Mick Fleetwood wants the LB/SN rift to heal

[sleepless child]

That is the key phrase in all of this. Not one band member should have had that much power to do what she did. It's amazing instead of following their heart they followed the money. What happened to integrity 😕?

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by sleepless child

That is the key phrase in all of this. Not one band member should have had that much power to do what she did. It's amazing instead of following their heart they followed the money. What happened to integrity 😕?

She’s the only one without major career gaps. She’s the one a good chunk of the crowd is paying to see. She’s why they’re an arena band. Lindsey and Christine made choices that cost them power and industry clout.

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

She’s the only one without major career gaps. She’s the one a good chunk of the crowd is paying to see. She’s why they’re an arena band. Lindsey and Christine made choices that cost them power and industry clout.

Slow down. It's not Chris and Lindsey's fault their really good solo albums were not as big has hers. Its not their fault they did not have a shtick on stage. These are the choices you are referring to? Stevie had no career gaps? What about the gaps in her head?
I see things a little different. Chris had tons of power but chose not to use it. She had just came back to the band after almost 16 years. Chris already had tons of money. She really did not need another tour financially. But she realized if Stevie walked the band could be reduced to playing small theaters. I would have been fine with that. But clearly Mick was not. I seriously believe if Mick was really good with his money and was rich as Chris they would have just disbanded at that moment or went on some smaller venue tour.
Money changes everything.

[sleepless child]

Stevie did have gaps. No big hits after 1986. The Dance brought back the luster and that was Fleetwood mac. Stevie is smart in now relying on touring and the past. It has served her well. Chris and Lindsey were about moving forward with new material. Neither is wrong, but the past seems to sell more tickets.

[bwboy]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

I seriously believe if Mick was really good with his money and was rich as Chris they would have just disbanded at that moment or went on some smaller venue tour.
Money changes everything.

I love it when people quote Cyndi Lauper! I’ve got my ticket to see Cyndi live in November and I can’t wait!

Per your comment about Mick not wanting to play smaller venues… I think there’s much more to that. When Lindsey and Christine decided to tour for their album, I was saddened because the smaller venues meant they wouldn’t be able to pay John and Mick to join them on tour. I recall some folks here at that time saying Christine and especially Lindsey didn’t do it for the money, but for the creativity and because they love performing so much. Well I believe that’s true, the fact is, they also want some sort of return for their time, and the four members touring casinos was not going to make enough money, hence the session musicians taking John and Mick’s places. So I don’t think Mick had an aversion to playing small venues… just that there was no way they could afford to.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Slow down. It's not Chris and Lindsey's fault their really good solo albums were not as big has hers.

Not what I’m talking about. Christine was semiretired for 23 years, doing two albums (Time and ITM) and 40 tour dates with Fleetwood Mac, while Lindsey made three studio albums (GI, TITN, and OOTC) and did 80 tour dates (40 solo, 40 Mac) in 21 years.

Stevie doesn’t have those gaps. Even after she creatively dried up, she was still a fixture on the concert circuit.

[secret love]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

Not what I’m talking about. Christine was semiretired for 23 years, doing two albums (Time and ITM) and 40 tour dates with Fleetwood Mac, while Lindsey made three studio albums (GI, TITN, and OOTC) and did 80 tour dates (40 solo, 40 Mac) in 21 years.

Stevie doesn’t have those gaps. Even after she creatively dried up, she was still a fixture on the concert circuit.

I agree.

Stevie has worked hard and worked consistently. Sure, relatively few studio albums for a musician of her vintage. But she has toured almost year in year out (with a few years off here and there) with either Fleetwood Mac or her solo band (and at times, other musicians such as Sheryl Crow and Chrissy Hynde/Pretenders, Rod Stewart, etc).

What she did to Lindsey was oh so terrible but I completely get why she did it. She was 69 or 70 years old and she had spent the last 35 years working with someone she hates, who also hates her. Is it any wonder there was a straw that broke the camel's (or GOAT's) back?

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

Not what I’m talking about. Christine was semiretired for 23 years, doing two albums (Time and ITM) and 40 tour dates with Fleetwood Mac, while Lindsey made three studio albums (GI, TITN, and OOTC) and did 80 tour dates (40 solo, 40 Mac) in 21 years.

Stevie doesn’t have those gaps. Even after she creatively dried up, she was still a fixture on the concert circuit.

Not always. Stevie dried up. Her concert decline started in 1991 with half attending compared to her earlier 1989 OSOTM tour. The klonopin years produced no big hits and she dried up. There is a reason the Street Angel tour was short. I lived in West Palm Beach at the time and she was supposed to do 2 nights at the Kravis Center (a theater) but that leg of the tour was cancelled. Because she dried up commercially was a big reason she returned to the Mac in 1997. The limelight success of the Dance led to a huge Enchanted tour success and she was back on track.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Not always. Stevie dried up. Her concert decline started in 1991 with half attending compared to her earlier 1989 OSOTM tour. The klonopin years produced no big hits and she dried up. There is a reason the Street Angel tour was short. I lived in West Palm Beach at the time and she was supposed to do 2 nights at the Kravis Center (a theater) but that leg of the tour was cancelled. Because she dried up commercially was a big reason she returned to the Mac in 1997. The limelight success of the Dance led to a huge Enchanted tour success and she was back on track.

However, unlike the others, she could have simply lost weight, stopped smoking, gotten a makeover, and done an MTV comeback concert with special celebrity guests and gotten back into relevancy.

And, 1991-97 was still only six years. The others were largely out of the public eye for decades.

[David]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

However, unlike the others, she could have simply lost weight, stopped smoking, gotten a makeover, and done an MTV comeback concert with special celebrity guests and gotten back into relevancy.

And, 1991-97 was still only six years. The others were largely out of the public eye for decades.

Stevie had a substantial fan base, even through her desert years. These fans swapped her concert tapes, published fanzines, cheered for her at public events, and so on. But it still wasn’t enough to put her at the top of the charts. It wasn’t her time — she wasn’t the elder stateswoman of rock, she was a bit of a has-been. I don’t think that relevance can be manually flipped on and off like a switch. These celebrities have up and down periods. Stevie’s “relevance” was having a fan base that didn’t forget her. She sort of went underground for awhile, but thousands of them stuck with her completely. This is when they tracked down her dressmaker and her bootmaker and bought her clothes for themselves. (Previously, they had grabbed nondescript capes and boots off the rack.) I was amazed at the time — when Stevie had become a little dull and lumpy — seeing how energetic all these fans were with their numerous fanzines. Her base was throwing a lot of energy into her, and she hadn’t had a radio hit for years.

Based on what I remember, her fans were at their most rabid (and rather repellent) from 1989 to 1996. There were times during that stretch when you dared not criticize her — these devotees would have eaten you up.

[Mr Scarrott]

Something couterfactual that just crossed my mind: imagine for one moment that whatever denoument that happened at Musicares either didn't happen, or Stevie was prepared not to engineer the ouster of Lindsey at all. Things were as near sweetness and light as the Mac ever got to be.

Imagine that the 2018-19 tour took place began with the five of them but Lindsey's illness either forced the cancellation of most of it, or more intriguingly, something like the Finn/Campbell iteration completed the tour because of this. Covid then happened and following Christine's passing, Mick, Lindsey, Stevie agree to a farewell tour in 2023/24. John can't be persuaded to join them.

Sure, it would still have sold well, but I still would probably have passed on it. I would just feel that 2014/15 couldn't be topped. From 1998 onwards there was always the hope however unrealistic that felt that Christine would return. I just don't think I would have troop along, somehow, not that I would represent part of the critical base of their audience.

[sleepless child]

Covid really screwed things up for a few years. For everybody. We all lost precious time. I would hope that Lindsey's heart issues would have caused the tour to stop, but you know, the Mike/Neil thing could have gone forward. Or even Billy/Rick. Now that I would have gone to see again. I passed on the 2018 tour. I was heartbroken over what happened to Lindsey. But I am so grateful for 2014 when I got to see the fab five again.

[SteveMacD]

It seems to me like if, and it’s a big if, there is something more, it will be Lindsey and/or Neil and Mike, with Neil being more likely than Mike, with an edge to Neil.

[Villavic]

I’ve read Carl Sagan said that some things are meant to happen anyway. For example if Columbus had not reached America in 1492, someone else would have done so in the short term. The conditions were right for it to happen anyway.

So if they don’t fire Lindsey as a (supposedly) result of the Musicares event, it would have been for another reason that same year. That was based on Stevie's mood, who didn't want to work with him anymore.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by Villavic

I’ve read Carl Sagan said that some things are meant to happen anyway. For example if Columbus had not reached America in 1492, someone else would have done so in the short term. The conditions were right for it to happen anyway.

So if they don’t fire Lindsey as a (supposedly) result of the Musicares event, it would have been for another reason that same year. That was based on Stevie's mood, who didn't want to work with him anymore.

I'd give ANYTHING for a time machine, to show Stevie what her life would be like if Lindsey had joined FM without her.

She'd be driving a 20yo car, living in a trailer, and still be waiting tables if she was able.