The Dance

[michelej1]

[Doing a web search, then posting what is not already on the internet]

Tulsa World, August 29, 1997

Section: ENTERTAINMENT


Fleetwood Mac - The Dance - Reprise

Thomas Conner; James D. Watts Jr.

The much-ballyhooed reunion of the Buckingham-Nicks lineup of Fleetwood Mac is as splendid as you might have heard, and the CD of the live reunion concert rings like a bell through the night. This band -- pop's premier supergroup -- produced a richly diverse and innovative body of work, all of it warm and inviting despite the inner turmoil that plagued the quintet. That dissipated, the group reunites here for a celebration of their success (1977's ""Rumours'' is the third highest-selling album in history) and the overwhelming familiarity of the material somehow doesn't work against them as much as most reunited has-beens.

The hits from '77 to '87 are covered well (opening with ""The Chain,'' a likening of a relationship to slavery, which may be an apt analogy for this group), and the new songs are astonishingly fluid, natural and just as important as the oldies were 20 years ago. Stevie Nicks sounds better than she has in years, updating ""Rhiannon'' with some lyrical changes (""Will you ever win?'' becomes ""Would you even try?'' in a gorgeous introduction) and ""Sweet Girl'' mulls the things she surrendered for a life of fame and glory. Christine McVie's ""Temporary One'' successfully updates her old "" Mystery to Me '' English-blues shuffle. Lindsey Buckingham remains the group's lynch-pin. He offers two typically amazing new songs to this set (""My Little Demon'' is like Adrian Belew meets the Mac), but his mettle with the old material is still undaunted. One of the greatest guitarists alive, he snakes a wicked solo through ""I'm So Afraid'' and picks out ""Big Love'' with bare fingers, producing a bigger wallop than the studio wizardry of the original. There's a good reason it took two players to replace him. -- Thomas Conner,Entertainment Writer

[michelej1]

[Here's a Time review from the same guy from above, 10-27-1995]

Fleetwood Mac - Time - Warner Bros.

If you don't believe in reincarnation, pick up a few Fleetwood Mac albums. For about the sixth time, the most durable rhythm section in popular music -- Mick Fleetwood and John McVie -- has found new life in another roundup of free spirits.

This year's draft picks include veteran Mac mother Christine McVie, though she won't be touring this time around; graceful guitarist Billy Burnette, one of two guitarists brought in to replace Lindsey Buckingham in '85; Dave Mason, who hasn't done much since his days as the prime piston in the engine of Traffic; and Bekka Bramlett, daughter of '60s high-voltage hit-makers Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. You should see the photos in the liner notes; the whole group looks like a Benson & Hedges ad -- smooth, stylish, wearing their respective generations well. Here we go again.

``Time,'' to borrow a pun, often comes off more like news weak. Mason gets in Burnette's way a lot, and Christine McVie's keyboard parts, using lots of electric piano effects, sound like romping sitcom themes. Her voice is a timeless treasure, though, and Bramlett's vocals are a welcome respite from Stevie Nicks' sleepy, barnyard approach to singing. The songs here are all passable and well-built, but nothing reaches out to grab you (save maybe Fleetwood's eerie recitative at the end). ``Time'' is reminiscent of the tepid ``Mystery to Me'' and ``Heroes Are Hard to Find'' days before the arrival of Buckingham and Nicks. But don't count them out, by any means. The Mac always comes back.

[michelej1]

San Francisco Chronicle (CA), February 15, 1998

Section: Sunday DateBook

Tickets to some rock shows -- primarily acts with an affluent Baby Boomer audience -- have gone through the roof. Fleetwood Mac tickets went for $17.50 when the band played the Cow Palace in 1987. Last fall at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, the group got $75 for a reserved seat. It's what the market would bear.

But as much as people grumble about the high cost of going out, by and large they're still willing to pay it. And with the economy flush right now, the entertainment dollars are flowing.

[michelej1]

Los Angeles Times 12/10/1997

POP/ROCK

Going Their Own Ways, Again: The well-received Fleetwood Mac reunion is over, Reprise Records confirmed Tuesday. Although the reunion, launched last May, had produced a hit album ("The Dance") and the year's fifth-highest grossing concert tour, singer-pianist Christine McVie has opted not to continue with the rigors of touring, so her "Rumours"-era band mates--Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie--will not press on without her. The lucrative tour--which reportedly grossed $36.3 million in 44 shows--officially wound up Nov. 30 in Landover, Md., but additional shows had been expected.

[michelej1]

New York Daily News, November 30, 1997


Section: NEW YORK VUE


HALL OF A YEAR FOR FLEETWOOD MAC


DAVID HINCKLEY

What has happened with Fleetwood Mac this year might be described as a peculiar sort of delayed reaction.

The band got back together after a partial breakup, releasing a new album and launching a tour that, so far, has been quite successful.

Probably not by coincidence, then, Fleetwood Mac was simultaneously remembered by the music business. Among other things, it will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January.

It had been eligible for several years, but this was the first year it was even nominated a strange omission considering how many tens of millions of records this group sold in the '70s and '80s.

Musically, the same lineup that made those records, most notably "Rumours," is part of this year's reunion: Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleet-wood and John McVie. Buck-ingham had been the first to leave, in 1987, while Nicks and Christine McVie followed a couple of years later.

Fleetwood and John McVie never let the group lapse, however Fleetwood in particular because he has seen many musicians come and go since Mac was launched in England in 1967 as a blues band (and a very good one).

The five musicians who are back together all worked on various solo and other-group projects over the past few years, none with any enduring level of success.

So they look like a reasonably happy bunch onstage now, and fans can see the evidence Friday night at 10 when WNET/ Ch. 13, as part of Pledge Week and its "In the Spotlight" series, airs "Fleetwood Mac: The Dance," a 90-minute concert taped in May and already shown on MTV and VH1.

The program takes the group through all the popular years, with a sturdy song selection that includes "Rhiannon," "Say That You Love Me" and "Go Your Own Way," plus presidential favorite "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)."

Not all the songs sound as recorded, but there's nothing unrecognizable.

Even the new songs have that full-bodied Mac gloss and as if to underscore that point, "Don't Stop" is performed with the 85-piece University of Southern Cali-fornia Trojan Marching Band.

Yes, the Mac is back.

[michelej1]

Albany Times Union (NY), November 27, 1997

Section: CAPITAL REGION


THE MAC STRIKES THE RIGHT CHORDS


GREG HAYMES Staff writer

It started about a half-hour late with Mick Fleetwood's insistent backbeat.

It built with Lindsey Buckingham's snapping, snaking guitar riff.

Soon the rest of the band -- vocalist Stevie Nicks, vocalist-keyboardist Christine McVie and her ex-husband-bassist John McVie -- slipped onstage and into gear.

It was ``The Chain,'' and on Wednesday night at the Pepsi Arena Fleetwood Mac added another link in the chain of their roller-coaster career with a two-hour-plus reunion concert featuring the most successful lineup of the fabled rock soap opera band that churned out the classic 1977 album ``Rumours.''

Two decades and 27 million copies later, Fleetwood Mac was back for another big Mac attack.

Was it the band's revitalization or just another take-the-money-and-run reunion tour?

Well, probably a little bit of both.

There was no question that the band -- which hadn't been seen in this particular incarnation for over a decade -- had weathered more storms than Captain Ahab, emotionally speaking, but the music was still magic.

Yes, Stevie Nicks was looking a little puffy, so to speak.

No, Lindsey Buckingham can't quite hit the high notes he used to nail.

But the truth of the matter is that with the constant re-invention and re-visitation of the '70s -- such movies as ``Boogie Nights'' and ``The Ice Storm'' as well as recent rock reunions by every '70s band from Yes to Grand Funk Railroad -- Fleetwood Mac was the real deal. And if it wasn't quite the grand time machine of nostalgia that it promised, it was at least a great recreation.

The fact that ``Don't Stop (Thinkin' About Tomorrow)'' was the first encore of a nostalgia concert only underscored the irony of the '70s.

As they sang at the Pepsi, ``Yesterday's gone, yesterday's gone.''

Still it was a sweet peek back at the glory days of ``Rumours,'' and a band that blended boffo box-office sales as well as innovative pop stylings.

In concert, Nicks is still the crowd favorite, Buckingham is still the band's head, and Christine McVie is still the band's heart.

The new songs were tolerated at best, and Nicks' ``Sweet Girl'' and ``Christine McVie's ``Temporary One'' were, in fact, generic throwaways. Buckingham's more adventurous ``Bleed to Love Her'' and ``My Little Demon'' pushed the envelope a bit more, although neither one connected with the near-capacity crowd.

But it wasn't the new songs that the crowd came to hear. On the eve of Thanksgiving Day traditions, the audience clearly wanted to latch onto the memories and feelings of the past.

The band didn't disappoint.

Perhaps this was a one-time-only reunion. Perhaps it will develop into an ongoing musical project for the fivesome. Either way, it was good to have them in town this week, if only to relive old times.

FACTS:REVIEW FLEETWOOD MAC WHEN: Wednesday night. WHERE: The Pepsi Arena, Albany. MUSICAL HIGHLIGHTS: ``Landslide,'' ``Songbird,'' ``Tusk'' and a smashing ``Farmer's Daughter.'' THE CROWD: Even the steep $60 ticket price didn't keep the fans away. The decidedly gold-card crowd nearly filled the arena, although a couple of sections behind the stage were empty. LAST TIME IN TOWN: Without Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks or Lindsay Buckingham, Fleetwood Mac played at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center a couple of years ago . . . as an opening act. In a closer-to-the-current incarnation (with guitarists Billy Burnette and Rick Vito taking over for Lindsey Buckingham), Fleetwood Mac played in the Capital Region seven years ago when the Pepsi Arena was still in its original incarnation as the Knick. IF YOU MISSED IT: ``Fleetwood Mac: The Dance'' -- a 90-minute concert performance by the reunited Mac -- will air on PBS channels next month at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, on WMHT-TV (Ch. 17) and at 9:40 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, on WMHQ-TV (Ch. 45).

[michelej1]

Baltimore Sun (MD), November 27, 1997

Section: Maryland Live


FLEETWOOD MAC ENCORE


J.D. Considine

Because Fleetwood Mac never really broke up, it isn't entirely correct to call the band's current album and tour a comeback. But with the return of Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks -- and a set list that leaned heavily on favorite tunes from the albums " Fleetwood Mac " and "Rumours" -- it was hard not to think of "The Dance " as a reunion album.

But unlike most rock reunions , which tend to feel awkward and forced, the second coming of the Buckingham/Nicks Mac sounded even stronger than the first. Certainly, the group is playing better than ever, and interviews with the group make sound as if the five musicians now get along better than they ever have. Fleetwood Mac will finish its current tour at the USAirways Arena this Sunday, and there has been no official word on whether this lineup will continue. So it may be the last " Dance " -- can you afford to miss it?

Fleetwood Mac performs Sunday, Nov. 30, 8 p.m. Tickets are $75, $45 and $25. Call 410-792-7490 for information, 410-481-7328 for tickets.

Pub Date: 11/27/97

[michelej1]

Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 25, 1997

Section: SCENE & HEARD


BLUES ROCKERS SERVE UP A SATISFYING PERFORMANCE
MICHAEL NORMAN PLAIN DEALER MUSIC CRITIC

They were an unlikely band from the start - three hardcore British blues rockers named Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Christine McVie and a pair of California folkies named Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

But great chemistry is often born of unlikely marriages, particularly in rock 'n' roll. And whatever you think of the popular 1970s lineup of Fleetwood Mac , there is no doubt there is something special - even electric - about the interplay among its members.

We're not talking about the band's notoriously rocky interpersonal relationships here, although the bad blood between its once-married members (the McVies and Buckingham and Nicks) probably did inspire some of its best music, particularly on its 1977 best-selling album, "Rumours."

The chemistry of Fleetwood Mac goes beyond that sort of surface tension. That was clear from the start. And it was still clear last night during the band's sold-out concert in Gund Arena.

There's something undefinably special about the way the members play and sing together. You can hear it in the bright, three-part harmonies of Nicks, Buckingham and Christine McVie, in the dynamic rhythmic interplay between Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass, in the way all five feed off one another to create a sound that is unlike any other in rock.

The band is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the "Rumours" album with a full-blown reunion that kicked off this summer with the broadcast of an MTV concert special and the release of a new live album, "The Dance." The group is now nearing the end of a 44-city North American tour that began in September. It has become one of the most successful concert events of the year, selling out sports arenas and outdoor amphitheaters across the country.

Last night's concert stuck closely to the format of the MTV special, kicking off with the "Rumours" hit "The Chain" and ending with a rock-the-house finale that included "Tusk," and the "Rumours" classics "Go Your Own Way" and "Don't Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)."

In between, they served up more hits ("Gold Dust Woman," "Rhiannon," "Second Hand News," "Say You Love Me," "Gypsy") and plenty of other good music, including powerful renditions of lesser-known, older songs such as "Landslide," "Big Love" and "Silver Springs."

Even the new songs such as "Temporary One" (a bright pop-rock tune by Christine McVie) and "Bleed to Love Her" (a bluesy rocker by Buckingham) stood up to the classics.

Buckingham, who sings and plays lead guitar, provided many of the concert's most electrifying moments, earning a standing ovation with his blazing guitar solo on "I'm So Afraid," and performing an elegant solo acoustic set that included the yearning "Big Love" and "Go Insane."

Nicks - who came dressed in her familiar flowing, gypsy garb - looked fit and sounded great, tearing through strong renditions of her signature songs "Gypsy," "Gold Dust Woman" and "Rhiannon." She teamed up with Buckingham for a short, acoustic set that featured a wonderful, tender version of the ballad "Landslide." She was also featured in an energetic rendition of her solo dance hit, "Stand Back," and delivered an epic reading of the underappreciated Fleetwood Mac oldie "Silver Springs."

Christine McVie, who sings and plays keyboards, is often overlooked in the Fleetwood Mac mix. But she might possess the strongest voice of the three Mac vocalists. She got to show her talent off best with a spine-tingling version of "Oh Daddy."

The band didn't stray too far from the familiar arrangements. But when they did, it was effective. They reworked "Say You Love Me," into an off-kilter pop tune featuring Buckingham on lead banjo instead of guitar. "The Chain," an anti-breakup song that revels in the healing power of love, was slowed to a more tentative pace, giving the tune a more reflective, less defiant, feel.

The band was supported last night by five backing musicians, including two vocalists, a percussionist (Lenny Castro), keyboardist and guitarist. The additional players gave the concert a rich, full sound - making the venue seem much smaller than a 20,000-seat sports arena.

There were a few disappointing moments, including a loopy Beat-style poetry recital by Buckingham and a goofy drum solo by Fleetwood (tapped out on an electronic, musical vest called a "HOTZ"). But those were minor glitches in an otherwise glorious evening.

"We want to say we are all just thrilled with the way this project has unfolded," Buckingham said at the end of the show. "I think we all knew we could still deliver the music. We just didn't know what was out there for us."

Judging from last night's show, there's plenty of interest still out there. Here's hoping they keep this reunion alive for a full-fledged studio album.

[michelej1]

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, November 10, 1997

Section: LIFESTYLE


REUNITED, AND IT FEELS SO GOOD
FLEETWOOD MAC COMES BACK AND THE SOUND ADVICE BLUES FEST RETURNS FOR ITS 11TH YEAR.

SEAN PICCOLI Music Writer

How cool is it to like Fleetwood Mac ? Even punkers who despise the supergroup culture that nearly ruined rock music in the '70s will admit, if only by their choice of cover tunes, that "The Mac" was - and remains - one of the most unbeatable pop-rock bands ever.

And golly gee if the masses don't agree. Nearly 20,000 people flocked to Coral Sky Amphitheatre on Saturday night to watch the most popular incarnation of Fleetwood Mac - a band with 30 years and 19 albums in the bag - play the West Palm Beach date on a ballyhooed reunion tour.

Touting the lineup behind 1977's Rumors, one of the best-selling albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac demonstrated that something more than money - of which there's lots right now - has helped the history-making quintet come sensibly to terms with its fame.

Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and a five-piece touring ensemble absolutely wowed the sellout crowd with a generous and inspired performance that went beyond simple, sentimental restatement of old glories.

Opening with The Chain, a deliciously creepy breakup song ("Listen to the wind blow/Down comes the night''), the band gave Rumors a good, hard spin, playing eight of its ten tracks. The album anchored, front to back, a 26-song set that ran nearly 21/2 hours.

What made this more than a Rumored reunion, however, was the way Fleetwood Mac combined familiarity with a kind of accumulated wisdom that clearly enhanced the playing. The urgency in Buckingham's pealing voice and exceptional guitar work suggested that numbers like Second Hand News, Go Your Own Way and Don't Stop - a favorite of President Clinton's, with its peppy, forward-looking refrain of "yesterday's gone" - still offer him room to explore.

Listening to Nicks wrap herself around the opening lines of the spectral Gold Dust Woman, with her sweet, serrated voice, was like hearing the song for the first time and the hundredth, all at once.

Inevitably, Nicks was a focal point: Seemingly everyone eyeing the latest '70s supergroup reunion had catty opinions about how - and where - the scarf-twirling, earth-mothering vocalist was aging. Her waistline was possibly the most talked-about feature of Fleetwood Mac's comeback.

Nicks' response was to sing and perform with an affectless grace makes ninnies of everyone - yours truly included - who might have clucked at the selective lighting and gauzy lensing of the VH1 telecast that launched The Dance.

Christine McVie brought her customary low-key elegance to vocal and piano accompaniment. On Songbird, she performed alone, exhuding a warmth clearly directed at a crowd that was chiming in all evening: "The songbirds are singing like they know the score."

Dignity was a relative thing with Fleetwood, who mugged at the crowd and prowled his drum kit like a tarantula, latching himself to John McVie's precise bass lines and bounding along with an exuberance that spilled over easily into an 11-minute solo.

The evening's most ingenuously silly-fun moment had Fleetwood in the rhythmic equivalent of Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat: A black vest fitted with electronic touch pads that he smacked with his hands to trigger sounds.

The evening's mischief extended to the last of three encores: a harmonizing cover of Farmer's Daughter, a campy Beach Boys for which Nicks has a weakness.

So what's any of this got to do with punk and alternative rock? Ask Courtney Love: Her band, Hole, covers Gold Dust Woman. Fellow Washington-staters Seaweed did Go Your Own Way on the slacker-approved soundtrack of Clerks. Midwestern punkers Soul Asylum played Rhiannon and Dreams at an impromptu Miami Beach club date in October. (All this without a Fleetwood Mac tribute album.) It was obvious why on Saturday: They are great songs, for one; and Fleetwood Mac still plays them best. So look out, kiddies: Yesterday's here.

[michelej1]

Miami Herald (FL) November 6, 1997

Section: Living


THE MAC IS BACK THE CHAIN GANG, LONG BROKEN APART LINKS UP WITH THE PAST AND THE FUTURE


HOWARD COHEN Herald Staff Writer

Break the silence / Damn the dark / Damn the light.

The Chain, Fleetwood Mac Mick Fleetwood, the drummer who founded the group that has borne his name for 30 years, was the last to admit the necessity of what everybody else saw coming as far back as 1987: last year's official breakup of Fleetwood Mac .

It was then, with miserable sales of their 1995 album, Time , sitting there as evidence, that Fleetwood and bassist John McVie (the other remaining original) finally realized no one cared about their band anymore. No one cared about a Fleetwood Mac without Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, all of whom had split.

Now, The Chain gang, unraveling for 10 years, is back on. That's an older, but healthy-looking, Fleetwood Mac staring out from the cover of the Oct. 30 Rolling Stone, topping Billboard's album charts, parading on stage in frequent rotation on MTV.

It was the bastion of hipdom, MTV, that laid the groundwork for the revival. The Rumours -era Mac -- Fleetwood, divorced but still-friendly Christine (keyboards, vocals) and John McVie, ex-paramours Nicks (vocals) and Buckingham (guitar, vocals) -- got together in May for a special to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Rumours LP and, in turn, the 30th anniversary of the band.

The rest is a repeat of history. The band's current live CD, The Dance -- four new songs and revamped classics -- is nearing two million in sales, outdoing peers (the Rolling Stones, Elton John, Bob Dylan) and many young bloods (Master P, Green Day, Mariah Carey). No tickets remain for the group's Saturday concert at Coral Sky Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, mirroring Mac's performance at other 20,000-seaters across the country.

In part, the insatiable lust for nostalgia explains the success of Mac and of The Dance : More boomers are buying records, and yesteryear groups are going to keep on smoothing over old hurts for another go.

But the old music wears a fresh face on this album, and it's connecting with younger fans. The CD's firm grip on a spot in Billboard's Top 5 and MTV's repeated showings of the concert are no accident: The Dance is a direct slap at so much of what younger audiences had grown tired of. Here's music with passion and history and no resemblance to the disaffected grunge of the groups who have became ever more disposable in their futile quest to clone Nirvana.

Public proclamations of support from hipster fans such as Courtney Love, Billy Corgan and Winona Ryder haven't hurt, either.

``In the late '70s and through the '80s, Fleetwood Mac was considered a big machine, and you had people -- not that much younger than us -- rejecting that aspect,'' says Buckingham, now 50. ``There was a negative perception. Now there's an ability to look with renewed clarity at how well the music holds up, with Billy and Courtney saying `Hey, Fleetwood Mac isn't really the enemy anymore.''

The newer music, like much current rock, borrows selectively from the angst-ridden sound of earlier '90s groups like Soundgarden, Nirvana or Pearl Jam, but it's radio-friendly -- always a Mac trademark. `` Rumours , and to some degree, Tusk, took a classic approach to rock and brightened up the (tops) as sunny, but the underpinnings were real dark,'' Buckingham says. ``We always knocked it up a few notches on stage, and one of the things I noticed at these shows with the younger people, they were saying `You guys rock; gee, Lindsey, you're nuts on stage.' ''

Time for healing wounds

Chemistry was the key. That chemistry had been poisoned by years of infighting by the time the group broke up, but the MTV concert was all about rejuvenation and rediscovery of what made Fleetwood Mac work when it used to, when band members confronted personal problems in lyrical ways that spoke so profoundly to their fans.

The open-mouthed expression on Fleetwood's face -- part sly devil, part delighted dad -- while he surveyed his brood as the opening song, The Chain , crashed to an end detailed the intangible.

``Mick has such a great love for this,'' Nicks, 49, says. ``We could never let him down.''

The time for healing was overdue. Relations within the band snapped in the mid-'80s. Nicks, just kicking a decade-long cocaine habit, and Buckingham, still nursing feelings of betrayal, barely spoke to each other. Christine McVie, after touring with Fleetwood Mac almost since its inception as a British blues band, had tired of the road.

``There was so much baggage,'' says Buckingham.

But yesterday is gone.

The idea for the MTV reunion arose early this year at sessions for Buckingham's fourth solo album (on hold until the group finishes touring the States in December). Fleetwood, 55, played drums; John McVie, 51, added bass parts. Buckingham drafted Christine McVie for harmonies. The old feelings surfaced.

``We looked at each other and thought, `Ooh, deja vu,' and so a big light bulb goes off at Warner Bros. and Mick was fueling that,'' Buckingham laughs. ``His life is Fleetwood Mac .''

Adds Christine McVie, 54, ever the group's optimist: ``We're all getting along famously at the moment.'' Compare that to Nicks and Buckingham tearing each other apart during the cocaine-crazed Rumours sessions (He: Shacking up is all you wanna do . She: I'll follow you down 'til the sound of my voice will haunt you ) while McVie offered quiet support to her heavily drinking, soon-to-be ex-husband ( I wish you all the love in the world, but most of all, I wish it from myself .)

``It seems we'd all grown up,'' McVie says in her honeyed English accent. ``Nobody is trying to avoid anyone anymore. We all have a sense of humor, that never went away.''

Earlier ` reunion '

Technically, this is not Fleetwood Mac's first reunion . The prodigious pile of money Mick Fleetwood made from the band's string of smash albums, from Fleetwood Mac in 1975 up to Mirage in 1982, fed a drug habit and bad investments and eventually ran out. Off on solo careers in the mid-'80s, the group reconvened to help him out, and the result was the worldwide hit Tango in the Night in 1987. But sessions for that pop-oriented CD were ``bitter and twisted,'' says Christine McVie, and Buckingham bolted under not-so-good terms before the group could launch a supporting tour. The Dance Tour marks the first time these five individuals are touring together in 15 years.

There will be money to be made again for Mick and everyone else, but all insist that is not the motivating force.

``We couldn't stay together for the money, and we were making a lot of money then,'' Nicks explains. ``After these 40 (U.S.) gigs, if we're not having a great time we'll never do another show. In order to make the big money we'd have to tour the whole world (anyway).''

Buckingham concurs: ``Even though Mick is proud to see this fivesome together, I don't think he feels that anybody owes anybody anything. It's a minor miracle this has happened at all.''

``I'm very happy now,'' says Nicks, cigarette-free since January, 30 pounds lighter and still favoring her distinctively feminine stagewear of chiffon and knee-high boots. ``We are older and able to be wise; we don't let little things blow up into huge arguments like in the past. That's the great thing about getting older, you get much smarter.''

Furtive glances

And while the romantic entanglements accounting for much of this group's appeal are settled (Fleetwood and the McVies are remarried to others), Buckingham and Nicks remain single, fueling the idea that this tale still hasn't reached its concluding chapter.

One such revealing tour moment comes in Nicks' MTV performance of her showpiece tune, Silver Springs , a song Buckingham once insisted be cut from the Rumours album.

Time cast a spell on you, but you won't forget me / I know I could have loved you, but you would not let me, the three singers harmonize on the chorus, but Nicks' gaze isn't fixed on the front rows; it's on Buckingham, who steals furtive glances her way.

You'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loved you, Nicks practically yells. Buckingham, at this point, retreats behind his guitar like a shield.

Nicks laughs at the memory of that May show.

``Well, since that performance I have to sing Silver Springs to him almost every day, so Lindsey and I get to do and say things that we wouldn't get to say to each other in real life,'' Nicks says. ``It's like a release. Even now, we don't talk much, so when those songs come around and are directly involved with our relationship it's very therapeutic to work that stuff out. This way we get to have closure.''

Buckingham allows, ``There is still a lot of love there.''

* And if you don't love me now / You will never love me again.

The Chain *

The lyric is from Rumours ' centerpiece, and it's the first song the group will play in concert Saturday. Fitting, because it's the only Fleetwood Mac song in which all five members share a writing credit. And no other tune so perfectly captures the tumultuous timbre of this band. The catch phrase -- I can still hear you saying / You would never break the chain -- is a siren warning of loneliness, loss and longing.

For Mick Fleetwood, who once studiously avoided commenting on Fleetwood Mac's demise, the group's rebirth breaks his silence.

``It's been a looooong time.''

music

Fleetwood Mac performs at 8 p.m. Saturday at Coral Sky Amphitheater, 601-7 Sansbury's Way, West Palm Beach. Tickets are sold out, but some seats could be released late. For information, call 1 (800) 759-4624.

cutlines

AP File IN THE '70S: From left, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie at the Grammy Awards in 1978, after accepting the Album of the Year Grammy for Rumours.

AP File IN THE '70S: From left, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie at the Grammy Awards in 1978, after accepting the Album of the Year Grammy for Rumours.

[michelej1]

Los Angeles Times 10/20/1997

Section: Calendar


You Know the Drill
Fleetwood Mac Grasps ABCs of Reunionizing
MIKE BOEHM
TIMES STAFF WRITER

IRVINE The Baby Boomer mega-band reunion drill has gotten so familiar and predictably consumer-ready that we can now sort through each new manifestation alphabetically.

A, B and C mark the minimum essentials for an enjoyable, if unambitious, reunion concert of the sort Fleetwood Mac managed, despite some glaring lapses, on Friday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre. If famous rock returnees still have Ability (voices and instrumental chops reasonably intact), make a persuasive display of Bonding and have a deep, still-appealing Catalog to exploit, no fan is going to go away unhappy, and even a critic can't complain too much.

D is for Detox, sometimes a necessary precondition of the undertaking. E through H contain the crux of the matter: Enormous Financial Gains Harvested.

I stands for Inspiration and all the possibility it holds for fresh creativity matching former peak standards. No superstar reunion gets to I.

But given the tightly wound all-around talent and nervous energy of Lindsey Buckingham, still an exceptional singer-guitarist and sonic architect, and the strength of "The Dance," Fleetwood Mac's version of the obligatory MTV comeback concert album, an optimist could hope that, this time, it might not be impossible. But all the Mac could muster was a sometimes sparkling, occasionally clunky recitation of the standard A, B and C of reunionizing.

The show touched on each facet of Fleetwood Mac's something-for-everyone appeal, including its late-'70s celebrity status as a traveling soap opera of intra-band romantic entanglements. Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie all contributed to the catchy, readily digestible Southern California soft-rock side of the band, but Nicks and Buckingham had moments exploring romantically charged drama with taut urgency (Buckingham was so intent on putting a dramatic charge into the proceedings that he overdid it at times with shrill singing that eventually made him hoarse).

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The show teetered at first, with a lethargic sequence of disconnected oldies. Things began to flow better with a sequence of solo showcases and stripped-down acoustic readings of songs. The audience was indifferent to three of the four solid if not quite inspired new songs from "The Dance," hailing only Nicks' "Sweet Girl" with applause.

Nicks has overcome most of the croakiness that marred her singing after the mid-1980s; "Landslide" and a stormily building "Rhiannon" were highlights, and she didn't do her patented swirling in diaphanous shawls to annoying excess. Annoying excess was Mick Fleetwood's department: a tiresome routine in which the gangly drummer pranced around at stage front, making bug eyes, screaming and tap-tap-tapping on drum-synthesizer pads sewn into his velveteen vest and knickers.

Buckingham and Nicks were savvy enough to rekindle the old soap opera at several junctures, with lots of fixed-gaze eye contact during "Go Your Own Way" and especially during Nicks' glowing disappointed-lover's curse, "Silver Springs."

The tour marks the 20th anniversary of the "Rumours" album, but this also is the 30th anniversary of Fleetwood Mac's original, all-British lineup. Including one or two very-oldies might have prevented the early lethargy.

While it covered the ABCs of rock reunionizing, Fleetwood Mac's performance didn't fan any hopes kindled by "The Dance." And it didn't stop the final refrain of "Don't Stop"--"Ooh, don't you look back"--from being unintentionally ironic.

* Fleetwood Mac plays Friday at the Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., 8 p.m. Sold out. (213) 850-2000.