Birmingham, Fleetwood Max at the NIA

It is rare for a rumbling bass guitar it is rare riff to get one of the biggest cheers at a concert but it happened when John McVie played those famous notes of The Chain, introduced to a whole new audience thanks to their use as the theme tune to TV’s Grand Prix racing coverage.
And, just like an F1 car, Fleetwood Mac got off to a flying start as they took the audience on a Greatest Hits trip. The Chain, the second track of a 22 song set, was followed by Dreams and a rockin’ I Know I’m Not Wrong.
Frontman Lindsey Buckingham explained: “We’ve got no new album to sell so we’ve decided to do the songs we love – and we hope you love them too.”
While 60 year old Lindsey provides the hard edged rock ‘n’ roll, former girlfriend Stevie Nicks, a year his senior, enchants with her more ethereal tunes.
Rhiannon and Gold Dust Woman were highlights of the two hour 20 minute show, while at the end of Sara, Nicks and Buckingham hugged, a sign that time has healed the rift between them.
The duo may be in the spotlight at the front but the power is at the back of the stage in the shape of 63 year old McVie and towering 62 year old drummer Mick Fleetwood who provided the muscular rhythm for another show stopper, the mighty Tusk.
When it comes to guitar maestros, however, it’s hard to top Buckingham who played a blistering solo at the end of I’m So Afraid.
He has the stage to himself for Big Love, a song, he explains, that was written as an ensemble piece but has evolved into a solo performance.
Drummer Fleetwood encores with a madcap solo before a rip roaring finish of Don’t Stop which had the sold out crowd singing along.
The Mac are well and truly back.

Still going their own way

Lindsey Buckingham is surprisingly laid back about being a spurned lover. It's been more than 30 years since his then girl friend and Fleetwood Mac band mate, Stevie Nicks, got it on with the band's drummer, Mick Fleetwood, while on tour in New Zealand.It's not that time has cured his aching heart. You see, back when the unfaithfulness happened Buckingham didn't give a hoot either it was 1977 and they were promiscuous and drug fuelled times, after all.In a current interview the guitarist and pop genius of the pair recounted how Nicks and Fleetwood made a big deal of coming round to his house to tell him about their affair, to which he replyed, "Yeah? So? That's it?"And he's just as flippant on the phone today from his home in Los Angeles: "Stevie and I were on the road to breaking up before we coupled the band."Considering the two lovers who before Fleetwood Mac were making music as the duo Buckingham Nicks coupled the band in 1975 it must have been a long, rocky break up.No band has mixed a cocktail of melodrama, romantic shenanigans, and hedonistic substance insult quite like Fleetwood Mac and through it all they came up with two cracker albums, the mega-selling Rumours (1977) and kooky double album Tusk (1979).It was Rumours, though, with songs like Buckingham's Go Your Own Way, Nicks' Dreams, and keyboardist/singer Christine McVie's Don't Stop, that went on to sell more than 40 million copies recently the tenth best selling album ever and made Fleetwood Mac the longest band in the world.It's these songs, and many others, that the band will be playing at New Plymouth's Bowl of Brooklands on December 19 when they come back for the first time since 1980's Tusk tour.The Unleashed Tour is a two hour plus show of wonderful hits material and the Downunder dates follow a sold out 55 city North American tour earlier this year, and a European leg which starts in October.The version of the band coming to New Zealand is the classic Rumours line up of Buckingham, Nicks, Fleetwood and bassist player John McVie, minus his former wife Christine McVie who stop the band in 1998 because of her fear of flying."One of the things that makes the tour fun, and a little bit fundamental for us is that we don't have a new album yet anyway so we're not trying to go out there and do stuff that is unfamiliar," says 59 year old Buckingham. "And oddly enough, for the first time, we've been able to sit back and take parentage of the body of work that we have and appreciate it."When you're in the second of making songs, and particularly for us with the politics and all the drama that went on, it has never been that easy, and the fun of being on stage has always been tempered by all of that."

Australian Wineries to Fleetwood Mac

by Paul Cashmere - August 15 2009photo by Ros O'Gorman.

Assume an declaration any day now for Fleetwood Mac playing the Australian wineries as part of their unchain tour.
The Australian and New Zealand tour is set for December and will include the winery shows, Undercover hears.
Current announced dates for Fleetwood Mac’s Unleashed tour go through to the European tour in November. Australasia is next.
The Unchain tour is a greatest hits tour. There is no new music from Fleetwood Mac in the works. In a phone hook-up with Underground, Lindsey Buckingham said that not having new music on this tour "barren you up to enjoy each other as people. Let’s have a good time and value the friendships and history. It takes the pressure off and allows more fun than we would unusually be able to have."
The Fleetwood Mac line-up is Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Christine McVie has been out of the bridle for more than a decennary now and happily living the retired life in England. "I’ve been the only girl in Fleetwood Mac since 1998, so I’m used to it now,” Stevie said during the conference all. “But I miss Christine. The loss of Christine as one of my best girlfriends was horrific to me. Not a day goes by that I don’t wish she would call up and say, 'I’m back.' "
Fleetwood Mac Australian dates will be announced this week.

FLEETWOOD MAC MY STAGE SHOW

British-American band Fleetwood Mac are to perform in New Zealand.
Ticket agency Ticketmaster is advertising on its website that the band will perform one show in New Zealand, but without listing the city or date.
It has asked people to supply their email addresses so they can be contacted with each other and establish when the city and date are confirmed.
Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks performed at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth in 2006 and there is speculation that the band will perform there.
New Plymouth District Council's manager for business developments and events, Garry Sharpe-Young, declined to comment on whether it would be Bowl of Brooklands.
But he said he understood an announcement would be made soon.
"Some acts are perfectly suited to certain types of venues and I'm a great believer that we've got the iconic New Zealand venue. We'll wait and see."

All about Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac's Origins: 1967 in England
Original Name:Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer
Origin of the Name:Derived from last names of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bass guitarist John McVie
Original Members:Peter Green – vocals, guitarJeremy Spencer – vocals, guitarJohn McVie – bassMick Fleetwood – drums
Other Fleetwood Mac Members: Bekka Bramlett – vocalsBob Brunning – bass Lindsey Buckingham – vocals, guitarBilly Burnette – vocals, guitarDanny Kirwan – guitarDave Mason – vocals, guitarChristine McVie – vocals, keyboardStevie Nicks – vocalsRick Vito – vocals, guitarDave Walker – vocals