Glasgow 7th Dec - hot off the presses

fleetfootmike · #1 12-07-2003, 07:02 PM

You know, for a while I didn't think I was going to get to this gig

Huge thanks to KJ, who came up trumps despite the Mac's (unwitting) best efforts to leave me with a train ticket, a hotel room, and no ticket, and found Shawn and myself a pair of seats in row *J*, in front of Lindsey

And a big wave to cosmicegg and family! Yay! I finally got to meet a Ledgie/Firefly. Hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did!

The way to our seats was right past the stage, and I spotted a couple of the crew offstage on Stevie's side, who had a couple of synths set up. Got talking to one of them, and asked what they were for - turns out he plays a number of extra parts from there, including the low strings part on "Dreams", that odd little treated vocal sample at the end of the chorus on "Peacekeeper", and some the brass on "Tusk" (which is sampled a note at a time off the ORIGINAL USC Marching Band tracks on the Tusk master tapes!!! Brett's playing a brass part as well, as is the OTHER guy down in that offstage area.) Nice guy (if anyone gets to say hi at Earl's Court, he's the older guy with the baseball cap and American accent

).

So - onto the gig. Same set, same stage... No real surprises. The audience weren't quite as madly up for it as they were at the NEC, but the band rocked: I was paying attention to all manner of odd things, rather than necessarily Stevie/Lindsey - things like which songs John uses a pick on, etc. (Mostly because the rest of Fleetfoot Mike would probably kill me if I got to see the Mac without them and didn't do some Useful Research

)

Linsey seemed to be having major problems with his guitar in "I'm So Afraid" - a couple of people I spoke to wondered if he broke a string during it - he kept tilting it up to look at it, and several notes in the main 'tune' part of the instrumental sounded odd... I'm not sure he did break a string - seems more as though he managed to pull the top E out of the bridge slot or something. He soldiered on, and (if you didn't know, you'd never have realised he was having trouble) produced a snorter of a solo before the inevitable toss (with perhaps a little more venom than he has been known to) of the Turner across the floor. The roadie (I assume it's still Ray?) handed him a change of guitar for "Tusk". NOT a Turner! For the benefit of guitar geeks like me, it was a white, rosewood neck, large headstock Fender Strat with a vibrato bridge (but no vibrato arm).

A few comments: "What's The World Coming To" is growing on me a LOT. Stevie was HOT HOT HOT on "Gold Dust Woman", "Big Love" was probably the best I've heard Lindsey do it this tour.

And now I'm sat on my bed in my room (a whole 5 minutes walk from the concert), watching the AIDS concert on TV with my laptop on my knees while I type this. I may never see Fleetwood Mac again in concert, but... damn, it's been worth every penny. And we'll always have Birmingham. And London. And Glasgow.

gldstwmn · #2 12-07-2003, 07:40 PM

Thanks for the info.

Gypsy-Rhiannon · #3 12-08-2003, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fleetfootmike

The way to our seats was right past the stage, and I spotted a couple of the crew offstage on Stevie's side, who had a couple of synths set up. Got talking to one of them, and asked what they were for - turns out he plays a number of extra parts from there, including the low strings part on "Dreams", that odd little treated vocal sample at the end of the chorus on "Peacekeeper", and some the brass on "Tusk" (which is sampled a note at a time off the ORIGINAL USC Marching Band tracks on the Tusk master tapes!!! Brett's playing a brass part as well, as is the OTHER guy down in that offstage area.) Nice guy (if anyone gets to say hi at Earl's Court, he's the older guy with the baseball cap and American accent ).

I know this man! His name it Mike! Top guy!

Pip

fleetfootmike · #4 12-08-2003, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gypsy-Rhiannon
I know this man! His name it Mike!

and it don't mean a thing ... if he ain't got no...

fleetfootmike · #5 12-08-2003, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Gypsy-Rhiannon
I know this man! His name it Mike!

and it don't mean a thing ... if he ain't got no...

Livia · #6 12-09-2003, 01:32 PM

Yes, Mike's a sweetheart - but be warned, he will talk your ear off! LOL He's also toured w/ Stevie - he did the thunder sound effects for Twisted.

fleetfootmike · #7 12-09-2003, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Livia
Yes, Mike's a sweetheart - but be warned, he will talk you ear off!

Well, on the strength of the brief chat I had, I could probably music-technology-geek with him for most of an evening

CarneVaca · #8 12-09-2003, 02:16 PM

Fleetfoot, was that the only time he played a Fender on stage this tour? Are the Turners crapping out from all of the abuse?

gldstwmn · #9 12-09-2003, 02:19 PM

He broke the neck of one of the Turners in London, didn't he?

strandinthewind · #10 12-09-2003, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CarneVaca
Fleetfoot, was that the only time he played a Fender on stage this tour? Are the Turners crapping out from all of the abuse?

Although I am not that up on what guitar is what, I am fairly sure he played his Fender (white perhaps) at his PBS Soundstage thingee. Also, we got to see up close his three or so racks of guitars after the show - that was unbelievable. So, maybe he is gravitating back to the Fender.

fleetfootmike · #11 12-09-2003, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CarneVaca
Fleetfoot, was that the only time he played a Fender on stage this tour? Are the Turners crapping out from all of the abuse?

I dunno. I suspect I'm in the fairly small subset of folks who actually pay attention to details like that (hey, I'm Lindsey in Fleetfoot Mike, I have to

), but certainly that is the only time (and bear in mind I only went to 3 gigs) that *I* know of Lindsey playing an electric on stage that was not a Turner.

I'm not exactly sure why he did - he spent a lot of the verses of "I'm So Afraid" tilting the Turner up to peer at it when he wasn't playing it. In the 'tune' part of the solo (between the verses) a couple of notes on the top E string sounded choked off, but he didn't, as far as I could see, change HOW he played it, or any of the licks he's been regularly playing in the solo (told you I was a detail junkie). Dunno if a fret had popped out, or he'd cracked the nut so the top E was slipping off the edge of the fretboard, or something: he didn't *seem* to be playing as though he'd broken a string.

He did toss the Turner away more violently than usual after ISA, and Ray was pretty much straight there with the white Strat for "Tusk". He played another(?) Turner for the songs afterwards, and he also changed guitar cable - the one plugged into the offending Turner and the Strat was a metal-bodied right-angled jack with a band of red tape marking it, the one afterwards was a straight jack with, I think, a piece of black tape marking it.

fleetfootmike · #12 12-09-2003, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by strandinthewind
Although I am not that up on what guitar is what, I am fairly sure he played his Fender (white perhaps) at his PBS Soundstage thingee. Also, we got to see up close his three or so racks of guitars after the show - that was unbelievable. So, maybe he is gravitating back to the Fender.

To the best of my knowledge, and certainly for the dates I or anyone who's as anal retentive as me has been to (that's chiliD and David at least

), the only electric guitars he has INTENDED to play on stage have been Turners.

He plays at LEAST two: one in dropped D for at least "Gold Dust Woman" and "World Turning", and one in standard tuning (on the Dance tour he had another tuned to open D for "Over My Head"). If he doesn't have at least one spare in standard tuning I'll be surprised, although one is forced to wonder why he didn't use it on "Tusk"... unless of course it had already suffered during "Come"!

fleetfootmike · #13 12-09-2003, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by gldstwmn
He broke the neck of one of the Turners in London, didn't he?

According to Pip, yes: I wasn't in a position to see, being two tiers up and 20 rows back.

shackin'up · #14 12-09-2003, 06:17 PM

Fastpussy, Nodmod and I saw him throw it "face down" over the stage. A lot of damage was done: pieces of I don't know what (i never hold a guitar, and definately no model 1

)flew around. The guitartech/stageguy looked shocked when he picked it up. I saw it from close: I was hanging on the man's monitor all evening. I still live on a cloud.....

gerald

Phil Lee · #15 12-09-2003, 06:31 PM

Lindsey used 2 Turners and the Strat along with the acoustic guitars he plays at the two Manchester concerts. I also noticed during one of the concerts in Birmingham that there are white numbers on the back of the headstocks on the Turners. In Birmingham he used numbers 2 and 4