Almost a year later....thoughts of the new band.
 

Ok, after almost a year after this new version of my all time favorite band I still feel the same as I did when this was announced. If this band would have had some new music to tour behind I would have felt 100% different. Neil Finn and Crowded House is in my top 5 of all time favorites. I think the harmonies of these three voices could have been amazing (in the studio) I still don’t plan on seeing them live when they come to my area next year. I have nothing but great memories of all their shows I’ve seen. Lindsey’s solo tour this year gave me my MAC ATTACK for 2018.

MAC ATTACK BY FLEETWOOD MAC
1. Hunger
2. My Mother's Rings
3. I Got You (Stevie and Neil vocal)
4. Don't Dream it's Over (Stevie and Neil vocal)
5. Ride This Road
6. All Over Again (Duet version)
7. Songbird (featuring special guest Lindsey Buckingham)
8. Farmer's Daughter
9. City of Hope
10. Grandfather Song
11. It Takes Time (Full band version)

I, like Lindsey, was quite visceral at first. Now, I like Lindsey, am looking to the future, not the past. I find myself able to listen to the past FM records and even Stevie Nicks solo material, enjoying it for what it is. But I'm a bigger Lindsey fan now and am anticipating the new music coming from him and feeling blase about the current nostalgia Mac.

I feel somewhat along these lines. I doubt I'd have considered a new album an instant classic or a masterpiece. But I certainly would have welcomed it more than a long arena tour built around The Chain, Rhiannon, Dreams, Gold Dust Woman, Don't Stop, and so on. I'm just not interested in that stuff onstage anymore. I've been listening to it for 41 or 42 years in concert, and I've been through hundreds of audio tapes and video tapes listening to yet more performances of the same songs. I'm done. If there's new studio work, I'll certainly check it out on Spotify, as I do with LB's and SN's solo albums and last year's McVie-Buckingham CD. But this continual rehash of seventies hits serving as the core of every concert tour has lost all appeal to me—especially given the way that these songs are performed night after night. (You'd think that at least once in forty years of Dreams live, the band would have tried it in a different way—for example, acoustically or with different choral harmonies cooked up.)

I haven't seen Fleetwood Mac play in person since 2003—I can't be bothered. If the current grouping is going to continue touring its big circus for years to come, I'll let others enjoy it but I'll find other live events to attend.

David! You seem to be of the mistaken notion that the band's injunction Don't Stop is a mere suggestion! It is an imperative order, and must be obeyed.

Here's Stevie and Lindsey doing "Gypsy" acoustically at a benefit concert:
https://wetransfer.com/downloads/3db...2155231/cff0a6

I agree completely. If there had been a legit reason to fire him and they had new music to play I would have been excited. The set list really isn't that different from previous tours. Ever tour since 2003 has had at least a handful of songs either never performed live or not performed in some time while still keeping the same 8-12 songs each show (Dreams, Rhiannon, BL, NGBA, Gypsy,ISA, GDW,WT, CHAIN GYOW DS ETC). It doesn't make sense to pay big money to hear mostly the same old same old.

Plus if you see Lindsey or SN solo allot of those FM songs are in the set list so it gets boring hearing those same songs year after year.

Back to my point.....
 

Go see Lindsey’s latest tour for a fresh set of songs with some that have never been played live before. My favorite tour of his to date.

I did see his solo show in Kitchener and loved it.

Almost a year later, it's still weird to me. I didn't go to the show, but I did watch online. They are professionals and have been doing this for years, so yes it was a good show, especially at the beginning with the setlist,

but it still isn't the same without Lindsey, they will probably not do an album and I doubt if this group tours together again.

A lot of people that went to the shows said they looked like they were having a lot of fun and how relaxed it was etc....

But when I saw the group several times during the Billy/Rick years it looked like they were having a lot of fun onstage and they did record a pretty good album Behind the Mask, but Christine and Stevie both left and Christine said it just wasn't the same without Lindsey.

Not exactly the same equation, though. Billy and Rick were a far cry from Neil and Mike.

I saw them in 2003, too, for Say You Will. I wasn’t electrified, but at least they were supporting some new material. Then at the invitation of friends I saw them in 2013. This time I felt the show was sad. “Sad Angel,” in fact, was the highlight. It was the only moment where there was something new or different to someone who’d been following the band for any length of time.

I haven’t felt any interest in seeing them since, not even when Christine rejoined. To watch my favorite band of all time simply treading water - in spite of lineup changes - makes me too sad. The footage I’ve seen of the current tour has given me no second thoughts.

I have seen and enjoyed Nicks solo and Buckingham-McVie, though.

Exactly the way I feel. Seeing the Buckingham/McVie show last year with them performing 8 of the 10 new songs said it all.......it’s just a shame Mick and John weren’t with them. I’m sure they would have loved to have done that tour.

I have been apathetic about FM for ages now, no new material makes them a bit of a bore now. Sick of living in the early 80's. So the new lineup is no more or less ho-hum than the Lindsey lineup. And yes, it is Stevie's fault there has been no new material.

I agree, this has made it difficult for me to get excited about the new line up- no new music makes it a cash grab and I'm not paying a grand for good seats and travel out of town to see this. Not to say though that Neil Finn doesn't have a great voice- he does and Mike Campbell is an awesome guitarist- he is. But I agree with Lindsey at this point in their career it makes no sense whatsoever and is essentially a cover band. The Tom Petty tribute also irks me to hell- a quick nod would've sufficed. Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch were far more deserving and I don't care if most of the audience don't know those two incredibly talented treasures- they were far more deserving at a Fleetwood Mac concert . Furthermore to drop the only Welch song was unforgivable. Sorry guys, I'm sitting this one out my enthusiasm has dwindled with no new fresh music to offer, while I loved the 80's, it's now almost 2019, time to move on (as Tom would say). If he were alive he'd be telling Stevie to get over herself and record some new music.

But why is that putative difference important if they're all just playing Dreams and Rhiannon straight night after night? Do you not see what some people in this thread are driving at?

Mike Campbell has artistic stature because of his work with the Heartbreakers, not because of his work this past year with Fleetwood Mac. As far as the latter goes, he's essentially just playing Rhiannon and Don't Stop again and again . . . just like Vito was roped into doing. The entire band is resting on its achievements and style of the seventies. So far, it has practically nothing new to say. Maybe that's just what Lindsey meant when he talked about perspective.

[QUOTE=David;1246917]But why is that putative difference important if they're all just playing Dreams and Rhiannon straight night after night? Do you not see what some people in this thread are driving at?

Mike Campbell has artistic stature because of his work with the Heartbreakers, not because of his work this past year with Fleetwood Mac. As far as the latter goes, he's essentially just playing Rhiannon and Don't Stop again and again . . . just like Vito was roped into doing. The entire band is resting on its achievements and style of the seventies. So far, it has practically nothing new to say. Maybe that's just what Lindsey meant when he talked about perspective.[/QU

I agree David. It’s completely true. I think the stint with Mick, Stevie, John and Christine is merely a footnote for Neil and Mike. The bigger story is why they got there, not necessarily what they did once they were there (assuming they continue to not deliver new music....I don’t think they will. I agree with you as well on LBs comments, something to the effect he doesn’t miss playing these songs, but is hurt for the fans and the legacy
Very well said David, thank you

If Lindsey hadn't been fired, he would be the one playing Dreams and Rhiannon and Don't Stop night after night. If Lindsey was still in FM, the band would still be resting on its achievements and style of the seventies, right? Or does that not apply to the band if Lindsey is with them?

If Lindsey was in FM, it would still be a cash grab tour. As opposed to a tour where they play 4 new songs, which then somehow wouldn't be a cash grab tour :shrug: I really don't get it- the same people who hate FM now talk about how this tour is 'just' a cash grab tour, like somehow it wouldn't have been if Lindsey were still in the band. Look, he wanted to record new material, but he was more than happy to go on the road with FM and sing the same hits they've been doing for 40+years. We know this because he sued them for the money he would have gotten from the tour. Despite the fact that they wouldn't record new material, he WANTED to tour with them, singing the same songs he's been doing for 40+years- I felt that beared repeating became some people seem to gloss over that point completely.

I love this tour, and if Lindsey had still been with them, I would have hoped they still played most of the songs they did. No Don't Dream It's Over or Free Falling maybe, even though I loved those songs as performed by them, but more of Lindsey's songs would have been great. All Over Again, Tell Me All the Things, Isn't It Midnight, Black Magic Woman, all fantastic.

Totally true. This isn't a Lindsey issue—other than his bona fide attempt to get the band to record something new.

Of course it applies. The band has been retreading its past in concert for a couple of decades, and all sorts of people have been in and out of the band, including Lindsey, Stevie, Christine, Rick, Billy, Dave, Bekka, Mike, and Neil. They've ALL done exactly the same thing. I sometimes think they do what they do because they play big venues and court huge numbers of customers that extend well beyond the fans who are intimately acquainted with their work. But I saw them in 1994 at a little dinner club in Central California—couldn't have been more than 80 people in the crowd—and damned if they still didn't build their entire set on their seventies concert set.

No one, I hope, is saying otherwise. If they are, they're wrong. That's how I interpret Lindsey's "big machine" metaphor.

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Since 2003, there have been three Fleetwood Mac tours with Lindsey. I've skipped them all because I no longer want to hear this aging and musically deteriorating group of people play Gold Dust Woman and Go Your Own Way. Am I explaining myself adequately here?

When tickets go on sale, some of us buy and some of us pass. I'm explaining why I pass. The fact that the 2018 band has thrown in some old work that hasn't been heard in awhile doesn't disprove the fact that the band's set is built around its seventies heyday. It's not my thing anymore. Quite frankly, I can't understand why others who have been to as many Fleetwood Mac concerts as I have would still be interested in them as a concert attraction. Is it a habit, like an addiction? A tic? An autonomic response? What keeps people going back year after year to hear Go Your Own Way sung the same way every year (barring the deterioration that age and boredom generate)—especially in this age of immediately available YouTube videos? Seeing Fleetwood Mac every year is worse than watching the same movie every year because Fleetwood Mac costs hundreds of dollars. I'm fascinated by what keeps people going to see them—the same people who have seen them thirty times since 1977. I guess they're enjoying themselves and enjoying an ever more boring string of Rhiannons, but it puzzles me. Maybe they turn to other bands for fresh, new work, and Fleetwood Mac is just an arthritic walk through an old petrifacted scrapbook for them.

I'd love to see a Fleetwood Mac committed enough to reconceptualize itself the way that it did in 1979—two short years after its mass-market triumph.

I appreciate your response, David. I love it when we can share our thoughts about the band in a reasonable manner. Like you, I would really love a concert with deep cuts, but mainstream audiences want the hits, so that's what we're stuck with.

What bugs me though is Stevie made the comment that someone didn't want to play the pre 75 material yet between 87-97 all the did perform from the pre 75 era was a total of 4 Peter Green songs between 3 tours. If they cared about the previous lineups then why did they ignore Bob Welch, Danny Kirwan, Jeremy Spencer.

I get that casual fans want the hits but in my opinion they could easily switch it up night to night so that some nights you get Gold Dust Woman and Rhiannon and others you get Dreams and Landslide for example. There is no reason why they couldn't do 10 hits and 10-12 deep cuts if the set list was properly sequenced.

I think the reason Stevie doesn't want to record new material has little to nothing to do with Lindsey and his behavior but more to do with the fact that she has no new music to offer and would have likely given some old demos.

Lindsey has been very creative lately and some of his recent music is very good.

If this current lineup does make new music it will only serve as a big f you from SN to Lindsey.

I sat out this tour because I wasn't paying 700 dollars to hear new guys play hits I have heard before as well as cover songs from the new guys.

I know allot of bands play covers but the difference is that artists like Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones etc do play enough deep cuts and or change up the set list that hearing some cover songs isn't a big deal vs FM who rarely changes up the set list on a nightly basis and or play a ton of rare cuts. For them to do cover songs at this point in time when they have more then enough material of their own to play is stupid.

I can’t figure this out, either. Every time they come through town and sell out the arena, I wonder: ‘If I, a super fan, can’t drum up any interest to see this show, how in the heck are they selling out arenas?’ The only thing I can figure out is that they’re drawing not fans, but members of the general public who want to be able to say they’ve seen the famous Fleetwood Mac in their lives. Kinda the same reason why places such as Prague or Venice are now thronged with tourists year-round. It’s the bucket list factor.

I think the reason they sell well to this day is a few factors. 1) People who have never seen them want to cross them off of their bucket list 2) When a classic rock band comes to town people will likely go just because it is a night out and maybe they haven't seen them live in a while 3) Rabid fans of SN or the band as a whole simply have to be there no matter what. Those types will defend the set list and the tours with such passion because they really like the band and or a certain member. I don't get it either why any die hard fan can be excited about a tour that has so many songs they have been performed to the death. I am a die hard fan and I don't care for the new band or the tour. I have heard most of these songs so many times it has gotten boring.

On social media though lots of people say the band sounds fresh etc but I don't see anyone can say that and actually believe it. Playing mostly the same old tired songs yet again does not make them fresh just because you have new members.

All those reasons could be factors. The friends I went with are casual fans, and they knew Lindsey wasn't with FM anymore. I didn't actually ask them why they wanted to see FM, but both knew Stevie and Christine were in the band, and the impression I got was that was enough for them. They loved the concert just as much as I did. One thought Stevie sounded incredible, the other friend thought Christine sounded incredible. Both said they liked Neil's singing. Neither one said much about John or Mike, and both liked Mick's drum solo. On the floor, everyone was on their feet the entire concert, with the exception of maybe 2 songs and Mick's drum solo.

I used to consider myself a die hard fan until I joined the Ledge- now I think I must just be a casual fan, because I don't know the names of all the family members of Stevie, Lindsey, etc. I've attended 5 FM shows in my life- BTM, Dance, SYW, Hits, and this one, and I went because I was curious how they would sound and because I thought the set list sounded promising, and I was not disappointed. Best FM show I've ever been to. I don't go to every FM tour, I purposely skipped Shake the Cage, Time, the EP, and On With the Show, so I don't have to see every FM tour.

You can believe me when I say they sounded fresh, because in my opinion they did. They sounded tight and fantastic, especially musically. Vocally, Christine not so much, but I didn't care. Seeing them perform songs I'd never seen them perform before was fantastic, and they were clearly inspired by the new members and the set list.

I am not somebody who would say the concert was good if I didn't like it. And I loved it! I would have seen them again in a heartbeat, and I've never had the desire to see a show twice in one tour before. Not even FM.

My point was that they are playing numerous songs they have played before on many tours so I don't get how that is considered fresh. They are playing the songs very much in the same way they always did. No real different arrangements etc. They didn't in my opinion change up the set enough. Opening up with The Chain yet again??? Dreams in my opinion has been performed the same way for decades and pretty much sounds stale. It should be retired. I also think they should have dropped some of the other standards (World Turning, GDW, SHN etc) for some other songs. Wish You Here, Why, That's Alright , Angel, Think About Me, Brown Eyes, Over and Over would have been great additions. A handful of new songs or covers built around the same core songs is not very adventurous. But to each their own. If you enjoyed the show I am glad you did. For me I couldn't support what they did to Lindsey and would have felt the same way no matter who they had fired. As well as paying top dollar for a majority of songs I have heard more then enough times. I have seen them 7 times from 2003 tour to the 2014 tour not missing one of those tours. Each of those tours had something I liked. If they simply had to tour this year then they should have changed up the show much more then they did and make it clear that they were going to really change things up for this tour. They could have still played some well known songs and deep cuts with a show that would have had a nice balance between the familiar and the more obscure tunes.

The band's in sort of a pickle at this stage. They are prisoners of their big-budget tours, which have to fill cavernous arenas in order to recoup costs and deliver expected payouts. In terms of your show, you can't move on to a new stage when you have to attract 15,000 customers every night. These are decisions the band makes, a cycle of big money. I have nothing against big money (in fact, I'd rather enjoy it), but I understand that it does lock you in. The way Fleetwood Mac is "set up" ever since its 1997 reunion, it must play big halls and sell tens of thousands of tickets. In order to do that, it must play Dreams and what-all. A set and a style that are recognizable by the widest number of customers is the locking mechanism. I was thinking about the first time I saw Springsteen, back on the Darkness on the Edge of Town tour in 1978. So I tracked down some interesting info on Wikipedia. It was a rather chaotic but refreshing mix of arenas (like the Inglewood Forum, 13,000), auditoriums (like the San Antonio Memorial, 5,000), and theaters (San Jose Performing Arts, 2,500). Springsteen is an excellent example of a superstar whose tours these days can accurately be said to follow no particular historical pattern. Fleetwood Mac, with its body of work from 1967 to the present, could if it wanted to dispense with its own historical patterns and create something really new for every tour, but it chooses not to, and I call it a shame.

I'm talking about more than just a set list, by the way. I'm talking about an entire approach to entertainment. Lindsey's first solo tour was a great example of true newness: He and his band orchestrated or reorchestrated a whole show in an intricately detailed and precise way, solving any number of aesthetic problems along the way (and creating a few others). His guitar "army" had to figure out exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, and everything was as precisely planned as the assembling of a model. Stevie's first solo tour, which I saw in Beverly Hills, was also truly new—the show was inextricably tied to Bella Donna, not to Fleetwood Mac. Imagine if her subsequent tours had displayed the same care and intelligence for the "moment," the new album!

At the other end of the spectrum, Fleetwood Mac this year is doing what? Backdrop videos of galloping horses and breaching whales? Where's the aesthetic intelligence in that? It isn't worth a damn.

Hiring two big names would have been a perfect opportunity to create some new traditions and make some waves, but instead the organization opted to go back out on the road with a big, expensive circus and all its old traditions intact. Pauline Kael once said that a "classic" is usually just a stunted perennial.

I feel the same way you do NicksFan.

I'm finding it interesting that the show in my city, for April, is only 1/4 to 1/3 sold. And they've been for sale for weeks now.

Any other tour, they have sold out in a few days, with almost no seats available after a week.

They send the announcement about tickets through on Facebook feed about once an hour. They are NOT in the same boat they were before Lindsey was fired. If I want to hear the same old songs, I definitely want to hear Lindsey as part of them.

I suppose what saddens me about this tour is the retreat from the deep tracks. Its an oxymoron to accuse the Mac of a cash grab tour and never changing their setlist only to have 4 incredible deep tracks cut from the set because of the dead stares from the audience. They are trapped in their own past and cant even do a concert without making Rumours their centerpiece with or without Lindsey. Those songs are what the masses buy the tickets for. For the love of God, they are performing Second Hand News and Go Your Own Way without him.
Other artists put their craft above the masses. They may not want to do this but see way too many dollar signs to do anything other than the same set for 20 years.

You forgot to mention if it were UP TO LINDSEY, their would be NEW MUSIC.

I went to one of the Forum shows in December and thought they were great.
The energy level was something I haven't seen in them since the early 80's.
Stevie was a powerhouse, Mick and John and Mike were spectacular. Neil was really good.

But something was clearly missing for me -- the unique sound that makes Fleetwood Mac different from every other band. Lindsey's tone and heft and harmony just isn't replaceable.

I'm glad I went, but that was it for me. Won't be seeing them again w/o Lindsey Buckingham.

On a lighter / brighter note, I'm really looking forward to seeing Lindsey on the 2nd leg of his tour. It's really his playing that has made me a lifelong FM fan.

My thoughts of the new band are limited to being a touring act with nothing new to perform. That thought can change if the band chooses to record.

With the tour going to New Zealand, I wonder if they’ll stop by Neil’s studio. With everyone having fresh chops, it seems like that would be a great time to record.

The new band is embarrassing. That's my thought.

No new music (though Mick led with the promise that new songs--"calling cards"--were forthcoming). An increasingly tired setlist. Long speeches and Tom Petty tributes. Crowded House features.

Yuck.

Others might disagree but none of what's happening now with the band will have any impact on any listener beyond this tour. It's simply not real. We can pretend there's a future here but unless new music comes in the form of a long-player album, I'm not seeing it.

I actually found the speeches to be significantly shorter than the past few FM related tours I’ve seen. Lindsey IMO gets too carried away with psychobabble, and that’s definitely something I didn’t miss. To be fair to Lindsey, he seems to have toned that down a bit.

And that’s really the big question.

It could be a possibility to record an extended play and release it online.

Hi
Just a heads up to say that in guitar world there is a new interview with Mike Cambell where he discusses his new role with FM etc. I won't spill all the beans here,but if you head over to www.guitarworld.com and use the search facility for Mike Cambell and scroll down the various articles you will come across it.
Amongst the interesting info, Mike states that he hopes FM will record new music at some point.

Blue Horizon

That's all I want, new music.