Mirage at 40

[Villavic]

This is part of what Mick's first book tells about Mirage

Mirage was released in mid-1982, an artistic and financial success. Both "Hold Me" and "Gypsy" were hit singles in the United States, and "Oh Diane" was a British chart hit as well. I think we sold about five million albums. It didn't hurt that Rolling Stone had crowned Stevie "The Reigning Queen of Rock and Roll," and that a new cable television channel called MTV was broadcasting our new videos ("Hold Me" set in desert dunes, "Gypsy" in a Stevie fantasy world) to the American suburbs twenty-four hours a day. Mirage went to number one, and it felt great to be back on top for a while.

Mirage also marked the first time that Fleetwood Mac didn't automatically tour to support a new album. Stevie's solo career was now in full swing, and she obviously didn't want to do a long Fleetwood Mac road binge in the midst of becoming one of the biggest stars in the business. We did do an eighteen-show stint during the summer of 1982 that was booked around two big outdoor festivals in Florida and the immense U.S. Festival in California (for which Fleetwood Mac received $80O,000 for one show). We worked for about a month, made some money, and Irving Azoff's company, Frontline Management, got 15 percent of the tour for organising it.

I felt sick when we stopped touring. Mirage was number one and sales were strong in cities where we'd played. I wanted to be on the move, touring until the cows came home, but the others were less enthusiastic. Christine had sessions for her own solo album scheduled, and we'd been lucky to get Stevie at all. As soon as we left the road, Mirage died after five weeks at number one. The Australian band Men at Work, who had opened for us on the road, saw their album go to number one shortly thereafter.