Gig review: Fleetwood Mac, Glasgow SSE Hydro

ACCORDING to the traditional concert closing remarks of Fleetwood Mac’s resident ringmaster Mick Fleetwood, “the Mac is most definitely back” - and now these MOR giants come with added Christine McVie.

Fleetwood Mac were in fine form at the Glasgow SSE Hydro. Picture: PA

Fleetwood Mac

Hydro, Glasgow

Rating: * * * *

The singer/pianist has rejoined the line-up after a sixteen-year absence and immediately made her leavening presence felt on the close harmony of opening number The Chain.

Her simply stated love songs, such as the sweet, girlish Everywhere and mellifluous Little Lies, made a welcome comeback to the setlist, providing a charming contrast to Stevie Nicks’ more melodramatic, impressionistic numbers - though the absence of Songbird from this show’s setlist was a great shame.

The eternal hippie chick Nicks was in her theatrical element, donning a black feathery shawl for extra gothic ambience on Rhiannon – though it hardly needed an atmospheric boost with Lindsey Buckingham’s burnished guitar and the ethereal harmonies as embellishing features.

Buckingham, meanwhile, was energised throughout, limbering up those fleet fingers to deliver an athletic, acoustic Big Love which climaxed with a primal yelp.

The eccentric tribal Tusk was another cathartic highlight.

The former couple cleverly traded on their volatile chemistry with a joint rendition of Landslide but were given too much hammy latitude on Gold Dust Woman and I’m So Afraid.

The band pulled back from the brink of indulgence with Go Your Own Way and heeded their own advice on Don’t Stop.

Both hits were the product of inter-band break-ups, yet here they are forty years on, still singing that universal rock soap opera.

FIONA SHEPHERD