Reports around this evening that Lyndsey Buckingham is no longer in Fleetwood Mac – some say he has quit and some say he was fired.
This would seem to be a fairly fatal blow to the ticket sales for that projected farewell tour! Like them or not, he is pretty indispensable I would say.
Neil Finn though! I’d go.
Agree with Nigel – can’t see them being a big attraction without Lyndsey, and although I love Neil Finn I can’t imagine him belting out Never Goin’ Back or Tango. Shame if this is how it ends, and I was keeping a TM voucher for the tour announcement…
More news….
Fleetwood Mac to Tour With Neil Finn, Mike Campbell as Lindsey Buckingham’s Replacements
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Shortly after Variety confirmed that Lindsey Buckingham had left the band, Fleetwood Mac announced plans to tour this Fall with two new members: Mike Campbell, longtime lead guitarist for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and Crowded House frontman Neil Finn will be joining the Mac for their upcoming tour, with final dates being confirmed shortly.
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“Fleetwood Mac has always been about an amazing collection of songs that are performed with a unique blend of talents,” Mick Fleetwood said. “We jammed with Mike and Neil and the chemistry really worked and let the band realize that this is the right combination to go forward with in Fleetwood Mac style. We know we have something new, yet it’s got the unmistakable Mac sound.”
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“We are thrilled to welcome the musical talents of the caliber of Mike Campbell and Neil Finn into the Mac family. With Mike and Neil, we’ll be performing all the hits that the fans love, plus we’ll be surprising our audiences with some tracks from our historic catalogue of songs,” said the group collectively. “Fleetwood Mac has always been a creative evolution. We look forward to honoring that spirit on this upcoming tour.”
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#notquite #fleetwoodmac
Wait… Lindsey Buckingham is now fronting The Replacements?
Coooool!
He was fired, they’ll only miss him if they are to go into the studio again IMHO. Even more of a surprise is that Mike Campbell (Heartbreakers) & Neil Finn (Crowded House) are to join Fleetwood Mac for their tour.
Oops @NigelT beat me to it.
Dream ticket for promoters, Fleetwood House/Crowded Mac, with a bit o’ Petty thrown in? Sounds akin to the last time he “left”, the Billy Burnette, Rick Vito, Dave Mason supergroup.
I’m so pleased I saw the full, ‘proper’ line-up on their last tour. Lindsay is integral to that band, regardless of the ever-revolving door (and please, please nobody mention Mr Green for once, eh?)
Mr Green, you’ve got a lovely daughter.
I’m excited by this. Neil is always looking for a new challenge and it seems to bring out the best in him. He’s also incredibly versatile, so I see no problem there. Lindsey lovers will probably hate the idea, though, so it remains to be seen if they’ll be given a chance.
Are they gonna rename it the ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ tour?
Very witty! Have an Up, Black Type.
Well, if the Mac decide to dig out some old numbers from “Tusk” for the tour, they could do “Don’t Dream It’s Over and Over”.
To me Buckingham and Christine McVie were the true talents in that era of the band. Can’t stand Stevie Nicks. This looks like a pretty terrible idea.
When I saw them 2 or 3 years ago Buckingham was the stand out. He was the band.
WTF is Neil Finn doing there- would have been better off teaming up with his mate Jeff Tweedy.
No vacancies in Wilco.
No Christmas for John Quays.
No orchids for Miss Blandish…
No point in asking, you’ll get no reply.
No. You can’t have a hippopotamus, Johnny.
No fun!
Fleetwood House & The Heartbreaker? Sounds like a terrible idea to me, much as I admire Mike Campbell. Like it or not, Lindsey Buckingham IS this incarnation of FM. Behind The Mask and Time anyone? I rest my case.
‘You can never break the chain’ – well that was a load of shite.
Campbell would be a good shoe but not sure Finn needs this gig.
I’d go! Finn and Campbell would be great with that core band. I never thought much of Lindsey’s guitar playing TBH. Ok but nothing more.
I’m surprise to hear you say that, Twangmachine. He’s one of my favourite guitarists. I find his combination of slick American FM radio professionalism and reckless punk rock sensibility pretty awesome. His playing on Not That Funny, from Fleetwood Mac Live, is among my most favourite ever bits of guitarism (from around 3.45 on).
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eX67z-fcY_Y
No he always seems a bit limited to me. What he does is great and individual, and perfect for the song (so all good) but he’s never impressed me purely as a guitarist. Possibly because I think that little guitar he plays is stupid so this is probably all unjustifiable prejudice.
It’s not little, it’s just far away.
Bloody stadium gigs.
All in all, I’d rather go and see Stretch.
….and support?
I couldn’t give a flying fuck
Neil is clever – it will get him a few million more fans. Then he’ll do something else
FM are just a boring MOR ensemble IMHO – OOAA obviously even round here
As you were …
I’d still go*
*If I could be arsed with stadium gigs, which I can’t.
Wow, is it really true that most of Fleetwood Mac have joined Neil Finn?
See before I started reading The Word magazine, in my head Crowded House were in the same bracket as Cutting Crew or Climie Fisher – just another exponent of gassy, baggy suit-wearing late 80s “sophisticated” flat pop – so to me this is like Clark Datchler out of Johnny Hates Jazz replacing Buckingham. My bet is on Carol Decker out of T’Pau stepping up to replace Stevie Nicks next.
I kind of love Fleetwood Mac for this sort of nonsense though – still grudges surfacing and old scores unsettled from the 1970s –
I owned a Crowded House greatest hits album and liked 2 tracks from it.
I own a Crowded House greatest hits album and the rest of their albums and like ’em all.
The most surprising aspect is that after last year’s Buckingham McVie album, that this should happen now.
It was a Fleetwood Mac album without Stevie Nicks, with both Lindsey and Christine giving big thanks to John and Mick for their participation.
Sounds to me like Stevie has had him fired then.
Don’t much care, tbh. I shan’t be going to their gigs or buying any “product”.
Hijacking hubby’s account again as I can’t seem to get my WP log in to work :- (
I burned out on Fleetwood Mac having heard them *all the time* on Florida radio. Then I got away from it for a while and missed it. So Neil Finn joining, for me, is mostly just *weird*!… It *will* be good, tho…When I heard, I immediately thought of all the people I smothered with Finn music, who prolly thought, “hey, mona’s gonna love that!” Nah…it’s still just weird.
Much hilarious comment in the wittersphere of the “it’s the original lineup or nothing for me. Without Lyndsey they are nothing” variety. Shurley shum mishtake. F Mac have adapted, survived and overcome many times and I’d go like a shot especially to hear Mike Campbell with that rhythm section and those singers.
I saw them without Christine McVie in 2003, and they were fine….except for missing out her songs. Presumably they can’t ignore Buckingham’s input in the same way, so I assume Finn will sing them….like the originals, or in his own voice..?? Either way, and no offence to NF who I like a lot, it just sounds like a tribute act.
Some speculation from the Washington Post: LB – jerk or genius?
It opens the idea bank for similarly depleting heritage bands. Maybe, rather than folding, Buckingham could join the Searchers?
Or the Heartbreakers, bringing in, say, Roger McGuinn on vocals.
Surely ultimately we’ll get to the stage where there will be so few bands/members left that they’ll just have to form one band?
Like the end of Live Aid… or Golden Gordon.
In other former Mac guitarist news, Danny Kirwan’s trending on Twitter. Apparently he’s a horse now. https://www.racingpost.com/profile/horse/1443079/danny-kirwan/form
Think it will be simultaneously weird and great.
Will it be Fleetwood Mac? No.
Will it contain enough DNA of said band to live up to the name? Yes.
Is Neil Finn a very talented singer and musician with a nice line in witty self-deprecation? Yes.
Does all of the above add up to a show many (including me) would like to see? Yes.
Whatever one thinks of the line up it will be Fleetwood Mac as it contains the only 2 members who are always there. And recent tours (last 30 years) have not included Buckingham or Christine McVie.
The Afterword – where “recent” is “the last 30 years”
Even for a band that’s been in existence in some form or another for just over 50 years, 30 years is not really recent. You could just about call 20 years “recent”.
But yes, they’ve toured without key members before, so not that big a deal.