Fleetwood Mac navigates old drama to prep new album

[Macfan4life]

http://www.heyreverb.com/blog/2015/0...lineup/101962/

[aleuzzi]

I wish the remaining four would get a Rollng Stone cover story to balance Stevie's point of view. She left a lot of readers thinking a new album is probably off the table. It'd be nice to see Lindsey, Christine, and Mick volley the alternative--prospects of a 2017 album--back into her court. Readers would get a better sense of the fact that Stevie alone does not speak for this band.

[gssmith]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

I wish the remaining four would get a Rollng Stone cover story to balance Stevie's point of view. She left a lot of readers thinking a new album is probably off the table. It'd be nice to see Lindsey, Christine, and Mick volley the alternative--prospects of a 2017 album--back into her court. Readers would get a better sense of the fact that Stevie alone does not speak for this band.

Stevie does speak for the band. It's not 1975 any more. The ball is always in her court because she owns the court. There will be a new album. I'm thinking 2017

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by gssmith

Stevie does speak for the band. It's not 1975 any more. The ball is always in her court because she owns the court. There will be a new album. I'm thinking 2017

She now has more leverage to hold the band hostage than she ever has before. But this doesn't mean she speaks for them.

It's not 1975, or 1980, or 1998. It's not even 2003. Unfortunately. Your confidence about a new album is good. I want one more than words can say, but this ridiculous waiting is intolerable. If it were even five years ago, I'd be less worried about the health of these people. But they're simply too old to keep dragging a tour on like this.

[elle]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

http://www.heyreverb.com/blog/2015/0...lineup/101962/

thanks for sharing ... i have not been keeping up with the results of any LB searches lately so here was the first i heard of this slew of new interviews he's been doing.

pasting the whole interview for future reference when links may not work anymore (not pasting the comments at the end but they are interesting to check out - FM vs SN vs PG camps going at it, just like here ):


Fleetwood Mac navigates decades-old drama to prep new album with classic lineup

By Matt Miller | March 26th, 2015 | 22 Comments

DENVER, CO – DECEMBER 12: Stevie Nicks (L) and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac perform during the band’s “On With The Show” tour at the Pepsi Center on December 12, 2014, in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Daniel Petty/The Denver Post)

In September of 2013, as Fleetwood Mac toured through the UK, Lindsey Buckingham got some news that he was convinced would never come.

It was from his old bandmate, Christine McVie, who had left Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and moved back to England to live a quiet life in the countryside.


“My official line was she’s gone. She’s not coming back,” Buckingham said of McVie’s status in the band.

But, McVie suddenly wanted to be part of the band again, and on top of that, she had written some songs that she wanted Buckingham to hear.

Buckingham hadn’t worked on music with McVie since Fleetwood Mac’s 1987 album “Tango in the Night” — the band’s final studio album with the classic “Rumours” lineup of Buckingham, McVie, Stevie Nicks, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

“She gave me a bunch of stuff to listen to, which was all just her singing into a computer,” said Buckingham over the phone before his April 1 show at Denver’s Pepsi Center with the classic Fleetwood Mac lineup. “I took it home and I didn’t even work on it for a while. I just listened to it and walked around thinking about it for three weeks.”

When he started working on the music — taking the liberties that Christine McVie had always been open to — Buckingham suddenly found himself tapping into a creative part of himself that he hadn’t touched in a long time.

It was exciting, he said.

Soon, Christine McVie and Buckingham brought John McVie and Fleetwood into an L.A. studio for a few months, where they continued to work on the new material.

“It just got my brain working all over again. It was just really transcendent,” Buckingham said. “We bonded heavily and it was some of the coolest stuff I think we’ve ever done.”

It’s the closest Fleetwood Mac has been in nearly 30 years to recording an album with the complete “Rumours” lineup — the same group of musicians that became one of the best-selling bands in the world. And it could finally come to fruition within two years, Buckingham said.

But things have never been quite that simple with Fleetwood Mac. The last piece of the puzzle, Buckingham said, is getting Nicks into the studio to work on the music.

“It hasn’t quite been figured out, because as you may know, Fleetwood Mac’s politics are always a mess,” Buckingham said with a laugh.

In an interview for her Rolling Stone cover story in January, Nicks talked about how even in 2015, relations in the band — specifically between her and Buckingham — aren’t perfect.

“We know exactly what to say when we really want to throw a dagger in. And I think that that’s not different now than it was when we were 20. And I don’t think it will be different when we’re 80,” Nicks told Rolling Stone about her relationship with Buckingham.

Despite the friction between the members, Nicks told Rolling Stone that she could never realistically leave Fleetwood Mac.

“We choose to stay because we can’t do anything else,” Nicks said.

Back in 1987, when Fleetwood Mac recorded “Tango,” Buckingham said the album was a challenge because the subculture of the band was getting in the way of the music.

Now, Buckingham says the members are in different places and going into the studio isn’t “a circus” as it once was.

“We’ve all grown up and we’re all much closer to being adults now,” Buckingham said. “And we’re behaving ourselves and we’ve come to the realization that we don’t have to live our life that way to be creative.”

As the next Fleetwood Mac album slowly takes shape, the band is entering the last few months of its reunion tour (now with Christine McVie behind the piano), which will stop at Denver’s Pepsi Center on April 1.

In a live setting, Christine McVie’s presence has completed the famed team of her, Buckingham and Nicks.

“What happens with Christine is that her personality has sensibilities that reach into Stevie’s world and some that reach into my world,” Buckingham said. “I think that she’s the perfect middle ground. When you bring back her body of work, it just reaffirms the fact that there’s something a little more complete going on.”

The mind behind tracks like “Songbird,” “Say You Love Me” and “Don’t Stop,” Christine McVie provides that necessary pop element of Fleetwood Mac.

With Christine McVie back at her rightful place at stage right, Nicks in the center and Buckingham stage left, Fleetwood Mac is, on stage at least, a complete band.

[Edgeof27]

They are the Greatest Nostalgia Band ever, &, currently touring doing a phenomenal Tusk, oops, sorry typo there; Task.

However to produce a new collaborative album is only gonna lead to disappointment.

Their Individual efforts, &, abilities are now greater than the sum of the Whole Group.

The energy of the Band Members would be better focused on individual Solo albums, with individual supporting Solo Tours.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by Edgeof27

They are the Greatest Nostalgia Band ever, &, currently touring doing a phenomenal Tusk, oops, sorry typo there; Task.

However to produce a new collaborative album is only gonna lead to disappointment.

Their Individual efforts, &, abilities are now greater than the sum of the Whole Group.

The energy of the Band Members would be better focused on individual Solo albums, with individual supporting Solo Tours.

How can that be? We haven't HEARD anything new from "the reunited Five" (yet) to really make that assumption. So, I'm tossing in the BS card on that statement (and the statement directly following that).

And, as for your statement about a new album disappointing you before it's even been created...I feel sorry for you that your expectations are so high that you have already made it so the band cannot please you.

At this point, maybe you should just give up on them and find some other band that will eventually disappoint you, too.

[Jondalar]

I thought Lindsey's songs were stellar on SYW. Not so much with Stevie but that was her fault. His songs were just better - better lyrics, better everything. He really put his best foot forward. She didn't. If the album was uneven it was her fault.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by Jondalar

I thought Lindsey's songs were stellar on SYW. Not so much with Stevie but that was her fault. His songs were just better - better lyrics, better everything. He really put his best foot forward. She didn't. If the album was uneven it was her fault.

His material was generally stronger, though she did contribute five really good songs, I think: Illume, Throw Down, Destiny Rules, Everybody Finds Out, Say You Will.

The rest of her material was dull.

[secondhandchain]

We're in our 70's and finally have Christine back. We haven't recorded properly together since 1987. What should we do? Oh yeah lets tour for a year and a half. That's it!!!

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by secondhandchain

We're in our 70's and finally have Christine back. We haven't recorded properly together since 1987. What should we do? Oh yeah lets tour for a year and a half. That's it!!!

Yes, the irony. Oh, the irony!

[Edgeof27]

Originally Posted by chiliD

How can that be? We haven't HEARD anything new from "the reunited Five" (yet) to really make that assumption. So, I'm tossing in the BS card on that statement (and the statement directly following that).

And, as for your statement about a new album disappointing you before it's even been created...I feel sorry for you that your expectations are so high that you have already made it so the band cannot please you.

At this point, maybe you should just give up on them and find some other band that will eventually disappoint you, too.

Oh dear, such hostility, hold on to your special card.

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

His material was generally stronger, though she did contribute five really good songs, I think: Illume, Throw Down, Destiny Rules, Everybody Finds Out, Say You Will.

The rest of her material was dull.

I agree with this. Those five were excellent Nicks songs.

[TrueFaith77]

Originally Posted by secondhandchain

We're in our 70's and finally have Christine back. We haven't recorded properly together since 1987. What should we do? Oh yeah lets tour for a year and a half. That's it!!!

Well... this was one person's choice, no?

[LesPaulPlayer91]

Really hope there is a new album - if Lindsey and Christine have written stuff it would be a shame if it never saw the light of day. Re Say You Will, whilst it may be an unpopular opinion I really love it, one of my favourite FM albums. I can also see why they toured first, makes sense to gel as a five piece again before hitting the studio.