitter spats played out in their music and the media, Fleetwood Mac are finally whole again and filled with love. It was evident in the performance and in the glances and touches exchanged between the members of the band.
With McVie back in the fold, they are once again the unstoppable force, united for a common goal. And for maybe the first time, they’re enjoying themselves doing it. It’s a joy and a love that spread to all of us in the audience, and that’s the true pleasure of seeing this band perform.
Personal Bias: Inundated with the band since I was a small child, but only relatively recently gave thought to how wonderful the group is as songwriters and musicians.
The Crowd: Lots of older people, of course, but a very decent amount of young fans. More than a few witches.
Overheard in the Crowd: “Lindsey still rocks the skinny jeans. That’s going to be me at 65 too.”
Random Notebook Dump: Like I said, Fleetwood Mac knows where their bread is buttered. Nicks thanked American Horror Story during the show.
Corey Deiterman / Houston Press / Wednesday, March 4, 2015
The big news about the current Fleetwood Mac jaunt — dubbed the On With the Show tour — was the return of Christine McVie after her departure in 1998. The recent reconciliation certainly added an element of awe to their Sunday night performance at the Frank Erwin Center, the beloved band’s first appearance on that stage since 1982.
Brendan Hall
Yet, while the songstress shone during her spotlights — particularly on a rousing romp through “Little Lies” and again with the show-ending, stripped-down piano ballad “Songbird” — there were poignant performances by each musician. During the course of the almost 3-hour show, the real headline became clear: 40 years on, the members of this quintet, filled out by bassist John McVie, drummer Mick Fleetwood, vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, are as essential to each other as they are to the foundations of rock and roll.
Brendan Hall
One only had to soak in the unassailable chemistry of the tracks pulled from this group’s first and second full-lengths together, 1975’s self-titled Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumours, to attest to that fact. Opening track “The Chain” imbued the audience with an instant jolt, while Buckingham’s virtuoso solo run of “Never Going Back Again” inspired equal parts reverent silence and wild cheers throughout its perfectly-picked valleys and peaks, “Over My Head” was still striking in its perfect pop splendor, and Nicks’ bewitching throes during “Gold Dust Woman” supplanted any notions of age with arresting allure.
Brendan Hall
Similar transformations occurred throughout the show, first as Buckingham sashayed and shredded across the stage during “Tusk” with the brashness of a teenage boy, and again during Fleetwood’s extended drum solo on “World Turning” where he was reminiscent of a young punk riling his crowd for one final rally.
Brendan Hall
Those vignettes of eternal youth, signs of a sublime symbiosis between the musicians and their songs, were what made the band’s return to Central Texas so special. Most of the tunes are timeless, and in those moments of pure aural abandon, it felt like Fleetwood Mac’s players could live forever, too.
