Is there anywhere here who is not taking sides?
 

I’m a huge Fleetwood Mac fan. I love them all. Just saw Lindsey solo
In Atlantic City this weekend. Fantastic show! If Stevie announces a tour tomorrow, I’ll be getting tickets to that as well. I’m just wondering, is there anyone else who feels the way I do?

It’s just so sad... all of this. I’m just trying to enjoy the music!

Taking sides here. Stevie ruined the ending of the band of my life, by getting Lindsey fired. Completely done with her!

Hi, Christopher. I remember you! As a fan, I’m sort of an ambulance chaser. I enjoy the titillation of hearing all the squalid details. I love listening to the (old) music and discussing it with all of you, but I’m not hugely invested in anything and don’t get fairly tormented by any of it — unless I get drawn into it on a personal level. Otherwise, I’m inclined to want to play my small part in making everyone else’s day nice.

I don’t have as much interest as I used to have in the current music of the members, but that’s my esthetic response to what I consider bloated stage shows and album filler. The new Lindsey CD is a “fascinating parade of sounds,” as Noel Coppage described Tusk in Stereo Review in 1979, but since 1982, his work has sometimes felt desultory to me. Mick and John still sound great in the studio without all the live claptrap drowning them out. Some pre-1975 cuts from the Mac have the enduring power of Rumours, to my ears. What I love the most is all this exciting live audio flooding the market — it’s nostalgia for me and I hope it continues for years.

Not choosing sides. That's an interesting concept. I like it.

I am not taking sides. But like an umpire calling balls and strikes, I call 'em as I see 'em. I dont think that is taking sides. Stevie had a brilliant career. She even took one for the team (Fleetwood Mac) by sticking with them when Lindsey left. She definitely is a bit crazy and always was. But her bizarre actions this late in her career are mind blowing. I think Lindsey is right. I really do believe she is still in love with him and in her old age she has never gotten over it and she has lost control with her ego. I really thought she would be jumping at the chance to make an album with Chris again. Chris could have been a buffer and everyone would have known it was the last Fleetwood Mac album. I mean why ask Christine back just to tour? So why so bitter at the last years of your career? I think this is her built up anger post Rumours finally showing up. I would have thought she would be over it and mature. Wrong.
Is that taking sides?

No I don’t take sides…
though I can understand why Stevie is not liked.
I will buy Lindsey’s new Album and wish Stevie would put some vault stuff together, ( she cannot write new songs) and I would buy that.
I have over the last 3 years begun to dislike what Stevie has become and the crap with Lindsey made me cry.

I’ve been a fan of this band since 1967.
And that’s what I am….a fan of Fleetwood Mac, a fan of their music.
That doesn’t mean the drama isn’t fun now and then.

And I would like them to get together for one last huge concert (or 3,or 4)
But not to tour that would be far too stupid

I saw FM and Lindsey in November 2018 and both shows were incredible. Being a fan of the band and the individual members is the best of both worlds.

You won’t have much luck finding a lot of impartiality here lol. Things got pretty (predictably:lol:) negative after the firing. The population in general around here is way down and those people who still come on here are pretty much all in the firmly anti-Stevie camp. And like a tiny minuscule amount of pro-Stevie people who pop in to defend her once in a blue moon. But by and large most Stevie fans (and FM fans that are just sick of drama in general) packed up and left a while back. Hence why Steve board never really has anything going on on it anymore.
You’d probably find more balance in like FM/BN Facebook groups or something.

I´m not taking sides. I wouldn't go to a concert of anyone. Solos or the band, their voices are not worth it anymore.

I agree. My last live show was Lindsey’s best of tour. I will buy new music but I’m done with the live shows. 43 years of live shows…..I’m done.

Disagree.

HUGE Stevie fan here, her past work was and will always be an important part of my life and memories but I am not a Stevie sycophant -- she's changed over the years and she has contributed to the downfall of the band creatively and to the cynical money-grabbing-at-all-costs attitude. Being a fan doesn't mean you have to love everything about a performer or everything they put out. Calling out bs when it's blatantly obvious is not "hating". But alas, in today's culture anything short of blind, drooling adoration is "hating".
I'm a fan of the band above all else, and even the members know (or used to) that they are all better together than separately (which is probably a big part in why they hate each other).

Like others have said, the ongoing drama of this bunch is entertainment in and of itself, and for me at least, provides a nice diversion from real work which requires me to actually think about real stuff. The reality show insanity that is this band is a rather mindless way of passing 20-30 mins and I mostly enjoy it. I don't take most of it that seriously one way or the other. But I remain fascinated by which turn they'll take next.

Maybe they are together in a parallel universe
 

If the Rumours iteration of the band had been more functional and prolific over the decades, we could focus more on the music as there would be less cause or room for focusing on the politics. I like to imagine an alternative history in which the five of them consistently released an album at least every second year since 1975, rather than the scattered and paltry mess of a handful of cohesive releases up to Tango and the random array of individualistic solo albums and bloated double albums. (Nothing against double albums and solo albums per se, as long as they're in addition to, not at the expense of, consistently releasing team albums.)

John, Christine, and Lindsey are by nature more introverted and music-oriented, making it easier in their case as a fan to focus on the music. Mick and Stevie are more extroverted; yes they create and augment the music, but they also amplify and broadcast the drama.

Take the MusiCares "walk-on music" debacle.
Organizer/Azoff's position: "Use Rhiannon. It's iconic." (<-- Focus on marketing.)
Lindsey's position: "No! I don't want to define our band as a 70s jukebox." (<-- Focus on artistic perceptions.)
Stevie's position: "Fine then, I quit!" (<-- Focus on personal issues.)


The Rumours 5+Azoff are like an unstable molecule. There are few consistently defined roles and the power hierarchy is not functionally stable. Different individuals and camps at any given time are pulling in different directions.

Of the Rumours 5, Christine is the most senior songwriter/vocalist yet she shirks a directive role, gladly delegating it to anyone Mick can drag aboard.
John has a vision for the bass line but is too reticent and disengaged to take charge of the band as a whole. Lindsey took on the bandleader role but Stevie is older than him and was always the one pushing for them to be stars. And Lindsey and Stevie have been at each other's throats since before they even joined FM in 1974, let alone every moment since then.

In an alternate universe, a more functional and productive Rumours 5 might look like this.
- Christine is more assertive and wears a producer hat.
- Lindsey is older than Stevie and stands center stage.
- Stevie learns and plays acoustic guitar at one side of the stage. The time and effort involved in learning and performing the instrument forces her to spend less time on drama.
- Lindsey allows John more room to do his flowery bass lines.
- Lindsey, Christine, and John are the core music writing team.
- Stevie and Christine are the core lyricists. (At least until mid-90s. Lindsey's lyrics abilities developed late.)
- The need for interactions between Lindsey and Stevie are limited. In case of disagreements, Christine has musical veto in deference to her seniority in the band and keen hit-making sensibilities.

I was the biggest Stevie fan, but I can't go along with her on this.

I still enjoy the old music, but Lindsey's firing makes it impossible for me to enjoy the current form of Fleetwood Mac or to enjoy much of Stevie's solo work (especially her most recent output).

I realize the band has gone through many lineups, but the Rumours lineup is what stuck and at this point in the game it's either that lineup of Lindsey-Christine-Stevie-John-Mick or the band should disband.

The last tour without Lindsey was like a cover band, and not a very good one. I won't be on board with anything unless the Rumours lineup reunites.

I operate by the principle that no conflict is ever one-sided, it comes down to accepting responsibility in order to move on. With these five iconic folks, therein lies the problem-endless finger pointing and oneupmanship has made that impossible and ruined the bands potential arguably after Mirage as Stevie severely went sideways for Tango. As we approach the 50 year mark since this all started, I don't buy the teenage wasteland coming from 70+ year olds, too cynical now to believe it isn't more about marketing. A reunion at this point does not interest me in the least as the damage was done in 2018 with the absolutely pointless line up change (although admittedly, I enjoyed the Mask line up 30 years ago). In 2021, I prefer to live in the past as far as the band goes, but Lindsey's new material remains interesting and fresh and does spark my interest. I don't see Stevie really creating any compelling new music, but would love nothing better to be proven wrong as she was once my icon.

I've always been a fan of Fleetwood Mac, first and foremost. The individual solo output by the band's members have never been as good as what the band put out, generally. I've always found Lindsey's solo work to be too weird and difficult to find enjoyment out of and Christine's to be too repetitive and boring. That said, I think Stevie has released one incredible album (Bella Donna) and several great songs over the years afterward. But generally, especially after Wild Heart, her albums as a whole get lost in bad 80's production and terrible vocals...for me.

What I could never stand about this band was the forced soap opera aspect and constant fawning of fans over a relationship that lasted a few years and ended before many of them were even born. I could never understand people who dressed up like Stevie or gave her, or any other celebrity for that matter, some God-like level of adoration. Back to the relationship, there was some genuine affection with The Dance between Lindsey and Stevie but it became glaringly obvious starting with Say You Will that they were putting on a show. When grown ass adults would be saying things like "THEY BELONG TOGETTTTHHHERRRRR!!!!" and obsessing at a relationship that had ended over 30 years prior, it just always made me cringe. Love the music, love the fact that their interpersonal drama led to it's creation, but both the band and the fans just at times were grossly over the top about hanging on to something that wasn't there. I guess I enjoy the natural soap opera elements, but hate the engineered fake soap elements that they kept manufacturing over the last 20 years.

I think they're all hypocritical to some degree and they seem to go out of their way to make being a fan of them difficult and exhausting. That said, one of them forcing another out, at this stage of the game, was repulsive and totally off-putting. Then they got on TV and uncomfortably lied about the reasons and the details. The story has so many holes in it that swiss cheese wasn't an apt enough comparison. The timeline between MusicCares and Mike Campbell's phone call alone has never aligned well enough to satisfy any thought I might have that this was engineered over a longer duration and leveraged the death of Tom Petty (and for that matter, Glenn Frey - because if Azoff hadn't already seen that Eagles was a viable entity without Frey he would have never gone along with a Buckingham-less Mac at this stage of the game) to make it happen. In my opinion, Stevie's behavior has become increasingly intolerable over the last decade. She has flexed her star power over a band and called the shots whilst maintaining some image as the delicate flower who big bad Lindsey kicks around and makes sad. She went from being a lovable airhead to being a cold and calculating jerk.

I would not go and see the 2018 Fleetwood Mac tour. I know it was well attended and well received by the general public. And of course, per Azoff, the highest grossing tour (funny how he neglected to factor in time value of money in his statement to make it a true comparison). As a dedicated fan of Fleetwood Mac for my entire adult life, I am not John Q. Public and have a higher expectation for what I am going to pay a lot of money to see. When the reviews all called out "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Free Fallin'" as highlights, I knew I made the right call. For that matter, I have zero interest in seeing Stevie sing "Black Magic Woman" when so many of her own Fleetwood Mac songs go unheard.

So, I guess my answer is I've taken a side. I don't think it's really as easy a Lindsey or the rest though. Lindsey's new album is decent and his show a few weeks ago was so much fun. That said, I'm still not a fan of much of his production style and I sit there and think how much better some of the songs would be within the context of Fleetwood Mac. To me it's just disappointing to see senior citizens still acting in a way that demonstrates immaturity and a real lack of appreciation for their fanbase. I'd rather they just amicably called it a day and thanked the fans and moved on.

I still love the Mac and like David said, love all these old live releases that we've been getting. I rock out to that expanded Live album release all the time and many of the live songs they put out on the Deluxe Tusk album blew my mind.