Show some big love as Rumours go their own way
RUMOURS OF FLEETWOOD MAC Portsmouth Guildhall Friday, August 6 portsmouthguildhall.org.uk
Plenty of bands found ways to offer watered-down versions of themselves online during the pandemic. That simply wasn’t something Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac were prepared to do – which is one of the reasons they are so thrilled to be back out there for real at last.
‘For us, when the pandemic started, we had just started a 65-date tour,’ says drummer Allan Cosgrove. ‘We got about six dates into it and it was called. We were thinking “Were the planes really going to stop flying? Were businesses really going to shut?”’
And, of course, they did.
‘And then, of course, like everyone we were just thinking that it would be for a couple of months, that it would all soon be sorted out and that we would soon be back out there again. But now it is great that we are in the sunshine again and we are out there.’
In the meantime, there was no thought of scaling the show down and offering some kind of streamed version instead.
‘The production, without sounding pretentious, is big. There are seven in the band and there are 20 in the crew. It is a massive thing.
‘We had a Zoom every week just to make sure everyone was okay and just to look after everyone, but as regards streaming we opted to hold off. The show has been out there for 20 years, and we felt that if you can’t perform it in a certain way, it just wouldn’t work. It was better to concentrate on getting a brand-new show out as soon as we could.’
Besides, the musicians all had things they could get on with: ‘The thing about Rumours of Fleetwood Mac is that we are all original musicians as well. There are about 100 dates for Rumours of Fleetwood Mac a year, but the musicians have all got their own albums and some of them are producers. And also I do a lot of work with young musicians. So we have all been able to get on with our own stuff and producing albums.
‘But we didn’t think it would be 18 months. It has certainly brought it home. All the members of the show, including the crew, love what we do, touring the world and playing this great music. We have always appreciated being able to do it, but we have never appreciated it more than we are appreciating it right now!
‘Certainly I think this has changed us. There are certain things in my spirit that I will take away from these 18 months as a person. It has given us a lot of time to reflect on a lot of things personally.
‘Also I am used to organising things for everyone else and then I had time when personally I wasn’t actually last on my list. I have never read so many books or listened to so much music.
‘But now we are definitely ready to come out of the traps. We are all double vaccinated. We are the Rumours of Fleetwood Mac bubble. We have all got our own protocols for making it safe, and we are just really looking forward to experiencing it all again live on the stage. All the convincing has got to be from the stage and that’s why we are putting everything into it, delivering this great music.
‘Our mantra has always been that it has always been about their music. We are delivering the tracks that have been the soundtracks to people’s lives, the music of Fleetwood Mac.’
Ithasgivenus a lot of time to reflect on a lot of things