FLEETWOOD

Rip It Up, Issue 7, 1 December 1977, Page 8

FLEETWOOD

Ken Williams

Sun scorched and done to a turn, the Western Springs crowd was slumping before Fleetwood Mac ever appeared. Forty thousand people. Ever-reddening sardines on a picnic. A metallic opening set by local Rum and Coca Cola boys Hello Sailor was received mildly. The guitar strut of the Kevin Borich Express, all whining notes and choppy boogie, was better received, but the set seemed interminable.

A lengthy wait while the stage was re-set ( a droopy potted palm as backdrop), and then just before five, Fleetwood Mac arrived and drove straight into an hour and a half of hit tunes.

This latest permutation of a onetime blues band that first saw the light of day a decade ago under the guidance of guitar wizard Peter Green is now the biggest selling recording group in the world. But as Lindsey Buckingham said: “This trip is semi tour, semi vacation.”

It shows at the edges. Perhaps too much of the good life in the couple of days they’ve been killing time around town. They perform well, but most of the numbers lack the edge that was apparent in the recently re-screened television film of the group and even more apparent in the excellent bootleg album Rockhoppers Live. It’s by no means a bad show. Things are a bit shaky to begin with, but they find their stride with Stevie Nicks’ party piece “Rhiannon”, the song she says she likes performing most. The audience respond enthusiastically and they know all the tunes. The material is a 11 from t he last two 2! b U ms , with one exception, Peter Green’s witty little “Oh Well.” It seems a strange choice, it draws a blank with most of the crowd (too young? too old?) and it seems unsuited to the instrumentation of the present line-up. Moreover, Lindsey Buckingham’s mannered vocals on this tune fail to capture the drollness that is the song. Buckingham is an interesting and sensitive.guitarist, complementing his musical partners at all times, changing guitars, playing everything from raging howls to acoustic picking (“I played a lot of bluegrass banjo .. . until my banjo was stolen’.’). An acoustic set is highlighted by “Never Going Back Again” but it’s “World Turning” with Mick and his African talking drum that gets the crowd moving. The encore is “The Chain’’ and

“Second Hand News", both performed with the gusto and precision that one might have expected earlier in the show. But then it’s the end of the tour. Goodbye, road. They’re pros and they can do the stuff, but they seem happy to get it over. Buckingham: “You can get sick of anything.’’

The Rumours album has stayed at number one on the American charts longer than any other album. More people are buying Fleetwood Mac than at any time in the confused, and sometimes confusing, history of the band.

“It's one of those things that wasn’t planned,” says Mick Fleetwood, drummer-manager-spokesman. “The way the band is now is obviously interesting visually and most of all, musically. Having three songwriters in the band and three singers in the band makes it that much more appealing. The band is definitely more versatile than in the past.

“We all realise what the band has accomplished and find it very exciting that we can feel wehavea lot of steel left in us as far as making albums goes and whatever else is involved in running and being in a band. We’re carrying on ... as we normally do . . we’ve got used to carrying on.’’ On the question of the band's new and outstanding success, Christine McVie, she of the brandy voice and world wise looks, says, “It must be something which is brand new. I don’t want to use the word revolution or renaissance or anything like that becuase I don’t think it’s quite that heavy . . . but it’s definitely something which is a new concept. Since the Beatles I believe there hasn’t been a band of this versatility.’’ -

Since the formation of the first band from the ruins of John Mayall’s Bluebreakers, Fleetwood Mac has been beset by problems Jeremy Spencer’s sudden disappearance to re-appear as a convert to the Children of God, Peter Green’s despair and rejection of the trappings of success, personnel changes too numerous to relate, legal battles with a manager who put a substitute group on the road using the name Fleetwood Mac. With the current formation it's been emotional problems. Fleetwood’s marriage broke up (later there was a re-union), the marriage of Christine and John McVie dissolved, and Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s

seven year romance wilted and died. Quite a strain for five people to perservere under. “To start with there were problems,” says Christine. “Normally when a couple separate they just separate. They don’t see each other. In our situation we had to work it out where we just had to be with each other for the sake of the rest of the members of the group.” The emotional traumas held up the recording of Rumours, which took 11 months to record, although actual studio time would amount to about eight months. Stevie Nicks: “A lot of the delay was technical, a lot of it was emotional. We didn’t want to release it until it was right. It was important to all of us to keep the band together.”

Mick: “It was horrendous, but despite the emotional problems never once did anyone consider leaving the band. It wasn’t because of the money . .. and it’s nice to know that the money wasn’t the reason. We were very involved in the energy of the band and we felt we had to get though it. It was a growing up process. A lot of people felt it would be absolutely impossible to do but the point is we did it and what's more we came out the other side smiling. “We all know each other very well, probably a lot better than before and the people concerned have done something very hard, that is going from an emotional relationship to one which is professional.” Fleetwood shrugs off any suggestions of overnight success, pointing out to those who don’t know that the band members have been around a long time and Fleetwood Mac, while not the world phenomenon it is today, has never been without a modicum of success. He is, however, careful to avoid overexposure, and notes “we have been approached to do some things that are tacky. There can be overkill.”

He patiently explains to those trapped in a 12-bar time warp that Fleetwood Mac ceased being a blues band a long time ago. He’ll talk about Peter Green, but the subject is not to be dwelt upon: “He’s living with his mother and father. He’s not happy. He was thinking himself into a corner when he left the band and he’s still in that corner. Peter’s a very sensitive person. The money thing freaked him out. He stopped

playing guitar and denied what he was best able to do. If he asked me to play with him again I would, but it’s not likely to happen. “He’s pleased with what Fleetwood Mac are doing now. He likes the album.”

. The band has plans to take a two to three month break after the Far East tour before starting work on a new album. . ‘Mick: “I dont think we plan to copy the success of Rumours. We will;just go and make another album. It would be naive to think the next album will a a total failure so there’s no overwhelming pressure. Even if it sold only half as many copies as Rumours (nine million or so) it would still be a success.” When you’re riding the crest of a wave what’s the next direction? Lindsey Buckingham: ‘‘Downhill, I guess” (slow-breaking grin). Christine McVie: “If I’ve changed it would show more to friends of mine than it would to me. I haven’t become particularly snotty nosed or anything I don’t think. "I think you become more discriminating about the reasons people want to be friends of yours. Ail my friends STS long standing friends from years gone by, very few are newly acquired. When you do become very successful people -often have ulterior motives for beina vour best buddv.”