Lindsey Buckingham Forced to Postpone European Tour Due to COVID Recovery
Lindsey Buckingham has been forced to postpone his upcoming European tour due to still recovering from COVID.
The following update was shared on Buckingham’s social media channels:
“It is with great sadness that we are announcing the postponement of Lindsey’s European tour which had been due to begin next week. Along with other members of his band and crew, Lindsey contracted Covid-19 at the end of his latest North American tour, forcing that to end prematurely. Unfortunately, he’s still recovering and has no choice but to move the upcoming tour to a later date. This is heartbreaking for Lindsey, he was so excited to come to Europe for the first time as a solo artist this spring. We’re currently working on rescheduling the dates and hope to have some news to share on that very soon.”
Buckingham has been dealing with health issues in recent years. The singer-songwriter had emergency open-heart surgery in February 2019 which resulted in initial vocal cord damage from which he has since recovered.
Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours': 30 Facts About the Iconic Album
1. The production costs on āRumoursā were insane.
After recording over the course of nearly a year, Fleetwood Macās Rumours racked up a production bill of nearly $1 million. When adjusted for inflation, thatās about $4.85 million in 2022. Co-producer Ken Caillat told MusicRadar, āSomething like āRumoursā could never happen these days. A record label would have shut us down after two weeks.ā
2. Yes, a significant amount of the recording costs did go to drugs.
Cocaine use during the making of Rumours is now legendary. While an exact budgetary line about all the lines is not known, the bandās coke use would help inspire āGold Dust Woman.āĀ
3. No, Fleetwood Mac did not thank their dealer in the liner notes.
However, they sure did want to. Mick Fleetwood shared in his 1990 memoir Fleetwood: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac they decided against it because, āUnfortunately, he got snuffed ā executed! ā before the thing came out.ā Yikes!
4. āRumoursā has moved 45 million copies worldwide.
So, even though the entire band was dealing with relationship issues, at least their cumulative pain yielded massive success.
5. In the United States alone, 'Rumours' has sold 20 million copies.
The Recording Industry Association of America awards albums āDiamondā status when they sell ten million copies. Rumours is one of only 12 albums to ever achieve āDouble Diamondā status, or to sell at least 20 million copies. Those other LPs are:
-Shania Twainās Come On Over (20 million)
-Hootie & the Blowfishās Cracked Rear View (21 million)
-Garth Brooksā Double Live (21 million)
-Pink Floydās The Wall (23 million)
-Billy Joelās Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II (23 million)
-The Beatlesā The Beatles (24 million)
-Led Zeppelinās Led Zeppelin IV (24 million)
-AC/DCās Back in Black (25 million)
-Eaglesā Hotel California (26 million)
-Michael Jacksonās Thriller (34 million)
-Eaglesā Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 (38 million.)
6. Considering how commercially successful it was, āRumoursā spent plenty of time on the āBillboardā 200 Album Chart.
Rumours has spent 31 non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 Album chart and has appeared on the chart for 461 weeks since its release. All four of the LPās singles cracked the Billboard Hot 100 top 10: āGo Your Own Wayā peaked at #10, āYou Make Loving Funā peaked at #9, āDonāt Stopā peaked at #3 and āDreamsā hit #1.
7. āRumoursā had four songs released as singles (even though any track couldāve easily been a single), but āDreamsā was the only single to top the āBillboardā Hot 100 Chart.
Fun fact: āDreamsā remains Fleetwood Macās only single to top the Hot 100 Chart in the bandās history.
8. An unexpected viral video caused āDreamsā to re-enter the Hot 100.
Who can forget when Nathan Apodaca casually skateboarded into all of our hearts drinking straight from a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry and lip-synced this classic? It was truly one of the most joyous moments of 2020, and it led to āDreamsā re-entering the Hot 100 at #21 on the week of October 17, 2020. It was the first time the track was on the chart since 1977.
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9. Many people recreated the āDreamsā viral video, even Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham themselves!
Donāt believe me? Just watch these legends put their own spin on the clip.
@mickfleetwood @420doggface208 had it right. Dreams and Cranberry just hits different. #Dreams #CranberryDreams #FleetwoodMac
⬠Dreams (2004 Remaster) - Fleetwood Mac@stevienicks Afternoon vibe. Lace 'em up! #Dreams #FleetwoodMac #CranberryDreams @420doggface208
⬠Dreams (2004 Remaster) - Fleetwood MacMade this with my girls this weekend pic.twitter.com/tCY8DpBoCL
— Lindsey Buckingham (@LBuckingham) October 21, 2020Ā
10. Stevie Nicks was the sole writer on āDreams,ā which she wrote in 10 minutes while in Sly Stoneās bed.
Now, itās not as salacious as it sounds, but at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California where Fleetwood Mac recorded part of Rumours, there was an unused studio in the building that contained a bed that was initially built for Stone. Nicks said in an interview with Blender, āIt was a black-and-red room, with a sunken pit in the middle where there was a piano, and a big black-velvet bed with Victorian drapes. I sat down on the bed with my keyboard in front of me. I found a drum pattern, switched my little cassette player on and wrote āDreamsā in about 10 minutes.āĀ Ā Ā
11. āSecond Hand Newsā was sampled by Kid Rock for his track āWasting Timeā off his 1998 breakthrough album āDevil Without a Cause.ā
The track boasted the lyric, āAnd rollin’ a Fleetwood that’s how I mack.ā Devil Without a Cause would go on to sell 11 million copies in the United States.
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12. The recording of āNever Going Back Againā was likely a guitar techās nightmare.
Co-producer of Rumours Ken Caillat said of recording the track, āA lot of our focus shifted to Lindsey and his acoustic guitar. I noticed that anytime he played, there was a big different in how bright his strings sounded after just 20 minutes. So I said, āCan we restring your guitar every 20 minutes?ā I wanted to get the best sound on every one of his picking parts. He said sure.ā
This whole process lasted a day, but then there was a problem.
Caillat said, ā…When Lindsey went to sing, he realized that he played all of his guitar parts in the wrong key. Oh, man! So we recorded everything all over again the next day, dispensing with the changing of guitar strings ā we had to lose all of that so we could get Lindsey singing in the right key.āĀ
13. Christine McVie has the most sole writer credits on āRumours.ā
McVie is the sole writer listed on the following tracks: āDonāt Stop,ā āSongbird,ā āYou Make Loving Funā and āOh Daddy.ā
14. āDonāt Stopā famously served as the theme to Bill Clintonās 1992 presidential campaign.
The band was even persuaded to reunite for the first time since 1982 to perform āDonāt Stopā at the inaugural ball in 1993.
15. āGo Your Own Wayā was crucially inspired by the Rolling Stones.
Caillat said of the track, āThe right drum approach was crucial. One day, Lindsey came in and said he heard Street Fighting Man by the Stones, and he thought that kind of feel would work well. I remember watching him guide Mick as to what he wanted ā heād be so animated, like a little kid, playing these air tom fills with his curly hair flying. Mick wasnāt so sure he could do what Lindsey wanted, but he did a great job, and the song took off.ā
16. John McVie almost (allegedly) killed Lindsey Buckingham during the recording process.
Per U.Kās Far Out Magazine, āFor Lindsey Buckingham and John McVie however, spending time with one another was torture. They found no solace in each otherās company and ended up butting heads on multiple occasions. During one notable recording session, McVie threw a glass bottle of vodka at Buckinghamās head, screaming at him all the while.ā
I mean, at least he didnāt throw the cocaine. Speaking ofā¦
17. The producers of āRumoursā pulled a prank on the band involving their coke stash.
Per Uncut, āThroughout the āRumoursā sessions, a black velvet bag of cocaine held pride of place under the mixing desk. Every so often, one or other member of the band would demand another hit. One day, engineer Ken Caillat substituted a dummy bag full of talcum powder. When it was next called for, he tipped the bag upside down and emptied the contents all over the floor. McVie and Fleetwood were about to kill him when the laughter of producer Richard Dashut, seated alongside Caillat, made them realize theyād been hoaxed.ā
18. āSongbirdā was written in just 30 minutes.
Christine McVie said of the moving piano ballad in a June 2017 interview with People, āFor some peculiar reason I wrote āSongbirdā in half an hour. Iāve never been able to figure out how I did that. I woke up in the middle of the night and the song was there in my brain, chords lyrics melody, everything. I played it in my bedroom and didnāt have anything to tape it on. So I had to stay awake all night so I wouldnāt forget it and I came in the next morning to the studio and had [producer] Ken Callait put it on a 2-track. That was how the song ended up being. I donāt know where that came from. I wished it would happen more often, but it hasnāt.ā
19. āThe Chainā is the lone song on āRumoursā where each band member received a writing credit.
Itās pretty safe to assume the only reason thereās one song on Rumours everyone in the band contributed to was due to all of the tension between the five members. (Once again, the cocaine probably didnāt help either.)
20. āThe Chainā took nearly a year to write, record and mix.
Callait said, ā[It was] the very first song we worked onā¦Over the next nine months, weād revisit the song. There was great playing on tape, but it still wasnāt right. Finally, three weeks before we wrapped the album, Lindsey figured out how to connect everything. He took the verses apart, played a Dobro and asked Mick to play a straight quarter-note beat on the kick. Next, Lindsey rewrote the chorus and put a whole new rhythm to it. Everything clicked. āThe Chainā changed drastically over the course of a year, but there was something about it that always made people think it was worth coming back to.ā
21. āYou Make Loving Funā is about an affair, but Christine McVie told John McVie it was initially about something else entirely.
Surprise! Another song about cheating! While āYou Make Loving Funā was written by Christine McVie about her affair with Fleetwood Macās lighting director, she told then-husband/bassist John McVie it was about her dog.
22. āI Donāt Want to Knowā made āRumoursā largely due to its length.
Caillat recalled, āWe had a song called āSilver Springsā that couldnāt make the record because it was too long. That broke Stevieās heart ā she loved Silver Springs so much. But we needed something shorter, a little uptempo, and out came this kind of country thing she and Lindsey had been doing live.ā
23. āI Donāt Want to Knowā remains the one track from āRumoursā Fleetwood Mac hasnāt performed live.
According to Setlist.fm, āI Donāt Want to Knowā has never been part of a Fleetwood Mac setlist ever. Perhaps itās because it made the album instead of āSilver Springsā and having it on the setlist was one fight not worth having. Whoās to say?
24. āSilver Springsā was released as the b-side to āGo Your Own Wayā and would be nominated for a Grammyā¦over 20 years after it was recorded.
Itās rather appropriate āSilver Springsā was released as the b-side to āGo You Own Way,ā since it was written by Nicks about her breakup with Buckingham. The track got its own single release in 1997 from the bandās live LP The Dance. It would receive a Grammy nomination in 1998 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo of Group with Vocals but would lose out to Jamiroquaiās āVirtual Insanity.ā
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25. āOh Daddyā was last performed live by Fleetwood Mac in 1997.
Written by Christine McVie, āOh Daddyā was inspired by Mick Fleetwood, who was the only father in the band at that time, even though some allege the track was another track about McVieās affair with Fleetwood Macās lighting director. According to Setlist.fm, the last time the band played the track live was on November 30, 1997 at the USAir Arena in Landover, MD.Ā
26. Of course thereās a story behind the balls on the āRumoursā album cover.
According to NME, āThe balls proudly hanging between [Mick] Fleetwoodās legs on the cover were already a staple of his stage get-up and were in fact toilet chains half-inched from a club the āMac played in their formative years.āĀ
27. Cognac had an important role in the recording of āGold Dust Womanā
Caillat said of āGold Dust Woman,ā āStevie had a lot of Courvoisier in her, and she did this incredible coyote-like howling at the end. She had become this witch she was always writing about. To accentuate her vocals, Mick went into this room we had miked up, and he broke sheets of glass. He was wearing goggles and coveralls ā it was pretty funny. He just went mad, bashing glass with this big hammer. He tried to do it on cue, but it was difficult. Eventually, we said, āJust break the glass,ā and we fit it all in.ā
28. āRumoursā won the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1977.
The LP beat out some stiff competition, too. Also nominated for Record of the Year was the Star Wars soundtrack, James Taylorās JT, Eaglesā Hotel California and Steely Danās Aja.
29. āRumoursā is part of the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The LP was inducted in 2003. Per the Recording Academy, āThe GRAMMY Hall Of Fame was established by the Recording Academy’s National Trustees in 1973 to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old.ā
30. āRumoursā was selected for preservation in the Library of Congressās National Recording Registry in 2018.
In the press release of the announcement, it was noted of the tension-filled recording of Rumours, ā…the group had a sense that the songs were so strong, they not only endured, they prevailed.ā