After months of on-off speculation, West Coast pop/rock legends Fleetwood Mac confirmed last July that 2013 would see the band getting back together for another reunion tour with ‘everyone on board.‘
Stevie Nicks first confirmed that the band, who have a particular habit – more than most – of breaking up and reuniting on a regular basis, would be heading back on a globe-trotting reunion tour after she and bandmate, guitarist Lindsay Buckingham, had completed their respective solo tours.
“It’s the plan,” said Nicks at the time, “because that’s what we do. I do my thing (supporting her 2011 solo album, In Your Dreams). And Lindsey is out doing his thing,” namely an intimate solo tour across Canada and the United States playing selections from his recent album Seeds We Sow.
With those tours now long done and dusted, the wheels for a full-scale Fleetwood Mac trek are in motion, and in an interview with Rolling Stone, Nicks has now offered further details of the proposed world tour, with some particularly exciting news for Australian fans.
The extended reunion schedule will kick off in Columbus, Ohio on April 4th and continue around America through till June, but Nicks points out: “If everything goes well we’ll be in Europe doing festivals this summer. Then we’ll actually tour Europe, which is different than just doing festivals. Then we might do fifteen or so shows in Australia.”
A return to Australia would mark the band’s first visit down under in nearly half a decade, featuring the same classic four-piece lineup as their 2009 Unleashed Tour in Nicks, Buckingham, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie (with his wife and fifth member Christine McVie retiring from band duties in 1998). “If everything goes well we’ll be in Europe… then we might do fifteen or so shows in Australia.” – Stevie Nicks
“It’s the perfect time to go back out,”added Nicks. “2013 is going to be the year of Fleetwood Mac.”
As was the case with their last reunion dates, the quartet are hitting the road without a new album to support, meaning the setlist will be centred around the band’s extensive and significant catalogue of hits. “We always have to play ‘Dreams,’ ‘Rhiannon,’ ‘Don’t Stop,’ ‘Tusk,’ ‘Big Love,’ ‘Landslide’ and all our most famous songs,” Lindsey Buckingham tells Rolling Stone.
“When you’ve gone through all your must-do’s, that’s 75% of your potential setlist. I think with the other 25%, there are areas of our catalog that are more under-explored,” continued the guitarist, remarking about what concert-goers can expect from the 2013 tour.
“Maybe we’ll play more songs from Tusk. I’d also like to see an extended middle portion of the show that’s just me and Stevie. This is just me talking from the top of my head. For now, I have no particular vision of what this tour is going to be,” says Buckingham.
Even without a new album to plug, Nicks confirms that the band have two brand new songs “that I cut with Lindsey two weeks ago we might play… I had a really good time working with him for four days at his house,” details Nicks.
“I got to hang out with his family and his kids, his grown up kids, and really connect with him again. We’re pretty proud of what we have done, and we’re looking at it through the eyes of wisdom now, instead of through the eyes of jealousy and resentment and anger,” remarked Nicks.
The news of “fifteen or so” dates in Australia is encouraging news considering comments made by Fleetwood earlier in the year, concerned that the moment for the band had passed. “I don’t believe Fleetwood Mac will ever tour again, but I really hope we do,” he told Playboy in March, noting that it was Nicks’ extensive solo tour that was holding them back.
Luckily, Nicks didn’t go her own way for too long, leaving the schedule open for Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 world tour – and though there are no further dates or details at this stage, Tone Deaf will be sure to announce the news as it emerges.
