Fleetwood Mac at O2 Arena

 
Fleetwood Mac
O2 Arena, 25 September 2013
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.

Then only last week Stevie Nicks let it slip than Christine would be appearing at two of the London shows so there was still hope! Throughout the show I waited for a sign, a glimpse of Christine, even the Landslide dedication (usually given to someone in the audience) to show that McVie was there and would finally rejoin her old bandmates, but then was none. When it came to the first encore and they began to sing World Turning, a song Christine traditionally sang with Lindsey Buckingham, and she never emerged I resigned myself that it wasn't going to happen. But then, during the band introductions, those famous keyboards of hers were moved onto the stage. "What's this?" Mick Fleetwood teased. "I must say that set up looks familiar," said Lindsey with a grin, while Stevie wandered over and pretended to play the keys in the air. By then everyone knew it was true and was cheering loudly and Mick knew it was no use to keep us in suspense any longer, introducing "Our own Songbird" as Christine, wearing a sparkling black outfit, emerged on the stage and hugged and kissed each member of the band. Stevie in particular was beaming to have her musical "sister" (as she later called her) back by her side. They then launched into the most jubilant version of Don't Stop I've ever heard. Christine looked like she was having a ball, Stevie was dancing around the stage gleefully and even Lindsey was grinning and looking over to Christine, giving her a little nod, as he sang his parts of the song. In Christine's absence Stevie had taken over her vocals on the song and she didn't quite give them up again on this version, still singing a verse, and I must admit I would have liked to have heard Christine singing more but the parts she sang still sounded magnificent. At 70 years of age she still sounds as good as ever. I couldn't help but feel a little tear come to my eye to see them all back together again.
At the end of the show she took her bows with the band, just like old times, and it was wonderful to see the classic five up there. The band came back for a second encore, first playing a beautiful Silver Springs then the only nod to their 2003 comeback album Say You Will, a sweet acoustic version of Say Goodbye played by Stevie and Lindsey alone, but sadly Christine remained at the side of the stage for these performances (I could see her the entire time, smiling and seeming to enjoy herself). But nicely she was invited back up for the final bows, again hugging and kissing her old bandmates. They all looked so good, so right, together, it did give me the glimmer of hope that we might see them all together again sometime in the near future.
Even though my main memory of the show will always be Christine turning up at the end the rest of the concert was great too with some really lovely surprises song-wise (as I had avoided looking at setlists and watching YouTube clips this time around). My favourite came with a little introduction courtesy of Lindsey about the necessary left turn he took with the album Tusk and how over time his choices have been vindicated (as it's since been recognised as the classic that it is). The band then gave us a fantastic Tusk segment featuring four songs including two I had never heard live before: Not That Funny and Sisters Of The Moon. I noticed a lot of people leaving to go get beer and go to the toilets during Not That Funny but they really missed out: it was loud, punky, funny and fun. Stevie couldn't replicate the screaming, belting vocals of the Tusk and Mirage tour versions of Sisters Of The Moon (she told us it was last played in 1980, which isn't true as the 1982 Mirage live video will attest to, but still a long time), keeping closer to the album version but including the final missing verse, and it still managed to sound moody and atmospheric and a lot fresher than a lot of the old faithfuls they rolled out once again tonight, like Dreams and Rhiannon.
In addition to these there was also a couple of tracks from the new digital EP, Extended Play. I thought Sad Angel sounded great, for me it fit in well with the older classic material. The next song, Without You, actually dates back to 1974 and Stevie gave a really funny, rambling introduction about how the song had been written after the Buckingham Nicks album came out, got lost and was rediscovered on YouTube. For once the introduction didn't sound rehearsed and she admitted every night it got longer and longer. She told how she had previously said the harmonies on the song was one of the reasons why she and Lindsey were invited to join Fleetwood Mac until Lindsey corrected her to say that it was really because the band wanted a guitar player and he wouldn't join without "my girlfriend", he loved her that much. Stevie beamed until Lindsey naughtily added "and look where that got me!" and a shocked but amused Stevie responded "Nooo, you did not just say that!" as he hid behind Mick Fleetwood. After the joking she thanked Lindsey for doing that for her and the band for taking her. Lindsey to his credit said that really it was their destiny to both join the band. The version of Without Out (a song I've long loved in bootleg form) that followed was so sweet and sincere, it was definitely one of the highlights of the night.
As for the Landslide dedication, it didn't go to Christine but still was incredibly sweet, instead going out to Fleetwood Mac founded Peter Green who was in the audience (apparently he was in my block but sadly I didn't see him). She reminisced how when she first joined the band she would listen to early Fleetwood Mac records and watch videos of him and be amazed at how talented and gorgeous he was. Not a day goes by, she told us in typical Stevie fashion, that she’s not grateful to him for making it possible for her to be there. It was a lovely gesture, although an even better one would have been Oh Well added to the setlist but hey, I take what I can get and I'm sure Greeny appreciated it.
All in all it was a really wonderful night and I still can't believe I've finally seen the "five fireflies" together on stage and heard Christine's beautiful voice in concert. It's something I will never ever forget.

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