Thoughts on the 2018/19 Tour?
 

Briefly
What I liked:
1. Seeing Fleetwood Mac again....possibly for the last time.
2. Deep cuts-Hypnotised, Black Magic Woman, Man of the World, Tell Me All the Things You Do, Hold Me and Isn't It Midnight.
3. Not having to hear Big Love, I'm So Afraid, Never Going Back again(slow version) and the speech that introduced Big Love.....
4. Mike's Guitar playing

What I didn't like:
1. Outdoor venues (in Europe)….this is an arena band
2. Dropping so many deep cuts from the set
3. Free Fallin' and the whole TP screen visuals …..has no place in a Fleetwood mac concert. It says it all when many raved about this song being the highlight of the show......sad!
4. Knowing what happened with LB...…

So there!
How was it for you?

I'm a fan of all incarnations of the band. In fact, I became a fan by the Tango-video with Rick and Billy. Had nu clue who LB was .... yes, I got to know his work and he is fantastic. Then, I'm not a pathetic fan who blames the other band-members of what happened. They all have their temper and we don't know what really happened. Besides, at their age ... I respect every decision one makes. Life teach you to do what's good. Not the sentiment of so called fans.

So, I expected them not to come to Europe at first, so I booked a flight to NYC to see them in MSG (and Newark as well).

To me, they sounded great. Mike and Neil fitted in well. The setlist was a bit safe and could have had more gems from their back-catalogue. But, I enjoyed every minute. The finale encore with Stevie and Christine was just fantastic. Yes, their voices have aged, but I do not care ...

Saw them again eventually in Belgium. Yes, big outdoor-festivals. I guess that didn't want to do a long arena-run in Europe as well. But this was ok (since I was on front-row).

I'm glad I saw this line-up three times. Yes, LB was a missing link. But I do not have any hard feelings.

Next Stop: the Peter Green tribute in Londen ...

What I like:

-All Over Again song what a really great surprise!!!!With Free Falli'/Hypnotized/Storms/Man of the world/Tell me songs are the best things from this tour
-Finally no Stand Back in Mac setlist

What I dislike:

-Boring Boring setlists always the same songs...I hoped in new Line-up they've more fantasy or courage to take new ways....nothing ALL ALWAYS THE SAME.
-Too many words around new line-up I'm no happy about the decision to take out Lindsey but they are 5 old unwise persons and we can do nothing if they are so stupids.
During 1987/1994 line-up no many bad comments like in these last two years....these are the Fleetwood Mac like or no are these.The only interested for me is the music nothing else,I prefer Rumour line-up but is from 2003 they sang always the same songs and most of the fans want they sing the same songs UNFORTUNALY.

I continue to love the Fleetwood Mac always but I think are at the end of street....unfortunaly....

I liked the show I went to, which was sold out and full of enthusiastic fans. Some shakeups in the setlist were good, but at my show we did not get All Over Again, which I had been waiting for. The new guys were great and everybody loved Finn's two songs from his back catalogue. Stevie was her usual self, the voice stays the same. The most positive thing was the on-stage mood, they all seemed happy and working as a team. All in all, I would see them again and give any new music from this group a chance.

Hahah my thoughts on this tour:

What happened to the amazing set lists that they were going to do? Now that Lindsey is gone they would be free at last to do the amazing set lists they were never allowed to do!!!

Oh and all of the new music that was going to be created together now that they were a new band! Everyone would be happy to create new music together....haha more BS straight out of Mick’s mouth.

LOL I guess all I can do is chuckle to think so many people were willing to buy into their “new band” defense when in reality not much really changed beyond a Tom Petty cover and the usual dose of bitterness. They got rid of “the big bad wolf” and they still have no interest in being a band beyond a greatest hits jukebox.

But hey they knocked themselves out with ANOTHER greatest hits box set AND another re-release of Rumours!! There’s that new music for ya!!!!

I did not see this tour so take my comments with a grain of salt. I never bought into the "new" members as being a new band or anything permanent. This BIG tour was talked about for years and had to go on for everyone to make 10 million. I was very impressed when the set list was released and songs like Hypnotized and Isn't it Midnight were in the set. But they did not last very long and the band quickly went back into their "safe zone."
I did not care for the "don't dream its over" sing alongs and Stevie needing to sing the song so fans would not run for the bathroom. I think the Tom Petty tribute was a bit overboard. Just playing a Petty song is quite the tribute. It sort of turned into a Stevie solo concert at that point very similar to what she did for Prince during her 24K Gold shows.
I am glad Lindsey got paid even for not having to play one note. The entire Lindsey termination really soured me on the band. To be honest if one of their songs come on the radio, I turn the channel. I will listen to Go Your Own Way though.
Now the tour is over, they must all look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves if it was really worth it. Believe it or not, these people are so shallow that I would not be surprised to see Lindsey back with the band at some point. Maybe not a world tour but playing in some way. And yes (pass the vomit bag please) a Lindsey/Stevie Landslide sing along with those "genuine" hugs and kisses at the end. As for the "new" guys, they made a ton of money and will go back to what they like. As much as Lindsey was disrespected, lets NOT forget Rick and Billy. They truly are the "Johnny Bravo's" of Fleetwood Mac at least until the new ones showed up ;) They fit the suit until they were no longer needed anymore.

The highlight for me was Stevie singing Black Magic Woman, which was unexpectedly great. But overall I was disappointed by the same old setlist. I brought a friend who is only a casual fan and they seemed bored the whole time. LB brought a lot of energy and without him everyone seemed on autopilot.

Agree about Rick and Billy! They really 'saved ' the band back in '87- '90......and they were responsible for THREE blues era songs which came into the set - and remained there!

What I Like:


1. Opening Night Setlist was phenomenal and absolutely lived up to the band’s hype. **** see #2 in dislikes
2. Black Magic Woman is maybe the single best full band live performance from this century. Stevie does an incredible job, but the star of the song and probably the whole show is Christines piano solo.
3. Free Falling
4. All Over Again Done How it was was the perfect show closer
5. Lindsey’s Solo Show!!!! I know the runour (straight from Lindsey)was he was going to tour solo in-between shows but there’s no way he could’ve put as much into his shows and definitely wouldn’t have had as many dates if he was on the Fleetwood Mac tour. And it was by far his best solo tour in my opinion. So I consider his solo shows a huge PRO for this topic.
6. It’s Over!!!!! Above all else right now, the biggest pro is it’s finally over and not continuing into 2020. I stand by the idea of this tour and line up having a lot of promise. The execution just wasn’t there for the most part.


What I don’t like:

1. The setlist beyond the first few shows was still above average. By the end of the US tour I would say it was below average and by the time they hit Europe and dropped TMATTYD and All Over Again it was the biggest 180 in the band’s touring careers and went from phenomenal opening night to probably their most pathetic excuse for a set list to date!
2. *****Go Your Own Way. The one blip in the original set list was the fact that they left Go your own way as the set closer. This was mind boggling stupid and lazy. What a let down after Gold Dust Woman to end the show with this anemic version of Go Your Own Way. For the record I don’t think GYOW has even been a great closer with Lindsey personally but I can at least understand why it’s the closer when he’s there. Second Hand News is equally lousy but it’s not
masquerading as the grand finale of the show!
3. The lack of any change up in arrangements with even one of the hits.

The fact they still practically close the show with one of LBs songs just goes to show how imbedded he is in the backbone of this band. I, for one am hopeful the crackhead dance will now be retired, at least publicly. Stevie can perform it in her living room for Karen and Lily

I didn’t see the tour in person, but the whole thing kinda reeked of impersonal mass-audience spectacle, even by Fleetwood Mac standards. I loved the fact that the band threw in some of those left-field songs, such as “Tell Me All the Things You Do,” “Hypnotized,” “Monday Morning,” and “All Over Again.” Apparently, some of them didn’t last long, but at least the band tried, and perhaps gave up on them too soon. (In a show filled with sing-alongs and hits, what is so bad about a few songs that slow things down a bit?) I saw a video of “Hypnotized” and I was really pleasantly surprised at how subdued, personal, and tuneful it sounded.

It’s always been my contention that I don’t care what the band actually plays, so long as it’s performed with emotion and commitment and New Wave-ish Talking Heads-ish style — that’s what I remember for decades afterward. I don’t remember the hundreds of recent times they’ve done “Dreams” or “Don’t Stop” with their onstage battalion of mercenaries and hardware. I remember the way the five of them used to attack “What Makes You Think You’re the One” with such dingaling ferocity and devilish charm, like in this performance from Alabama in August 1980. Of course, that Fleetwood Mac isn’t this Fleetwood Mac, today, I realize full well. But in light of that, it doesn’t matter what’s in the set if they’re just doing a Celine Dion show. Unless they’re tightly wound and about to blow, they’re nondescript.

Apart from “Hypnotized,” I think “Landslide” worked the best. Stevie gives that song more poignancy every year she sings it.

I did not go to any of their shows but watched a lot of it on youtube so here's my reply fwiw.

What I liked:
NOTHING. I don't think they should have brought in MC & NF. If anything, Billy & Rick were a much better fit.

What I didn't like:
Lindsey not being there. The chain has been broken. He's got so much energy & passion, that was sorely missed.
Stevie's and Christine's vocals just hurt my ears (and my heart). They're too old.
The back up band is much bigger than the band so basically people went to see a back up band.
The crack head dance. The first time I saw it I thought she was having a stroke...

I enjoyed it, but I saw it early on. The Louisville show was probably my favorite setlist ever. I thought Neil and Mike were great. I’m not saying it was the Mac at their best, but as mentioned earlier, those days ended sometime in 1980. That said, ditching the prerecords and at least showing a willingness to play the deeper cuts impressed me.

I actually saw them.

What I liked:
1. The new guys did a great job.
2. Not so many excessive guitar solos.
3. The overall feeling of friendship and calm on stage.
4. That everyone was enjoying themselves, especially Stevie.
5. The blues songs they digged out. The highlight "Black Magic Woman".
6. That they did not use canned music.

What I didn't like:
1. I feel that Lindseys songs should not have been played. That was respectless and should have been beyond that band.
2. Who cares about Split Ends or whatever Neills band was called. Same for "Free Falling", it's a FM concert after all and they have enough good material on their own.
3. The people who did not even bother to see a show and still post their naturally pointless opinions in this thread. DUH!

Maybe if you actually WENT to some of their shows, you'd have seen how happy, happy, happy Stevie is, now that she finally got rid of Lindsey. You also would have seen how calm everything is now that the monster is gone and how superior the quality of the show is with Campbell and Finn on the band, instead of that useless Buckingham.

Believe me, it's not the same to see a show on YouTube that actually being there. Stevie's smiles are wider. Way wider….. :lol::lol::lol::lol:

What I liked:
1. That it's finally over.

What I didn't like:
1. That it exists.

Love this!

I have to admit this really cracked me up.

The problem with FM is that for decades they have mainly played it safe with respect to the set lists. The people who were saying Lindsey stopped them from playing pre 75 material made me laugh. If that was the case then why for 10 years (87-97) did they only do a a total of 4 PG era songs during the 3 tours they did without Lindsey. They were fine doing cover songs from Traffic, Dorsey Burnette, SN, John Lennon etc but couldn't do a single Danny Kirwan, Jeremy Spencer or Bob Welch song?

This last tour was pointless. I mean what was the point? They had ZERO reason to be on tour if they were not going to do new music or drop most of the tried and true in their show. Most of the deep cuts were dropped once they saw the reactions from the casual fans. Plus the Tom Petty cover and tribute has to be one of the dumbest things FM ever did ( and they have done some pretty stupid things over the years). Tom Petty was someone I respected and was an idol of mine, but he had NOTHING to do with FM. The band is is now 50 plus years old and instead of honoring the members who are no longer with us they would rather pay tribute to someone who did nothing to contribute in the band's 50 plus years. The fact that some fans see nothing wrong with that is head scratching to me but I guess some people just love the band and will overlook anything as long as SN is there.

I agree also with the comments about the vocals . SN and CM are too old and their voices are pretty well shot. Time to retire.

Right.

If this was truly to be their last tour and an homage to legacy, it should have been an homage to their OWN legacy as a band.... pics on the big screen of various incarnations of the band. It seems like they did try some PG songs and BW songs (didn't I see vids of Neil singing Hypnotized?) but dropped it. Stevie's all about the money, and that's partly because she's been groomed that way over decades by her management. I recall LB saying that when Irving took over managing him his only focus was on how many seats didn't get sold on tours (not that a manager shouldn't worry about that on behalf of an artist, but it shouldn't be the only thing, either.) As much as Stevie goes on and on about no one being the boss of her but her, and her mom teaching her to be the boss blah blah blah in reality she's handed over decision making about her career to a series of men (women, not so much because, well, they're women. But she's a feminist!) who really didn't get who she was but just saw her as a cash cow. And she's leaned well into that.:distress: the only person who ever pushed back on her about that was LB. Hence, he was the problem. And now that her team is running the band, it's more of the same.... whatever sells, however bogus.

Bwah! :lol: Same.

Those are the same people that have no idea who Peter Green was until Lindsey was fired. Then, they started using Peter Green as an excuse to explain that Lindsey was not the first guitarist in the band, so it was no big deal if he was gone. :lol:


The point was to make Stevie happy without Lindsey. I doubt she succeeded. No matter what her fans say. :rolleyes:


I see it more as Lindsey hate than Stevie love. They don't want to accept the fact that this tour sucked without Lindsey. They just loooove Peter Green and all those inadequate covers. :rolleyes:

I'd tuned out from Fleetwood Mac when this tour happened because of the Lindsey situation, but just reading about it now, credit to the band for the setlist they started the tour with, it's the most creative I've seen in years.

Oh Well, Black Magic Woman, Tell Me All The Things You Do, All Over Again, Hypnotized, Isn't It Midnight, Storms. All in the first night setlist. And then Man of the World & Blue Letter later in the tour.

Obviously the reaction in the arenas meant they had to drop some of these as there's no point playing them if the audience tunes out whilst it's being played. But at least they tried, way more than they have on recent tours.

They did Blue Letter once in Australia. I'm surprised that was dropped. It was on a number one album in the US. I wonder why they didn't play it during the fall run of 2019 in US.
While they did play rare songs, I was happy to hear Storms, Beautiful Child, Sisters of the Moon, Oh Well, Bleed to Love Her, Think About Me, Know I'm Not Wrong,
Without You, & Don't Let Me Down Again (done once I recall) from 2003-2015

Plus Seven Wonders as well. They did a few rarities but the last tour, on the first night, was the most in ages.

Yes, the opening night and the first handful of shows had a lot of surprises.

I wish Stevie had more singing full songs other than duets (Don't Dream, I Got You, All Over Again) and covers. Though it's too bad she doesn't do You Wreck Me; that was my fav cover she did. I was curious why she chose Storms rather than Beautiful Child or Angel. Storms was done 9 years earlier. Beautiful Child was done 12 years before 2018.

I've always wondered why she never did Angel again with FM after the Tusk tour, it would still suit her voice. After the 2013 tour we'd had the 4 others off Tusk in the recent past, I was really hoping Angel would came back.

She could sing it well today. Maybe she didn't bring it back because she used "ghost through the fog" in a recent song, Ghosts Are Gone.

Stevie liked the song. She performed it during the first month of Wild Heart shows. It would have been a great song to have pulled out during On With The Show. OMG, I LOVE Sisters of the Moon but the On With The Show version was a joke. It lost all of its punch and was a waste of time. Angel would have been fantastic.

I always figured we would get around to Angel. We had “Beautiful Child.” We had Storms. I always felt that Angel was just a tour away. Now we’ve run out of time.

The Angel lyrics are every bit as iconic as the Dreams or Rhiannon lyrics,

They definitely got reused a lot more then lyrics from Dreams or Rhiannon

Although don't forget that Stevie titled one of her numerous collections "Crystal Visions."

Stevie is very much a leitmotif kinda gal. She endlessly reuses stray phrases of hers that, I suppose, she thinks are deep, rich poetic tropes. She plunders her work like a South African diamond mine.

The "Stand Back" compilation that was released when she was inducted in to Hall... I think she had nothing to do with that. If she did, I think for sure Touched by an Angel & Moonlight would've been on it, which I think she said are her favorite songs.

I'm glad I didn't go to see them at Wembley...if they had played a smaller venue here in the UK and the really deep cuts (Hypnotised, Tell me all the things you do and All Over Again spring to mind) had survived in the set by then, and Man of the World had made its entry by then I might just have been regretting not going, but with the general shallowness of the Stevie-centric audiences, that was not going to happen. Kudos to the band for at least having the cojones to try wheeling them out to a crowd, 95% of which would be going "wtf?".

On the plus side, it's still the Mac. I kind of liked some of the different guitar licks that Mike Campbell brought to some of the familiar tunes. Neil Finn's voice occasionally sounded quite Lindsey-esque but he's too much of a talent to be a surrogate for him. I would have physically choked on irony were I at a gig where he sang "Someone has taken my place". Mick and John are still great together, but Christine sometimes struggled. A couple of new songs (an album would still be interesting to hear but I'm not holding my breath) would have cemented the new line-up a little in my mind.

I suppose rows and splits form this band's DNA, but it all feels like an unsatisfactory end, if that is indeed where we are now at. There's very little time left to keep going forwards but looking back. Personally, at least I have the memories of the 2015 tour, and the lineup that I waited 28 years to see since becoming a fan..

A sad cash grab, fake band, horrible way to end a career. They are getting WAY too long in the tooth to keep this up. Christine sounds AWFUL now and anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial.

They really need to hang it up. NONE of them have any kind of voice left. The backup singers are singing all the choruses, which is pathetic.
Lindsey's gone.
Voices are gone.
Their youth, err, middle age, is gone. Four doddering old fools, clinging to fame like their last breath depended on it.
What a sad ending...

And Lindsey too, who cannot sing and relies on prerecorded tracks.

Before you get all defensive, I wasn't excluding him from my statement. NONE of them have any voice left.

Lindsey should pair up with an amazing young singer/player, and let them do most of the singing. An amazing guitar player still needs to shine.

What old $tevie got? Wobbling around on stage, shaking some tambourine that has the jingles taped down?:lol::lol::lol:
I've got video of her ATTEMPTING to sing EO17 on New Year's Eve, when Keith Urban started "the riff", and $he shook her head no. It's AWFUL.

What Christine got? Can barely even hold organ chords any more, and has no voice left.

Mick, John and Lindsey's guitar playing are the only gifts they have left.

Is Lindsey "not singing" in this video at the age of 69?
https://youtu.be/dTCG0EMx2oc

When you say he can't sing and "relies" you sound like he has no talent. Why did Fleetwood Mac do three of his songs during their 2018-2019 Tour? I went to three shows and LB's songs didn't sound better with Mike, Neil, and Ricky playing them.

They all have talent. None of them can sing anymore. They have all contributed to FM. Chris and Stevie are (were) gifted songwriters and singers who balanced each other's strengths and weaknesses. Lindsey is a remarkable studio wizard and guitarist.