Live in Manchester 08/25/1990 BBC broadcast
 

Was listening to this (again) today. So much jumped out at me. The last true arena rock sound of the band. Many songs like Everywhere and Isnt It Midnight are so uptempo compared how they would play it today. Mick is pretty sharp on drum licks too. You can hear Christine's organ in every song OMG. Landslide is not a sing along like it is today dedicated to Christine's brother. Christine and even Stevie's voice is really strong. No pre-recorded tracks or backing vocals. Lindsey was not there by choice! This just sounds incredible. Love Stevie's backing on Stand on the rock! Save Me is amazing! Such high energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQy...9eUVw&index=22

Thanks for posting the link. I had heard a boot long ago, but the linked show starts from the beginning of "In the Back of My Mind".

The tour itself was fantastic! The band appeared to have a lot of fun on this tour, at least before the book. :) Take "Tear It Up" for instance - Stevie *danced* and played tambourine throughout the song. Very uptempo .. all into the song.

I've had this for years but must say I haven't listened to it in a long ass time. Thanks for sharing the link as it truly holds up as a great concert almost 30 years later. So many great songs and the 'new' songs really do sound good live. Save Me is indeed fantastic! I love this version of Gold Dust Woman and while the vocal on Go Your Own Way is impossible for anyone but Lindsey to make sense of (even he struggles), it is a really rocking way to end the show. The '87-'90 band isn't comparable at all to 2018+. Father Time and poor decisions have taken their toll.

I have this double disk!! I'm going to have to pull it out. I remember loving it.

Wow! Christine's organ on The Chain is incredible. I can hear her backing vocals, too. Lindsey would have run over and unplugged her for playing like that. :lol:

Lindsey: I told you Christine!! Only backing tracks!

You can hear it almost on every song. I miss her playing so much. I love her style. You can hear it anywhere. One of the reasons I like the album BTM is because for the first time since Mirage, we hear Christine playing lots of keyboards. We only get a taste on Tango.

I have a record of this concert many years, but this version has much much better sound and it shows that the show was really great.
Thanks for the link.

The first song I had to check was of course Stand Back, finally a really super quality record of any concert from this great tour :).

It's so true. I think that Buckingham didn't give her the room she deserved to flourish as a keyboardist. Adding to that, I think she didn't take enough initiative or have enough confidence to play as much lead.

I love when she plays the keyboard parts for Landslide.

BTM kicks off with Christine's keyboards on Skies the Limit. Love her solo on Do You Know. She is churning like crazy during Save Me, When It Comes To Love, and Stand on the Rock.
Her style just jumps out at you. It may not be the most creative but catchy as hell.

I love her quirky style. It goes with Mick and John's style so well. I think she instinctively knew she had to step her game up since LB was gone. I'm glad she did.

I was not too familiar with this lineup and am impressed with Rick Vito here. I didn't really miss Lindsey's guitar much, and I was expecting to.

I saw both tours with Rick and Billy and they were fantastic shows. (There are reports that toward the end of the BTM tour it became low energy.)

I saw Billy and Todd Sharp with Christine McVie on her solo tour (1984) and that show rocked the house, too.

I saw the BTM (Farewell tour) late in November 1990 and it was all high energy with Stevie dancing all over the place.
Contrasting the tours, I think the band sounded better and jelled better in 1990 which only makes sense. They took a few creative liberties too like the brief guitar intro to Rhiannon. Speaking of the 1990 Rhiannon, Stevie did something she had not done since the Tusk/Mirage tours and go sit down on the side of the stage during the guitar solo. I think she was trying to vintage up the Mac for what was supposed to be her final tour with them.
I have said this before but both Stevie and Christine wearing mini skirts on the tour was one of my favorite things :)

Glad to hear Stevie omit from "Rhiannon" that "she still cries out"/"don't leave me" coda. I've never liked it.

I think there is a Tampa Video of the BTM tour floating out there.

It's really good!

Maybe you mean Gainesville, FL. This was the first night of the "Farewell Tour" , the BTM tour resumed after Chris's father passed away.
Show starts at Dreams but holy crap.... for 1990, this video quality is excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LolwWGBOXcU&t=5746s

Did you notice Stevie didn't even come out for YMLF?

She never came out for YMLF during this tour and the same thing for the Tango/Shake the Cage tour. YMLF always came after Stand Back and she was getting changed out of her Stand Back costume.

During Tango she even left the stage for Over My Head. Just as she was leaving the stage, Christine was introducing the song and soon as it started, hundreds of people ran to the bathroom. I felt embarrassment and shame as the band could see so many people running to the exits like a fire drill. Yes its very true, many go just to see Stevie and when she exits the stage they also run out.

On another note. Stevie opens GDW with "take your silver springs and dig your grave"
Was this a simple flub or a dig at Mick or Lindsey? Its hard to imagine Silver Springs being on her mind in 1990. Her fight with Mick about Silver Springs was not until the next year. But maybe discussions about it were earlier than we thought.

The energy may have been on and off by then? I saw June shows in Sacramento and Mountain View, and nothing was wrong with them in the energy department. But then I saw the second-to-last night in Oakland and thought everyone seemed bored, even when LB came on. He had a puzzled look on his face, as if to say, “Do these people even want me here?”

My favorite moment of energy and authority from the Billy and Rick years was Don’t Let Me Down Again in 1987 in LA and elsewhere. The band was actually a rock band for four short minutes! It ranks as one of the rhythm section’s greatest live moments.

It was an odd time. The band regrouped after Christine's father's passing. Stevie and Christine stated they would no longer tour with the band. Stevie was threatening a lawsuit against Mick for his book that was out at the same time as the Farewell tour where he spilled some of her darkest secrets.
Look at that setlist. Just full of energy. I just remember Stevie running all over the stage playing with John, Rick and Billy and Christine very grounded and alert almost the ringleader with her miniskirt.

The show in Cleveland, she very much appeared to be the band leader.

Why is it dedicated to Christine's brother? Did something happen?

I think he just happened to be in the audience.

yes, Stevie states he is in the audience

What is your opinion about Stevie's "take your silver springs and dig your grave"

Klonopin slip or swipe at Mick?

No chance that is a slip up. She very directly lays out the "SPRINNNGS" as if done with some intention.

I agree. This could be the first sign of her dispute with Mick. Even on Klonopin, that girl is on the ball LMAO

Sometimes, on Stand on the Rock, Stevie would bellow and howl in her seventies best rock voice. Do you guys recommend some particular 1990 performances of that song where it’s really prominent?

Yep, I know over the years when this has come up, people have said the timeline doesn't work for that to be a knock on the whole Silver Springs/Timespace issue - but I have to think it meant SOMETHING. She didn't randomly screw up lyrics or pull a Rhiannon switcheroo. She was saying something to someone. It really works perfectly to tell Mick off "take your silver SPRINNGGS and dig your graaave!"

Get on her bad side and a lyric change is the lightest thing she could do to you. If Mick pulled that today she'd fire him and bring in Steve Ferrone to be the drummer.

More on Gold Dust Woman, what a kick ass performance of this song! Her vocals were on fire and the playing is great all around. My favorite performances of GDW were The Dance and the Sheryl Crow concert in 1999, but this one is a close third.

Oh wow, was not aware this has come up before. The timeline absolutely makes sense. Stevie talks about how her record company came to her about a "best of" album but she needed to finish a Fleetwood Mac world tour. The tour ended in December 1990. Sometimes Its A Bitch was out as a single 7 months later. She would have been planning her "best of" album while still on tour and especially during the break when Christine's father died. I cant remember if I caught it live and if I did no one would know the context. Stevie was threatening Mick with legal action about his book at this time too.
Yes, she is leaving the band, Mick wont give her Silver Springs and she says, yeah ok I'm leaving, take Silver Springs and dig your grave and no one will come to see you in concert. LMAO and that is exactly what happened. The Mac was playing night clubs 4 years later.

Has anyone listened to early 1990 concerts from Australia or before the cancellation where she says silver spoon instead of silver springs?

To my ears this recording sounds a lot better then the "Next Stop Main Road' CDs, although I haven't played them in ages. I saw them in Utrecht a few days earlier on this tour. Upfront and I remember them as very powerful. Never knew The Mac with LB before, so FM with BB & RV was FM to me :-)

I like the power in Stevie's and Chris' voice on this recording. You hear they are still young (early 40's) while to me (I was 20 back then) they were very old :-)

Alas, Thanks for sharing this link. It's blasting thru my Sonos right now.

I agree with you. It was a swipe.

I was checking setlist.fm pages and found info of the December 7, 1990 at Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA. The Encore section starts with:
Tear It Up (Johnny Burnette cover) (with Lindsey Buckingham)

Didn't know Lindsey joined them once (or more dates?). What's the story behind that appearance? Does anybody know?

Those were the last two performances of that tour that he joined, if I remember correctly? In Oakland the night before, and at The Forum for the final show. It was because those were to be Stevie and Christine's last shows with Fleetwood Mac. Lindsey did Landslide with Stevie and then came back for Go Your Own Way (and apparently Tear it Up).

The Landslide video from the Forum is readily available on Youtube. I've never seen nor heard Go Your Own Way but I've read claims here that it was QUITE the performance!

GYOW wasn’t especially great. It was just very emotional having Lindsey there. All the hugs. Christine was running her fingers through his hair. Stevie was very moved and gave a heartfelt comment and being a BN fan at the time I found it extremely momentous, even though she ruined the moment eventually with Greenpeace and grabbing a kid from the audience and derailing the focus of everything.

LMAO. OMG I remember Stevie being trashed in the Pittsburgh Press review about her Greenpeace speech. It railed against her about being so arrogant to tell fans "do it for me" after their November 1990 concert.

Someone around here...and I don't remember who...maybe it was the FM Usenet group....I'm going back a long time on this one...anyway, someone used to claim that version from the Forum was THE quintessential best version of GYOW ever. I've longed for it for years but I've got to think that a recording just simply doesn't exist, at least not among the fans. By now it would have had to come out.

And I'm not shocked at all about Stevie killing the moment - she's really perfected that move throughout her life ;)

Omg, I haven't thought of Usenet in years...

Does it still exist? My ISP stopped carrying it probably 15 years ago.

I was on the FM one from about 96- whenever it died out. Maybe 2002 or so?

Yeah I’d say that was about when Usenet groups kinda fizzled out. Actually I think Google bought all of that and you can still search for them and see old posts. That group along with being a Ledge lurker was how my 15-20 year old self gained so much Fleetwood Mac knowledge! It’s hard to imagine today how much more difficult it was back then to get info and history. All of the videos and audio on YouTube was nearly impossible to find or hear. I still remember my first recordings I either downloaded or bought off someone - the aforementioned Maine Road recording (which took like two months to download on dialup lol), Melbourne 1980, and Memphis 1982. Ahh, the good old days.

I didn't get my first computer until 96, I think.

I stumbled across alt.FM at Usenet, and became hooked...I mean, come on, this was the internet before it resembled anything like it is today, there wasn't much(seemingly) to search back then. I "met" David, jbrowns, ChiliD, and Stephen(Hopkins)MacDougal. Things seemed to be dying off in Usenetland(anyone remember Bill Gamelson? - $tevie's notorious stalker)...then David mentioned me coming to the Ledge(my haters, please don't take it out on him!:lol: ). I lurked for at least a couple of years, because everyone seemed so mean! Eventually, you adapt or you die! :p