Anyone attending the concert tonight?
 

I'm SO excited to see if there are any setlist changed!

I'm getting excited and I'm not going until 22nd June.
Have a good time tonight and let us know ASAP.

not to be a "wet blanket" but I highly doubt there will be. This is Fleetwood Mac, remember...;):lol:

By "set list changes" I mostly mean Songbird and Seven Wonders. I think they still performed them a couple of times so maybe they're not permanently cut? Only time will tell (aka the next 2 hours) :lol:

Yes, hard to see how one would derive excitement in anticipation of a set list change. Very little chance of that happening.

Well, seems like Songbird and Seven Wonders really are cut permanently... Damnit. :/ Can't they remove I Know I'm Not Wrong?

Songbird was performed tonight :nod:

Just got home from the London show. I'd avoided all videos and reviews of the previous American shows so had no real idea what to expect with the five of them being reunited again. I was certainly not disappointed. They were incredible - absolutely brought the house down. Am on such a high right now, am already plotting how I'm going to get my hands on a ticket to a later London date.

I hope everyone else who was there tonight enjoyed it as much as I did and I'm excited for everyone who has it still to come :D

I understand your "high." I had the same high after the Pittsburgh show. Please give us more details :eek:

I'll post my thoughts in a little more detail tomorrow but what I will say is the vocals, harmonies were on point. And don't get me started on L's playing. Big Love was incredible. He literally made his fingers bleed tonight - he said it's the problem with having 5-6 weeks off! Everyone was buzzing when leaving the arena, full of praise for all of them. 2.5 hours of pure magic. Simply brilliant. I was overcome with emotion at the end and I'm not ashamed to admit, I may have shed a tear or two :cool::shrug:

The Telegraph Review is up already - 5 stars.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/m...aordinary.html

The Chain made for a suitably dramatic opening, showing off the restored Fleetwood Mac to full effect with that fantastic bass, thunderous drums, blood quickening guitar solo and gorgeous wall of harmonies insisting the chain cannot be broken. Going straight into You Make Loving Fun drove the point home, showcasing Christine McVie's smooth vocal and funky keyboards. "I think we can safely say our girl is back" trilled Stevie Nicks.

This tour marks the full reunion of the classic line-up, with the return of Christine McVie after 16 years. The band have become almost the definition of a heritage act in her absence, regularly touring sets of their greatest hits to nostalgic audiences, so you can't really say she was missed. But there is no doubt she restores some balance, both in musical and pop cultural terms.
Musically, she takes some of the weight off virtuoso guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, her smooth, lush pop songs softening his sharper arty edges. Flowing gems as potent as Everywhere, Little Lies and Songbird were restored to their rightful place in the centre of a Fleetwood set and for that alone audiences have reason to be grateful. But there is a sense too that the dysfunctional family is back together, healing old wounds with the balm of time and music, a message that, in itself, speaks volumes to lifelong fans.

Fleetwood Mac make much of their history of "ups and downs" as Buckingham puts it. Now that Christine is back playing again with ex-husband bassist John McVie there are three former couples on stage, if you take into account that drummer Mick Fleetwood romanced singer Nicks behind the back of Buckingham. "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," Buckingham insisted, and seemed intent on proving it with a playful yet dramatically full blooded duet with his ex on Never Going Back Again.

The soap opera has always lent a certain depth and texture to Fleetwood Mac but, frankly, a little less chatter and a little more playing would be my only suggestion. There were speeches even after the encores. Yet it feels churlish to complain. Precious few bands have contained the range of vocal, stylistic and songwriting talent of the Mac, and even the inevitable inclusion of a new song didn't start a queue for the toilets. With that taut, explosive rhythm section, Buckingham's imaginative flair, Nicks' wildcard charisma and Christine McVie's singalong soulfulness restored to the heart of the matter, there is really no way this band could be anything less than extraordinary. A lusty mass singalong of Don't Stop spoke volumes about how their audience felt about the return of the Mac.

Hello all,

Just got home and am rather zonked so I shall keep it brief, but it was sensational, of course. Such a thrill to see Christine back on stage - my first time ever. She was amazing - beautiful, stunning voice, seemed so happy.

Again some lovely acoustic instrumentals from Lindsey before the show. I spotted Peacekeeper, Red Rover, Stephanie, Sisters of the Moon and Sugar Daddy! Also something I just couldn't identify but sounded like Destiny Rules.

I had a great floor seat 9 rows back right in front of Christine. I'm tall and stood up the whole show (sorry people behind me...) but then so did everyone, so I had a great view of expressions/interaction. I have to say I was slightly apprehensive after the recent articles, and I do think there was a fair bit of tension between S&L. Not much eye contact or touching of hands, all rather cursory. Both of them were all smiles with Christine of course, but at times it was a bit like watching the Mirage video. Now I might be reading something into nothing, but it seemed to me that there was a rather heavy moment in Gold Dust Woman. In the 'did it make you cry' harmonising bit, Lindsey was sending major sideways glances at Stevie, and pointing/gesturing at her, culminating in a proper open-handed gesture on 'now tell me is it over now?'... As I say, I might have been projecting, but it looked like he was asking her directly 'are you finished with the band?'. Anyway it certainly added spice to the mix. Maybe a video will emerge and we can examine the evidence. I don't take photos or video at concerts, I'm afraid - too busy yelping and jumping up and down.

A stunning night. My highlights were You Make Loving Fun, Little Lies, Say You Love Me - pretty much all Chris's songs. Landslide was quite fast, I thought, but gorgeous and dedicated to Adele, who presumably was in the audience. Lindsey said his finger was bleeding just before Big Love... I loved Never Going Back Again, even at a glacial pace. Um, what else? Songbird was in, and was beautiful. No Seven Wonders. Silver Springs sounded a bit off... World Turning! Wonderful.

A great crowd too. What a magnificent night.

From the Telegraph review above:

"even the inevitable inclusion of a new song didn't start a queue for the toilets."

Just to clarify, there was no new song. Perhaps the reviewer had never heard I Know I'm Not Wrong before...

Yeah, I meant to comment on this. New song! We should be so lucky :rolleyes:

Were there any dancing ponies to Everywhere?
I am assuming because if its recent silver status it was received even better in London?

Haha. It's funny you should say that- during Everywhere, I turned to my friend and said I wish that they would acknowledge the dancing pony and play it on the screens.

The song was very well received, as expected. The majority of the arena was on their feet. Everywhere gets a fair bit of radio air time over here.

Christine really was wonderful tonight. So lovely to hear her songs added back into the setlist. She was beaming the whole night :D

http://38.media.tumblr.com/df1e7c808...8si8o2_250.gif http://38.media.tumblr.com/ab3d52896...8si8o1_250.gif

Also, Florence Welch and Adele both got pictures with Stevie backstage, with the LS dedication going to the latter. And Harry Styles going AGAIN clogged up my search. ;)

how many times is that so far? seems like Harry should be on the ledge!

poor baby, he seems to always completely take his time off and not play any guitar during the break so first shows back after a month+ he's bleeding all over the place. and just powers through.

I thought she was smacking him in the face at first. :lol:

Seriously. Lindsey's girls may have gotten Facetime calls with him but Stevie got a CAKE. :lol:

http://40.media.tumblr.com/de690b2f7...8si8o2_500.jpg

cute (and typical!) interaction -

https://instagram.com/p/3M-n0hHNGb/?taken-by=mthom94

It reminded me of this. Except that that was rain and this was sweat. So, yeah... Lindsey's well aware it won't help though, bless him. :D

http://33.media.tumblr.com/edc2a8cfd...8si8o1_250.gif

tour book
 

also, for anyone interested, European dates have a tour book available again, same as they did the last tour.

My goodness. That's maddening. Michele

Glad you had a good time and it's wonderful that Songbird reared it's head again. I hope it stays. I like renditions of GDW when Lindsey starts kicking his boots together and she's pointing at him, "did she make you cry, make you break down ..." Sounds like you were treated to a nice take of it yourself. Michele

I'm just checking in.

I hope you guys had a blast tonight..As its almost midnight EST DST here in Wallyworld . and almost 5 am in London as I post this message .You guys are fast asleep now and I'll wait until the morning and read the review and see the pix and vids.

Goodnight..Sweet dreams.......

If anyone is interested, I've uploaded 66 HQ images from London: http://postimg.org/gallery/qtcktcrw/

You have to double click for full size.

OH MY GOD WHAT THEY PERFORMED SONGBIRD WHAT WAAAA

I WILL DIE

I WILL DIE ON MONDAY

That is LITERALLY one of the most beautiful songs in the world. T_____T

Going to the show tonight, does Lindsey do an instrumental solo spot before the main show? If so what time does he come on? Thanks! :)

Also, I recall an announcement a while back that they'd have an opening act for the UK shows. Did that happen last night?

The answer is 'no' to the previous two questions. The instrumentals which are played are just over the sound system, and there was no opening act. If there was, not a single person remarked upon it. :D

Another review, some lines of which made me laugh FAR too much...

http://www.theartsdesk.com/new-music...-tour-o2-arena

To begin at the very bizarre ending. Fleetwood Mac, finally reincarnated as a five-piece with Christine McVie stage right on luscious vocals and keyboard, had just thrashed out a show of great finesse for two hours. It had all gone peachily. McVie was given a last lovely encore - “Songbird” – sung solo on a grand piano. It should have been the final word. Many were already going, or gone.

But after one last bow Stevie Nicks, as ever an accident in a taffeta factory, had a rambling tale to tell about McVie’s prodigal return after 16 years. This bathetic oration lasted about three minutes. Then Mick Fleetwood, perhaps refusing to cede the last word to anyone else, came out to tell one and all to “take care of yourselves and be kind to one another”.
The warring band that launched a thousand documentaries has overdosed on the talking cure. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” said Lindsey Buckingham in one of his confessionals. And of course richer. The reincarnated Mac have been touring since September – this return to the band’s first home was their 82nd date.

The McVies have the the right idea. Christine simply said it was nice to be back, while John, got up like a London dustman after a makeover, never opened his gob. You always know he’s there, though. Fleetwood Mac takes its name from its rhythm section, and last night at the O2 they were loud in the mix from the first thuds of Fleetwood’s bass drum and McVie’s iconic running bassline in “The Chain”. Too loud sometimes: “Rhiannon” should be all about Nicks but was as much about drum and bass.

The return of Christine McVie has restored Mac to equilibrium. A mulch of British rhythm and blues and San Franciscan flower power was always held in balance by the more grounded of its two songbirds. For years there’s been nothing to bridge the gap between Fleetwood’s leaning-on-a-lamppost shtick and the larval Californian gush of moon-sister Nicks and karmic old stoner Buckingham. As the first three songs rolled out from Rumours – “The Chain”, “You Make Loving Fun” and “Dreams” - the band’s three voices were back in sync. McVie’s lovely mumsy alto is still the only known antidote to Nicks’ magnificent mystical foghorn.

Rumours was, as only right and proper, at the heart of this reunion. It still casts a hell of a spell even if no one – not even the three graces on backing vocalists – had the whoomph to hit the high harmonic line in “Second Hand News”. But the oldies don’t have to be carbon copies. In the acoustic interlude, Buckingham led a clever if slightly self-indulgent reinterpretation of “Never Going Down Again”, full of slow slide vocals and delayed entrances.

Such is the giant shadow cast by Rumours that Buckingham wasn’t entirely disingenuous to mention “an album called Tango in the Night”. “Big Love”, full of inchoate back-to-the-woods all-American yowls, was prefaced by his now usual blurb about what the song meant then and means now. There are two Buckinghams, the shaman and the showman. When he wasn’t sharing the fluff in his navel, he spent the night duck-walking in skinny jeans and wigging out like a teenager, climaxing the main set with a guitar solo in which he was, basically, beating off.

There were several sniffs of the band as a work in progress. Fleetwood came to the front to bash a smaller kit for the fivesome’s not-that-great first ever single, “Over My Head”, affording a tantalising glimpse of what it would be like to see them play a club. “Landslide” – Nicks’s lovely lyrics about ageing now truer than ever - was a moment of peace in a stormy night. At the song’s end, she wiped a finger across Buckingham’s sopping brow. There was that much love in the room.

Rumours’ bloated successor Tusk was quoted. The title song, with its marching-band brass blasted out on synths, remains impressively weird. “Sisters of the Moon”, with a colour-boosted Celtic landscape on the back projection, felt like Nicks’s hippy-dippy signature. As the show entered its last quarter, you could be forgiven for assuming Christine McVie had left the band all over again. The set ended with “Go Your Own Way”, before the encore brought what many must have thought they’d been spared, Fleetwood’s demented-magus drum solo. “Don’t Stop” restored order, only for Nicks and Fleetwood to take the song’s message a little too literally with those closing speeches. Not that you should doubt the sentiment. This band has broken a lot of chains in its time. With the links back in place, they are a thing to behold.

From the Evening Standard:

Like all the best potboilers, there’s a twist to Fleetwood Mac at every turn. This time around, their wildly successful On With The Show tour sees the return of elegant 71-year-old Christine McVie (who left in 1998) rekindling the squabbling quintet’s mega-selling Seventies/Eighties line-up.

As ever, they were four very distinct individuals, plus bassist John McVie who neither moved nor spoke. His ex-wife’s Little Lies and Everywhere were sweet-natured, concise, chorus-heavy nuggets. Mick Fleetwood’s uncalled-for drum solo during World Turning included extra grunting. Nicks struggled for mobility but remained no stranger to witchy mumbo-jumbo. Lindsey Buckingham’s playing on solo showcase Big Love was a reminder of who has the group’s outstanding talent.

However, when the individuals surrendered to the collective, the evening turned celestial. Harmonies sparked off each other on The Chain; the comforting Don’t Stop and its dark twin, Go Your Own Way, were all singalong moments of adult pop perfection. But Fleetwood Mac were always strongest at their most unhinged. The deranged, daring Tusk offered demonic cackling, accordion, a percussion earthquake and wailing capable of waking the dead.

http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/m...-10280804.html

Some reviewers just don't get John, do they? I'm off to the O2 tonight. I still can't quite believe it. This is this line-up's first tour of the UK in thirty-five years and only its third tour here ever. Happy am I to be alive on such a day. All faults forgiven.

Did anyone do the VIP meet and greet with Mick? I'll be doing it at the first Manchester show and am curious how it was handled this tour.

Haha. Excellent review. A Shaman and a Showman. Wonderfully put. As were several of the onliners in this piece. Cool.

BUT SERIOUSLY.

SONGBIRD.

How is no one else freaking out over its return. o__o

And also I saw a printed set list where it wasn't on there. o__O

The show was amazing. It was well worth crossing the pond to see. They really are great players (and great actors) i was reminded that what happens during the show vs the reality of their personal interactions off stage are completely different worlds.

That being said, I would like to publically apologize for any mud I may have thrown at any member of the band, (and Karen, whom I have blamed for every single thing that has gone wrong in Stevie's life in the past 25 years, she has the toughest job and really is an amazing assistant) or any former producers. I was wrong, I was misguided by my hurt and anger and I am very sorry. I am eating crow on the Ledge.

Now ....on with the show....

Reebok

So I was so taken last night by the whole thing, I've decided that I want to see one more show in London - one of the late June dates. I only have experience buying tickets months in advance on ticketmaster or live nation. I saw a tweet last night where someone said that some good tickets had come up at the O2 box office a few hours before the show. Is this usual? Anyone got any advice on getting last minute tickets for London? I know some sites like stubhub have tickets up, but again, I have no experience of buying tickets last minute like this.

You're forgiven. Christine can do that to a person. :)

So no Seven Wonders? That's a shame, I was looking forward to hearing that live this sunday.

It's no longer on the setlist, not just crossed out either.

🎶🎤 #SetList #FrontRow #FleetwoodMac #OnWithTheShow #WorldTour #o2Arena #London #Concert #StevieNicks #LindsayBuckingham #MickFleetwood #ChristineMcVie #JohnMcVie 🎸🎵

A photo posted by Michael Hall (@s6boy91) on May 28, 2015 at 9:22am PDT