Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
June 24, 1990
Lindsey Buckingham did not equal Fleetwood Mac. The gifted guitarist-vocalist-songwriter left the group three years ago to pursue solo projects, but to many people, his ghost lingers.
“It’s quite true that Lindsey was quite architectural in the arranging of some of our songs,” said vocalist-keyboardist Christine McVie. “But by the same token, the rest of us weren’t sitting there twiddling our thumbs and staring at the ceiling. Very often, Lindsey would ask me what I thought should be done, just as I’d ask him.
“I’m not knocking him, because I’ve got the greatest regard for him. But the press somehow did kind of overdo his importance to a point. I think the rest of the band is just as gifted as Lindsey ever was, but in different ways.”
Fleetwood Mac will perform Wednesday at the World Music Theatre in Tinley Park. They will sing songs from their current album, “Behind the Mask,” as well as oldies from “Rumours,” “Tusk” and “Mirage.”
Considering the importance many critics placed on Buckingham, it is not surprising that when he left the group three years ago, rumors flew that the band would break up. Buckingham, McVie and vocalist Stevie Nicks, the three most visible group members, already had recorded solo projects and were interested in doing more.
“Leaving the band certainly was true in Lindsey’s case, but the rest of the group had no plans to stop,” McVie said in a phone call from Kansas City, Mo. “We weren’t about to roll over and die. We had been around too long to give up.”
In 1987, Fleetwood Mac was enjoying success with “Tango in the Night,” which sold 2 million copies and took five years to complete. “Behind the Mask” took a relatively short three years to finish. The fact that the group often takes so long to make albums triggers rumors about its demise.
“Having been around so long, we’re used to hearing every week that we’re no longer around,” McVie said with a laugh. “But you know, it always takes us a long time to come out with new material because we’re always on the road. We’ve already been touring for more than a year. We won’t even get into the studio until next summer, so there won’t be anything new until at least 1992.”
After Buckingham left in ’87, the group recruited rhythm guitarist Billy Burnette and lead guitarist Rick Vito. Some critics joked that it took two musicians to replace Buckingham, but McVie said having two guitarists made sense.
“I know that had Lindsey decided to stay in the band, he had planned on getting a rhythm guitarist as well,” she said. “It’s very hard with just one guitarist for our sound because in the studio we play two of the guitar parts on many of the overdubs. We wanted to more accurately play the songs on tour.”
Burnette and Vito had a smooth transition into the group because they toured with Mac for a year before the group even started work on “Behind the Mask.” By then, everyone was comfortable with one another, McVie said.
Fleetwood Mac got its start in 1967, when drummer Mick Fleetwood formed the group with bassist John McVie, Christine’s ex-husband. She joined the band a few years later. The English group went through a
series of personnel changes before Americans Buckingham and Nicks joined in 1975. Together they recorded their first No. 1 album, “Fleetwood Mac.”
In 1977, they recorded “Rumours,” an album that sold 20 million copies worldwide and stayed at No. 1 on the album charts for 31 weeks. For the last half of the ’70s, Fleetwood Mac was among an elite corps of bands that could sell out shows in outdoor arenas and release records that were guaranteed chart-toppers. But by the time the band released “Mirage” in 1982, Fleetwood Mac sounded worn, a fact that all the members have acknowledged over the years in separate interviews. Nonetheless, “Mirage” still managed to sell 3 million copies.
Mac’s latest album is more back to basics than “Mirage,” with McVie penning some of the album’s most memorable songs, including “Skies the Limit,” a romantic number she penned with her husband of four years, Eddy Quintela.
