Fleetwood Mac - Vancouver 2013

I first heard Fleetwood Mac in Jon Cowtan's car on our way to whitewater canoe Winnipeg River. He'd just bought the cassette. It must have been the late 60's,  early 70's.  I believe it was the first album.  Jon's a guitar player, in addition to being a computer geek and all around great guy. His taste in music though was impeccable and I remember asking him who was playing on the cassette.  "Fleetwood Mac," he said. And I've been listening to them ever since, even if a few days later Jon also convinced me to eat green steaks, which really well barbecued turned out to taste pretty good after all. We didn't have a cooler on the canoe trip.
I saw that Fleetwood Mac were coming to town and got a ticket. I didn't know it was going to be in the middle of the long weekend or I might not have.  My friend, Malcolm's funeral was today, so I stayed in town for that and got to see Stevie Nicks, Linsey Buckingham, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood in concert. It was awesome.

"Go your own way!" was a show stopper.  The whole of Rogers Arena packed full for the concert stood with a roar.  I loved Stevie Nicks, her voice, her movements.  Lindsey's guitar playing was spectacular.  Mick Fleetwood, drummer extraordinaire, wore red shoes.  McVie, the bassist, was the classic traditional guts of the band.
They didn't play it tonight but I learned that this British American band  wrote "Black Magic Woman", a blues number that made Santana famous and that I danced to at Ken Mathew's dance studio with Baiba.  What a small world!  And the best 'trivia' of wikipedia was that Fleetwoods wife was sister in law to George Harrison. The ins and outs of the music world.
Now I learn Stevie Nicks was in detox twice, first for cocaine at Betty Ford, and second for Klonopin (benzodiazepine - like long acting vallium)  prescribed to her by her psychiatrist.  What an inspiration for 'recovery' her life is!  She was once obese like Momma Cass but tonight was healthy and attractive.
She and Buckingham were a couple on and off. Indeed it the band wanted Lindsey as guitarist and he said that he and Stevie were a package. On stage tonight, she thanked the 'boys' for having her come along on their journey.   Lindsey sang a wistful song of what could have been.  Sparks still fly whenever Stevie and Lindsey stood near each other on stage. The four of the group are amazing but they've also got keyboards and another guitarist and back up singer. Dozens more have been with the band over the years.
Stevie Nicks said "it's been 35 years'.  She was thanking the audience for the relationship.  And they together have such a relationship even longer. She and Buckingham go back to College years.  Amazing.
There were both young and old there but lots of white hairs.  A couple of people were smoking up. It smelled more like crack than pot which given the cocaine past was probably fitting. I didn't like second hand smoke and the young woman beside me was waving her hand thoroughly annoyed.
It's a long time since I had a turn table and played my Fleetwood Mac vinyl so last night when I got home I went to Apple Itunes and with one finger press downloaded the best of Fleetwood Mac. I expect I'll get their latest too given how great the songs they'd just recorded were. I got Stevie Nicks solo album too. It's a combination of nostalgia and inspiration.  Love too.

Fleetwood Mac was of an era when we all believed in youth and eros and held onto so many "illusions" that Lindsey's song tonight rightly said we need to let go of to move on.  Though Stevie Nick's shadow song of the haunting lyrics 'you can't save me' was as dark as any I've heard the whole message of the band was hope and love, still love.  And fun, as the joy on Mick's face showed.  Stevie at times looked like a little girl, this extraordinary woman.  What a wonderful band and what a great 35 years!!1  Thank you Fleetwood Mac!