Monday, September 30, 2013

Fleetwood Mac



I have been in love with Fleetwood Mac for a very long time. It began in '96 on a family holiday to Cornwall where the Tango In The Night album was on constant replay on the car's cassette player. I don't remember much else about the holiday except being in the car listening to that album. Isn't that weird? I'm pretty sure I would have had a great time on the holiday, we always did on family holidays but the most distinctive memory is a rainy day driving around while my dad tried to find some famous dead person's grave. It might have been an author or some significant person from the war...I dunno.

So a lifelong love affair began that year, except I wasn't so sure of it as a kid. Yes, I loved the album but I thought it was the soundtrack to Terminator 2. I was convinced the song 'Seven Wonders' was a love story about The Terminator and Sarah Connor (See, even as a kid I was a shipper. I dealt with OTP before I knew what it meant). I don't think I discovered a complete love for Fleetwood Mac until a few years later when I found a greatest hits cassette in my dad's collection. THEN I was hooked.

As I grew older I listened to as many albums as I could (the days before youtube and spotify) from finding records/ cassettes in charity shops or car boots and then I read as much as I could about them. Granted, I am NOT an expert on Fleetwood Mac in the slightest, I am amazed by the knowledge some people have on them. When it comes to music for me it's instinctive, it's about how it makes me feel.

I missed Fleetwood Mac when they were in my city in 2009 so when I heard they were coming again in 2013 I was NOT GONNA MISS IT!!

I don't believe in religion except the one called rock n roll and every time I go to a concert it's like I'm in a church. I had a moment before they came on where I was so happy that so many cool people had come together for a band and all of them had a different connection to them. When the band did come out I had a tiny bit of an emotional moment, the tears came to my eyes and I was just so happy to be there.

I'm not like this with music usually. I'm not as emotionally invested in music as I am in film. Film is an obsession but music is a fleeting friend who I have coffee with once a week or sometimes less frequently. I love the friend but if they are out of my life for a while I don't freak out. However there are a few bands I'm strongly connected to and one is Fleetwood Mac. Hence the emotional reaction.

They are a band I wish I was a part of, they are the band I would love to write a review, film script, book about. They are the band I wish I was friends with. I mean Stevie is like my earth mother. You just look at her and she hypnotises you. Lindsey is a dreamboat, he's gorgeous and so incredibly talented, I wanna marry him.  Mick & John are like your uncles, Mick's the mad one and John's the one who gives you a couple of quid every so often.

Anyway back to the concert itself, they came onstage at 8:15 and didn't leave until 10:50. There was no support act or interval and the songs were non-stop. They kicked off with 'Second Hand News' (appropriate because the shirt I was wearing had those lyrics on) and 'The Chain' which got EVERYONE on their feet. I was actually really happy with the song choices, I can imagine some people may have been disappointed because the mac played a lot of their lesser known gems such as 'Not That Funny' & Stevie's haunting 'Sisters of the Moon'. They played 'Sara', the one song I NEEDED to hear and was so happy to hear live and then there was a gorgeous acoustic section of 'Big Love', 'Landslide' & 'Never Going Back Again'. Lindsey proved over and over how amazing he is and I cannot believe he is 63. 63!! He was running around like a 20 year old!!

Before I went to the concert I actually disliked 'Never Going Back Again', now I love it. The lyrics 'Been down one time, been down two times, never going back again' just hit me right in the chest. There were two encores, I was just gutted that Christine never showed up.

I read a review in my local newspaper that called Lindsey 'pompous' with the amount of guitar solos. However the crowd lapped it, we wanted to see him doing what he does best. Why do you think we pay money to see a band? There was also a lovely drum solo from Mick that made me want to adopt him and never have him leave my house.

So overall I loved it, I want to go back :(

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