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Here's an audio clip of a bunch of Los Angeles TV news bites of Fleetwood's five nights at the Forum. They ran on KTLA & KTTV, the local TV stations. http://www.sendspace.com/file/1vyfbz |
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Gail |
the 27th show of the Tusk Tour
December 9,1979 San Diego, California Venue: Sports Arena One night in San Diego in between the first 3 and the last 2 shows in LA. Stevie singing Sara live somewhere on the Tusk Tour http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...e/nhfjgfkj.jpg Stevie in the Village Recorder studios sometime in early 1979 http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...hgdgdddhgj.jpg from BILLBOARD MAGAZINE December 9,1979 San Diego, California Venue: Sports Arena Headliners: Fleetwood Mac Opening Act: Danny Douma Produced By: Larry Vallon Presents Ticket Prices: $11.50-$12.50 Tickets Sold: 11,748 (sellout) Gross Receipts: $143,278.00 |
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the 28th show on the Tusk Tour
December 10,1979 Los Angeles, California Venue: The Forum this was the 4th of 5 nights in LA http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...e/fjfmnvmj.jpg http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...vie/fjfhkf.jpg http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8.../gstewteyd.jpg 121 people have viewed this thread in the past 24 hours!:) |
the 29th show on the Tusk Tour
December 11,1979 Los Angeles, California Venue: The Forum this was the last of a 5 night stand in LA http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...WOOD_MAC_6.jpg http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...WOOD_MAC_6.jpg http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...WOOD_MAC_6.jpg After this show Stevie took Jim Ladd back to her home and gave one of the best interviews ever. Get a copy of this if you can. It's called INNERVIEW. Even though it was a great interview, looking back I'm suprised it was all about Stevie and not about the rest of Fleetwood Mac. However this allowed Stevie, amongst other subjects as well, plenty of time to discuss the meanings of her songs on the Tusk Album. from BILLBOARD MAGAZINE Headliners: Fleetwood Mac Opening Act: Danny Douma December 10 & 11,1979 LA, Calif. Produced by: Avalon Attractions Ticket Prices: $10.35--$14.35 Tickets Sold: 26,658 Gross Receipts: $356,108.00 59 people have viewed this thread in the past 24 hours! |
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I believe the San Francisco Cow Palace shows are coming up in the next couple days if memory serves me right. I know I heard a hilarious story where the band put a bunch of chickens in John Courage's room and then they shoved them all into and elevator afterwards and sent them to first sloor. I cant imagine the looks on the faces of whoever tried to get on that elevator when it opened on First floor!:lol::lol:
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Stevie onstage at The Forum in December, 1979
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the 30th show on the Tusk Tour
December 14,1979 San Francisco, California Venue: The Cow Palace this is the 1st of 3 SF shows http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d.../chrisbird.jpg http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...anel/5d_12.jpg 92 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
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It's curious to note that none of Christine's new Tusk songs are included in the initial tour set. At what point did they start performing Over and Over and Think About Me? (Even more surprising is that Brown Eyes turned up in the Mirage tour set. ) Never Forget could have been a nice song done live. |
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edit: Yes, David's right, Over and Over was done the first few shows also. |
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But Over & Over is a weird case because it looks as if it was in for a short time, then out for a long time (Oh Daddy added) & then back in again toward the end, when the band played its finest shows ever in August. Think About Me came in for that month, too, & Oh Daddy was dropped. For some weird reason, That's Enough for Me was given to the Europeans & not to the Americans -- & the Europeans didn't even deserve it that year, having pretty much ignored Tusk & Fleetwood Mac. Are there any other Tusk songs played on tour I don't know about? The Ledge? That's All for Everyone? Brown Eyes? I don't mean rehearsals but actual shows. |
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Michele |
When was "Think About Me" released as a single? That's surprising, that it wasn't added into the setlist until late in the tour. I've always considered it to more mainstream than Christine's other songs on the album and it's catchy, probably why they released it as a single, but I never really noticed it wasn't in many setlists. Maybe it was added when it started getting more radio play?
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Edmunton Butler Lancaster Palmdale Crescent City & Prescott |
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the 31st show on the Tusk Tour
December 15,1979 San Francisco, California Venue: The Cow Palace 2nd of three shows in SF http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...etstevie5b.jpg I wish I had more pictures of the rest of Fleetwood Mac http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...evie/sn560.jpg 164 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
the 32nd show on the Tusk Tour
December 16,1979 San Francisco, California Venue: The Cow Palace the last of 3 nights in SF http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...3eeb30e4wl.jpg http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h8...Stevie/350.jpg from BILLBOARD MAGAZINE Headliners: Fleetwood Mac Opening Act: Danny Douma Produced By: Colonel Sanders Dec. 14-16,1979 Cow Palace San Francisco Ticket Prices: $9.00-$12.50 Tickets Sold: 33,858 3 Sellouts Gross Receipts: $384,779.00 119 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
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Michele |
December 16,1979 the third show at The Cow Palace in San Francisco. This is the last show on the first leg of the Tusk Tour. The band then takes a much needed rest for the Christmas holidays and more rest in January 1980. In February they head for the Orient.
One of my favorite ever magazine quotes came out of this time period. They showed a picture of Stevie on stage in Creem Magazine and the caption below the photo read, "light brown hair streaked with green doesn't qualify as blond." They were just trying to be funny. In those days Creem ranked on all the famous rock stars with humorous quotes. The single "Sara" was released in December, 1979 93 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
Los Angeles Times (10/14/79), 'Tusk' Shows Fleetwood Mac's Artistry is More than a 'Rumour'
Los Angeles Times Sunday, October 14, 1979 ‘Tusk’ Shows Fleetwood Mac’s Artistry is More than a ‘Rumour’ by Robert Hilburn A rock superstar once scolded me for comparing the quality and sales potential of his new album to the work of another recordmaker. “We are artists, not race horses,” he puffed. But if I don’t compare Fleetwood Mac’s just released “Tusk” to the Eagles’ “The Long Run,” I’ll probably be the only person in America who listens to both albums and doesn’t pass judgment. The albums--both of which were at least two years in the making and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in studio time--are probably the most awaited LPs of 1979. “The Long Run” (discussed at length Sept. 30 in Calendar) has the early commercial edge because the Eagles’ new “Heartache Tonight” single is showing more initial strength than Fleetwood Mac’s title track, which has been released as a single. The Eagles also have an edge in that “The Long Run” is a single album, while “Tusk” is a two-record set with a whopping $15.98 list price--$3 more than “Saturday Night Fever.” Still, it is word of mouth that will determine which album sells the most, and that’s where Fleetwood Mac should have an advantage. The more substantial work, clearly, is “Tusk.” Show me a double album that wouldn’t have been more satisfying as a single LP and I’ll show you a rarity in pop music. “Tusk” isn’t that rarity, but it comes close. All things considered, the follow-up to “Rumours” is quite an achievement. Mention 1977 to record retailers and they’ll smile in much the same way wine connoisseurs bubble over product of a vintage year. After all, 1977 was the year the Eagles’ “Hotel California,” Paul McCartney’s “Wings Over America,” Barbra Streisand’s “A Star Is Born,” Barry Manilow’s “Live” and Linda Rondstadt’s “Simple Dreams” all went to No. 1. More importantly, it was the year Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” went to No. 1. On its way to 12 million sales, “Rumours” spent 31 weeks at the top of the national charts, more than all five other albums combined. You have to go back 17 years to “West Side Story” to find an LP that spent more weeks at No. 1 -- and the album market wasn’t nearly as competitive then. Before the Beatles arrive in 1964, rock fans concentrated on singles, not albums. “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease” eventually outsold “Rumours,” but not even those sound tracks dominated the charts the way Fleetwood Mac did in 1977. The temptation in following up an album as successful as “Rumours” is to duplicate the sound. Record makers always speak of artistic growth and of not being intimidated by success, but the music normally betrays their words. Fleetwood Mac hasn’t abandoned the smooth, seductive sound of “Rumours,” but neither has the group been a slave to it. In most cases, the familiar elements have been strengthened and the new ingredients--mostly supplied by Lindsey Buckingham--have given the band a harder, more intriguing feel. Before discussing “Tusk” further, it’s important to put “Rumours” into perspective. It was a pleasant, but far from great work. The best thing about it was that everyone seemed to like it. The album mixed folk, rock and blues fibers in a way that was hugely accessible. Still, it seemed like a nutritionist’s nightmare at times: 16 zillion calories and very little substance. The songs frequently dealt with romantic disappointment, but the presentation was so polished that even the heartbreak numbers came across as sweet. In that year, Randy Newman’s “Short People,” the Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind the Bollocks” and Elvis Costello’s “My Aim Is True” were far more provocative and--in the last two cases--more influential collections. “Tusk” isn’t as relentlessly pleasant as “Rumours.” That’s good. The album’s refusal to court everyone’s favor gives it a sturdier, more distinguished tone. It’s too simplistic to say Fleetwood Mac didn’t take chances in “Rumours.” But the risks are more noticeable this time. The first time I heard the “Tusk” single on the car radio, I instinctively reached for the fine tuner. I mistook the single’s strident, eccentric rhythm pattern for static noise. But the biggest surprise wasn’t when I found out that the radio was tuned properly. The surprise was when the disc jockey announced that “Tusk” was by Fleetwood Mac and not some experimental new wave rock band. While nothing else on the album is as extreme rhythmically, most of Buckingham’s compositions do mix soft and harsh textures in a way that push and pull the listener like a washing machine agitator. “Tusk” is a mature step for Fleetwood Mac; an album that not only tested the group’s artistic fiber, but now tests the huge Fleetwood Mac audience’s ability to respond to more challenging music. The adventurousness of “Tusk” should please early Fleetwood Mac fans who became disenchanted with the softer tones associated with albums like “Fleetwood Mac” and “Rumours.” The band, now based in Los Angeles, started off as a blues group in London 12 years ago. It was named after drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. After recording an album in 1969 with Chicago blues figures like Otis Spann and Willie Dixon, the group moved toward a more mainstream rock style. Christine McVie joined Fleetwood Mac in 1971. She had been voted England’s top female singer in 1969 and 1970 in the prestigious Melody Maker reader’s poll. “Future Games”--her first full album with the band--was a step toward the mellower, folk-rock style that eventually brought the group such popularity. McVie’s “Morning Rain” was in the disarming romantic style of such later hits as “Say You Love Me” and “Over My Head.” The problem was that the non-McVie songs on that and subsequent LPs lacked the consistency and accessibility of her compositions. That changed when singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks joined the group in 1975. The pair had previously been in a San Francisco rock group (Fritz) and had recorded a duo LP for Polydor. The combination clicked. The singing and songwriting of Buckingham and Nicks complemented McVie nicely. The quintet’s first album together, “Fleetwood Mac,” went into the Top 10 in 1975, setting the stage for “Rumours.” The new Fleetwood lineup worked even better live. While retaining the charm of the records, the music in concert was more dynamic. Buckingham’s guitar work and Fleetwood’s drumming were especially forceful. “Tusk” moves toward that rawer sound. The added intensity, however, doesn’t make the album’s key songs any less inviting. McVie’s tunes are simple, but convincing statements of romance. It’s her singing that gives them such an engaging quality. McVie’s selections -- especially “Over and Over”, “Never Make Me Cry” and “Never Forget” -- also benefit this time from more tailored arrangements. More than in “Rumours,” you feel the disappointment and optimism in her songs. The result is some of the most evocative tracks by a female artist since Emmylou Harris’ early albums. Buckingham is also a straight forward songwriter. he places more emphasis on song texture in “Tusk” than on lyrics. but, like McVie, the arrangements accent the message more fully than in the past. The jarring rhythms on “Tusk” and other tunes underscore the uncertainties of romance. He also varies the rhythms stylishly to make you feel the sarcasm of “What Makes You Think You’re The One?” and the desire of “Save Me A Place.” Nicks is amore ambitious songwriter than McVie or Buckingham. Her best tunes are more complex lyrically and more distinctive melodically. In “Sara,” she speaks of romantic upheaval with the sensitivity of the Eagles’ best love songs: Wait a minute baby Stay with me awhile Said you’d give me light But you never told me about the fire. “Storms,” however, is an even more affecting look at romantic discomfort: So I try to say Goodbye my friend I’d like to leave you with something warm But never have I been a calm blue sea I have always been a storm. One of the weaknesses of “Tusk” is that Nicks’ contributions don’t keep pace with those two songs. The other three tunes suffer from various ailments. Nicks’ whiney vocals; too much of the coy, near-narcissism of her “Rumours” and “Fleetwood Mac” songs and an ultimate overdose of melodrama. But there’s another problem with “Tusk.” One of Fleetwood Mac’s strengths -- having three independent writers--is also one of its handicaps. Most important rock bands rely on the vision supplied by a single songwriter (the Band’s Robbie Robertson, the Who’s Peter Townshend) or a duo of songwriters (the Rolling Stones’ Jagger-Richard, the Eagles’ Henley-Frey). Without that single vision, a band’s focus often becomes blurred. Indeed, “Tusk” often seems too much like a random collection of tunes. Despite the individual high points, the LP never transcends the songs to forge the dramatic or unified focus of an album like the Eagles’ “Hotel California” or Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train Coming.” Yet it is undeniably a step forward for Fleetwood Mac. The band has shown there is more to life than mellowness. The fact the group took that step despite such massive acceptance for its old style elevates it from a band that everyone likes, to a band that everyone can admire. http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=892&c=18 119 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
Defending TUSK
Los Angeles Times Sunday, November 4, 1979 Popline: FM Puzzles Over ‘Tusk’ by Patrick Goldstein “It sounds weird to me,” one radio programmer said. Another griped, “It’s just not what’s being played on the radio.” And one station chief confessed, “I don’t have any idea what the album is all about. There simply ain’t no rock here--it all sounds the same.” You’d think these FM radio tastemakers were complaining about a bombastic new Clash album. But they’re talking about “Tusk,” Fleetwood Mac’s new double album that’s already headed for the pole position on the pop charts (this week’s Record World has it No. 3 with a bullet). Culled from the FM Friday Morning Quarterback, an influential radio tip sheet, the above quotes point out the essentially conservative programming philosophy of today’s FM radio. Despite Fleetwood Mac’s astounding sales record, many radio execs appear perplexed by “Tusk’s” adventurous, thought often eccentric musical textures. Brian St. James, music director at WRKI in Bridgeport, Conn., captured the mood of many programmers: “The material on ‘Tusk’ is obviously not in the direction that most album stations are going.” Other radio chiefs were more blunt. WLUP/Chicago music director Sky Daniels snapped, “What can you buy with a million dollars? You could take all your friends to Hawaii. Or you could make ‘Tusk.’” Red Beard of WZXR in Memphis added, “Why do we tolerate mediocrity based on prior commercial success?” Despite the potshots, all these stations are bombarding their listeners with the entire album. Most local FM radio people are more open about “Tusk.” “It’s a good radio album,” said KRTH’s Bob Hamilton. “It just sounds different. We had a negative reaction on our call-outs at first, but I think the listeners are growing more accustomed to it now.” Other L.A. programmers gave the record mixed reviews. “To be honest, I’m less than enthusiastic,” admitted KMET’s Sam Bellamy. “But I don’t always love what we play on the air. We’re still looking for more listener reaction and local sales feedback.” Preparing to embark on a lengthy U.S. tour, Fleetwood Mac members stoutly defended their latest work. While admitting that many radio people viewed the “Tusk” single as “an assault on their intelligence,” Lindsey Buckingham added, “I think it’s great. It’s funny, it’s tribal, it’s got a lot of soul to it.” Offering a more pragmatic defense, Mick Fleetwood said, “I can see why it’s hard to play the ‘Tusk’ single in the middle of a radio set.” As for “Tusk’s” steep price tag ($15.98 list), he countered, “That’s what records cost these days. No one’s forced to buy it. To me albums are like shoes--I buy good ones because I like them and because maybe they’ll last a little longer.” http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=891&c=18 69 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
109 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! And a couple of animals too.
Below is a morphed photo. The child of Mick and Stevie. http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...n/motph016.jpg |
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Now that is truly scary!!!!! :p MERRY CHRISTMAS MARK! |
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Ooh, that poodle hair... http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...on/St-TO41.jpg http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...viebkl7bd0.jpg |
New Music Express (12/01/1979), Fleetwood Mac in New York
NME, December 1, 1979 Fleetwood Mac in New York by Richard Grabel You enter the stream of bodies pouring through the portholes of Madison Square Garden. You get caught up in the tide. Into the awesome space - the impersonality of the place is scary. Why am I here? Their blockbuster records each contain a few songs I admire for the ingenuity of their construction. Fleetwood Mac are a phenomenon as much as they are a group; perhaps more an economic phenomenon than a musical one though. So I wanted to know: how do these hit-makers face up to the crucial point when performer meets audience? Not that there is likely to be much of a confrontation here. When a group reach Mac's status, their audience isn't sifting out there waiting to judge. They come to adore, to receive the blessings of a magic presence. The physical scale of the event reinforces the impression of a ritual removed from the constraints of communication. That stage is so big, so distant, the human figures are so small they could be toys, puppets on strings. But the space gives them certain grandeur as well, since they command it with amplification and volume. We can hardly see them, but we know they are there. They must be Gods. To their credit, Fleetwood Mac don't play up to this arena-deification syndrome. There is a minimum of pretension in their stagecraft: no light shows or flashy sets, and they don't come on haughty or imperious. At times, there is genuine warmth and grace in their show (particularly when Christine McVie is singing); and at other times there's a real urgency and power straining to come through. But they are trapped up there as surely as we in our seats are trapped down here. That's a pity. But they sound good, confident players kicking into their material with conviction. Often, they sounded like a rock and roll band (surprise) as opposed to a pop machine, the harder edges driven in by Buckingham's rhythm-guitar and Mick Fleetwood's powerful, propulsive drumming. The mixture of styles they present smacks heavily of an attempt to provide something for everyone. But this is probably the natural result of the three different personalities alternating as band leaders, and, much more so than on record, Fleetwood Mac in concert seem like three different bands. Behind Stevie Nicks, they are mellow, temperate, cruising on automatic.Rumours that Nicks is losing her voice seem partly true. In comparison to her earlier recordings she has lost some of her high range. That little girl sweetness is no longer there. I also expected more kinetic energy from Nicks. She should fly, or at least move a bit when singing lines from "Rhiannon" about being "taken by the sky." But everything about her delivery is strictly pedestrian. Christine McVie's voice is delicious. Live, it sounds better than on record, richer, charged with commitment and more soul. As a performer, she is sedate, hiding behind her keyboards as if playing a supporting role, even when singing lead. But she has an air of sincerity about her that makes her odes to love, won and lost, at least seem hearfelt and genuine. Her "Say You Love Me" is a perfect opener for the concert, breezy, rocking, a good opportunity for the band to display a full, confident sound. It was down to Lindsey Buckingham to move the band into anything approaching strenuous action. His first song of the set is "Not That Funny" which seems off-hand and lightweight on Tusk but here is a brash and forceful romp. On "What Makes You Think You're The One" Buckingham really comes out. He emphasises the quirky, stop-start rhythms of the song, and moves like a cross between Elvis Costello and David Byrne; not a trace of El Lay laid-backness in sight. With his well-tanned and innocent face, Buckingham looks odd carrying on like a wired-up new waver, but never mind. He's funny, a treat to watch, and he makes the band earn its supper keeping up with him. "Go Your Own Way" is a heady mix of perfect harmonies and if Fleetwood Mac were always this good, I'd listen to them all night. But the best moment was "Tusk". Tapes simulated the special effects of the record, while Mick Fleetwood churns out a powerhouse beat, rock and roll jungle drums. The song is an off-beat setting within which Buckingham can go nuts, spewing chord clusters and random vocal shrieks like freak time at the zoo. I'd never thought Buckingham would be a guitarist to watch, but he is. He's accomplished but not too flash, and knows how to cut loose. Only on "I'm So Afraid" does he fall into a plodding, heavy metal-type mush. What purpose is served depends on what purpose brings you here. If you are a fan, you'll probably be pleased. Recreations of the songs you know and love are delivered with skill and fidelity, with an occasional extra push of energy derived from the live setting. The show's not a cheat. But there is little intimacy or contact. Aside from Buckingham's surprising commitment to rocking out, there are cracks in the established images these people have painted of themselves in the media providing no new insights into who they are or why they do what they do. http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=961&c=18 43 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
The Aquarian (11/14/1979), For Fleetwood Mac, "Tusk" Is A Sign Of The Times
Fleetwood Mac Never Let Pressure Affect Its Task By Everyhight Charley Crespo When the economy of the music business nose-dived earlier this year, industry heads looked to a handful of albums with fall release dates for salvation. Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, the long-awaited follow-up to 1977's 12-million-selling Rumours, was thought to be among those records whose sales power could determine whether the market would rise or crash before the new decade. In a press conference held at the St. Regis Hotel's Maisonette Room on Nov. 9, Fleetwood Mac told a gathering of press and broadcasters that the group never let the pressures affect its task. "(Executives at Warner Bros. Records) didn't call us every day, and there was no pressure from the corporate side of the music industry," said Mick Fleetwood, drummer and co-founding member of the band. "The only things we were concerned with were completing the record and satisfying ourselves, although we were certainly aware of everyone panicking in the record industry. I don't think we were preoccupied with such things really." Fleetwood Mac's origins date back to the mid-1960's, but its revamped lineup in 1976 (Mick Fleetwood, co-founder John McVie on bass, Christine McVie on vocals and keyboards, and new members Lindsey Buckingham on guitars and Stevie Nicks on vocals) turned the long frustrated Mac into a supergroup. This same lineup, without Christine McVie, who was in town but incapacitated by the flu, faced the media in the group's first press conference since the release of Tusk. http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...n/Img_0936.jpg Explained the tall and lanky Fleetwood: "Peter Beard, one of the three photographers who did some of the pictures on the inside (album sleeves), the artwork, happens to be someone who spent a lot of time in Africa. he came down to the studio and was there for probably about a week, taking pictures of the band. It turned out most of his work was of animals and people's feet. "He then left and during that time got very involved in the conservation of elephants and wildlife. He left and we were just thinking of an album title. We had no idea that his artwork, when it came back probably three, three and a half months later, would have elephant tusks all over it with odd pictures of us stuck in it, so it was just a coincidence. Then it was chosen as a word that we thought sounded good as a word. It wasn't really supposed to be elephantitis (sic). The title cut was released as a single prior to the album's release. "Tusk" is an adventurous number, propelled by a strident jungle-sounding drum beat, with mysterious bits of lyric coming from behind. Halfway through the song, one hears the University of Southern California's Trojan Marching Band adding a few ticks. The song sounds nothing like anything this band has ever done before. "That's the point really," said Buckingham, now clean-shaven and sporting short locks rather than the long curly hair and beard he'd worn since he first joined the group. "I don't know if we would have picked it ourselves, but we enjoyed it very much...I think when you hear it in the context of the rest of the album it's a little bit more understandable in terms of reasons for releasing it...The point is that the album is different, too, and it's gotten a lot of people's curiosity up. Warner Bros. felt very strongly about releasing "Tusk," and in a way it's good because it's gotten a lot of talk going about the fact that it is so different. There are a lot of different things on the album as well, so people are wondering what the hell we're up to." Like its predecessor, Fleetwood Mac, Rumours stayed on the national sales charts for well over a year, spending 31 weeks in the top slot. The group did extensive touring to promote the album, thus delaying work on Tusk. The group postponed the recording about two months in order to inaugurate the new state-of-the-art Village Recorder studio with Tusk. Though Tusk was released nearly three years after the release of Rumours, the group denies charges that it took an excessive amount of time to turn in the finished product. "I think what was construed as delays were in other people's minds, you know," said Fleetwood. "In actual fact, Rumours took a continuous year to pull together. This album really went very smoothly considering we were probably active in the studio for eight months." "And we did double as many songs." interjected Nicks. "And we did 20 songs," echoed Fleetwood. "And also a few others," Nicks added. The Los Angeles-based quintet has already embarked on a world tour that will keep it on the road through the summer of 1980, with area dates at Madison Square Garden Nov. 15 and 16 and at the Spectrum Nov. 21. Nicks expressed confidence that her voice will be up to par. "It's wonderful to read that your voice is disintegrating," she said, sarcastically referring to the bad press she received at one point on the last tour when her voice sounded strained. "If you care to take the time to collect the reviews from the last shows that we've done, you might notice that I am, as my mother said to me, 'singing like a little bird,'" Nicks noted in a comical tone. "I'm taking real good care of myself. My voice is not disintegrating. When I die, "disintegration' will be one of the words that pass in front of me. I think it's very cruel for people to say disintegration. It's like, well God, I might as well just give up. Does anybody have faith in me at all? My voice is fine." When queried about a "mystical awe" she supposedly radiates from the stage Nicks remarked, "Everyone will notice that I'm not wearing black anymore. I like black. Don't you like black? I mean, ladies like to wear black; it's wonderful and elegant and I'm not wearing it anymore because I'm so sick of this witch stuff. "I take ballet. I love to dance. I love all this stuff. It has nothing to do with all this. You know, I don't have candles (and) incense going in my room. It's everybody else's interpretation. I like chant-songs, but that's just my own personal preference of music. That has nothing to do with witchery. That's everybody else's trip, not mine. If they want to believe that the only thing I can say is drop by my house someday and notice there's no witching going on." Fleetwood Mac will tour the U.S. through mid-December and start the new year with concert appearances in the Far East and Europe before returning to North America. At the tour's conclusion, if Fleetwood Mac has no immediate commitments as a group, its members will be free to pursue individual projects. Though plans were not revealed at the press conference, this reporter pointed out that Nicks has a record deal with a new record company, Modern Records, and that her solo lp is scheduled to be the label's first product. The record will reportedly be a soundtrack to a film adaption of "Rhiannon." a song she wrote and sang on the Fleetwood Mac lp. "The people that I have signed this with happen to be very, very, very close friends of mine and they will not push me to do anything that I cannot do," she said. "They are totally aware that I am first and foremost a member of Fleetwood Mac, and when I have the time to go in and be crazy and do my own crazy music, (I will do it). But they understand and I understand that the only reason I was able to sign anything with anyone else was because I trusted them and they trust me enough to know that when I get around to it, I'll do it." When this reporter asked what she meant by "crazy music," Nicks said, "It's my 'Rhiannon' music and my...what can I say?" "Incense, candles," offered Buckingham, to a roomful of chuckles. While the record industry awaited the double-record Tusk, many parties were apprehensive of its unprecedented $15.98 list price, $3 more than Saturday Night Fever. Tusk has been in the Top 10 since its release a few weeks ago, but it hasn't been able to oust the Eagles' The Long Run and Led Zeppelin's In Through The Out Door from the top slots. While there is no accurate way to tell if Tusk's comparatively high price has scared off a significant number of sales. Fleetwood Mac defended the list price by pointing to it as a sign of the times. "As a band, maybe we're slightly pinned down because of the apparentness of the band," said Fleetwood, "but...if you take a look at what the record basically sells for, (and) I've seen it sell for $9.50--$10 for 20 songs in what I think is certainly a really nice package--and then compare it to a double Donna Summer album or a Bob Dylan At Budokan, it's only a matter of pennies difference. That's what records cost and that's about all I can say." "Also the escalation of price is a constant thing," said Buckingham. "This is one of the first double albums that's been in the limelight or whatever, and so it's going to be one of the first ones people are going to jump on as far as there being that high a list price." "It's not a price thing as far as the industry in general." added Fleetwood. "It's not just us." http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=983&c=18 102 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
The Washington Post (11/14/1979),
Fleetwood Mac Delivers But Eagles Don't Fly By Al Aronowitz Long and eagerly awaited, Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" comes as the most spectacular event in records since Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life." Less of an event is the release of "The Long Run" by the Eagles, who have delivered a workmanlike disc full of neither disappointments nor supprises. "Tusk" stretches the limits of the recording medium. "The Long Run" stays safely within them. Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours," released almost three years ago, sold 14 million copies, and the record industry's anticipation of "tusk" has been somewhat more intense than waiting for ketchup out of a bottle. One of the maxims of the industry is that a big hit brings people into the stores. Except for its double-disc price of $15.98, "Tusk" ought to leave "Rumours" in the dust, conferring a new regality on Fleetwood Mac. "Tusk" ought to do for Fleetwood Mac what "Sgt. Pepper" did for the Beatles, which was to wrench recognition from the adult establishment, not just for commercial success for esthetics but because the thrust of the music finally bridged the generation gap. But "Tusk" is not as tight as "Sgt. Pepper." It's more reminiscent of the Beatles' double-disc "White" album because it has more room to express the sharp musical differences between the three songwriters of the group, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks. Certainly "Tusk" ought to skyrocket Fleetwood Mac out of the strictly teeny-bopper category that last year made the Capital Centre think it could present the group so appallingly, with general-admission tickets and no seats on the floor so that you had to stand in the crush as if you were watching the correct from a cattle car. The surprises on "Tusk" are provided mainly by Buckingham, who sheds his pretty-boy image with this album to emerge as an intense John Lennon-like genius, with a studio in his house where he experiments with sounds and syncopation, and lyrics so cutting they don't even leave scars. Buckingham would record tapes at home and bring them into the studio for the other in the group to hear. They began to understand what he was trying to do and got behind it, contributing fills, rhythms and harmonies, sometimes in nonsensical whispers, that track enigmatically through both discs. The most mysterious song is the title cut, "Tusk," for which drummer manager Mike Fleetwood provided the drum track and then rented Dodger Stadium for overduds by the horns of the University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band. Released as a single with a background of unintelligible crowd noises, and acid lyrics, "Tusk" will probably be the first hit off the album. The album emerges as a personal triumph for Buckingham, with the credit on the sleeve reading, "Produced by Fleetwood Mac (Special Thanks To Lindsey Buckingham)." But there are other surprises. When Stevie Nicks sings "Sara," a tune that could easily be criticized as a construction of '50ish schlock with the same melody as Love Unlimited's "Love's There," she sings her fragile lyrics so beautifully you just might find tears running down your cheeks. "Tusk" leaves you at a loss to compare Fleetwood Mac with any other group except the Beatles, largely because of the depth on its songwriting bench. If Buckingham is Lennon, then Stevie Nicks is Paul McCartney. She knows enough about what delights the ear to end up the big moneymaker. Still there is a difference, and that difference is women. As others have already pointed out, Fleetwood Mac is the first group of the Beatles' caliber to integrate women so successfully. But the magic is in the interaction of the group, in the performances and in the feel, and especially in the psychic communication that goes on among them. Fleetwood Mac pumps you full of energy, romantic and mellow, without dulling the edge you need to cut your way through reality. The only anxiety you get from "Tusk" is wondering how much longer this cartel of talent, featuring two pairs of ex-lovers, can keep their egos, tempers and band intact. As for the Eagles, "The Long Run" is far from a disaster. It's just another Eagles album. There is experimentation throughout the disc and even at their worst, the Eagles are nothing short of great, but there are no cuts on "The Long Run" that achieve the brilliance of "Lyin' Eyes" or "Hotel California" or even "Life in the Fast Lane." Eagles fans will be well satisfied with this album, which is already No. 1 on the pop charts. "Heartache Tonight," the first single off the album, is also a hit. "I Can't Tell You Why," sung by the group's new bass player, Timothy Schmit, formerly with Poco, promises to be another. "In the City," featuring Joe Walsh, could be still one more. But whether any of these cuts will grow on us the way previous Eagles hits did is still questionable. These are all more solid than inspired. To experience the Eagles' sound is always a job. The Eagles are also storytellers, and their stories are superlatively told. In "The Long Run," the Eagles maintain their quality, but they don't reach any further. http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=528&c=18 104 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! |
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http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...on/xmasqr7.jpg I love Fleetwood Mac at Christmas. |
People Magazine, November 26, 1979
The Rumors About All Those Fleetwood Mac Splits Were True; And Now Their Comment is Tusk, Tusk. by Jim Jerome It's not because saving the elephant is one of their causes or that they identify with the magnificent if extinct mammoth that Fleetwood Mac called their current double LP Tusk. Explains the group's drummer/manager, Mick Fleetwood: "The title itself has no bearing on anything. We just liked the sound of the word in the abstract." But financially, Mick and Co. might as well have titled it Risk. Along with Led Zeppelin and the Eagles, Mac was the fall's Great Vinyl Hope to resurrect the lagging music industry. Yet Tusk defiantly lists at $15.98 when, as Mick admits, "records sales are taking a complete dump." Further, the group invested more than $1 million to create a jarring, audacious new sound. So why depart from the hit-cranking pop-rock formula responsible for some 20 million sales of their last two LPs? As lead guitarist Lindsey Buckingham points out invidiously, the Eagles' new work "is just more of the same of the last five years. I mean, why bother?" "Our ideas and lives progressed, moved on," seconds keyboardist Christine McVie. "Tusk is years more mature. If you're complacent, you stagnate." Complacency has never been a vice of Fleetwood Mac since the group settled into its present composition in 1974 with Mick and two other Britons, bassist John McVie and his then wife Christine, plus two Californians, Buckingham and his then lover, singer Stevie Nicks. In the two years since their provocatively autobiographical last LP, Rumours, three of them have changed partners. John has found a new wife. Christine is riding the perfect wave with Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. Fleetwood, after remarrying his divorced wife, split again and now lives a model. Nicks is now unattached since busting up with a record executive. Buckingham is still with his model. Under those circumstances, much of Tusk was put together piecemeal on what Christine says was a "non-communal rotation system;" the five members were often not in the studio together. The involvement this time was less emotional than aesthetic and to hear Lindsey, not even commercial. "If Tusk becomes an influential work over the next decade," says Buckingham (who dominates the LP with nine of the 20 tunes), "then that's the measure of success. Whether it sells three million or five million," he adds ever-so-blithely, "is neither here nor there." "People may not have expected Tusk," says Mick, "and noses may be slightly out of joint. But we did this for us. It was a healthy challenge to pull it off." Now, obviously, they have. The Tusk LP and single are both Top Ten, and as Mick reports from the road, where they are on the 22-city first leg of a nine-month worldwide tour, "the energy is really poppin'." For Fleetwood, 31, it hasn't been easy. His second split from his wife of 12 years, Jenny Boyd, now "seems permanent. But, luckily," he adds, "we get on well." She has custody of their two children and has taken them back to England. Mick, like the rest of the group lives in the L.A. area and sees the kids during vacations. "I quite miss the fact that I can't be a father," he admits. "I happen to be one of those men who adores that thing of 'alright, kids, let's go.'" Then, if his marital breakup weren't trouble enough, last year while working on Tusk Mick discovered that he was suffering from diabetes. "I had been feeling burned-out," he recalls. "My eyes were going wild, I started drinking like a fish, I'd hyperventilate while talking." One doctor suggested he see a shrink. "My ego couldn't accept the fact that I was going around the twist. Manic-depressive one minute, eating a bowl of ice cream, quite happy, the next. I thought it was a brain tumor. I was afraid I was going to die. It was 18 months of hell." But once the ailment was diagnosed (it's a mild case), Mick adjusted his habits. "Bless her," he says of Sara Recor, his companion of the past year. "She was there to hold my hand and look after me." Though he concedes, "I have overworked and overplayed," Mick says he now "feels like I did 10 years ago." Perhaps the least changed Mac member of all, says Fleetwood, is his co-founder John McVie, 34. McVie and second wife Julie Rubens live both in Beverly Hills and on his 63-foot sloop. The casual "rotation" recording system allowed McVie to leave his bass tracks behind and sail out to Maui while the group did the last month of polishing Tusk. And no less an expert than his first wife, Christine, finds John has "mellowed since marrying Julie. He's become a gentle person." The Mac member who has changed the most, according to Fleetwood, is Buckingham, 30. "He was volatile and intense in the beginning," says Mick, "and afraid he was trapped into doing things a certain way." But with almost half of Tusk under his name, he's been freed. "My contribution was not that visible before," says Lindsey. "Things that had been swimming around in my head for years finally got exorcised on Tusk." Doing some of his own cuts on his 24-track in Hancock Park, Buckingham bravely usurped some drumming parts from Mick. "We've broken down barriers that existed for five years," says Lindsey. The liberated Lindsey has even forsaken the furry curls, scraggy beard and skintight satins of his old lead guitar sex-idol image. He now displays a clean look and casually modish Gentlemen's Quarterly couture. His retreat from classic rock macho has come home too. His girlfriend of three years, Carol Harris, will be along for only half the tour dates. "I want to give Carol the chance to express herself in her modeling without tearing too much from our relationship." Meanwhile, Lindsey reports that without her on the road, "Getting crazy on a few drinks at the bar means nothing to me. I'm happier having time to myself in my room, doing my tunes, than looking for action." But if Lindsey ever needs some post-concert commiserating, he can probably call on Christine McVie. Her squeeze, Beach Boy enfant terrible Dennis Wilson, 34, will not be steady during the tour either. "It doesn't suit Dennis' personality," says Christine, "to be a guest, to have to say, 'Oh, I'm with the piano player.'" On her own, Christine is clearly less shy and more self-assured since they met a year ago. "He is a multifaceted jewel," she exults. "Dennis has awakened things in me I'd have been scared to experience and made me feel the extremes of every emotion." Specifically, says Christine, he has turned her onto speedboating and water-skiing. "Dennis has thrown me into the deep end, literally and figuratively." They commute between Dennis' 68-foot ketch in Marina del Rey and her "very English" home on Coldwater Canyon. They "definitely" plan to marry in February, but Christine has ruled out kids. "I'm 36," she says, "and my life-style is pretty much settled as far as sacrificing and accommodating myself to children." "She used to call me the Mad Songwriter," says Stevie Nicks, 31, noting that in Tusk Christine composed six tracks to her five. "Chris sits up all night and writes, she's so inspired," says Nicks. Stevie is prolific herself, in love or out, but for two years she has been mostly out. One problem: Male rockers, she finds, are "pretty chauvinistic. I strive to be taken seriously as a writer, and be as good as they are. So they resent my success. I see it in their eyes: 'How did this dingbat manage to get everything she wants?'" Another problem is her immersion in Mac's work ethic. "How many men, even the nicest, most patient, can understand that for months you will come home at 7am, dead tired and in a bad mood?" For now, she says resignedly, "the band is all there is room for in my life." Just as well. On the road, she says, security is so tight that "no man can get within 10 feet. I hardly ever meet any new men." Nicks' large Tudor home above Sunset Boulevard is now on the market because it attracted hangers-on who overstayed their welcome. "Any man I ever went out with called the place Fantasyland. I'm 31, I won't always be in a rock band, and I don't want to come out of this absolutely helpless." So she is moving into a modest beachfront condo. "Some people thrive on being a rock star. I hate it. I don't like being waited on all the time, people following me around saying, 'Let me do this, let me do that.'" Stevie has signed on with former boyfriend Paul Fishkin's Modern Records to act in and do the solo sound track LP of Rhiannon, an upcoming movie based on her 1976 Mac hit. She has also written a children's story and hopes to turn it into an animated film. "It's a love story about a goldfish and a ladybug. A friend told me it would be the Doctor Zhivago of children's cartoons." Though she is still the band's sexily whirling, wailing focus onstage, Stevie claims, "The last thing the world needs is another sex symbol." And what does Stevie need? "I don't need doctors, nurses and babysitters. I need love." But even Nicks, who seems bent on going her own way, know that this "is still the best rock band in the world." And one of the most durable. "The band's been breaking up for five years," says Fleetwood, sardonically, of all the reports. The group has two more years left on its record contract and the road stretches ahead until August. "If the members really felt suffocated," Mick says, "then there'd be an obvious danger. Things do get a little crazy at all times. But this doesn't feel like a band that's breaking up." Headshot of Mick: If Tusk had stiffed, says Fleetwood, "it'd've been awful." Headshot of John: Last year John McVie married Californian Julie Rubens. They met when she worked for the band's ex-business manager. Headshot of Christine: "It's never been so vibrant, so gratifying," says Christine, referring to her Tusk love ballads as well as to Dennis Wilson. Headshot of Stevie: Fed up with "letting the aura of a big rock band run my life," Nicks says she's "going back to the gypsy I was." Headshot of Lindsey: Buckingham admits, "It's not normal to tour with an ex-girlfriend. I don't really socialize with her but things are fine." Shot of Stevie getting a massage during rehearsal: "I'm not me when I'm rushed," says Stevie. To slow things down, Masayoshi Sasaki was hired for rubdowns on the road. Shot of Christine and Dennis Wilson in a tight and cozy embrace: Beach Boy Dennis, says Chris, is "delightfully eccentric, and people's Mother Earth image of me is wrong. I get crazy too." http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=530&c=18 119 people have viewed this thread in the last 24 hours! http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...andblink11.gif http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...littereyes.gif |
The Philadelphia Daily News (11/18/1979), Album Reviews
Michele Jackson THE RECORD INDUSTRY, lately in something of a slump, is firing its big guns. Within the past few weeks, we've seen a new album from the Eagles (now No. 1 on the charts) and another by Fleetwood Mac (No. 4 and gaining despite a walloping $15.98 cover price). And, oddly enough, both have solid merit to go with their commercial punch. That's especially true of Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" (Warner Bros.), a two-record set that had a gestation roughly paralleling that of an overdue baby elephant. The long delay between the last Fleetwood Mac effort and the new one was necessary because it looked like "Rumours" would sell forever. So far, some 14 million copies have been sold, give or take a couple of late-reporting Korvette branches in American Samoa. The fact is that "Tusk" is the record that will overcome the basic critic presumption that records that sell a ton are automatically less worthy than those that don't sell at all. Not since the Beatles have we had a group to so successfully combine outrageous success at the cash register with quality music. It will also do severe damage to that other cherished critical belief that all two-record sets should have been one excellent record instead of two less excellent ones. This one's solid all the way through. ONCE YOU GROPE your way through all the cardboard (sleeves within sleeves within sleeves), there's a lot to listen to. Lindsey Buckingham's new songs here provide a graceful kind of intensity that the band hadn't had before. The title track is perhaps the best example, with its 60ish acidic feel, its compelling drum track played against the horns of the U.S.C. marching band and some completely irrational crowd noises. It all works, as does his marvelously biting "What Makes You Think You're the One." If he hadn't captured the feel of John Lennon at his best so well, it might be tempting to say that Buckingham has shed the whole pretty rock star image as convincingly as Paul McCartney. Let's say it anyway. One of the things that has always distinguished this incarnation of Fleetwood Mac is its effective integration of women, unlike virtually every other rock band. That's a lot more likely to stay in your mind than the band's distinctive "sound," which can on occasion get monotonous. Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks provide the rest of the songs here. NICKS HAS A GIFT for the kind of song you end up humming without thinking about it. She also sings the hell out of them. Those two factors combine to make hits, of course. And despite all the gossip about her voice in the "People"-type press, she sounds just fine - better than ever. "Sara" may not be a terribly heavyweight song, but she sings it about as well as anybody could. The Eagles' "The Long Run" (Asylum) is another matter altogether. The group has generated a lot of good music since 1971 and it's really not their fault that the imitators they spawned have generally been stupefying. The new album doesn't have a "Take It Easy" or a "James Dean" or a "Lyin' Eyes" on it, at least not to my ears, but it does have a solid collection of well-constructed and played songs. It's a fine album that I probably won't listen to a lot. My problem with the Eagles here is the same one I've got with the genre of "Life on the Road Sure is Miserable Even if You're a Big Star." The Eagles have this attitude. And the new album follows "Life in the Fast Lane" to something of a conclusion. Hollywood is decadent. It is full of scary things. Life is tough. So what? Popular music has to have a link to people - actual people, not just those who have shared a few grams with a superstar. Unrelieved bleakness is also a little hard to handle. While Fleetwood Mac used to sound seamless and was criticized for it, it's clear that nothing but seams isn't it either. All that aside, they do it all well. "The Disco Strangler" is wonderfully compelling depravity. The next track, "King of Hollywood," is probably the best ever in the limited area of songs about casting couches. Nice album, a hit even. It's just not likely to wear well. http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...v2&id=529&c=18 |
Crap! Having been occupied with moving, I missed the opportunity to download this show and it has expired. Of all the tours, Tusk is my favorite! And ironically, I have only a handful of those shows. Could I appeal to you or anyone else who now has it to repost it? Thanks forward!;)
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