Do You Think It's Over?

[Musicman408]

Love Temporary One and Sweet Girl (actually thinking about doing a live cover of this). My Little Demon is good- but the weird demon noises are confusing!

[Angel69]

Originally Posted by mylittledemon

Well they are still out there selling a gaggle of concert tickets, and touring the world. So, with respect, you're quite wrong.

I still feel there is a market for Fleetwood Mac. If Madison Square Garden holds say 19,000 seats, 15 of them were sold for their show there in June. All this after basically saturating the NY area market. I also went to look at a house today and while in one of the kids bedrooms, there were cd racks. So of course I had to look and sure enough this guy had all of BN era Fleetwood Mac cd's. He also had all of Stevie's solo discs and Lindsey's. They were there along with NIN, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam etc etc. My friends 16 year old daughter loves them. Ans about a month ago i had one of my FM t-shirts on and this girl (about 13) told me she loves them and went to their MSG concert with her older sister. So I dont feel its time to write them off just yet.

As for the sets being stale. Eh. They still put on a great show and from the looks of the crowd reaction, a satisfying one.

[MoonWaterPoet]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

Because it's a song about Stevie's career in Fleetwood Mac, and it has a very Macish sound. I can't think of a more appropriate song for her to record for the Dance than Sweet Girl. It's one of those 'full circle' songs.

I agree Louie... I love "Sweet Girl"... It has special meaning to me from a journal/letter that I gave to Stevie at her 'Street Angel' tour concert when I saw her in Dallas, September 10th 1994... on the 'Street Angel' tour, prior to the Dance album and tour...


Donnie Wayne ~

[LukeA]

Originally Posted by Angel69

I still feel there is a market for Fleetwood Mac. If Madison Square Garden holds say 19,000 seats, 15 of them were sold for their show there in June.

This show did about 6K paid.

[Nikolaj]

Originally Posted by David

After Fleetwood Mac & its various stringers all retire or die or get raptured skyward or whatever, can THE LEDGE remain with good times, good friends, & good conversation?

That's more important to me. Let's keep The Ledge around for years to come. We can discuss Fleetwood Mac's baroque, classical, romantic, & modern eras from the soon-to-be distant past. We can keep the legend alive.

David, I think you're more right than you even know! To me, The Ledge is almost the only interesting thing about being a Fleetwood Mac fan right now- the band gives us no new inspiration and it's depressing- they haven't done a thing for their fans in ages. They wouldn't even sit together for photos for a new tourbook or get one lousy single (or a great one) up on the Net, or in stores, or do anything significant with their website. The tour is nice, but they are doing it for them, for sure. It certainly isn't interesting or imaginative, musically, its so predictable, and need not be. As long as 'Dreams' is so stagnantly placed in their set as song 2 or 3, as it has been for 30 years, the concert fights an uphill battle to be exciting, whereas if it were placed late in the set, it'd actually build some anticipation for it and not just slow the concert down. Little things can mean a lot. And LB I think would be willing to shake things up a bit, but apparantly he's outvoted. They are on their huge money-making quest, and I enjoyed the show, but found it very stultifying that basically the years 1975 through 1982 were what was represented, and not even in an interesting enough way.
The Ledge keeps it alive for me, because it's lean times for longtime fans. They are raking in many millions of dollars on this greatest hits 'Unleashed' tour- they should put free new music up on their website if they are so disenchanted with the recording industry. Like that would happen- and most of us would be willing to pay for downloads of unreleased demos we already have to support the band, but again, they just aren't interested in throwing us even a bone in their commerce-driven 'Unleashed' venture- I have nothing against commerce or greatest hits, but they need to find a balance, because Fleetwood Mac is about the music, and there hasn't been ANY new music in 7 years.

[tuigirl]

nikolaj..wow..interesting post and I think I can agree with you. Maybe this is why, I've gone off them a bit and onto other newer people ( I kept thinking their music and concert material , I'd seen and heard on youtube lately has become ...dare I say it gereatric).Lindsey, is the one to appeal to, for shaking things up, but if he's out voted then what can he do? I think your suggestion of song rotation might be the only answer, they need to sit down and check out other artists and see, how they do it.

[GypsyBlueEyes]

One thing I would really like to see them do in the future is just loosen up...everything is planned now to the smallest detail...its just way too polished. I don't know that they are aware of how much is lost when you do that. Spontaneity is so important. If the performance is less than extraordinary it might be because they're so damn bored doing and saying the same thing over and over and over. Remember the days when you never knew what the hell Stevie was going to say or exactly how they were going to interact with each other?? I say just go out there and do whatever comes natural to you at the moment...don't think about it...just feel it. Isn't that what you're supposed to do with music anyway??? I think that throwing out their carefully crafted rule book would do a lot to breathe new life into the show...and they'd probably start to enjoy it a lot more too.

[Peestie]

Originally Posted by GypsyBlueEyes

One thing I would really like to see them do in the future is just loosen up...everything is planned now to the smallest detail...its just way too polished.

And the worst thing is that this is exactly what Lindsey does on his solo tours so he knows how to do it. Check out the UTS tour where he'd take requests at the end of the show. He didn't do it much until the second half of the GOS tour but I think he was just settling in to the new tour and new material. As Blues players I'm sure Mick and John know how to loosen up and play around with the set and improvise and I bet Stevie could do it as well. It's just a pity that they get into the Mac-machine and suddenly they have to give the audience "product" rather than "music".

[LukeA]

The average person who pays ~$150 to see Fleetwood Mac in 2009 doesn't want to see them do anything other than the hits. Its not like Bruce Springsteen, where the fan base actually clamors to hear songs rarely performed.

This is the conundrum. If FM started a tour and they mixed things up every night for a handful of songs for the first couple shows, word would get out, and it wouldn't be good. 13,000 people- only 1,500 are going to even recognize (however vaguely), say, "Straight Back". Not worth it.

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by LukeA

The average person who pays ~$150 to see Fleetwood Mac in 2009 doesn't want to see them do anything other than the hits. Its not like Bruce Springsteen, where the fan base actually clamors to hear songs rarely performed.

This is the conundrum. If FM started a tour and they mixed things up every night for a handful of songs for the first couple shows, word would get out, and it wouldn't be good. 13,000 people- only 1,500 are going to even recognize (however vaguely), say, "Straight Back". Not worth it.

So very sad but so very true.

[GypsyBlueEyes]

Originally Posted by Peestie

And the worst thing is that this is exactly what Lindsey does on his solo tours so he knows how to do it. Check out the UTS tour where he'd take requests at the end of the show. He didn't do it much until the second half of the GOS tour but I think he was just settling in to the new tour and new material. As Blues players I'm sure Mick and John know how to loosen up and play around with the set and improvise and I bet Stevie could do it as well. It's just a pity that they get into the Mac-machine and suddenly they have to give the audience "product" rather than "music".

I think it amazing that Lindsey was able to do that! I guess maybe its easier to do things like that when its just one person as opposed to a whole band. Its the small stuff that I think is most important. Everything is so planned out...they stand in the exact same places and say the exact same things night after night. It would be great if they would switch the sets around a bit instead of putting on the exact same show night after night. Mostly, though, I just want them to go out and get lost in the experience of being on stage the same way the audience can get lost in the performance. I don't know how to explain it...it just seems that there was an air of freedom that they lack now.

[holidayroad]

Originally Posted by GypsyBlueEyes

Isn't it sort of weird though that after all this time Lindsey agreed to do something like the Unleashed tour...not that I'm knocking it. I was right there in the audience with everyone else and loved every second of it. Still, I worried when it was first announced that it was a sign that he may be over FM as an artistic endeavor...I was just really surprised that he of all people didn't push to record new material. All these years he has been the leader of the group in terms of putting together an album...Mick, I'm really not sure what exactly he wants (other than play his drums and have fun, though I do believe he wants the group to stay together) and John never says anything! I really don't think the problem is so much with Stevie...I think she's just waiting for Lindsey to decide that he's ready to really do something with the group as opposed to the same thing they've been doing (hopefully reinvent themselves somehow)...I think if he is passionate about it, she will be right there with him.

I agree it was strange for Lindsey to go on the road without a new FM album. Maybe he was thinking that as long as he makes the record company money on the road with FM that he will be able to keep doing his solo albums, (whether they make money or not) and not be dropped from the label.
I worry about the future of Fleetwood Mac too. Lindsey is my fave and I feel he would probably take more chances on different directions for FM if he could. As for Stevie waiting for Lindsey to "decide he's ready to do something different", I don't know if that's an issue. I guess they're all afraid to reinvent the band for fear of losing "us" (faithful fans). I do feel they could get out in the public more, not just for concerts, but out connecting with all of us who have stood by them through all these changes. Maybe we expect too much, I don't know. I just want FM to be successful
and sell more albums to new fans also, but without the members of FM feeling like they are "selling out"

[TrueFaith77]

They just need to follow this formula:

1. Stevie, write 6 songs about Lindsey that are constructed around private, mystical metaphors.

2. Lindsey, write 6 songs about Stevie spiked by sexual innuendo, double entendre, puns, and grunts/groans.

3. Alternate between tracks that are rockin' and tracks that are (very) pretty.

4. Title it: Rumours II.

That would be bliss.

[GypsyBlueEyes]

^lol...wouldn't it be funny that after all these years of them trying to do something "not Rumours," doing another Rumours themed album would be the thing that put them back on top You know what they say..."if it ain't broke..."

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by TrueFaith77

They just need to follow this formula:

1. Stevie, write 6 songs about Lindsey that are constructed around private, mystical metaphors.

2. Lindsey, write 6 songs about Stevie spiked by sexual innuendo, double entendre, puns, and grunts/groans.

3. Alternate between tracks that are rockin' and tracks that are (very) pretty.

4. Title it: Rumours II.

That would be bliss.

You know what was funny to me reading interviews from 1976 http://www.ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/sh...ad.php?t=41594is that even then Lindsey was looking beyond Rumours (the album that had not even been released yet). He told Cameron Crowe that he didn't think making an album that would follow up to the White album would be hard and now that the new album was about to be released, he looked forward to getting back in the studio after the tour:

I'd really like to develop in the studio with this band. Ater the album comes out and we complete the road cycle that will follow it, we're going to lay back a little and spend the time to refine our work even further.

He was saying as soon as they got off the Rumours tour, maybe they could spend time in the studio with each other. Even though he was praising the new album, even then Rumours seemed something he wanted to get past, so he could return to the studio. Little did he know he'd still be trying to do the same thing 35 years later.

Michele