The Ledge - Mac having a ball (article)

Thanks to Tracy at burnish!

http://news.com.au/common/story_page...5E2682,00.html

The Mac is back and having a ball
By Music Writer LAUREN McMENEMY
March 3, 2004

THEY hit at twilight, an extended drumbeat opening into a lone guitar riff; a figure in long flowing gown silhouetted in the dim light.

A scarf moved in the gentle breeze, the lights came up, and Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham kicked into harmony.

In the words of one of their greatest hits, you can never break the chain – and the 13,000 Fleetwood Mac fans assembled on the hallowed turf at Adelaide Oval were more than thankful for that.

The legendary band had finally returned to Adelaide – and even the mosquitoes came out to see them.

"Adelaide, beautiful city, welcome!" said Nicks warmly after the band finished off The Chain.

Later, Buckingham would give a brief history of how the most enduring line-up of the ever-changing band would come to be, adding: "It's been a long and mostly strange trip, but the point is, here we are."

Fleetwood Mac has been in Australia for about a month, wowing interstate crowds with 2 1/2-hour shows featuring all the hits that made them famous, along with a smattering of tunes from their reunion album of last year, Say You Will.

There was Tusk, Second Hand News, Rhiannon, Gypsy, Go Your Own Way, Say You Love Me . . . the list goes on.

And all of it sounded like the last 20 years never happened: it's 1977, and the seminal Rumours album has just been released.

Mick Fleetwood and John McVie are still there in trademark hats and waistcoats, Nicks still has the long, flowing blonde hair and tambourine, Buckingham still has the guitar tricks that made critics swoon.

Christine McVie may be absent from the reunion, but she was replaced by what seemed like a cast of thousands. Yet when the band stripped back to essentials – as when Buckingham and Nicks sang Landslide, more recently a hit for the Dixie Chicks, alone on the massive stage – they were at their most potent.

But perhaps the look on Fleetwood's face whenever he was on the big screen summed up the feeling in the 2004 model Fleetwood Mac: eyes wide, grin from ear to ear. These guys were having a ball.

SYLM? Really? :rolleyes: