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Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac

Venue: Royal Hall
Town: Harrogate
Date: 2/12/14
Website: http://www.rumoursoffleetwoodmac.com

Any lover of modern popular music and aged over fifty is very likely to own a copy of the Rumours album by Fleetwood Mac in their record collection or loft. Released in 1977, it saw the return of the internationally renowned blues and rock band which both prior to that time and thereafter has built a reputation as one of the most self-destructive bands of all time. Rumours however introduced a totally new sound, more in line with modern day pop rather than the original blues roots.

The title of the album gave rise to this very fine tribute band, Rumours of Fleetwood Mac, formed in 1998. An eight piece band comprising six amazing musicians and two female singers taking the parts of Christine McVie and, of course, Stevie Nicks.

The show at the Royal Hall in Harrogate last night was the final evening of the band's 2014 tour and was introduced on film by none other than Mick Fleetwood himself. This seemed a perfect irony just a couple of days after the original band announced their appearance at the Isle of Wight festival in 2015. I wonder if they will travel together or even make it down the Isle.

The opening half contained many of the most popular tracks from Rumours and the later albums by Fleetwood Mac. The stand out song for me was the stunningly beautiful "Songbird" sung and played with just one voice with a piano and acoustic guitar backing. Christine McVie has always been the apparent shrinking violet of the band, at least on stage, and Amanda Kostadinov who takes her part carries on the somewhat demure vocals. She does however have slight intonation problems, going flat at times, but I would blame that on the effects of a very long tour. She also plays keyboard and accordion.

The first half flew by and the second set started with just the men on stage recreating the magical period of Peter Green's complete majesty in the 1960's. A fantastic version of "Black Magic Woman" really got the theatre rocking. Just as the band started playing "Albatross" there was a bang and all the power went from the stage. The Albatross has long been regarded by seamen as a sign of bad luck so this break in proceedings was quite apt and not a little bizarre. After a break of around fifteen minutes, the power came back and the band started again. The final piece of this short set was Peter Green's final farewell song to the band, "Man of the World." A superb piece of music for any taste!

The girls returned after this part of the show and Louise Rogan continued her remarkable and perfect impersonation of Steve Nicks' vocals including the sometimes almost incomprehensible lyrics so typical of Stevie. She really does represent the sound of the band. The whole set was superb with just one minor exception. "Landslide" which has to be one of Stevie Nicks' best songs was almost ruined by Louise who started off singing in the wrong key to the single guitar accompaniment. I would like to think that this was due to a problem with the monitors after the power breakdown. She did however recover after a few bars and then delivered a beautiful version of this song that means so much to so many people.

The whole of the second set had the audience rocking and the band finished with "Don't Stop" which bearing in mind the age of the audience in Harrogate was tantamount to cruelty of the aged.

Having never seen the original band live other than on TV and unlikely now to do so, despite having most of the albums, Rumours of Fleetwood Mac will do for me and they do so with supreme musical skill and showmanship. A great nostalgic night out!

Rory Stanbridge