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Tag: Fleetwood Mac

  • For Fleetwood Mac, the flame still burns

    For Fleetwood Mac, the flame still burns

    Fleetwood Mac
    Fleetwood Mac

    By Jed Gottlieb
    Boston Herald
    Friday, March 6, 2009

    Fleetwood Mac’s saga is like a “Friends” story arc. Couples break up, things get interesting, couples make up, things get less interesting, then the cycle repeats itself.

    This makes Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks rock ’n’ roll’s Ross and Rachel (only sub out annoying drama at Central Perk, sub in genius song-writing and cocaine). And though the romance between the two may be long over, Buckingham and Nicks aren’t done with each other yet.

    With the Mac back (minus the retired Christine McVie) at TD Banknorth Garden on Wednesday, Buckingham phoned the Herald to talk about the band’s first tour in half a decade and when we can expect a new album. Then Nicks called with her own take on the saga’s next chapter and to remind us that, even in their AARP years, the two’s tempestuous relationship isn’t about to end.

    Lindsey Buckingham

    Herald: Without a new album to promote are you going to dig into your back catalog for older, more obscure stuff to play in concert?

    Buckingham: It’s a funny thing because you get into that area and it really underscores part of what makes Fleetwood Mac such a good band. There’s such a disparate range of sensibilities. What one person considers to be a worthy, obscure gem is not what another feels is right. When you include all of the songs that have been radio songs for us it defines about 80 percent of our set. The extra 20 percent is up for grabs.

    Have you had a big hand in putting together the deluxe reissue of “Rumours” that’s due in May?

    Not really. I’m not a huge fan of those repackagings anyway. But in light of the fact that there is no new album, it makes sense to have something out there to help the marketing of the tour. Certainly there are some curiosities on there, but I haven’t had much to do with it. I did put the kibosh on a few things that I didn’t think should make the cut. So I’ve had an editorial hand in it, but that’s it.

    You’ve done two solo albums in three years, which seems like a furious pace for you. Are still writing like a madman?

    Kind of, yeah. When we got off the road in 2004, I told the band, ‘Don’t bother me for about three years.’ And they didn’t, which was great. It allowed me to step up the writing frequency and get out and tour. But we had committed to do a tour months ago, so I had to cut my own tour short. The finer points aside, it was very satisfying to get to spend a few years doing my own thing. It has stepped up my creativity and put me on a whole new wavelength.

    Do you recognize when you write a song if it will be for Fleetwood Mac or for a solo album?

    Not really. There are certain things I write that are esoteric or idiosyncratic that I know will go on a solo record. But in general, if you look at the lion’s share of “Gift of Screws” (Buckingham’s 2008 solo album), much of that would work as Fleetwood Mac. It also comes down to the band. If they go “eh,” then it becomes a solo piece. (Laughs.)

    How far along are you in planning a new Fleetwood Mac album?

    We aren’t far along in any specific sense. My mantra is to work on my dynamic with Stevie. She was a little uncomfortable when we got on the road last time, for whatever reason. Part of it was that she missed Christine, part of it was that I was getting 50 percent of the face time onstage and she wasn’t used to having a guy get all that space. I think it threw her context out a little. So this time around I am very much wanting to make everyone as comfortable as possible and have that be the most important thing. But we have discussed, when this tour is done, going into the studio. The only specific we know is that we are leaning toward finding an outside producer. I think it would help to have an overviewer. It was pretty hard taking the reins last time. Not so much with the music but with the band politics.

    Have any producers in mind?

    We had a short a list, but I have no idea. We’ve talked about everyone form Daniel Lanois to Dave Stewart to Rick Rubin. That pretty much runs the gamut of approaches. We have to meet with a few people and see how it feels.

    Looking back, does it seem like everything great that you’ve done as a band has come out of turmoil?

    That’s absolutely true. Obviously “Rumours” was the personal turmoil and then “Tusk” was the artistic turmoil. Then a lot of stuff after that was dealing with levels of disillusionment, at least for me. Or it was about dealing with lifestyles that were getting out of hand on some level.

    Stevie Nicks

    Herald: You’ve been busy on the road for the last three summers. When did you have time to plan this Fleetwood Mac tour?

    Nicks: The last three summers on solo tours and two years ago a tour with Tom Petty. I went out for seven shows and I stayed for 27. Tom asked me to stay and I said, “There’s no way I’m not going.” My manager said, “OK, but this is your vacation. Tom Petty is your vacation.”

    So when did the Fleetwood Mac reunion come together?

    We had a meeting between two and three years ago to talk. Lindsey had really been working hard on his solo work and decided he was going to get those one or two or three CDs done and tour behind them. He ended up using up a lot of his songs for “Say You Will” and that really didn’t fulfill his need to be a solo artist and, well, that album wasn’t the best experience for any of us. Lindsey made a decision to take a couple of years off and work on his solo stuff so he could enjoy Fleetwood Mac again. We all said, “Go ahead, have fun, rock on!”

    I asked Lindsey if there was another rarity like “Silver Spring” waiting to be dug out and done live and he wasn’t sure. What do you think?

    I suggested that we do “Storms” (from “Tusk”) on this tour. We have never done it onstage. The last tour we pulled “Beautiful Child” out and we’d never done that before and it went great. But what we do always comes down to is what sounds good. We’re just thrilled to play our body of work that we’ve worked so hard on over the last 30 years. We really shy away from the “Greatest Hits Tour” label because we think it sounds cheesy. It’s not just the greatest hits, it’s the familiar songs that everyone loves.

    And you’re ready to jump into the studio as soon as this tour is over?

    I would very much like to do that. I think the world should have one more kickass Fleetwood Mac record. This tour could go on for 135 shows, but when we come off the road we will be a finely tuned, well-rehearsed band, which is the best thing to be when you go into the studio because you’re already hot. Your chops are up, you’re singing great, you’ve been playing fantastic music for a year. And writing on the road is really fun. Not to mention that we already both have enough songs to do a record now. But it all depends on if we’re having fun and enjoying each other.

    In the past it seemed you recorded or toured because you had to, it was your career. Now it seems like you don’t have to, you want to.

    That’s right. Lindsey has children. He didn’t have children 10 years ago. Mick (Fleetwood) has 6-year-old twins. John (McVie) has a daughter in college and so he and I are the only freewheeling ones. At this point in our lives, especially for Lindsey and Mick, if they’re not having a good time, they need to go home and raise their kids and make music in their home studios.

    What do you think of the “Rumours” reissue?

    It’s pretty awesome. It’s the songs before they came to fruition, almost like the five of us sitting in your living room playing for you. Listening to it, I could rise up above my body and go back there and remember what an amazing group of people we were in those years. As I was listening to it, I thought, “This could so be now. This sounds like a brand-new band just coming out.”

    It’s that fresh?

    It is so amazingly fresh. But Lindsey and I joke that we could never get a record deal in L.A. today with this sound. People wouldn’t know if we were folk or country or rockabilly. Well, they said the same thing when I moved to L.A. in 1971. But when you hear this band, this really young band, and you hear Christine’s amazing keyboards and John and Mick, the bassist and drummer of life, and then stick that under Lindsey Buckingham who can do anything on the guitar, it’s spectacular.

    So much of your great stuff came out of the band being a mess. If you are all on great terms will it be harder to make a great album?

    No. Lindsey and I and our tragic, uptight way of doing things to each other is still the same in so many ways. In many, many ways, Lindsey and I are still the same people that we were when we met at 16 and 17. There’s a part of our relationship that remains unchanged. It doesn’t matter that he’s married with kids. It doesn’t matter what my life is. When we’re together we can still be incredibly teenage. And we still write about each other a lot. We’re still great sources of inspiration for each other. When we’re 90, whoever goes first, the other one will be sitting on a bed alone. We’ll never run out of stuff to write about.

    Fleetwood Mac, Wednesday at TD Banknorth Garden. Tickets: $147-$47; 617-931-2000.

  • Cameron Crowe reflects on Fleetwood Mac piece

    Section: RS 1000
    1977 MAR 24

    CAMERON CROWE HAD BEEN COVERING FLEETWOOD Mac since 1973. “I had gotten a ride with a date to see Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles play,” he remembers. “I was wandering around with a tape recorder and interviewed Fleetwood Mac, and one of the road crew stole my date.” Crowe kept writing about Fleetwood Mac as they grew into the biggest rock band in the world. This cover story chronicled the making of Rumours, which would spend thirty-one weeks at Number One and sell 19 million copies. “We knew we were on some kind of roll,” says Lindsey Buckingham, although he says they had no idea how big the record would get. Crowe, at least, had an inkling. One page of his notebook has but a single sentence: “Suddenly everybody everywhere loves Fleetwood Mac.”

    In the article, the band members spoke of the stress and conflicts that had led to breakups for the entire group: Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Christine and John McVie, as well as drummer Mick Fleetwood and his wife, Jenny. Rumours’ songs were steeped in tension and recriminations. “The musical soap opera brought out the voyeur in everyone,” Buckingham says. “And their protective instinct.”

    Crowe says that after his Fleetwood Mac story came out, “other musicians would say, ‘Well, I see the level of raw honesty the magazine wants from us.’” Told this, Buckingham snorts, “I wouldn’t necessarily advise that to other people. It was part and parcel of the band for us — all our boundaries got melded and we couldn’t hide our level of pain.”

    Annie Leibovitz’s iconic cover of Fleetwood Mac in bed perfectly captured the band’s interpersonal dynamics. On the day of the shoot, Leibovitz says, “I thought I’d be nice and polite, and I brought a bunch of cocaine for everyone. In those days, for photo shoots, you just brought cocaine. I took it out, and they looked a little freaked out at first, but then consumed it in, like, thirty seconds. Then I learned they’d all recently been to rehab. So they were all a little jittery and tense.”

    Buckingham’s memory of the session centers on something different: After Leibovitz finished, everyone got off the mattress except himself and Nicks. Wearing only their bedclothes, the two of them staved where they were and just held onto each other.

    The wounds of their breakup were still raw. Says Buckingham, “After all that we’d been through, knowing that we loved each other — somehow, we just couldn’t set up.” For five minutes, maybe more, Buckingham and Nicks shared a silent embrace. Leibovitz and the rest of the band milled around until finally Mick Fleetwood returned to the mattress and whispered to the entangled pair: “Guys, you’re freaking everyone out.”

    “‘Raw honesty was part and parcel of the band. We couldn’t hide our level of pain,” says Buckingham.

    Billboard / May 18, 2006

  • DVD Music Review: Fleetwood Mac Destiny Rules

    DVD Music Review: Fleetwood Mac Destiny Rules

    Fleetwood Mac Destiny RulesDocumentary on rock’s most dysfunctional group

    When Fleetwood Mac regrouped with guitarist Lindsey Buckingham for 2003’s Say You Will album, it was bound to be a tense affair given the problems that had driven them apart before. Hence this fly-on-the-wall documentary on the making of the album is spicier than the average band-endorsed production. Of this obstinacy, Buckingham says tellingly, “Any shrink would tell you that’s a good thing.” Indeed, so prolonged are arguments about mixes, lyrics and the like, it’s a miracle they got it finished.

    Q Recommends
    Main feature:     **** (4 stars)
    Extras: None

    Paul Elliott / Q (Issue 256) / October 2004

  • Going his own way

    Going his own way

    Lindsey Buckingham stakes his claim in the Fleetwood Mac legacy

    The man doesn’t need Perry Mason to argue his case. It’s clear from one spin through the recently-remastered mid-’70s Fleetwood Mac masterpieces (Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and 1979’s underrated Tusk) that guitarist/vocalist/arranger Lindsey Buckingham was, is and always will be the heart, soul and brains of this stadium-filling supergroup. After all, the band foundered when he went solo after ’97’s Tango in the Night, only to whirr back to life last year when he returned to oversee the Mac’s creative, well-kudoed comeback, Say You Will, as well as the spanking-new concert CD/DVD Live in Boston. A true renaissance man, the crafty Buckingham developed his own finger-pickings style as a rockabilly-obsessed Palo Alto teen, then settled on a particular guitar, as well — the customized, viola-shaped Tuner Model 1 that now provides that signature Mac-chimey sound. Is this unexpected reunion all that he hoped it would be? During a Los Angeles rehearsal, Buckingham weighed in on this and other issues.

    The Wave: Have your bandmates finally conceded that, yes, indeed, you are truly the Alpha Wolf?

    Lindsey Buckingam: Well, I dunno… I dunno if anyone would wanna define it quite that way. But when we regrouped, everyone had sorta gotten their shit together, so it was really great to see all these people and realize that there was still a lot of care, a lot of love and that the chemistry was certainly as good as ever. We were playing better than we ever did, so that alone made it worthwhile. And one of the things that happened was a male-bonding kinda-thing. It was interesting to watch Mick [Fleetwood, founding drummer] and John [McVie, bassist/co-founder] talk, for example. Because without Christine [McVie, founding keyboardist and ex-wife of John] there, John was able to be a little looser, with no baggage or buttons to be pushed. It was really neat to see some business get taken care of that might’ve been 30 years old. Same with Stevie Nicks and me, in some ways. There was a renewed appreciation.

    TW: But you’ve got to claim some credit, right?

    I was cynical about our success because I perceived the pitfalls. And I felt that I was pretty much holding it together on a musical level, and in a way wasn’t getting credit for it. But it wasn’t as if there was any kind of organized suppression — people gravitated to what was most obvious, and Stevie was almost immediately singled out in terms of her personage and the witchy image she’d put together. Maybe if I’d been the one who was singled out, I wouldn’t have been so cynical. But I had to fight for myself in the band, fight for what I thought was right without anybody’s help. To get to Tusk, I had to punch some holes in the status quo.

    TW: People probably forget the dramatic U-turn you took with Tusk. It wasn’t exactly what folks were expecting after Rumours.

    We came out with Rumours, which was certainly a beautiful album, musically and otherwise. But the musical soap opera aspect of that, I think, became more the focal point than the music. And then you’re in this spot: Where do you go from there? Well, you can make a Rumours 2 — certainly, the record company’s gonna ask you to make Rumours 2 for all the wrong reasons. But in the meantime music from England had come out — new wave and punk — and although it wasn’t anything that influenced me directly, it did give me the courage to say, “Hey, look, I wanna try some new things.” But I had a meeting with the band, and everyone was dead set against it and we had a fight about it. But somehow I managed to prevail and do it. And by the end of it, everyone was totally on the same page. But I mean, releasing “Tusk” as a first single, compared to “Go Your Own Way”? It took everyone by surprise, and that was part of the beauty of it for me. It confounded everyone’s expectations.

    TW: And now, of course, every marching band in the world has to learn “Tusk” by heart.

    Ha! I know, I know. It’s crazy. And at the time, everyone was happy with the album, until, of course, it didn’t sell 16 million records. Then there was a backlash again. So then you got Mirage, which is not a bad record, but it’s sorta drifting in hazy waters. Tango was better, but it’s still way under duress.

    TW: But Mac songs from that era still mean the world to people. You helped compose and conceive some all-time classics.

    And it’s hard to be as connected with that as one might think. You’re not necessarily in touch with the illusion it creates. Obviously, you figure if you’re selling 16 million albums, something is happening, but you’re just too insulated to be in touch with that collective effect.

    Tom Lanham / The Wave (Vol. 4, Issue 16) / July 28-August 10, 2004

  • Storm, Nicks steal Fleetwood show

    Though they traded in their bongs for babies ages ago, the baby boomers who filled Blossom Music Center for Fleetwood Mac’s Sunday night performance proved that not even a torrential thunderstorm could keep many of them from their polished pop/rock roots.

    As the original lineup sans Christine McVie took to the stage for the group’s monolithic two-hour performance, the boomers stood to salute Mick Fleetwood’s crazy eyes as they appeared on the stage’s jumbo screen.

    The group, backed by an extensive musical entourage that included two guitarists, a keyboardist, an extra drummer, and two backup singers, started off strong with a Rumours double shot of “The Chain” and “Dreams.”

    While John McVie and Fleetwood quietly kept the rhythm going in their matching black-and-white British blues get-ups, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham commanded the audience with the well-aged tension of their whimsical harmonizing.

    The group presented a well-rounded set of their extensive discography, including everything from Tusk’s “Sara” and “Beautiful Child” to tracks from their 2003 effort Say You Will.

    As frequent lightning threatened a downpour, Nicks served up the show’s highlights. While “Second Hand News” had everyone on their feet, her commanding performance of “Landslide,” backed by Buckingham on acoustic guitar, had everyone soulfully chanting “I’m getting older, too.”

    During their performance of “Sara,” vintage concert footage of the band appeared on the jumbo screen, and the dichotomy between past and present proved that the outfit really hasn’t changed that much, with the exception of a few gray hairs and abandoned cocaine habits.

    Nicks was still decked out in her flowy gypsy dress and stringy shawls, hand-miming her lyrics and twirling around the stage, while Buckingham exuded his vulnerable bravado and hung onto every note while he convulsed through numerous guitar solos.

    However, by 9:30 p.m., the sky’s balmy warning signs turned into an incredible storm. As some on the lawn moved to the pavilion, others filed out while the group performed “Gold Dust Woman.” For those who could find a dry seat, the thunder simply complemented the incredible tension still imbued in the Buckingham/Nicks duet during “You Can Go Your Own Way.”

    Though the entire show maintained Fleetwood Mac’s knack for drama, nothing was too showy or over the top, with the exception of Fleetwood’s questionable sanity, exposed as he challenged the sky to a thunderous duel with a manic drum solo, only finally to reveal electronic drum pads inside his vest like some Mad Professor contraption.

    All in all, it wasn’t the band’s stellar performance that disappointed, it was the horrible weather, which simply made Nicks’ and Buckingham’s point that “thunder only happens when it’s raining,” just a tad ironic.

    Denise Grollmus / Beacon Journal / Monday, June 14, 2004

  • May 16, 2004 – Green Bay, Nashville & Atlanta

    May 16, 2004 – Green Bay, Nashville & Atlanta

    When I last left off I think we had just arrived in Green Bay…

    Green Bay is very, very small. By the end of the first day off, after having taken a shuttle to the nearest mall, visited a few lovely bars and eaten lots of cheese, I felt I had experienced what Green Bay had to offer….that is, unless you are a football fan and then the possibilities for entertainment are limitless. I myself, am not a fan of the football. Sooo…I slept until 4PM the second day. Sleeping is an art in my opinion…and I am an artist. I paid for my art later that night when I was not able to fall asleep until 5AM, and I had a 6:30AM wake up call. I was a little wacky at load in that morning, to say the least.

    I am now certain that my finger is broken. It’s been a few days and I can’t bend it. It’s still blue. It’s no longer swelled up like a sausage, but it’s still blue, and it still really hurts. It’s been splinted and taped to my other finger, but now my left hand is pretty useless and it’s hard to work with only one hand. Grrrr. This is no longer considered self-pity, this is just blatant whining. And if it doesn’t get better soon our Production Manager will most certainly force me to see a doctor. Double Grrrr.

    Let’s see…what to tell you about the Green Bay show…

    It poured rain in Green Bay. Poured. This does not feel like a summer tour. The enormous suitcase I have that is filled with tank tops and flip flops has not served me well. (In a few days I’ll be complaining about the heat….I’m reeeallly good at complaining, ask anyone that knows me.)

    Landslide was dedicated to the Packers. A very delicate song to be dedicated to a bunch of guys that tackle each other and bang helmets together…but hey…football players have feelings too. There was a flight curfew in Green Bay so the second the show was over we were dragging band members out to their cars…there’s nothing like kicking people out of their very own concert.

    Ten hour drive to the next city. Slept the whole way and woke up with just enough time to enjoy a morning bowl of Lucky Charms and a Red Bull before disembarking the bus.

    Ahhh, Nashville. Last time we were in Nashville we stayed downtown and it was great. Fun city, lots to do. As you might have guessed, it’s all country, all the time, but it was still fun. This time around we stayed about 30 minutes from downtown and there was nothing to do. A bunch of the guys went to a sports bar to watch a big hockey game, but just like the football, I’m also not a fan of the hockey. Or sports in general, really. Water sports are good, with the exception of water ballet or synchronized swimming…let’s be honest, those are just silly. Anyway, we arrived in Nashville around 1:00PM so we really only had half a day off. I sat around writing the previous tour diary, checking e-mail and also dyed one of the lighting guys hair fire engine red…that’s my motto, when boredom strikes, dye your hair!

    You know how I said it poured in Green Bay? Nashville made Green Bay look like a sorry drizzle. We had about 400 towels laid out on the floor backstage. The place flooded. I felt so sorry for people who had lawn seats in Nashville, they sat through a two and half hour storm. Talk about dedication. Stevie dedicated Landslide to all the songwriters from Nashville, past, present and future. Stevie’s family has some deep country music roots, so I think Nashville holds a special place for her.

    For the 15 minutes or so before the show, after Mick is all dressed and ready to take the stage, he typically paces the hallway, stands around and chats, and uses our security guards (large) arms to warm up his hands. It’s just his way of getting ready for the show. Anyway, he was standing next to my road case, resting his arm on it, and when I went to get something out of it I nearly slammed his hand in the drawer. Can you even imagine if I had? Oh. My. God. “Fleetwood Mac tour canceled because ditzy girl breaks Mick Fleetwood’s hand”. He just looked at me like we had just avoided the biggest catastrophe ever. We were all silent for a minute, and then howled with laughter when I held up my wounded, bandaged, broken hand to Mick and he just said “Now you’re trying to break my hand too?”

    Atlanta. Holy mother were you guys a good crowd! When the show started it looked there were a lot of empty seats and it was a little nerve racking. It was still light out and it just felt a little weird. By the third song, daylight had made it’s exit, the seats filled up and the show was awesome. When dedicating Landslide Stevie leaned down and asked a girl in the front row what her name was, “We would like to dedicate this song to Angela, from Atlanta Georgia”, the girl was already crying at this point, but as soon as Stevie said “It’s called Landslide”, the poor girl just started sobbing. It was so sweet. She cried through the whole song.

    We also had a little problem with the security guards in Atlanta. Every day, our production manager has a meeting with all the house security. Security is told that people are allowed to stand up front the entire show. The only thing they are supposed to watch for is people climbing on to the stage. Apparently there were a few misinformed guards that kept telling people to sit down. Stevie came over to get her cape before Gold Dust Woman and she was piiiised. She turned around and barked at our security guard, “You go tell them to stop making people sit down…they’re ruining the show!!!!!” I believe the troublesome guards were switched out for people who had actually paid attention at the security meeting.

    Lindsey’s wife came out for the Atlanta show, she was carrying a handful of pictures of little Stella for all of us women to fawn over. (Stella and the kids are at home with Grandma for the weekend…) But we all cooed over the pictures, snatching them out of each others hands. After the show someone handed me a few signs to give to the band, one of which said “Welcome to the room Stella” which I thought was very cute.

    Okay, set list discussion. Don’t Let Me Down Again has in fact taken a permanent vacation, (insert expletive here), Goodbye Baby has been rehired, although I love the song, I kind of liked ending the show on a high note. Goodbye Baby is so sad! But I suppose it’s the logical follow-up to Songbird…I guess tradition is tradition. Destiny Rules got the boot, which I’m livid about. There are a few of us who have told Stevie we will not speak to her until they put it back in the set. (I think she knows that we work for her and that we have to speak to her, so she kind of called our bluff.) Say You Will is standing by for a permanent position, and all the other new ones look like they are here to stay, thank heavens. I’m loving Sara, and I’m loving I Know I’m Not Wrong. I adore Red Rover so much I just might marry it.

    As part of my desperation to entertain you, and by request of a few fan club members I’ve put together a set list of my own. Not that my opinion matters to any of you, but this is what results from boredom. We play 24 songs now, and I couldn’t narrow it down that much, so I settled for 32. In no particular order:

    Monday Morning (Okay, that one has to be the opener though.)
    Blue Letter
    Crystal
    Landslide
    Oh Well
    Sara
    Not That Funny
    Never Going Back
    Fireflies
    Farmers Daughter
    Can’t Go Back
    That’s Alright
    Empire State
    Hold Me
    Oh Diane
    Eyes Of The World
    Second Hand News
    I Don’t Want To Know
    Thrown Down
    Red Rover
    Steal Your Heart Away
    Seven Wonders
    Welcome To The Room Sara
    Tusk
    Over & Over
    The Ledge
    Think About Me
    What Makes You Think You’re The One
    Storms
    When You Were Good
    That’s Enough For Me
    I Know I’m Not Wrong

    Last but not least, I want to thank any and all of you who take the time to say hi or give me feedback on the tour reports. I really, really appreciate it, and if I’m ever short with any of you before or after the show, just know that it’s only because I’m usually a little busy and a lot sarcastic. (Not to mention a wee bit socially anxious, but that story is best saved for another day.)

    Joking aside, thanks guys, I’m genuinely flattered.
    Signing off. See ya’ll in West Palm.

    CB

  • May 10, 2004 – Rehearsals: New York, Madison & Champaign

    May 10, 2004 – Rehearsals: New York, Madison & Champaign

    Yes, I’m back. You can’t get rid of me, I’m like the relative that came to stay for a week and ended up moving in to the garage. I’m back to fill your heads with useless information about our daily life out here. I fear that with some 36-ish shows I’ll run out of things to talk about. So please, you’ll all have to bear with me if some days are shorter and/or more boring than others. I’ll do my best to keep you somewhat entertained. At the first show in Madison I was told by someone from the fan club that there are actually people out there reading these….and enjoying them? Wow. I’m in shock. So now I kind of feel like I’m talking to someone instead of just blabbing to a blank computer screen in a hotel room. Ok, here we go…I have to remember how I used to do this…

    For starters, I have a big, fat, blue sausage finger right now. I smashed it between a door jam and a road case last night during load out, it doesn’t feel good. I can’t say whether it’s broken or not, all I can tell you is that I never knew typing could be so painful. Alright, now that I’ve gotten my daily quota of self-pity taken care of, we can move on!

    I’ll get you up to speed on our schedule…we spent two weeks at home after Australia, then we headed to LA on the 24th of March for three weeks of rehearsals. We ended up cutting rehearsals a week short since the first two weeks were pretty productive, but more so because Lindsey and his wife were due to have a baby any minute. (She has since arrived, beautiful, healthy, and happy. Her name is Stella.) Rehearsals we’re great. The process of seeing new songs put together for a live performance is amazing. Even more amazing is seeing songs that are 25 even 30 years old being pulled out from the archives and given a new life.

    We started out with rehearsing I Know I’m Not Wrong, from Tusk. It’s one of my favorite FM songs, so I was was thrilled about that. It sounds awesome live, if you’re coming out to any shows on this leg you can definitely look forward to it, it’s soooo good. Then out from the depths of the Buckingham Nicks era (and a brief, albeit glorious appearance on the FM Live album) came Don’t Let Me Down Again. That calls for pee your pants excitement in my opinion! It sounds great, and they played it at the first show in Madison. If you were at the Madison show, consider yourself lucky, because I think it will be leaving the set. Sadly, it seems it can’t find a place to fit in. It will be sorely missed, but at least I got to see it come to life, it was like a little piece of history…farewell Don’t Let Me Down Again, it was nice knowing you…sigh. But we’ve got Sara (big huge yay!), Destiny Rules (double yay!) and Red Rover (pass out from excitement yay!). Personally, my favorite live FM song is Monday Morning, I begged and pleaded for it this time around, to a point where I think they were actually becoming angry with me. (Okay, so I may have been a little pushy). They finally played it once at rehearsals to test it’s waters, I was like a teenage girl at an NSync show. It was incredible. But it got vetoed. I have wiped away my tears and with the help of good therapy and medication I am almost over it.

    After rehearsals we all went home for three weeks (seemed like three days) and then flew out to New York on May 3rd for this MTV Networks thing. I won’t explain, it was really boring. We were there for two days to play three songs. I was bored senseless.

    We then flew from NY to Madison for the first show of the tour. The best thing about arriving in Madison was the return of our tour buses. We have been in Europe and Australia since November, it had been months and months since we’ve seen a bus. When we were overseas we only flew, we had no place no call home…but our homes on wheels have returned, same buses, same drivers, it’s like we never left. Actually, I think three of the four buses are the exact same buses as last time, but the bus I’m on was changed out for a new one (I guess the one we had originally broke down) and now we have automatic doors on the bus. Instead of just manually pulling them open or closed, you push a button and they slide open, it’s like Star Trek, it’s hysterical. Most buses have these doors, but I can’t get used to them, I feel the constant pull to make really bad teleporting/Star Fleet/Captain Kirk jokes. As you can probably tell, it isn’t hard to entertain me. Anywho…moving on…

    Day one in Madison was a load-in/rehearsal day. It had been weeks since the band had played the new songs, so they did a quick run-through and some final tweaking. That evening, after the band had all gone back to the hotel, Stevie stuck around for a fitting (new clothes!). There were only a few of us left in the building, most of the crew had gone back to the hotel for the night. (To enjoy this anecdote you’ll need to know that we all carry radios at the gigs to communicate.) So I’m standing outside on the loading dock when someone starts singing over the radio. It seems Stevie was bored, so she took Karen’s radio and decided to indulge our Production Assistant by giving an impromptu performance of Illume, our PA’s favorite Stevie song. After her radio debut, I asked if she was taking requests, and she was…so I got a radio performance of Storms, from Tusk. I can’t say how many of the little things I’ll really remember when this tour is over, but that will certainly be one of them, it was very sweet.

    Cut to 24 hours later…the show went well, although there was a chunk of technical problems in the middle of the set. Guitar problems to be more specific. Long story short, Stevie and Lindsey had to fill a good 5 minutes of silence, the whole crew was mortified, we were all standing around staring at each other with our jaws on the floor. We couldn’t believe our eyes, it was the longest 5 minutes of our lives. Seconds feel like hours in those situations. The band handled it like champs though, they’re so funny, Lindsey finally just got down and started doing sit-ups and push-ups to kill time, Stevie laughed and said “I didn’t know you could do that!!” It worked out fine, I think it’s nice every once in a while when something goes just a little bit wrong, it’’s entertaining. And this time it was actually really funny.

    The Champaign show was free of large technical mishaps, but instead, it was hotter than all get out. The arena in Champaign had no air conditioning. Even in cold weather, arenas really heat up when there’s thousands of people in them, so in hot weather (about 85 degrees), no air conditioning is a death sentence. Poor Mick and Lindsey were about to die from heat exhaustion. We even had portable AC units and tons of fans on the stage, but it just wasn’t helping, it was a sauna up there. Luckily the dressing rooms had good air conditioning. It was so funny, after the show we were all finding reasons to go in to the dressing rooms and stay there as long as possible just so that we could cool down a little. I suppose we might as well get used to it, it’s going to be a very hot and a very outdoor tour. Bring it on…I’m ready for summer.

    We’re in Green Bay now, we have two days off before the show here, so I’m going to take my broken finger (self-pity mention #2) and get out of my hotel room.

    Until next time…

    CB

  • May 25, 2004 – West Palm, Charlotte, Raleigh & Jacksonville

    May 25, 2004 – West Palm, Charlotte, Raleigh & Jacksonville

    Sorry for the wait! It was a busy week.

    Since I’m packing four shows and four days off in to one little report I’ll try and just give you a good recap, otherwise it will be 25 pages long…

    Our two days off in West Palm Beach were great. There was a pool, it was sunny most of the time, although it rained both nights, the days brought good weather for the most part. It was disgustingly humid, but at this point I’ll settle for humid as long as it’s not raining. For a while it seemed like we were destined to have a rain cloud follow us this whole tour…

    The really nice part about our stay in Florida is that we were staying literally right next door to the band and staff. It isn’t often that the crew is even in the same state, so it was tons of fun to have everyone in the same place for a few days. It was like a high school mixer. Good times.

    The West Palm show went well. However, I got a call early in the day to inform me that Stevie’s vocal chords were swollen and that we may be dropping Silver Springs from the set that night. The range that Silver Springs requires can be hard on her vocal chords and she didn’t want to push it too much, especially since Silver Springs is right before Standback, both of which are songs that she really steps it up for. Originally, she was going to tell us after Rhiannon whether or not she was up for Silver Springs, but then after sound check, she and her vocal coach decided to play it safe. I realize that it must have been a total bummer for you guys in West Palm, but just know that if she doesn’t take precautionary measures like that and ends up blowing her voice out, then we’re canceling shows…and nobody wants that. Our production assistant and I suggested that she and I get up there and perform Silver Springs instead, but oddly enough, no one liked that idea. And have no fear, Mama Nicks can still sing her booty off, and she still puts on a show worth watching, she’s just being careful not to stress her pipes too much. Silver Springs will be back as soon as Stevie is 100% again, there is no need to panic.

    Lindsey left the stage for Mick’s vest solo, he usually just sits on the side of the stage, but it was really hot, and he decided to go soak up some air conditioning and rehydrate a little. The change in routine threw him off and he ended up hurrying to get his guitar back on, and whacked himself in the head with it. He took a nice chunk out of his eyebrow and from what it looked like, he may have been seeing stars. He seemed a little out of it for the encore songs. He is alive and well, so again, no need to panic. The doctor used a little medical grade super glue to seal it up and he’s as good as new.

    We had a nice long drive that night to Charlotte. Long drives are much better than short ones when you live on a bus. You know how babies always fall asleep in cars? It’s the same thing on the bus, as soon as the engine fires up and you climb in your bunk, you’re out like a light. As soon as the bus stops, you wake up, it’s really odd. If the drive to the next city is only two or three hours, you wake up at 4AM and can’t fall back asleep so you end up dragging your bags up to your hotel room in your pj’s at an ungodly hour of the morning. So, the ten or so hour drive to Charlotte left plenty of time to have an pre-bed cocktail and still get a good 8 hours sleep. Then you wake up and you’re at the hotel, ready for your day off. There’s today’s lesson in bus life for you. Class dismissed.

    We had half a day off in Charlotte, there was a big mall that everyone went to (at this point I feel like I have been to every friggin’ mall in the country.) I ate way too much Chinese food and tried to get to bed at a reasonable hour since my alarm clock would be waking me at 5AM. The next morning it was apparent that we were in for a hot day, since at 6AM it was already about 85 degrees outside.

    Stevie has a big comfy chair that she sits in to have her make-up done. If you guys watched the Destiny Rules documentary, it’s the same one she’s sitting in all through rehearsals. Anyway, it’s totally beat up, it doesn’t have a road case, so it basically just gets thrown on the back of the truck every night, and after 100 something shows, the chair has seen it’s better day. We’ve replaced the fabric about ten times and the paint is all worn away and chipped, so I decided that I would repaint it. I’m pretty sure I got more paint in my hair and on my clothes than I did on the chair. People kept asking me if I painted the chair or if the chair painted me. Only slightly embarrassing.

    One of the local crew guys in Charlotte told me he was the “biggest Lindsey fan ever” and could I please get him some guitar picks…does this sound silly to anyone else?? He was visibly embarrassed and shocked when I revealed that Lindsey doesn’t use picks. That happens more often than you would believe.

    The show went well, although it was really hot. There was no airflow on the stage and the heat was oppressive. A few of us later complained that we were on the verge of passing out halfway through the show. (I won’t even discuss what the humidity did to my hair, but let me just say that if it was 1983….I would have been soooo cool.)

    We headed to Raleigh that night, it was a pretty short drive, and I had to get off the bus at 4AM because my bus was heading right back to Charlotte. Why? Because my bus was serving as the charter service to take about 10 of our guys back to Charlotte so that they could spend their day off at the car races. Apparently, they got to sit in some famous race car driver’s box seat and watch the race. (Sorry about the lack of detail, but you know me and the sports.) So I crawled off the bus at the crack of dawn and cursed my way to my hotel room.

    And you know how I said Charlotte was hot? I take it back. Raleigh was HOT. But, the stage in Raleigh was air conditioned, which helped ease the pain a little. Raleigh was one of those gigs where about 10 minutes in to load in everyone had their shirts off. I like to call it half-naked load in.

    As I’m sure you all know, there is a tour that comes through the backstage area everyday and a lot of the time people bring gifts for the band. Someone brought some really cool gifts in Raleigh. Lindsey received a framed Pet Sounds Beach Boys poster, which I knew he would love. When he first saw it in the dressing room, he said “is that a gift for the whole band?”, I told him that it was just for him…”oooh! That can go in the studio!” It doesn’t matter who you are…everybody loves good presents. John received a very nice Hawaiian shirt, that to our surprise he liked so much he asked if we could have it pressed so that he could wear it that night. I’m sure he made someone’s day.

    As usual the show was great, blah blah blah blah. There was a loud buzzing noise before dreams I think, so Stevie had to ad-lib a little while they tried to fix it…”talk amongst yourselves”, she then proceeded to try and help point out where the buzzing was coming from. The highlight of the Raleigh show for me, I owe to our lighting director. I’ll try and explain it quickly. What you guys see is a bunch of lights, but there are about six guys up in the truss, above the band, and four guys out at front of house, up in the rafters, running the lights. Then our lighting director (also one of the funniest men on the planet) sits out at the lighting board and for two and a half hours calls the lighting cues (all the while pushing a million buttons to run the more automated part of the show). All of them are on headset to each other and only four out of the twelve or so guys running the lights are from our crew, the other ten or so are local at each gig. So, I always hear these outrageously funny stories about what goes on over their headsets. In Raleigh, one of the lighting guys ran me a headset to where I sit during the show so that I could listen in. He even showed me how to talk if I wanted to say something. And it was hysterical. Most of the local guys didn’t even know which one was Lindsey and which one was Stevie (even though that topic was covered very well at the lighting meeting earlier that day). So there was a lot of “spot 6, 7 and 8 stand by to fade in on Stevie Nicks…the female singer. And 2, 3 and 4 stand by to fade in on Lindsey Buckingham…the guitar player.” It was two and half hours of pure funny. So that was my Raleigh highlight, I was an honorary lighting guy for a day.

    Wow, this is already getting really long. I’ll try and wrap it up.

    We had a back to back, so we left Raleigh and headed straight to Jacksonville, where, you guessed it…it was really hot! But this time we were back in an arena. Air conditioned buildings are my best friend. Stevie has been going crazy with her camera. She has this little digital camera that she takes everywhere. The best part..and I say this with love…is that she doesn’t really know how to use it. Every time she takes a picture, she has to take it three times while saying “this damn camera”. It’s a riot. She takes pictures of EVERYTHING and always says “we WILL remember this tour”.

    We also had a golf cart, but it was a gas powered one and it smelled really bad. Didn’t stop me from taking a few joy rides, however. The hallways in this arena were kind of narrow, and the golf cart was a double seater, so it was hard to turn around in the halls. I was parked outside Stevie’s dressing room waiting to take her to the stage for sound check, when Mick came out, so I drove Mick down to the stage and headed back to her room. I told her security guard not to bring her out yet because I still had to turn the cart around. Well, midway into my very Austin Powers like turn around process, out comes Stevie. So now I’m trying to hurry and get the cart turned around. Her security guard is trying to help by telling me how much room I have behind me, but he’s a terrible driver, so I end up backing in to wall with a big “bonk” noise to accompany it. And Stevie is watching the whole thing. I fall over with laughter, as does Stevie, and everyone else who happened to be standing by. And of course… the whole time, Miss Photographer was snapping photos of my golf cart crash…or at least she was trying.

    Gotta run…the mall across the street is calling my name.

    CB

  • March 9th, 2004 – Sydney, Australia, Sydney Entertainment Centre

    March 9th, 2004 – Sydney, Australia, Sydney Entertainment Centre

    After 22 hours of traveling, I’ve finally made it home, I was expecting to come home to a cold, rainy San Francisco, but thankfully, it’s lovely here. It’s warm and sunny, so I’ve set up camp on my patio with a cup of tea, and I’m going back and forth between my computer and the newspaper. It feels good to be home, that’s for sure.

    Sydney was amazing. It’s the most beautiful city. Even the best pictures I’ve seen don’t do it justice. On the whole, Australia is just an awesome place. I realize that no matter where you live in the world, it’s a pretty big trip to take, but I highly recommend it. I can’t say enough about it, but this has been a phenomenal trip.

    Our five days in Sydney were fantastic, with the exception of pouring rain the last two days, we had a great time there. A bunch of our crew climbed the Harbour Bridge, others went to the zoo, the aquarium, the horse races, deep sea fishing, botanical gardens, the list goes on. There was a lot to do there, and I pretty much just shopped. What can I say, they have excellent shopping in Sydney. Grade A Prime Shopping. They also have bats. Bats bigger than the ones in Brisbane. But I’ve already given my two cents about the bats, so I’ll save you the trouble of listening to me rant about it.

    Personally the second show in Sydney was the most memorable for me, but only because I got in a bit of trouble. The trouble only lasted about the length of one song before it was cleared up…but it was the longest song of my life. To make a long story very short, there was a misunderstanding as to what song was supposed to come after Peacekeeper, and in front of 10,000 people Ms. Stevie Nicks pointed to me and blamed me for a this little screw up, she also called me by my full name, which as we all know from having mothers, that this ALWAYS means you’re in trouble. After Say You Will, when Stevie went stage right to get her Rhiannon top, Karen cleared up the misunderstanding and was sent to give me Stevie’s apology, which was sweet. I met Stevie in the quick change tent after Rhiannon to give her a hard time about it, and as soon as she saw me she just covered her face and smiled, gave me a hug and apologized, it was really funny. After the show the crew definitely gave me a hard time about it. The next show during Second Hand News she came over to my side of the stage, looked down at me, smiled and gave her tambourine a little shake in my direction, she’s very funny.

    Brett will kill me for telling you this…but it’s too funny to let go. Brett leaves the stage and goes back to his dressing room after Gypsy, since he doesn’t play on Big Love or Landslide, the two songs that follow Gypsy. The first show in Sydney, he apparently had a momentary lapse of reason and headed back to his dressing room after Rhiannon instead. The problem here is that Come is right after Rhiannnon, and Brett plays on Come…a lot. Halfway to the dressing room Brett heard the beginning of Come and realized that he was supposed to be on stage, and thankfully made it back just in time.

    During the last show John asked his bass tech if he had a dollar, as he wanted to give Mick a dollar when he introduced him. In perfect Mick fashion, he accepted the dollar, stuck it to his forehead and left it there for the entire duration of Don’t Stop, before handing it someone in the audience.

    Before I sign off I just realized that the “big wardrobe surprise” Karen was telling me about for the last show in Sydney didn’t seem to happen, either that or I was so out of it that I didn’t notice, but I really don’t remember anything new. I’ll have to investigate that further when he head back to work in a few weeks.

    I am indescribably happy that we decided to tour Australia, it was most definitely a month of my life that I will never forget. Thanks to everyone for coming out to the shows and making our experience there such a good one. But it’s back to The States for Fleetwood Mac…see you guys there.

    CB

  • February 29th, 2004 – Perth, Australia, WACA

    February 29th, 2004 – Perth, Australia, WACA

    It doesn’t take much for me to like a city. I’m just happy to be out of the house, really. I can find something enjoyable about nearly every place we’ve been over the last year. I didn’t have to look very hard in Perth. I had such a good time here. For starters, there are parrots just flying about everywhere, perched in the palm trees outside my window. Where I’m from, the only place you see parrots is at the zoo.

    The city itself is really cute, with lots of nice little shops and restaurants. The gig was amazing, it was an outdoor cricket arena, comparable to an American football field. It was monstrous. It was circled by enormous stadium lights, the grass is so green you’d swear it was fake, there must be 30,000 seats, I mean this place is big. The stage was in the middle of the field, and we sectioned off an area of 10,000 seats for the show. I love playing outdoor shows. They’re my favorite. We loaded in the evening before the show to avoid the heat, so when we arrived at the gig the sun was just setting and I was feeling very happy to be in Perth.

    That happy feeling turned in to sheer joy when I was informed that we had not one, not two, but THREE golf carts. Golf carts on a cricket field is something everyone should experience in their lifetime. It was better than Disneyland. No one else really seems to care much about the golf carts, so I basically always end up adopting a cart and I refer to it as “my golf cart” for the rest of the day. It’s great. I did however almost crash a few times, because although they had American drive carts (meaning the steering wheel is on the left side), they drive on the left side in Australia. There were all these narrow roads at the gig and whenever another cart or car was coming at me I would go to the right, but they would go to the left and we’d almost crash into each other. I should have put a sign on my cart that said “I’m an American”. At least then they would be aware that I had a valid reason to be such a bad driver. Near fatal crashes and all, it was still heaps of fun.

    Now bear with me, I have to talk about myself for a minute, which I don’t particularly like doing, but the guys told me I just have to tell this story, so here goes…I am fully willing to admit that I have an attitude. When it’s called for, that is. I guess to put it nicely, I don’t take crap from people. To preface the story, it was really windy in Perth and I didn’t think we were going to be able to use Stevie’s usual mic stand. The ribbons and beads would have just been flapping everywhere and hitting her in the face and it would have been a disaster, so we used a plain, undecorated mic stand. I tied roses on for her as usual, but she also asked that I take her rosary from her stand and see if I can put on the new stand just to jazz it up a bit. So I do. But it looks silly. I keep trying to make it look nice, but it just keeps looking silly. So one of the guys comes over and we’re spending far too long trying to drape a strand of beads on a mic stand. We know we’re taking too long, and we’re laughing at ourselves about it. We are by no means taking ourselves seriously. We realize that we’re not solving world hunger here. This woman comes up to the front of the stage, looks up at us and says “excuse me”. We kindly give her our attention when she rudely replies something along the lines of, “are you guys really this silly and dumb or are you just trying to look silly and dumb, how long does it take to hang a strand of fking beads on a stand?” Now, why this woman felt the need to involve herself in my life, I have no idea, but like I said, I don’t hold my tongue well, so without really thinking it through, I say “who the FK are you?…Go back to your f**king seat”. I then realize that the first 5 rows of the audience had been watching this and they all applaud me telling this woman off. Right then the spotlight operator was calibrating his spot and just happened to light me up. It was hysterical, with the spotlight on me and the audience cheering, I couldn’t help but to take a bow. Word travels fast on our crew and within 10 minutes pretty much everyone had heard about my little episode and were yelling bead related jokes at me all night. I hope I didn’t offend anyone with that story, I just thought the woman was rude, and that there was no need to speak to us like that. I promise I would never speak to anyone like that, not to mention a ticket buying fan, unless it was called for. Oh, and by the way, we ended up not using the rosary at all. I told you it looked silly.

    Keeping with the topic of the mic stand, Stevie is so accustomed to having all the ribbons to play with, she was reaching for them all night. It was so funny to watch her, especially on Second Hand News when she uses the ribbons a lot. She handled the loss of the ribbons like a champ though. And we have new wardrobe to discuss! It was a little chilly at soundcheck and Stevie was worried about being cold during the show, so for the two Perth shows she wore a new skirt, basically the same style, heavier fabric with different patterns, and a bit longer than the usual one. She also wore satin gloves and a black silky scarf. She looked fabulous with a capital F. And to top it all off, she still wore the new-ish Gypsy top, the new Goodbye Baby top and she wore a brand new white layered blouse with beautiful beading and lace work for Don’t Stop. It was the nights of the new wardrobe!

    Also, I would just like to mention that Stevie takes such good care of us girls. We were on a break during Christmas, so the second night in Perth she called the three girls on tour up to her dressing room and gave us belated Christmas presents. I won’t go in to details as some of the gifts were personal, but let’s just say she spoiled us, the gifts were very sweet and thoughtful. I just thought all you Stevie lovers would like a confirmation that she’s as caring and generous as I’m sure you imagine and hope her to be. She’s a pleasure to work for. (And she doesn’t read these, so you know I’m not sucking up to the boss!!)

    The shows were so much fun. Being outside, in the night, under the stars, breeze blowing, music blaring, it was wonderful. The only problem is that I’m usually 6 feet below the stage, where no one can see me, and that’s how I like it. For a lot of the outdoor shows we’re all right on stage with the band, I was a mere 5 feet from Brett Tuggle, every time the lights shined on him I felt the need to crawl under the table and hide. And we’re doing a whole tour of outdoor gigs this summer, so I guess I’m just going to have to get used to it. The good part about being on the stage is that I can see our guitar players, Carlos and Neale. We make faces at each other all night and they do silly dances and make me laugh, it’s rather entertaining.

    I’ve babbled for far too long now, so I’ll be on my way. Next stop: Adelaide.

    CB