[As others were discussing some of the discrepancies in that Biography from last night, I thought I'd post this]
New York Times, August 11, 1994
Deja Confusion
Fleetwood Mac is witnessing the folly of this summer's glut of touring rock bands at first hand. The chart-topping British rock group is on its first tour since the singer Stevie Nicks left the band in January 1993. When Fleetwood Mac performs at the Beacon Theater tonight, Ms. Nicks is to be performing a concert in Cincinnati as part of her own tour.
"She arrived in Washington the day after we left," Mick Fleetwood said with a laugh by telephone from a Philadelphia hotel this week.
Fleetwood Mac, which is performing some concerts with Crosby, Stills and Nash, has added to its lineup the guitarist and singer Dave Mason, who is a founding member of the 1960's British band Traffic. Traffic, by coincidence, is also competing with Fleetwood Mac on the road this summer. The band, on its first tour in two decades, is to be performing near Boston tonight.
"I wasn't invited to play with Traffic," Mr. Mason said of the re-formed band, which includes only two original members, Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi. "To me, it seems strange that they would go out as Traffic with just the two of them without really asking me if I wanted to be part of it."
Actually, Fleetwood Mac is touring with only two longtime members, the bassist John McVie and Mr. Fleetwood, who plays drums. Though she's still a member of Fleetwood Mac, the singer and keyboardist Christine McVie did not go along. She will help the band complete a new album after the tour.
To make matters even more confusing, Ms. McVie has been replaced on the road by Bekka Bramlett, whose parents, the recording duo Delaney and Bonnie, had a hit with a song written by Mr. Mason, "Only You Know and I Know." Fleetwood Mac has been performing this song on tour, along with the Traffic song "Dear Mr. Fantasy."
"It's a fairly amazing situation that we've survived through seemingly ridiculous odds," Mr. Fleetwood said. "I think that the reason is that there's always been a healthy nucleus of the band."
Mr. Fleetwood was looking forward to performing this weekend at Bethel '94, the Woodstock commemoration festival that was canceled. "The original Woodstock we turned down years and years ago," he said. "We didn't even know what it was. . . . Of course, it turned out to be a wildly historic event that we didn't take part in. One often wonders what would have happened to the early incarnation of Fleetwood Mac had we done that. We might have been the new Led Zeppelin. Who knows?"
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