Would rather have Rick Vito back in FM

[Miss Vicky]

Originally Posted by michelle2677

i actually love bekka's voice and found it unfortunate that she wasn't given the chance she deserves. i never come in this forum, but literally 20 minutes ago i mentioned to bretonbanquet that I thought bekka would be a nice (re? LOL) addition to the mac.

Well you're the exception.

I should say though that I would be interested to see what sort of sound would come from Bekka and Lindsey singing together.

BTW, have you heard her solo album?

[bretonbanquet]

Having Crow singing Christine's songs is a good reason not to have Crow in the band.. they need someone who won't cause any animosity. That's going to be hard, but the best bet is going to be previous members coming back. My vote goes to Bekka, and/or billy / Rick.

[michelle2677]

Originally Posted by Miss Vicky

Well you're the exception.

I should say though that I would be interested to see what sort of sound would come from Bekka and Lindsey singing together.

BTW, have you heard her solo album?

the problem is..the songs i like of hers are usually the least favorite by the fans my luck.


and actually that would be very intersting.

and i haven't! i would love to, though

[Miss Vicky]

Originally Posted by michelle2677

the problem is..the songs i like of hers are usually the least favorite by the fans my luck.


and actually that would be very intersting.

and i haven't! i would love to, though

Omg, if you like Bekka, you absolutely must hear her solo album!

What about Bekka and Billy, have you at least heard that?

I'm going to have to hook you up, girl.

[michelle2677]

Originally Posted by Miss Vicky

Omg, if you like Bekka, you absolutely must hear her solo album!

What about Bekka and Billy, have you at least heard that?

I'm going to have to hook you up, girl.

I haven't.


and oooh! i can't wait

[michelej1]

[In light of Bekka's Gold Dust Woman talk, I thought I'd post this review which mentions it]

Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA), July 24, 1995

Section: ENTERTAINMENT

CAN'T STOP ROCKIN' NEVER STARTED \ ONLY PAT BENATAR'S SET
Roberta Fusaro; Telegram & Gazette Reviewer

MANSFIELD MANSFIELD - More than 12,000 people indulged their need for nostalgia and attended the "Can't Stop Rockin' Tour" Saturday at the Great Woods Center for Performing Arts. The crowd's size was impressive by promoters' standards, and included a good mix of older and younger music fans.

But an attendance of 12,000 is not so impressive when you consider that each act on the tour - Fleetwood Mac, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar and Orleans - in its heyday could draw a crowd at least that big, and probably bigger, on its own. Personnel changes, tiffs with record labels, music fads, fickle fans and the march of time have been cruel to these bands. Instead of headlining slots, they have been given an hour or so each to perform in this "lame"-apalooza type of gig.

Of the four, only Pat Benatar and her revamped band could provide a vital, entertaining set of new songs and guilty-pleasure classics. Progenitor of today's riot grrrl rockers, Benatar proved she's still down with the power chords, even without the spandex. She is without a record label right now (Chrysalis dropped her last year), but still has the operatically trained high range that has always distinguished her voice from those of her new wave peers.

Benatar and band - featuring in this incarnation her husband Neil Giraldo on guitar, longtime drummer Myron Grombacher, Mick Mahan on bass and Susie Davis on keyboard and guitar - successfully mixed the old with the new. They started with the big drum sound of "Shadows of the Night," moved through the jittery synth and martial beat of "We Belong" and into the pouty kiss-off number "Heartbreaker." Benatar, good sport that she is, even allowed an overzealous fan to wrest the microphone from her during the closing note of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." She had invited four women from the audience to help her with the number; one of them got a little carried away. Benatar seemed amused.

REO Speedwagon attempted to bring its arena-rock anthems and attitude - "How ya doin' Boston?" - into the grunge-ridden'90s and failed miserably. Their set didn't even work as kitsch. If Spinal Tap was rock 'n' roll satire, these guys are the real thing. Every number included extralong, uninventive guitar solos. Lead singer Kevin Cronin, still sporting a mop of hair and skinny ties with his T-shirts, felt it necessary to "jump"-cue the band out of every song. Someone should tell Cronin that split kicks have gone the way of eight-track tapes and David Lee Roth videos.

Fleetwood Mac fared much better than REO in its hour-plus set; they performed the night's closing set. Still, the new Mac unit - with Bekka Bramlett in the Stevie Nicks role and Steve Thoma on keyboards instead of Christine McVie - begs comparison to the "Rumours"-era lineup which is obviously no longer. Bramlett has a smoky, soulful voice, and added a real roadhouse bar band feel to "Gold Dust Woman" and "You Make Lovin' Fun." But when they saw Bramlett in her skin-tight red leathers, and not Nicks, many in the crowd took the band literally, about halfway through the set, and started to go it's own way - out to the parking lot.

Orleans opened with a 20-minute set of bland '70s hits including "Still the One" and "Dance With Me."

[michelej1]

Miami Herald (FL), August 28, 1994

Section: ARTS

LATEST MUTATION OF FLEETWOOD MAC TAKES TO THE ROAD

HOWARD COHEN Herald Writer

In a summer when the Eagles' reunion concert tour is toppling box office records, when Pink Floyd and the Elton John/Billy Joel team-up is filling major arenas, when Voodoo Lounge -- album and tour -- are proving there's still rock in the Rolling Stones yet, it's little surprise that Mick Fleetwood is putting his show on the road.

There's just one thing . . .

While the Fleetwood Mac tour boasts the rock-legend name that still claims the record for the best-selling group release ever in the United States (Rumours), the collection of musicians who will take the stage Monday at the Carefree Theatre in West Palm Beach bears only fleeting resemblance to that phenom.

There will be none of Stevie Nicks' mystical presence, none of Christine McVie's sweet harmonies, no protean Lindsey Buckingham guitar-playing. There is no album to tout as the next big one. So it sounds like a bit of an overstatement when Fleetwood asserts -- in all seriousness, that "the Mac is back."

But if you consider that, unlike some other groups, Fleetwood Mac never really went away, and if you consider the band's track record for reinventing itself, and if you consider what Fleetwood says next -- that as long as there's Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, there will always be a Mac . . . you might reconsider your first reaction.

"John and I are playing better than ever," a matured Fleetwood says. He's talking by phone from his new Washington blues club/restaurant, Fleetwood's. The Cornwall, England, native sounds relaxed, confident. OK, mellow. "It's like a nice, healthy rebirth."

When it comes to rebirths, Fleetwood is rock's greatest midwife.

This is the band's 12th lineup since it appeared in 1967, part of the British blues movement that pushed the careers of Eric Clapton and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, among others. Sixteen members have shared billing since those days, when founding guitarist Peter Green was the star and the band outsold the Beatles and Rolling Stones throughout Europe.

The latest incarnation features only drummer Fleetwood and bassist McVie from the original. They are joined on tour by Billy Burnette (who replaced Buckingham after he split in 1987), former Traffic guitarist Dave Mason, and throaty blues singer Bekka Bramlett (daughter of '60s rock duo Delaney & Bonnie).

"It's a fairly bold move for us to be out on the road right now without an album," confesses Fleetwood, 47. "We elected to do it because we were getting quite antsy having been in the studio for six months."

The new material -- an album is due out next year -- is "grittier" and "bluesier" than the bright California pop/rock sound of the Buckingham-Nicks era.

And that's some of what you'll see on stage.

"This is a new band, and we're cognizant of that," says Fleetwood. "We're not presuming to play arenas all of a sudden. We're coming on, giving a quick injection and having a lot of fun."

Still, you can expect to hear the new Mac put its spin on the early period -- Rattlesnake Shake and Oh Well -- on classics like The Chain and Go Your Own Way, Traffic's Mr. Fantasy, as well as Bramlett's read of Nicks' Gold Dust Woman.

"Bekka has her mother and father in her," Fleetwood says. "She's growing into a situation where she is . . . taking over from Stevie Nicks. That's quite a gig to handle, but she's ready for it. She's not pretending to be Stevie."

Touring "gives you a shot in the arm," says Fleetwood, as ever a tour devotee. "We're a couple of old gigsters. There's nothing like an audience."

It's not the first time the band has used the road as a proving ground.

Almost 20 years ago, several months before its U.S. breakthrough Fleetwood Mac, a reconstituted group struggling for new life after the blues went on tour with a rock sound that featured the signature three-part harmonies of Nicks, Christine McVie and Buckingham.

"It did the band a lot of good," Fleetwood says. "It put us in the deep end and said: 'OK, let's see where the mettle is.' "

Soon after the tour, Fleetwood Mac hit No. 1. Its follow-up, the confessional Rumours, recorded while members were ending romantic liaisons with one another (the McVies dissolved their marriage, while Buckingham and Nicks ended their live-in relationship) spent 31 weeks at No. 1. Released in 1977, it sold a record-breaking 14 million copies in the United States.

In fact, Fleetwood concedes, Mac might have benefited had it called it quits after Rumours' 1979 followup, Tusk. That's the course their chart rivals, the Eagles, chose.

The Eagles pretty much signed off in 1980, after The Long Run failed to top Hotel California. At the time, the Eagles were often slighted by critics, and the group's record sales were no match for Rumours-era Mac.

But absence makes the heart grow fonder, apparently. A certain mystique grew up around the absent Eagles, something Don Henley and Glenn Frey managed to tap for the smash Hell Freezes Over stadium tour. Sales of several old Eagles albums now outpace Fleetwood Mac's catalog.

Mac's '80s releases, meanwhile -- the well-made Mirage and Tango in the Night -- failed to achieve the passion of Rumours. Staying together cost Fleetwood Mac its magic. You can't miss something that won't go away.

"If we'd done what the Eagles have done, we'd have been every bit as successful," Fleetwood says. "Although Don and Glenn have become icons . . . in the early days . . . we had that mystique that the Eagles never actually had."

True enough. And some of that is still bankable. Fans of Christine McVie's harmonious pop -- songs like You Make Loving Fun, Little Lies, Heart of Stone -- will be cheered that she'll remain a recording member of the band and has contributed four songs to its forthcoming CD, due in 1995.

"Christine's free to come and go within the boundaries of Fleetwood Mac," Fleetwood says. "She's earned that right. She's very involved on . . . the album, but she doesn't want to tour anymore."

And as former group members continue to record solo projects, they are keeping the Fleetwood Mac franchise alive -- Nicks' most recent release, Street Angel, and Buckingham's critically acclaimed Out of the Cradle (1992), in particular.

"The nice thing is when I hear about Stevie and Lindsey . . . One way or another, this funky old Fleetwood Mac family that's definitely had its ins and outs and ups and downs . . . there's a lot of music still being made, and that's a good testimony to what this whole thing is about."

Now the pride in his voice makes sense.

"And next year we'll see whether the Mac is back like I think it is."

Fleetwood Mac performs at 8 p.m. Monday at the Carefree Theatre, 2000 S. Dixie Hwy., West Palm Beach. Information, (407) 833-7305. Concert is SOLD OUT. Tickets were $25.

[michelej1]

Atlanta Journal and Constitution (GA), August 26, 1994

Section: PREVIEW

Pop Music REVIEW Fleetwood Mac

Russ DeVault STAFF WRITER

8 tonight. Bad Company opens. $19.50, $32.50, $35.50. Chastain Park Amphitheatre, Powers Ferry Road at Stella Drive. 249-6400.

There's the five-member touring group - a new band, co-founding drummer Mick Fleetwood says - that performs tonight at Chastain Park Amphitheatre. And then there's the six-member studio unit that will soon begin work on an album for release sometime in 1995.

The difference is Christine McVie, vocalist-keyboardist for Mac since 1970. "Christine elected not to travel any more," Fleetwood says from a stop in Philadelphia. "She's earned that right and we're a big enough operation that we can say, hey, why not?"

McVie will join the touring band of Fleetwood, original bassist John McVie, 10-year guitarist Billy Burnette and new members Dave Mason and Bekka Bramlett when they record. But the band's focus is settling into performing in its new five-person configuration.

Mason, onetime member of Traffic and a successful solo artist, and Bramlett, daughter of the 1960s duo Bonnie and Delaney, are debuting the same way the musicians they are replacing, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, did in 1974.

"We went out with Lindsey and Stevie back then as unknowns - somewhat of a risky thing, but it worked," Fleetwood says, noting that comparisons are inevitable, with most of them directed at Bramlett.

"There's no two ways about it - she's got some pretty big platform shoes to fill," Fleetwood says. ''Stevie was a major part of this band, but Bekka's not up there being forced to sing Stevie's songs. We do one, 'Gold Dust Woman,' but it's Bekka's version."

The touring Mac will do some tunes by Mason, whose songwriting credits include "Only You Know and I Know," "Feelin' Alright" and "We Just Disagree." The band will also include three new originals as a reminder that there's more to Fleetwood Mac than the classic songs that give yet a third persona - that of a golden oldie.

"We have to be looked at as a golden oldie to a certain extent," Fleetwood says. "But we're always in motion. We're not treading water, but making headway creatively. It has been four years since we did an album, but we don't pump them out like a conveyor belt. We don't do anything unless we've got something to say."

[michelej1]

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth), July 4, 1994

Section: A&E

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW FLEETWOOD MAC MAY BE RECONFIGURED, BUT ITS SOUND HARKENS BACK TO A PREVIOUS TIME

Dave Ferman, Credits, Star-Telegram Writer

What does the new Fleetwood Mac sound like?

The question absolutely stymied the band's new guitarist, veteran solo musician and onetime Traffic member Dave Mason. On a car phone, weaving in and out of Los Angeles traffic on the way to a rehearsal, he tried gamely to answer. But all he could come up with was that the newest incarnation of Fleetwood Mac doesn't sound like anything so much as, well, the new Fleetwood Mac.

"To try to describe it is hard," said Mason, who joined the
reconstituted Mac - now minus Stevie Nicks and, on the road, longtime
keyboardist/songwriter/vocalist Christie McVie - last fall at Mick
Fleetwood's request. "You can't give it a label. I've always objected
to that, when people would say, `What's your new record sound like? '
Well, it sounds like new Dave Mason.

"It's gonna be different, but the only thing I can say is the
emphasis is the same as the Peter Green era - it's very
song-oriented, melody and words and that great rhythm section. It
doesn't sound like the Buckingham/Nicks era at all. "
The band, which founders Fleetwood and bassist John McVie decided
to re-form last fall, is working on a studio album that will probably
not be out until next summer. Which puts the members of the current
band (the McVies, Fleetwood, Mason and vocalist Bekka Bramlett,
daughter of Bonnie Bramlett of Delaney and Bonnie fame) in the odd
position of recording together without having played much live.

The band's summer tour dates are the only opportunity they will
have before finishing the record. That tour stops in Dallas today as
the band plays with Foreigner and the Doobie Brothers as part of
Freedomfest '94. For the tour, Steve Toma takes Christine McVie's
place, and Mac vet Billy Burnett adds second guitar.

The new band's material, Mason said, is a mixture of the familiar
and the unexpected, some blues and some of his own solo numbers.

"Billy does some of the Lindsey songs, and we've worked up a great
version of Gold Dust Woman, and we're doing The Chain, Don't Stop, We
Just Disagree, Mr. Fantasy, All Along the Watchtower, a new song of
mine called Blow By Blow, which if anything is a bit more hard-edged,
and Only You Know and I Know, which I wrote and which Delaney and
Bonnie had a hit with when Bekka was 1 year old! "
Speaking of Bekka: "She's got a hell of a voice, sort of like her
mom but not quite as raw," Mason said.

Bramlett is a vet of one of Fleetwood's solo bands, collectively
called the Zoo but constantly changing in membership. Mason, on the
other hand, has known Fleetwood for about a decade. The call to join
the band, he said, came out of the blue.

"I'd moved back to LA and we had a meeting, and he was saying he
was getting tired of looking for guitar players. `All these kids want
to do is play solos all over the place. ' And that's how it happened.

"I knew he'd been looking to re-form Fleetwood Mac and all he was
lacking was a guitar player. There was nothing happening for me - no
interest from the record business at all, and it was just a matter of
being in the right place at the right time. It certainly wasn't
something I'd planned on. "

Freedomfest '94
Featuring: Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, the Doobie Brothers
Today: Gates open at 2 p.m. at Starplex Amphitheatre, Fair Park,
Dallas. Fleetwood Mac is scheduled to play first, beginning around
4:45 p.m.
Tickets: $15
Information: Ticketmaster, (214) 373-8000 or metro (214) 647-5700

[soul_drifter333]

Interesting articles, especially the ticket prices! Thanks for posting. I didn't get a chance to see any of these shows, does anyone have a nice quailty audio boot they would like to share?

[billwebster]

Originally Posted by jools

Well this would be my setlist for a behind the mask tour line up


1)In the Back Of My Mind
2)Skies The Limit
3)Thrown Down
4)Walk Another Mile
5)Intuition
6)Hollywood
7)When It Comes To Love
8)Little Lies/Everywhere
9)Sara/Say You Will
10)Talkin' To My Heart
11)Illume
12)As Long As You Follow
13)Oh Well
14)I Loved Another Woman/Need Your Love So Bad
15)Sentimental Lady/Man Of The World
16)Behind The Mask
17)Silver Springs
18)Tear It Up/Hard Feelings
19)The Chain
20)Dreams
21)Running Through The Garden/Goodbye Baby
22)Standback/Rhiannon
23)Stop Messing Around
24)Little Lies/Isn't It Midnight?
25)Go your own way

Encore


26)7 wonders/Stand On The Rock
27)You Make Loving Fun
28)World Turning
29)Dont Stop
30)All Over Again/Songbird

What? No "Love Shines", no "Affairs of the Heart", no "When the Sun Goes Down", no "Temporary One", no "Soul Searchin'" ?

[billwebster]

Originally Posted by emeraldeyes38

All this talk about Sheryl Crow. I'd rather have Rick & Billy back.

Well, yes!

Then Christine would come back too!

Sorry to dissappoint you, but I don't think so.

If any other female were to be in FM, I'd rather see Bekka sing along side Stevie.

Do these two know each other after all?

I really loved the Behind the Mask. It was so awesome!

That band was wasted having had to promote not one, but TWO different Greatest Hits compilations and one new album of their precursor band during the short time that they had together. It's a wonder that something billed as Fleetwood Mac was able to escape the oldies circuit at all after that (and produce 3 new albums of quality in the process).

I think Lindsey shouldn't butcher another of his planned solo albums, because the GOS demos have grown so much over the years ... if only the sound quality of the bootleg was better...

But Sheryl with Rick and Billy? I don't know. But only you know and I know that Mick and John will keep trying. They love playing their music together, and love is a good thing.

[David]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth), July 4, 1994

"It's gonna be different, but the only thing I can say is the emphasis is the same as the Peter Green era - it's very song-oriented, melody and words and that great rhythm section. It doesn't sound like the Buckingham/Nicks era at all. "

I bet Mick was pleased as punch when Dave told the world THAT.

I saw these guys play in early October at the Konocti Harbor Spa. The only Nicks song they did was GOLD DUST. From Christine, they did YOU MAKE LOVING & SAY YOU LOVE ME & DON'T STOP & WORLD TURNING. From Lindsey they did GO YOUR OWN WAY. They also opened with THE CHAIN. The other songs were all from different times & places: ONLY YOU KNOW & I KNOW, WE JUST DISAGREE (the best song of the night), BLOW BY BLOW, DEAR MR. FANTASY, & I think they did ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER. Dave wasn't into it at all. It was as if a bar band saw an old friend in the crowd & he reluctantly went onstage to do a few numbers. The audience was polite but essentially there for the prime rib & rice pilaf. Mick & I talked out back about the band's future & the members. No one looked excited about anything -- except, as I say, the prime rib. GOLD DUST had been given a nice rearrangement: no kick or snare, only congas & percussion, heavy on the acoustic guitar. Bekka's overkill style didn't kill it, however, & it wound up being one of the best songs of the night.

[jools]

Originally Posted by billwebster

What? No "Love Shines", no "Affairs of the Heart", no "When the Sun Goes Down", no "Temporary One", no "Soul Searchin'" ?

Well i was trying to think how to include Love Shines, Affairs of the Heart & When the Sun goes down.
But it would be a very long concert !!!!

If this line up played again( whith Christine or Bekka) and then had a set list like the one i posted, i would pay to go and see several concerts.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by David

I bet Mick was pleased as punch when Dave told the world THAT.

I saw these guys play in early October at the Konocti Harbor Spa. The only Nicks song they did was GOLD DUST. From Christine, they did YOU MAKE LOVING & SAY YOU LOVE ME & DON'T STOP & WORLD TURNING. From Lindsey they did GO YOUR OWN WAY. They also opened with THE CHAIN. The other songs were all from different times & places: ONLY YOU KNOW & I KNOW, WE JUST DISAGREE (the best song of the night), BLOW BY BLOW, DEAR MR. FANTASY, & I think they did ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER. Dave wasn't into it at all. It was as if a bar band saw an old friend in the crowd & he reluctantly went onstage to do a few numbers. The audience was polite but essentially there for the prime rib & rice pilaf. Mick & I talked out back about the band's future & the members. No one looked excited about anything -- except, as I say, the prime rib. GOLD DUST had been given a nice rearrangement: no kick or snare, only congas & percussion, heavy on the acoustic guitar. Bekka's overkill style didn't kill it, however, & it wound up being one of the best songs of the night.

By the middle of the month, they'd added DREAMS, too. John wasn't the ball of energy he usually was on stage, but, the rest of the band was VERY into the performance. I think 25,000 or so people at an outdoor venue on an unusually hot fall day in Van Nuys, CA. ONLY YOU KNOW AND I KNOW was augmented by a guest appearance of Bekka's mom, Bonnie Bramlett and probably due to her presence the song seemed to have an extra kick to it. And, being in close proximity to John Lennon's birthday, their incredible arrangment of John's IMAGINE to close the show was very emotional.