Christine in London, 9/25

[michelej1]

Rolling Stone

By
Jon Blistein

September 26, 2013 10:10 AM


Fleetwood Mac's sprawling 2013 tour just touched down in Europe, and the band marked the occasion with a very special guest during their gig at London's O2 Arena last night: Christine McVie. The keyboardist walked on stage to a wave of exuberant cheers – plus the hooting and hollering of Mick Fleetwood – and assisted her former bandmates in a full-on attack of one of her most important contributions to their catalog, "Don't Stop." Luckily, some well-placed fan captured a very good quality video of the performance.

Fleetwood Mac Talk Reissuing 'Rumours' and Making New Music

McVie left the band in 1998, and just last year, Stevie Nicks said she thought there was close to no chance for a full-fledged Fleetwood Mac reunion. Last night's gig, as Nicks recently promised, was the first of two shows that will feature McVie.

The timing of McVie's brief reunion worked out well, too: Fleetwood Mac's classic line-up is celebrating the 35th anniversary of their classic LP Rumours, which they just reissued. Fleetwood Mac also recently released a four track EP, titled Extended Play, their first collection of new tunes since 2003's Say You Will.


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[gypsy4life]

Wonderful to see Christine back..in any capacity...love her and always will...

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Oh yes. When the other guys were playing around doing their, "why did that keyboard just appear on the stage" routine, it looked like John was almost in pain to me. He wasn't smiling at the charade. Too anxious to be jocular. I felt -- being a little melodramatic myself -- that his heart was in his stomach. Then when they left the stage he held her so protectively, as if to keep her from falling -- which she was not in danger of doing anyway.

Michele

Aww that's sweet.

Originally Posted by michelej1

But the argument amuses me because I've thought the exact same thing in a different context. I think the comment is true of the so-called Lindsey and Stevie romance. Until Lindsey actually became a father, there has been nothing stopping Lindsey and Stevie from being together romantically except the two of them. They may have had some physical dalliances since then, but they obviously aren't compatible as long term romantic partners, or they would have been and would have been so monogamously at some point in these many, many decades.

Michele

Yeah, that is pretty amusing.

[elle]

Originally Posted by michelej1

The whole, "this is a sisterhood" theme is actually a fallacy. I don't think that Stevie and Christine have had that kind of closeness since their condo days during the recording of one album. And I do think Stevie was monopolizing Christine a bit and prolonging the photo opps between them. I think Christine even thought it a bit much the way she quickly patted Stevie's hands when Stevie came up behind and hugged her.

yeah that was the feeling i was getting watching those 3 videos and all pics that were posted: like Stevie was working really hard to show everyone how much she just loves loves loves that Christine is there, to the point of hogging Christine's limelight, and not allowing anybody else to show how happy they were. i mean, Mick?? come on! the man worked for at least a year to make this happen but did he get to hug Christine on stage?

i didn't sense Christine being cold towards anybody, from what i've seen in videos, but i was not there so couldn't get the vibe.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by elle

I didn't sense Christine being cold towards anybody, from what i've seen in videos, but i was not there so couldn't get the vibe.

Well, she wasn't cold exactly. I should describe it in a better way. I guess, I got the feeling that she might not have hugged him, if he hadn't pressed it. Obviously, I couldn't hear what was said between them, but he said "Christine" loudly enough that I did hear it all the way over and it was like he had to really butt into things and initiate their exchange, when normally I would not have expected that. You know how someone might not notice you were going to give them a high five and you're left hanging? That's what I thought was about to happen, that she might have just not connected with him physically at all, but he didn't let that transpire.

I think it would normally have been a more reciprocal thing, with her also reaching out. But once they did interact, it was more than sweet and special.

Michele

[applebucked]

Holy posts.

I think is more of being 'reserved' than being 'cold' with Christine. Agree that had Lindsey not pressed for it, he would've not have gotten physical contact with her in the first place.
Gotta love how he was looking at Chris for most of the song, though.

Also, this is only the first night. Maybe things would be somewhat different tomorrow.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by applebucked

Holy posts.

I think is more of being 'reserved' than being 'cold' with Christine. Agree that had Lindsey not pressed for it, he would've not have gotten physical contact with her in the first place.

Yes, but she usually isn't that reserved with Lindsey. But hey, it's been 15 years.

Originally Posted by applebucked

Gotta love how he was looking at Chris for most of the song, though.

Also, this is only the first night. Maybe things would be somewhat different tomorrow.

I hope things will be a little different. I mean Wednesday was fantastic though, but I think what would help is, just let Christine walk out, either she will just do the song and hug afterwards or if she wants to hug first let her get center stage and then every man for himself. Just everyone can grab a waist, an arm, a hair clip, a breast, whatever they want ... I don't care, but let her get kind of within grabbing distance of everyone, then hands on. Don't ambush over to one side.

I mean, Stevie is Stevie. I don't forget AHI when Lindsey came out. She was like, "What can I say...can I say it yet?" She was anxious for him to get across the stage and she had to run over and check because he wasn't coming. That's how she is.

Anyway, if I changed anything, I would change that, also I would want Lindsey to come over to Christine after the singing is over and they're bringing the instrumental end of Don't Stop to a close. He can be right up at her piano actually. I would love it.

But I was ecstatic with yesterday too, just on edge.

Michele

[applebucked]

As a Christine/Lindsey fan, I did expect more PDA from them, so I know where you're coming from. Yes, everyone should be withing grabbing distance from her. Let Mick stand up from the drums, for chrissakes! And to more Lindsey/Christine physical contact.

[WildHearted]

I don't think the "sisterhood" thing is a farce. Stevie and Chris might not have been as close as they were in the 70s by the time the 90s rolled around and Chris left.. but all we've heard since SYW is how much Stevie misses Chris (and not just from Stevie - from the others, as well) and how different the dynamic is without her there and how hard it was for Stevie to get used to it. Just because they weren't best friends doesn't mean the lack of her presence didn't upset Stevie and it doesn't mean Stevie wasn't overjoyed to have her back even for one song.

By all accounts, Stevie's a touchy feely kind of gal. I think the combination of being happy Chris was there, wanting to make Chris feel welcome on stage, and having emotions (good and bad) running high just brought it out all the more in her. And it wasn't as if Christine wasn't reciprocating. She held onto Stevie's arm throughout her hug with Lindsey.

I don't know, I hug a lot. So it never seems as weird or excessive to me as it does to other people when hugging occurs. I'd be the girl chasing people down for hugs at the end of the school year and attempting to never let them go.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by WildHearted

I don't think the "sisterhood" thing is a farce. Stevie and Chris might not have been as close as they were in the 70s by the time the 90s rolled around and Chris left.. but all we've heard since SYW is how much Stevie misses Chris (and not just from Stevie - from the others, as well) and how different the dynamic is without her there and how hard it was for Stevie to get used to it. Just because they weren't best friends doesn't mean the lack of her presence didn't upset Stevie and it doesn't mean Stevie wasn't overjoyed to have her back even for one song.

By all accounts, Stevie's a touchy feely kind of gal. I think the combination of being happy Chris was there, wanting to make Chris feel welcome on stage, and having emotions (good and bad) running high just brought it out all the more in her. And it wasn't as if Christine wasn't reciprocating. She held onto Stevie's arm throughout her hug with Lindsey.

I don't know, I hug a lot. So it never seems as weird or excessive to me as it does to other people when hugging occurs. I'd be the girl chasing people down for hugs at the end of the school year and attempting to never let them go.

Haha! Stevie was being extra clingy with Chris, but you could tell it was just because she was so happy she was there. And, Stevie obviously has always admired her. I'm not sure it was because they ever hung out but Christine probably made the "workplace" a lot more fun with her sense of humor and her way of cutting through the bull.

[applebucked]

I think the affection is genuine. And knowing Stevie, not surprising at all.

[fairydust75]

Stevie just couldn't help herself she was so excited. If you look back at photos from the Christine era you can see that Stevie and Chris have always klung to each other...their arms around each others waist or hand holding walking accross the stage. Yes, Stevie was hogging Chris ....she was giddy and loving having her back....

[elle]

Originally Posted by applebucked

I think the affection is genuine. And knowing Stevie, not surprising at all.

i don't know Stevie.


what i can say is, that when i saw her on stage, at several concerts i attended, she didn't seem nearly as annoying as when just reading stuff about her. she seemed amused, happy and curious. she looked sad during Silver Springs while looking straight at me and my little 10yo enjoying the show together.

there was only one show i saw where she did come off as somewhat annoying.

but frankly, i can't really say because i really don't look at her much during shows.

[SteveMacD]

I think people read way too much into their body language. Remember, in addition to hear dislike of hotel rooms and flying, Christine also cited stage fright as a reason for her retirement, so given that it had been over fifteen years since she last played to that type of crowd, I would imagine she was all nerves and had no intention of snubbing anybody. As for Stevie-sisterhood-hogging-Christine thing, remember, Stevie also nearly refused to tour without another woman in the group, almost leading to Sheryl Crow.

It was cool that Christine did it, and I’m really curious as to why she’s suddenly flying to Hawaii and getting talked into performing by Steven Tyler, and why she’s offering to play with Fleetwood Mac, at least on a very limited basis. Maybe we’re all reading way too much into it, but it is curious.

As cool as it was to see Christine again and have “Landslide” dedicated to Peter, it would have been even cooler if they would/could have brought Christine and Peter up and done “Get Like You Used To Be” and “Stop Messin’ Round” as a quartet, then bring up Stevie and Lindsey and do “Oh Well,” and finish with the “Rumours” band doing “World Turning” and “Don’t Stop.”

[applebucked]

I was expecting them to do Oh Well, at least.