Manchester 27th October

[vivfox]

Fleetwood Mac @ MEN Arena 27/10/09

It's a funny thing about Fleetwood Mac, when I hear them I'm instantly transported to a fantasy 1970s that most likely never even existed and it's all what I imagine it was like based on stuff I've seen on TV. I'm pretty sure I'm to young to actually remember Rumours when it was originally released, so just why it has such an effect is beyond me. But I like it.

I'm not a huge Fleetwood Mac fan, and I'd never seen them live before but when I heard they were touring again I decided to get myself some tickets and check it out. The current line up is the same as the Rumours line up, but sadly minus Christine McVie and they're not promoting any new material so I knew it would basically be a greatest hits package, which suited me.

They're ****ing ancient. I swear I thought I saw Mick Fleetwood piped up to an oxygen bottle, and despite Lindsey Buckingham being full of energy he seemed to be getting a bit of gyp from a bad back. Stevie Nicks isn't exactly the siren she used to be, at one point some tight twat did shout out "Stevie ya fat git", which I thought was a bit cruel.

But they do still have it. Early in the set Nicks did a rather poor rendition of Rhiannon, and it seemed like she really wasn't going to hack it. In fact at the start of the show Nicks seemed quite absent, possibly pissed(?), and not really in the swing of things. Fortunately that was to change, maybe she just needed to warm up, or get a few shots of whiskey down her neck to lubricate the old voice box, because when she performed Sara, Landslide and Gypsy she was superb. Her distinctive vocals were spot on, she managed to carry them off brilliantly.

When you listen to Fleetwood Mac you really get a sense of the individual personalities within the group, some of my favourites are the songs Buckingham wrote. Last night they performed Second Hand News and Never Going Back Again, two of my favourites. Probably worth going just for them.

They let themselves down a little towards the end, Fleetwood did a rather poor drum solo during which he kept shouting out nonsense which I couldn't quite make out. The bloke's a nutter, and I just kept thinking of him presenting the Brit Awards with Sam Fox, and the chances he tried shagging all The Corrs when he was swanning round with them a few years back. Don't Stop was a bit of a let down too, for some reason it sounded like Chas and Dave were playing it. They really should've convinced Chritine McVie to rejoin.

Sorry the pictures aren't better, I really must try and figure out how to work that ****ing camera.

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