Manchester Online, review of 2nd Manchester gig

[Les]

Manchester Online, December 4, 2003

Fleetwood Mac's second night @ MEN Arena
by Lizzie Gething

http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/en...ory=75025.html

AFTER a marathon two-and-at half hour performance the night before, you could be forgiven for thinking that aging rock legends Fleetwood Mac would not have the stamina to put on a second equally energised show at the MEN Arena.

But from the opening bars of The Chain to the second encore Goodbye Baby the band put in a spirited performance. While Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, the founders of the band, kept things tight at the back, a surprisingly fit and young looking Lindsey Buckingham and the original hippy chick Stevie Nicks led from the front.

At the beginning of the night Buckingham said Fleetwood Mac have had a “somewhat difficult and always a strange trip”. Considering what the band have been through in the past 30 years, this was something of an understatement. But although the set revolved around the classic Rumours, the second-biggest selling album ever made, new songs from Say You Will, which hit the shelves in April, more than held their own in the line-up and made it clear this was a night for looking to the future.

From the new album Peacekeeper and Come were both catchy and double-edged, while during Say Goodbye, you could almost feel the chemistry between Buckingham and Nicks.

The band let much of the music – especially classics such as Tusk and Dreams - speak for itself, although there was some spontaneous banter when Buckingham ordered two men fighting in the crowd to “stop it, get out of here” with Nicks adding “how dare you, get out of our concert”. The crowd’s reaction almost matched the cheers at the end of legendary hit Go Your Own Way.

This is the first time the Rumours line-up (minus Christine McVie) has toured since 1988. And when Fleetwood returned to the stage for the first encore – Don’t Stop – a fleeting moment of nostalgia spread across the crowd. It was almost as if many of them hoped the band never do.