The Daily Tar Heel from Chapel Hill, North Carolina • Page 4

4 The Daily Tar Hee! Thursday, November 20, 1975 'Of course wed like to be really popular, but I guess I can understand the reason (we aren't). As a band, we don't do one thing in Mick Fleetwood '1 I I i 1 I 1 1 i 1 If I if 1 by George Qacso Assistant Managing Editor a period of nine years, Fleetwood ac has established itself as one of the most accomplished and esteemed British band in the United States. Although it has yet to receive the media attention and public acceptance it deserves, its records contain quality material and have sold in large numbers. And as evidenced Tuesday night in Carmichael Auditorium, its concerts are both well performed and well attended. Fleetwood Mac came in 1967 through a common dedication to blues.

The band then consisted of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie (from whom the group took their name) on drums and bass, and guitarist-vocalists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. 0er the years, Fleetwood Mac has had numerous changes in personnel, followed by corresponding changes in musical direction. After three albums. Green and Spencer left the group within a year of each other because of new-found religious convictions. Instead of collapsing, Fleetwood and McVie recruited McVie's wife.

Christine (formerly here: DTH: Over the ears, Fleetwood Mac has experienced many personnel changes. Why is this and how has it affected both the band and you personally? Fleetw ood: The changes have been caused because of a lot of personal and musical reasons. Some have had been good for the band, some have been good for me personally and some haven't been good for anvone. DTH: What were these good and bad changes? Fleetwood: The most extreme and positive thing that's happened to the band is what's happening now, and the incredible thing is that it was completely unplanned. Bob Welch wanted to leave the band.

There were no bad feelings; he just wanted to do what he's doing now. It's his own type of music which he couldn't really do within Fleetwood Mac, and we couldn't stop working as a band to make time for Bob to do an afbum. So then we just unwittingly met Stevie and Lindsey, and it's turned out to be very good for everyone. The bad things were seeing Jeremy and Peter go to waste as musicians, but their personal lives demanded that they stop what they were doing and that was that. DTH: How has the group managed to consistently put out such good material with all these transitions? Fleetwood: guess it's just a matter of taste, really.

DTH: Do you mean discriminating taste hat ou'll put on an album, how ou will arrange it and basically, just what sounds good to ou? Fleetwood: That's it as far as I'm concerned. I don't personally credit myself with a lot of musical or technical know-how, but I do consider myself a good judge in my field of taste. That's really what it all amounts to. Fleetwood Mac has ridden a wave with some minor ups and downs, but the general trend has always been upward. For nine years, we've been moving slowly upward, and it certainly seems at the moment to be something really worthwhile.

There are a lot more people enjoying the band now. DTH: Does it bother ou that you've been putting out good albums, and yet you haven't received mass acceptance or wide critical acclaim? Why do ou think this has been the case? Fleetwood: Of course we'd like to really be The group's concert Tuesday was one of the best given in Carmichael in years. With a large crowd helping not only to provide enthusiasm but to absorb sound and provide for better acoustics. Fleetwood Mac played a sparkling set consisting of both old and new material. Material from their new album was represented by "Rhiannon." "Over My Head" and Landslide." Rhiannon." one of the best songs on the LP, featured Nix's vocals, some funky bass work from McVie and a nice guitar solo from Buckingham.

"Over My Head" was highlighted by the harmonies of Nix and Christine and found Buckingham in fine form on Fender guitar, while "Landslide" was presented simply, with Buckingham's acoustic guitar abetting Nix's soft vocals. Earlier tunes were given a new twist by the band. Nix was excellent in singing the soulful and sensuous vocals of "Spare Me a Little of Your Love." a tune from Bare Trees written by Christine. Unfortunately, none of the excellent material from Heroes are Hard to Find was offered. The new members of the band more than proved their worth.

Buckingham held the lead vocal spotlight several times and adds a harder rock sound to the band with his fretwork. Nix plays off of Christine well and also provides visual entertainment, dancing and responding to the audience's cries of appreciation. Fleetwood and McVie are still the heartbeat of the group, however, and Fleetwood responded to the spotlight by proving a drum solo does not have to be fast to be good. His experimentation with phasing while playing conga also proved to be one of the concert's many highlights. Afterwards, the DTH talked with the members of Fleetwood Mac.

Because the tall and extremely thin Mick Fleetwood helped found the group and is perhaps the leader in a band of equals, his remarks are presented Don't Miss the nice display of Hand-Colored, Century-old Children's Prints $3.00 each THE OLD BOOK CORNER 137 A East Rosemary Street Opposite Town Parking Lots Chanel Hill. N.C. 27514 Fleetwood Mac. pounds out the drumbeat JYVTi afntfmw vrv WW Real New-York Style Delicatessen Food and Service! Now open know as Christine Perfect in the blues band Chicken Shack) to play keyboards and sing. Bob Welch joined the group on guitar, and Fleetwood Mac had established a new identity.

Fleetwood Mac retained its blues roots but delved further and further into rock, adding layers of harmonies and striking melody lines. in early 1974, the band's former manager put an ersatz Fleetwood Mac group on the road and was promptly smothered with lawsuits-filed by irate promoters and the real Fleetwood Mac. After months of legal complications, Fleetwood and company won a court suit against their former manager. Anxious to repair the damages done by the bogus band, Fleetwood Mac recorded Heroes are Hard to Find in Los Angeles last year. The album contains some of the best material the band has recorded.

Welch, however, decided to leave the band at the beginning of this year to pursue a solo career. Lindsey Buckingham (guitars, vocals) and Stevie Nicks (vocals) were brought in as replacements. Previously a recording duo. the two brought new influences and direction to the band. The latest version of Fleetwood Mac's first album has just been released, entitled simply Fleetwood Mac.

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7 a.m: 1 Tl a imiu ciootvAnnH fnnnripr nf A OWCai.ll iy lnvrv 1 iviw.wv., which provides the framework for the played Tuesday in Carmichael Auaiionum popular, but I guess I can understand the reason (we aren't). As a band, we don do one thing in particular. We're not a country band; we're not a harmony band and so on, as you evidently know. Fleetwood Mac has been a general musical band since Tften Play On (released in 1 969). Prior to that, the group was a blues band, a very good blues band, but that as it.

DTH: The group then moved from blues to rock to a lighter, mellower rock. Fleetwood: Yes, but as far as I'm concerned, it still feels very much like Fleetwood Mac. I guess that's mainly because John and 1 have been working together through it all from the beginning. And everyone who joins the band really becomes part of Fleetwood Mac, 1 hope. DTH: The band has also experienced a change in climate.

Two years ago you moved from England to Los Angeles, and you've since concentrated more on the U.S. Why did you make this change? Fleetwood: We spent a period of about eight months of intense legal problems with our former manager, and we weren't working. It just got to the point where we wanted to get out of England. 1 personally wanted to make the move about a year prior to the time we ran into all that trouble with our old manager. It also became a situation where we wanted to work on our next album, Heroes are Hard to Find, in America.

We loved it here, and so we decided to stay. DTH: Was Heroes are Hard to Find a reaction in part to the problems you had with the bogus group? Fleetwood: Yes, some of it was. Where were you in '62? 9 a Wednesday Country Boogie 9:00 an rated, Franmin Street $. 1 I phone 941-3061 1 3 5 I JGJ I .1 I VowntownSj FRANKLIN FI nrmtn group's many styles of music. The group Was there an actual effort to save our tarnished name? Fleetwood: Yes, definitely.

It became a necessity because a lot of promoters booking Fleetwood Mac had been ripped off. We did a long tour, and the obvious thing happened: promoters would tell us that this time around we would have to accept less money. It was a real drag. DTH: Were the enormous taxes that groups have to pay in England a consideration in jour move to the United States? Fleetwood: No, but the situation here is certainly a side benefit, although we don't have much money anyway. DTH: Is your musical stature or popularity any different in England? Fleetwood: No, there's no difference.

But then we really didn't work in England. We only did about 1 2 gigs a year in England and spent the rest of the time going back and forth to America. That got to be very expensive and tiring. DTH: So would you consider the current group a British band or an American band? Fleetwood: Half and half. DTH: When new members were asked to join you and John in the group, j'ou were faced with the problem of getting people who could write for you, at least until Christine joined.

Do you have your writers write for the group as a whole, or do you just take songs that they've written for themselves and adapt them to the group? Fleetwood: On our next album it's more a case of writing for the band as a whole. Things were different on Fleetwood Mac because Stevie and Lindsey had only been with us for 10 days when we recorded the album. That's why we're really pleased with the way it turned out. Now we've been touring for seven months without stopping and have gotten used to each other. The next album will be radically different, not necessarily -in content, but in terms of the rapport between us and our knowing what we can all do together.

It will be a lot more involved. DTH: When will the new album be released? Fleetwood: Probablv sometime in June or July. DTH: Do ou think the personnel changes have finally stopped and the group has settled down? Fleetwood: I hope so. but there is no telling. I'd nevery say anything was definite after nine years of group changes.

Actually, however, we haven't had that many changes in personnel. It's just that a lot of the changes have been very visible, at least to people ho have followed-Fleetwood Mac closely since we came to America. They are aware oi the definite changes in what was going dou and a lot of them were pretty weird. What can you say? That's just part of being a band. We're still here.

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