Interview from Time Out, December 2008, also featuring a gallery of backstage pictures.

By Tim Arthur.

As the ever-mightier Boosh, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt have inspired a cult following so tenacious even they find it freaky. Time Out hits Brixton for psychedelic comedy, fun with fans and a cheeky Nando’s with The Mighty Boosh

www.timeout.com/london/comedy/features/171/1.html

Sí, no lo había publicado. Me gustó mucho el concierto de R.E.M. Estos días traté de encontrar una fotografía que le tomé a Stipe en el 98 en el Hotel Delano de Miami. Acababan de lanzar New Adventures in Hi Fi y pude entrevistarlos. En la gráfica puede verse a Stipe de espaldas en un balcón mirando el mar con el torso desnudo. Sólo está conectado a la realidad con el cable del teléfono.

Creo que es una de los mejores momentos que me ha tocado capturar. “Perdonen estaba hablando con Courtney Love y no podía colgar” es lo que nos dijo Stipe a todos los que estabamos en su suite esperándolo para iniciar la entrevista.

La foto prometo publicarla en cuanto la encuentre. Mientras tanto recupero un video que subieron en su sitio Web con las seis canciones del encore. La producción de video que traen es increíble, tres cámaras de alta definición capturan el concierto y le dan un tratamiento gráfico que no veía desde la gira anterior de Depeche Mode. 

Me encantó el look blanco y negro hipercontrastado que remite a la estética que tenía Hollywood en los 50. Stipe es fotógrafo aficionado y siempre cuida mucho estos detalles.

Sin más el video de uno de mis conciertos favoritos de este 08 que se acaba ya desde noviembre.

PS.

Mahu, felicidades parecía tu fiesta de cumpleaños con REM!.

Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham mixes the old and new
Timesonline.co.uk

Lindsey Buckingham tells our correspondent how he found happiness after the madness of Fleetwood Mac

Miles beyond Sunset Strip, beyond the Hollywood sign and Laurel Canyon, a familiar sound is coming from a rehearsal stage.

The opening couplet of Go Your Own Way wafts across the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, California: “Loving you/ Isn’t the right thing to do . . .” The Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham is in final rehearsals for a six-week solo tour. A tour de force of Californian angst, the song first appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album – whose smooth curves masked a partner-swapping, drug-snorting epic of dysfunction. Those songs still resonate today – in recent months both Vampire Weekend and Fleet Foxes have covered Mac songs.

“Our first show is in two days, but I don’t feel like we’re quite ready,” he says, but that’s just the perfectionist in him speaking. In truth the show is an exhilarating mix of the old and new, reworked Mac classics combined with lost solo singles and tracks from his new album Gift of Screws. It’s a career-spanning set at a time when Buckingham is, he declares, “the happiest I’ve ever been”.

Buckingham today is a far cry from the hirsute, heartbroken pin-up of 1970s Fleetwood Mac, or even the lone, studio-bound experimental egg-head of the 1980s. He is married to the photographer and LA society belle Kristen Messner (with whom he has three children) and domestic contentment has reinvigorated his erratic solo career. Fourteen years had elapsed between Out of the Cradle (1992) and Under the Skin, and now Gift of Screws appears. His fifth solo album is as dense and engrossing as you would expect.

The best bits are classic Buckingham – mixing arch LA pop with avant-garde touches. The results are even more impressive live. Good Day channels Radiohead’s Idioteque with bluesy licks direct from The Chain, while Love Runs Deeper bops about joyfully, like a reconstructed new wave hit from 1982. His state of mind is reflected in the banter with band-mates. The vibe among the group, he says with a grin, is “camaraderie central”.

We go to chat in his office, which is feng shui-tidy – three identical white shirts are lined up next to three identical black leather jackets. A vintage Beach Boys poster hangs behind his see-through wardrobe. Through the door the bassline of FloRida’s Elevator can be heard.

“Is thatus?” he asks, half-joking, as the track blasts from the adjacent sound stage where the high-octane reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance? is being shot.

He is impressively well preserved for a 58-year-old rock survivor. The “blue-grey” eyes that his former paramour Stevie Nicks longingly sang about in Blue Denim radiate a fresh Californian glow. In conversation he’s forthright and relaxed. Interviews in the past have reflected the self-help books that saw him through the turmoil of Fleetwood Mac. But there is no trace of that now.

A Californian boy through and through, Buckingham was born in Palo Alto. There were early ambitions to be a professional swimmer (his brother Greg won a silver medal in the 1968 Olympics) but he was galvanised by music after hearing his brother Jeff’s copy of Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel.

“I was eight when I first started playing guitar,” he recalls, “because Jeff would bring home all these records. Not much later I got into acoustic, finger pickings, but I couldn’t read music.”

After meeting Stevie Nicks at high school (“I was playing California Dreamin’ and she came along and harmonised”), the two formed a duo, first with the band Fritz (“We opened for Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin”) and then on their own as Buckingham Nicks.

A chance encounter with Mick Fleetwood followed and he asked them to join his faltering British blues band, with Buckingham as lead guitarist. His predecessors had either fallen into drug-induced schizophrenia (Peter Green), left to join cults (Jeremy Spencer) or became violent alcoholics (Danny Kirwan). Was he worried about being afflicted with the “Curse of the Fleetwood Mac Guitarist”?

“I knew about it, it was almost a joke,” he laughs. “I loved Peter’s work but when I met him . . . Well, let’s just say that he was less nice than he could have been. As for me? I’m still here – I didn’t join a cult and I didn’t go crazy. At least I think I didn’t . . .” His solo work has always been an escape from the debauched, multi-platinum madness that Fleetwood Mac involved. He cites Tusk, the eccentric follow-up to Rumours in 1979, as the “lightning bolt” moment.

“I consider it to be my first solo album – I recorded things at my home and brought them in to the band,” including, he says, percussion parts banged out on Kleenex boxes.

“With that album I was trying to accomplish stuff to the left of what Fleetwood Mac had become.”

Today, there is no tension between his solo work and working with Fleetwood Mac. “Being a father and a husband I realised that there are more important things than music. Solo work is a boutique effort for me; it’s a labour of love. I long ago gave up the idea that it would be appreciated on a commercial level. Fleetwood Mac is the golden carrot and my solo work is kind of indulged by the record company.”

And, he says, unlike Nicks, the needs of Fleetwood Mac always came before his solo records. “Stevie was always able to pull back from the Fleetwood Mac machine and say ‘OK, now I’m doing my solo stuff.’ But I wasn’t in a position to do that, nor would I have felt comfortable to do that and call myself a band member – possibly because of my role as an arranger in the band.”

Indeed, Buckingham was twice poised to do albums that became Fleetwood Mac projects instead. “It happened with Tango in the Night [1987] and in 2000 with Say You Will. But this time I put my foot down and said I wanted three years when I’ll make a solo album, tour, then make another solo album.”

So after this six-week solo tour, he is due to reunite with his main band for a tour in 2009 and then possibly an album. “In Fleetwood Mac nothing is certain until you actually see it,” he notes wryly. “But it’s up to us to not shoot ourselves in the foot.” The band is still very much a “work in progress”, by which he means both emotionally and musically.

“Happily they are still part of the fabric of my life,” he says. “I’ve known Stevie since I was 17, which is something to cherish – and why it’s still worth working on getting rid of all the bulls*** between us. Because there still is after all this time, would you believe.”

Bel Air Rain, a song from Gift of Screws, looks back at the decadence of Fleetwood Mac and contrasts it with the relatively calm life he is living now. “I lived in Bel Air for a number of years as a bachelor with some crazy girlfriends. I also built a house there when I started my family. Fame is really funny, it gives you lots of freedom but then at the same time it takes away a lot of yourself.”

After all the madness, it’s good to see that he has managed to retain what made him so special in the first place.

Gift of Screws is released by Warners on Monday 15 September 2008

First show of the tour…. September 7th – Saratoga, CA – Mountain Winery.

Unconfirmed running order of the setlist courtesy of Fleetwoodmac.net:

Great day
Love Runs Deeper
Trouble
Go Insane (full band)
Tusk
I know im not wrong
Gift of screws
Never Going Back Again
Big Love
Shut us Down
Under The Skin
Come
World Turning
Did You Miss Me
So Afraid
Gyow
Second Hand News
Dont Look Down
Treason
Time Precious Time

By Don Sanchez
BURBANK, CA (KGO)
ABC7News.com (click link for video interview)

Hall of Fame musician Lindsey Buckingham is celebrating the release of his new CD, Gift of Screws next week by launching a national tour that kicks off at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga Sunday night.

For Buckingham, it’s coming back home.
ABC7’s entertainment reporter Don Sanchez sat down with Buckingham at the Warner Brothers studios in Burbank.

The two talked about how before he had his first guitar, he taught himself to play on a toy Mickey Mouse ukelele, life at Menlo-Atherton High School, where he and classmate Stevie Nicks formed a band that opened for Santana, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin and balancing a solo career with being a member of the legendary group Fleetwood Mac.

Buckingham will play a second Bay Area show Sept. 13 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.

Fleetwood Mac is expected to release a new album and go on tour next year.

Meeting Lindsey Buckingham
by Don Sanchez

We did the interview at 10 in the morning at Warner Brothers records in Burbank. “Why so early,” I asked; I thought musicians stayed up all night. Buckingham says that is the old days. He’s a father of three kids, the oldest is 10 — a bit late in life, he admits (he is now 58) — and he has to get up and take them to school. Imagine a rock star as a soccer dad. His wife was with him; she is a photographer and contributed two lyrics to the new album, “Gift of Screws.”

His 10-year-old son also contributed the title for the first cut on the album, “Good day.”

“Gift of Screws,” inspired by an Emily Dickinson poem, hits stores on Tuesday. He says the lines indicate you can’t expect fortune to fall your way, you have to be proactive.

Three years ago Buckingham put out a solo album and went on tour for the first time in 14 years. Now with this album, he is doing the same. The tour kicks off at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga Sunday night and then returns to San Francisco on Saturday the 13th at the Palace of Fine Arts.

Buckingham was born in Palo Alto and grew up in Atherton. He got his first instrument, a plastic Mickey Mouse ukulele when he was just a kid. He taught himself to play it and the folks said he was good enough for a guitar and they bought him one. The rest is history. He doesn’t have those guitars anymore. He is not a collector.

Since 1979 his stage guitars have been made by Rick Turner in Santa Cruz.

While attending Menlo-Atherton High School, Lindsey hooked up with classmate Stevie Nicks. They formed a band and played a lot of dates around San Jose and the Peninsula. He headed off to San Jose State, but after they put out an album called “Buckingham Nicks,” he quit school to try his luck in L.A. That album, by the way, has never been released on CD. He thinks the masters are in a closet in Stevie Nicks’ manager’s office. And he believes that someday the album will be released on CD.

In L.A. Nicks and Buckingham hooked up with Fleetwood Mac, the rest is history. “Rumors” is one of the biggest selling albums of all time.

Along with the trappings of fame, came problems too, but Fleetwood Mac will regroup next year, do a new album and go on tour. The obligation to the group has somewhat restricted the time Lindsey has been allowed to devote to his solo career.

With Christine McVie retired from the group, they were looking for another woman to pair with Stevie Nicks. One of the names floated was Sheryl Crowe, who promptly put out a news release that she was joining the group. Not so, says Lindsey, and the idea went downhill from there.

Buckingham says he misses the Bay Area. But he still has some nieces in San Jose and a sister-in-law in San Carlos.

Marriage has certainly changed his life, he says. It keeps him going, changes your perspective about what is important.

Quiet, nice and quite down to earth for a guy that is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

By Garrett Wheeler
Metroactive.com

SOMETIMES, presenting a small detail during the course of an interview can have a profound effect on the overall direction of the dialogue. So, after five minutes of phone conversation, I let Lindsey Buckingham know that I’m 23 years old. My goal is to put things in context; after all, this a man best known for engineering some of Fleetwood Mac’s greatest hits, and in doing so, helping to write the soundtrack that so famously defines the generation belonging not to me but to my parents.

Buckingham, a Palo Alto native (yes, Stevie Nicks is, too) with a wife and three children, seems to understand my perspective, an outlook either obscured or clarified by youth, depending on which side of the age-barrier you decide to poll. In fact, his response to my declaration is amazingly void of any age-grown bias, especially considering the artistic accomplishments achieved by his flower-powered peers.

“A lot of young listeners are able to appreciate substance that is well crafted,” says Buckingham, “and even though it might be a bit more difficult to find music that meets that criteria in today’s climate, the boundaries that used to exist have faded. When I was growing up, there was rock music, and there was our parents’ music, and they were rarely the same. That distinction has muddied.”

The muddied waters of popular music is a metaphor that may help explain why Buckingham, 34 years after originally joining Mick Fleetwood’s band, has finally reconnected with the youth.

His fifth solo album, the recently released Gift of Screws, is evidence of Buckingham’s temporal and artistic meld, with influences ranging from the pop-oriented rock of his Buckingham-Nicks days to the contemporary eccentricity found in today’s post-psychedelic genres. Asked what modern rock bands he’s fond of, Buckingham says he likes “some of the indie stuff,” along with brooding alt-rock bands like Radiohead and Death Cab for Cutie. “I also really like Elliot Smith,” says Buckingham. “He’s like a John Lennon on downers.”

Listening to Gift of Screws, it’s easy to draw parallels between Smith’s sparse melancholy and some of Buckingham’s despondent ballads. It’s also easy to find similarities between the trademark pop-sensibility of Fleetwood Mac and Buckingham’s latest endeavor. Mick Fleetwood and John McVie lend their drum and bass parts to several songs on the LP, a collaboration Buckingham describes as “great synergy.” But even with the help of a few old friends, Gift of Screws is no ticket to ride on the Fleetwood Mac train of the past.

“[Gift of Screws] kind of took on a life of its own,” explains Buckingham. “After I did Under the Skin—a mostly acoustic album with no drums, bass or lead guitars—in 2006, the effectiveness of that sound made me think I should take it a notch further. I brought in my road band, which naturally took the album in a more rock & roll direction, and from there, well, it’s whatever I ended up with.”

Sprawling, edgy and cool, Gift of Screws possesses not only a new melodic interface for Buckingham’s songwriting, it also gives him a chance to reflect on his current life occupation: family. “It’s like a phase two for me,” Buckingham says. “I’ve got family members participating in songwriting, or giving me ideas. It kind of refutes the idea that children are the death of an artist. It’s a new path for me, and it’s the best creative time I’ve ever had.”

Between the affinity Buckingham possesses for the modern rock perspective and the nurture he’s gained from his own familial lifestyle, it’s safe to assume the one-time Fleetwood Mac guitarist will never lose his youth-appeal. And for at least one 23 year old, that’s more than enough reason to head to the record shop.

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM performs on Sunday (Sept. 7) at 5:30pm at Mountain Winery, 14831 Pierce Road, Saratoga. Tickets are $46–$61.50. (408.998.TIXS)

By Alan Sculley
For Kitsap A&E
Friday, August 29, 2008

There’s one place Lindsey Buckingham wishes he could have snuck into after finishing the controversial 1979 Fleetwood Mac album, “Tusk.”

“I make the joke that I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in the board meeting when they first put ‘Tusk’ on and started listening to that thing over at Warner Brothers,” Buckingham said in a recent phone interview.

The reasons for Buckingham’s curiosity are obvious enough. “Tusk” was the follow-up album to Fleetwood Mac’s blockbuster 1977 album “Rumours.” Rather than filling “Tusk” with the kind of finely crafted and accessible pop of “Rumours,” Buckingham steered Fleetwood Mac in a quirkier, more adventurous direction. What’s more, “Tusk” was a double album that would have to carry a higher-than-usual retail price.

Buckingham can only imagine the uneasy atmosphere that must have filled the room as the Warner Bros. executives realized their expectations for eight-digit sales of the next Fleetwood Mac album had gone up in smoke.

The topic of “Tusk” is appropriate now because Buckingham recently once again has shown his willingness to not play things safe with his music. In 2006, he released a stripped back, primarily acoustic CD, “Under The Skin,” that prompted words of caution from the Warner Bros. camp.

“It’s almost kind of a ‘Tusk’ in miniature,” Buckingham said.

At the time, Buckingham also had begun work on a plugged-in, more commercially viable studio album, which came to be the newly released CD “Gift Of Screws.” Buckingham said the label asked him to consider putting a few of the full-band songs planned for “Gift Of Screws” on “Under The Skin” to make the album more palatable to radio, retailers and fans.

Buckingham, though, stuck to his vision of keeping “Under The Skin” in its acoustic-centric form, and Warner Bros. didn’t push the issue, although the label indicated it wouldn’t put a big push behind “Under The Skin.”

The reaction to “Gift Of Screws” at Warner Bros. Records has been markedly different. And Buckingham said the CD he gave the label might be more musically accessible than even he expected.

“I was actually surprised because on the one hand I didn’t really expect to make this as rock and roll as it turned out,” Buckingham said. “But once I got my road band down and we started cutting some tracks in my studio downstairs, it just wanted to go that way.

“I’m fairly used to a conservative response, shall we say, from the record company as regards to my work,” he said. “But they’re pretty excited about this record.”

Warner Bros. has good reason for its enthusiasm. “Gift Of Screws” sounds like a CD that could enjoy considerable popularity.

The album is not without its edgy moments. It opens with a pair of quirky (but also attention-grabbing) songs, “Great Day” and “Time Precious Time,” before shifting more toward the kind of finely crafted, melodic pop that made Fleetwood Mac multi-platinum superstars.

Buckingham is featuring several songs from “Gift Of Screws” on his tour this fall. The shows find him joined by the same musicians that played on his tour to support “Under The Skin” — Neale Heywood (guitar), Taku Hirano (drums) and Brett Tuggle (bass, keyboards). The character of the evening, though, will be different.

“Last time I was spending a lot of time out there by myself doing single guitar pieces,” Buckingham said. “I’m still doing some of that, obviously, but we’re going to hit the ground running this time and rock a bit more. That seems to be what the (“Gift Of Screws”) album is doing.”

Buckingham’s tour will run well into the fall. After that, he plans to turn his attention to Fleetwood Mac, the group he joined in 1975 along with his then-girlfriend, singer Stevie Nicks.

The band recently announced that it will tour the United States next year. But this outing will feature the four core band members — Buckingham, Fleetwood, McVie and Nicks, a change from earlier this year when Sheryl Crow announced that she was likely to join Fleetwood Mac for the tour and possibly an album.

Buckingham said Crow’s statements caught the band members off guard, and the idea of inviting Crow into the band never went beyond the discussion stage. The whole issue, Buckingham noted, grew out of the fact that Nicks, who is good friends with Crow, was interested in adding a woman to Fleetwood Mac to replace retired singer-keyboardist Christine McVie.

On the tour supporting the group’s 2003 CD, “Say You Will,” Nicks missed the male-female balance that Christine McVie brought to Fleetwood Mac, and floated the idea of adding Crow.

“I think she (Nicks) missed Christine’s presence,” Buckingham said “She missed that kind of mitigating force that sort of glued (things) together. And consequently when it came down to us contemplating touring next year, I think Stevie was possibly looking for some sort of a comrade on stage.

“The whole thing was a complete hypothetical,” Buckingham said. “There had been no real, anything set in stone at all. It was just something we were considering, period.”

Spinner
Lindsey Buckingham is feeling recharged and refreshed after a Hawaiian vacation with his wife and three young children. In fact, it’s his time with his family and away from music that has renewed his creative energy. The end result of his holiday is a creative spark that not only has brought about an upcoming solo album, ‘Gift of Screws,’ due in September, but a rekindled interest with his band of 30 years, Fleetwood Mac. “Years ago, I saw a lot of my friends not be there for their kids or their spouses when we were all doing what we thought we had to do to be creative,” Buckingham tells Spinner. “The sense of stability and the sense of almost de-prioritizing the career has actually enhanced the sense of having fun with it and the sense of being able to be productive with it.”

This isn’t the only relationship breakthrough for Buckingham. In January, he will join his old flame and Fleetwood Mac bandmate Steve Nicks for tour rehearsals, a pairing that has been tumultuous at best — lest we mention the whole band’s storied career. But Buckingham says not only is he in a place where he can enjoy his bandmates and add up the bygones, but that each individual member is there as well. “On a broader level, when you look at the different people in Fleetwood Mac, the key thing right now for us is to dignify how we got started and the road we have left to go — to make sure that it’s done in a way which is fundamentally supportive of each other and acknowledging of the love we have for each other now,” he says.”It’s just taken us longer as individuals to sort of get past all the baggage, some of which has probably been there since the late ’70s. Even though we are not a band that has technically broken up, there are long periods where we don’t see each other or even communicate on the phone, especially not for me. There’s a broader thing that’s gone on with everyone that’s sort of all coming together at the right time.”

The band will not have anybody fill the shoes of keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie, who left the band in 1998. Sheryl Crow was planning to join the tour, but, according to Buckingham, stepped away after rethinking the time commitment, which Buckingham says could run up to three years. “That was by far the best outcome because not only did it reinforce the idea that the real mantra here is for the four of us [Buckinham, Nicks, bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood] to work on our own thing,” Buckingham says, “but it also began a series of really productive conversations between Stevie and myself on a more emotional level, acknowledging what’s gone on the last 30 years in a much better way than we’ve been able to do.”

Rockline Replay has Lindsey’s Interview from August 27th up on their site to listen to… Cool interview with a few “Gift of Screws” tracks thrown in Live in the studio and previewed in full from the cd… “Love Runs Deeper” and “Right Place To Fade” were played from the cd and “Time Precious Time” and “Did You Miss Me” along with “Big Love” were played in the studio.

A couple of things to note:

Not only do the new tracks sound excellent, he went on to say that on tour in September and October they are going to be including tunes from “Out Of The Cradle” which was under-represented on the last tour. I think one song from that album was played…

Check it out! Rockline
Or Download the Interview here: Download

ROCKLINE - TONIGHT AUGUST 27, 2008
When Lindsey Buckingham joined us in mid-April earlier this year he said, “I’ll be back before the end of the year with a new album”. Honestly, as it had been fourteen years between his solo albums “Out of the Cradle” and “Under the Skin”, we took it with a grain of salt. As phenomenal a performer as Lindsey is and as intricately unique and original his style is, no one will ever accuse him of being prolific. Maybe that might change now as Buckingham has stayed true to his word and on September 16 he is due to release ”Gift of Screws”, his fifth solo album and second in two years. There’s also the outstanding CD and DVD “live at the Bass Performance Hall” recorded in Ft. Worth, Texas bringing the overall total to six and three in three years. By the way, before your mind hits the gutter and you get completely carried away, the title of the forthcoming new album is taken from an Emily Dickinson poem.

It is a Rockline tradition to serve up albums before they hit the stores and become available online and in this particular case we have a three week jump on the album and are more than happy to share it with you. We also enjoy providing an environment where our guests feel comfortable and realize that our studio has the capability to bring out the best in them for live performances and that is exactly what Lindsey intends to do. He will be tuning his six string and performing three or four songs acoustically for our edification. It doesn’t get much better than this, an album premiere and an exclusive live performance all in one show. Lindsey will soon be taking his immeasurable talents on the road again and you can gather all the information you need at LindseyBuckingham.com You can buy tickets on his site and pre-order the forthcoming CD as well. Actually, it gets even better than that. For most locations, if you purchase a pair of tickets to his concert you’ll receive a copy of the CD for free. It will be mailed to you on, or very near, the release date of September 16. Quickly, we want to thank our friends in REO Speedwagon for relinquishing their slot on this particular ROCKLINE and agreeing to come and visit us on another day, hopefully before the year’s end.

We’ve learned much about Lindsey in his recent visits to our show. Most notably, he seems to be as happy as we have ever seen him and this can be directly traced to finding the love of his life, Kristen Messner. Since that meeting they have married and now have three children, a son and two daughters. Another huge reason for his contentment is that Buckingham has found himself and in doing so has found his music again with a confidence and resolve that is a pleasure to see. Lindsey has always displayed a certain restlessness on stage and in his songwriting. That energy will never disappear, but it now seems somehow more channeled and confident. Things have never been better for Lindsey and it shows. We’ll let him tell the stories that surround “Gift of Screws” and the fact that some of the songs have existed for awhile. Perhaps this is the beginning of a new, more prolific period in his music. Regardless, he is now giving us even more to enjoy.

Buckingham has grown into the person he was destined to be and we couldn’t be happier to welcome him to our next ROCKLINE!

Lindsey Buckingham did a roundtable press conference today, on which there will be more in a future article. During the telephone sit-down, he addressed the rumors (Rumours?) about Sheryl Crow joining the band next year, and he didn’t pull any punches:

When Fleetwood Mac was touring [in support of 2003's "Say You Will"], Christine McVie had left, having burned all her bridges, selling her house in L.A. and moving to England. We divided material down the middle. I had a great time because it allowed me to be a guy on stage. In retrospect, Stevie wasn’t as comfortable with that divide. When it came to contemplating working next year… we [thought] bringing Sheryl Crow would be an intiguing idea. We put out the feelers and that’s about as far as it got. Last spring, Sheryl took it upon herself to tell the world she was joining Fleetwood Mac. It was in itself inappropriate – you sit down with a band and announce it. It bothered Stevie a great deal and Mick as well. I thought it was off the wall. There were some harsh words, and she was given her marching orders – not that she’d been in the band in the first place.

Lindsey went on to say that Fleetwood Mac is contemplating doing a “long term thing” beginning in early 2009, which included making a new record and touring. He wasn’t certain that Crow understood that a commitment of 3-4 years was what he had in mind. “Probably in January, the band will start rehearsing, then see what happens,” he said.

No guarantees, but it sounds like the Mac is back.

The press conference was done as part of the promotional effort for “Gift of Screws,” which drops September 16, It’s harder-rocking follow-up to 2006’s “Under the Skin,” featuring contributions from Mac alums John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. Buckingham says the boisterous title track lifted its’ chorus from an Emily Dickinson poem. “I’m always looking to rip off things that are public domain,” he joked. Lindsey went on to call the song, which sounds more like circa-1978 Elvis Costello than anything the Mac ever did, “Mick’s favorite drum track ever. I played the album for him the other day, he came to my house, and he wishes it could have been on a Fleetwood Mac album.”

“Gift of Screws” was conceived way back in 1995, and shelved over the years due to Buckingham’s many (mainly Fleetwood Mac) commitments (he called them “interventions on solo work”). Several cuts from the oft-bootlegged disk, including “Peacekeeper” and “Murrow In His Grave,” ended up on other records. The new CD has only one surviving song from the original “Gift of Screws” – the title track – along with bits and pieces of a few others.

It’s a solid, electrified effort – lyrically mature, well-rounded and tight. It might not be Buckingham’s most successful record ever – the music business has changed too much for that – but it’s among his best. Lindsey’s Mac fans will feel right at home with songs like “Love Runs Deeper” (co-written with Buckingham’s wife) and “The Right Place To Fade,” which is reminiscent of a revved-up “Monday Morning.”

Lindsey Buckingham’s tour to support “Gift of Screws” begins September 7 in Saratoga, California; he’s in Lebanon, New Hampshire October 12, and Northampton, Massachusetts on October 14. There are also shows in Boston and Ridgefield, Connecticut. The tour ends October 19 in New York City.

LocalRythms

Tahoe Daily

Lindsey Buckingham has dispelled the “Rumours.” Sheryl Crow, who performs at Lake Tahoe Saturday, will not be joining Fleetwood Mac.

Buckingham, who on Sept. 16 will release a solo album, “Gift of Screws,” is about to begin an extensive United States tour which includes a Sept. 12 concert at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.

In a conference call with music writers Buckingham confirmed Fleetwood Mac would begin rehearsals in January before going out on tour. A new Fleetwood Mac studio album will follow. Crow won’t be involved in either project.

“Sheryl came out with a solo album not too long ago and took it upon herself to announce to the world that she was joining Fleetwood Mac, which was not the case.” Buckingham said. “It was on the table. It was under discussion, and that was it. So it was completely inappropriate for her to do that. It was also inappropriate for her to do it in that manner even if it had not been a hypothetical.”

Adding a female singer to Fleetwood Mac was discussed because Christine McVie is no longer with the band. The core of the band is comprised of Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie.

“I think that came about because when we toured in 2003 without Christine the material was sort of divided right down the middle and I think Stevie was missing some of that female backup that she was used to,” Buckingham said. “When we started contemplating doing something next year I think Stevie, who knows (Crow) … brought up Sheryl’s name as someone who might be interested in joining the band, and it was a complete hypothetical. I had some reservations about it going in. Are you going to get Sheryl Crow coming in to sing Christine McVie songs? It just sounded a little ‘loungy’ to me.”

Crow, who this year released the album “Detours,” headlines a concert Saturday, Aug. 23 at Harvey’s Outdoor Arena. James Blunt and Toots & the Maytals also are on the bill.

Buckingham said the Crow “fiasco glitch” ended up being a good thing for Fleetwood Mac.

“What it did do was act as a catalyst for Stevie and myself to have some really, really positive conversations about our own dynamic and how to get things done within the core element of the band,” he said. “I think that’s a far healthier way to go. So that’s what we’re gonna do.”
Fleetwood Mac was formed in 1967 by guitarist Peter Green after he left John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, bringing with him the rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. Buckingham and Nicks joined in 1975.
Buckingham produced the LP “Rumours” 1976, which was one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Fleetwood and John McVie contribute on three songs on Buckingham’s soon-to-be released “Gift of Screws.”

When, back in 1988, De La Soul observed that three is the magic number, little could they have anticipated how closely this would resonate with the events of a cricket tour to Harrogate, twenty years later.

After another night of tomfoolery and high-jinks, the Chins arrived at the picturesque village of Kirklington with this mythical digit lodged firmly in the collective consciousness. And, for reasons that will become plain, it was still very much there when they left.

Once again, the tourists lost the toss and were asked to bat. To general amusement, Backhouse got a diamond duck, undone by a fast, accurate and frankly unplayable inswinging yorker. On his return to the hutch, Valentine offered him a hug, less in sympathy than the hope he was wearing a gold ankle braclet.

Mackintosh-Walker went in at three, joining Lahaise for a spot of ship-steadying. Despite running like a couple of drunken amputees on an ice rink, they did their job brilliantly. Both passed 50, Lahaise raising his blade to his wife on reaching the milestone.

What a sadsack.

He soon paid for his mawkishness with his wicket, precipitating a minor collapse. Not that it mattered: a quickfire half-century from Gaskell restored order, advancing the total to 219-8.

The Druid response was notable for, er, three things:

(1) Three opportunities for a hat-trick. Three opportunities to secure a place in Chin history. Three opportunities wasted. Hmm. Cricket is indeed an elaborate metaphor for life. In mitigation, Harris-Hughes and Hammond-Chambers did everything in their power to convert the chances, which is more than can be said for some.

(2) The curious behaviour of AB Speers. Here, it seemed, was a man in the throes of an existential crisis. First, he unaccountably hurled the ball to the long-off boundary when it should have been returned to the bowler. This prompted him to burst into a fit of demented laughter, more befitting a serial killer on nitrous oxide than the figurehead of a respectable cricket club. Then, in ‘attempting’ to catch a total dolly at first slip, he displayed all the agility of an obese paraplegic in a suit of armour. As the ball hit the deck, Speers shrugged unapologetically and pointed at the sun. At least, he would have pointed at the sun, had it not been hidden behind a fucking enormous cloud.

(3) The two sitters put down by Backhouse, to follow up his lamentable effort with the bat. He thus left North Yorkshire with as many dropped catches as runs, no self-esteem, and an aggressive case of piles caused by a deficiency of sleep and vitamins.

Despite these hiccups and some decent Druid batting, the Chins coasted to a 59 run victory. Harris-Hughes bowled beautifully, taking 4 for 14 off 6 overs. He received robust support from Mackintosh-Walker, Gully and Hammond-Chambers, who was the week’s leading wicket-taker.

A successful conclusion, then, to a hugely successful tour. To summarise the experience in a few words would not to it justice. Suffice to say, a big thanks to the president for his tireless work, and a big thanks to Harrogate for being such a lascivious, chubby-legged slattern.

Until the next time, what-ho!

In De Re Militari, the Roman military commentator Vegetius makes the following observations about the quintessential centurion: ‘He is chosen for his size, strength and dexterity, and for his skill in the use of his sword and shield; in short for his expertness in all the exercises. He is to be vigilant, temperate, active and readier to execute the orders he receives than to talk. It is also prerequisite that he bears a stark resemblance to Scott Styris, so that he might frighten the enemy in advance of combat.’

He knew his eggs, that Vegetius.

Thursday’s clash with Goldsborough was significant for two reasons. Not only did it include a cracking ton from Valentine, but it also represented a first tour victory since 2006. In fact, it was arguably the most accomplished all-round performance by a Chin XI since the last Conservative government.

The home side won the toss and chose to field. Gully and Hammond-Chambers kicked off for the visitors, negotiating a nippy and probing opening salvo. Their partnership didn’t yield many runs, but provided a rock-solid foundation for the middle order.

Valentine and Wilson* were the main beneficiaries. After a cautious start, they ripped into an inexperienced Goldsborough attack. Granted, the boundary was shorter than a coked-up nightclub owner from Harrogate. Yet they still put on a hell of a show, clattering ball after ball into the corn field that semi-circled the ground.

The onslaught propelled the Chin total towards respectability. Perhaps more importantly, it allowed Gully and Mackintosh-Walker to indulge their passion for arable crops. The latter, in particular, took great pleasure in hunting lost cherries, bounding through the corn like some weird brontosaur, the size of his brain inversely proportional to the size of his body.

Back in the middle, runs continued to flow freely. Valentine retired having hit a sensational 101, while Wilson remained unbeaten on 79. The Chins posted 219-5 from their 40 overs.

In response, the good men of Goldsborough never really got going. Wickets fell at regular intervals, with the bowling tight and the fielding athletic. Even Allan, who reckons the most effective way to catch a cricket ball is with the scrotum, took almost half of the three chances that came his way.** Bowman’s beguiling off-spin earned him a wicket, with Gully, Hammond-Chambers, Lahaise, Speers and Baillie sharing the remainder of the spoils.

Backhouse brought the game to a premature close by stumping a twelve-year-old who had never played cricket before. The keeper’s wild celebrations – reminiscent of a downtrodden East German at the fall of the Berlin Wall – were slightly disproportionate, though Baillie’s excellent spell of leg-spin bowling undoubtedly deserved reward.

Goldsborough had been bowled out for 127, 92 short of their target. All things considered, a most satisfactory result, of which the Chins, and especially the centurion, could be proud.

Vini, Kiwi, Vici, as Vegetius might say.

* H, not C, who observed proceedings from the sidelines like a French New Wave filmmaker, smoking furiously and generally intimidating the opposition with his overwhelming intelligence.

** It should be added that he was also awarded Man o’ Tour in absentia, after Bowman was stripped of the honour for various acts of villainy.

The Kennington Chins slumped to a seven wicket defeat on the opening day of their Yorkshire tour against a team of youngsters from Acomb. Due to atrocious weather conditions – and some arbitrary umpiring – the match was reduced to just 18-overs a-side, with the Chins only rarely achieving parity with the home team.

Opening batsman Ian Valentine started the rot, playing an awful shot to the first delivery of the tour. The ball found the outside edge and was easily pouched at second slip. Golden, diamond or platinum – call it what you like, it was pretty rubbish.

Tom Lahaise flattered to deceive at three, playing some pleasant strokes through the off-side, before attempting to smear a full delivery over cow corner. He missed, but the ball did not. Giles Gaskell and Alastair Speers launched a spirited fight-back, punishing some short-pitched bowling, as Acomb struggled to grip the wet ball. For the only time in the match, the Chins were ahead of the eight-ball.

Speers, especially, was brutal against anything short, flaying a small child for six. His early attempts to play straight resulted in a dropped catch, before another ball hit the stumps but did not dislodge the bails; so he quickly reverted to a more agricultural brand of club cricket. Their slip fielder was heard to say: ‘Ay oop, he’s got crazy eyes, he does. If you drew a wagon wheel for that lad, there’d be a fooking black marker pen through midwicket.’

When Speers perished, Gaskell continued to take the attack to Acomb, sending several well-timed drives down the ground to bring up his 50. Jonathan Hammond-Chambers threatened to take the game away from the home side, but succumbed to a rush of blood against a spinner that left him stranded out of his crease. Several batsmen were then run out in a clown-like fashion, leaving the Chins to defend 125 from 18 overs.

They couldn’t do it. Not only did Acomb bat extremely well in the rain, running nimbly between the wickets and timing the ball with ease; but the Chins were unable to exert lasting control with their bowling. Andrew Gully executed a fine run-out, removing the batsman most likely to slow down Acomb’s chase. Dropped catches further helped the home team’s cause. Only Colin Allan on the boundary mastered the conditions, chasing the ball across the mud as though it were a retreating kebab truck.

George Bowman scored most ably.

Acomb won with two overs to spare. Yet, after the match, captain Hammond-Chambers was upbeat about his team’s performance. ‘Oh, yeah, you know, we gave 110% out there and, at the end of the day, it was good to get some cricket under our belts. We hit some good areas with the ball, you know, and I thought the lads fronted up with the bat. Innit, man, the opposition were a great bunch and it’s a credit to their club that we were able to play at all. Thanks also to Norwich Union for providing the curry afterwards – it was well tasty and much cheaper than Lobby.’

Ian Valentine

A new date has been added to Lindsey’s tour itinerary:
Tue, Oct 7 – Hamilton, ON – Hamilton Place Theatre

Also, the Lebanon, NH date on October 12th has been confirmed and added as well to the list of cities he’ll hit.

2008 LIVE LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM DATES

• Sun, Sept 7 – Saratoga, CA – Mountain Winery
• Tue, Sept 9 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
• Wed, Sept 10 – Portland, OR – Newmark Theatre
• Fri, Sept 12 – Lake Tahoe, CA – Harrah’s Casino
• Sat, Sept 13 – San Francisco – tbd
• Sun, Sept 14 – Los Angeles, CA – Royce Hall
• Tue, Sept 16 – San Diego, CA – Humphreys
• Thu, Sept 18 – Phoenix, AZ – The Orpheum Theatre
• Fri, Sept 19 – Anaheim, CA – The Grove of Anaheim
• Sat, Sept 20 – Las Vegas, NV – The Joint
• Mon, Sept 22 – Salt Lake City, UT – Depot
• Wed, Sept 24 – Denver, CO – Opera House
• Fri, Sept 26 – Tulsa, OK – Brady Theatre
• Sun, Sept 28 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theatre
• Mon, Sept 29 – St Louis, MO – Pageant
• Wed, Oct 1 – Cleveland, OH – House of Blues
• Thu, Oct 2 – Chicago, IL – House of Blues
• Sat, Oct 4 – Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theatre
• Sun, Oct 5 – Indianapolis, IN – Eygptian Theatre
• Tue, Oct 7 – Hamilton, ON – Hamilton Place Theatre
• Wed, Oct 8 – Toronto, ON – Music Hall
• Fri, Oct 10 – Reading, PA – Sovereign PAC
• Sat, Oct 11 – Atlantic City, NJ – Taj Mahal
• Sun, Oct 12 – Lebanon, NH – Opera House
• Tue, Oct 14 – Northampton, MA – Calvin Theatre
• Wed, Oct 15 – Ridgefield, CT – Ridgefield Play House
• Fri, Oct 17 – Boston, MA – Berklee Performing Arts
• Sat, Oct 18 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theater
• Sun, Oct 19 – New York, NY – Nokia Live

Bruce Springsteen is touring in Europe now from Germany, Italy, France and Spain before returning to the USA for 5 nights for 3 remaining cities on the east coast in East Rutherford for 3 nights and Foxboro MA and Milwaukee, WI for one night only.

Giants Stadium
East Rutherford, NJ
Sunday – 7/27/2008 – 7:30 PM
Monday – 7/28/2008 – 7:30 PM
Thursday – 7/31/2008 – 7:30 PM

Gillette Stadium – Foxboro, MA
Saturday – 8/2/2008 – 7:30 PM

Hershey Park Stadium – Hershey, PA
Tuesday – 8/19/2008 – 7:30 PM

Lakefront Roadhouse – Milwaukee, WI
Saturday – 8/30/2008 – 8:00 PM

Tickets Available At NationalShowTickets.com

Gotta Love Tom Waits…..

Tour Dates

June 17- Phoenix, Orpheum
June 18 – Phoenix, Orpheum
June 20 – El Paso, Plaza Theatre
June 22 – Houston, Jones Hall
June 23 – Dallas, Palladium
June 25 – Tulsa, Brady Theatre
June 26 – Saint Louis, Fox Theatre
June 28 – Columbus, Ohio Theatre (Comfest weekend)
June 29 – Knoxville, Civic Theatre
July 1 – Jacksonville, Moran Theatre
July 2 – Mobile, Saenger Theatre
July 3 – Birmingham, Alabama Theatre
July 5 – Atlanta, Fox Theatre

Thx to: Donewaiting

Just wanted to give you some info about one of my favorite newer bands who knows how to bring it live, Howlin’ Rain. The Crowes and Howlin’ Rain sounds like an amazing ticket to me! Check ‘em out if you get a chance. Here’s the press release:

Greetings all,

Just a heads up that SF psych rockers Howlin Rain will be joining the Black Crowes for two legs of their fall 2008 tour this September and October (scroll down for complete dates) and have confirmed an appearance at Bonnaroo for Friday, June 13 @ 1:30AM (technically SAT, June 14). Featuring Comets on Fire co-founder and lead singer Ethan Miller and Drunk Horse’s Joel Robinow, the band has been touring for their acclaimed Birdman/American release, Magnificent Fiend, and will be hitting the UK and Europe in May for a series of dates and festivals, including All Tomorrows Parties. Check out Howlin Rain live here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikr8OovhsNs&feature=related or listen at www.myspace.com/howlinrain

RECENT UK PRESS FOR THE BAND:

“�an impeccably pitched, retro-rock joy.” - The Guardian 4 stars (out of 5)

“Freed from the side project straitjacket Miller has pushed Howlin Rain to the forefront of the West Coast cosmic rock pulpit, right alongside his former outfit.”

- Uncut 4 stars (out of 5)

Their sun-baked, lyrically feverish chooglin’ is more textured and melodic on these addictive new jams�”- Mojo 4 stars (out of 5)

Click on through for tour dates with and without the Crowes…

TOUR DATES

May 1 2008 Belfast, Ireland @ Aunt Annie’s

May 2 2008 Tower Records Dublin, Ireland – In-Store appearance

May 2 2008 Dublin, Ireland @ Whelan’s

May 3 2008 Cork, Ireland @ Pine Lodge

May 4 2008 Salford, Manchester UK @ Sounds from the other city at the Kings Arms

May 5 2008 Birmingham, UK @ Custard Factory

May 6 2008 London, UK @ Luminaire

May 7 2008 Cornwall, UK @ Miss Peabody’s

May 8 2008 Cardiff, Wales @ Clwb Ifor Bach

May 9 2008 Camber Sands, UK @ All Tomorrow’s Parties

May 11 2008 Bristol, UK @ The Croft

May 12 2008 London, UK @ Scala

May 24 2008 Santa Cruz, Highway 9, CA @ Brookdale Lodge

May 28 2008 Arcata, CA @ Jambalaya

Jun 6 2008 Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn

Jun 8 Birmingham, AL @ Bottletree

Jun 7 2008 Boone, NC @ Black Cat

Jun 9 Nashville, TN @ The End

Jun 10 Off Day

Jun 11 Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506

Jun 12 2008 Knoxville, TN @ The Pilot Light

Jun 13 2008 Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo 1:30AM (technically SAT June 14)

Jun 23 2008 Ardenal, Norway @ Hove Festival

Jun 25 2008 Gronigen, Netherlands @ Vera Club

Jun 26 2008 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso

Jun 27 2008 Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Merlyn

Jul 19 2008 Big Sur, CA @ Henry Miller Library

Jul 23 2008 Visalia, CA @ Howies

*ALL SHOWS OPENING FOR THE BLACK CROWES

Sep 10 2008 Arcata, CA @ Van Duzer Theater*

Sep 12 2008 Santa Rosa, CA @ Wells Fargo Center*

Sep 13 2008 Las Vegas, NV @ the Joint*

Sep 14 2008 TBA

Sep 16 2008 Mesa, AZ @ Ikeda Theatre (Mesa ARts Center)*

Sep 17 2008 Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theater*

Sep 19 2008 Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara County Bowl*

Oct 7 2008 Richmond, VA @ The National*

Oct 8 2008 Richmond, VA @ The National*

Oct 11 2008 Albany, NY @ the Palace theater *

Oct 12 2008 Northampton, MA @ Calvin Theater*

Oct 17 2008 Boston, MA @ Boston Opera House*

Oct 18 2008 Buffalo, NY @ The Town Ballroom*

Oct 28 2008 New York City, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom*