How has your fandom changed over the years

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by chiliD

As Johnny Stew pointed out, both Christine & Stevie announced their departure of the band a month prior to the end of the 1990 tour. However, one small discrepancy with his post, at the time of their announcement, neither of them mentioned the caveat of just leaving the road; they'd just announced that they were leaving outright...

Actually, everything I saw and read at the time (most notably the Entertainment Tonight piece on the band) said that both weren't going to tour anymore with the band, but would still record.

------------
Los Angeles Times (12/06/1990), The Final Stop with Fleetwood
Lesley Thode


Los Angeles Times, December 6, 1990


The Final Stop With Fleetwood

Fleetwood Mac will mark the end of an era Friday at the Forum when Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie make their last full-time appearance.

by Steve Hochman, Special to the Times

Stevie Nicks had hoped to make it to Friday night at the Forum before the tears started falling.

That's when she and Christine McVie apparently will be making their last appearance as full-time members of Fleetwood Mac. Though the two are slated to contribute to the next Mac album, the Inglewood Forum concert will mark the end of an era for a group that ruled the pop charts in the late '70s, with the two women as the public focal points.

Nicks figured that it would be Friday, during her introduction of her song "Landslide," in which she always makes a dedication to someone at the show, before the emotions of change would really hit her.

But she didn't even make it through a recent interview.

"In my heart I don't believe it is the last show," Nicks said through sobs while talking on the phone from Saskatoon, Canada, where the group was performing.

"I know that's not what everybody else has said to you," Nicks said. "We are all individuals and have our opinions, and until three years go by and I see the whole thing with no chance of getting back together, I'll never believe it's over. I really believe everything is destined, and if we're supposed to be together, we will be."

But for now, if not forever, this version of Fleetwood Mac is over. McVie, who initiated the end last summer after her father's death made her long for more time with her family, left little doubt about that.

"In the last few years it's been more of a band than it's ever been," McVie said in a separate phone interview from Saskatoon. "I think we spent more time laughing in the last few years than in prior years. That's one thing that's held us together.

"But when the time comes for change, you know it, you feel it," she said placidly. "Things can't go on the same as always. You go around in circles."

The emotions are weighing heavily on her too.

"I'm trying not to think about it," she said, noting that Lindsey Buckingham, who joined the group with Nicks in 1975 and left two years ago, may join in for a song or two at the Forum. "(Friday's concert) is going to be such a heavy gig. Practically everyone we've ever known from time immemorial will be there. It's going to be nerve-wracking and emotional. It would be silly to spoil the show just for that."

The women's contrasting attitudes serve as perfect illustrations of just what Fleetwood Mac will be losing after the show: For 20 years McVie has been its self-described "Mother Earth"; for 15 years Nicks has been its angel, Gypsy or space-cadet, depending on one's perspective.

One or the other has written and sung virtually all of the group's most popular songs: McVie's "Don't Stop" and "Say You Love Me," Nicks' "Rhiannon," "Dreams" and "Gypsy." In terms of the group's image, their loss may be the greatest ever for a band in which personnel change has been the order, even more so than the losses of founder Peter Green in 1970 and creative linchpin Buckingham two years ago.

"I would have to say this is our biggest challenge, in no uncertain terms," said drummer Mick Fleetwood, 43. He and bassist John McVie are the lone survivors of the original Mac, which began in London in 1967. "But without sounding at all blase about the subject, it's a decision that's come in a pleasant way, and it's understandable," Fleetwood said, also speaking from Saskatoon. "Each, for their own reasons, basically wants more time to herself. And, God knows, both of them have given so much to Fleetwood Mac through the years."

What each plans to do with her time is as different as their personas. McVie, 47, has her eye on six months of rest with her husband and songwriting partner, Eddie Quintela.

"I can't really think more than six months ahead now," she said. "But I imagine we'll go into the studio in August to do the new Fleetwood Mac album. And we bought a 400-year-old house in Kent, England, that needs a lot of restoration. And then maybe I'll take a year and start a solo project and write intermittently."

In contrast, Nicks, 42, has a workaholic schedule, concentrating on her already successful solo career.

"I'm booked into the studio Feb. 1 to do two new songs for a greatest-hits package," she said. "And then I'd like to take a month and do about 15 solo concert dates. Then after that I'll come back and do a new solo album and tour. I figure I've got about a year and a half of solid work."

Meanwhile, Fleetwood Mac will go on.

"There will always be a Fleetwood Mac as long as Mick and John are around," said Christine McVie.

With singer-guitarists Rick Vito and Billy Burnette having joined when Buckingham left, and no hard feelings regarding the exits of McVie and Nicks, this may be the smoothest transition yet for the Mac.

But Fleetwood is aware that without its two women, the group may never have the same impact and drawing power it had. He acknowledged that Friday's show may be the last time the band ever plays a venue as big as the Forum.

"One has to face the obvious that it may not be as successful," he said.

But Fleetwood is also relishing the idea of the reduced band's returning to its bluesy roots and being able to just go out and play without making much of a fuss, rather than mounting the huge, grueling tours that have been the norm since the 1977 album "Rumours" became the all-time top-selling album at that time.

Still, he won't rule out McVie's and/or Nicks' guesting at future shows. And there's even the possibility of a 25th-anniversary show in 1992, with all the past and present members--including Buckingham, Green, Bob Welch and Danny Kirwan--invited to play.

One thing that Fleetwood seems to have ruled out, though, is replacing Nicks and McVie. And he promises that the new Mac will not be a nostalgia band with Burnette and Vito singing the hits associated with the two departing singers.

"This is going to be a new Fleetwood Mac," he said. "I don't think there's any other way of approaching it. It would be like ending up in a Holiday Inn: 'Hi. I'm Mick Fleetwood, and this is "Dreams."'"
------------

Originally Posted by chiliD

Fleetwood Mac had a complete album entitled Another Link In The Chain finished (sans Christine) in early 1994.

Christine was part of the project from the gitgo. Billy, OTOH, was the last one on board, having left in March, 1993, but coming back by October or November of that same year.



------------
The Times (07/22/94), The Mac is Back
Lesley Thode


The Times of Northwest Indiana, July 22, 1994

The Mac is Back
by Nancy Nau Sullivan

Mick Fleetwood likes to say: "The Mac is back."

The band that took a pretty rough detour is back on tour, and fans can welcome Fleetwood Mac when they make a stop here Tuesday, July 26, at the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville.

"We're just happy that Fleetwood Mac is alive and well and nurturing the creative process for a new album," said Mick Fleetwood during a telephone interview from Green Bay, Wisc. "After 10 shows on the tour I can see that people are loving what we're doing. We're not doing Stevie Nicks songs. We have the green light to do what we want."

And that new chapter means picking songs from the original ranks of Fleetwood Mac music that are not all "highly personal" signature songs, he says. "We're digging into some of the old blues."

Fleetwood doesn't seem to be one of those introverted artists. He likes to talk. And a live performance has always held magic for the group through a 25-year career and up a mountain of 40 million record sales.

This tour is partly a test of the chemistry of songs off a new album (as yet unnamed), which will appear next spring. "Some say that's a risky proposition, to put a band out on the road before you've got an album to promote. But we were itching to play, and we've never been ones to bow to convention anyway."

Hardly conventional, the English drummer from London is "a gypsy" and "a traveling alien" in the United States for 20 years--after growing up as a military brat in the Royal Air Force, he says. A longtime resident in and out of Los Angeles, Fleetwood says the band will be moving on after the tour ends in October and they will relocate on the east coast.

"We'll move away from LA. It's that time, and it's never been home, home there. Professionally it's time to leave," says Fleetwood.

In LA, Fleetwood says he went through the "usual disasters," such as divorce and the earthquake. "I'm a sun worshipper and we have the best weather in the world, if you discount some of the air quality."

The new direction will also include his soon-to-be bride, Lynn Franko, with whom he plans to open a blues club in Alexandria, Va., where Fleetwood has a home.

Once out east, he and band members will become ensconced in studio work to produce their first album in four years.

At 47, he is awaiting word on the birth of his first grandchild, and the energy and enthusiasm in his voice for a new life is catchy. That old life was "a nightmare"--one he left nearly three years ago, he says. "It's no secret I was a raging alcoholic and into drugs. I don't recommend it because it's a losing deal, and I'm blessed to be out of it. I have my health and I'm facing things head on. I've become a better person."

At 16, Fleetwood had dreams of starting a band, and in 1967, he went off with guitarist Peter Green (no longer with them) and John McVie (the "Mac" in the name and still their famed bassist) to make a start in London. The following year they were outselling the Beatles all over Europe.

"We were just a bunch of kids with a strong affinity for blues music," he says. "We were blues fanatics and that's how it started. Pure blues, not pop."

In 1972, the fireworks started when Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band, and the string of hit albums and singles in the late 70s and in the 80's started coming, including "Fleetwood Mac" (Will You Ever Win), "Rumours" (You Make Loving Fun, Don't Stop and Dreams) and "Tusk" (Sara and Hold Me).

But now it seems the band is going full circle, with a return to some of that blues sound, he says. Bekka Bramlett, with her "bluesy voice," is the new featured vocalist, replacing Stevie Nicks, who is on her own and on tour with a new album.

Vocalists and guitarists Dave Mason and Billy Burnette are also along with Fleetwood and John McVie. Christine McVie, former wife of John, has become a sort of "artistic director emeritus" of the band, says Fleetwood of the group's longtime song writer and vocalist. "She'll wander in and out. She's earned the right to do that. She has a very real creative input in the studio." And she will work on the new album, although she is not making the tour.

"We're living well, and we're blessed," says Fleetwood. "People say how on earth can you do this. But it is possible." He says he wants to "stay out of the dark and follow the white light."

Hey, that sounds like a song.

BREAKOUT

Tickets to see Fleetwood Mac at 8 p.m., Tuesday, July 26, are $23, available at the Star Plaza box office, Route 30 and I-65. Or call (219) 769-6600 or (312) 734-7266. Tickets may be purchased through Ticketmaster.
------------
(Note: I'm just reposting. Lots of wrong things, like "We're not doing Stevie Nicks songs." Hmmm, so what was "Gold Dust Woman" again? I guess that must have been added later. But, even if they didn't do GDW, there still would have been too many old songs, Mac or Mason.)

As for the delay, from what I've heard, Mick Fleetwood and Dave Mason didn't feel like they were getting their sounds right, and ended up spending like $1 million more on the album. They basically spent the money WB was going to use for promotion.