FLEETWOOD MAC LIVE REVIEW: BLOODY BRILLIANT

Honestly, Fleetwood Mac at the O2 a few days ago were bloody brilliant. This was like a dream come true for me to see the band that generated my most formative love of music. It was like the happy ending to the break-up of a much loved dysfunctional family who have all had to “go their own way” for some time before working out how to piece it all back together (and OK, so the cynical me is not going to disregard the money aspect of their reunion). I loved the way they all interacted together and one can’t help being fascinated by how they manage all of this given their history of who married who and who shagged who. It certainly makes for some interesting dynamics to watch.

Average age of the audience? Safe to say “quite old”, verging on “very old” but not entirely. They are cool enough I feel to have my children not snort with derision when they found out where I was going and actually there were a lot of “young people” (AKA younger than me) in the audience. They don’t have a specific tribe like some old farty bands do though. Aside from a few Stevie Nicks look-a-likes, the collective crowd look was hard to pin down.

They opened with “The Chain” which meant that everyone was up on their feet from the first song – particularly if you were in the middle – such an iconic song. Each song played from The Rumours album almost managed to recreate memories that had a tangible feel about them. Most of all though, it just meant I knew all the words and could sing along.Then they ran through their greatest hits, all of which I knew and loved and a couple of new songs that nobody cared about, but hey, that’s OK. What a combination of diverse, eccentric talent – all their voices are strong individually, but who would have thought that together they would make some of the most extraordinary harmonies ever created – the depths of the voices intertwining (OK I’m going to stop that line right there as I am incapable of discussing music at any level of depth..)

Christie McVie is welcomed back with open arms after 16 years of near hibernation – she is so unassuming, but brilliant nevertheless and she seems to provide the perfect balance to some of the other mad characters on stage. She is the antithesis of the mental Mick Fleetwood and provides the calm where he is the storm. When she sang “Songbird” on stage at the end by herself it brought tears to my eyes. Lindsay Buckingham made an early speech saying that they had “seen their share of ups and downs but that’s what makes us who we are” and talked about how thrilled he was “that with the return of Christie we begin a prolific and exciting new chapter”.

Mick Fleetwood appears to be properly mental. Was he always like that? Like Spike Milligan on speed. Stevie Nicks who I know and love from back in my record company days when I used to work with her looks like a 12 year old child. Who does her face? I need the number. She remains the etherial, hippie chic, mystical being she always was, changing her outer garment every ten minutes for something that looked almost exactly the same but with perhaps a few more layers of lace, tassels or feathers on.

There is no getting away from the fact that this band are now properly old and most remained a little rooted to the spot. Stevie wafts around (with some additional forward and back bends) Lindsay had some very hot moves and some impressive guitar solos and Mick went mad on the drums so all credit to them – I was full of admiration for the quality of their voices all things considered and I have total respect for the fact that at 70 they are all strutting their funky stuff on stage – I hope I can do the same at their age.

Just look how much fun they’re all having together:-

I would love to see a documentary on their lives together – is there one? If so why not?

Mick comes out to greet the audience at the end wearing his trade mark dangly balls and thanks us all – in a way that genuinely makes us feel like they mean it. Like they’re delighted to have another shot at making beautiful music together and performing it to us. He says “Thank you so much and please remember to be so very kind to each other in the crazy world”….

How right he is when by the next morning is the report of the terrorist who shot and killed nearly 40 tourists lying on the beach or by the pool in Tunisia.