Leeds Arena June 30, 2015

michelej1 · #1 06-30-2015, 08:05 PM

Yorkshire Evening Post Tuesday 30 June 2015

Five things you need to know about Fleetwood Mac

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.u...-mac-1-7333729

As Fleetwood Mac prepare to play Leeds’s First Direct Arena this evening, Mark Casci runs down five essential facts about the group.

1 - Despite being born out of the London blues boom and named after their seminal rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, the band were initially a vehicle for the then frontman Peter Green.

One of the best blues guitarists of all time, Green led the band through their initial years and in 1968 the group sold more records than The Beatles and Rolling Stones combined with hits such as Albatross. However Green began to suffer from mental health problems and had to quit the band in 1970.

2- One of the band’s formative guitarists Jeremy Spencer quit the band mid-tour in America to join a cult. Having told the group he wanted to buy something to read he wandered off and was accosted by a member of the Children of God group and never returned.

3 - At one stage there were two Fleetwood Macs. The band’s former manager, Clifford Davis, claimed that he owned the name Fleetwood Mac, and recruited new members to tour under the banner.

The legal wrangling that followed put the real Fleetwood Mac out of commission for almost a year.

4 - The band’s golden period came when they recruited Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham to front the band. The pair’s tumultuous split, along with the break-up of John McVie and keyboard player Christie McVie inspired the album Rumours, which remains one of the biggest selling records of all time. Songs like Go Your Own Way and Dreams were directly inspired by the inter-band fallouts and the album made the band one of the biggest on the planet.

5 - The current tour is the first time the so-called classic line-up of McVie, Fleetwood, Buckingham, Nicks and McVie have played together for 17 years.

michelej1 · #2 06-30-2015, 08:22 PM

Mark Casci published 00:13 Wednesday 01 July 2015 Yorkshire Evening Post

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.u...eeds-1-7335412

A wild-eyed genius named Mick Fleetwood says it better than I ever could as Fleetwood Mac exit the stage - “The Mac is BACK!”

A blistering two hour and 20 minute set from the classic (yes, that word is ENTIRELY appropriate) Rumours-era line-up elicits one of the most passionate responses I have seen from an audience in my life.

A four-song opening shot from said record that made them famous the world over was always going to put us on the right foot.

The Chain, all close harmonies and blues guitar gives way to one of the most memorable of bass lines and Leeds is all theirs. You Make Loving Fun, Dreams and Second Hand News are all delivered as they should be, note perfect and intense.

The rock solid, bomb-proof rhythm section of Mr Fleetwood and his self-professed dearest friend John McVie form the bedrock of tonight’s show.

Highlights come from their front people throughout however.

Returning from a 17 year hiatus from music, Christine McVie still has the voice of an angel, as evidenced by set-closer Songbird and Everywhere.

Lindsay Buckingham storms around the stage like a man a quarter of his age, his distinctive finger-picking guitar style as ferocious and precise and it ever was. His solo-rendition of Big Love was a thing of majesty,

Best of all is centre-stage throughout. Stevie Nicks, 67, still mops the floor with any other front woman out there. During Gold Dust Woman she does not just command the stage but dominate it,

The highlight for this humble reviewer is Landslide, performed by the couple Buckingham and Nicks, whose well-documented fallings-out inspired so much of their greatest art, is tear-jerking. Stevie owns the spotlight, a magisterial performance.

Despite Mick’s bullish claim we will most-likely never see these five together again. But tonight’s gig capped a truly unique and inspirational career and cemented their legacy as one of the most special and unique rock n roll bands of all time.

The Mac is back? The Mac never left us and never will.

TheWILDheart · #3 07-01-2015, 09:18 AM

I have to say, it was very VERY odd to see The Mac in my home city and hear them on stage saying "good evening Leeds".

FD Arena is only about a year or so old and this was only the second time I've been. Great show, as always, but the venue is really something else! It's a fan layout, so you have a good stage view from any seat in the house. The stalls are REALLY small - only about 8 or 9 rows. The venue is a 13,500 seater - same as Wembley Arena - but it feels smaller and more intimate none of the seats are a million miles away from the stage.

sue · #4 07-01-2015, 10:47 AM

Thought the venue was incredible..2 tickets bought about 6 weeks ago from the First Direct Arena at face value.....Smack bang in the middle of the seating area....one row back from the standing area.... Great views....
Huge goosebumps when the show started.....
They were very, VERY good. All three voices were excellent, two hours passed so quickly....then the encores after "Go your own Way" when the roof lifted off...Everyone standing and joining in.....they looked honestly surprised at the reception Leeds gave them.
My favourite (and I'm a Stevie fan) was Big Love....Lindsey gave all. The crowd loved him..
My husbands favourite and he's not a huge fan, he likes them, they're okay was...Rhiannon.
I have to agree with the write up Stevie held centre stage when she was on....and looked incredlble...she has to have a portrait in the attic...
Sue

elle · #5 07-01-2015, 06:27 PM

it was John Courage's birthday and Lindsey dedicated Big Love to him:

side note - love it how LB has been doing Big Love dedications 3 shows in a row now... wonder whether he dedicated it to someone in Manchester?

PS thanks Nicole for the heads up on JC dedication!