Fleetwood Mac forced to end Lincoln show early
By Ken Coffey, World Herald Staff, January 18, 2015
http://www.omaha.com/go/fleetwood-ma...16cce3e0b.html
LINCOLN — Fleetwood Mac may sound unstoppable, but the band can be halted.
On Saturday, the classic rock band had to call it a night early when drummer and founding member Mick Fleetwood came down with an unexplained illness.
In front of thousands packed into a sold-out Pinnacle Bank Arena, the band played as long as it could before throwing in the towel.
“Mick is really sick. We don’t know exactly what to do,” Stevie Nicks said, adding that Fleetwood suddenly became ill and was throwing up backstage.
Set to play more than two hours, Fleetwood Mac cut its set short by eight of its planned 24 songs and finished almost an hour early with “Go Your Own Way” and “Songbird,” and they had to call on a drum tech to get behind the kit to finish.
“We’re so sorry,” Nicks said. “In all of our 40 years, this has never happened.”
“It’s really unfortunate,” Lindsey Buckingham added. “We’re really sorry, guys.”
Despite calling Saturday's show in Lincoln early, Fleetwood Mac is planning to perform its next concert as scheduled.
A statement from the band said Fleetwood caught the stomach flu.
Despite having to skip songs such as “Little Lies” and “Don’t Stop,” Fleetwood Mac managed to play nearly 90 minutes, which is as much or more than most headliners.
Some of these songs are simply burned into our brains. Fleetwood Mac’s music is so pervasive that the notes of “Rhiannon,” the voices in “Chain” or the chorus of “Go Your Own Way” may be more familiar than the fact that they’re by the superstar band.
Those songs and the five classic members of the classic rock band are what thousands turned out to hear.
Full of raw excitement, the thousands of all-ages rock fans had a buzz about them not unlike teenagers waiting to hear One Direction.
No one seemed more excited than the members of Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham let out a gratifying yelp upon taking the stage hand-in-hand with Nicks. Fleetwood initially beat his drums like they were calling him names. Nicks danced with Christine McVie and John McVie during “Tusk,” all of them laughing.
Though I’m sure the shows are a nice payday, it’s a band that clearly has a passion for performing these songs possibly more than the audience had a passion for hearing them.
Christine McVie, back with the Mac for the first time since 1998, led the band through the beautiful harmonies of “The Chain.” It’s good to have her back considering her songs, such as “You Make Loving Fun” and “Everywhere,” are some of the biggest and best the band has in its catalog.
“Thanks to the members of Fleetwood Mac, who I adore and love, for letting me come back and do this again,” she said.
The combination of Buckingham and Nicks was, as always, the highlight of the night. As Buckingham finger-picked the guitar jam “I Know I’m Not Wrong,” Nicks twirled around with her scarves. They smiled and winked while playing “Seven Wonders,” and they were swarmed with a low hum of voices from the audience during “Landslide.”
The famous tune about changing and getting older came during an acoustic interlude that included “Big Love” and “Never Going Back.” The trio of songs came as the band scrambled to figure out what to do without Fleetwood before deciding to call it a night.
“We will come back. You’ll get one and a half full-on shows,” Nicks told the audience. “We will come back. We’re so sorry.”
The band finished the concert by calling on a drum tech to fill in for "Go Your Own Way" before finishing with "Songbird."
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