Despite new new material being worked on, from which a 4-track EP has recently emerged recently, it's been a full ten years since the last full
Fleetwood Mac album was released. As with 2009's
'Greatest Hits' tour then, the latest trek is focused on past glories - particularly the Rumours album - but somehow this didn't make it feel too much like pure nostalgia and the band seem to have largely escaped being branded with the 'oldies' tag.
I personally prefer the albums made either side of it, but Rumours remains an undisputed classic and two of it's
highlights - Second Hand News and The Chain - certainly made for a stunning one-two punch to get things rolling (and
Dreams, which followed, wasn't too shabby either). After a run
of such instantly recognisable material, it was perhaps brave to
introduce a new song into the set, but
Sad Angel went down well with the crowd. For the most part the set was drawn from the band's
three late-70s albums, including
the obvious hits -
Rhiannon, Tusk, Sara, Go Your Own Way, Don't Stop - but also some deep cuts, most notably the Tusk tracks
Not That Funny and Sisters of the Moon.
Augmented by a small group of backing musicians and vocalists, the four remaining band members commanded centre
stage and made for an impressively tight unit, anchored by the rhythm section that gave them their name.
Mick Fleetwood, was, as ever, a monster on the drums, but usually displayed his prowess by playing 'within' the
songs, and only had a couple of chances to really show off - most notably during his manic solo on World Turning.
John McVie, has a
reputation for shunning the spotlight, but his presence was strongly
felt (much more so than in New Zealand a few years ago, where he really
seemed to be hiding!) and he appeared to be enjoying himself immensely,
as did the rest of the band.
The
delightful Stevie Nicks was in fine form. Having seen her twice before
(once solo and once with the Mac) I
would have to say that this trumped those earlier appearances. Her
voice has understandably changed over the years - it is now much deeper,
but also richer than before - and as strong as it ever was (and not
even vaguely goatlike as far as I'm concerned!),
so no, her songs don't sound identical to the recorded versions from
30+ years ago, but they certainly do sound wonderful.
Undoubtedly the star of the show throughout though was Lindsey Buckingham. Amongst the many highlights at which
he was front and centre were his solo acoustic rendition of Big Love, which deserved the much-abused epithet of
tour de force - one man and an acoustic guitar should not be
able to make an arena-sized venue crackle with that much energy, and his
ability to transform the same space right down into living-room
intimacy when joined by Nicks for
Landslide immediately afterwards further demonstrated his versatility. But perhaps his greatest moment was the climactic end solo of
I'm So Afraid which had the audience absolutely spellbound and deservedly earned him the most sustained applause of the night.
I
doubt anybody who wasn't part of it will ever fully understand the
Buckingham/Nicks relationship as it's developed
over the years, but they do genuinely seem to have
left any lingering bitterness behind them, even if they were perhaps
trying to appear 'closer' to each other on stage than they are in
reality. Well, there's nothing wrong with a bit of 'show' and playing
up to an audiences expectations, even if it did veer towards the cheesy
end of the spectrum at times.
If you were to hunt for weak spots you wouldn't find many - I've never been a huge fan of
Gold Dust Woman and Say Goodbye was a tad
underwhelming as a finale, but in a set that extended well past two and a
half hours, and took in a couple of dozen songs, the hit rate was more
than acceptable. In some ways it's fortunate that there's
still a noticeable Christine McVie-sized hole in the band these days,
as it allowed room in the set for some of the more obscure numbers that
were featured. Aside from
Don't Stop the former Mrs McVie's songbook was not represented, so many big hits (Say You Love Me, Over My Head, You Make Loving Fun, Everywhere, Little Lies,
etc - I think many people would be surprised to realise just how
many key songs she contributed to the band!) were absent. But then so
too were the early hits from the Peter Green years, it just goes to show
the embarrassment of riches the band has in
their wider catalogue. The icing on the cake would have been to have
been at one of the later London shows where Christine guested on
Don't Stop but I have no complaints and can only hope that the band get a full new album ready for release before too long to prompt a quick return. Though any other excuse will also suffice!
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