FLEETWOOD MAC - Best Rock Show

The backstage drama in this 40-year-old band is enough to fill several books, and it already has (personally, I can't wait for the pull-no-punches Lindsey Buckingham autobiography). The back-and-forth between Buckingham and Stevie Nicks is why this band is making fans pay through the nose to see them play the hits one more time, but don't underestimate the power of the Mick Fleetwood-John McVie rhythm section. Still, the "retired" Christine McVie is much missed, and here's hoping they acknowledge founding guitarist Peter Green by resurrecting "Oh, Well" or some other '60s blues-rock gem.

Wednesday/Thursday - March 5/6 at the Allstate Arena, 6920 N. Mannheim Rd., Rosemont, IL

Tickets:$149.50, $79.50, $49.50;
Phone: 312-559-1212

Greg Kot
Chicago Tribune

FLEETWOOD MAC UNRESOLVED ISSUES

Fleetwood Mac heads out on Greatest Hits Tour

with unresolved issues

Thursday, February 26, 2009
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Stevie and Lindsey Speak to the Post Gazette (Short Audio Segment of this interview)
DOWNLOAD

In 1975, British blues-rock band Fleetwood Mac, already troubled with legal battles and internal breakups, went into the free-agent market and hired on the attractive young L.A. singer-songwriter duo of Buckingham Nicks. The result: one of the greatest hit machines and perhaps the greatest running soap opera in pop music history.

Forget "Behind the Music." When you have two sets of ex-lovers on stage, it's the stuff of a miniseries.

Thirty-four years later, as Fleetwood Mac prepares for the "Unleashed" greatest hits tour, you get the feeling maybe they should keep a good group therapist, perhaps that guy who helped Metallica, on the speed dial.

Not even a minute into an interview with Lindsey Buckingham, the volatile singer-guitarist is referring to things that "maybe got left hanging" and the tour being as exciting "as much on a personal level as anything else."

"Personal level" has little to do with how anyone gets along with the jovial chaps who hold down the rhythm section -- founding Brits Mick Fleetwood and John McVie -- and everything to do with the harmony between Buckingham and former flame and quintessential pop diva Stevie Nicks.

It will all begin at the Mellon Arena, where Fleetwood Mac makes its home for several days of rehearsal this week before the 15-city tour begins there on Sunday.

Go Your Own Way

"Unleashed" is the first reunion of Fleetwood Mac since the band finished the marathon "Say 

Yo

u Will" tour in 2004. After that run, the band members sat down for a meeting in which, according to Buckingham, "I sort of said very methodically to the group, 'Don't come knocking on my door for X amount of time' with the intention of doing two solo albums in relatively short order and touring behind them."

Nicks, in a separate phone interview, notes that Buckingham said, " 'I need two to three years.' And for me that's fine, 'cause I have a whole 'nother world that keeps right on going with or 

without Fleetwood Mac." She can go play "Edge of Seventeen" anywhere. "But the rest of the people in Fleetwood Mac really don't. So for them that's like big. Like, 'HOW many years?' It was kind of a thing where we had to sit and go, 'OK, he needs to do this.' "

Buckingham squeezed out two solo albums, his first since 1992's "Out of the Cradle" (released after he quit Fleetwood Mac in '87). The first one, 2006's "Under the Skin," was a big departure from the band with delicate fingerpicking, whispered vocals and hazy melodies that had been left too long in the sun.

"No lead, really, no bass or drums, and it was really about one or two guitars being the basis for a whole track," Buckingham says.

"Gift of Screws," which came out in September, rocked a lot more and included songs like "Love Runs Deeper" that could very well have been Fleetwood Mac hits. Fleetwood and McVie even played on the album.

"People will say, 'What constitutes a band song vs. a solo song?' " Buckingham says, "and I always say part of it is just what you're doing at the time. If you're involved in a band thing, then the material will shape itself into being band material or possibility the group mentality will be what the group is receptive to. Having said that, I was more into doing some approaches that were more particular to me as a solo artist."

Of course, it's worth noting that Fleetwood Mac wasn't exactly risk-averse, "Tusk" -- with the USC Trojan marching band tromping through -- being the living proof.

"Yeah, we did [experiment]," Buckingham says. "Not always at everyone's comfort level. In the wake of 'Rumours,' I guess I was the culprit behind 'Tusk.' That was a big experiment, which proved itself to be successful years later. I think at the time there was a bit of a backlash from the record company and certainly from the band. We've done our share of chance-taking. You find yourself in a situation that can only be described as a 'big machine.' Once you have a level of commercial success, you have a lot of forces out there that want you to repeat those formulas for not necessarily the right reasons -- only for the reasons of generating income -- and if you forget who you are, you can certainly paint yourself into a corner over a period of time and have nowhere to go creatively. And you have to kind of reject all of that and try to listen to your inner voice as much as possible and follow it whenever you can. So I've done a pretty job of navigating that line. It's been a little convoluted, but ... still here!"

Buckingham says when the "big machine" came calling last month, he still wanted to put the finishing touches on the solo work with another leg of "Gift of Screws" shows. "It was a little hard to let go of because, obviously, the whole solo thing is more a labor of love in its own way."

Buckingham's solo venture leaves Fleetwood Mac no choice but to embark on a greatest hits tour, but the foursome is putting the best possible face on it, making it sound as if it's what they always wanted to do.

"It's exciting to us," Nicks says, "because we're not trying to shove new songs down people's throats. As much as we love new material, every time you do a new tour you can only do two or three new songs, because the audience is out there going, 'You know what, we're delighted that you're still writing, but you can't be taking out our favorite songs to put in your favorite new songs.' And this is something we learned a long time ago. This time we're not doing any new stuff. We're doing 'Stand Back' and Lindsey's doing one of his songs -- that's really the only things coming out from our solo work. When you look at the set, it's jam packed. It's two hours and 20 minutes and it's starting in 1975 and just working all the way up."

Buckingham says you could make a case for some of the songs on his solo records being ripe for a Fleetwood Mac workout on stage, but that he's aware of the politics of such lobbying. Pointing to the "Say You Will" tour, the first without Christine McVie, he says, "I had that much more room to be a guy up on stage, just to be who I am. And we were reflecting portions of ['Say You Will'], which had quite a bit of edge to it in places. I think we came off that tour with Stevie feeling quite uncomfortable with what that was. I think there was talk then about the next time we went out 

we needed to just play more of the body of work. So I haven't brought up any songs from solo work to do and, quite honestly, those albums, I think, are not something anyone else in the band has listened to."

Really?! They haven't heard his solo records?

"You'd be surprised," he says.

The other woman

The rumor circulating early last year was that the next time Fleetwood Mac hit the road, holding down the Christine McVie slot would be none other than Sheryl Crow, who helped produce Nicks' last solo album, 2001's "Trouble in Shangri-La."

Obviously, that would have turned the Fleetwood Mac dynamic somewhat upside-down, but in the end, it wasn't meant to be. Crow had to miss a Fleetwood Mac studio session, due, quite symbolically, to a Mother's Day affair and told the band she would have to pass.

Says Nicks, "I gave Sheryl a long lecture and said, 'Listen, honey, you just adopted a new baby, you just came through breast cancer, you survived Lance Armstrong, to come into Fleetwood Mac right now where we are going on a tour that could go on for a 135 shows. ... You can't say I 

need a month off with my baby, because you're not going to get it, because nobody gets time off in Fleetwood Mac. Once you're in the Mac, it's like being in the army ...' So I said to her, 'As Stevie Nicks, who loves to sing with you, I would say I'd be very disappointed. But as your friend, you're making the right decision.' She passed on Fleetwood Mac. Everybody thinks we passed on her."

Christine McVie, who was married to John McVie from 1968 to 1976, remains a much tougher loss for the band, her having written and sung -- in a pure, beautiful voice -- such hits as "Over My Head," "Don't Stop," "You Make Loving Fun" and "Say You Love Me." The 65-year-old British singer hasn't worked with Mac since the reunion for "The Dance" in 1997 and the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction a year later.

"We never wanted Christine to leave," Nicks says. "We wanted Christine to change her mind. But what happened was, Christine had been keeping big secrets from us all the many years. She was afraid to fly. Because she's such a tough old bird, she never let us know. And she was having panic attacks about it. She was really having a hard time with the traveling, and they say when people get older, you get more claustrophobic and more sensitive, and I think you really do. And so it hit Chris, and she was like, 'I don't want to do it anymore.' And it's not that she didn't want to come on stage, not that she didn't want to do music anymore. She just didn't want to tour."

Fleetwood Mac has three backup singers to help with the high harmonies -- and Buckingham and Nicks are already a vocal powerhouse themselves -- but Stevie says there are intangibles Christine McVie brought to the group that can't be replaced.

"The horrible thing, which breaks our heart, is just Christine herself. Her personality, her crazy English self. She was a buffer between all of us. She was definitely a buffer between me and Lindsey, and she would be the one to say -- [imitating a chirpy British accent] 'You guys are all being stupid!' She'd be like 'Break it up, break it up!' "

By all accounts, there are times in Fleetwood Mac when a buffer is needed between Buckingham and Nicks, who were romantically entangled from 1972 until the tumultuous making of "Rumours" four years later.

"Lindsey and me are the problem children," Nicks says.

But the relationship has changed a lot in the past 10 years, with Buckingham becoming husband to photographer Kristen Messner and dad to their three children: a 10-year-old boy, and girls 8 and 4.

"He lives in girl land now," Nicks says. "He lives in ballet land and girls basketball team land, very girly, so how could you not soften up when you're surrounded by women? And when you have two little girls you also have two little girls and all their friends. So he's been in that world for the last four years. And it has softened him, and instead of treating me like his miserable ex-girlfriend, he's treating me more like a difficult but loved daughter. And I like it just fine, because he is softer and much more understanding of me and what I do. And he doesn't get mad at me. I yell out something and he lets it go. He's more the Lindsey he was when I first met him. So it's delightful for me because I'm kind of getting to see the man I cared about so much all those many years ago again almost come back."

And he's not throwing guitars at her, as he famously did on stage once.

"He's not throwing anything at me," Nicks says, with a laugh. "And it's almost like it would be ridiculous, you know what I mean? We are 59 and 60. We were 16 and 17 when we met. We have both looked at each other the last couple months when we've been talking about this, going, 'We met each other when we were 16 and 17, we need to make peace before we die.' "

Asked whether he's softened with fatherhood, Buckingham concedes.

"I think that's probably true. During the time Fleetwood Mac was making albums and after Stevie and I had broken up, and I was still having to produce for her, and make hits for her, we never had gotten any closure. We just had to kind of seal everything off; everyone was living in their own states of denial. Not only had there not been closure, but there hadn't been a lot of fairness in the way things worked out, nor had there been a lot of honesty. And so I'm certain that having children and getting to that point, I don't feel so embattled in my life in general. These things, they just happen in their own time."

So when they get up on stage Sunday night and do a song like "Go Your Own Way," is it a good deal less emotionally charged than it would have been 30 years ago?

"I think that we've done them so many times," Buckingham says. "Even when we were writing these songs, they didn't necessarily feel as personal or autobiographical I guess as they ended up appearing to be. We just get up there and have a good time. It's all been said and done and scrutinized to death, really, so we just get up there and we play. And I don't think we think about it so much on an emotional level. Or I don't, anyway."

WDVE INTERVIEW WITH MICK FLEETWOOD

Mick Fleetwood interview on

102.5 WDVE Rocks

in Pittsburgh, PA 2/26/09

Link to Audio Interview

FLEETWOOD MAC IN ONE INCARNATION OR ANOTHER

By Ed Symkus
GateHouse News Service
Norwichbulletin.com

Fleetwood Mac, in one incarnation or another, has been making music — first it was straight blues, now it’s pop-rock — since 1967. 

They started off playing in dark and dingy London clubs and, throughout the late-’70s and early-’80s, they packed the largest arenas in the world.

Their current three-month tour of North America marks the first time they’ve performed together in five years. They visit the TD Banknorth Garden on March 11, in support of their new “best of” album, “Unleashed.”

All four members of the band recently took part in a telephone conference call. Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham were in chatty moods; John McVie took on the role of silent partner.

The tour marks the first time since the band’s rise to prominence in the’70s that they’ve gone on the road without an album of new material; they’ll only be playing tunes from their fat catalogue of hits. But that doesn’t mean they’re through recording.

“This is a refreshing thing to do in terms of selecting a lot of really emotively connected songs to the audience,” says drummer Fleetwood of only playing the hits. “But there have been discussions for sure that we would love to make some more music. I think it’s sort of down to the biorhythms of how everyone is feeling and what’s appropriate. We have [solo] careers and families and different perspectives from what it would have been you know 20, 30 years ago. So I think the consensus is that we would love to be challenged to go out and do something with some new songs in a couple of years. My heart says I believe that will happen.”

Singer Nicks and guitarist Buckingham, who have done separate solo albums and tours over the years, are looking forward to the reunion for both personal and professional reasons.

“Solo work and Fleetwood Mac is a really great thing to be able to go back and forth to because you can do your solo work and then you can do Fleetwood Mac,” says Nicks. “ And then you can go back to your solo work and then you can do Fleetwood Mac. We’ve been apart for four years. Now we’re back together and we’re having a blast.”

Buckingham feels that not having to present new material and try to win audiences over on a first listening is a wonderful thing.

“It kind of frees you up to enjoy each other a little bit more as people,” he says. “The mantra is really more ‘let’s just have a good time,’ and we can value the friendships and the history that underpins this whole experience that we’ve had over the years. I think because of that we are actually able to just look at the body of work and choose from that. And then you know just have a little bit more fun with it than we would normally be able to have.”

Though no set lists have been put together yet, Fleetwood reveals that they’ll certainly be playing what he calls the obvious ones: “Go Your Own Way,” “Don’t Stop,” “Dreams.”

“But then we are finding songs as we go along that we feel are special songs that maybe aren’t considered the massive, massive hits but are truly emotionally connected to Fleetwood Mac,” he says, without naming them. “I feel really confident that we’re going to surprise the audience in some ways. I think that we’re going to make the audience identify with songs that they know. And we’ve had fun really re-sculpting certain segments of the show, which will remain secret until you see us.”

Buckingham is also keeping secrets, of sorts. Asked if there are any songs he wishes he didn’t have to play ever again, he first dodges the question, saying, “You know, we really have a body of music that we’ve been lucky enough to have become part of the fabric of the music culture.”

Then he gives in — but doesn’t name any songs — and says, “Certainly there is a challenge of being on the road in terms of the repetition. It’s almost the inverse of the challenge of being in the studio where you’re trying to pull stops out of the air; the challenge on the road is trying to keep things fresh night after night. But you know that’s part of being a professional and it’s also a part of being in a band where you’ve been together a long time and you can keep finding new things for those songs to mean to you personally and to share. It’s just part and parcel of what we do: to go out and recreate those same songs.”

The always outspoken Nicks, asked if she can believe she’s still singing in a rock band after all of these years, casually mentions, without prompting, that she recently turned 60. She follows that with a reminiscence of her first days with the band.

“When I joined Fleetwood Mac, I was 28,” she says. “I went on one tour with just my normal street clothes. I just threw my stuff in my suitcase and we left on like a three-month thing. We went to El Paso, Texas, to do a show, and I tried to put on a dress but unbeknownst to me I had gained five pounds. So the dress didn’t fit. I was screaming and I sat down and I started to draw an outfit. And I said to myself, ‘I’m going to have a uniform. My uniform is going to be such that I can wear it today at 28 and I can still wear it at 60. I’m going to wear the same skirt, the same little top, the same platform boots and some little jacket, and that’s going to be it. And I’m still going to be able to wear this at 60 because it’s not going to be so flamboyant that it can’t be worked with a little bit, and unless I weighed 300 pounds, I’ll still be able to wear this when I’m you know into my 60s. So, yes, I can believe it.”

Suite Deal - Fleetwood Mac in Los Angeles (Staples Center)

A Suite Deal - Fleetwood Mac at the Los Angeles STAPLES Center

Hi, Fleetwood Mac fans,

Our school is running an auction to raise funds at the moment and one of the big ticket items on offer is this: a luxury suite, tickets for 12 and 5 VIP parking passes for Fleetwood Mac at the Staples Center in LA, May 28th 2009.

The value of the auction is $5000 but bidding is starting at $1500. This is the first time we've tried an online auction and so we're just feeling our way and trying to think of any way we can to let people who might be interested in some of our bigger items know about them. That way, fans can bid and likely get a great bargain, and the school gains too.

Our school in Monica Ros School in Ojai, CA, and this is our annual art auction to raise funds for the coming year. 

This is really a great deal for 12 Fleetwood Mac fans to get the top luxury suite at the Staples Center at a far reduced price. 

Bidding starts at $1500 but there is a Buy It Now option too for $4000.

Please do check it out!

Thanks for your time.

S Zahringer (parent volunteer)
Monica Ros School
Ojai, CA

Item Information:

• Estimated Value $5,000.00
  
• Buy Now Price $4,000.00
  
• Item Number 164
  

Item Description

You'll be treated to the best luxury suite in the house. This primo STAPLES Center suite is located on the first level, center court. You'll receive 12 tickets and 5 VIP parking passes.

Special Instructions:

• Concert is Thursday, May 28, 2009, at 8:00 p.m.
  
• Place your bids here
  
• Online Close Mar. 5, 2009 8:59 AM PST
  
• Opening Bid $1,500.00
  

MICK FLEETWOOD KFOG INTERVIEW (3/26/09)

Mick Fleetwood was a Guest on the KFOG Morning Show today (2/26) in San Francisco 

Mick spoke about the upcoming Fleetwood Mac Unleashed Tour - The Rumours Reissue Boxset and how relaxed and excited the band is to get back out on the road for the first time without a new album to promote.

The interview includes the early Fleetwood Mac track "Black Magic Woman" and "I Don't Want To Know" from the Rumours album.

Complete Interview Segment is approximately 15 minutes in length.

DOWNLOAD NOW

SNEAK PEEK CLIPS OF STEVIE WITH CHRIS ISAAK

Stevie Nicks will be on the March 5th episode of Chris Isaaks new show" The Chris Isaak Hour" which debuts on Thursday February 26th on The Bio Channel.

Sneak Peek Preview Clips From Stevie's appearance:

On Joining Fleetwood Mac

First Meeting With Christine McVie and the Christine McVie Diamond that she's wearing.

THE CURSE OF FLEETWOOD MAC HAS TURNED INTO A BLESSING

FLEETWOOD MAC UNLEASHES HITS
Pittsburghlive.com
By Rege Behe, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, February 25, 2009

There's no new album, nor is Christine McVie onboard. No obvious reason for Fleetwood Mac to tour, unless you count a forthcoming re-release of "Rumours," the 1977 album that sold more than 30 million units.

There is the likelihood that "Fleetwood Mac Unleashed: Hits Tour 2009," which begins Sunday at the Mellon Arena, will be a blockbuster, playing to capacity crowds in the United States and Canada.

Yet Fleetwood Mac never has been a band of mercenaries, merely cashing in on their popularity. For the four current members of the band -- Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Stevie Nicks -- this tour is attractive because they aren't promoting new material.

"Some bands -- which is fine -- go around doing this year after year, year in, year out," Fleetwood, 61, said during a recent teleconference, "and, understandably, people love to hear songs they're familiar with. So having said that, that's a whole new experience for us as a band, presenting the very best we feel we can get on board and do."

"What it does is it kind of frees you up to enjoy each other a little bit more as people," said Buckingham, 59. "And the mantra is really more 'let's just have a good time' and value the friendships and the history that really underpins this whole experience that we've had over these years."

Since Peter Green started the band in 1967, Fleetwood Mac has emerged in various incarnations, starting as a blues-based outfit with a penchant for psychedelia. Christine McVie galvanized the sound, adding melody. Californian Bob Welch would further abet the transition from blues to pop, and his work on songs such as "Hypnotized" gave the band its first widespread exposure in the U.S. during the early 1970s.

When Nicks and Buckingham joined the group in 1975, the band's direction was irrevocably set. The taut and spare, just drums and bass, guitar and piano, became larger than life by way of its omnipresence in pop culture. The songs "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" and "Go Your Own Way" became standards, even mantras, for the masses.

Fleetwood, who, along with John McVie, 63, has witnessed and been part of every Fleetwood Mac lineup, said the revolving door that was the band ended up being a benefit.

"It's still about individuals experiencing and giving their individual thing without being totally swallowed by Fleetwood Mac," Fleetwood said. "And I think the nature of that is all because we changed so much through the years, and that ethic ... is always about pushing forward and changing and keeping it fresh.

"So I think the curse of Fleetwood Mac has turned into a final blessing over the years, that, creatively, we were able to hold our audience. Obviously, the band ... that's on the phone right now became the band that had the worldwide acceptance of it."

That said, Christine McVie -- arguably the strongest singer in the group's history -- is missed. Nicks noted that she still feels the absence of McVie, who has not toured with the band since 1998.

"I miss Christine everyday because she was my best buddy," said Nicks, 62. "She was my best friend. I probably spent more time on the road with Fleetwood Mac than anywhere, so I've spent more time with these people than I've spent with my own family. So the loss of Christine as one of my best girlfriends was horrific for me. But she's been gone a long, long time now. ... There's not a day goes by that I don't wish she'd call up and say, 'I'm back.' But she's not going to. We've all kind of accepted that."

A few years ago, the band made an overture to Sheryl Crow, who has toured with Nicks, to replace Christine McVie. Nicks admitted she initially thought Crow might provide a buffer between her and Buckingham. But Crow, after a few rehearsals, felt she could not continue.

Nicks agreed, telling her, "'You have survived breast cancer and Lance Armstrong. I don't think this is the right thing for you, Sheryl.'"

Nor was adding Crow the right way to approach any disagreements, perceived or real.

"The fact is that if Lindsey and I can't work out our problems by ourselves, we might as well throw in the towel," Nicks said. "So that's what we are currently trying to do, is work out our problems. And, certainly, another person could not do that for us."

The disintegrating relationships that fueled the album "Rumours" -- Buckingham and Nicks parted, and the McVies filed for divorce -- became part of the album's appeal as fans parsed the meanings behind the songs "Second Hand News" or "Never Going Back Again."

Buckingham -- who called the band "a group of great contradictions ... the members don't necessarily have any business of being in a band together because the range of personalities is disparate" -- did not think "Rumours" was autobiographical. For him, the songs were written in a "generic vein"; only with feedback did he realize how the songs reflected the band's disharmony.

"The whole idea of the tabloidism of that, the musical soap opera aspect of that, I think to some degree was revealed to us by our audience after the fact," Buckingham said. "The meaning of my songs, I can only say that they have shifted slightly in the same way that the meaning of the band has shifted. ...

"You tend to just sort of see the irony in the songs, and you tend to see, maybe, the heroicism, a little bit, that we possessed. We saw that we had this destiny, and we saw we had to rise above the personal difficulties. And we saw that the music could actually have redemptive power for us and could be a symbol of that to other people."

Tickets are still available for the two Rosemont shows

Fleetwood Mac is back with a setlist of favorites
By Eric Heisig | Daily Herald Correspondent

Reunion tours can be seen a few different ways.

On one hand, a big-name reunion can be counted on to fill a concert hall with fans who are paying to hear the hits and only the hits - not some obscure b-side from the single nobody bought.

On the hand, it's tempting to see a reunion tour as a shameless cash-in on past accomplishments, giving the band a chance to say, "Hey, look what we did. It's been a while, but we did it!"

Fleetwood Mac ends up somewhere in the middle.

The band comes to the Allstate Arena Thursday, March 5, and Friday, March 6, on the third stop of its "Unleashed: Hits Tour 2009."

Touring for the first time since 2004, Fleetwood Mac also is hitting the road for the first time without a new album. Instead, the band will be hyping a soon-to-be-released box set of 1977's acclaimed "Rumours." In short, the group is putting out a new-old record (which has a lot of its greatest hits) and touring behind it.

"We're so happy to get back out on the road, perform everyone's favorite songs and see our fans," band members said in a press statement.

Formed in 1967, Fleetwood Mac started off as a blues combo with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie in the lineup. Christine McVie soon came on board, but the "Unleashed" setlist stands to be post-1975, when singer Stevie Nicks and guitarist/singer Lindsay Buckingham joined the band.

The group was falling apart as its music was taking off. John and Christine McVie's marriage broke up and Nicks and Buckingham split as "Rumours" was being recorded, giving emotional weight to titles like "Go Your Own Way" and "Second Hand News."

Keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie decided to stop touring years ago, and the "Unleashed" tour is no exception. For a short time, there was talk of Sheryl Crow joining the tour to fill McVie's spot, but that never materialized. For now, it will be Fleetwood, Buckingham, Nicks and John McVie.

Tickets are still available for the two Rosemont shows. Concert promoter Live Nation has reported being impressed with the numbers and has added a second leg to the tour.

Tickets at the Allstate Arena range from $49.50 to $149.50, and while that's a bit pricey for the best seats, it's much lower than, say, The Rolling Stones or Madonna.

Since most of Fleetwood Mac's hits come from the 1970s, expect to hear plenty of songs from "Fleetwood Mac," "Rumours" and "Tusk."

Still, the band has a slew of albums and fine music to choose from. Later hits such as 1982's "Gypsy" or 1988's "Everywhere" would be great additions to the setlist, as would material from Lindsay Buckingham's strong recent solo output. But again, this is a greatest-hits tour, and that's what most fans will be paying to see.

Is it OK to simply hear favorites like "Don't Stop," "Go Your Own Way" and "Landslide?" If it is, then you should be in the audience, hanging on to every word.

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL

Rumours persist that Fleetwood Mac will be making an appearance at this years Glostonbury Festival.  This isn't the first time this has popped up, so maybe there's some truth to it.

All this according to....

efestivals.co.uk
it's more than Rumours
Fleetwood Mac for Glastonbury Festival?
Tuesday 24th February 2009

eFestivals believes that Fleetwood Mac will be making an appearance at this year's Glastonbury Festival.

The British/American rock band which formed in 1967 are putting together a 'Fleetwood Mac Unleashed: Hits Tour 2009', and it's more than a rumour that the dates will include an appearance at the Festival in Pilton, Somerset. The tour will feature the band's greatest hits, rather than their latest material, and will coincide with a new CD/DVD version of their classic album 'Rumours' which contains previously unreleased tracks and footage.

eFestivals is unsure which day they will be appearing, but one of our sources says that Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, and company will be playing on the Saturday.

Tickets for Glastonbury Festival held for five full days from Wednesday 24th until Sunday 28th June 2009 at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset have already sold out months before the event.

Although the full line-up for this year's Festival has not yet been announced, to see who might be playing take a look at the eFestivals' Glastonbury 2009 rumours.

Also: Digitalspy

THE CHAIN IS BACK AS F1 THEME TUNE

F1 Returns to BBC Television For The First Time in 12 Years
Fleetwood Mac's The Chain is Back as BBC F1 Theme Tune

Telegraph.co.uk

Forget - with due deference to David Coulthard and Murray Walker - the presenters.

The bombshell news is that the return of Formula One coverage to the BBC will also bring the return of the best, the most evocative, the most spine-tingling piece of theme music in the sporting world.

Yes, Fleetwood Mac's The Chain is back, and while Coulthard, the venerable Walker and their colleagues will all be welcome on our screens, there cannot be a petrolhead in the land who is not already humming those opening notes in anticipation.

All together now: Dum, da da da, da da da da da dum....

MICK ON KFOG MORNING SHOW

Mick Fleetwood will be in KFOG's morning show this Thursday February 26th at 7:45am.  They will speak to Mick and give away some Fleetwood Mac tickets.

Update to Warner Bros. Store for Stevie's Soundstage

Warner Bros. updated the order page at the Warner Bros store for Stevie's Soundstage Sessions Live In Chicago DVD/CD.

Also, a larger view of

the new cover.

Chris Isaak Hour Trailer

Trailer for The Chris Isaak Hour

Stevie appears in many clips:

See the clip in the Stevie Video Wall in

the right hand side margin -->

Guitar Techs at Fleetwood Mac's Tour Rehearsals

Schroeder Guitars with Fleetwood Mac guitar techs

At Fleetwood Mac rehearsal at Sony Studios. 

(From left) Roy Kelley, Neale Heywood's guitar tech, is holdin the Schroeder Tweedburst Radio Lane; Stan LaMendola, Lindsey Buckingham's guitar tech, is examining the back for Ryan Merkley's Schroeder Chopper, Kurt (on the right) looks on. He is Brett Tuggle's Guitar tech. The very tip of Neale's Monk guitar is in the foreground.

At Fleetwood Mac rehearsal at Sony Studios. (From left) Neale Heywood, guitarist with Fleetwood Mac, playing his Schroeder Chopper model, Stan LaMendola, Lindsey Buckingham's guitar tech, playing the Schroeder Radio Lane that will be going on tour with them in March. Right is Roy Kelly, Neale's guitar tech, playing the Schroeder Tour Guitar.

Jason Schroeder of Schroeder Guitars has been working with Neale Heywood of Fleetwood Mac to get him some guitars for the upcoming tour that begins in March. Here are a few pics

Note:  Lindsey Buckingham can be seen in the background of one of the photos.

SOUNDSTAGE PRE-ORDER, NEW COVER, INCLUDES LITHOGRAPH

NEW COVER INCLUDES LITHOGRAPH

SIGNED BY STEVIE NICKS

A little something in the mailbox today from Warner Brothers.  Aside from being surprised that I received something from the record company, there are a couple of other perplexing things to note about this announcement:

• What is up with this new fantastic, different cover art, if in fact it is a change in cover art??  It's perfect!!  It's nothing like what Amazon is showing and has been showing for the last six months.
  
• The other thing is that this announcement suggests that there are new STUDIO versions of classics on the CD???  Isn't this supposed to be a live album?  In any case there's a link to order directly from Warner Bros.  You are ordering both the DVD and the CD.  The package (If you are part of the handful that order) will include the signed lithograph from Stevie.
  

Here's the announcement:

Tune in to PBS tonight and pre-order the new CD/DVD now!

This stunning HDTV, Dolby Stereo performance, captures a radiant Stevie Nicks in her first filmed solo performance since 1987, Airing tonight and throughout the weekend. Check your local PBS affiliate at the following for airdates and times.

Stevie's epic Soundstage Sessions concert in Chicago!

The DVD features over 2 hours of stunning footage from this legendary concert! The CD includes brand new studio versions of classics like "Stand Back", "Sara", "Landslide" and MANY, MANY MORE! The first handful to order this STEVIE NICKS LIMITED EDITION CD/DVD SET will receive a lithograph personally signed by Stevie Nicks! Click HERE to Pre-Order now!

And again... Here's the trailer:

CHRIS ISAAK HOUR (STEVIE PREVIEW)

Stevie appears right at the beginning of this Chris Isaak interview on Good Day LA in a clip from his upcoming Bio Channel show "The Chris Isaak Hour".  

The Chris Isaak Hour debuts on The Bio Channel February 26th.

FLEETWOOD MAC'S INTERNAL HARMONY

Group finds internal harmony on latest tour

By Alan Sculley
Post-Tribune correspondent

As a band that's been perhaps as famous for its internal romantic entanglements and conflicts as for its music, it qualifies as news to hear the the mood in Fleetwood Mac is quite sunny as the opening date of the band's spring/summer tour approaches.

But that seemed to be the exact case, as the four band members -- guitarist/singer Lindsey Buckingham, singer Stevie Nicks, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie fielded questions during a mid-February teleconference interview.

"As far as just the personalities have been going, to everybody, not just me and Lindsey, everybody has been getting along great," Nicks said, when asked how rehearsals had been going. "Everybody has been very kind to each other this time around, and when it's going like that, it's a pleasure."

A work in progress

The fact is that even though the Buckingham/Nicks split (as well as the divorce of John McVie and keyboardist/singer Christine McVie) are 30-plus years in the rear view mirror, the personal dynamics within Fleetwood Mac remain, as Buckingham put it, a work in progress.

And one of the main goals for the current tour is to find and maintain some internal harmony that wasn't always present when Fleetwood Mac toured behind its 2003 CD, "Say You Will."

"We did not succeed as well as we could have the last time we did an album and did a tour together," said Buckingham, who is now happily married. "We did not succeed as well as we could have on kind of an interpersonal level. (So) that (means) there was something to shoot for (on the new tour) that was a little higher."

Missing member

The band members didn't offer specifics about what caused tensions four years ago, but one issue was the absence of Christine McVie, who retired and bowed out of the group a decade ago.

This left Nicks as the only woman in Fleetwood Mac. Unhappy with that dynamic, Nicks spoke of wanting to possibly find a woman to take McVie's place in the band.

And in 2007, rumors surfaced that Sheryl Crow -- a good friend who had produced Nicks' 2001 solo CD, "Trouble In Shangri-La -- was going to join Fleetwood Mac, at least for the 2009 tour.

The band said nothing was ever set in stone with Crow, and in this interview Nicks explained what happened.

"Just to put the Sheryl Crow thing in a nutshell quickly, in fact we rented a studio and we hired a crew and we were ready to go in," Nicks said. "We called her and we needed her to come for three or four days to just play. It was Mother's Day and she had invited all, you know, 300 people in her family there. It was her first Mother's Day as a mom, and she could not do it. And at that point she said I'm going to have to pass. I said I think you're making the right decision. You have a new baby. You have survived breast cancer and Lance Armstrong. I don't think this is the right thing for you, Sheryl. So that's what happened with Sheryl Crow, and she is still our friend and I still adore her."

With Crow out of the picture, the group -- Nicks included -- settled on remaining a foursome. And Nicks now says that she is perfectly comfortable with the structure of the band.

"You have to understand I've been the only girl in Fleetwood Mac now since 1998," Nicks said. "And it's 2009, so I'm used to it now. I miss Christine every day because she was my best buddy. She was my best friend. … So the loss of Christine as one of my best girlfriends was horrific for me. But she's been gone a long, long time now."

Unleashed hits

One thing that should help make life easier in Fleetwood Mac this year is the nature of the tour. Called the "Unleashed" tour, it marks the first time the group has gone on tour without having a new album -- or at least new songs -- to promote and bring into its set.

Buckingham said concentrating on playing the band's greatest hits gives the tour an entirely different dynamic.

"What it does is it kind of frees you up to enjoy each other a little bit more as people," he said. "So it takes a little pressure off not having to kind of reinvent anything this particular time. I think because of that we are actually able to just look at the body of work and choose (the hits) from that and then just have a little bit more fun with it than we would normally be able to have when you're trying to sort of work out new stuff for the first time, (and) also integrate it into that body of work and have it all (work together)."

After this tour winds up, new studio album is possible, although the band members aren't guaranteeing this will happen.

"I think the feeling is and the consensus is that we would love to be challenged to go out and do, in a couple of years, something with some new songs," Fleetwood said. "I for one would love to see it happen and we have had loose discussions about doing that."

If you go:

What:? Fleetwood Mac

When: 8 p.m., March 5 and 6

Where: Allstate Arena, 6920 N. Mannheim Road, Rosemont, Ill.

Tickets: $149.50, $79.50, $49.50

Information: (847) 635-6601 or www.allstatearena.com

Truth In Advertising

The Times Online

Last week, Billboard magazine ran an interview with Fleetwood Mac members Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham on their Web site, where both expressed pleasure with not supporting any new material on their current tour.

Their stateside jaunt is appropriately titled "Fleetwood Mac Unleashed: Hits Tour 2009," which, at worst, gives Fleetwood, Buckingham, John McVie and Stevie Nicks means of income in this harsh economy.

And it appears to be working. Only one show originally was scheduled for their Chicagoland stop at Allstate Arena, but popular demand resulted in an added second show.

At this juncture in their career, it's fine for the veteran rockers to coast solely on their past. The Buckingham-Nicks configuration's debut with the band will be 35 years old next year with their biggest-selling effort, "Rumours," past the three-decade mark.

The band released its last original effort in the classic lineup, "Tango in the Night," in 1987, and cemented its place as a classic rock act a decade after that with the mega-selling live set "The Dance."

Christine McVie, the third cog alongside Buckingham and Nicks in the Mac's hitmaking songwriting machine, retired from the band after the lucrative "Dance," leaving the remaining foursome on its own with 2003's "Say You Will."

While the album sold respectably, the big treat for the fans -- and the band's accountants -- was the Brinks-backing world tour in support of it, loaded to the gills with their classic-rock standards.

The aforementioned Billboard interview, though, indicated new music from the Mac was forthcoming in the near future. But the masses will, by and large, pine for the band's mid-1970s to "Tango"-era chestnuts over the new material. This has, with only few exceptions, become the�rule of thumb�that classic-rock veterans must face in their elder days, for better or worse.

Fleetwood Mac, 8 p.m. March 5 and 6, Allstate Arena, 6920 Manheim Rd., Rosemont. $49.50-$149.50. FYI: (847) 635-6601 or allstatearena.com

Two Divas Named Lindsey and Stevie

Fleetwood Mac '09

Nostalgia, cash and a tale of two divas named

Stevie and Lindsey

Chicago Tribune

by Greg Kot

As the relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham goes, so goes Fleetwood Mac.

The band, formed as a British blues-rock outfit in 1967, has a history that reads like a soap-opera script. Band members have literally gone crazy. Some have gone AWOL. Others have slept with one another. Marriages were broken. More than 73 million records have been sold. And still the quarrels continue. Even a 2004 tour that raked in $22 million ended in acrimony, with a fed-up Nicks saying she was through and Buckingham returning to his solo career.

But now, on the eve of another Mac tour, the biggest problem facing Nicks is a sore arm. While being interviewed, she mentions that a physical therapist is working her over. “I strained my right arm doing arm curls, which I never do, so I’m trying to get it back so I can comfortably and enjoyably play tambourine.”

Such are the rigors of being a multimillionaire icon in a band that defined mainstream pop in the ‘70s. Mac is commanding as much as $149.50 per ticket (plus service charges) for a national tour that includes two concerts March 5-6 at the Allstate Arena. They promise few surprise; just a show with more than two hours of greatest hits --- just the way their fans presumably like it. “The songs we’re playing are the tapestry of not only our fans’ lives but our own lives,” Nicks says.

Buckingham has long detested the idea of doing a nostalgia tour, but he says he’s “just trying to ride the machine.” Part of Mac’s on-off existence the last three decades has been due to Buckingham’s creative restlessness; he’s maintained a solo career defined by adventurous albums in between Mac projects. As one of the band’s primary songwriters as well as its producer and arranger, Buckingham is first among equals, and his word goes a long way in determining Mac’s fortunes. This time, he agreed to do a hits tour to promote a box-set release of the band’s best-selling 1977 “Rumours” album.

“There’s still a push-pull inside me that says I need to redefine myself creatively, but I did two solo albums in the last three years, so it allowed me to feel a little more relaxed about doing something like this,” he says. “I am very consciously going into this not wanting to drive anyone in the band crazy if I can help it --- and sometimes it doesn’t take a lot for me to do that. My priority is working on the interaction within the band, especially between me and Stevie. I’m doing a tour that the industry and the listeners and the rest of the band want, and maybe sow some seeds of stability for once.”

That sounds like a man compromising his artistic instincts in the name of peace, harmony and cash. Buckingham laughs.

“Why am I doing this? It’s a good question… let me see, why am I doing this? Well, we’ll probably make a ton of money, and that’ll make everything a bit easier. But the other reason is that there’s unfinished business with Fleetwood Mac. Stevie left the last tour saying she wasn’t going to do this again, and that’s not right. It’s been a difficult road, we’ve been through a lot, and I want to see it play out and come out the other side in a bit better place than we were last time.”

Mac’s last tour followed the release of a 2003 studio album, “Say You Will.” That’s where the troubles began. Buckingham had interrupted his solo work to make the album with Mac, and brought finished songs into the recording session. Christine McVie had retired from the music business, leaving Buckingham and the founding rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie to focus on Nicks’ songs. Buckingham and Nicks already had a long, fractured history; they were former lovers and old tensions would resurface whenever new conflicts emerged.

“It felt weird, working for nine months in a Bel Air mansion on just my songs,” Nicks says of the Los Angeles recording sessions. “It started to grate on everyone. It started to grate on Lindsey. It ended up not being our happiest album. Then we went on tour, and it was just a continuation of something that had already gone off track.”

Nicks says the departure of Christine McVie had a huge impact on band chemistry: “She was the voice of reason.” Nicks hunted for another female foil after the tour ended. “I vowed not to do it again unless we had another person who could act as a buffer,” she says. She recruited Sheryl Crow, but the singer backed out when she realized how big the commitment would be.

“She just had a baby, and once you’re in Fleetwood Mac, you don’t have a life of your own,” Nicks says. “It’s like joining the National Guard and being deployed to Iraq in two weeks.”

Well, no, it isn’t, actually. But melodrama is as much a part of Fleetwood Mac as hit songs.

Nicks says she agreed to hit the road with Buckingham and risk opening up old wounds again because she sensed a change in her old sparring partner. “He has little girls who are 8 and 4 years old, plus a wife, and he has been living in girl land since coming off the road in 2005. It’s softened him up. Instead of treating me as a miserable ex-girlfriend, he’s looking at me more like a beloved daughter. He’s been very nice and loving to me. This is the guy that I met and fell in love with when I was 17, and I hope it stays that way. No one could come in and make peace between us. Lindsey and I had to.”

Buckingham says if they pull off the tour without any meltdowns, there may be yet one more Fleetwood Mac studio album down the road. But he makes no promises. He has left the band in the past, and he says he will again if he feels things are growing stagnant.

“We all want this to work,” he says, “but there are only 45 dates scheduled. I’m sure there are people in back rooms somewhere talking about more dates in America and elsewhere in the world, but nothing is in the books, nothing has been agreed to. In this band, it’s best not to plan too far in advance.”

Fleetwood Mac's revolving door: A timeline

• 1967: Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac forms in England with Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, Jeremy Spencer and later Danny Kirwan on guitars.
• 1970: Green leaves group amid drug problems; he later drops out of music altogether.
• 1971: Spencer leaves in middle of a tour to join a religious cult. Band reassembles around Christine Perfect (who marries John McVie) and Bob Welch.
• 1975: Welch exits, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham join.
• 1976: Christine and John McVie divorce, Buckingham and Nicks separate, yet recording for “Rumours” continues.
• 1987: Nicks is treated for chemical dependency, Buckingham quits on eve of tour, and is replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito.
• 1991: Vito quits.
• 1993: Nicks and Burnette exit, replaced by Dave Mason and Bekka Bramlett.
• 1995: Mac disbands after “Time” album stiffs.
• 1996-97: The “Rumours” era lineup reunites for a live album and tour.
• 2003: Christine McVie retires, but rest of “Rumours” lineup records “Say You Will,” first studio album in 15 years.
• 2009: Once more on the road, this time with “Rumours” box set as marketing hook.

STEVIE NICKS LIMITED EDITION CD/DVD SET

Stevie's epic Soundstage Sessions

concert in Chicago!

The DVD features over 2 hours of stunning footage from this legendary concert! 

The CD includes brand new versions of classics like "Stand Back", "Sara", "Landslide" and MANY, MANY MORE! The first handful to order this STEVIE NICKS LIMITED EDITION CD/DVD SET will receive a lithograph personally signed by Stevie Nicks! Click HERE to Pre-Order now!

Info courtesty of the nicksfix

ROLLINGSTONE Q&A WITH STEVIE NICKS

Fleetwood Mac's singer on their new tour, turning 60 and making mixtapes

By Austin Scaggs
Rollingstone Magazine

"It still gives me goose bumps, and it still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up," says Stevie Nicks, who is eagerly anticipating the first Fleetwood Mac tour in five years, which kicks off on March 1st in Pittsburgh. And later in the month, Nicks is releasing a DVD, Live in Chicago, and a concert CD, The Soundstage Sessions. With her dog barking in the background, Nicks checks in from her home in Los Angeles: "We still feel like Fleetwood Mac have a lot to give to the world. In this time of trouble and turmoil, I think the world needs Fleetwood Mac."

What's the latest from the Mac rehearsals?

I don't want to give the set list away, but it's pretty exciting. The fact that we haven't been on tour since 2004 makes every song sound fresh. It's just bang, bang, bang- all fantastic songs. We always start with the staples: "Go Your Own Way," "Gold Dust Woman," "Rhiannon" and "Dreams." We will play one song we've never done at all. If I were going to see Fleetwood Mac, this is definitely the set I'd want to see. It's like a big steam locomotive that doesn't stop until

 we walk offstage.

How are you getting along with Lindsey Buckingham?

When Lindsey and I aren't getting along, nobody's getting along. We haven't had one disagreement since we started rehearsing. And instead of treating me like his miserable old ex, he's treating me like his difficult but beloved older daughter. He's been very sweet.

How often do you speak with Christine McVie?

We check in with each other, but we can't hang out, because she lives in England, and she won't fly. The only time I've seen Chris since 1998 was when we did three nights in London in 2003. I miss her every day. But we've all finally started to accept that nothing could make Chris go back out on the road.

Last May you turned 60. How do you feel about that?

I don't feel any different at 60 than I felt at 50. Age is a state of mind. You can either get old or not get old.

On the "Live in Chicago" DVD you're joined by Vanessa Carlton on a couple of songs. What other artists of her generation do you mentor?

I love Vanessa - I feel like she's an adopted child, in a way. And Michelle Branch and I had dinner the night before last. I have a lot of information for all of these women. I should do a "Dear Stevie" column in Rolling Stone. When Mariah Carey was going through her craziness a few years ago, I wrote her a long letter telling her how everybody else is crazy - not her. I saw her recently, and she told me she keeps the letter with her jewelry! I love that.

What's wrong with the record business today?

The internet has destroyed it. I miss buying an album and lying on the floor for three days and going over it with a magnifying glass. I still go to the record store and spend hours there and buy a big bag of CDs. I don't have a computer of a cellphone, because I don't want to be that available to anybody. I'm all about mystery. Little girls think it's necessary to put all their business on MySpace and Facebook, and I think it's a shame.

You've always made mix-tapes on cassette. Do you still do that?

That's how I do it. Cassettes sound so much better. And I'm deaf as a doornail, so I like to crank my little boombox.

What songs are worthy of a Stevie Nicks mixtape?

I was just in Hawaii, and I made a mix called "Lahaina Twilight." It's got songs by the Goo Goo Dolls, Jackson Browne, Sting, Coldplay, Tom Petty, the Fray, Snow Patrol.

What albums do you love in their entirety?

I don't, usually. In the beginning, I was inspired by songwriters like Jackson Browne, David Crosby, the Eagles, Neil Young, Buffalo Springfiled - those are the people I learned from. And I probably listed to Joni Mitchell's For the Roses, Blue and Court and Spark a hundred million times. But now, I can't listen to a whole album unless it's a Fleetwood Mac record, where I made sure that every song is spectacular. Sequencing is my forte. I sequenced Rumours. Lindsey doesn't like to admit it, but he will admit it.

Last year, Sheryl Crow claimed that she would be part of the 2009 Fleetwood Mac tour, but Buckingham later denied it. What really happened?

It was absolutely discussed and she was absolutely invited to join. The reason was because I missed Christine [McVie] so much, and I wanted another woman in the band - it's hard to be in the boys' club. I explained to Sheryl what it was like to be in the group - that it's all-encompassing. Like, on 2003's Say You Will tour, we went out expecting to do 40 shows, and it turned into 135 shows. So Sheryl called me and said, "I'll have to pass." As Stevie Nicks, I was disappointed. As her friend, I told her she made the right decision. Sheryl Crow passed on Fleetwood Mac - I want that out there.

What are the origins of your patented onstage twirl?

A lot of ballet and a lot of dance. I wanted to be a ballerina, but I realized I was not going to be Pavlova, so I became a rock singer instead.

Stevie Nicks wrote Mariah during ‘craziness’

MSNBC

The first Fleetwood Mac tour in five years begins March 1 in Pittsburgh, and Stevie Nicks wants everyone to know that Sheryl Crow passed up the opportunity to join.

“I explained to Sheryl what it was like to be in the group — that it’s all-encompassing. Like on 2003’s Say You Will tour, we went out expecting to do 40 shows, and it turned in to 135 shows,” Nicks told Rolling Stone. “So Sheryl called me and said, ‘I’ll have to pass.’ As Stevie Nicks, I was disappointed. As her friend, I told her she made the right decision.”

Nicks, who turned 60 last year, is a friend and inspiration to other younger musicians, including Vanessa Carlton, Michelle Branch and Mariah Carey.

“When Mariah Carey was going through all her craziness a few years ago, I wrote her a long letter telling her how everybody else is crazy — not her,” she told Rolling Stone. “I saw her recently, and she told me she keeps the letter with her jewelry! I love that.”

"SONGS OF RHIANNON" penned by STEVIE NICKS

NIGHT OF 1000 STEVIES

New York City's legendary STEVIE NICKS homage, returns for its nineteenth annual edition on May 1 at THE HIGHLINE BALLROOM. 

NOTS 19: SONGS OF RHIANNON will be a May Day marathon of twirling and enchantment, produced by the JACKIE FACTORY NYC. 

This year's theme - and the centerpiece of the show - are the ten "SONGS OF RHIANNON" penned by STEVIE NICKS in her BUCKINGHAM NICKS days.

More Info Here

Random Mention

Stevie Nicks' upcoming record, The Soundstage Sessions, features a cover of Dave Matthews Band's "Crash Into Me." DMB just tapped The Hold Steady as an opening act for its upcoming tour (although not for the John Paul Jones Arena gigs). The Hold Steady has a song called "Stevie Nix." Where the hell is Kevin Bacon?

Rumours CD/DVD Special Fan Version?

A somewhat cryptic message appeared on the nicksfix over night regarding the release of the Rumours CD/DVD package.  

Check back for news on the release of the new Fleetwood Mac CD/DVD. 

Look for a special version to be made available to the fans.

Obviously based on this, there are now going to be multiple versions of this release.  I keep hanging on the fact that over at fleetwoodmac.com it states that the package will be released SIMULTANEOUSLY with the beginning of the tour. The tour starts in 10 days... and basically we don't know to much about this release other then it being a CD/DVD package put together by Warner Bros. the record company - and that the band basically didn't have any input on the project other then to sign off on it's contents... We need more info!

Lindsey on the Mark and Brian morning show (2/17)

Lindsey Buckingham called in to the Mark and Brian morning show on KLOS in Los Angeles today (2/17).   He spoke about the upcoming Fleetwood Mac tour, his solo career that he wants to continue, and the Rumours Boxset that's coming out. 

Here's his interview:

Download (right click, save as)

Stevie Nicks Live in Chicago DVD

Stevie Nicks Live in Chicago DVD

Amazon.com now has a trailer up for Stevie's Soundstage DVD and CD Release on March 31st. 

Check it out... It's actually pretty awesome!!

Amazon Link

Watch SN Promo  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

WDIV TV in Detroit - Win 4 Fleetwood Mac Tickets

Win Fleetwood Mac Tickets

Enter to win four tickets to see Fleetwood Mac at The Palace of Auburn Hills on March 8, 2009


Enter Here

Fleetwood Mac loads up hits for new tour

Fleetwood Mac loads up hits for new tour

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
LiveDaily Contributor
February 17, 2009

Being in Fleetwood Mac [ tickets ] is a blessing for singer Stevie Nicks. It enables her to bounce back and forth seamlessly between her solo and collaborative careers.

"It's like people that have relationships all over the world," Nicks said during a recent teleconference with her Fleetwood Mac bandmates: drummer Mick Fleetwood, bassist John McVie and guitarist/singer Lindsey Buckingham. "You never get bored. And so you can do your thing until you start to get bored and then you can go to the other thing. And then you can do that until you start to get bored and then you can go back to the other thing.

"And it really makes for staying much more excited and uplifted [in] everything that you do when you’re not just doing one thing year after year after year after year after year. So, for us right now, we’ve been apart for four years, now we’re back together and we’re having a blast."

Fleetwood Mac is reuniting for the Greatest Hits Unleashed North American tour, which begins Sunday, March 1, in Pittsburgh. In conjunction with the tour, the band is releasing a greatest-hits package, "Unleashed," and re-releasing, as a special CD/DVD box set, its diamond-certified CD "Rumours." This is the first time the group is touring without support of a new album.

"So we are truly paying some attention to the fact, of course, that Christine and her songs are surviving very well in the set that we’re doing," Fleetwood said of former member Christine McVie. "And the band--and certainly with more focus for obvious reasons, Stevie and Lindsey--are finding a fresh way in certain instances to present those songs. And we think we’ve got a really good balance where we can have fun doing that whole part of it."

He said he feels confident that Fleetwood Mac is going to surprise the audience in some ways.

"I think we’re going to make the audience identify with songs for sure that they know," Fleetwood added. "And the energy of the band is all focused on that because we don’t have five or six songs off the new album that we always, you know, naturally, would love to be playing when you’ve made an album."

So, he said, he thinks people are going to have "a hell of a lot of fun" because the band members' collective energy has gone into choosing the "lovely songs."

"And we’ve had fun really resculpting certain segments of the show, which will remain secret until you see us," Fleetwood explained.

Fleetwood said his band is certainly addressing the concept of writing new material.

"There have been discussions for sure that we would love to make some more music," Fleetwood said. "And I think it’s really down to the whole sort of bio-rhythms of how everyone is feeling and what’s appropriate. We have careers and families and whole different sort of perspectives from what it would have been, you know, 20, 30 years ago, and going onward from there."

Fleetwood said the consensus is the band would enjoy the idea of being challenged with new material "in a couple of years."

"My heart says I believe that will happen," Fleetwood said. "Certainly, I know all of the songwriting department is--both Stevie and Lindsey--are continually writing, hence all the lovely stuff they do on their solo albums. So that whole [creative] bowl is very much intact, you know. So I, for one, would love to see it happen, and we have had loose discussions about doing that."

Nicks, who said she longs for the day Christine McVie returns to the fold, explained she has "many, many long two- to three-page formal poems that are ready to be made into songs." They will stay that way until she has a reason to head to the piano and make them into songs.

"Because the words are the hardest part to write," Nicks explained. "If you’ve got a bunch of great words, going and sitting yourself up in a studio with some candles and some incense and a couple of your great friends that are musicians, now that’s a pleasure.

"Actually, the writing the words and getting your poems right, that’s long hard work by yourself. So that work is all done. All I have to do now, if somebody says, 'We're doing an album,' then then I go intosix weeks' worth of solid songwriting, and then I’ve got 10 songs."

Because there is no new material to rehearse, the "mantra" for this tour is "Let's just have a good time and value the friendships and the history that really underpins this whole experience that we've had over these years," according to Buckingham. The dynamic between the band members is still, to some degree, something that is a work in progress.

"It takes a little pressure off, not having to kind of reinvent anything this particular time," Buckingham said. "And I think, because of that, we are actually able to just look at the body of work and choose from that and just have a little bit more fun with it than we would normally be able to have."

Expanded 4 Disc Boxset of Rumours (Fleetwood Mac)

Directcurrentmusic is indicating that the Rumours re-issue expected sometime this spring is going to be a 4 Disc Boxset. We know from the press release for Fleetwood Mac's Unleashed Tour that there is a DVD component to the package - so that leaves two discs of what? It's entirely possible that the 2nd disc of outtakes and demos that was included in the 2004 remastered edition of Rumours could be included with this - which would leave one disc unaccounted for if that were the case.  What could possibly be on the rest? Do they really have that much lying around we've never heard before from the Rumours sessions?

Campaign To Bring Back "The Chain" to F1

Join Top Gear’s Fleetwood Mac/Formula 1 Campaign to bring "The Chain" back as the official opening Theme.

by: Jamie Hibbard

Dear The BBC,

We - the undersigned - are writing an open letter to you, urging you to once again use that part from Fleetwood Mac's The Chain as the title music to your Formula One coverage that begins this year on BBC One.

Admittedly, I was only 2 years old when you started using it in 1978, and many new viewers to F1 will have no emotional tie to it being the theme tune, but that doesn't make it any less relevant.

Using that as an excuse would be like saying that the impact of Led Zeppelin on rock 'n' roll can't be felt or appreciated by a younger audience. Heritage can be learned as well as lived through.

The Chain is inextricably linked in viewers minds as being an important part of how great it was when the BBC had F1 up until the end of 1996, and the thought of those opening bars kicking in on that first show will be like seeing a reformation gig played by a favourite band and realising that they've still got it (again, Led Zeppelin make for an easy and appropriate reference at this point, when they came back for their O2 Arena show in 2007).

The Fleetwood Mac album Rumours from which the track came was created by a band in utter turmoil at the time, but this would be nowhere close to the kind of bitterness we will feel if The Chain wasn't to become the opening title music of your new F1 show.

So please The BBC, we implore you, use The Chain. You know it makes sense.

All the best,

Jamie Hibbard

(And everyone else at Top Gear, and the undersigned.)

Go on, it's the comments below that count, so add your voice to the list and fight the good fight!

To Add Your Vote: TopGear.com

Illume is a Winner!

According to a posting on The Ledge, Stevie's horse in Australia that she is part owner of "Illume", has won his first race at Wyong in New South Wales, this past Thursday... Congratulations Stevie!!

Article Posted:

Herald Sun, February 16, 2009

LEGENDARY US hit maker Stevie Nicks has had her first taste of success as a racehorse owner.

Nicks part-owns a thoroughbred with leading promoter Andrew McManus, his wife Jacqueline and business partner Patrick Prendergast.

The speedy four-year-old gelding, called Illume, won his first race at Wyong in New South Wales on Thursday.

Illume was bought as a yearling for $240,000 in 2005, and has had just four starts.

Originally trained by Gai Waterhouse, the horse had to be spelled for 18 months after contracting equine influenza during the outbreak that closed racing in Sydney in 2007.

Now trained by John Hawkes, Illume started a short-priced favourite when it saluted in the 1000m maiden handicap at Wyong.

McManus said he called the famed Fleetwood Mac singer after the race.

``She is pumped. She is wrapped,'' he said. ``She is getting a photo done and has been watching a replay of the race on the internet.''

Nicks was bitten by the racing bug when she was a guest of McManus's at the Melbourne Cup in 2005.

Mick Fleetwood Audio Interview on WMGK

Mick Fleetwood Audio Interview

February 12, 2009

Mick Fleetwood Spoke with Debbi Calton at WMGK in Philadelphia on February 12th over the phone.  Mick elaborates on the Rumours Re-Issue that's coming out (hopefully soon!) and about the upcoming tour etc. - confirming that Oh Well will likely be in the set.  Also spoke about seeing Christine in England recently and about his release in North America of Blue Again.

She had a lovely chat with Mick Fleetwood about the Rumours CD/DVD set reissue and the upcoming UNLEASHED TOUR.

Hear the interview and download it: WMGK.com

Fleetwood Mac (Stevie) Defends Triple-Digit Ticket Prices

Prefixmag.com
by Jim Allen

Maybe Stevie Nicks is hoping that the less-than-favorable public response to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's recent public address will create an outcry for a new economic whiz to fill his Cabinet post. That could be why she's been displaying her razor-sharp financial acumen in the press recently.

Responding to the fact that tickets for Fleetwood Mac's upcoming tour will be going for up to $150.00, Nicks began by declaring her heartfelt desire to abjure commerce entirely, saying "We wish we didn't have to charge anything...we're performance artists." Unfortunately, it's not that simple for this humble band of multi-duodecuple Platinum-sellers, and this is where Nicks' crafty cash smarts come in. "The price of life in general is a gazillion dollars more than it was four years ago," explained Nicks, tallying time in the increments between Fleetwood Mac tours. While we don't have the official figures in front of us, we're fairly certain that Nicks' numbers are at least half a gazillion off. You know what will cost exactly the same amount as it would have four years ago, though? The peer-to-peer digital procurement of the inevitable live album from the aforementioned tour by these sympathy-inducing victims of their own fiscal times.   Just sayin'...

Bumped into Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie

ReviewJournal.com

(exerpt of a much longer article)

Chris Isaak on his Interview with Stevie Nicks and Bumping in Christine McVie:

Isaak says Nicks normally gets marginalized in interviews by being asked things like, "Hey Stevie, are you really playing the Fun Festival? Do you really never 'stop thinking about tomorrow?' OK, we're out of time." But Isaak sat with Nicks for two-plus hours.

Isaak found out from Nicks' manager she visits hospitalized military vets. More than that, she has given them iPods. Isaak is impressed that unlike other celebrities, Nicks did all the legwork herself. She didn't get an assistant to do it. She didn't cut a deal with Apple.

"She got her credit card, went down to the store, and bought all the iPods. She took them home, laid them out on the kitchen table, filled them with music, and handed them to the guys. And none of this was in the press."

Well, until now.

Isaak already was familiar with the "genuine" musicians from Fleetwood Mac. When he first went to Paris years ago, he bumped into Fleetwood's Christine McVie. She asked how he liked Paris. He said he had been too busy to check it out. "She says, 'Get in the car.'

"I got in the backseat of a limo with Christine McVie. We drove all over Paris. And she'd roll down the window and say, 'That's the such-and-such cathedral.' And she just showed me all the sights."

Mick Fleetwood's "Blue Again" Gets North American Release Date

SET FOR RELEASE IN NORTH

AMERICA ON 429 RECORDS

New Live Album Features Original

Compositions and Classic

Fleetwood Mac Songs

PRNewswire

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Revisiting the blues-based classic songs of early Fleetwood Mac, along with completely new songs in the same style, iconic rock drummer and band co-founder Mick Fleetwood has assembled a hand-picked quartet of musicians, The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, who've created a stunning new live recording, BLUE AGAIN. Equal parts blues rave-up and loving homage to the early incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, BLUE AGAIN is a fiery blues showcase and heartfelt tribute to Fleetwood Mac who are just beginning their 40th Anniversary celebration. BLUE AGAIN will be released by the Savoy Label Group unit 429 Records, in time for the kickoff of a triumphant world wide tour on March 3rd via an exclusive package on iTunes and on CD March 17. A companion high definition DVD is scheduled for release in the summer.

Produced by Mick Fleetwood and former Fleetwood Mac member Rick Vito, BLUE AGAIN was recorded live at the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Missouri in February of 2008 and sees him teaming up on this recording with guitarist and lead vocalist Rick Vito, bassist Lenny Castellanos and keyboardist Mark Johnstone. The immaculate recording gives the songs a vibrant, modern immediacy which transcends easy nostalgia. Says Mick: "Over my career I've been called a pop star and a rock star, yet in my inner heart, I will always be part bluesman. On my journey from blues to a life of rock 'n' roll, I've always remembered where I started." BLUE AGAIN is both an original musical tour de force and a respectful tribute to Fleetwood Mac initiated by the sole member of the band to be in every incarnation from the beginning.

Track listing for BLUE AGAIN is as follows: 1. Red Hot Gal 2. Looking For Somebody 3. Fleetwood Boogie 4. Stop Messin' Around 5. Rattlesnake Shake 6. When We Do The Lucky Devil 7. Love That Burns 8. Bayou Queen 9. Black Magic Woman 10. I Got A Hole In My Shoe 11. Shake Your Moneymaker 12. Albatross.

429 Records is a unit of the Savoy Label Group (SLG). SLG is the North American unit of CME (Columbia Music Entertainment), the oldest music company in Japan. The Savoy Label Group has evolved into a leading independent company consistently outperforming competitors in key music categories as monitored by Billboard Magazine. SLG is led by Steve Vining and CME is headed by Chairman Strauss Zelnick, founder of Zelnick Media which owns interests in and manages an array of media companies.

The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band is co-managed by Jonathan Todd, President of Sabre Entertainment and Carl Stubner, President of Sanctuary Management Group.

www.429records.com

www.slgmusicus.com

www.MickFleetwood.com

www.SabreEntertainment.net

Fleetwood Mac unleashes a barrage of opinions

With tour looming, Fleetwood Mac unleashes a barrage of opinions

The Morning Call

by: Len Righi

The members of Fleetwood Mac have been known to go their own way, and during a 94-minute teleconference today, band members offered a variety of explanations about why their first tour in four years is being called "Unleashed."

"It's unleashing the furies, unleashing us back into the universe, unleashing an amazing musical entity back into the world," said always ethereal singer Stevie Nicks. "You might have to wear your armor."

Drummer Mick Fleetwood said the tour name was inspired by a comedic "mantra" uttered before Mac live shows on an earlier tour: "Every gig before we would walk on stage, one of our guitarists had this thing he'd say, 'Unleash the hounds! Unleash the hounds!' ... I was remembering that little mantra [when coming up with the tour name] ... It's about not being restricted. ... 'This is us, let us go out and do it.' It's not really that complicated."

"Stevie [Nicks] and I had a go-round on this," said usually reticent bassist John McVie. "I don’t think there was any thought of us being stifled or held back."

The 44-city greatest-hits tour, which begins on March 1 in Pittsburgh, will stop at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on April 15. Tickets are $49.50, $79.50 and $149.50. But people trying to buy tickets through Ticketmaster have been re-directed to a site that charges between $240 and $1,065 apiece.

When it was my turn to pose a question, I asked if the musicians if they were aware of the ticket scalping. The generally cordial exchange grew tense. Singer-guitarist Lindsey Buckingham said the practice "was a pretty typical thing," adding that "Irving Azoff was quoted in the paper as being against that" and that Azoff, who is part of Fleetwood Mac's management team, "will make sure that kind of thing didn’t happen."

Things got a little more uncomfortable with a follow-up question from a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter. In light of the bad economy, why did Fleetwood Mac raise the top ticket price to $150, compared to $125 four years ago?

Nicks replied that touring now costs "a gazillion dollars more than four years ago." The last time out, she said, the band and its entire entourage flew in a 738 jet. This time, only band members will be flying in a Gulfstream 400 business jet becausd of fuel and rental costs. "Everybody else will be on the bus," Nicks said. "We wish we didn’t have to charge anything. I wish we could just play. ... But you can be sure that the people [being interviewed] on the phone will be making phone calls after we hang up" to find out what is going on with ticket prices.

Fleetwood said the band is "somewhat informed, but not fully informed. ... We're trying to do this the best way that makes sense for our audience. ... We are more than aware the people around us are doing their uppermost to make this a possibility."

This being Fleetwood Mac, there also was talk of the combustible personalities that have fueled both the band's music and tabloid columns. For the moment, there seems to be harmony.

"Lindsey's been in incredibly good humor since we started rehearsing on the 5th of January," Nicks reported. "When Lindsey’s in a good humor, everybody’s happy. Our only problem is that our rehersal time has been messed with a little bit" by family matters.

Added Buckingham: "Knowing that we did not succeed as well as we could have last time we did an album and tour together and on a personal level ... we have something to shoot for that is a little higher. ... We are a group of contradictions ... [but] the whole being greater than the sum of its parts."

Buckingham also said at another point, "Unity is waiting in the wings."

While the tour set list has not been finalized, "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" and "Don’t Stop" will be performed, said Fleetwood, along with "special songs that aren’t considered massive hits but are emotionally connected with Fleetwood Mac."

Going on the road without a new album to promote "frees you up to enjoy each other as people," said Buckingham. "Let’s have a good time and value the friendships and history ... It takes the pressure off ... and allows more fun than we would normally be able to have."

In conjunction with the tour, Fleetwood Mac's Grammy-winning 1977 album, "Rumors," will be re-issued as part of a special CD/DVD boxed set with uneleased tracks recorded during the making of "Rumors," as well as a DVD with never-before-seen footage of the band.

The album reflected the turmoil of the previous two years -- Fleetwood separated from his wife Jenny; so did McVie and keyboardist-singer Christine McVie and Buckingham and Nicks, although all five remained in the band.

Asked if the re-release might re-open new wounds, Buckingham replied, "Even though we were drawing on our own experiences, I don’t believe the songs on 'Rumors' were so starkly autobiographical. ... It was three writers cross-dialoging with each other. ... The tabloid (quality) of it was only revealed to us by our audience after the fact. ... [Now] you tend to see the irony in the songs ... the heroicism we possessed. We saw ... the music had redemptive power and could be a symbol for other people. The whole struggle had a meaning to it that was symbolic."

Since its original release, "Rumors" has racked up 30 million in sales. Buckingham said he expects the re-issue will sell about 100,000 copies, "maybe."

Here are other comments on various topics

made during the interview:

Fleetwood on the possibility of recording a new Fleetwood Mac album:

"My heart believes that all will happen."

Nicks on Christine McVie's continued retirement:

"I’ve been the only girl in Fleetwood Mac since 1998, so I’m used to it now. ... But I miss Christine ... The loss of Christine as one of my best girlfriends was horrific to me ... Not a day goes by that I don’t wish she would call up and say, 'I’m back.' "

Nicks on working as a solo artist versus playing in a band:

"When you’re in a band, you’re not the boss. ... You’re part of a team. ... Do I like not being the boss? No, I really do like being the boss ... After 11 solo albums, you get used to being the boss." But she enjoys being in a band, too. "It's good to be knocked down a little like that. ... It makes you think a little more. ... It makes you humble.

Nicks on when she will record her next solo album:

"Not for a long time. When I am in one relationship, I am not in another one. ... I’m a fragile old grandmother at this point, even though I don’t have grandchildren. I need to stay focused on one thing....

Fleetwood on U2:

"They were an Irish pop band that made all the right moves ... [The group's success] makes me feel good about the music business ... because they are able to do what they do with some sense of integrity."

Nicks on whether she expected to be playing rock 'n' roll when she was 60:

"The answer to that would be yes. I joined Fleetwood Mac when I was 28. I went on tour with my normal street clothes, we didn't have any money. It was a three-month thing. I opened my suitcase and found out I had gained five pounds. I sat down and started to draw an outfit. I said to myself I am going to have a uniform I can wear it today and wear it at 60. I remember it like it was yesterday."

(Thank you to Heroes Are Hard To Find for the heads-up on this article)

Rock Star Lindsey Buckingham at Home

Elle Decor Magazine

(More Pics)

Haute bohemia meets 1920s elegance at the home of rock musician Lindsey Buckingham and his interior designer wife, Kristen.

Written by Deanna Kizis • Photographed by Simon Upton • Produced By Cynthia Frank

Anyone arriving at the Los Angeles home of Kristen and Lindsey Buckingham — of Fleetwood Mac fame — should be prepared for a boisterous family welcome. 

Son Will, 10, and daughter Leelee, 8, tumble out of a car with their tennis instructor, while an exuberant Stella, 4, greets guests wearing a red velvet holiday dress—even though it's 80 degrees—as she bosses around the three dogs. Kristen appears, herding kids and proffering coffee, all the while insisting she makes truly terrible coffee.

It's a warm introduction that befits the beckoning Norman-style house, which was built by architect Kevin A. Clark. An aficionado of period details, Kristen used legendary Hollywood architect Wallace Neff's homes of the 1920s as inspiration and kept an office on-site in a trailer during the construction. "I was here every day to answer questions," says Kristen, an interior designer. And while her approach features occasional bohemian flourishes, it's often rooted in research on historic buildings and interiors. "I wanted our house to look authentically Neff and have a feeling of quality in the surfaces, moldings, and cabinetry," she explains. She also wanted it to feel livable for her active brood. "I'm not a fan of volume," Kristen says. "Two-story entrance halls echo, and kitchens with walls knocked out for a loft effect are popular but impractical. I wanted everything to have a human scale." This philosophy is reflected throughout the five-bedroom abode, where cozy alcoves abound. The master suite includes a snug reading room, the dining room has a bar area perfect for card games, while the kitchen abuts a charming breakfast nook. And the entrance hall's winding staircase—modeled after one in decorating icon Nancy Lancaster's beloved family home in Virginia, Mirador—is striking without feeling grandiose.

Kristen's look—"a combination of traditional and edgy," as her husband calls it—and many of her own designs, are best showcased in the dining and living rooms. In the former, a Directoire-style mahogany table is surrounded by green leather chairs embossed with crests and studded with brass tacks (she is reproducing these in her new home-furnishings line). The walls are papered in Zuber's high-spirited L'Hin doustan pattern, and chandeliers lend a chic contrast to plank ceilings. Paintings and photography fill a wall behind a black-lacquer piano in the living room, while a brightly upholstered Dunbar-esque sofa echoes the vivacity of the art display. "My pieces are all very personal, and I like to layer things," she says. "And I'm not an art snob. I like what I like."

Before she became a designer, Kristen was a portrait photographer; she met her husband on an assignment 13 years ago. "I went to the studio to shoot some guy—that's who Lindsey was to me then," Kristen recalls with a laugh. "He dropped some corny line like, 'Haven't I met you before?' We had a drink and have never been apart since." Of his wife's talents, Lindsey says, "Kristen intuitively applies her sensibilities across genres. She's a gifted designer, photographer—she's even written lyrics for me." But Kristen sees their disparate professions as a plus: "I can't sing or play instruments, and he doesn't decorate. I'm convinced that's why our marriage works. That said, I love his taste and always ask his opinion."

Of course, no musician's home would be complete without a state-of-the-art recording studio. Lindsey's is located beneath the garage for soundproofing and boasts a soundboard so large it had to be lowered in with a crane. Since it is fully equipped with comfortable furniture, a bathroom, and a kitchenette, "a few guys working full days have all they need so they never have to come into the main house," Kristen says.

For a family that loves outdoor sports, there's a large, lush lawn for croquet and badminton and a pool for daily swims. "Lindsey used to be a competitive swimmer, and his late brother, Greg, was a medalist in the 1968 Olympics, so it's a sport that's close to his heart," Kristen notes. The poolhouse was inspired by an image from designer David Hicks's book My Kind of Garden. Just outside the living room is the loggia, where sun-bleached wicker chairs and a vintage Baker cocktail table supply the perfect setting for board games with the kids. Says Kristen, "We play a lot of Yahtzee. It's great to be out here and not sitting in front of the television."

Kristen even designed their master bedroom to open onto the garden—a change from the family's previous house in Bel Air. "We used to be on the second floor, very high up looking down at the city," she says. "It was a beautiful view, but it often felt kinetic and unrestful." As the sun starts to set, Kristen opens the door to the terrace from the bedroom, the sounds of her kids playing outside filling the room. "This is what we wanted—to feel connected to our surroundings."

Fleetwood Mac Pass The Torch To Radiohead

Undercover.com

Fleetwood Mac`s Lindsay Buckingham has described Radiohead`s performance at the Grammy Awards this week as a “passing of the torch”.

Radiohead performed ’15 Step’ at the Grammy Awards with the USC Marching Band. Fleetwood Mac used the USC Marching Band on their 1979 hit ‘Tusk’.

Ironically, the two bands were rehearsing last week at the same place. Fleetwood Mac were preparing for their US tour and Radiohead were rehearsing for the Awards show.

“Doctor Bartner is the guy who has been musical director for the USC Marching Band for about 40 years now,” Lindsay Buckingham said on media conference call this week. “He was the one we liaised with when we used them on ‘Tusk’. He was there rehearsing with Radiohead on an adjacent sound stage where we were rehearsing, over at Sony Studios. It is a small world”.

Lindsay loves what Radiohead is doing. “I told Art Bartner please go tell Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood how much their efforts have meant to me personally and thank them for their good work,” he said. “If that idea was inspired by ‘Tusk’ I would be quite complimented, as Mick should be because it was Mick’s idea to put them on the song. I look at that very much as the passing of the torch and an exchange of ideas. That is part of the greater function of music really”.

Fleetwood Mac will hit the road for the first time in 5 years on March 1.

Fleetwood Mac Auction Benefits School

To help parents meet their children's educational needs, supergroup Fleetwood Mac are auctioning off VIP tickets and meet-and-greets with Mick Fleetwood as a fundraiser. A cooperative, parent-participation nursery school is the beneficiary of the proceeds.

As supergroup Fleetwood Mac begins their first tour in five years, bandleader Mick Fleetwood has launched an important and exciting charity fundraiser on eBay: An auction of VIP tickets on Fleetwood Mac’s UNLEASHED tour which starts March 1st in Pittsburgh, PA.

Along with a pair of tickets in the first 25 rows, each auction winner and their guest will get a meet and greet the legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood before the show–a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the true fan!

The auction benefits Hilltop Nursery School in Silver Lake, California, a parent-participation, cooperative pre-school founded over 50 years ago. Giving Engine Auction Management, a pioneer in online fundraising for schools and non profits, will manage these one of kind experience packages.

This auction runs from February 9th through February 19th for the first 16 dates of the tour March 1st through March 26th

To bid on this thrilling auction go to http://www.ebay.com/hilltopla

One of the Worlds Greatest Furies... Unleashed!

Click to Enlarge

Full Article at: 24hours.ca

Gold Dust Woman justifies the high price of a Fleetwood Mac concert

BRAD WHEELER
Globe and Mail
February 11, 2009 

"We wish we didn't have to charge anything,” says Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac singer. “We wish we could go out and play. That's what we do – we're performance artists.”

Rock on, gold dust woman. During a teleconference Tuesday, Nicks and her fellow Mac mates were chatting up their upcoming North American tour (which kicks off March 1 in Pittsburgh, with dates in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver to follow) when the subject of ticket prices came up. Fleetwood Mac, legendary for its rock-star indulgences in its prime, charge up to $149.50 for top seats in Toronto.

“The price of life in general is a gazillion dollars more than it was four years ago,” reasoned Nicks, not an economist. The British/Californian band's most recent tour wrapped up in 2004. “Our emotions are about trying to do this in the best way that makes sense for our audience,” chimed in drummer Mick Fleetwood, “and in a way that we can get to our audience.”

Ticket prices and ticket distribution are a touchy subject these days. A $510-million Canadian class-action suit filed this week alleges that Ticketmaster and subsidiary TicketsNow.com are conspiring to hold seats from the public and reselling the tickets at a higher prices – seemingly a violation of anti-scalping laws.

Those looking for Fleetwood Mac seats for the Air Canada Centre show on Ticketmaster.ca are able to pay face value, but also are offered “Official Platinum Seats” at the site's Marketplace, where concertgoers can purchase premium seats at inflated values – as much as $800 a ticket.

The band is represented by Irving Azoff, who also happens to be chief executive officer of Ticketmaster Entertainment, and will become executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment if the just-announced merger of Ticketmaster and concert promoters Live Nation goes through. Asked about any unsavoury ticket-selling practices involving Fleetwood Mac, Nicks promised she would be “making phone calls” on the matter.

Nicks went to say that tour's “Unleashed” title refers to the unleashing of the band's furies “back into the universe.” Asked if the public would be able to handle all the pent-up rage, Nicks answered in the affirmative, but cautioned that fans might need to bring their “armour.”

That, and their gold card.

This is truly a new experience for Fleetwood Mac

Billboard Magazine

February 11, 2009

by: Gary Graff, Detroit

Not having a new album is working to Fleetwood Mac's advantage as the group prepares for its upcoming Unleashed North American tour.

"This is the first time we've gone on the road without an album," drummer and co-founder Mick Fleetwood told Billboard.com during a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday. "This is truly a new experience for Fleetwood Mac to go out and play songs that we believe and hope people are going to be familiar with and love."

Singer/guitarist Lindsey Buckingham added that not having to integrate new songs into the set -- which the group has been rehearsing since Jan. 5 in Los Angeles -- "just allows you to relax into the situation. We're not coming off a new group of tunes, a new album ... the stakes for that side of it become a little bit lower."

As for a new Fleetwood Mac album, vocalist Stevie Nicks said "there isn't any plan at this point ... for any album. We're going to get through this tour before deciding what to do with an album." Fleetwood, however, confirmed that "there have been discussions, for sure, that we would love to make some more music ... We hope it happens, and certainly it's been somewhat loosely touched on ... My heart says I believe that will happen. Certainly I know that all of the songwriting department, both Stevie and Lindsey are continually writing ... The whole creative bowl is very much intact, so I would love to see what happens."

While declining to get specific about the 46-date tour's repertoire, Fleetwood did say that hits such as "Dreams," "Go Your Own Way" and "Don't Stop" would be included, and that the group would be "paying some attention" to material written by former band member Christine McVie.

"Her songs are surviving very well in the set that we're doing," Fleetwood said. "Stevie and Lindsey are finding a fresh way in certain instances to present those songs. And then we are finding songs as we go along that we feel are special songs that maybe aren't considered the massive, massive hits but truly are emotionally connected to Fleetwood Mac."

Nicks, meanwhile, confirmed that the group seriously considered adding Sheryl Crow to the lineup in 2008, even setting up a rehearsal last Mother's Day to work on material.

"We needed Sheryl to come in and just play some music with us," Nicks recalled. "But it was Mother's Day. She had a brand new baby. She had all her parents and everybody coming and she chose not to cancel that, understandably. She called back and said, 'I have to pass,' and it was over. I said, 'You're making the right decision. You have a new baby, you survived breast cancer, you survived Lance Armstrong.'

"Sheryl is my very dear friend. We are best buddies, and that will go on forever. The fact she is not in the band does not mean she's not our friend."

The Unleashed tour, Fleetwood Mac's first road trek since 2004, begins on March 1 in Pittsburgh. The group is also planning to release a CD/DVD edition of its 1977 "Rumours" album with unreleased songs, demos and previously unreleased footage of the band from that era.

Lindsay and I don’t need a buffer (Stevie Nicks)

Undercover.com

February 11, 2009

Undercover was part of the Fleetwood Mac media conference today where Stevie revealed that Sheryl Crow almost joined Fleetwood Mac following the departure of Christine McVie. 

“We rented a studio and hired a crew,” Stevie said. “We were ready to go in and I called her and needed her to come for two or three days to just play. It was Mother’s Day and she had invited 300 people in her family there. It was her first Mother’s Day as a mom and she could not do it. At that point she said “I am going to have to pass”. I said “I think you are making the right decision. You have a new baby, you have survived breast cancer and Lance Armstrong. I don’t think this is the right thing for you”. That is what happened with Sheryl Crow. She is still our friend and I still adore her. She is one fm my dearest friends”.

While Sheryl Crow came close to joining Fleetwood Mac, no other female has been considered. “As far as having another girl in the band, after we went through that we really realised that there wasn’t going to be another woman that could come into this band who could fit,” she said. “I was looking at it three years ago as a buffer between me and Lindsay. Lindsay and I don’t need a buffer. Certainly Sheryl Crow and not any woman in the world is going to be able to get in the middle of Lindsay and me. The fact is if Lindsay and I can’t work out our problems by ourselves we might as well throw in the towel. That's what we are currently trying to do is work out own problems and certainly another person could not do that for us. 

Think about this – Christine has been gone since 1998 so I have been the only girl in this band for a long, long time. I’m used to it now. At first I was not used to it. After ‘The Dance’ it was horrifying for me. She has been gone a long time and I’m fine with it now”.

Christine McVie was a member of Fleetwood Mac from 1970 to 1998. Prior to Fleetwood Mac, she sang with English band Chicken Shack but left in 1970 after marrying Fleetwood Mac bass player John McVie.

After leaving Fleetwood Mac, she released her third solo album ‘In The Meantime’ in 2004 but has remained relatively out of the public eye.

Fleetwood Mac will begin their `Unleashed` tour, their first tour in five years, on March 1st in Pittsburgh.

Tusk's $1 Millon Dollar Budget was a Privilege

by Paul Cashmere - February 11 2009
Undercover.com

Fleetwood Mac founder Mick Fleetwood says that the cost of making the 1979 `Tusk` album, the first album with a budget over $1 million, was a privilege, not an over-indulgence.

In a conference call with Undercover today, Mick said, “For all of the blessings we had bestowed on us for being successful I always thought that it was a fully righteous thing that a band such as Fleetwood Mac would plough that money back into the very process that we’d been blessed by to have made that money because it was our money.”

‘Tusk’ was the follow-up to the classic ‘Rumours’. While ‘Rumours’ turned the band into a supergroup, they still paid their own way. “People often assume that you are the star of the show and some production company pays for everything. That is not the case literally by 100%”, he told Undercover. “I always thought it was incredibly righteous to taking the time to plough back the energy, time and expense to make an album like ‘Tusk’ coming out of the most successful album that this band ever had, not that we knew it at the time, ‘Rumours’”.

While the album did not achieve the same heights as its predessor, Mick is glad they did what they did to make ‘Tusk’. “It was our pleasure to do that,” he said. “We never looked at it as some sort of opulent indulgence. I think the lines got blurred more often by the lifestyles and the romance of the stories of the individuals in Fleetwood Mac. The music and the time making ‘Tusk’, we took a huge interest in the studio we were going to record the next album in. All of that stuff had to be paid for and I might add that it was paid for by the individuals that you are talking to to present something that in our world that was going to be more meaningful and more special”.

He says they did it because they could afford to do it in light of the success of the previous two albums. “That to me doesn't personally feel like any form of indulgence. It was always a cross to bear that we all had from ‘Rumours’ on, and in fact Fleetwood Mac ‘Fleetwood Mac’ and ‘Rumours’ and the characters in this particular play”.

The success of Fleetwood Mac not only made the group famous, it made Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks all individually famous. That fame has often gotten in the way of the music. “No doubt, there is a story to be told and continues to be told,” he says. “But behind it all is the music and we very often bemoan the fact that because we were so open as people, which was intriguing and interesting, or maybe not, behind some of that we did take some blows in terms of the music at certain points in time”.

The internal romances and break-ups became tabloid fodder. “We often wanted to talk about the music instead of the ongoing soap opera,” he said. “It is really about the integrity of what we do. We have always taken the responsibility to make the very best effort to do that”.

Fame gave them money and ‘Tusk’ was simply money well-spent, according to Mick. “That to me was never an indulgence. It was a privilege and in truth, everyone you are speaking to paid for that privilege to present something to the listener and the people who enjoyed this band and reinvest our “hey-day” ability to do that where you can’t believe you can actually be in a studio for nine months but then you have to pay for it”.

Anything less than perfection was not an option when recording ‘Tusk’. “The fact that we didn’t say “lets spend three weeks in the studio and get the hell out and shove something out” actually speaks well of where this band puts its metal,” he said.

Fleetwood Mac will begin their `Unleashed` tour, their first tour in five years, on March 1st in Pittsburgh.

Press Conference by Phone With Fleetwood Mac

Quizzing Fleetwood Mac

By Eric R. Danton
Courant.com

I've written before about teleprint conferences (like this one, with Maroon 5) -- essentially, press conferences by phone, wherein a bunch of reporters lob questions one by one at musicians -- but the one I'm on right now with Fleetwood Mac is a gem.

The band this spring unleashes Unleashed, a greatest hits tour tied to the re-release of "Rumours," and the Mac's first road trip in five years (including a date March 14 at Mohegan Sun). Highlights of the teleprint session include:

• Stevie Nicks declaring, "Basically, what we are is entertainers." Ah. That clears that right up.

• Lindsey Buckingham shows up 20 minutes after the scheduled start time, and says to the others, "Have you all been on the line for a while?" 
  

• Apparently Buckingham is influenced by Radiohead.
  

• Mick Fleetwood, on the other hand, likes U2.
  

• The band attempts to steer a question to John McVie, who's been largely silent. "No, I feel so stupid today," McVie says. Mick offers, "We'll do one together."
  

• Stevie Nicks, addressing rumors that Sheryl Crow would take Christine McVie's place: "I told her, 'You've survived breast cancer and Lance Armstrong, and I think you're doing the right thing'" by not joining the band to focus instead on raising her child.
  

• Whither the significance of the tour title? Stevie: "To me, 'Unleashed' means unleashing the furies, throwing us back into the universe." Is it possible to roll your eyes so hard they fall out? To his credit, the reporter asks, tongue in cheek, "Will we be able to handle this fury?" 
  

• The guy from the Plain Dealer asks, in reference to the USC marching band appearing with Radiohead at the Grammys, "Are you sick of Radiohead stealing all of Fleetwood Mac's good ideas?" The band laughs, then Buckingham says he told the director of the marching band, "Please go tell Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood how much their work has meant to me."
  

• Stevie: "I'm a fragile little old grandmother at this point, even though I have no grandchildren." 
  

• The guy from L'Press (or some damn place) asks the band when the "Rumours" re-release is coming out. The band, of course, has no idea. Dude: Check Wikipedia.
  

• Aw, man, after I've spent 90 minutes on the phone, some guy asks a dumber version of the question I was going to ask.
  

• Jon Bream from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune asks why Fleetwood Mac tickets are so expensive, especially compared to the band's last tour. Stevie: "I can't even answer that, because I don't know. All I can say is that the price of life in general is a gazillion times higher than it was four years ago." Alas, this time the band can't afford to fly on a chartered 737, she says. They're taking a G4 jet instead.
  

• If brevity is indeed the soul of wit, Mick Fleetwood is witless.
  

Now that's the spirit!!

Cool graphic design.... I love it!

Thom Yorke (Radio Head) Jigs To Tusk

During Grammy Rehearsals today in Los Angeles Thom Yorke of Radio Head arrived looking more like a fan than a star and did a little jig in the aisles as the USC's Spirit of Troy Marching Band warmed up with Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" before rehearsing as part as the Radio Head backup band.

LATimesBlog

Fleetwood Mac has sold 16.4 million albums

THE 'MAC IS BACK

Ask Billboard

January 2, 2009

Hi Keith,

With Fleetwood Mac going on tour again soon, I was wondering how many albums they have sold since Nielson SoundScan started, specifically their last few releases?

Thanks!
Kevin Markowski
Chicago

Hello Kevin,

I'm excited that Fleetwood Mac is going back on the road, but still sad that they are touring without Christine McVie. Really, the band just isn't the same without her. But you didn't ask about that, did you?

Since 1991, when SoundScan began tracking sales, Fleetwood Mac has sold 16.4 million albums in the U.S. The biggest seller is its 1997 live album "The Dance," which has sold 4.5 million. The group's last studio set, 2003's "Say You Will," has shifted 858,000.

Fleetwood Mac's Unleashed tour begins on March 1, 2009 in Pittsburgh.

Auburn Hills Starts at 8pm - not 7:30pm

Fleetwood Mac gets a later start at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Are you heading south Sunday, March 8, to catch Fleetwood Mac at The Palace of Auburn Hills?

Take your time -- it starts at 8 p.m. now, instead of 7:30. And those of you thinking "I didn't know Fleetwood Mac was coming around" can still get tickets at the nearest Ticketmaster.
They'll set you back $149.50, $79.50 or $49.50, depending on how up-front-and-personal you want to get.

That's about the going price for the acts we call legends these days. The Eagles' top tickets costs $195 when they swoop into the Palace on Saturday, March 21. And Jimmy Buffett's Aug. 13 visit to the DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston is sold out, so hang on to your $137.50.

What do you say -- are they worth it? What's the top price you would pay to see your favorite?

1976 Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac 1976

Photographer: Al Golub

Lindsey Buckingham Talks Guitars, Fleetwood Mac Reunion Tour

by: Russell Hall
Gibson Magazine

On March 1, a reunited Fleetwood Mac will hit the road for their first concert tour in five years. Concurrently, an expanded CD/DVD package of the band's landmark 1977 album, Rumours, will hit record stores. In the following interview, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham talks about the differences between his work in Fleetwood Mac and his solo work. He also shares his thoughts about his distinctive six-string style.

Wasn't your very first guitar a cheap Harmony acoustic?

That's right, although I first learned some chords on a plastic ukulele. There was a TV show called The Mickey Mouse Club, which marketed a smaller version of what the guy on the show played. When I was about eight years old, I got a Harmony 6-string three-quarter-size guitar for Christmas. I think it cost about 35 or 40 bucks.

Did you feel an immediate facility for the instrument?

It's hard to say. I had been exceptionally interested in music before then, although I didn't have any lessons. I was tuned in to my parents' record collection, which ranged from the South Pacific soundtrack to Patti Page to my Dad's collection of Dixieland Jazz 78s. I was always interested in what was making those sounds. Then, when Elvis Presley came onto the scene, there was a role model, visually, and music that subverted our parents' sensibilities. It was something we could call our own.

When did you first try to write songs?

I didn't write until 1972, near the very end of the first band that Stevie and I were in. Stevie had been writing tunes since she was in high school, and thought of herself as a writer-poet. Actually, I still don't think of myself as a writer. I think of myself more as a stylist. It still comes in bits and pieces — the process of putting a song together.

You play without a pick. Beyond technique, does that make you feel more of direct connection to the guitar?

I think so. It has its good and bad points. It can be a little sloppy. Sometimes, on-stage, when I'm playing lead, I'll look down and see that I'm just thrashing around. I don't know what I'm doing with my fingers, and it looks sort of odd to me. In that sense, yes, it's completely connected to something inside. But I think other people probably feel that connection with a pick, because they've done it that way for so long.

How did you get into finger-picking at such an early age?

Part of that stemmed from not taking lessons. As a child, I found my own way, in a manner that made sense to me. I wasn't doing finger-picking right away, but I strummed with my hand, because I didn't know any better. But even Scotty Moore had an element of finger-picking and orchestral playing going on. The other thing was, before the British Invasion occurred, a lot of folk music became popular. In that music, of course, you're talking about basic Travis-picking, which everybody was learning to do. I also became interested in trying to learn some of the fast banjo-playing style that a lot of people were doing at the time.

You've talked in the past about a certain Dave Mason album that had a big impact on you as a lead player.

That's right. That album — Alone Together — came out in 1970, at about the time the original band Stevie and I were in was breaking up. I was trying to embrace lead playing, and the things Dave Mason was doing on that album seemed to mesh with what I was aspiring to do. He wasn't trying to be technically proficient, and the playing had a plaintive quality that fit what I was already doing, as an acoustic player.

What adjustments did you make to your style, when you and Stevie joined Fleetwood Mac?

It was an exercise in paring down. There wasn't as much room to establish any sort of style statement, in terms of what I had done on the Buckingham Nicks album. The band's pre-existing sound made it difficult for me to even play the model of guitar I had been using. The electrics I had played had always been either Stratocasters or Telecasters. And both those guitars sounded a little anemic, within the band. Therefore I switched over to something "fatter," which, at the time, was the Les Paul.

Are there things you can do as a solo artist that you can't do within the parameters of Fleetwood Mac?

I don't think there's any one thing. It's more a case that maybe there are things you can do only once, on a Fleetwood Mac album. There are lots of things on the [2006 solo album] Under the Skin album that are just one guitar, or two guitars, and voice, and nothing else. Politically, that would be fine in Fleetwood Mac as a one-off type of thing. But on Rumours, for instance, you wouldn’t want to have four songs like "Never Going Back Again." It just wouldn't have been appropriate.

The reunion tour begins in March. Your thoughts?

I think there's still quite a bit of road that we need to walk together, in order to put things in a certain place, with regard to interaction. For that reason alone, there's an interest for me in reconvening, to see if we can approach things a little more humanly. Stevie and I have some stuff to work on. That, in and of itself, becomes intriguing. I've known Stevie since I was about 16, and we've been through things together that no one else has. We know each other awfully well. It should be fun.

Is Now The Time To Buy??

If you've been on the fence and unsure if you wanted to shell out a ton of cash for seats to see Fleetwood Mac on their Unleashed Tour because the only seats available were seats at the back or in the rafters - well now's the time to consider buying or at least be on the look out for prime seating. Ticketmaster has released PRIME seats (Floor Seats) for a number of the first shows on Fleetwood Mac's upcoming tour.

Just to name a few:
Pittsburgh (3/1/09)
Minneapolis (3/3/09)
Detroit 3/8/09)
Uniondale, NY (3/13/09)
Toronto (3/17/09)

Each of these shows at the moment are showing floor seats in the first 10 rows available at the regular pricing - which will run you about $150.00 plus fees.