[David]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

I agree with you on 1995, but not 1994, for the simple reason that they probably didn't have the new material in 1994. The one thing that seems to be forgotten with your argument is that the band usually played about twelve songs per set, but those three only had seven songs (eight, if you throw in "These Strange Times") on the actual album that WAS released. So, they would still have needed at least four or five songs to fill out a set. Unless you're also suggesting that Bekka sing Christine's "Time" songs as well, which I don't see as being any different than Bekka singing SYLM, YMLF, or "Don't Stop."

It's a ****kicker's worth of difference: audiences know SYLM & Don't Stop, they don't know I Do & Hollywood. When you play SYLM, your audience immediately thinks of the Fleetwood Mac incarnation that recorded it. The same is not true of "All Over Again" or "Sooner or Later."

The "Rumours" era Fleetwood Mac was hugely popular around the world, so I don't see how this is relevant. I don't think there was any country in which they could escape "Rumours."

Wow. You really missed the point. My point had nothing to do with the popularity of Rumours around the world. My point had everything to do with the very minimal popularity of "Then Play On" & Dog & Dustbin in the United States.

David, I would buy that argument if either Stevie or Lindsey were having huge success as solo artists. But the fact that Stevie was playing to 1/2 filled venues and Lindsey was openig for Tina Turner shows me that there wasn't exactly a huge demand for any of them.

But that wasn't my point, either. What Stevie or Lindsey was doing solo in 1994/95 is irrelevant to the fact that, when Fleetwood Mac -- or any cover band in the United States -- played SYLM or YMLF or GYOW, the audience (whether it was in the open-air venue or the bar or the Bar Mitzvah or the corporate party) immediately linked the song to the Fleetwood Mac that rules the American airwaves in the 1970s.

Any time ANYONE plays Dreams or SYLM (at least in this country), the listener immediately thinks of Fleetwood Mac if he thinks of anyone at all (i.e., assuming we're not talking about a 14-year-old black kid who has never heard the classic pop-rock playlist--& such a kid probably didn't turn out in droves for the Time concerts, so that's a moot exception).

The big problem is that no older (classic) artist, save maybe for Tina Turner, was having a lot of chart success.

I ain't talkin' about CHART SUCCESS in 1994!!! Don't play stupid!!! I'm talkin' 'bout recognizability factor in SAY YOU LOVE ME & DREAMS & DON'T STOP & all those goddamn old FM song hits!!!

The 1994 band should not have been playing any of those if they wanted to cement a new identity & get their own hits or grow their own audience!! it's as simple as that.

As such, and this is the key point with all of this, the old songs were really the only thing the old acts had to market the shows.

What do you mean "market the shows"? To market such shows, you announce that you're playing at the Konocti Harbor Spa & Resort, & people either show up or they don't! But you PLAY your new material & whatever else you want that ISN'T connected to your former incarnations because otherwise the PEOPLE will continue to think of you as HAS-BEENS trying to CASH IN on your past, & they will grow very weary of you & bored with you.

"Then they should have changed the name" so some say. They would still have had the exact same problem. Mick, John, and even Billy were too heavily associated with their membership in Fleetwood Mac

Billy? Come on, what ridiculousness. Stop the next chap you see on the street, show him a photo of Billy, & ask him, "Do you remember this man from Fleetwood Mac?"

Sure, I could see how some not familiar with the band's history would think they were seeing a bastardized version of Fleetwood Mac.

How SOME?! Oh you're really pissin me offnow. I'm gonna call Nepo in here to give you an asswhuppin. Virtually EVERYONE in the audience knew they were watching a band that needed to establish its own identity APART from Rumours & Stevie Witch & Go Your Own Way ... & that wasn't trying very hard to do that.

They would have thought that regardless if they were playing "Talkin' To My Heart" or "Don't Stop." Oddly enough, most people, at least at the shows I attended or have bootlegs, seem to give the band an overwhelmingly positive reception.

Your rhetoric skews the argument to your favor, but it's still extreme exaggeration & rhetoric. "Overwhelmingly positive reception" does not accurately describe the general air of a Time show. However, "applause" or even "mostly pleased" might describe it. To hear you tell it, those Time shows went over like U2 turning the crowds at the Coliseum into raving, dancing, chanting idolators. THAT is what "overwhelmingly positive reception" means connotatively.