RUMOURS GETS REMADE - WHAT'S NEXT? DARK SIDE OF THE MOON?: Who thought it was a good idea to take the third largest selling album in history -- Fleetwood Mac's highly personal 1977 gem Rumours, which has sold 40 million worldwide -- and re-do it with contemporary middle-of-the-road acts?
Could it possibly be the same people who saw David Soul as the obvious star for the 1982 TV series, Casablanca? Or maybe the Robert Stigwood-led producers of the disastrous 1978 Bee Gees movie, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which also starred Donald Pleasence and George Burns? Or how about this year's team of producer Brian Grazer and director Gus Van Sant, who want to remake Psycho? In color no less!
In the case of the just-released Legacy: A Tribute To Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, would you believe Mick Fleetwood, the group's original architect and crazed drummer, is listed as the album's overall producer?
Among the atrocities committed:
* Tonic's bland handling of Second Hand News.
* Irish family act The Corrs, who turn Dreams into a Celtic dance song with an odd mix of tin whistle and programming.
* Matchbox 20's butchering of Never Going Back Again, mainly due to the scary vocals of Rob Thomas. (Fellow Sun music scribe Kieran Grant says the inclusion of Tonic and Matchbox 20 on the same album alone is enough to make him want to "drive his car over a cliff.")
* Elton John's unnecessarily perky, sample-ridden Don't Stop.
* Jewel's sappy You Make Loving Fun.
* Goo Goo Dolls' annoyingly dramatic I Don't Want To Know.
For his part, Fleetwood seems oblivious to the damage done. "You have re-crafted the songs of Lindsey (Buckingham), Christine (McVie) and Stevie (Nicks) with inspiration and passion," Fleetwood writes in Legacy's liner notes. "As such, you have left your own mark on the now continuing legacy that is Rumours." A mark that may haunt them and Fleetwood for the rest of their lives.
Less punishing re-interpretations are The Cranberries' fiery Go Your Own Way, Duncan Sheik's sombre, string-accompanied Songbird, Shawn Colvin's moody and loop-ridden The Chain, Oh Daddy by sexy-voiced singer Tallulah, and Sister Hazel's bluesy and raw Gold Dust Woman, which is superior to Hole's recent version.
The release of Legacy is ostensibly timed to benefit from Fleetwood Mac's higher profile of late. In addition to their highly successful 1997 live reunion album, The Dance, there was a subsequent sold-out tour, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and three Grammy nominations. Unfortunately, the tribute is anything but.
Mick Fleetwood's misstep aside, other band members are faring better in the post-reunion phase, particularly Nicks.
The blonde, tambourine-shaking gypsy herself is about to release a three-CD, 46-track retrospective box set of her solo career. Nicks' Enchanted will be released on April 28 and she hits the road on May 27 in Hartford, Conn., with (sadly) no Canadian stops among the 40-date U.S. tour.

With personal tensions settled, they're ready to put their Dance on tour

Time for Fleetwood Mac attack

By JANE STEVENSON
Toronto Sun

NEW YORK -- It's been a couple of decades, but she's still Stevie.

That would be Stevie Nicks, the throaty singer and focal point of the recently reunited Fleetwood Mac, who still favors chiffon, flowing gowns and high-heeled suede boots.

"I'm the original hunter-down-of-fabulous-things," says Nicks, 49, on the phone from her L.A. home prior to Tuesday's release of the new Fleetwood Mac live album, The Dance.

"Twenty years ago I sat down and decided that I would create a really wonderful image, an unforgettable image. And now I'm kind of stuck with it. It's like when I don't wear my fringy, gypsy stuff, people kind of look at me like, 'What's wrong?' "

No chance of that happening on Fleetwood Mac's North American tour, which will kick off Sept. 17 in Hartford, Conn. While no Canadian dates have been confirmed yet, Fleetwood Mac is expected to play SkyDome in November.

Nicks says it's no coincidence the '70s supergroup is getting back together just as Rumours, the band's best-selling release with staggering sales of 25 million and counting, celebrates its 20th anniversary.

"I think the timing's very crucial," says Nicks. "We have been offered this reunion thing ever since the day Lindsey stopped playing on stage with us in 1983. So this comes up every year, but it just was never even conceivable before. I guess everybody woke up and wasn't angry anymore."

You may recall that in addition to being bandmates, Fleetwood Mac was made up of drummer Mick Fleetwood and two couples, Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, and the married McVies, John on bass and Christine on keyboards.

Both pairs split up in the mid-'70s and the resulting tension helped fuel the strength of the material on 1977's Rumours.

"We're older," says Nicks. "We're a lot more able to appreciate what we have and to realize what an incredible opportunity this is for five people in their 40s to be on MTV and to go out and tour the world again and to cause this kind of a stir. What kind of an opportunity is that and how stupid would we be to not do this and really enjoy it?"

The cataylst for the reunion was Buckingham's solo album last year on which Fleetwood played drums.

Now, in addition to the new album and tour, there's also an accompanying 90-minute video, Fleetwood Mac: The Dance, filmed over two days in May, which will be broadcast on MuchMusic on Aug. 25 at 8 p.m. (There's also the one-hour TV special, The Making Of Rumours, airing on Much on Sept. 28.)

The record and filmed performance, consisting of such hits as Dreams, Rhiannon, Go Your Own Way, and Don't Stop, as well as four new songs, marked the first time they had played a full-length concert in 14 years.

"We figured we'd give it a couple of days and if it wasn't a lot of fun, we would just stop it," says Nicks. "So it just worked out ... And it has worked ever since."

But noticeably absent from the new album's song lineup is Gold Dust Woman, which Courtney Love's band Hole covered last year for the Crow II soundtrack, sparking renewed interest in Fleetwood Mac.

"She lives not far from where I've lived in Los Angeles and she and her little girl have been over, and we've just actually hung out and had a really good time," says Nicks of Love. "Courtney kind of did that before she even knew me and now we're really friends. She's actually the first performer who's been through a whole lot that I've ever had as a friend. As far as Courtney and I musically, it may happen."

Another event that got people thinking about Fleetwood Mac was the group's appearance at U.S. President Bill Clinton's Inaugural Ball in 1993 in which Nicks appeared on stage with her four bandmates to sing Don't Stop, Clinton's campaign theme song.

"The Inaugural Ball stopped the ball," said Nicks, with a laugh. "We got on a plane and flew there the night before. We were there for the dress rehearsal the next day. Then the next day we really did it, and got on a plane the next morning and never spoke again. Things were definitely not settled at that point."

Now they obviously are.

Wednesday, April 23, 1997

Fleetwood Mac ready for reunion splash

By PETER VAMOS
Jam! Music

1970s supergroup Fleetwood Mac is getting back together for one more kick at the rock and roll can.

Members Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks are currently rehearsing for a reunion concert in Los Angeles in May to be broadcast on MTV.

The've also signed a deal with Reprise Records to release a recording of the concert which will include three newly penned songs plus a full contingent of Fleetwood Mac classics.

The new album will hit stores in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the release of their 1977 monster hit album "Rumours."

"Rumours." sold over 25 million copies worldwide and holds the record of thirty-one consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard album chart.

The band is also planning to tour for the first time since 1982.

Thursday, November 14, 1996

Fleetwood Mac to reunite

 
The classic lineup of Fleetwood Mac is set to reunite for an album and a tour after the failure of the band's latest albums.
 
The New York Daily News reported yesterday that the five stars -- Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie and John McVie -- who made up one of the most successful rock groups in the world in the 1970s and 1980s with albums such as Rumours, are reuniting.
 
After principal songwriter Buckingham left in 1987, the group's fortunes waned. When Nicks left last year, the subsequent album, Time, was a massive flop.
 
Now Buckingham and Nicks are set to rejoin their old group in the hopes of making another best-selling album.
 
The Anglo-American rockers last played together in 1992, in a reunion in honor of U.S. President Bill Clinton's inauguration. Clinton used the Fleetwood Mac anthem Don't Stop as the theme for his first campaign.