Volume 1 - Year of the Mac: 1987
 

This is the debut thread on new series I am introducing. Its called "Year of the Mac". Every few weeks, there will be a new thread devoted to all things Mac in a certain year. This thread is for the year 1987.

Post news articles, youtube videos, demos, live recordings, pictures, thoughts, questions, etc that focus on Fleetwood Mac in 1987. :cool:

Let's have some fun with this Ledgies! :woohoo:

I'll start us off with a little music.

"Little Lies" music video, released as a single in August '87.

Kinda weird...but cool.

Part II

Stevie going on about Silent Night, crystals, tour setlist, etc.

Haha I love that interview! The crystal part is great.

I saw those '87 tour videos awhile back but couldn't find the again. Thanks for posting them.

Mick was a little, um, strange. Stevie and Christine look good though.

Probably one of my favorite performances of The Chain was on the '87 tour.

Anybody here see FM back in '87 for the Tango/Shaking the Cage tour?

yep! saw them October, 3rd at Alpine Valley Wisconsin! Luckily before Rhiannon and Gypsy were dropped! i had 4th row!! it's still one of my favorite Mac shows (even without Lindsey).....

My husband saw them in Seattle I think...I'm jealous.

Cool. First time I ever saw that clip. Stevie looked great, and appeared very clear and friendly. Finally, now I know how crystals shoud be "used."

I was only 6 yrs old in '87, but I remember hearing "Little Lies" on the radio while my parents were driving me to school.

1987 was probably one of my personal best FM years. I love everything about TITN and the band in general during this time.

Saw The Mac at the Cow Palace in San Francisco on the 1987 tour for the first time ever. Blew my friggin' mind!! Mick was amazing on "World Turning", Rick and Billy just absolutely killed it all night long! It was fantastic!

Honestly, I'd rather hear the live version of "Isn't It Midnight" from this tour, than from the "Tango" CD. :thumbsup:

So you were there when they filmed the Tango in the Night concert video?

Isn't It Midnight is such an important Fleetwood Mac song. Why? Cause it shows us that Christine McVie can rock out too!

Tango in the Night Tour - Isn't it Midnight

Saw this tour in Cleveland. Great show, but I liked the BTM tour better.

Atlanta Journal and Constitution (08/13/1987), Lindsey Leaving Fleetwood Mac
 

Atlanta Journal and Constitution (08/13/1987), Lindsey Buckingham Leaving Fleetwood Mac

By Russ DeVault Staff Writer

Lindsey Buckingham obviously meant it when he said recently that it would take "global pressure" to force him to tour again as a member of Fleetwood Mac.

The proof of that came in Buckingham's brief statement Tuesday that the guitarist is leaving the 20-year-old band.

The next step - which will prove true Christine McVie's recent statement that the band would stage a tour with or without him - will come Tuesday in Los Angeles when Mrs. McVie, Stevie Nicks and original members John McVie and Mick Fleetwood formally announce who will replace Buckingham.

The group's publicists indicate that two musicians will be added for a fall tour tentatively scheduled to reach Atlanta's Omni Nov. 2, but they won't reveal any names before Tuesday. The possibilities being mentioned Wednesday by music-business insiders in Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles include former Eagle Don Henley, veteran Waddy Wachtel, Peter Frampton and Rick Vito, a longtime member of the Los Angeles music scene.

Buckingham's decision to leave the band he and Miss Nicks joined in 1975 is a result of both his solo work and a lack of desire to re-create the music that he has helped shape and that has sold about 27 million copies of six Fleetwood Mac albums.

"I'm not a big fan of touring," he said during a recent telephone interview from his Los Angeles home. "I would love to put together an outrageous theatrical-type show and go out on the road again solo, but the idea of going out and doing our hits again is not appealing to me.

"I feel like I'm coming to the most creative time of my life, " he said. "There's got to be a point where I can say, `This has been fun, guys,' and get on with something else."

Buckingham, a 37-year-old California native, has released two solo albums and was at work on a third when he shelved it to help with the band's 16-week-old album, "Tango in the Night," which is No. 20 on Billboard's pop chart and has sales of more than 1 million.

"I was about halfway through my solo work, and I put that down to do this, because the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few at that point. We ended up using some things that were going on my solo album . . .," he said.

Mrs. McVie, Mick Fleetwood's ex-wife, had responded by joking that she'd "break his arms" if Buckingham refused to tour but then admitted that the realization there was little chance Buckingham would tour was "quite a shock."

"But that doesn't mean there won't be a Fleetwood Mac," she said during a telephone interview from her Los Angeles home.

Unlike Buckingham, Mrs. McVie and the other members believe touring is vital to continued airplay and sales of "Tango in the Night." " I think we absolutely must tour," she said. "People must follow up an album with a tour."

Buckingham scoffs at that theory. "That's record companies doing that kind of talking," he said. "There's no reason you can't put out an album and let it speak for itself."

It's doubtful that "Tango in the Night" will match the success of "Rumors," the second album recorded by the band after guitarist- singer Bob Welch left and was replaced by Buckingham and Miss Nicks, who were then lovers. "Rumors," released in early '77, has sold more than 20 million copies - a figure since matched only by Michael Jackson' s "Thriller," Carole King's "Tapestry" and the "Saturday Night Fever" sound track.

In addition, "Rumors" was No. 1 on Billboard's album chart for 31 weeks - a run exceeded only by Jackson's "Thriller" - and it produced four No. 1 singles en route to winning a Grammy for Best Album of the Year.

Its predecessor, "Fleetwood Mac," also went to No. 1, but sales stopped at about 6 million. After "Rumors," the band released "Tusk" in '79, "Live" in '80 and "Mirage" in '82. "Mirage" had sales of more than 3 million, but it didn't please the band members, all of whom but McVie were working on or planning solo records.

"I will say that I did not want to leave this situation on the note struck by `Mirage,' " Buckingham said in the telephone interview. "It was kind of ambiguous, but I would feel comfortable leaving having struck this `Tango'note."

He noted, too, that Fleetwood Mac, a blues band fronted by Peter Green when it made its debut in London in '67, has never been a model of stability. "As far as the band going on," Buckingham said, "Mick and John go back to the '60s when Fleetwood Mac began. They'd been through God knows how many incarnations before Stevie and I joined.

"For them to keep it going doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility."

With the possible exception of Fleetwood, who declared bankruptcy in the early '80s, money no longer is a motivation for the band. "No one is going to kick money out the door," Mrs. McVie said, "but I can say that, because I'm very so lvent."

Buckingham says he can easily afford to wait for "Tango in the Night" to run its course before releasing his solo album next year. "I've got the luxury of spending eight or 10 months before I think about putting out a solo album," he said. "This album's going to have a nice long run, and there's no reason for me to compete with myself.

"Hey, I've been a team player. I've concentrated on things that were supportive and contributions that were valid in the context of the group. I haven't hurt anybody, and I've done my best for the group."

http://bla.fleetwoodmac.net/index.ph...x_v2&id=74&c=9

Just in case someone doesn't have them, links to the 2 discs of the Tango In The Night Sessions:

Disc 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?fymcgt4ygyn

Disc 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?wtmy24kmtfg

Both are in .zip format.

Well they were right about Vito! Were the other three seriously in contention to replace Lindsey? Interesting choices, though.

About that "altercation" between Stevie and Lindsey on "that" day, it seems everyone denies it happening, so did it happen or not? Perhaps it was just something blown out of proporation? :shrug:

Didn't Mick write in his book that Lindsey called here a schizophrenic bitch and slapped her and such? Who knows how much of that book was the truth anyways lol.

Am I too sleepy cause it's almost midnight in Peru... or I just forgot completely Christine was Fleetwood's wife? :laugh:

I guess this is one of those "rumours" that made people think the album would be named Rumours II instead of Tango in the Night.

Or this is as true as the story behind Lindsey leaving the band: he discovered Stevie Nicks is... is... HIS REAL MOTHER!!!

1987 wan't too bad, but...

I think May, 1970 to May 1971 was the most interesting year in the band's history. Green quit, they did a record as a quartet, added Christine for the tour, lost Jeremy to a religious sect, had Green briefly return, and added Bob Welch.

The next most interesting year was 1974. It started with Mystery To Me, had a cancelled tour, a fake Mac and lawsuit, Heroes Are Hard To Find, and ended with a phone call to two California kids.

To my knowledge, Lindsey's the only one who denied anything happened, though Mick seems to have embelished it a bit. Stevie told the BBC that she thought Lindsey was going to kill her, and that Lindsey probably thought he was going to kill her, and that she told him if he did kill her, her dad and brother would kill him if the band didn't get to him first. Was there a hit? Probably not. But something ugly definitely happened.

The calm before the storm, I suppose...:shrug:

Interesting. It made me recall Mick's words (from his book) about Lindsey producing Tango, and how "as a band" they worked and felt:

Stevie finally showed up in January 1987; we'd been working six months, and it was the only time the whole band was in the studio together. We had been sending copies of our working tapes to Stevie's home in Arizona. On her part, she was dreading that Lindsey, in his producing capacity, would be sarcastic toward her, but he made an effort not to be as much of a martinet as he was with the rest of us. He was under some strain with this project, and lost his patience occasionally, but with Stevie we wanted him to be more objective and professional. He tried to make her feel great in the studio, and they got on well. (The love-hate saga between those two will never end.)

Well, Mystery To Me was released in '73...but, I'll let that slide for "artistic license". :rolleyes::)

I was there and I had that video for years after it came out. I think I wore it out rewinding and listening/watching "Isn't It Midnight" over and over again. I did the same thing with "Oh Well" and "I Loved Another Woman". I've always said that if you look at Mick during "I Loved Another Woman", it looks like he's reliving a very fond memory. I imagine it being the original Mac in some London club with Peter out front, destroying the crowd with his guitar work. That's pure fantasy on my part, it's just what imagery Mick's facial expressions during that son have always evoked for me.

Ooops!! Haha!

Well since I posted a Stevie/Lindsey clip, we need a Christine/John clip to balance things out! :D

I recall John (?) saying it got physical and he made a choking gesture with his hands .. or something of that nature.

Who knows what really happened.

That seems to be the case. Mick's book I suppose is the only "source" of info on that day. ;)

I couldn't find anything on youtube pertaining to it either.

John didn't actually say that Lindsey did the choking. Later Stevie said that she ran across the room and started to strangle Lindsey and then he chased her around the car and outside and had her down on the car and that's when she told him her father and brother would kill him. Since John was describing what happened in the house, when he did the choking gesture, I thought he was referring to Stevie choking Lindsey.

Michele

Here's a youtube video of the Rock Family Trees where John does the gesture. The talk about the TITN tour starts at around 0:40. Stevie is not too happy. It seems as though she did start it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vEMZ...eature=related

Realistically, I don't think Stevie is tall enough to choke Lindsey. I thought I read somewhere that she said she grabbed his arm and it "almost got her killed" so it makes me think she said the thing about her Dad and brother after he was choking her. Also Carol Ann's book made it seem like choking was one of his moves.

I don't think she's ever described the incident outside of Rock Family Trees, when she ran over to seriously attack him.

I don't know how she did, but for the SYW tour, during Landslide, Stevie would stand behind Lindsey every night and play the piano on his shoulders. She has no trouble getting her arms up there, if she wants.

Michele

The way John acts and says, it was pretty bad!

"Oh Well" 1987 Tango in the Night Tour...

Quotes in bold/italic are my favorite!
 

http://www.elsewhere.co.nz/absolutee...h-the-in-door/

FLEETWOOD MAC IN 1987, CHRISTINE McVIE INTERVIEWED: Out through the in door

Fleetwood Mac were always a band which exploded from within. Drag out Peter Frame’s Rock Family Trees book from 1979 and check out how many incarnations there had been since July 1967, when Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, John McVie and a couple of others first launched a band bearing that name.

In less than a decade the band went through 10 separate line-ups.

Over the years, McVie and Fleetwood, the sole surviving members of the original band farewelled Peter Green (twice), Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Bob Welch and a few others along the way.

Ironically it was the incarnation with Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, which has been the most torn by internal conflicts, the most successful and the longest surviving. Twelve years in fact.

Twelve years, up until when Buckingham, literally a week before the Big Mac were due to confirm bookings for their huge post-Tango in the Night album tour in late-87, finally pulled out of the band after months of indecisiveness.

But even the departure of Buckingham, widely considered to be a major force within the group has not finished off Fleetwood Mac and somewhere in a village in North Buckinghamshire Peter Frame is clearing up his desk, filling his pen and drawing out a new family tree for Fleetwood Mac No 11 to include new members Rick Vito and Billy Burnette.

The Mac public relations company fills the new bio and press release with optimistic phrases insisting, “Fleetwood Mac is a band which has always thrived on change” and quoting Mick Fleetwood saying, “I don’t see any reason why the band shouldn’t be there for its various members to use and be a part of.”

That’s a theme Christine McVie is anxious to pick up on as she speaks from Pittsburgh, nine concerts into the massive tour which will encompass Australia and New Zealand in February/March next year before taking on Europe and possibly the Soviet Union.

“Every concert so far has been a winner,” says McVie sounding enthusiastic, “and we’re actually quite in shock ourselves of the apparent lack of concern that Lindsey’s not on the stage.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking because people expected a lot but by the time we’ve done two more weeks we’ll feel real comfortable.”

The band’s two-hour show covers all the many Mac periods, right back to the first album and talk of that allows McVie another chance to put some gloss on Buckingham’s absence.

“Between me and Stevie we have the bulk of the hit songs and in reality Lindsey only had two hits. Go Your Own Way and Big Love. The rest of the hits, in the cold light of day, were actually mine and Stevie’s.”

Buckingham’s departure was not entirely unexpected, however. As far back as 1980, he was telling the English press he was merely treading water with the band and his solitary nature meant that even on tours he kept pretty much to himself, lock away in his hotel room with his four-track tape recorder.

“Lindsey was getting very tired of the touring,” says McVie, “and after 12 years it’s fair enough. He felt the wanted to branch out and didn’t think Fleetwood Mac was an ongoing thing.

“He wanted to do a fine album and close the lid but the rest of us didn’t. We wanted to carry on touring and working and rather than wait around for Lindsey we decided it was better for him and us if we finish it.

“It was his choice to leave,” she adds.

If his departure was not unexpected after years of hints and an announced intention to quit after his production of the current album, Tango in the Night, then his timing seemed disastrous.

“After the album was finished he just flatly refused to talk about the tour. We sat around and discussed it and he said he’d tour for 10 weeks.

“We started booking halls and everything – then a week before we had to commit, he said he couldn’t.”

Despite the ensuing confusion which saw the on-again, off-again tour go ahead with Vito and Burnette, McVie feels relations between the band and Buckingham are still reasonably amicable.

“Speaking for myself, things are absolutely amicable. Hopefully he and I will work together on my solo stuff because I have great respect for him as a musician and I don’t have any particular axe to grind at all.

“I’ve got to say though, and Stevie would tell you this as well, that it’s largely friction between those two that has been a real problem.”

Without prompting, McVie reveals other in-house matters when talking about those few minutes backstage in Kansas City earlier this month before their first live concert in five years.

“We gave each a big hug and said, ‘Have a good gig’. And it’s been fantastic every night so far.

“It’s a very energetic show. John had somewhat of a drinking problem but he’s stopped entirely now and he’s never been in better shape and doesn’t mind talking about all that either.

“And Stevie went to the Betty Ford Clinic and has completely straightened herself out too, so the whole atmosphere is one of being a lot more mature and going out to have some fun.”

If McVie seems carelessly frank in discussing the internal problems of the band, then it’s only because they’ve been aired many items before.

In New Zealand in 1980, John McVie volunteered his opinions on how much he hated recording studios, bone-bare assessments of previous band members and his drinking habits.

With McVie and Nicks now running a more stable course, and the input of the new members, Christine McVie is enthusiastic about the new Fleetwood Mac, especially the contributions of Vito and Burnette.

“Rick and Billy are having the time of their lives. They’re great musicians, great singers and really great guys.

“This is probably one of the first tours where the ambience in the band has been so wonderful. We don’t have to sneak around the coffee shop to see who’s in there and who isn’t.

“Rick has been very influenced by Peter Green who was in the original band and he’s been a Fleetwood Mac fan since its inception. We do some Peter Green material which is straight blues and that’s a nice showcase for Rick.

“Billy has a kind of rockabilly-country element and has a strong voice and replaces the Lindsey element.”

McVie says the Mac plan is to establish the new line-up in the live environment, “confront the audience and win them over and then go into the studio“.

“Billy and I have written several songs together and he and Rick are fully fledged band members and just as entitled to have their songs on albums as me and Stevie.

“Of course we’ll all be vying for space now and with four writers in the band we’ll probably have to release double albums from now on.”

Mac members, however have never been dependent on the band as a vehicle for their music. With the exception of John McVie, all of them have released at least one solo album.

Even Vito, ex-lead guitarist with Bob Seger’s band, and Burnette -- son of ‘50s rocker Dorsey Burnette and seven albums into a solo career -- expect to continue those outside activities

“The next thing is to make a Fleetwood Mac album and after that I’m thinking of doing a bluesy album for myself,” says McVie.

“It wouldn’t be straight 12-bar blues, but I’d like to use Rick because he’s such a great guitar player.”

Nobody should be holding their breath for either of those albums, however. The band is exceptionally slow in recording and Buckingham worked a marathon 17 months on Tango in the Night.

“ I write for the band once we’re in the studio,” says McVie, “because then I get a sense of what’s needed for the album. We kick off with maybe three songs and then draw from our various bags of ideas.

“We can record a song one way originally and then it ends up with a different tempo, a different bridge and so on. We’re fairly adventurous in doing just what we want to do. You have to build it like a sculpture.”

A large input into that building process fell to the now-departed Buckingham, but McVie shrugs off any suggestion that his absence will affect that end of things.

“I was pestering him all the way right by his shoulder and nothing went to Tango in the Night that we all didn’t like.

“For example, if Lindsey went too left-wing on occasions I’d tell him. It was like he was a tyrant and what he said went.”

A small dedication to Judy Wong in the album offers an interesting insight into the current Mac touring party.

“Judy was Mac’s secretary for 18 years, but now we have closed the Mac offices and so Judy became redundant. Because of our solo careers we all have our own managers, secretaries and lawyers.

“On our private plane there are 23 people and there’s a road crew of 28. There’s actually hundreds of us,” McVie laughs again. “It’s like Disneyland.”

But the Mac travelling show is up and running again and they are loving it.

“We pretty much cover the whole gamut of our career and people hardly ever stop clapping. Mick does a big bizarre drum solo on World Turning. He has a vest with drum patches so he does the solo on his chest and people don’t know where the sound is coming from. It’s very strange.

“And we’re looking forward to coming Down Under because we have got a lot of Australians and New Zealanders in the road crew who are looking forward to coming home.

“We are really loving his tour and it’s rewarding too because the audience is giving us a chance to prove we can do it all over again.

Awesome!! Loved it then, love it now!!

Thanks for posting!!

Big Love Music Video

^ I invariably spend the entire video giggling at poor Stevie, swishing her skirt without a purpose. I actually have no idea what else happens--I'm mesmerized by the swishing.

Doesn't she wear heels when she performs?