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Fleetwood Mac – how long has this been going on?

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Going to see the Mac next week . Mrs Wells is keen and so long as they play Green Manalishi I’l be happy. That’s a joke.
I was surprised how few of the songs of this version of the bandI actually know. But that s not what this is about.The attached review makes mention of how Fleetwood introduces and thanks the various back up singers and musicians but failed to mention a back up drummer behind the amps.

How long has he had a drummer hiding behind the amps?

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/fleetwood-mac-review-too-long-sometimes-listless-but-hey-christine-mcvie-20151023-gkggkb.html

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Comments

  1. Wonder what their concert rider is like this time around? I seem to recall last time there was some dismay as they had demanded and got a marquee set up backstage complete with grand piano, every conceivable alcohol known to man in industrial quantities, plus a vast buffet table groaning under the weight of gourmet exotica…..and none of them touched a thing.

  2. I remember going to see the reformed Pale Fountains in 2008. They had two drumkits side by side on stage. The spare was reportedly for Shack drummer Iain Templeton to use, in the event that the Paley’s fragile drummer was unable to handle the occasion. I’m happy to say he did though.

  3. This is not going to turn into another Peter Green Thread, is it?

    Just in case, can I say that I saw Fleetwood Mac’s first ever gig on 13 August 1967 at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival. Bob Brunning was the bass player for the first few shows as John McVie had not yet left John Mayall.

  4. Bit of a curmudgeonly review…I saw them in June and they were absolutely fantastic. I can forgive Mick his little self-indulgence in a set with so many glorious songs and great moments all round. I think you’ll have a ball, Junior.

  5. Reports from a friend who went to tonight’s Sydney show:

    A good performance marred by:

    Mick Fleetwood’s totally unnecessary and indulgent drum solo towards the end and Stevie Nicks telling the audience that if you follow your dreams – as she did – you’ll reach a point where you’ll be able to walk into any shop and never need to look at the price tag before buying. . . ’cause she doesn’t.

  6. Saw them in the summer in Manchester and Johnny C is dead right about the drum solo and Stevie’s life lessons. But despite that, they were fab. And Lindsey Buckingham – I never realised what a bloody great guitarist that man is.

    • Speaking of life lessons. It’s very much an American (specifically Californian) thing.

      Over 20 years ago I went to a guitar clinic by Steve Lynch (two-handed shredder in the style of Eddie Van Halen) . As he was showing us various licks and tapping techniques he gave this piece of advice:

      (I’m paraphrasing here) You have to set yourself goals if you want to succeed. For instance I cut out a picture of a Porsche 911 and stuck it to my bathroom mirror so I would see it every morning as I shaved. That gave me the incentive to practice harder and get better. Now I own that black Porsche.

      I feel there’s a lesson there for us all.

  8. Saw them at the O2 over a year ago. Never been a big fan, but have to say that Buckingham was startlingly brilliant. Much more punky than I ever would have expected.
    Nicks has always been a bit of a nitwit.
    The original band were magnificent, though their prime was too shortlived. Did you see them when they were playing London regularly, JC? I’ve heard they were the hottest live act for a couple of years there.

    • Apart from their 1967 Windsor debut, I saw them a handful of times over the next couple of years. Including a 1969 show at Sheffield City Hall.

      As you say, the original band were only together for around 3 years, yet they achieved so much.

      Peter Green tended to be way too democratic with the band from the start. People really just wanted was to see him playing blues guitar, yet he would turn over much of the set to Jeremy Spencer’s Elmore James routine and interminable 50s rock & roll pastiche, most of which was delivered via “amended” ribald lyrics.

      http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/Afterword/FMac.jpg

            • If you’d been following this blog with the detailed attention it deserves, you’d already have been slack-jawed in amazement at my account of this iconic, classic gig at Lanchester Poly (as it was then). They played what I later learned to be Then Play On, a couple of hits, and jammed through a very long Green Manalishi, no breaks between songs, no chat. Green looked beautiful, radiant, in full-length white robe. I was down at the front with my mates, idiot dancing all the way through. I had to take my specs off, I was sweating so much. The things you remember.

              • If you liked that gig and Then Play On, then you’ll love ‘Showbiz Blues’ and ‘Vaudeville Blues’. Stunning, extended studio workouts on ‘Madge Sessions’, ‘Coming your Way’, Manalishi etc. Blisteringly brilliant.

                • Don’t forget Jeremy Spencer’s cruel but fair impersonations of John Mayall and Alexis Korner which I think is on the first of those releases The Vaudeville Years.

                  They are patchy overall, but both contain some essential unreleased Peter Green guitar material including, as you say, the full unedited 20 minute Madge Sessions from which the Then Play On extracts were taken.

                • I’ve had them both, of course. But I don’t rate Then Play On that highly – the best stuff is the two singles, Oh Well and manalishi. They never made an album that was remotely up to that standard.

                  • A Mac pedant writes:

                    Oh Well and Green Manalishi were singles which weren’t included on either the UK or US versions of Then Play On LP when it was originally released.

                    Oh Well was added to the US version (and the CD) some time later, but Manalishi didn’t feature on the album at all until the Deluxe Edition CD appeared a couple of years ago.

                    Once again Green was being too generous by giving Danny Kirwan too much room on the album for his often limp songs, while Jeremy Spencer wasn’t on Then Play On at all.

                    It was originally planned to include a 7″ EP of Spencer’s rock & roll covers with the LP, but this never happened and the songs ended up on Spencer’s first solo LP

                    • I didn’t mean the best stuff on the album was (were) the singles, Johnny. I had them all on the original vinyl, you know. Oh yes. Pic sleeve for Manalishi, which I improved by adding the band members’ names in biro.

                      There’s been several fan versions of TPO, adding various tracks (including Dragonfly), but none of them is as good as the album they should have made.

  9. Going back to the original question in the thread, whilst I have never seen them live, I think that the Mac have had (almost) invisible extra musicians on stage with them for years. Certainly extra guitarists and keyboard players and extra vocalists.
    I would guess that the ‘basic’ 5 person Mac lineup hasn’t played live since before Rumours. Obviously the only way they could reproduce or come near their recorded sound is by using extra musicians. Don’t a lot of our favourite beat combos so the same?

  11. Haven’t U2 had an extra guitar player under Bono’s big ramp for years? And a friend swears Zep at the O2 had another guitar player “behind the amps”.

  13. Well apart from Daff , you’ve all failed the essay having fallen at the first hurdle which is to answer the question.

    Is the drummer adding to songs while Mick is playing? Seems odd that he can manage a bombastic 70s style drum solo and need a back up drummer.

  15. Maybe not in monetary terms, but is being a promoter of The Beatles et al in the 60s to a tacky nightclub owner beloved by the tabloid press in the 1980s as big an artistic fall as it is possible for one human being to experience?

    • Stringfellow? You could be right. Artistically the Sheffield years were by miles the most credible.

      I went to school with the youngest brother Paul Stringfellow who was roughly my age (Pete was a decade older). He was a nice lad and went straight into the family business after leaving school.

      Paul would come into class every week with autographs of the Beatles, Small Faces, Yardbirds and other bands who had recently appeared at the brothers’ clubs or concerts.

      His autobiography King of Clubs is worth a read if you see it cheap at a boot sale or Oxfam. It’s a good yarn, but riddled with typos, spelling mistakes and factual errors. I always wish I could have proof-read it for him before publication. It’s fairly obvious that no one else did.

      The family were simple working people who came from nothing, so I never begrudged Pete his success.

      Ominously though, for such a working class hero, the last line of his Wiki entry reads:

      “He is a supporter of the Conservatives and UKIP”

  16. I met Peter when he first was having his club built in London. My then girlfriend was a very good friend of his. I always found him great company – funny, warm and generous. Clearly, a shrewd businessman, who was also willing to punt his own money to open a club in a crowded market.
    Even after I split with the girlfriend, my mate and I never had to pay to get into his club which makes him a scholar and a gentleman in my book.

  17. Saw this Mac on the Rumours tour at the Glasgow Apollo, best bit was when the ladies took a ‘powder’ break and the 3 piece unleashed Oh Well pt.1 on us. Lindsey can indeed play and sing.

  19. Saw then on this tour at the Glasgow Hydro. They were marvellous. Yes, could have done without the drum solo. Christine McVie was excellent though.

    I’m not convinced by the whole ‘drummer hiding in the back’ thing though. Wouldn’t it be difficult to play in time with a band you can’t see?

  20. Getting back to the original question…

    Saw the band in Dublin this past June. A fantastic gig, all killer, no filler, but the drummer is there. We were standing reasonably close to the front and the drummer is not heavily hidden. Christine was stage right with her keyboards, Stevie was generally in the middle and LB was based stage left, but went all over the stage. Buckingham’s amps were stage left of Fleetwood’s drums and behind his row of amps, on the opposite of a riser, was the second drummer / percussionist. It’s true that when the time came to introduce everyone, the fully visible musicians in the rear (second keyboards, b.vox, some rhythm/acoustic guitar) all got a name check and the drummer went unremarked, even though they were sitting behind the amps. We could see them! It was no secret!

    I found the second drummer thing curious. I tried to figure out what the drummer was playing that Mick wasn’t. For the most part they just seemed to be playing along. Put it this way: Mick Fleetwood wasn’t not playing the drums. His drums were miked, he was hitting them, I saw no flubs or stumbles on his part. He came out front with a small snare for Gypsy and he was definitely playing that. FWIW, I didn’t see the second drummer drumming during the solo. It was a breif solo by Mick Fleetwood standards. I took a photo during the solo which I might try to post later on.

    The funny thing is that while we’re talking about it a lot, we haven’t focused on the flank of backup singers, all visible and introduced, who ensured a constant bed of those Mac harmonies.

    Great gig. Buckingham is extraordinary and sooooooo underrated.

  23. Extra musicians:

    The original four man line-up of 10cc had a second drummer on stage to take the pressure off Kevin Godley when he stepped up front to sing.

    Pink Floyd had a second drummer alongside Nick Mason from the 80s onwards
    They also had a second guitarist with Gilmour as early as the 1977 Animals tour. First it was Snowy White and later Tim Renwick

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