Still trying to process the fact that we lost Christine McVie this week. She was one of my absolute heroes and as much as I love Stevie and Lindsey, it was her song Everywhere that introduced me to Fleetwood Mac and made me want to buy my first Mac album, Tango In The Night. Ever since then they have been my favourite band and accompanied me through so many ups and downs throughout my life, and Christine's songs have meant so much to me. I was fortunate to finally see the five fireflies together on stage in 2015 and I will forever be grateful. Farewell Christine McVie and thank you so much.
This year has definitely been an interesting one musically, with women in particular releasing many of the best albums of any genre. That wasn't reflected well enough in the end of year polls, in my opinion, but it certainly is in my list. I actually included a couple more men in my first draft before realising that in my heart these were the albums that won me over more than anything else this year regardless of gender.
We've all been waiting for a new Fleetwood Mac album for 13 years now and a new one with Christine McVie involved for far longer (1987's Tango In The Night is the last with the full Rumours line-up in fact). Sadly, although Christine, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, have all been in the studio together recording new material, Stevie Nicks declined to be involved. Everything from disagreements with Buckingham, writer's block to disillusionment with record sales these days (Stevie's own lame excuse) have been suggested but at the end of the day I guess no one really knows the truth. Thankfully though, Lindsey and Christine got tired waiting for Stevie and have decided to release the album sans Stevie as Buckingham McVie (they could have released it as Fleetwood Mac really given Say You Will was an all-but-one-member album too). The first track, In My World, is classic Lindsey with a nice little sampled grunts that seem to be a homage to his classic Mac track Big Love. Can't wait for the rest of the album, out on 7 June, and hear Lindsey and Christine's wonderful harmonies once again. I have a feeling Stevie may regret her decision not to join in on this one.
It's such a different experience being down at the front at an arena show, it's almost like seeing an entirely different concert. A month ago I saw the Mac's return with Christine McVie back in the band at an excellent vantage point in the side seats. In a lot of ways I feel I saw more of the show that time as I could see the whole band at all times and watch the cool films that were playing behind them and really just concentrate on the music. That said, it is undeniably thrilling to be up close to your heroes and see all the action close enough to be able to reach out and touch them or hear things they are saying away from the microphones.
Well, this was a long time coming: I finally saw the classic
Rumours line-up of the Mac in concert. Aside from Christine McVie’s brief
appearance with the band a couple of years back at the O2 (which I wrote about
here), in all my years of being a fan it was the one thing that sadly eluded me.
Although Buckingham Nicks have always been my favourites, it was Christine who
drew me to the band in the first place when I first saw the video for
Everywhere many years ago, so the promise of seeing her and hearing her play
some of her many hits with the Mac this time was my main reason for paying a
ridiculous amount (seriously, I don’t think I would do it for anyone but them) to see the band again for the eighth time.
What awesome news to start the year with. But I really hope there's a new album and not just a tour, it's been far too long since we had a proper Fleetwood Mac album.
It's no shock to anyone who knows me (or anyone who has ever read this blog) that Fleetwood Mac are my favourite ever band: I've loved them since I was 12 or 13 years old when I first heard Tango In The Night but never got to see them live until 2003. Thankfully, I've seen them quite a few times since and tonight was my seventh time in all. I'd have liked it to have been the eighth and ninth too but unfortunately this time around the already expensive tickets were practically twice the price. That said, I was pretty content to just see them the once this time given how little they change the setlist these days but began to severely regret only having one ticket when rumours began to swirl that former member Christine McVie, the woman with all the hits and was such a huge part of the Mac's success who I had never seen play live with the band, was going to make a guest appearance at one of the shows. As my ticket was for the second of three nights I was sure I had missed my chance, as these things mainly happened on the last night.
Fleetwood Mac's legendary double album Tusk was first released on this day, October 15, back in 1979. Thirty years on it still sounds as good if not better and it's still my favourite ever album. At the time it was considered something of a flop (having only sold a few million compared with the massive selling Rumours, once the biggest selling album in the world) and Lindsey Buckingham's folly for daring to experiment with the band's signature sound. But in the years since it's become hugely influential (it was even covered in its entirety by cult band Camper Van Beethoven) and many now consider it to be their best album, me included. Over the years it's come to mean a lot to me and I love it all from Lindsey's weird and punky hillbilly stomps to Christine's soft, moody and sensual lullabies to Stevie Nicks' dreamy, spaced-out tales of lost love, I really do believe it to be a work of true genius and I wanted to recognise the day that Tusk was first unleashed onto the public. So Happy Birthday Tusk!
