Fleetwood Mac 2013 Press

[Jondalar]

Originally Posted by PenguinHead

How do you know this? I've never heard anything about Stevie ever expressing a yearning motivation to get the Buckingham Nicks album re-released. Both she and Lindsey have always been very ambivalent about it, despite knowing they have legions of fans who are waiting for it. It could potentially garner the most attention and biggest sales figures they've had in years. However, par for course -- timing, opportunity and cooperation are not their strongest suits.

There was just an article from Lindsey where he talked about Stevie's desire to get the Buckingham/Nicks album out. She is enthusiastic about it. I think Lindsey is now too.

[mitzo]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Yes, I remember Stevie saying that her advisors told her there was no reason to make albums. She even repeated this when she went to the Twilight premiere and said that made her change her mind about recording new music, no matter what people were telling her, no matter if the music sold or not.

But I'd like to see the interviews where she said her management was keeping her on the road. I missed that. I think she tours to make money for sure. She also has a lot of people who depend on her financially and I'm sure she feels an obligation to Waddy, Sharon, etc. But I've never heard her say that her management told her just to keep touring. I think she gets bored after awhile at home and probably asks for more tour dates after awhile. Solo dates I'm speaking of here. I mean, even if her management didn't have a short solo tour planned each year, I think she'd want one, just for kicks.

Michele

I am sceptical about her management and others persuading Stevie not to do another album in the early 2000's. I really think it was her own decision. TISL did not sell what she hoped, maybe, and it is interesting that when she did get around to recording again she relied so massively on Dave Stewart to cowrite etc. I have a nagging suspicion that she finds it hard to write anymore, has little patience with the studio, and sees little financial reward in recording - to keep feeling like a star and making money, it is just plain easier to do concerts. With eg. Rod Stewart.

Lindsey is different, he is not recording and touring for the money, and he seems to be on a creative roll. I sometimes wonder if Stevie's IYD venture had something to do with "competing" with Lindsey, who was pumping out the new content.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by mitzo

I am sceptical about her management and others persuading Stevie not to do another album in the early 2000's. I really think it was her own decision. TISL did not sell what she hoped, maybe, and it is interesting that when she did get around to recording again she relied so massively on Dave Stewart to cowrite etc. I have a nagging suspicion that she finds it hard to write anymore, has little patience with the studio, and sees little financial reward in recording - to keep feeling like a star and making money, it is just plain easier to do concerts. With eg. Rod Stewart.

Lindsey is different, he is not recording and touring for the money, and he seems to be on a creative roll. I sometimes wonder if Stevie's IYD venture had something to do with "competing" with Lindsey, who was pumping out the new content.

You don't think her contract has stipulations? I am sure it said she had to give them so many albums within a certain period of time. After that, she would be a free agent and would have to either go indie or try to get them interested again - her management would negotiate that.

But putting all the blame on the artists for not churning out albums is not fair - unless everyone thinks they should just do a garage band project & sell them out of the trunk of their cars.

[mitzo]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

You don't think her contract has stipulations? I am sure it said she had to give them so many albums within a certain period of time. After that, she would be a free agent and would have to either go indie or try to get them interested again - her management would negotiate that.

But putting all the blame on the artists for not churning out albums is not fair - unless everyone thinks they should just do a garage band project & sell them out of the trunk of their cars.

Aside from the fact that we don't know whether she had some contract or whatever, the fact remains that there are lots of artists who keep producing despite all that. Lindsey Buckingham is one name that comes to mind, but there are very many formerly top-selling artists out there who keep putting out new material and selling realtively few units - yet maintaining their creativity and credibility.

Look, if you will not keep producing, regardless of the reasons, then you are no longer an artist, and you are not productive.

[CADreaming]

Originally Posted by mitzo

Aside from the fact that we don't know whether she had some contract or whatever, the fact remains that there are lots of artists who keep producing despite all that. Lindsey Buckingham is one name that comes to mind, but there are very many formerly top-selling artists out there who keep putting out new material and selling realtively few units - yet maintaining their creativity and credibility.

Look, if you will not keep producing, regardless of the reasons, then you are no longer an artist, and you are not productive.

She is or was under a contract - otherwise we wouldn't have IYD. Sure, LB finally went indie. But, not overnight. He shopped for a label. He only decided to go indie when no one was interested.

I'm just saying it's not as cut & dried as you're making it out to be. You can't just snap your fingers & put something out necessarily - if she is a free agent then maybe. But, as FM to go from big label & big advance & all the other perks they were used to - to settle for something less - I can see how that transition would be a difficult thing to negotiate & adjust to.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by mitzo

I have a nagging suspicion that she finds it hard to write anymore, has little patience with the studio, and sees little financial reward in recording - to keep feeling like a star and making money, it is just plain easier to do concerts. With eg. Rod Stewart.

I think you have a point with Steive having little patience with the studio. It's not just that she is tired of Lindsey in the studio (and he's famous for making it more complicated than it needs to be); she might be tired of the studio as well and the pleasure of working with Dave was that it seemed more like a party than a recording process.

I think Lindsey tried to create that vibe at his house, having Stevie eat with his family and what not for those 4 days. He listened to what she said she liked so much about working with Dave and tried to simulate it a little, it seems.

Michele

[Christopher]

Originally Posted by mitzo

I am sceptical about her management and others persuading Stevie not to do another album in the early 2000's. I really think it was her own decision. TISL did not sell what she hoped, maybe, and it is interesting that when she did get around to recording again she relied so massively on Dave Stewart to cowrite etc. I have a nagging suspicion that she finds it hard to write anymore, has little patience with the studio, and sees little financial reward in recording - to keep feeling like a star and making money, it is just plain easier to do concerts. With eg. Rod Stewart.

Lindsey is different, he is not recording and touring for the money, and he seems to be on a creative roll. I sometimes wonder if Stevie's IYD venture had something to do with "competing" with Lindsey, who was pumping out the new content.

Ultimately, Yes, it was Stevie's decision to not record solo again in 05'. She said as much during her various Q&A's around the screenings of her In Your Dreams documentary. Stevie admitted she just gave in after getting all this feedback (from management, record executives, etc.), and chose not to fight back, which she said is generally not like her.

As far as TISL sales and your assertion that its commercial outcome was not what her or "they" expected. That is outright speculation. In retrospect that album sold reasonably well, esp. considering it was released at the height of Napster. Verified Napster use peaked with 26.4 million users worldwide in February 2001 (Just a little over 2 months before TISL was released). So even though Napster's demise was right around the corner, shut down by the district courts in late Summer of 2001. Several copycat file sharing sites popped up immediately thereafter.

So if you really believe TISL was a disappointment commercially for Stevie, Then you'd have to ultimately conclude Fleetwood Mac's SYW must have been an even more crushing blow -- having sold only @20% more than TISL did

The real difficulty for both Stevie & FM recording new music ten years after TISL & SYW respectively, is that now unless they're reaching the young music buying demographic on a big scale, or landing a multi-faceted co-branding corporate sponsorship deal, their platinum and even gold selling days are over (which most of us here have accepted).

Stevie Nicks has arguably done more for keeping Fleetwood Mac's name & brand in the mainstream news since the release of her critically and creatively successful "In Your Dreams" solo album. Like it or not Stevie has the most marquee value in this group. That's not to say that one is greater than the sum. That's not what I am debating at all.

[michelej1]

December 12, 2012 8:44
http://www.nme.com/news/fleetwood-mac/67674

Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks: 'We'd love to headline Glastonbury!'

Singer tells NME she hopes to squeeze in the Pyramid Stage on their 2013 reunion tour

Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks has told NME that she'd love to headline Glastonbury in 2013.

Addressing rumours that the band could coincide a forthcoming summer 2013 tour with their debut appearance headlining the Pyramid Stage, Nicks says she watched Beyonce's performance at the festival in 2011 from her hotel room in London after her own slot at Hyde Park Calling that year.

"When we were there [in the UK] in 2011, I watched it. I watched Beyonce and it was pretty amazing! I had just got home from the Hyde Park thing, so I was just home from my own show and I turned on the TV and we had a pretty big screen in the hotel where we were, so I sat and watched like three hours, four hours of it, so would I love to do it? I’d Love to do it!"

Speaking about the band's forthcoming world tour, she added: "We are coming to the UK. It’s on there, the pre-schedule that they start sending out to you. We have basically 50 shows in the United States and then a little break, then It looks like we are coming to England to do, probably like seven or eight shows. I don’t know that for sure, but I think that’s what it will work out to be, and hopefully we will do other shows through Europe. I’m delighted to come over there, I’m thrilled about it."

When asked if one of those shows could be Glastonbury, Nicks replied: "Oh yeah! I hope, you know, I hope I hope!"

Previously, festival boss Emily Eavis admitted to NME that she would love to see Fleetwood Mac headline the Pyramid Stage in 2013. "I think Fleetwood Mac would be amazing to get," she said in October of this year. "I’ll be totally honest we haven’t had any conversations with them yet but, you know, it is still early days. We’re just talking to some headliners now. For us it’s about getting the balance of heritage bands, legends and new bands – just keeping that balance."

[KindOfWoman90]

Promo video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plnYd5M8dc0

[KindOfWoman90]

From Facebook:
Mick Fleetwood will be offering VIP Meet & Greets for the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour! Head over to MickFleetwoodOfficial.com to purchase VIP Meet & Greet tickets.

Neat, so that will be $5,000 for that right... Ahh, try to keep positive!

Actually! Make an account! Some of his are better! Depending on how much you wanna spend, but at least you get to meet him! Also if you're going to D.C. That is the only available option at the moment.

[Fannymac]

Something to consider....these "classic" artists can still move product if they want to! Bonnie Raitt just had her biggest hit in almost 20 years, and that was after no new material in 7 years, 3 albums that did pretty much nothing and a label that had lost interest a LONG time ago!
However, she didn't even BOTHER to shop around for a new label....she knew the interest in a 63 year old woman would be minimal at best! So she took matters into her own hands, started her own label and is having major success!
Has it been easy? Probably not. She's worked her ass off, setting things up months before SLIPSTREAM's release. And it's paid off!
Question is, does the band (and Stevie in particular.....I find it kind of odd that Stevie always said she would be rocking into her 70's..I think she's SERIOUSLY re-thinking that!!!) want to do the extra work at this point? I doubt it.

[WildHearted]

Stevie Nicks: the return of Fleetwood Mac
Caspar Llewellyn Smith
The Observer, Saturday 12 January 2013 18.48 EST

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013...-fleetwood-mac

Before I meet Stevie Nicks, I hear her. She is downstairs somewhere in the house she's renting on the beach in Malibu – a short drive, traffic allowing, up the Californian coastline from the two homes she owns in LA – and looking for her dark glasses. It's early evening in December and has long since turned dark outside, but if you're the ultimate rock goddess – NME's recent description, testament to an ongoing revaluation of interest in Fleetwood Mac among the younger generation – wearing shades at night goes with the territory.

Scented candles are spaced throughout the room and there's a well-thumbed copy of the first book in The Twilight Saga on a side table – signs that suggest that the 64-year-old singer is comfortably in residence. Plus there's her Yorkshire terrier, getting stuck continuously under my feet. But, as Nicks says, when all five feet one-and-a-half inches of her does emerge at the top of the stairs, she can't seem to settle.

In fact she shouldn't be here at all (and wasn't planning any interviews), but on holiday in the Florida Keys she was getting bitten to death by bugs and, besides, felt bored. Going home to either of her places in the city wasn't an option because right now she's "making a molecular change": parking her solo career, which saw her tour the world with her solo album In Your Dreams for the past two years, and getting ready for the return of the Mac.

Instead she asked to see if this place, which she'd rented previously, was available. "I'm trying to rest and it's really hard to rest because in either one of my own houses I feel like I should be working," she explains. "I've been coming here off and on for nearly 10 years and there's absolutely nothing for me to do except draw or sit and write poetry or bring the electric piano down." Problem is, "I've been here since Tuesday and I haven't managed yet to actually come up here at three in the afternoon and go sit on that miserable couch and draw for a few hours – because that's when I know I've made a change."

Despite the homely touches, the house looks perfectly nondescript from the outside, and it's modestly apportioned by the standards of LA rock aristocracy. But then Nicks doesn't play the diva either – kooky fan of fantasy, yes (her fondness for the oeuvre of Stephenie Meyer and liking for US fantasy TV series Game of Thrones fits right into that), but not the figure who insisted during Fleetwood Mac's Tusk tour that every hotel room she stayed in be painted pink and must house a white piano.

It is now 40 years since her first album, Buckingham Nicks – the fruit of her relationship, both musical and romantic, with Lindsey Buckingham – and life is coming full circle. Later this month, the most classic of all Fleetwood Mac albums, Rumours, gets the full reissue treatment, and the band will hit the road again for a US tour that will also likely come to Europe. (Of the rumours that they'll headline Glastonbury, Nicks is noncommittal, though she does say she'd love to do it.)

There is also the likelihood of the first new Fleetwood Mac record in 10 years – and even the prospect of a second Buckingham-Nicks album. For fans, this news is as exciting as it might sound improbable. Nicks once said herself that "to be in Fleetwood Mac is to live in a soap opera. And it has been pretty scandalous and incestuous…" And of all relationships, it's been that between her and Buckingham that has provided the richest story lines of all.

Born in ARIZONA, Nicks was in her senior year in high school in San Francisco when she first met the budding athlete a year younger than her. She already knew she wanted to be a songwriter – "I told my parents when I was 15 and a half" – and he was in the folk group Fritz that she then joined before they formed a duo. For their debut album sleeve he insisted she pose topless (half hidden behind him), even though she was in tears and told him: "This is not art… this is taking a nude photograph with you, and I don't dig it."

On New Year's Eve 1974, the pair joined Fleetwood Mac at the invitation of Mick Fleetwood, following the departure of late guitarist Bob Welch. The group's history was tortuous already, and the new arrivals introduced a new dynamic, with Nicks dressed in flowing chiffon and channeling the spirit of the "old Welsh witch" (her phrase) in her hit "Rhiannon". But the album on which that song appeared, the eponymous Fleetwood Mac, proved the band's breakthrough, hitting No 1 in the US and selling over 5m copies.

The recording of its follow-up, Rumours, saw the soap opera at its most lurid: Fleetwood had discovered that his wife was having an affair with his best friend; bassist John McVie and keyboard player and singer Christine McVie had split up after eight years of marriage, and Nicks and Buckingham's relationship kept hitting the rocks – all this played out in a blizzard of cocaine. "Christine and I refused to be the second-class citizens," says Nicks of the prosaic business of actually making the record. "But it was different for her, because she was one of the musicians – absolutely as big an influence as Lindsey or John or Mick; the four pieces were equal. I'd sit around and crochet or draw while they were out there working stuff out. And that's fine, because I wanted to be a lead singer – I didn't really want to carry around a 21lb Les Paul."

She is modest about her own songwriting abilities. Nicks contributed "Dreams" to Rumours (an upbeat song about splitting up directed at Buckingham), which became the group's only US No 1 hit single, while Buckingham was responsible for the evergreen "Go Your Own Way" (a venomous kiss-off directed back at her), but she insists that "Christine wrote most of the hits for the group – she was the major pop songwriter, not Lindsey or me."

"It's hard to do that," she continues. "I can't sit down and write a hit single and plan it, and no amount of listening to other people's records or music is going to make you a different songwriter." She's a fan of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe "– "I walk around singing it all the time" – and would love to emulate it, but "I don't think that's really ever going to happen because I'm more Wuthering Heights, and Heathcliffe and Edward and Bella" – the characters from Twilight – "I'm more serious, dramatic… Shakespearean."

Nicks always thought she was supposed to be the person in the band who "spreads a little fairy dust here and there", and it was a painfully literal interpretation of that role that saw her succumb to addiction in the years that followed the huge success of Rumours and subsequent albums, such as Tusk. In 1986 she was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic because of her coke habit, but then became hooked on the prescribed tranquilizer Klonopin for a further eight years. She had entered into a relationship with the Eagles' Don Henley and then dated Mick Fleetwood before briefly marrying Kim Anderson in 1983, the widowed husband of her close friend Robin Anderson, who had died of leukemia – an episode she has subsequently described as "insanity".

Now clean and sober, she also insists that she is happily single, but until not so very long ago the flame she carried for Buckingham still burned. There is, for instance, a song on In Your Dreams called "Everybody Loves You", co-written by her collaborator on the album Dave Stewart but based on one of 40 poems in her journals that she concedes is about Buckingham. "No one really knows you," Nicks sings. "I'm the only one." To one interviewer at the time the album was released she said she only admitted that their love affair was over when he had his first child with future wife Kristen Messner in 1998.

In February last year, Buckingham, Fleetwood and John McVie went into the studio to record a handful of new songs, but Nicks was in mourning for her 84-year-old mother Barbara, who died after a battle with pneumonia in late December 2011. "I couldn't do anything – I didn't leave my house, I didn't even talk to my really good friends," she says now. "I just went underground to try to deal with the fact that she wasn't supposed to go… she had emphysema after smoking for 60 years, but we all totally thought she was going to pull through. It was like: 'What? Did that really just happen?'"

In her absence from the studio, Buckingham said he'd try to look at things through her eyes – "and I said: 'Well, you probably can do that, Lindsey, you certainly know me well enough"' – then when she did make it there, there were two new songs waiting for her. "I put vocals on them and they came out great. And they really do sound like I was there." The result is likely to be a new Fleetwood Mac album at some point this year, but perhaps after that also a Buckingham Nicks record, because the pair also recorded an old song that was originally intended for their 1973 debut. "For some reason it just got swept under the carpet. I mean, maybe it was going to be track one on our second album, which we were actually making when we joined Fleetwood Mac."

Nicks isn't sure exactly how all this new material will manifest itself. "I don't know – I don't have a computer, I'm not on the internet, so I don't know how exactly the record company will decide on what to do," she says, slightly bafflingly. "But we do have product."

More important than this, though, was that Buckingham and Nicks were able to relax in each other's company. "We spent 80% of our time talking just like this, telling my assistant Karen all the crazy stories of everything that's happened to us from 1966 until now. We laughed and we laughed – and we probably cried a couple of times. It was very cathartic. And I think that we came a long way during those four days."

The result is that the band promise they won't just be going through the motions when they hit the road this year – unlike last time around. "I'm thinking," Nicks says, "that this is going to be a very different tour. The audience is going to see a very different Fleetwood Mac up there – we talked about how we really need to appreciate what we have and who we are and how far we've come. I said to Lindsey: 'I wish your mom and dad were still alive – they'd be just like: Way to go, Lindsey Buckingham! Boy, damn we're glad you dropped out of swimming – you know, he could have been a famous swimmer – We're so glad you stopped and went for rock'n'roll.'"

For sentimental fans, the highlight of any Fleetwood Mac show is still that point at which Buckingham and Nicks join hands together on stage: it's a very human moment, one that rekindles a sense of what's been and might be yet for all parties involved. Or as Nicks herself puts it: "People love to see people in love. Not that we're in love, but we have been in love and we have that on stage. And if we're getting along and we're happy with each other, that part comes out.

"I think we've got to a place now where we're both: 'Why not? Why can't we be those two people on stage?' It doesn't carry on after you walk down the stairs and go back to your hotels and rooms, it's never going to carry past that. But what it does do is allow you to walk up on stage and be dramatic with each other. And we have walked up on stage and been absolutely the other side of dramatic – we have been like waiting-for-a-bus undramatic. Like, you know: 'Lindsey, what am I going to get for room service later? I think I'm going to get a grilled cheese sandwich and some tomato soup.' Because that's what happens in bands if you're not happy. This is not going to be that tour."

If there is one regret, it's that Chris McVie won't be with the band, after quitting in 1998. "We all did everything we could do to try and talk her out of it," Nicks says, "but you look in someone's eyes and you can tell they're finished. It's like when somebody breaks up with you and says: 'We're done.'" Or, she helpfully points out: "As Taylor Swift would say: 'We are never ever getting back together ever!' That's what Chris was saying… But I'd beg, borrow and scrape together $5m and give it to her in cash if she would come back. That's how much I miss her.

"I miss her," she adds, "like flowers need the rain."

She might be dressed down and not wearing any make-up (the candlelight and shades help, she says), but Nicks is still a compelling presence. In an age of identikit pop stars, it's easy to see why artists such as Florence Welch idolise her. The odds of Nicks surviving might have been stacked against her, but she's where she is now to work, and there's no sign of stopping.

"I don't know how to explain it," she says, smiling in the half-light, "other than to say that you know when you're done."

[CADreaming]

^

I love her!!!

I hope they give me the drama. I want the drama. I've never really witnessed it first hand. It would be really cool to see them interact more onstage. Cause, I'm thinking she ate a helluva lot of grilled cheese sandwiches in 2009.

[KindOfWoman90]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

^

I love her!!!

I hope they give me the drama. I want the drama. I've never really witnessed it first hand. It would be really cool to see them interact more onstage. Cause, I'm thinking she ate a helluva lot of grilled cheese sandwiches in 2009.

Hahaha she cracks me up! She also drives me nuts by listening to such crap music... Seriously, if I were her niece I'd straighten that out. I mean some Top 40 is okay now and then, but these days it's the alternative/indie bands that would have been the Top 40 say 35 years ago...

I hope she means what she says! I want drama too! I'm sooo excited for this tour if they're really going to put the effort into it!

[michelej1]

How would having a computer help her know what the record company is going to do with her new songs?

Lindsey could have been a famous swimmer, huh? Well, thank you for that. In all the alternate careers she could have had, I don't think she ever gave him one before. Now, I'm proud to know that he could have been Mark Spitz if he chose.

Yes, the idea of her talking to Lindsey about getting grilled cheese from room service (and that's not a dish I'd order from room service. It will congeal before it reaches your door) when they are waiting to go on stage is delightful. And I don't think that's how you talk when the tour is not happy. I just think that's how you talk when you are at work. I can tell you, the first thing I do when I get to work is think about what I'm having for lunch. In fact, I probably spend a good 15 minutes thinking about lunch, rather than doing whatever my task is for that day.

Stevie is hilarious. There's no doubt about that. Michele