Stevie Interview Sundar Star Times (NZ)

[michelej1]

[This is the full interview from the clips we had in the NZ thread. It had enough of the whole band history that I put it here rather than the Stevie forum]

Sunday Star Times

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/entertainment/2776306/Fleetwood-Mac-rocking-on

Fleetwood Mac Rocking On, August 23, 2009

THE last time Fleetwood Mac played in New Zealand, Rob Muldoon was prime minister and we still had the "carless days" scheme. There was a major strike at Kinleith Paper Mill that year, and the police noted that a staggering amount of pot was smoked, right out in the open, at the first Sweetwaters music festival near Ngaruawahia.

It was 1980. Fleetwood Mac played two sold-out shows here that year, with most of the band nursing raging cocaine habits financed by the success of their biggest album Rumours, released three years earlier. Rumours was inescapable in New Zealand we heard it in shopping malls, takeaway bars, petrol station forecourts, drifting from the open windows of houses and passing cars. Radio stations thrashed it, and your mum quite possibly played it at fondue parties where the after dinner instant coffee arrived in earthy brown Temuka Pottery cups.

And I played it myself, incessantly. When Rumours came out, I was 16 and Stevie Nicks was a powerful object of desire, a Californian hippie witch with ragged hems and come-to-bed eyes. Now Nicks is 61, and Fleetwood Mac are returning to play their first New Zealand gig in 29 years in New Plymouth in December.

"Really, I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it," says Nicks from her home in Santa Monica, her speaking voice as nasal and husky as her singing voice. "I came down there on a solo tour in 2006 and I loved it, and so when Fleetwood Mac were booked to come to Australia, I convinced the rest of the band we should play New Zealand as well."

It is, says Nicks, a tour that will delight their fans. They won't have to suffer any new songs; it'll be singalong nostalgia all the way.

"It's our first ever greatest hits tour. In the past, we've always had a new record to promote, and the fans are, like you're not doing `Say You Love Me' because you wanna play a song we don't know? C'mon! So this time we're gonna pick 23 of the biggest songs Fleetwood Mac ever did and play 'em all over two-and-a-half hours. It's like OK, here's our body of work. Here are the best songs we've made since this line-up came together in 1975. This is our tapestry."

And what a rich tapestry it has been. Even within the notoriously dramatic world of rock'n'roll, Fleetwood Mac's career has stood out for its lack of calm and restraint. The band's history resembles a particularly tumultuous soap opera, or perhaps a soft-rock Spinal Tap, replete with madness and cults, lawsuits and lust, bogus touring bands, clandestine shagging, industrial strength bitchiness, oceans of alcohol, blizzards of cocaine. Numerous members have burnt out, flipped out or been kicked out along the way, leaving drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie the only surviving members from early line-ups.

Ad Feedback FLEETWOOD MAC was a tough British blues band when it formed in London in 1967, then the addition of McVie's wife, singer Christine Perfect, helped broaden their appeal. By the end of the 60s, they were one of Europe's most popular bands, but then things started to go seriously awry. Guitarist Peter Green developed schizophrenia after taking LSD in Munich. Second guitarist Jeremy Spencer went out to buy a paper one day and joined a religious cult instead.

Replacement Danny Kirwan was fired after destroying instruments in an alcohol-fuelled rage, and another replacement guitarist, Bob Weston, was given the boot after having an affair with Fleetwood's wife. Singer Dave Walker was dismissed due to "attitude issues". Eventually, touring became so difficult that the band's manager put together a fake Fleetwood Mac with no original members and toured that instead.

In search of a fresh start, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie relocated to Los Angeles in 1973. After drafting in new members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of California soft-rock duo, Buckingham Nicks, their sound became lighter, dreamier, more melodic. This line-up's second album Rumours won the 1977 Album of the Year Grammy and went on to sell over 40 million copies worldwide, and it's easy to see why. On the surface, Rumours sounds as middle of the road as a white line, but there's a compelling undercurrent of darkness that really evokes its era the drugs, the sexual shenanigans, the emotional carelessness, the hippie dream starting to turn sour.

"Those 12 songs came out of a very dark time, and told the story of their times," agrees Nicks. "That music captured what was going on in everybody's hearts, not just ours. We were telling stories everybody could relate to, so people carried those songs around like their own little mantras."

Immediately before Rumours was made, the Fleetwood Mac soap opera got particularly sudsy. John and Christine McVie split, and the latter started dating the band's lighting director. Adding insult to injury, she wrote "You Make Loving Fun" about her new man, and her ex had to play it, night after night, on the road. Then Nicks left Buckingham and started a secret affair with Fleetwood, who was married to George Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd at the time. Their affair began here in New Zealand, after a November 1977 concert during the Rumours tour. Soon afterwards, Fleetwood left his wife for Nicks' best friend, Sara Recor, and Nicks began a relationship with Don Henley of The Eagles.

A few years later, one of Nicks' friends died of leukaemia and she married the woman's grieving husband, only to divorce him eight months later.

These were particularly crazy times, agrees Nicks, and constant drug use had a lot to do with it.

"You know, it was a seriously drug-filled world in those days. At the time, everyone thought cocaine was just a recreational drug that could not hurt you. Being idiots, we all said, OK, great, get me some. Now, of course, I have a terrible hole in my nose that really affects my singing, so it did hurt me. It hurt all of us. There's always a price to pay for that kind of behaviour. Cocaine is really acidic; if you're a singer it eats your throat, and eventually it eats your brain, too. And of course, nobody was just doing cocaine back then. It was like, I'm too low, so I'll do some coke, then I'm too nervous, so I'll smoke some pot, and then I'm too stoned, so I'll have a big old shot of brandy, and then I'll smoke a cigarette to wake myself back up again. It was a big nasty circle, and my advice is not to try it, because rehab is no fun whatsoever."

Nicks knows this from bitter experience; she's been through rehab twice.

"I did six weeks at the Betty Ford Clinic to get me off cocaine in the mid-80s. I came out feeling great, looking great and singing great, but then a psychiatrist insisted I go on this tranquilliser called Klonopin to make sure I never went back to coke, so I got addicted to that instead. The next eight years of my life went down the drain! The second time in rehab, I spent 47 days in detox. It was worse than the cocaine detox. I thought I was gonna die! A little later I developed chronic fatigue syndrome, which I imagine is from all those years of misuse of my body."

And Nicks wasn't the only band member paying a price for the millionaire rock star lifestyle. Heavily addicted to cocaine and alcohol, Mick Fleetwood found himself living in a friend's damp basement in the mid-80s, watching soap operas all day. Having quite literally squandered millions on cocaine, he filed for bankruptcy in 1987 and entered rehab soon after. That same year, John McVie was treated for an alchohol-induced seizure, and has been sober ever since. Buckingham left the band in 1987, ending the classic Rumours line-up until a reunion in 1997.

The New Zealand show sees this line-up back together minus Christine McVie, who left in 1998.

"All the flying was giving her panic attacks," says Nicks. "Now she's living in a little castle outside London, with a whole lot of dogs and animals, and she spends her time cooking and having a happy life."

NICKS IS honest enough to admit that Fleetwood Mac is primarily a business these days, an enterprise sustained by stubbornness as much as anything.

"As mad as everyone has gotten at each other for a myriad different things, it always came down to one thing: I'm not leaving! It's like I'm not quitting! You quit! Even during times when we hated each other, nothing was worth ending Fleetwood Mac over. You know, when I joined this band, I was so poor, I was working as a waitress and a cleaning lady. Eight months later, I was a millionaire! We made a lot of money together, so whenever things went bad, we'd say is this really worth ending the band over?"

Nicks sounds tough, confident, not at all the floaty hippie chick she often appears to be. She's a survivor, a woman who has come through hard times with little left to prove. Besides Fleetwood Mac, she has had an extremely successful solo career. Her songs have been covered by the Dixie Chicks and Smashing Pumpkins, sampled by Destiny's Child, cited as an inspiration by Courtney Love, MaryJ Blige and the Pet Shop Boys.

And of course, it would be remiss to overlook Nicks' impact, for better or worse, on the world of fashion. She is perhaps the ultimate bogan fashion icon. Westie women, young and old, still sport Nicks' trademark faux-gypsy 70s look to this day, with the jagged hemlines, the silk scarves, the platform boots, the multi-layered satin, leather and lace.

"The older I get, the more I realise that my little idea of what to wear on stage reached out and grabbed a lot of people. Why? Because my style was easy to wear. When I first joined this band, I used to just go on stage in my street clothes, which weren't great, because I was extremely poor at that point. Eventually I went to [LA designer] Margie Kent and drew her little stick figures of what I wanted, and she made me a stage outfit with a little black top, a chiffon skirt that looked kinda raggy, a couple little jackets. Later I got her to make me a poncho out of chiffon with sequins and beads on it, and some long handkerchief skirts, then added the shawls and the top hat and so on.

"People still copy that whole look today, all over the world, and I think that's because what I wear is easy for all body types. Whether a woman is real skinny or 20lbs overweight, my look works. I've toned it down as I've gotten older, but I still wear much the same thing, as you'll see when I get down there."

Fleetwood Mac's "Unleashed" tour plays New Plymouth's TSB Bowl of Brooklands on Saturday, December 19. Tickets on sale from September 9 through Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.co.nz or ph 0800111 999.

[daniellaaarisen]

This was a good article. Stevie is so precious-- no matter what she's even saying, I usually read interviews with a huge grin on my face because she is just so CUTE.

[brysondt]

Me too! I love reading interviews or articles with Stevie quotes. It makes me smile too because I can really "hear her" saying those words in her voice, with her funny mannerisms sometimes. Haha, I am lame.

[FMlex]

Loved the article! Thanks for sharing.

(P.S. I really like your new banner, Dani! I've been MIA for the past few days trying to set up my dorm room - I'll post pics of my FM/Stevie filled walls soon :) )

[daniellaaarisen]

(P.S. I really like your new banner, Dani! I've been MIA for the past few days trying to set up my dorm room - I'll post pics of my FM/Stevie filled walls soon :) )

You better post pictures soon!

Thank you-- I get productive at 2AM, but usually towards the wrong things. :)

[AliceLover]

[This is the full interview from the clips we had in the NZ thread. It had enough of the whole band history that I put it here rather than the Stevie forum]

Sunday Star Times

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sunday-star-times/entertainment/2776306/Fleetwood-Mac-rocking-on

Fleetwood Mac Rocking On, August 23, 2009

THE last time Fleetwood Mac played in New Zealand, Rob Muldoon was prime minister and we still had the "carless days" scheme. There was a major strike at Kinleith Paper Mill that year, and the police noted that a staggering amount of pot was smoked, right out in the open, at the first Sweetwaters music festival near Ngaruawahia.

It was 1980. Fleetwood Mac played two sold-out shows here that year, with most of the band nursing raging cocaine habits financed by the success of their biggest album Rumours, released three years earlier. Rumours was inescapable in New Zealand we heard it in shopping malls, takeaway bars, petrol station forecourts, drifting from the open windows of houses and passing cars. Radio stations thrashed it, and your mum quite possibly played it at fondue parties where the after dinner instant coffee arrived in earthy brown Temuka Pottery cups.

And I played it myself, incessantly. When Rumours came out, I was 16 and Stevie Nicks was a powerful object of desire, a Californian hippie witch with ragged hems and come-to-bed eyes. Now Nicks is 61, and Fleetwood Mac are returning to play their first New Zealand gig in 29 years in New Plymouth in December.

"Really, I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it," says Nicks from her home in Santa Monica, her speaking voice as nasal and husky as her singing voice. "I came down there on a solo tour in 2006 and I loved it, and so when Fleetwood Mac were booked to come to Australia, I convinced the rest of the band we should play New Zealand as well."

It is, says Nicks, a tour that will delight their fans. They won't have to suffer any new songs; it'll be singalong nostalgia all the way.

"It's our first ever greatest hits tour. In the past, we've always had a new record to promote, and the fans are, like you're not doing `Say You Love Me' because you wanna play a song we don't know? C'mon! So this time we're gonna pick 23 of the biggest songs Fleetwood Mac ever did and play 'em all over two-and-a-half hours. It's like OK, here's our body of work. Here are the best songs we've made since this line-up came together in 1975. This is our tapestry."

And what a rich tapestry it has been. Even within the notoriously dramatic world of rock'n'roll, Fleetwood Mac's career has stood out for its lack of calm and restraint. The band's history resembles a particularly tumultuous soap opera, or perhaps a soft-rock Spinal Tap, replete with madness and cults, lawsuits and lust, bogus touring bands, clandestine shagging, industrial strength bitchiness, oceans of alcohol, blizzards of cocaine. Numerous members have burnt out, flipped out or been kicked out along the way, leaving drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie the only surviving members from early line-ups.

Ad Feedback FLEETWOOD MAC was a tough British blues band when it formed in London in 1967, then the addition of McVie's wife, singer Christine Perfect, helped broaden their appeal. By the end of the 60s, they were one of Europe's most popular bands, but then things started to go seriously awry. Guitarist Peter Green developed schizophrenia after taking LSD in Munich. Second guitarist Jeremy Spencer went out to buy a paper one day and joined a religious cult instead.

Replacement Danny Kirwan was fired after destroying instruments in an alcohol-fuelled rage, and another replacement guitarist, Bob Weston, was given the boot after having an affair with Fleetwood's wife. Singer Dave Walker was dismissed due to "attitude issues". Eventually, touring became so difficult that the band's manager put together a fake Fleetwood Mac with no original members and toured that instead.

In search of a fresh start, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie relocated to Los Angeles in 1973. After drafting in new members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of California soft-rock duo, Buckingham Nicks, their sound became lighter, dreamier, more melodic. This line-up's second album Rumours won the 1977 Album of the Year Grammy and went on to sell over 40 million copies worldwide, and it's easy to see why. On the surface, Rumours sounds as middle of the road as a white line, but there's a compelling undercurrent of darkness that really evokes its era the drugs, the sexual shenanigans, the emotional carelessness, the hippie dream starting to turn sour.

"Those 12 songs came out of a very dark time, and told the story of their times," agrees Nicks. "That music captured what was going on in everybody's hearts, not just ours. We were telling stories everybody could relate to, so people carried those songs around like their own little mantras."

Immediately before Rumours was made, the Fleetwood Mac soap opera got particularly sudsy. John and Christine McVie split, and the latter started dating the band's lighting director. Adding insult to injury, she wrote "You Make Loving Fun" about her new man, and her ex had to play it, night after night, on the road. Then Nicks left Buckingham and started a secret affair with Fleetwood, who was married to George Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd at the time. Their affair began here in New Zealand, after a November 1977 concert during the Rumours tour. Soon afterwards, Fleetwood left his wife for Nicks' best friend, Sara Recor, and Nicks began a relationship with Don Henley of The Eagles.

A few years later, one of Nicks' friends died of leukaemia and she married the woman's grieving husband, only to divorce him eight months later.

These were particularly crazy times, agrees Nicks, and constant drug use had a lot to do with it.

"You know, it was a seriously drug-filled world in those days. At the time, everyone thought cocaine was just a recreational drug that could not hurt you. Being idiots, we all said, OK, great, get me some. Now, of course, I have a terrible hole in my nose that really affects my singing, so it did hurt me. It hurt all of us. There's always a price to pay for that kind of behaviour. Cocaine is really acidic; if you're a singer it eats your throat, and eventually it eats your brain, too. And of course, nobody was just doing cocaine back then. It was like, I'm too low, so I'll do some coke, then I'm too nervous, so I'll smoke some pot, and then I'm too stoned, so I'll have a big old shot of brandy, and then I'll smoke a cigarette to wake myself back up again. It was a big nasty circle, and my advice is not to try it, because rehab is no fun whatsoever."

Nicks knows this from bitter experience; she's been through rehab twice.

"I did six weeks at the Betty Ford Clinic to get me off cocaine in the mid-80s. I came out feeling great, looking great and singing great, but then a psychiatrist insisted I go on this tranquilliser called Klonopin to make sure I never went back to coke, so I got addicted to that instead. The next eight years of my life went down the drain! The second time in rehab, I spent 47 days in detox. It was worse than the cocaine detox. I thought I was gonna die! A little later I developed chronic fatigue syndrome, which I imagine is from all those years of misuse of my body."

And Nicks wasn't the only band member paying a price for the millionaire rock star lifestyle. Heavily addicted to cocaine and alcohol, Mick Fleetwood found himself living in a friend's damp basement in the mid-80s, watching soap operas all day. Having quite literally squandered millions on cocaine, he filed for bankruptcy in 1987 and entered rehab soon after. That same year, John McVie was treated for an alchohol-induced seizure, and has been sober ever since. Buckingham left the band in 1987, ending the classic Rumours line-up until a reunion in 1997.

The New Zealand show sees this line-up back together minus Christine McVie, who left in 1998.

"All the flying was giving her panic attacks," says Nicks. "Now she's living in a little castle outside London, with a whole lot of dogs and animals, and she spends her time cooking and having a happy life."

NICKS IS honest enough to admit that Fleetwood Mac is primarily a business these days, an enterprise sustained by stubbornness as much as anything.

"As mad as everyone has gotten at each other for a myriad different things, it always came down to one thing: I'm not leaving! It's like I'm not quitting! You quit! Even during times when we hated each other, nothing was worth ending Fleetwood Mac over. You know, when I joined this band, I was so poor, I was working as a waitress and a cleaning lady. Eight months later, I was a millionaire! We made a lot of money together, so whenever things went bad, we'd say is this really worth ending the band over?"

Nicks sounds tough, confident, not at all the floaty hippie chick she often appears to be. She's a survivor, a woman who has come through hard times with little left to prove. Besides Fleetwood Mac, she has had an extremely successful solo career. Her songs have been covered by the Dixie Chicks and Smashing Pumpkins, sampled by Destiny's Child, cited as an inspiration by Courtney Love, MaryJ Blige and the Pet Shop Boys.

And of course, it would be remiss to overlook Nicks' impact, for better or worse, on the world of fashion. She is perhaps the ultimate bogan fashion icon. Westie women, young and old, still sport Nicks' trademark faux-gypsy 70s look to this day, with the jagged hemlines, the silk scarves, the platform boots, the multi-layered satin, leather and lace.

"The older I get, the more I realise that my little idea of what to wear on stage reached out and grabbed a lot of people. Why? Because my style was easy to wear. When I first joined this band, I used to just go on stage in my street clothes, which weren't great, because I was extremely poor at that point. Eventually I went to [LA designer] Margie Kent and drew her little stick figures of what I wanted, and she made me a stage outfit with a little black top, a chiffon skirt that looked kinda raggy, a couple little jackets. Later I got her to make me a poncho out of chiffon with sequins and beads on it, and some long handkerchief skirts, then added the shawls and the top hat and so on.

"People still copy that whole look today, all over the world, and I think that's because what I wear is easy for all body types. Whether a woman is real skinny or 20lbs overweight, my look works. I've toned it down as I've gotten older, but I still wear much the same thing, as you'll see when I get down there."

Fleetwood Mac's "Unleashed" tour plays New Plymouth's TSB Bowl of Brooklands on Saturday, December 19. Tickets on sale from September 9 through Ticketmaster: www.ticketmaster.co.nz or ph 0800111 999.

Its also the most boring tour FM has ever done....

[trackaghost]

Wow, those quotes. They could have been taken from just about any Stevie interview from the last 10 years.



"As mad as everyone has gotten at each other for a myriad different things, it always came down to one thing: I'm not leaving! It's like I'm not quitting! You quit! Even during times when we hated each other, nothing was worth ending Fleetwood Mac over. You know, when I joined this band, I was so poor, I was working as a waitress and a cleaning lady. Eight months later, I was a millionaire! We made a lot of money together, so whenever things went bad, we'd say is this really worth ending the band over?"

She seems to have conveniently forgotten, once again, that she did get mad enough to leave the band in the early 90s.



"When I first joined this band, I used to just go on stage in my street clothes, which weren't great, because I was extremely poor at that point.


I think Stevie's idea of "extremely poor" is a lot different to mine. But I guess it sounds more romantic and "Stevie" to be a rags to riches story, rather than someone with a rich father and a boyfriend living off an inheritance. Also the cleaning lady thing always makes me chuckle since I believe the only cleaning she was paid to do was, mistake me if I'm wrong, Keith Olsen's house where she and Lindsey were staying at the time.

[Black_Moon]

Me too! I love reading interviews or articles with Stevie quotes. It makes me smile too because I can really "hear her" saying those words in her voice, with her funny mannerisms sometimes. Haha, I am lame.


It's fine, I'm exactly the same. And then her cracking up at herself. :lol:

[michelej1]

Wow, those quotes. They could have been taken from just about any Stevie interview from the last 10 years.



Yeah, we didn't get any new information. I noticed that she didn't talk about friction with her bandmate though and that's a good sign. I don't think we'll get all the way to New Zealand without hearing about fights, but at least all's quiet for now.

I think Keith's is the only house she cleaned, but I think she got paid for cleaning it before they moved in with him. I just say this because he talked about her coming over and him opening the door to let her in and seeing her all dressed up in a cleaning woman's outfit, so I think she started cleaning before they all became roomies.

Michele

[mylittledemon]

Me too! I love reading interviews or articles with Stevie quotes. It makes me smile too because I can really "hear her" saying those words in her voice, with her funny mannerisms sometimes. Haha, I am lame.

:lol:

lame? Nah, just a bit creepy. ;)

[golddustdrummer]

Its also the most boring tour FM has ever done....

They've never been this old either.

[AliceLover]

They've never been this old either.

What does that have to do with anything? The last 3 years of Lindseys solo work have been the most exciting time for his fans....probably ever.

[golddustdrummer]

What does that have to do with anything? The last 3 years of Lindseys solo work have been the most exciting time for his fans....probably ever.

I was just joking around...it has nothing to do with anything ;)

I completely agree with you about Lindsey...but I disagree this tour is boring.
I know a few people who would say the Tango tour was way more boring.
My friend fell asleep during the show.

[mylittledemon]

What does that have to do with anything? The last 3 years of Lindseys solo work have been the most exciting time for his fans....probably ever.

I think he was defending them.

[AliceLover]

I was just joking around...it has nothing to do with anything ;)

I completely agree with you about Lindsey...but I disagree this tour is boring.
I know a few people who would say the Tango tour was way more boring.
My friend fell asleep during the show.

Ahhhh! Sorry, I thought you were using their age as an excuse. And as for the tango tour, that was probably the best set list they have ever done: Isn't it Midnight, Seven Wonders, Oh Well, Brown Eyes, Don't Let Me Down Again, HAEWFY, Stand Back, Blue Letter, and Little Lies....Yes Please!

[David]

"All the flying was giving her panic attacks," says Nicks.I think Christine needs the Klonopin now.

Also interesting that zilcho mention was made of the infamous onstage incident at the 1980 New Zealand shows.

[mylittledemon]

Also interesting that zilcho mention was made of the infamous onstage incident at the 1980 New Zealand shows.

I wonder if anyone still remembers it? Here, that is...

[daniellaaarisen]

I wonder if anyone still remembers it? Here, that is...

What WAS the famous New Zealand incident? Do I fail for not knowing this?

[brysondt]

No, you don't fail, if you fail, I fail. I don't think I know about this either, but it sounds like something i definitely NEED to hear about. Anyone?

[fleetwoodtrick]

I've heard SO many versions of the NZ story, I'm not even sure how to condense it, and I don't think that there's ever really been any proof that the incident occured. But I'm sure at least one person here will be able to explain it correctly!

[brysondt]

I've heard SO many versions of the NZ story, I'm not even sure how to condense it, and I don't think that there's ever really been any proof that the incident occured. But I'm sure at least one person here will be able to explain it correctly!

AHHHHHHH! Now I'm more than curious! Anybody! Please tell us! Dani and I will die until someone responds!

[daniellaaarisen]

I heard something about New Zealand and Lindsey kicking Stevie or something like that... but I thought that was more The Dance era? Or am I making **** up?

[Phoenix]

Alright, i'll bite. Supposedly Mr. Buckingham was PURPOSELY mis-playing stevies songs because he was mad/jealous/had bad gass/ i dont know. He's moody. ANYHOW, during ~RHIANNON~ he was on-stage making fun of her "Rhiannon dance" (according to Micks book, and others) he took his jacket, pulled it over his head, and started to imitate her in a mocking way. Supposedly he kicked her. She continued to train on through the song. He continued to play it out of tune and then Allegedly he threw a guitar. The band ended the show, all members were pissed, everyone ran to really give it to him and Christine was the first. She Slapped him, and then told him off for being so unprofessional in front of a paying audience.

[fleetwoodtrick]

I heard something about New Zealand and Lindsey kicking Stevie or something like that... but I thought that was more The Dance era? Or am I making **** up?

I think he was drunk and started imitating her and kicking her during Rhiannon. There may have been some slurred swear words involved in there too. :shrug: I always thought that this happened on like the Tusk tour or something, but I wouldn't know because I wasn't alive.

[Phoenix]

It WAS the Tusk tour. It was March they played Wellington and Auckland. read my previous post for story.

[fleetwoodtrick]

It WAS the Tusk tour. It was March they played Wellington and Auckland.

Oh, I'm sorry for the double post! I must have been writing my post shortly after you posted, because it wasn't there before! :o I'll delete it if it angers anyone!

[brysondt]

OOOHHHHH---yeah, now that you mention it, I have heard this story, although I did not know it was in NZ. I thought it happened while they were....IDK where I thought, but good to know. Didn't Carol Ann also mention something about this in her book? Maybe not. Maybe Mick's book is where I read it.

Poor Stevie. But I guess....poor Lindsey--he must have really had some issues back then, but whatever, I would give him a kidney. I love him.

[Phoenix]

Oh, I'm sorry for the double post! I must have been writing my post shortly after you posted, because it wasn't there before! :o I'll delete it if it angers anyone!

Oh No,No. No need for apologies. :angel: ESPECIALLY from you. I really enjoy your posts. :thumbsup:

[Phoenix]

OOOHHHHH---yeah, now that you mention it, I have heard this story, although I did not know it was in NZ. I thought it happened while they were....IDK where I thought, but good to know. Didn't Carol Ann also mention something about this in her book? Maybe not. Maybe Mick's book is where I read it.

Poor Stevie. But I guess....poor Lindsey--he must have really had some issues back then, but whatever, I would give him a kidney. I love him.

Poor Stevie yes. Poor Lindsey no. I am glad that hes not like that anymore though. OH, and the Kidney thing:lol::thumbsup:

[daniellaaarisen]

oooooooooooooooh yeah, I remember that saga. I just didn't know it was New Zealand. Didn't Christine throw her drink in his face? If so, I love that bitch.

Poor Stevie, though. People may have their individual problems with her performances or anything else under the sun, but you have to admit she's good at keeping it together amid some sort of chaos that only Fleetwood Mac can ensue.

I'm so twisted for loving Lindsey's super dark other side. I love that with age, it seems to be controllable.... yet its still there, alive and kicking underneath it all. I'm a sick human being but I love all things dark and ethereal and he definitely has the dark. Yum.

^^ a bad mentality to have.

[fleetwoodtrick]

Oh No,No. No need for apologies. :angel: ESPECIALLY from you. I really enjoy your posts. :thumbsup:

Awwww, thank you! That's so sweet! :D

[silvasprings]

Alright, i'll bite. Supposedly Mr. Buckingham was PURPOSELY mis-playing stevies songs because he was mad/jealous/had bad gass/ i dont know. He's moody. ANYHOW, during ~RHIANNON~ he was on-stage making fun of her "Rhiannon dance" (according to Micks book, and others) he took his jacket, pulled it over his head, and started to imitate her in a mocking way. Supposedly he kicked her. She continued to train on through the song. He continued to play it out of tune and then Allegedly he threw a guitar. The band ended the show, all members were pissed, everyone ran to really give it to him and Christine was the first. She Slapped him, and then told him off for being so unprofessional in front of a paying audience.

WOW! what a bastard... he totally deserved that slap from Christine, i totally can't imagine her angry...
Perhaps lindsey was being a big baby about the fact that stevie was working on Bella Donna?(i'm only assuming, but he always seems to be very jealous of stevie)

[Black_Moon]

Christine needs an OBE.

[EnchantedKiwi]

Hmm my uncle went to that show, and so did my mums bestfriend. He said they were ****, and that "that song Tusk went on forever" (although he is a rod stewart fan soo im not sure about his musical taste. My mums friend said they were great although she was drunk for most of the show too haha.

I asked tvnz like a year ago if they had a copy of the show. They said they did, but they can't release it to me due to copyright laws or something? :shrug:

[vivfox]

Alright, i'll bite. Supposedly Mr. Buckingham was PURPOSELY mis-playing stevies songs because he was mad/jealous/had bad gass/ i dont know. He's moody. ANYHOW, during ~RHIANNON~ he was on-stage making fun of her "Rhiannon dance" (according to Micks book, and others) he took his jacket, pulled it over his head, and started to imitate her in a mocking way. Supposedly he kicked her. She continued to train on through the song. He continued to play it out of tune and then Allegedly he threw a guitar. The band ended the show, all members were pissed, everyone ran to really give it to him and Christine was the first. She Slapped him, and then told him off for being so unprofessional in front of a paying audience.

You got it right.
When you say "the band ended the show" do you mean after he threw the guitar? Or do you mean when the show was over?
Because it was after the show was over , or just before the encores, that he got slapped in the face by Christine.

[vivfox]

Hmm my uncle went to that show, and so did my mums bestfriend. He said they were ****, and that "that song Tusk went on forever" (although he is a rod stewart fan soo im not sure about his musical taste. My mums friend said they were great although she was drunk for most of the show too haha.

I asked tvnz like a year ago if they had a copy of the show. They said they did, but they can't release it to me due to copyright laws or something? :shrug:

Go to their station and tell them you would like to see it, you don't have to have a copy. Tell them you are doing a school project. Or make up some good story. Tell us how old you are and we Ledgies will come up with a good excuse for you to use!:laugh:

[michelej1]

There were no contemporaneous reports of anything at all happening in New Zealand between the band members. And we have no NZ newspaper stories about anything occurring.

Mick described an incident in his book for the first time, some 10 years after the fact.

After Mick's book came out, Stevie was asked about it and she said in Rolling Stone in 1997:

Lindsey and I had another huge thing that happened onstage in New Zealand. We had some kind of a fight, and he came over, might have kicked me, did something to me, and we stopped the show. He went off, and we all ran at breakneck speed back to the dressing room to see who could kill him first. Christine got to him fist, and then I got to him second. The bodyguards were trying to get in the middle of all of us.

[michelej1]

Also interesting that zilcho mention was made of the infamous onstage incident at the 1980 New Zealand shows.

No. We'll see what happens as the concert gets closer.

I found this mention of the 1980 show in a 1999 article:

From a June 26, 1999 article about Athletic Park in the New Zealand Herald:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=8969

Athletic Park has been used for everything from woodchopping and boxing, soccer and minor cricket games, to rock concerts. One of the most famous was by Fleetwood Mac in 1980.

Five minutes before the concert started, a top policeman stumbled across the band indulging in substances which are mentioned in the Crimes Act and wanted to arrest the Macs. Lower-ranked officers persuaded him not to, fearing the crowd would go out of control.

[David]

I found this mention of the 1980 show in a 1999 article:

From a June 26, 1999 article about Athletic Park in the New Zealand Herald:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=8969

Athletic Park has been used for everything from woodchopping and boxing, soccer and minor cricket games, to rock concerts. One of the most famous was by Fleetwood Mac in 1980.

Five minutes before the concert started, a top policeman stumbled across the band indulging in substances which are mentioned in the Crimes Act and wanted to arrest the Macs. Lower-ranked officers persuaded him not to, fearing the crowd would go out of control.Ah, interesting.

A great deal of mystery & hearsay surround this incident (not the least of which is how so many Mac fans say they have Mick's 1990 book but appear not to have read it, & yet still don't hesitate to ascribe LB's alleged behavior to all sorts of sinister motives -- the book clearly states that LB was drunk).

One big mystery is why no one seems to have copied or even heard the radio broadcast of the concert. Mick writes that the show was simulcast, & that audience & press had no idea anything was 'wrong.'

I think something happened -- otherwise Lindsey & the other members would have said "What are you talking about?" when asked about it in recent years -- but I just don't know what. But Mick's book appears to be the very first public mention of it, ten years on.

[David]

I asked tvnz like a year ago if they had a copy of the show. They said they did, but they can't release it to me due to copyright laws or something? :shrug:"My Life & Adventures" says that the show was simulcast on the radio. Don't any New Zealanders have a tape of it?

[gldstwmn]

I think Christine needs the Klonopin now.

Also interesting that zilcho mention was made of the infamous onstage incident at the 1980 New Zealand shows.

I know, right. There was the big windup with them talking about the last time FM was there and then nothing. What a missed opportunity for the writer, who probably wasn't even born the last time FM was in town. Oh well. :shrug:

[gldstwmn]

What WAS the famous New Zealand incident? Do I fail for not knowing this?

Epic. Just kidding. :lol:

[gldstwmn]

I've heard SO many versions of the NZ story, I'm not even sure how to condense it, and I don't think that there's ever really been any proof that the incident occured. But I'm sure at least one person here will be able to explain it correctly!

Well Mick says it happened. :shrug:

[gldstwmn]

Alright, i'll bite. Supposedly Mr. Buckingham was PURPOSELY mis-playing stevies songs because he was mad/jealous/had bad gass/ i dont know. He's moody. ANYHOW, during ~RHIANNON~ he was on-stage making fun of her "Rhiannon dance" (according to Micks book, and others) he took his jacket, pulled it over his head, and started to imitate her in a mocking way. Supposedly he kicked her. She continued to train on through the song. He continued to play it out of tune and then Allegedly he threw a guitar. The band ended the show, all members were pissed, everyone ran to really give it to him and Christine was the first. She Slapped him, and then told him off for being so unprofessional in front of a paying audience.

She chucked her wine over him for good measure too. :laugh:

[fleetwoodtrick]

Well Mick says it happened. :shrug:

I didn't know that when I posted, because I'm still waiting for Storms and both of Mick's books to be returned the library so that I can read them! :mad:

[gldstwmn]

I didn't know that when I posted, because I'm still waiting for Storms and both of Mick's books to be returned the library so that I can read them! :mad:

I'm sure you'll enjoy them very much. They're great reads.

[jbrownsjr]

I believe she said if he ever does that to the band again she'll kill him....and threw a drink at him....

[michelej1]

I think something happened -- otherwise Lindsey & the other members would have said "What are you talking about?" when asked about it in recent years -- but I just don't know what. But Mick's book appears to be the very first public mention of it, ten years on.

Yes, something happened, but Stevie didn't know what exactly it was in 1997 (although in the last 5 years she has added a guitar throwing incident to her recollection). Based on what Christine said of it in Rolling Stone, I got the impression that it was more like putting his jacket over his head and mocking Rhiannon, more than anything else, since she focused on the mockery and unprofessional part and not any sort of violence.

Her comment was: "I think he's the only person I ever, ever slapped. I actually might have chucked a glass of wine, too. I just didn't think it was the way to treat a paying audience. I mean, aside from making a mockery of Stevie like that. Really unprofessional, over the top. Yes, she (Stevie) cried. She cried a lot."

[David]

Yes, something happened, but Stevie didn't know what exactly it was in 1997 (although in the last 5 years she has added a guitar throwing incident to her recollection). Based on what Christine said of it in Rolling Stone, I got the impression that it was more like putting his jacket over his head and mocking Rhiannon, more than anything else, since she focused on the mockery and unprofessional part and not any sort of violence.Mick, too, focused almost exclusively on the mockery aspect (& the drinking that spurred it) when he talked about it to both Graham Nash (on A&E TV) & on the late-night Bob Costas show (both circa 1990). Does anyone have transcripts or YouTube handy? I may have those shows around somewhere on VHS.

Fans, of course, have turned what was initially described as a bender into a grand passion play or revenge fantasy out of medieval literature. But I've also noticed that they have rarely, if ever, actually cited Mick's words in the 1990 book. When Stevie said that she wasn't going to read the book -- "Why should I read it?" -- her fans took her lead. Not reading the book hasn't stopped any of them from proffering "analyses" & "interpretations."

[mylittledemon]

I'm sure at the time there was plenty of drugs and alcohol involved in fueling that moment between Stevie and Lindsey. And let's be honest... the JET LAG after arriving in New Zealand is awful. Lindsey was just tired. ;)

I sure wish we had footage of it. 30 years later I can't help but think it would be funny. :laugh:

[fleetwoodtrick]

I'm sure you'll enjoy them very much. They're great reads.

I really really hope that they're going to be worth the wait! :nod:

[Nikolaj]

She chucked her wine over him for good measure too. :laugh:


I'm so happy to read new comments by gldstwmn, and may I say welcome back! I've enjoyed her (your) writing for a long time, and was wondering just last night why 'golddustwoman without the vowels' wasn't around on The Ledge much anymore. Glad you're back!
Michelle, David, MacMan, gldstwmn and some others here (Luke) are wonderful writers I've never met or had a chat with outside of The Ledge, which makes me appreciate their contributions even more, somehow, than if I had.
Without new music, for me, The Ledge is the most enjoyable thing about being a Fleetwood Mac fan.
Thank You to this handful named, and to others, who keep things more interesting than they really are, usually :)

**end of gush :)

[gldstwmn]

I'm so happy to read new comments by gldstwmn, and may I say welcome back! I've enjoyed her (your) writing for a long time, and was wondering just last night why 'golddustwoman without the vowels' wasn't around on The Ledge much anymore. Glad you're back!
Michelle, David, MacMan, gldstwmn and some others here (Luke) are wonderful writers I've never met or had a chat with outside of The Ledge, which makes me appreciate their contributions even more, somehow, than if I had.
Without new music, for me, The Ledge is the most enjoyable thing about being a Fleetwood Mac fan.
Thank You to this handful named, and to others, who keep things more interesting than they really are, usually :)

**end of gush :)

Thank you. I have been working away and haven't had much time to play on The Ledge. Also I broke my finger a couple of months ago and it was hard to type there for a bit. I do miss this place when I'm not around.

[gldstwmn]

I'm sure at the time there was plenty of drugs and alcohol involved in fueling that moment between Stevie and Lindsey. And let's be honest... the JET LAG after arriving in New Zealand is awful. Lindsey was just tired. ;)

I sure wish we had footage of it. 30 years later I can't help but think it would be funny. :laugh:

When I first read it in Mick's book, his description of it was laugh out loud funny. I felt a little guilty laughing as hard as I did. But when he said Lindsey pulled his suit jacket over his head and said it was cow like I just burst. I read that part over a few times and even when I read it now it still cracks me up.