Fleetwood Mac at Wembley



Last night Dan and I saw Fleetwood Mac play at Wembley Arena in London. They are doing two shows here are part of their big reunion tour and with their Rumours line-up (apart from Christine McVie) it seemed worth the exorbitant price.

There was no opening act, but that was ok because Fleetwood Mac played for over two and a half hours - a feat considering they are all in their late 50s or older and Lindsay Buckingham and Mick Fleetwood played like maniacs the entire time. Stevie Nicks has always been the star of Fleetwood Mac for me, second only to the torrid emotional history of the band, which, even now, seems to inform so much of their chemistry on stage. Even though it probably isn't so, it feels like every lyric about lost love is about the sad end to the relationship between Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham. The way they move around and connect with each other on stage is either a very clever act to engage the audience or they made a terrible mistake all those decades ago when they broke up.

Lots of people would say that the personal history of people in a band shouldn't matter, but Fleetwood Mac's music is saturated in a kind of emotional regret and angst, somehow made all the more poignant because they are old and they can't go back.

Apart from a few embarrassing moments when Lindsay Buckingham got a little too 'rock star' on his guitar solos, Stevie Nicks twirling around in her strange goth bird-wing dresses or Mick Fleetwood trying to turn a long drum solo into a kind of weird rave song with synthesizer and all, it was a great show. My favourites were and will probably always be Landslide, Dreams, Rhiannon and Sara. And watching the poignant exchanges between Buckingham and Nicks as she sang "I'd go anywhere, anywhere, anywhere ... when you build your house, well then call me home."

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4 Comments:

Stephen Chapman said...

I was there too - at the very front, leaning on the stage!

Great concert.

As for Lindsey being a rock star - he IS a rock star!!!

Check out the pictures I took on my blog

Amy said...

Lucky! We were pretty far back but the front looked like loads of fun. It was a great concert though. What did you think of the Mick Fleetwood solo towards the end?

julian moseley said...

Passionate is the first word that sprang to mind. Teetering on the brink of sanity was my next thought. But great songs, superb musicianship particularly from Lindsay Buckingham and a still so distinctive voice from Stephanie Nicks, as her bandleader introduced her at the end. A previous review had referred to Fleetwood and Mac as looking like millionaire versions of Chas & Dave. But it's a long way from The Bo Street Runners and as Mick announced he is grateful to us not to be stuck at home bored. An amazing achievement given the original band should have faded away after Peter Green's disaster. Lindsay Buckingham's brilliant performance of Oh Well was a reminder of their former existence, possibly news to many. They were as fresh as ever, amazing considering their first comeback was for Bill Clinton's Inauguration. I would have liked Say You Will or Peacekeeper off their last album, but you can't have it all.

Anonymous said...

I was also there and I have to say the chemistry is still electric, did anyone photo the embrace between Stevie & Lindsey.? Linsdsey was magnificent at 60 the youngest member of the magnificent Fleetwood Mac, play on!