more excerpts:
And there you have it, the proverbial rock and hard place, complicated by the fact that the last batch of new Fleetwood Mac product, if you will, was the Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie album, released in 2017 and probably the finest bit of Fleetwood-related product since Tango In The Night, 30 years and many dollars ago. On it was every member of the "Rumopurs Five" but Nicks, who apparently had other commitments. A smallish, low-key tour featuring Buckingham and McVie followed, but it was emphatically not Fleetwood Mac - especially for those keeping box-office score.
i find this bit so telling - it's the crux of why the band - and even more, managers - went with Stevie. and it's also why she gave an ultimatum in the first place, at this time - she just finished arena tour, they just finished smaller shed tour. in reality "smallish" is such interesting term to use, considering their tour probably had more dates than Stevie's tour that was spread over 2 years. so while it might be implied smallish may mean not many dates, what it
really clearly means is what i highlighted in red at the end of that sentence -
