FLEETWOOD MAC: Adjusting to life after Lindsey once again
Now that Fleetwood Mac have finally announced their new lineup and tour, the core members are speaking out about Lindsey Buckingham's latest departure from the band.
Stevie Nicks tells Rolling Stone, "We were supposed to go into rehearsal in June and he wanted to put it off until November [2019]. That’s a long time... We don’t want to stop playing music... [My] relationship [with Lindsey] has always been volatile. We were never married, but we might as well have been. Some couples get divorced after 40 years. They break their kids' hearts and destroy everyone around them because it’s just hard. This is sad for me, but I want the next 10 years of my life to be really fun and happy. I want to get up every day and dance around my apartment and smile and say, ‘Thank God for this amazing life.’”
Mick Fleetwood, who's had to deal with Lindsey leaving before, as well as the departures of Stevie and Christine McVie, says, "There’s no doubt that my instincts, for better or worse, have always been to gravitate towards going forward. Having said that, I’d be lying if I didn’t literally say to myself, ‘This one needs a lot of thought.’”
So, going forward it's Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Neil Finn from Crowded House filling the void left by Buckingham. And Stevie says this allows them to delve deeper into their catalog. "We were never able to do that since 1975 because certain people in the band weren’t interested in doing that. Now we’re able to open the set with a lot: a raucous version of [1969’s] ‘Rattlesnake Shake’ or something. I’d also like to do [1970’s] ‘Station Man,’ which has always been one of my favorites. We’re definitely doing [1970’s] ‘Oh Well.’”
The tour starts October 3rd in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
MORE BIG 95 MUSIC NEWS: Thursday, April 26th
THE DOOBIE BROTHERS: Previewing their tour with Steely Dan
The Doobie Brothers' summer tour with Steely Dan extends a partnership that was revived last year.
Doobies frontman Tom Johnston says though the bands often worked together during the '70s, they later drifted apart.
"Hadn't played with them for, I won't tell you how many years, but a long time ago, I played with them. And then we did the two Classics... L.A. and New York. It was us and them and the Eagles. A couple of shows in Dublin and a show in London with them. Reconnected on all those recent dates, that's all in the last year. Unfortunately, Walter has passed... But, I... they sound great."
This will be a traditional tour partnership -- the Doobies will do the first hour; Steely Dan takes over after intermission. Don't expect the bands to work together or share songs.
The Doobie Brothers' Tom Johnston on structuring their shows with Steely Dan:
"Generally, the gigs we've done with them, we do our set and they do their set. Which is how generally the way we do most tours: cause if you're the first act on board, you go out, do your set and then the other band does theirs. With Chicago, we used to do six songs together -- three of theirs and three of ours with everybody in both bands playing at the same time. It was a neat thing."
Since they've toured steadily this decade, Tom says it's important to tweak their set list every year. The band's greatest songs are always part of the shows, but others, such as "The Doctor," were reinstated a few years ago. For 2018, there are other changes.
The Doobie Brothers' Tom Johnston on tweaking the band's set list:
"And we put in a couple of songs that might surprise people. We played 'Disciple,' which is something we hadn't played probably since 1972. And the people actually loved it. I was blown away, I didn't know what to expect. And we also played 'Natural Thing,' which is the first... I don't know if it's the first track or not, but it's on... Captain and Me."
The Doobie Brothers - Steely Dan tour rolls into Toyota Music Factory in Irving on May 25th.
QUEEN: Queen of the shower too
Queen has scored big in a poll by Sanctuary Bathrooms, a Leeds, England-based bathroom retailer, to find out which artist's songs are you most likely to sing in the shower.
More than 125 artists were nominated across a range of genres with Ed Sheeran topping the list and Queen coming in a close second.
The top 10 most popular artists were:
- Ed Sheeran (35% of respondents)
- Queen (31%)
- Adele (26%)
- ABBA (20%)
- Bon Jovi (20%)
- Bruno Mars (18%)
- Michael Jackson (18%)
- Little Mix (18%)
- Taylor Swift (17%)
- Oasis (17%)
The survey also found that men are more likely to sing Queen (39 percent), Oasis (31 percent) or David Bowie(31 percent) than Ed Sheeran who was the top choice in all age groups except the over-40s, who went with Queen
Commenting on the survey, James Roberts, Director of Sanctuary Bathrooms, says, “The results of this survey show that, for most of us, showering isn’t just practical: it’s a space to relax, revitalize, and even get a bit creative."
THE ROLLING STONES: New box set coming in June
While we wait for a new studio album from The Rolling Stones, they've taken all their studio discs recorded between 1971 and 2016 and boxed them into The Studio Albums Vinyl Collection 1971-2016.
Set for release on June 15th, each disc of this 20-disc collection has been sourced from the original master tapes and pressed on 180-gram black vinyl. And each sleeve has been faithfully reproduced.
So, to help jar your memory, the 15 albums are:
- Sticky Fingers (1971)
- Exile on Main Street (1972) (2LP)
- Goats Head Soup (1973)
- It’s Only Rock ’n’ Roll (1974)
- Black and Blue (1976)
- Some Girls (1978)
- Emotional Rescue (1980)
- Tattoo You (1981)
- Undercover (1983)
- Dirty Work (1986)
- Steel Wheels (1989)
- Voodoo Lounge (1994) (2LP)
- Bridges to Babylon (1997) (2LP)
- A Bigger Bang (2005) (2LP)
- Blue and Lonesome (2016) (2LP)