oh the hypocrisy

[bombaysaffires]

I'm pulling this out of another thread because I think it explains a lot about why people are so put off by this whole sh$t show.


https://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...d-mac-20121205

This article is in Rolling Stone Dec 5, 2012.

As previously reported, Fleetwood Mac will head out on the road next year for a massive world tour. It turns out the tour was originally scheduled for 2012, but Stevie Nicks decided to take an extra year for her own solo trek. The rest of the group decided to make the best of things and use the time to cut a new album, but that ultimately fell apart, too.

Stevie gets to play fast and loose with the rules-- when she wants to keep doing solo stuff, the band needs to adjust. When Lindsey wants to do solo stuff, tough sh&t, you're fired.


Another bit:


Interviewer: I spoke with Stevie last week. She said she wanted the band to be gone for three years, because anything less would make the tour seem less special.

Lindsey: There might be a little bit of rationalization to that. We had actually planned to tour last year. We hadn't done any routing yet, but there had been a commitment from everyone, and then it got put off. Stevie had done her album and I had done mine as well. Hers came out a bit later and, to be fair, someone is always causing trouble in the band. She would look at me doing these small, solo things where I nurtured myself and brought that back into the band. I don't think she had one of those experiences, whether it was an album or touring behind an album for a while. She needed to have that experience.

It was fair enough for her to want to extend that until she felt it had been played to her satisfaction. There's no judgment on putting the tour off for a year, but it was a surprise to everyone. We had planned on it for a while, and she had planned on it. But things change, and that's a part of Fleetwood Mac. We're a moving target. We're a group of people who, you could make the argument, don't belong in the same band together. It's the synergy of that that makes it work.


Again, he says the band makes plans, Stevie wants to change them even after we were all planning on it, I played nice and said ok fine.


A big part of the rest of the article is about all the dancing around and cajoling they had to do to try and woo Stevie into recording some stuff (this ended up being the EP) .


Why does the band twist itself into knots trying to please Ms. Nicks far more than anyone else in the band? Ka-ching, ka-ching. And she knows it, and isn't afraid to use it. She'll threaten not to record, or not to tour (the card she played during SYW), threaten to go to the media ("How's it going to look when I go to RS and trash this project?" -- I forget which album she pulled that one on) and on and on and on and on.

[trackaghost]

I brought up something similar in another thread but Mick was really upset with Stevie for delaying that tour at the time and moaned about it in an interview with Playboy in 2012.

The Ghost Of Fleetwood Mac

It's partly why I was so surprised that they would fire Lindsey over supposedly doing the same thing. I think this time, because he has both Stevie and Christine in the band now, he feels more secure to just replace anyone who stands in his way of his big payday.

I also have a feeling that Stevie might have wanted Mike Campbell in the band before Lindsey was even given the boot, which I'm sure Lindsey would not have been pleased about.

[Morgana]

I just came upon this article. From Ultimate Classic Rock

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleet...ur-roundtable/

Several mention the delay in waiting for Stevie.

[SteveMacD]

I totally agree.

That was also before Christine came back and John got a cancer diagnosis.

Time is much less on their side now.

[Macfan4life]

Thanks for posting the article. This double standard has been pointed out before but this is yet another example.
Lets be clear and real. If Stevie said please delay the tour 5 months for whatever reason, the band would do it without hesitation. I hope there is no one foolish to believe otherwise. This is why so many don't believe this touring smoke screen.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

I brought up something similar in another thread but Mick was really upset with Stevie for delaying that tour at the time and moaned about it in an interview with Playboy in 2012.

The Ghost Of Fleetwood Mac

It's partly why I was so surprised that they would fire Lindsey over supposedly doing the same thing. I think this time, because he has both Stevie and Christine in the band now, he feels more secure to just replace anyone who stands in his way of his big payday.

I also have a feeling that Stevie might have wanted Mike Campbell in the band before Lindsey was even given the boot, which I'm sure Lindsey would not have been pleased about.

was the link working when you posted it earlier?

When I check it now it says the page is no longer available please go to the main fleetwood mac news page.

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by Morgana

I just came upon this article. From Ultimate Classic Rock

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/fleet...ur-roundtable/

Several mention the delay in waiting for Stevie.

Thanks for sharing that link!

Here's one guy's take:

Nick DeRiso: In 2012, back before Christine McVie’s return, Lindsey Buckingham was ready to tour again with Fleetwood Mac, but they waited for Stevie Nicks – who didn’t finally get back on the road with the band until 2013. Following McVie’s return a year later, Buckingham was ready to record, and again they waited for Nicks. By the following year, he and McVie had begun recording without her. This went on so long that they completed an entire album, featuring all of the members of Fleetwood Mac – except Nicks, who did another solo tour in 2015. Then, Buckingham and McVie, waiting into 2017, mounted their own separate tour. All of this happened while they waited for Stevie Nicks. Finally, Nicks returned, but by this point Buckingham – understandably, right? – was ready to do something on his own. So they reportedly fired him. Makes perfect sense.


Most of the others fall for the band's story that the band was worried about getting older and living life to the fullest and Lindsey didn't want that.

Interestingly, they all think that Stop Draggin' My Heart Around will be included in the set, because of Mike co-writing it with Tom and as a tribute to Tom. In the middle of a Mac show. Facepalm.

[trackaghost]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

was the link working when you posted it earlier?

When I check it now it says the page is no longer available please go to the main fleetwood mac news page.

Sorry, I don't know what happened there but here it is again.

http://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/2012...g-playboy.html

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

Sorry, I don't know what happened there but here it is again.

http://www.fleetwoodmacnews.com/2012...g-playboy.html

thanks! More double standard:

“I don’t believe Fleetwood Mac will ever tour again,” Fleetwood says dryly. “But I really hope we do. We have rehearsed and prepared for it since 2010. We were supposed to tour in 2011, but we delayed it for a year to allow Stevie Nicks to support her solo record and for Lindsey Buckingham to do the same with his. I’ve always been supportive of my bandmates doing solo albums, so long as we kept our band together. If you look at the credits as far back as you like, I’ve always played extensively on many of them, and this time was no different. I played drums on most of Stevie’s latest album, the one she is still out there supporting and the one that is the reason that for now she refuses to do a Fleetwood Mac tour. It comes down to her, and for the first time, I think, even Lindsey has lost his patience. All of this uncertainty is a tremendous change for me.”

Fleetwood looks off to the side, pulls his white mane into a tight ponytail and collects his thoughts. It’s clear he wants to get this just right. “Stevie is really proud of her new album, and I get that, but she will not let it go. Honestly, it’s not easy out there, and it’s done well, but she’s insistent upon working it until it is incapable of growing further. I understand what she likes about her situation: Touring in support of her album, she is able to be her, without any degree of compromise. She doesn’t have to worry about the other three of us asking her to do anything—which is basically the contract that comes with being in a band. She has become enthralled and obsessed with her album in a very nice but very inconvenient way. She’s working 20 times harder than she would ever have to with Fleetwood Mac and not making anything close to as much money as she would with us. But that is what she wants to do, and I respect that. In the past I’d not have taken no for an answer. I’d have persuaded Stevie or whoever needed persuading at the time to do the tour. But I’m not doing that this time or ever again, and there is nothing else to say about it. Stevie changed her program and changed her mind, and however willful anyone may be, this is what’s happening. Or not happening, rather. It’s quite simple: Stevie changed her mind. And you know what? That is our innate privilege as humans: Each of us has the right to change our mind.”

Nicks’s change of heart comes with a steep cost, though—one that even such rock royalty as Fleetwood, Buckingham and McVie can’t deny. The last time the band’s entire 1970s-era lineup toured was in 1997, after recording The Dance, which remains one of the top-selling live albums of all time. They played 44 shows in the U.S., a tour that raked in $60 million, which would be roughly $84 million today. After that tour Christine McVie retired from show business, but she did vocals on one more album, 2003’s commercially successful Say You Will; when the band toured, however, Nicks and Buckingham were obliged to cover Christine’s vocals. The band played intermittently in the years that followed. It is safe to assume that the fans will be rabid for the next tour. One promoter estimates that Fleetwood, Buckingham, McVie and Nicks would take home $10 million apiece from an eight-month arena tour. A tour that apparently will never be.

“It is certainly a blow to all of us financially,” Fleetwood says wryly. “I don’t care what you have and what money means to you, we’re talking about a very sizable, profitable tour. We’re talking about being paid well to do something that, unless I’ve misread things in this band for the past 30 years, we all love to do, because we’ve continued to do it even during our most difficult times individually and as a group. As a band we don’t work very often, so we never became some big moneymaking machine like the Eagles. The Eagles are absolutely brilliant—they work relentlessly, they put on a great show and they have all the money in the world to prove it. We just never ****ing did that.” He turns to look down the mountain at Maalaea Harbor, resplendent in the afternoon sun. “Fleetwood Mac could have been that and still could be today if we choose to, but we’re not and we won’t. Instead we are the worst-run franchise in the rock-and-roll business.”


“The news that this tour might never happen was devastating to me,” Fleetwood says. “We have been through so many ups and downs and false starts that, really, it’s almost a part of our process. Nearly every Fleetwood Mac album going back to the mid-1980s began as a Lindsey Buckingham solo project that we’d all end up playing on, until before our eyes it was transformed into a Fleetwood Mac album.”

This time was different, however, even though the motions, at first, seemed to be the same. “We all played on both Lindsey’s and Stevie’s records, so I thought nothing had changed. But as time stretched on, something didn’t feel right. Still, I was not prepared for that blow: essentially the realization that I no longer had a band. I’ve had a band—this band—since 1967. With all else coming apart in my life, it was not something I was prepared to stomach. But like the other guys, I’m getting over it.” He takes another of the long, thoughtful pauses that characterize his speech. Fleetwood is a man who talks easily, but before he says anything of significance, he weighs his words deliberately, his dulcet baritone rolling out in crisp, clipped King’s English. “The act of getting over this shock has proven to be a great catalyst in changing my life for the first time in decades. It inspired me to say, finally, ‘Enough is enough.’ For the first time ever I have refused to do what I’ve done in the past—anything it took to make a Fleetwood Mac album and tour happen. I was always the one to jump through hoops, to get down and beg, to play the fool or be as charming as I could. I literally did whatever was needed to keep the band moving forward. But not anymore.”

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

Interestingly, they all think that Stop Draggin' My Heart Around will be included in the set, because of Mike co-writing it with Tom and as a tribute to Tom. In the middle of a Mac show. Facepalm.

How would that be any different than “Stand Back” being a setlist staple in a Fleetwood Mac show?

[bombaysaffires]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

How would that be any different than “Stand Back” being a setlist staple in a Fleetwood Mac show?

It wouldn't. But I don't think Stand Back should be part of a Mac show either.

[Morgana]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

Thanks for sharing that link!

Here's one guy's take:

Nick DeRiso: In 2012, back before Christine McVie’s return, Lindsey Buckingham was ready to tour again with Fleetwood Mac, but they waited for Stevie Nicks – who didn’t finally get back on the road with the band until 2013. Following McVie’s return a year later, Buckingham was ready to record, and again they waited for Nicks. By the following year, he and McVie had begun recording without her. This went on so long that they completed an entire album, featuring all of the members of Fleetwood Mac – except Nicks, who did another solo tour in 2015. Then, Buckingham and McVie, waiting into 2017, mounted their own separate tour. All of this happened while they waited for Stevie Nicks. Finally, Nicks returned, but by this point Buckingham – understandably, right? – was ready to do something on his own. So they reportedly fired him. Makes perfect sense.


Most of the others fall for the band's story that the band was worried about getting older and living life to the fullest and Lindsey didn't want that.

Interestingly, they all think that Stop Draggin' My Heart Around will be included in the set, because of Mike co-writing it with Tom and as a tribute to Tom. In the middle of a Mac show. Facepalm.

You are so welcome!

[The Catdancer]

This is what Lindsey had to say when they wanted to bring in Sheryl Crow:

"Mick and Stevie wanted to bring Sheryl Crow into the band after the “Say You Will” album. I was against that from the get go, and shot that idea down immediately. I mean, what was she gonna do ? Was she gonna sing Christine McVie songs ? She certainly wasn’t going to sing Sheryl Crow songs. It just wasn’t the right fit, and I would never allow anything to happen that would tarnish Christine’s legacy in this band".

Lindsey Buckingham

So where's Christine's support for him??? I'm so disappointed in her. I thought maybe she would be the voice of reason but no, she "wants to carry on with these guys".
#WhoAreThesePeople

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by The Catdancer

So where's Christine's support for him??? I'm so disappointed in her. I thought maybe she would be the voice of reason but no, she "wants to carry on with these guys".
#WhoAreThesePeople

Same here. If she had a freaking toothpick of a backbone, she could have STOPPED this. But she did nothing. First, Bob Welch, and now this. She's no better than OGB.

[secondhandchain]

Originally Posted by The Catdancer

This is what Lindsey had to say when they wanted to bring in Sheryl Crow:

"Mick and Stevie wanted to bring Sheryl Crow into the band after the “Say You Will” album. I was against that from the get go, and shot that idea down immediately. I mean, what was she gonna do ? Was she gonna sing Christine McVie songs ? She certainly wasn’t going to sing Sheryl Crow songs. It just wasn’t the right fit, and I would never allow anything to happen that would tarnish Christine’s legacy in this band".

Lindsey Buckingham

So where's Christine's support for him??? I'm so disappointed in her. I thought maybe she would be the voice of reason but no, she "wants to carry on with these guys".
#WhoAreThesePeople

EXACTLY We know who's idea this was, STEVIE AND MICK. They have the worst judgement EVER. Ready to bring in Sheryl Crow? NO WAY. #whoarethesepeople