Fleetwood Mac Returned to Stage at 2017 Classic West

Share This:

Stevie Nicks, John McVie and Lindsey Buckingham perform “The Chain” at Dodger Stadium, July 16, 2017

When Fleetwood Mac took the Dodger Stadium stage to headline the second night of the Classic West on Sunday, July 16, 2017, it was their first concert in 12 months (ironically, at the same ballpark for a one-time benefit concert the previous July). And the quintet played that 2016 performance’s identical Rumours-heavy 20-song set, with no less than eight songs from the 1977 album that cemented their status as classic rock heavyweights.

(The Classic West concerts also featured the Eagles, Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers, as well as this night’s opening acts Journey and Earth, Wind & Fire, recapped here.)

The Anglo-American band has long featured three lead singers, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham, each of whom has also written the bulk of the group’s radio-friendly hits. After a 16-year absence, McVie re-joined Fleetwood Mac in 2014 for a big tour which ended in November 2015. But other than that July 2016 concert, things had been quiet on the Fleetwood Mac front until the surprising news earlier this year that McVie and Buckingham were teaming for an album.

That resulting effort, Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie, came thisclose to a Fleetwood Mac reunion as it also featured contributions from the band’s two remaining founding members, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. The lone holdout was Nicks, who was in the midst of a massive arena tour of her own that began last fall.

And while Nicks has said the band will no longer record albums, it was Christine McVie who revealed in an interview the previous month that Fleetwood Mac was planning a world tour, beginning in 2018.

So it was with all those, er, rumours, that the band took to the Dodger Stadium stage for their first of two 2017 concerts. (The other took place on July 30 when all six bands did it again at the Classic East, held at New York’s Citi Field.)

Eagles’ late co-founder, Glenn Frey, loomed large over the weekend, as it was the group’s first concert appearance since his passing in 2016. Fleetwood Mac used the occasion to dedicate the Nicks-penned hit, “Landslide,” to Frey. Said Nicks: “I want to dedicate that song to Glenn Frey, who was my friend. I was such a big fan. I also want to dedicate it to his son [Deacon] for stepping in and doing such an amazing job. That is so much pressure and he did it so beautifully. His daddy would be so proud of him. I didn’t do it before I sang ‘Landslide’ because I would have just started to cry and I wouldn’t have gotten through it. So that’s for you… big Glenn and ‘little’ Glenn.” (Watch it below.)

Watch the opening numbers, “The Chain” and “You Make Loving Fun.” (The clip takes a while to start.)

Watch the band perform “Landslide,” dedicated to Glenn Frey

And here’s the weekend’s final performance

Read our recap of Saturday night’s opening bands the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan here.

If you’re a new Best Classic Bands reader, we’d be grateful if you would Like our Facebook page and/or bookmark our Home page.

Photo posted on Fleetwood Mac’s Facebook page of the July 16, 2017 concert

Fleetwood Mac, July 16, 2017, The Classic West Setlist

The Chain
You Make Loving Fun
Dreams
Second Hand News
Rhiannon
Everywhere
Bleed to Love Her
Tusk
Sara
Say You Love Me
Big Love
Landslide
Never Going Back Again
Think About Me
Gypsy
Little Lies
Gold Dust Woman
I’m So Afraid
Go Your Own Way

Encore
Don’t Stop

This classic Fleetwood Mac lineup gave only one more full concert, two weeks’ later at the Classic East at New York’s Citi Field. Not long after they performed five songs in January 2018 when they were honored as MusiCares Person of the Year, the news was revealed that they were parting ways with Buckingham.