“Why I’m Done with Fleetwood Mac”

[aleuzzi]

Spectator article by a Michael Hann

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/...fleetwood-mac/

from the article:

The Mac have long had hipster allure (search SoundCloud for Fleetmac Wood, who make disco and dance edits and mixes of old Mac tracks), but the people at Wembley weren’t hipsters: they were simply in love with one of the great catalogues of modern pop, specifically that created by the Lindsey Buckingham-Stevie Nicks iteration of the group.

One problem, though. Fleetwood Mac sacked Buckingham last year, and without him and the peculiar rage he brought to their show they were no more than a very high-class karaoke act. For several years I had wondered why their gigs were built around the psychodrama between Buckingham and Nicks, with them pretending to be starcrossed lovers, decades after their romantic relationship ended, and with every-one present knowing they despised each other. In his absence, the answer became clear: it provided a narrative structure that held everything together, a sense of tension that made a nostalgia show something that felt alive.

No show with songs as good as ‘Go Your Own Way’ or ‘Landslide’ or ‘Dreams’ is going to be bad. But Fleetwood Mac certainly had a good go at it: the sound was awful, even by the standards of huge shows, and the production — a crucial element in stadiums — redefined the word ‘perfunctory’. A couple of hundred quid to squint at underlit figures, with most of the music just a morass of sludge? They should have been ashamed.

One of the loveliest songs on Rumours was Buckingham’s acoustic number ‘Never Going Back Again’. It came to mind as I left Wembley. Alas, even with a band I love, I’m never going back again.