Other than SAY YOU WILL and GOODBYE BABY which hardly anyone stays around and hears, why doesn't Nicks perform more cuts from the album in concert to help save it? Was RUNNING THROUGH THE GARDEN and DESTINY RULES received that badly at first performance??? The songs she sings at this concert are almost a carbon copy of what she sang during THE DANCE concert. .....I don't like to waste big money on the exact same stuff I've heard before. Then I might as well check out the plethora of oldies bands.........................

I'd like to hear more from Nicks, and not all her old stuff before 1990!!!

Wow, #110 to # 116 in the midst of a very successful tour... The cd could rally, but its going to be tough. Record company politics and greed is hurting Fleetwood Mac's sales. The whole concept of a hit single changed a lot ever since record companies became resistant to releasing singles to stores because they make more money by selling copies of the full-length cd, so without massive airplay, these singles dont chart well on the Hot 100 because there are no actual sales of the song. Yet, if the $3 or $4 cd singles were released to stores more frequently, and one took off, it could still turn a nice profit, and even inspire the cd single buyers to purchase the full-length cd.
A reliable friend in the biz told me that it is very unusual for ANY music video to be filmed costing less than a million dollars, which is crazy. So in a way, I understand the lack of a recent Mac video, it just would lose money for the band since production costs are deducted from their earnings of the cd sales. But I think any USC or NYU film student (pick any good school) could direct an excellent music video (we're talking about 4 minutes or so of film) on a shoe-string budget and have it be very high-quality and get their foot in the door to the industry by directing a classic band, but it doesnt work that way...yet.
Also, by the record company ONLY choosing songs to go to adult contemporary radio stations thus far, they're missing the point that in their 50s or not, Fleetwood Mac is NOT an easy listening band! My choice for a 3rd single remains 'Everybody Finds Out' and the remix possibilities are obvious. 'Thrown Down' and 'Miranda' could also do well. But when the first 2 'singles'-- that weren't released to stores- more or less perform unexceptionally, its hard to rebound.
Not to be critical, but Fleetwood Mac themselves should actively be performing more varied new material on the tour to revive the cd -they could try putting back in 'Destiny Rules' and 'Running Through The Garden'-- try 'Thrown Down' or 'Miranda' one night- they could surprise themselves- and the audience would love it. I doubt they'll ever put 'Everybody Finds Out' into the set, but for months there have been more than just a few fans saying this is THE song that could turn things around in terms of Mac having a big hit song.
Since 'Whats The World Coming To' has regularly been performed at the shows, it wouldnt surprise me to see it as the next single- i just think Stevie's 'nah nah nah nah' ending needs to start off the song, come back in at the middle, and then also finish the song off, for it to be hook-ier and click at radio. The cd version- if released- or perhaps even if it's remixed- i think will wind up being another 'Peackeeper' and 'Say You Will'-- AC play only, maybe # 9 or #8 and then fade... Shake it up! Put out a more rocking song next that radio will just have to play, and have a cd single in stores with an out-take unreleased song or 2 on it, and it will sell, and also help the song chart higher since the chart position will have sales AND airplay factoring in its ranking.

1. There SHOULD have been concept videos for the songs, we already had the live videos with 'The Dance'...

2. Get the 3rd single out and make a kick ass video.

3. None of that is going to happen because they are all on tour making a heck of a lot more money from the tour than the album...


so dammit...

Look, Warners is doing nothing wrong given today's marketplace. They're actually doing a damn good job selling as many copies of this record as they have.

For some reason- and I don't know why it is at all- people don't like to buy "new" music of older bands. They just don't, ever. For some reason the idea that a band can be more creative and better than ever in their "golden years" is a concept foreign to people. Nothing will ever top "Rumours" because "Rumours" is what they listened to when they were making out in the backseat of their car... ahh, memories. That's how it is.

And to try to convince people otherwise, to make them understand that this new music is good, and vital, and should be listened to, is an uphill battle. Period.

The biggest "older" musical stars in the world- bands like The Who, CSNY, Cher, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen... all of them have incredibly successful tours and duds of albums. It sucks, but it's the way it is. Fleetwood Mac is doing successfully. And it's NOT that strange that they're in the middle of a "successful" (quotations used because it's really not that successful of a tour) tour and the album's where it is on the charts is relatively normal. Let's just say they play four 15,000 venues in one week of a tour. 60,000 fans. They sell around 10,000 records that week. We could say that 1/6 of those fans at the show bought the record before or after. That's actually a perfectly respectable attachment rate.

As for Warners, saying "by the record company ONLY choosing songs to go to adult contemporary radio stations thus far" is inaccurate. The singles have been serviced not only to AC, but to AAA (adult alternative) and Top 40. AC's just the only one who will play it.

Yawn. Music industry rants are boring. Sorry.

The tour is quite successful. The just completed first leg was at 93% capacity. The Dance actually did a little better, but that tour was only 40 dates or so and almost all major markets. This tour has been a bright spot of a middle of the road summer. Average gate has been 900,000 per show. With Buckingham and Nicks getting a negotiated base 100,000 per show, and Fleetwood and McVie around 50,000 per show and fixed costs an additional 300,000 per show that is a hefty profit!! The 2nd leg is only about 70% sold at the moment, especially in the markets they are visiting for a 2nd time so you are probably looking at an average gate of 700-750,000 per night. Still going to be very profitable. European shows have sold incredibly well.

As for the album. It has sold more than 750,000 copies. It will sell 1,000,000 with the holidays coming and club and online sales to be added in. The AAA format has been very kind to the songs on Say You Will as has AC. Adult Top 40 not awesome play, but solid. Videos would make no difference. I know you all want to see one, but they are not played on VH1 except for early am and late night. Very little bang for the buck. VH1 has moved away from video programming. The digital cable and satellite sister networks' viewerships are so small any exposure would be negligible. MTV, forget it......AAA will go on another single and look for some AAA stations to start playing a few album tracks as well.

But I think of the fact that VH1 recently had a commercial blitz promoting the brand new Sting video, "from his new album," and I think of the countless times they've done the same with other artists (including Stevie's "Every Day" video, for 'TISL'), and it seems like a major missed-opportunity to me.

When 'Say You Will' was released, VH1 had nothing new to promote it with. Sure, they re-ran 'The Dance' and the 'Behind The Music' specials for the 4 millionth time, but that was it.

The "Peacekeeper" video wasn't released until about three weeks after the album, and the 'All Access' special didn't air until about a month after the tour had started.

If VH1 had some kind of new program or video to air, leading up to the release date of the album, I do believe it would have raised awareness for 'Say You Will,' and would have most likely resulted in more sales.

Certainly it has sold extremely well, all things considered... but there seem to have been several "missed opportunities" involved with the marketing of this album.
I believe that's a reasonable criticism.

Well, here's the situation...
Fleetwood Mac has several hugely famous songs. Now, outside of "I'm So Afraid" (arguably), "Go Your Own Way," "Tusk," and "Big Love," the majority of their most well-known songs belong to Christine, followed by Stevie.

You remove Christine from the equation, and the majority belongs to Stevie.

Most people probably wouldn't recognize "Monday Morning," or "Eyes Of The World," or any of the stuff off of 'Say You Will' (with the exception of "Peacekeeper" and the title-track)... so it's somewhat left up to Stevie to provide the more familiar material, in the form of "Rhiannon," "Landslide," "Dreams," "Gold Dust Woman," "Silver Springs," and "Gypsy."

So with those songs, there really isn't room for Stevie to do as many of her new songs as there is for Lindsey to do his.
Sure it seems that they could easily add a couple more, but the band does get tired eventually, and they're already up there for over two and a half hours as it is.

Don't get me wrong... as a fan, I really wish they were doing more of Stevie's new songs, but I completely understand why the setlist is what it is.
We may bore with some of these songs being played on every tour, but we're not the only ones buying tickets to the shows... so the band tries to please everyone.

If they toured more often, we'd probably get more varied setlists... so here's hoping that the momentum from the current album and tour, will carry them quickly into another album and tour. :)

Johnny-Not trying to be argumentative, but you really are wrong on the video thing. It just is not a big help in 2003 for bands like Fleetwood Mac.

I don't think videos help at all. First of all, they are RARELY played. The videos for Stevie's TISL songs didn't help her sales, IMO. They didn't even begin airing the videos until after the album was released and the album was released on VH1.com as a stream promotion. After the first first week, sales sank like a stone. Sorcerer didn't come out until what, August? It was a waste of money. Why do you guys think that Fleetwood Mac only did a live video for Peacekeeper and weren't interested in really doing a video? Because it's money out of their pockets for something that they KNOW won't help them in sales in the long run. If videos were such an influence, don't y'all think they would've wised up and made one? After all, this band is all about the money.

While I would love a concept video, I think FM and WB are learning from Stevie's two TISL videos. Everyday and Sorcerer went pretty much nowhere as singles and they probably spent $250,000 or more on those two videos (which I liked). Interestingly, ther video of Everyday got pretty good airplay, but the single for it and Sorcerer failed to chart in any significant manner as did the actual record as I do not think TISL has sold over 1,000,000 records yet (although I readily admit I could be wrong about the sales). Moreover, I seem to remember that TISL got far better reviews overall than SYW as did the reviews for the singles, esp. POTU (dance and rock versions) and Sorcerer.

In sum, I think they are smart for focusing on what they knows works and pays very well - touring. Also, I think the venues on the first leg leg of this tour were far larger than a bunch of The Dance venues if I remember correctly. For example, in Atlanta, they played to a sold out crowd at Lakewood (maybe 5,000) and played to around 9,000 on this tour for a higher ticket price. Note: these numbers are an estimate of the actual numbers, but are probably fairly accurate. :cool:

TISL has sold about 800,000 copies since it came out.

They played Phillips arena with a set up for about 16,000 and drew about 15,000. Going back to the market to Gwinnett Co.

In regards to the comment that "Every Day" and "Sorcerer" went "nowhere" as singles... that's true, and it's not true.

Singles by "older" acts aren't really released with the intention of them being huge hits (though that's always a hope)... they're really just released to increase awareness for the album.

Which is why the singles aren't commercially available... they want you to buy the album instead.

So even though neither song went to the top of the charts, they both helped increase awareness of the album (and "Planets Of The Universe" was actually a huge dance hit, and did very well on the maxi-singles chart... which also helped a lot). :)

One other quick point... I thought "Every Day" was released as a video the same week the album came out?
I'm pretty sure the premiere airing of the video is at the beginning of the same tape that I recorded Stevie's appearance on 'The Rosie O'Donnell Show.'

I could be mistaken though.

Yes, but the success of Planets isn't necessarily because of Stevie. Of course, the die-hard fans like us flocked to buy the maxi single, but Tracy Young is one of the hottest remixers out there. She pretty much the reason it did so well, not because it was a Stevie Nicks dance remix. :)

I know. I see the financial strategy of the current single sales mindset, or lack thereof, for older groups. Yet, POTU was a big dance single hit and is still played in heavy rotation in clubs and elsewhere to this day. So, there may be marketing life in singles - who knows. I just wish FM would have done a concept video so I could add it to my collection. But, considering no "storyboard" or concept video with a sotryline for FM has been done since TITN (1987ish) and videos are expensive, I am not holding my breath :laugh: At least we got live performaces of SYW and Peacekeeper rather than the rehashed footage of the 1982 and earlier as they have done in the past. :laugh:

Tracey was not the only remixer on that single. Victor Calderone (also very popular) was as well. But even considering that, I think Stevie's name still added significant weight. Moreover, I cannot believe that as formulaic as they are about sticking to success, they did not make a dance remix of at least three songs (EFO, SYW, and Peacekeeper come to mind!). I mean they have dance remixes, albeit some unoffcial, for other FM records. I have heard Big Love and have bought the Seven Wonders one.

Let's face it, I just want more FM than they are willing to give :cool: :laugh: