Mick Fleetwood: "This is the best time to see Fleetwood Mac" *setlist spoiler*
 

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The renowned drummer on the new tour

There's always been an elusive quality to Mick Fleetwood's drumming. One can literally hear different sounds, patterns and textures in his playing with each listen - an assessment Fleetwood himself agrees with.

"I honestly don't know how I do it," Fleetwood says, laughing. "I think it's because I'm a blues-based drummer playing rock 'n' roll and pop music. To me, I respond to a vibe, a certain musical heartbeat. Of course, it creates problems when I play something and I'm asked to repeat it. The whole thing is a mystery to me."

The Greatest Hits Tour

Fleetwood can be forgiven for name-checking one of his own albums, as he and the rest of Fleetwood Mac have been busy combing their multi-million-selling catalog in preparation for the Fleetwood Mac 'Unleashed' Greatest Hits Tour, which starts this March and runs until "the people tell us to stop."

For the first time in their 40-year career, Fleetwood Mac are touring without a new album to promote, something Fleetwood sees as a plus during these troubled economic times.

"Everybody is so frightened," he says, "and with good reason. So for us to go out and play the hits, all the songs that people know and love, it's really going to make for a great show. The fans don't have to sit through songs they don't quite know yet, and we get to really dig in and explore our catalog and shake each song for all its worth. To tell you the truth, I think it's the best time to see Fleetwood Mac - we'll transport you to better times."

Or another way of putting it is, Don't Stop Believing. "Never," says Fleetwood. "If any of us ever lost faith the power of this band or our own abilities, it would have been over years ago."

In this exclusive MusicRadar podcast, Mick Fleetwood discusses his early days playing the blues, then talks about the mercurial musical magic he creates in Fleetwood Mac. He even answers a few questions from MusicRadar readers.

Podcast Part 1

Podcast Part 2

This is the best album ever... (SYW)
This is the best tour...

Mick always said THIS is the best one, of course it's a must to promote, but I don't think this will be their best show. Their finest hour was decades ago. I think it will be a great concert, very good performance, but the Rumours-Tusk era was the best. Unfortunately there are no time machines yet, cause I'd love to take a ride to the late 70s

OMG they're doing storms! :D

Mick Confirms:

Storms
Oh Well
Go Insane (Full Band Version)
Accoustic Say You Love Me (With the band upfront)

WOW!

Full band version of Go Insane?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Thats incredible.

Oh yah, and storms...:blob2:

STORMS ??? OH MY GOD This is a dream finally come true!! I hope Stevie sings it with all her feeling!!

(but then I insist this is not a HITS tour, it's a CLASSICS tour, and fits perfect to me!!)

"Sara" is confirmed as well!

and Sara, Dreams, Rhiannon, GYOW, So Afraid,

Silver Springs confirmed as well.

FIXED.




(Somebody had to say it.)

Mick keeps in touch with Jeremy, Christine. And a bit with Peter

Did he answer any LEDGIE questions???

Storms, Sara, Go Insane (full band)
I think I might just faint......:blob2:

Well, my interest in the tour just went up a thousand fold with the Oh Well and a full band version of Go Insane being on the set.

Matt

Stoms OMG!!!! Now if only they added Seven Wonders I would be ok.

Matt

Stoms OMG!!!! Now if only they added Seven Wonders I would be ok.

Matt

Interested in hearing how full band Go Insane is going to sound with the Mac. Loved it on the GOS tour.

OOOOOOH MYYYYYY GOOOOOD!!
SO PUMPED!
:blob2::blob1::blob2::blob1::blob2:

Mick said they're going to be playing more of Christine's songs. I'm assuming Storms will be acoustic, like SYLM, as Mick says he's playing "quite simply" up front on the cocktail kit. Mick said that last year he and Jeremy jammed in Hawaii. It's a shame Mick only answered a few fan questions.

Essentially the same people playing it, no? Lindsey, Brett, Neale, Taku/Fernando/Whatever....

We ain't talkin' vastly different, is we?

I just listened to this interview. I don't think Mick has ever gone into such technical detail about his own style, has he?

Whatever. This wouldn't be the first time Mick has talked out of his ass. In fact, he may have kicked his hyperbole up a notch due to the stultifying lack of success in selling a tour where Fleetwood Mac FINALLY does its Greatest Hits!

I wouldn't be as surprised if they played these songs on March 1st, but will they be playing these songs ten dates into the tour? As recent history has shown, if you want to make sure you see all the songs the band will ever do live in concert, go to opening night, because they may never do them again!

Well, so much for not knowing the setlist. Dang! :]

OH, and just so I understand...when did Storms become a hit? I mean, I know Tusk was a long time ago, but...


Kevin

I am VERY excited to see Oh Well. I have never seen this live and for me, this is the one I will be most looking forward to.:nod:

Also, did anyone notice Mick's response about Bob Welch. curiously vague as to whether he has "contact" with him.

So far, I would say this is the best addition to the setlist (among some other great additions). I absolutely can't wait to hear this one - it was nothing short of a crime when they left this off the set in 1997 and onward. I mean, come on, Oh Well belongs in every set along with the other war horses Rhiannon, Don't Stop, and GYOW. I always wondered what the story was here - I know Lindsey always felt he had to "pay his dues" in the early days and play some of the old stuff. By the end of the Rumours Tour he was basically only doing Oh Well. Was it left off for any particular reason on the Dance tour?

Stevie Nicks is "very much alive and well"....gee thanks for the update Mick!!

Wonderful news :D

Any word on Europe? I won't have a chance to listen to the interview until later today!

I have had very little interest in seeing this tour, but some of the song choices seem interesting to me. I think people are getting a little too caught up in the definition of a hit, I think it is more like fan familiarity.

Wow! Storms....that is totally awesome! And I'm psyched about the band version of Big Love...very cool stuff!!

Don't get your hopes up. He said "Go Insane".

Agreed. I said it before, if it were strictly "hits," you can say goodbye to anything off of SYW, The Chain, I'm So Afraid, Gold Dust Woman, most of Tusk, and so on. Someone said "Classics" the other day and I think that is a much more appropriate word for what we will hear on this tour. It's going to be popular tracks both from a chart standpoint as well as fan familiarity (GDW, The Chain, etc), along with a mix of some dusted off classics and probably a couple of buried songs seeing the light of day for the first time ever (a la Silver Springs in '97, Beautiful Child in '03).

I thought of this, too. Remember Destiny Rules and Running Through the Garden on the last tour. If memory serves me, they were dropped after the first show. But I'm REALLY hoping this won't be the case this time around

I'm still praying for Sisters, I'm really psyched about the confirmed songs though. :]

So considering all that we have learned about the 2009 setlist so far, as well as the songs they have already played to death in the past, I think we can be about 90% certain that this will be the setlist (sequence may vary... somewhat):

1. The Chain
2. Dreams
3. Second Hand News
4. Monday Morning
5. Rhiannon
6. Oh Well
7. Gypsy
8. Go Insane
9. Sara
10. Never Going Back Again
11. Say You Love Me
12. Big Love
13. Landslide
14. Gold Dust Woman
15. I'm So Afraid
16. Silver Springs
17. Tusk
18. Stand Back
19. Go Your Own Way
20. World Turning
21. Don't Stop
22. Storms

I think Storms is gunna be in the acoustic set after Say You Love Me. Mick talked about a "cocktail kit" he is going to be using and he said he is going to use it for Say You Love Me and Storms.

Both "Peacekeeper" & the title cut got fairly significant airplay, so I'm not counting out "anything off of SYW". "The Chain" has been used as the theme for a couple of TV shows, AND it's basically the unofficial theme song of Fleetwood Mac. "Tusk", "Sara" (along with "Think About Me" & "Sisters Of The Moon") were the singles from the Tusk album. I believe "Storms" was a B-side of one of them, but I'm not 100% sure. "I'm So Afraid" & "Gold Dust Woman" WERE single B-sides, so if the single was a "hit", people would be MORE than familiar with the B-side as well. With "Silver Springs" being an obvious case-in-point. For the first couple of months after the GYOW single was released, "Silver Springs" got nearly equal airplay. It disappeared off the airwaves once Rumours was released, and fell into near obscurity until the Timespace controversy and then bloomed again for The Dance.

I hope somebody in the band has the good sense to not play "Second Hand News" & "Monday Morning" back-to-back.

Couldn't resist peeking, huh? :laugh:

And as much as I would love to hear Storms, you're right. Not a "hit." Not that I only want to hear "hits," so it will be a nice surprise if it actually happens.

Destiny Rules made it a few shows I think. Not many.

I truly believe they could play almost anything off Rumours & casual fans will at least be familiar with it - enough to dance & possibly sing along to & not get up and leave to pee. :D Possible exception being IDWK. So it woul;dn't have to be a single or a song that charted - The Chain is very commonly known, like you said. It does beg the question of just WTF they are doing calling this a "hits" tour - what defines a hit vs. a signature song vs. a deep cut? It's all very subjective. But to say fans won't have to sit through songs they won't recognize & then claim they'll do Storms? Hmmm.....

ITA about MM & SHN. They're too similar to my ears. As much as I enjoy both tunes, they're practically interchangeable in a set. I feel they shuold do 1 or the other, but not both - and definitely NOT back to back.

It's the Hits 'n' Staples Tour. It doesn't have to have been on a Billboard chart -- if the band's been playing it live for thirty years, they're going to play it again! The idea of the tour (if you can call it an idea) is to play stuff that people recognize. Stevie doesn't want to play stuff that's on a new album. That's all they mean by "hits." We're being too literal-minded.

The other thing I wanted to say: How would you guys feel if they played "Sister Golden Hair" instead of "Sister of the Moon"?

I said they should call it, "You may remember this one," Tour... So many people that I have talked with think it will be a lot like the Dance Tour

I was at MSG for a different show last night and they had these little magazines on all the seats. The FM mention in that magazine was definitely using the word "classic" and not the word "hit".