Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveMacD
The blowout in 1987 at Christine’s house started because Lindsey told them he wasn’t going to do the tour. But, it was pretty clear from his interviews at the time that he was leaving.
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I agree with the reason you give for the blowout, but I disagree that Lindsey's departure was "clear." (If his imminent departure was clear, there wouldn't have been a blowout.) I was a Machead in 1987, very avidly following the band's every reported move and very tuned in to the Fleetwood Mac zeitgeist. In the media, Lindsey was coming across as torn—emotionally ambivalent. You knew there was something wrong, but some of it seemed very similar to the stretch of time after
Mirage, too, with everyone in the group retreating to separate corners. At the Get Tough on Toxics concert the previous August, it was already obvious there was trouble in paradise—a Lindsey set and a Stevie set (with Mick) that were totally separated in time, space, and spirit, allayed somewhat by Lindsey's own words about the album being almost finished and a "healing" thing for the group. I was there that night. Everybody thought it odd that Mick Fleetwood (for God's sake) wasn't playing drums for
I'm So Afraid.
The night Lindsey's departure was publicized on MTV—sometime in August 1987—the channel premiered the
Little Lies video. ALL the fans thought the video symbolized or foreshadowed the break.
That summer, Lindsey never told the press flat out, "I'm leaving." He told the press, "Who knows? I may leave. I have solo recording plans and that's where my focus is now. I'm not really concerned about Fleetwood Mac's plans." It was just like what we'd been hearing from various band members after the 1980 tour and again after the 1982 album. The first half of the Eighties were spent wondering whether the band was still a band. That sensation never diminished. I distinctly recall it.