Fleetwood Mac show 'in top five'

MARK DWYER/Taranaki Daily News

BIG NIGHT OUT: Stevie Nicks from Supergroup Fleetwood Mac performing at the Bowl of Brooklands.

Related Links

Blog: Fleetwood Mac: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Relevant offers

Veteran Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham declared Saturday's New Plymouth concert as one of the five all-time top shows of his career.

That gig was the first of two the supergroup played at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth at the weekend.

More than 36,000 people attended the concerts and all walked away with the memory of an energetic band still full of melodic power after more then 40 years in the business.

Fleetwood Mac promoter Andrew McManus said the whole band was more than impressed with the venue and the crowd's enthusiasm.

"Stevie [Nicks] knew the venue from playing last time and when I spoke to the band after the show they were just glowing."

He said he received a text message from Buckingham yesterday morning which said it all.

"It said it was one of the top five shows he has played in his career – and he has played a lot of shows."

And the persistent rain during Saturday's show did little to put the band off. In fact, they said it added to act. During the short time Fleetwood Mac was in New Plymouth Mick Fleetwood took his family out and about while Nicks took the day to rest, Mr McManus said.

"Stevie is a professional, she always says `I've got an instrument which 17,000 people are paying to hear and I need to protect it'. So she rests in her suite and doesn't talk."

As for rumours this is Fleetwood Mac's final world tour it won't be if Mr McManus has anything to do with it.

He said Buckingham was writing new material and another album, coupled with another world tour, could be in the works. "And if they do tour and New Plymouth is not on the itinerary then I will be having a serious talk with them," Mr McManus laughed. "Mick and John [McVie] just love touring, they love being on the road and Mick has just been nominated for a Grammy in the jazz section.

"Stevie is the key and I would love to think they could all work together again and be on the road in two or three years.

"This is the third show I have brought to New Plymouth and the venue is just world-class," he said.

"It is the ambience and the acoustics that make it work. We have played a lot of bowl venues where the acoustics just swirl around. It's amazing really."

He says the success of the Fleetwood Mac shows has opened the floodgates for other promoters to bring artists to New Plymouth.

"The band's enjoyment is important and at the bowl all the boxes were ticked."

- © Fairfax NZ News