Category: Fleetwood Mac

Happy 40th Birthday, Rumours!

As Rumours turns 40, tributes to Fleetwood Mac’s pinnacle work pour in from music critics.

Fleetwood Mac‘s classic 1977 album Rumours turns 40 today! Featuring some of the most recognizable tunes in rock music, Rumours has influenced generations of music listeners, providing the melodic soundtrack to their lives.

One of the album’s most popular tracks is the optimistic “Don’t Stop,” which Bill Clinton famously used as his 1992 presidential campaign song. But it’s the all-too-relatable relationship turmoil — expressed in songs like “Dreams,” “Go Your Own Way,” and “The Chain” — that still connects with audiences 40 years later.

“It was not awful at all, it was fantastic! We were rich, we were young, we were falling out of love with each other, but, hey … there was a lot of other men and women in the world, and we were all moving on. … So as bad as it was, it was still great.” —Stevie Nicks

The tributes to Rumours have poured in all week from music journalists, who dissect the album’s enduring appeal.

“It’s an album that has eerie soothing powers when you hear it in the midst of a crisis, which might be why it hits home right now, with our minute-by-minute deluge of apocalyptic news, the rottenest month to be an American since FDR died.” —Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone

“Rumours is a brutal examination of the politics of relationships, personalities, and ambition.” —Jules LeFevre, Faster Louder

“To simply call Rumours a breakup album doesn’t do it justice. Most breakup albums have an end point — some triumph, a reward or promise about how some supposed emotional resilience might pay off. Rumours is an album of continual, slow breaking.” —Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, MTV

“Was it the drama, musicality, character or celebrity culture which made Rumours so iconic? Likely, all of the above.” —Tom Cameron, Happy

Many albums lay claim to being the best of all time. But Rumours was designed not to have an inch of filler and achieved its goal with room to spare. Perhaps only the Beatles’ Revolver could muster that defence so convincingly. —Graeme Marsh, Stereoboard

Rumours By the Numbers

Billboard 200 US Albums	1
Billboard Year-end Album Chart	1
No. 1 Singles	1 (“Dreams”)
Top 10 Singles	4
Tracks on Original Album	11
Weeks at No. 1	31
Estimated Copies Sold Worldwide	40 million
Official reissues	3

February 4, 2017

Ken Caillat to buy historic Record Plant

Co-producer of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours sparks effort to buy Sausalito’s historic Record Plant Studio

Forty-one years ago, record producer Ken Caillat loaded his dog in his car and drove from Los Angeles to the Record Plant in Sausalito to work on an album by an up-and-coming band named Fleetwood Mac. The album that came out of four months of intense recording sessions was Rumours, a blockbuster that would go on to sell more than 45 million copies worldwide and earn critical acclaim as one of the greatest pop records of all time.

In recent days and months, Caillat has made that same trip with his dog (not the same one) many times. This time his purpose has been to help form the Marin Music Project, a three-member group that’s on a mission to save the long-shuttered Record Plant as a piece of Marin’s storied rock ’n’ roll history.

The preservation campaign started for him when he held a book signing at the decaying studio in 2015 for his memoir, Making Rumours: The Inside Story of the Classic Fleetwood Mac Album.

“It was dirty, the wood was flaking off and I thought, ‘I’m gonna wake up one morning and read that it burned down,’” he said. “I’ve seen so many great studios that either burned down or were turned into computer places or real estate offices or coffee shops. I said, ‘I’m going to do everything I can to try and save this place.’”

So he hooked up with Novato marketing consultant Kevin Bartram and Frank Pollifrone, a sports and entertainment marketer from Los Gatos, to launch the Marin Music Project.

Read the full story at the Marin Independent Journal.

January 30, 2017
Stevie on ‘Buckingham McVie’: ‘I’m happy for them’

Stevie Nicks says another Fleetwood Mac album is unlikely: ‘We’re not 40 anymore’

The music icon says the band are more keen to focus on touring

Stevie Nicks says she does not think Fleetwood Mac will make another album together — because they are “not 40” any more.

The singer, 68, believes the band are more likely to focus on touring and doubts they will ever record a follow-up to 2003’s Say You Will.

She said: “If the five of us were to get together to make a record it would take a year, which is what it always takes us.

“It would be a whole year of recording, then press, then rehearsal, and by the time we got back onto the road, it would be heading towards the second year, and I don’t know whether at this time it’s better for us just to do a big tour.”

The band has sold more than 100 million records and reformed with the classic line-up of Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, John and Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood for a world tour, which ended in 2015.

Nicks said: “It’s every single penny we make divided by five, so the expense of making a record, which is huge, and then to get back on tour … we are not 40.

“We have to take that into consideration — how long can we do tours that are three-hour shows? Would you rather spend a year in the studio or get back on the road? I think that the band would choose to tour.”

Nicks, who is focusing on her solo career, is also reluctant to make new music.

She said: “I don’t write as many songs any more because with the internet, the way that kids listen to music, all the streaming, and the fact that if they’re very savvy, if they want to get it and not pay for it, they can.

“It goes against the grain of our whole belief in, ‘You write a song, you record it, and you put it out there and people should buy it’.

“We realise it’s not our world any more and the younger kids don’t look at it like they’re taking from us… we don’t have the impetus to write 20 songs because we know that unless you’re under 20 you’re not going to sell many records.”

She is not involved with the new album by McVie and Buckingham, which is not a Fleetwood Mac record.

She said: “I’m sure it’s going to be great, because Christine is super-inspired. I’m really happy for them.”

On July 9, Nicks will support her old friend Tom Petty with his band The Heartbreakers at Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time in Hyde Park.

She said: “I’m the girl who always wanted to be in his band and he’s always the one who said, ‘No, no girls allowed.’ There’s just no one else I’d rather be on stage with than Tom.”

Alistair Foster / Evening Standard / Tuesday, January 17, 2017

January 17, 2017
Looking out for big, big reissue!

A preview of Rhino Records’ latest reissue project, Fleetwood Mac’s glossy 1987 album Tango in the Night

Later this year, Rhino Records will be reissuing Fleetwood Mac’s 14th studio album Tango in the Night, the latest release in a series of deluxe packages focused on the band’s back catalog (Rumours, Tusk, Mirage). Although details of the reissue are still forthcoming, it is expected to contain the remastered original album; bonus discs of session material and outtakes; new liner notes; and rare period photographs.

On December 8, 2016, Rolling Stone contributing writer David Wild confirmed in a Twitter post that he had written the new liner notes for the reissue project. It remains to be seen which route Wild took in reflecting on the tumultuous Tango in the Night sessions, which were first laid bare in drummer Mick Fleetwood’s revealing 1990 autobiography Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac. Those circumstances ultimately led to the departure of key member Lindsey Buckingham and the addition of his replacements, guitarists Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, to support the album’s ensuing world tour. As a band practically defined by its personal dramas, it would almost seem careless to omit or downplay such a critical juncture in the band’s history.

Packed with the radio-friendly singles “Big Love,” “Seven Wonders, “Little Lies,” and “Everywhere,” Tango in the Night attracted a whole new generation of fans and contributed to the Fleetwood Mac’s legacy as one of the most enduring and resilient recording acts in rock history. At the time, MTV networks saturated music-video play with the album’s singles (a grand total of six was released!), which propelled the album to become an international smash. To date, the album has sold more than five million copies in North America and two million overseas.

In 2014, Mike Duquette, founder of the catalog music blog The Second Disc, featured Tango in the Night as a proposed reissue in his column Reissue Theory. In anticipation of the Tango in the Night reissue, we look back on his thoughtful post (including a hypothetical track list) and celebrate the album that marked the return of Fleetwood Mac to the forefront of the vibrant 1987 pop music scene.

Excerpt from ‘Reissue Theory: Fleetwood Mac, Tango in the Night’

Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on great albums and the reissues they could someday see. As we welcome one of our favorite ladies in rock back to her famous band, we remember their last album altogether and the pop success it enjoyed.

One of the best pieces of classic rock news to come out of this nascent year is easily the announcement of singer/keyboardist Christine McVie returning to Fleetwood Mac. McVie retired from the band (and touring in general) after the band’s incredibly successful The Dance tour in the late 1990s, leaving singer Stevie Nicks, singer/guitarist Lindsay Buckingham, bassist (and ex-husband) John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood to continue as a quartet, but made two surprise appearances with the band in England last year, later expressing her desire to rejoin the band.

While no official plans have been firmed up (beyond the possibility of a full tour), it certainly provokes one to think of the phenomenal albums the quintet have created – in particular, their final set as a quintet, 1987’s Tango in the Night.

—Read the full post here and be sure to scroll down to the comments section for fan discussion and commentary.

January 6, 2017
REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac

Hefty New Book lets Fleetwood Mac tell their own story

Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac: Interviews and Encounters
Edited by Sean Egan
Chicago Review Press, 448 pp., $28.99.

To casual rock-book readers, works that compile previously-written pieces on bands and musicians into one volume have strong pros and cons. They do provide a fascinating time capsule of the artists at very different points in their career, when they have no way of knowing what the future might bring but that you, the 2016 reader, do. But on the downside, each piece may also serve as a primer on the band’s history – one that gets told over, and over, and over again.

Fortunately, the insight of Fleetwood Mac On Fleetwood Mac offers outweighs its frequent repetitiveness. It’s great fodder for fans of a band as legendary and with as many members (with strong personalities) that Fleetwood Mac has had over the years.

Consisting of interviews, features, and reviews from 1967-2014 (though the vast majority of pieces cover the lineup on 1977’s Rumours), it’s a whirlwind tour through the Mac’s musical change and soap opera-like personal relationships. How refreshing to hear Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie discuss, say, Rumours when it is a work in progress and not a foundation of the Classic Rock Canon.

Through the years, members’ opinions of their romantic couplings and uncouplings change and develop as their lives progress. One circa-1982 article, ostensibly to promote the Mirage album and tour, becomes a rumination on the white-hot solo success of Stevie Nicks at the time, as well as what that did the to the group dynamic and Buckingham’s intensely competitive nature.

A number of articles are also from the period of time in music journalism when writers actually got to spend days with their subjects observing and interviewing them — both on and off the record. Not surprisingly, those go far deeper than a 15-minute phoner or staged round-robin cattle call of interviews.

So the reader feels as if they are in the studio with the band as Christine McVie empties another bottle of Blue Nun positioned on her keyboards; or John McVie and Nicks share giggles while thumbing through a copy of Playboy; or a writer shares a joint with Buckingham (and likely more that never made it into print) after a night of partying.

Of all the band members, Stevie Nicks comes off as the most free-ranging, delving into the mysticism of lace and shawls and the “Rhiannon” myth in one talk, and railing against the Shah and the Ayatollah of Iran during the hostage crisis in another.

The recently departed Prince, who played keyboards on Nicks’ solo hit “Stand Back,” even gets mentioned when she remembers how he gave her the music to an early version of “Purple Rain” for a collaboration that didn’t happen. She also recalls spending a (chaste) night sleeping on the floor of his actual purple kitchen one night during a Mac tour.

And the story isn’t over yet. The reunited Rumours Five have been touring over the past few years, including stops in Houston in 2014 and a few months later in 2015, and a new album is on the way.

Like most books of this kind, they are really aimed toward a more-than-casual fan of Fleetwood Mac. But with only Mick Fleetwood having served up two autobiographies, and the definitive history of the group yet to be written (though there have been books through the years), Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac largely lets the group members speak for themselves.

Now, about those detailed diaries that Stevie Nicks has kept since 1974…

Order the book from Amazon

Bob Ruggiero / Houston Press / Tuesday, June 21, 2016

June 21, 2016
Hear Fleetwood Mac’s Early Version of ‘Gypsy’
Fleetwood Mac’s hit 1982 album, Mirage, is set for reissue on July 29th in an expanded package that contains live tracks, early versions of familiar songs, outtakes and previously unheard studio jams. It will be available as a bare-bones remastered album, a two-CD expanded edition and a deluxe-edition box set that contains three CDs, a DVD and a vinyl LP. Preview the set below with an early version of the Stevie Nicks-sung single “Gypsy.”

Mirage came just three years after Fleetwood Mac released their experimental double LP Tusk, but in that time both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham launched solo careers and MTV drastically changed the pop-music landscape. Unlike many Seventies rock bands that struggled in this new era, Fleetwood Mac thrived. Mirage singles “Hold Me” and “Oh Diane” became big hits on radio and MTV, and the band supported the LP with an extremely successful American arena tour.

Fleetwood Mac’s next album, 1987’s Tango in the Night, was their final release with the classic Rumors-era lineup, though the band did reunite for a tour in 1997. In 2014, keyboardist Christine McVie returned to the band after a long absence for a rapturously received reunion tour. There’s been talk of a new studio album, but there’s no clear sign they’ve actually begun work on it.

Here is the track listing to the new deluxe edition of Mirage:

Disc One: Original Album – 2016 Remaster
1. “Love in Store”
2. “Can’t Go Back”
3. “That’s Alright”
4. “Book of Love”
5. “Gypsy”
6. “Only Over You”
7. “Empire State”
8. “Straight Back”
9. “Hold Me”
10. “Oh Diane”
11. “Eyes of the World”
12. “Wish You Were Here
Disc Two: B-Sides, Outtakes, Sessions
1. “Love in Store” (Early Version)*
2. “Suma’s Walk” a.k.a. “Can’t Go Back” (Outtake)*
3. “That’s Alright” (Alternate Take)*
4. “Book of Love” (Early Version)*
5. “Gypsy” (Early Version)*
6. “Only Over You” (Alternate Version)*
7. “Empire State” (Early Version)*
8. “If You Were My Love” (Outtake)*
9. “Hold Me” (Early Version)*
10. “Oh Diane” (Early Version)*
11. “Smile at You” (Outtake)*
12. “Goodbye Angel” (Original Outtake)*
13. “Eyes of the World” (Alternate Early Version)*
14. “Straight Back” (Original Vinyl Version)
15. “Wish You Were Here” (Alternate Version)*
16. “Cool Water”
17. “Gypsy” (Video Version)
18. “Put a Candle in the Window” (Run-Through)*
19. “Teen Beat” (Outtake)*
20. “Blue Monday” (Jam)*
*Previously Unissued

Disc Three: Mirage Live 1982
1. “The Chain”
2. “Gypsy”
3. “Love in Store”
4. “Not That Funny”
5. “You Make Loving Fun”
6. “I’m So Afraid”
7. “Blue Letter”
8. “Rhiannon”
9. “Tusk”
10. “Eyes of the World”
11. “Go Your Own Way”
12. “Sisters of the Moon”
13. “Songbird”
Disc Four: 5.1 Surround Mix & 24/96 Stereo Audio of Original Album (DVD)

Mirage (Vinyl)

Side One
1. “Love in Store”
2. “Can’t Go Back”
3. “That’s Alright”
4. “Book of Love”
5. “Gypsy”
6. “Only Over You”
Side Two
1. “Empire State”
2. “Straight Back”
3. “Hold Me”
4. “Oh Diane”
5. “Eyes of the World”
6. “Wish You Were Here”
Andy Greene / Rolling Stone / Thursday, June 9, 2016
June 9, 2016
LISTEN: Hold Me (Early Version)

An early version of Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 hit song “Hold Me” is available for purchase on Amazon. The track is the first release from the deluxe edition of Mirage, due out on July 29 (UPDATE: The release has been bumped to September 23.).

Hear the full outtake below:

May 19, 2016
Fleetwood Mac reissuing 1982 album Mirage
Warner Bros. Records gives the 1982 album the deluxe treatment on July 29

After previously reissuing its classic albums Rumours and Tusk as expanded, deluxe box sets, Fleetwood Mac will do the same with its 1982 studio effort, Mirage.

The remastered version of Mirage will be released July 29 in a number of configurations, including a deluxe five-disc edition featuring three-CDs, an audio DVD and a vinyl LP.

Mirage originally hit stores in June of ’82 and went on to top the Billboard 200 for five consecutive weeks. The album yielded three top-40 hits, “Hold Me,” “Gypsy” and “Love in Store,” which peaked at #4, #12 and #22, respectively, on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

The deluxe edition of Mirage features a remastered version of the original album; a CD of outtakes, rarities and alternate takes; a CD of live performances recorded in Los Angeles during Fleetwood Mac’s 1982 tour; a remastered vinyl edition of the record; and a DVD-Audio disc that includes 5.1 surround sound and high-fidelity stereo mixes of Mirage.

The outtakes disc features 19 tracks, including early versions of several songs on the album, a couple of tunes from the sessions that don’t appear on Mirage, an extended mix of “Gypsy” used for the song’s video, and a cover of Fats Domino’s “Blue Monday.”

The live CD boasts performances of a few Mirage tunes, including “Gypsy,” as well as such well-known Fleetwood Mac songs as “The Chain,” “You Make Loving Fun,” “Rhiannon,” “Tusk” and “Go Your Own Way.”

The Mirage reissue also will be available as a two-CD Expanded Edition featuring the remastered original album remastered and the disc of outtakes and rarities, a single CD featuring just the remastered original disc, and a digital version of the record.

Here is the full track list of the deluxe reissue of Mirage:

Disc One: Original Album — 2016 Remaster
“Love in Store”
“Can’t Go Back”
“That’s Alright”
“Book of Love”
“Gypsy”
“Only Over You”
“Empire State”
“Straight Back”
“Hold Me”
“Oh Diane”
“Eyes of the World”
“Wish You Were Here”

Disc Two: B-Sides, Outtakes, Sessions
“Love in Store” (Early Version)*
“Suma’s Walk” a.k.a. “Can’t Go Back” (Outtake)*
“That’s Alright” (Alternate Take)*
“Book of Love” (Early Version)*
“Gypsy” (Early Version)*
“Only Over You” (Alternate Version)*
“Empire State” (Early Version)*
“If You Were My Love” (Outtake)*
“Hold Me” (Early Version)*
“Oh Diane” (Early Version)*
“Smile at You” (Outtake)*
“Goodbye Angel” (Original Outtake)*
“Eyes of the World” (Alternate Early Version)*
“Wish You Were Here” (Alternate Version)*
“Cool Water”
“Gypsy” (Video Version)
“Put a Candle in the Window” (Run-Through)*
“Teen Beat” (Outtake)*
“Blue Monday” (Jam)*

Disc Three: Mirage Live 1982
“The Chain”
“Gypsy”
“Love in Store”
“Not That Funny”
“You Make Loving Fun”
“I’m So Afraid”
“Blue Letter”
“Rhiannon”
“Tusk”
“Eyes of the World”
“Go Your Own Way”
“Sisters of the Moon”
“Songbird”

Disc Four: 5.1 Surround Mix & 24/96 Stereo Audio of Original Album (DVD)

Disc Five: Original Album — 2016 Remaster (Vinyl)
- = previously unissued.
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May 13, 2016
Ryan Beatty covers ‘Dreams’

Up-and-coming recording artist Ryan Beatty has covered Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 #1 single “Dreams.” Beatty’s offers a stripped down, soulful rendition of the Stevie Nicks-penned classic. Have a listen below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu6FhMHRqFU

August 20, 2015
REVIEW: Fleetwood Mac, Glasgow SSE Hydro

ACCORDING to the traditional concert closing remarks of Fleetwood Mac’s resident ringmaster Mick Fleetwood, “the Mac is most definitely back” – and now these MOR giants come with added Christine McVie.

Rating: * * * *

The singer/pianist has rejoined the line-up after a sixteen-year absence and immediately made her leavening presence felt on the close harmony of opening number The Chain.

Her simply stated love songs, such as the sweet, girlish Everywhere and mellifluous Little Lies, made a welcome comeback to the setlist, providing a charming contrast to Stevie Nicks’ more melodramatic, impressionistic numbers – though the absence of Songbird from this show’s setlist was a great shame.

The eternal hippie chick Nicks was in her theatrical element, donning a black feathery shawl for extra gothic ambience on Rhiannon – though it hardly needed an atmospheric boost with Lindsey Buckingham’s burnished guitar and the ethereal harmonies as embellishing features.

Buckingham, meanwhile, was energised throughout, limbering up those fleet fingers to deliver an athletic, acoustic Big Love which climaxed with a primal yelp.

The eccentric tribal Tusk was another cathartic highlight.

The former couple cleverly traded on their volatile chemistry with a joint rendition of Landslide but were given too much hammy latitude on Gold Dust Woman and I’m So Afraid.

The band pulled back from the brink of indulgence with Go Your Own Way and heeded their own advice on Don’t Stop.

Both hits were the product of inter-band break-ups, yet here they are forty years on, still singing that universal rock soap opera.

Fiona Shepherd / The Scotsman / Wednesday, 17th June 2015

June 17, 2015