New Christine interview - and a new compilation on the way
 

There's a nice new BBC interview with Christine out now, where she talks to Gary Barlow (from UK boy band Take That) about songwriting.

She talks rather cagily about Fleetwood Mac's future - suggests that there might be more to come - but also says she has a new 'compilation' album coming out this summer, called, somewhat inevitably, 'Songbird', and produced by Glyn Johns. It sounds like it will be her old songs set to an orchestral backing, so I don't imagine she's re-recorded her vocals, but who knows?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0015lzs

'Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie goes down a winding memory lane with Gary Barlow as she reveals the magic behind some of the best songs ever written.
Discover how her journey took her from Birmingham to Los Angeles and how the revolutions of the band affected her marriage to John McVie and her sense of self. She co-created one of the most epic albums of all time 'Rumours' - but discover if there was a price to pay for all that musical genius. Christine grew up on the piano, playing jazz at an early age which lay the foundations for her songwriting in the future. She created classics like ‘Don’t Stop’, ‘Songbird’ and ‘Little Lies’ - enjoy a songwriting masterclass from one of the most majestic women in the music business.'

Thank you for posting this. You made my day. I will take any new Christine stuff no matter what it is. I have to laugh how she called her first album "The legendary Christine McVie" It was "The Legendary Christine Perfect"
Good interviewer but I wish he would have asked about the Bob Welch era. He brings up Future Games and coming to the USA and she says Fleetwood Mac could not get work in England. HELLO!! They now had an American in the band. Bob brought the band to the USA. I think that gets over looked. If the Mac had not hired Bob, they may have stayed in England. I like he asks her about her solo album. She sometimes forgets to mention it and pretends it did not happen. I feel bad for her because her voice is changing :(

Glyn Johns who clashed so badly with Stevie....

I thought she grew up playing classical music, not so much jazz...?

This sounds like it could be a good album or a 'what were they thinking?' one.

Odd to be coming out with a compilation project now. Further establishing the legacy or another attempt to make some money now that it seems FM likely won't be doing anything new in the studio or on the road ?

I think she was talking about her brother who was the jazz player so she was around jazz. Yes, LOL Gly Johns who is revered in the industry but only Stevie does not like because of her songs. He got the blame for Street Angel.

I don't care what the album is, I look forward to it. Everyone else has done something like this so why not her just once. Stevie has so many "best of" CDs and stuff they all blur together.

Nice to hear her no nonsense slight Brummie voice.
She sounded really good and happy.
I enjoyed the programme even Gary Barlow.

The way she answered about a possible tour for “Songbird” leads me to think there will be one.

Thanks so much for this post. Lovely to catch up with Christine on this rainy Saturday afternoon. Looking forward to Songbird!

Finally got it to play. Thanks for sharing!

Interesting when she talked about coming back to the band and touring and says "Those last years were great" :eek:

Then when he asks about touring again she says, as someone noted above, that she's learned to be a bit "cagey" about talking about stuff like that and it made me think about how she got spanked for speaking out about whether FM will ever tour again (when she said she couldn't see John going out again and that she was getting too old for it as well) and then had to walk back her comments. So now she's not willing to commit to any sort of comment that could blowback on her. Thanks, Mick and Stevie. :distress:

She did sort of push back a little when he said something about the BuckVie album and that era and whether it was like a final victory lap and she said something about maybe the final victory lap was still yet to come....

Wow! Thanks for posting. She sounds happy and wonderful. It shows if she's working on something with Vincent Mendoza. He did Joni Michell's Both Sides Now back in 1999 ish. It's brilliant.

I hope she does some new music or that blues album too. Great to hear her voice again. :]

yep. sounded very clearly like her solo tour is in the works but not all set yet so she cannot say anything.

and lol SN and her cult will hate it that Christine yet again spelled out that Mick / FM wanted only Lindsey but LB insisted SN comes along. SN minions been trying extra hard to sweep that under the rug for the last few years.

Rod Stewart did an album recently where he rerecorded his classics with an orchestra.
I hope she did new vocals.

What did she mean by last years?

This is exciting news. I never ever thought Christine would do a solo tour, but it sounds like it just might be a possibility. Unbelievable! I would go to that show in a heartbeat, but I suspect it would be select cities. I love the idea of a smaller venue, too.

I can’t wait to see what will be on the new compilation.

The announcement verbatim:

“I’ve just finished an album which is a compilation of my biggest hits. But they’ve all been produced again by Glyn Johns [with] Vince Mendoza on strings who does this fantastic version of Songbird. So that’s going to be released but they all sound completely different. That’s out in June this year and it’s just called Songbird… obviously.”

I hope it has some deep cuts and maybe one or two new songs including the one she wrote with Neil Finn.

I’m very excited about this new release. I do hope she includes some new stuff. I’m not sure how she can pull off a live show at this point unfortunately.

I love the interview. I agree that I don't think she can pull off doing shows at this point.

I wish he'd asked her why she fake plays keys now.

She wasn’t on the 2018-19 tour, at least on Black Magic Woman and Tell Me All The Things You Do.

In the Greenwich Meantime
 

I like the sounds of this orchestral compilation. Bringing Christine full-circle to her classical roots. With all the musical talent in her family, she could have just recorded it at home. I do shiver to think about new vocals though, but as jbrownsjr says the Both Sides Now album worked really well, husky vocals and all.

That's the first tour I've missed since I was 15. I didn't care.

On BuckVie, she (nor Brett) was playing Hold Me. It was tracks. It's a smidge more difficult in the lowered key(B from the original D), but still... Either arthritis, remembering to play it in the weird key, or laziness. Two keyboard players, and neither one of them can be bothered to play it?
Actually, it would look weird for Brett to play it...

I can't think of a Christine song in B (although I'm not on top of the early stuff). Her Best Of should be called "Songs in the Key of F."

I'd like to pretend that the compilation will actually be titled "Songbird, Obviously." Sassy and straightforward.

Funny moment when she temporarily couldn't remember which FM album came after Rumours. Good to hear her commend Tusk for having great tracks on it, as well as acknowledging that people dig the Christine Perfect album.

I Don't Want To Know is the ONLY FM song I can think of, that's in B.
Edit - The Ledge is, too. I'm sure I'm forgetting something else, before some anal retentive stickler comes correcting me. Brown Eyes is Bm...sigh.

F was always Stevie's key. Dreams, Outside The Rain, Beauty/Beast, Sara, Gypsy.....my god, she was obsessed with F. Not F'ing.:rolleyes: Just plain F.

I think a percentage of the population thinks of Christine when they hear the word Songbird. It's a good title for her project. Especially at this stage in the game.

We know.

Brett appeared to be playing it when I saw them.

That said, she was touring with Lindsey "Is it live or is it Memorex (hint: it's Memorex)" Buckingham. Just watch a 2009 clip of Fleetwood Mac doing "Go Insane." Watch any of his One Man Show videos, which are literally karaoke with guitar. Hell, he had a guy playing computer on stage in 2018.

Still not convinced? Watch "Tell Me All The Things You Do" and "Surrender The Rain" from their respective 2018 tours.

It was precisely because of this that I wrote off Fleetwood Mac unless Christine came back after the one Lindsey show I saw in 2006. (After which I asked if Robert Pollard was playing anywhere and started blasting GbV when I got home.)

If she tours the new Album, she won’t have to play or pretend to play.
She can sit in front of a small orchestra …and let them do their work.

I can see her perched on a stool, next to a grand piano, with pianist playing. .. maybe for an easy arrangement she could walk round and play..

Black gown, diamond necklace, and all...

/s

Haha…Leather biker jacket just to remind who she is…

My pleasure, it made my day too! Really cheered me up, particularly to hear about her new record.

I still find it so frustrating to think about Buckingham McVie, and what might have been. I listened to it again after the interview yesterday, and there's so much lovely stuff on there, a real compendium of classic Fleetwood Mac sounds. It really could have been a victory lap, as Gary Barlow says, just one element missing...

Christine seemed to enjoy the interview, I thought. Gary B sounded a bit nervous at the start but she put him at his ease.

I hate to be the Debbie Downer here but I had a different take on her statement about touring to promote her new CD. There obviously is going to be promotion which could bring a few live shows maybe in London with live strings or something. I dont think she wanted to put her foot down and be a buzz kill and say "absolutely not.....i cant play that much anymore and I am losing my voice." She also learned a lesson from her interview a few years ago when she said Fleetwood Mac was done. She received so much blow back that she learned to be coy with such questions. Lesson learned: Never say never to touring.
Maybe I am just trying to be realistic and grounded. If she really toured solo I would be the happiest person in the world. She does not have a huge following so I dont know how much a tour could make. She had a hit solo album in the peak of Fleetwood Mac and could only get a few hundred people to show up in major US cities. Even Buckingham/McVie could only sell half a small theater. So sadly I dont see the incentive to put a band together and tour.
Having said that, maybe she knows Fleetwood Mac is done and wants a swan song of her career and will do it by herself. But I just dont see it happening :( Prove me wrong Chris!!!!

Christine's upcoming album Songbird would be her works rerecorded with an orchestra. "Songbird" is likely being included on the album, and would be the title track.

What other songs could make the album?

I would like to include

• "Don't Stop"
• "Everywhere"
• "Got a Hold on Me"
• "Heroes are Hard to Find"
• "Hold Me"
• "Isn't It Midnight"
• "Little Lies"
• "Oh Daddy"
• "Over My Head"
• "Save Me"
• "Say You Love Me"
• "You Make Loving Fun"

Very true. I also think Christine can play piano or keyboards, just perhaps not for two full hours. She also seems to feel more comfortable behind the piano live, even though she did come center stage a few times on the last FM tour.

As Macfan4life said, it is hard to imagine a full tour for Christine solo, but select cities might work, especially in light of people having cabin fever after years of Covid, and smaller venues.

Homer, you mentioned her lack of playing could be due to arthritis or laziness. As a much younger man than Christine is now, I feel quite confident it’s not laziness on her part! She probably hadn’t played much before she toured with Lindsey, so maybe it was harder for her to play, but by the FM tour, she seemed to be really playing the keys more, so I’m guessing she was able to manage any pain or discomfort more by then.

I like your list, but could do without Hold Me, especially if Lindsey won’t be on it.

I’d love to see Warm Ways, Brown Eyes, Over and Over, and Game of Pretend.

1. Love Will Show Us How
2. Love in Store
3. Think About Me
4. Got a Hold on Me
5. Songbird
6. Little Lies
7. Skies the Limit
8. Feel About You
9. Dissatisfied
10. Everywhere
11. Say You Love Me
12. Friend
13. As Long as You Follow
14. Sugar Daddy
15. You Make Loving Fun
16. Why
17. Hold Me
18. Don't Stop

"Hold Me" would rely on brass and woodwinds. I would think flute, piccolo, and clarinet, and oboe during the verses, saxophone on the instrumental, then horns on the outro.

unfortunately, it's a smaller percentage of the population, people know it's FM song and call Nicks a Songbird, since she's the face. i've seen some music "critics" wrote articles like that too, apparently thinking SN wrote Songbird. same as most people think SN wrote and sings GYOW, you know it's her "top hat" signature song. :shrug:

so taking all that into account it is more than appropriate that Christine takes Songbird back where it belongs, and owns it once and for all. :]

i've recently seen a discussion on FB with some random guy being completely oblivious about the fact that Christine wrote double the amount of FM hits Stevie and Lindsey did and claiming that's just an "opinion" and asking to name the hits.

Another funny part of the interview besides her calling her first album Christine Mcvie was asking uncertainly that Tusk came after Rumours. She knew that but seemed a bit uncertain. Its funny because we probably know so much about their careers that they forget sometimes.
Charming to say the least :)
She rarely mentions her solo album and career. It was so nice of her to speak about it in such glowing terms and how much fun it was. Touched my heart :)

I'd pay anything to see that!

nice overview of the interview by one of members here, FMfanUK -

http://fleetwoodmac-uk.com/wp/fleetw...eU58f2PIlVn4FE

CHRISTINE MCVIE, FLEETWOOD MAC, RELEASE INFO, UK ARTICLES
FLEETWOOD MAC STAR CHRISTINE MCVIE ANNOUNCES NEW SOLO ALBUM | RETRO POP
MARCH 27, 2022 FMFANUK LEAVE A COMMENT

Christine McVie will release a new solo album this summer.

The singer-songwriter helped take Fleetwood Mac to the top of the charts with classic hits such as Say You Love Me, You Make Loving Fun, Everywhere and Little Lies.

Now, she’s set to revisit some of her best-loved compositions for a compilation album of reimagined recordings.

She told Gary Barlow’s ‘We Write The Songs’ podcast: “I’ve just finished an album, which is a compilation of my biggest hits, but they’ve all been produced again by Glyn Johns, Vince Mendoza on strings – who does this fantastic version on Songbird.

“So that’s gonna be released – but they all sound completely different.”

Elaborating on the new recording of the group’s classic piano ballad, she said: “We’ve just now actually re-cut it with a complete string orchestra and it sounds beautiful.”

Christine released her self-titled first solo album ‘Christine Perfect’ in 1970 and, 14 years later, returned with ‘Christine McVie’, featuring the UK Top 40 hits Got a Hold on Me and Love Will Show Us How.

Two decades later, she released its follow-up ‘In The Meantime’, and in 2017 collaborated with Lindsey Buckingham on their eponymous duets album.

While there’s new music in the pipeline, Christine is less certain about the future when it comes to returning to the road.

Asked whether there are plans for live shows, she confessed: “That, I daren’t comment on yet. I’m very cagey about things like that.”

While firm release details have yet to be confirmed, the album is due in June.

Retro Pop
27/03/2022

In an interview Christine gave as publicity for the Mirage Deluxe Edition, she admitted she had received her copy days before but hadn’t gotten around to listen to it yet. I was shocked. I mean, how could she have been so busy that she couldn’t play a CD? That was when I came to pretty much the same realization as you… the fans not only know more about the albums, dates, trivia, etc, but also are much more interested in their music than they even are. Or at least Christine, anyway. I mean, I can actually picture Mick or Lindsey opening the Deluxe Editions and listen to them and maybe compare the alternate takes to the original CD, but Christine just doesn’t have the interest. Nothing wrong with that, it just surprised me at first.

elle, I think you pay far more attention to Chiffonheads than you should. I mean, if someone called Stevie a ‘songbird,’ I highly doubt it was because they thought she wrote or sang the song Songbird. Songbird is a poetic term, like enchantress or some other silly word, ethereal is another word that comes to mind. Or maybe not silly, but those kinds of words are often used to describe her. I would hardly use songbird to describe Lindsey, or ethereal to describe Christine. Songbird does fit Christine because she wrote it, but it does tend to be used to describe female singers, not male singers.

Furthermore, if someone thought or thinks that Stevie wrote ago Your Own Way, then they’re clearly not a Fleetwood Mac fan.

i'm referring to general population, not specifically chiffonheads, SN cult, or FM fans. :)

so i completely stand by Christine taking the term songbird back.

same as LB successfully re-established "LB, FM legend" with his last album.

Nice interview. Some interesting comments about songwriting and about Mick’s importance to her.

Future Games was not recorded on the mobile unit. Her first solo album was not originally called “The Legendary…”. Just “Christine Perfect.” The additional language was a Blue Horizon marketing ploy to capitalize on the White album’s success. In Christine’s place, I would be terribly upset by that. She never seemed happy with it.

I wish she spoke more concretely about the pre-75 experience in FM.

It would be really nice, to see her in her home town of Birmingham.
There are plenty of intimate venues in Brum, that would suit her.

I don’t think she would pull in huge crowds…..in The UK I don’t think any of them would.
(Well maybe Stevie)