How Fleetwood Mac’s reboot came to include Neil Finn

WHEN the news broke this week that Fleetwood Mac had sacked Lindsey Buckingham and replaced him with Neil Finn, many music fans thought it was a very late April Fools’ joke.

WHEN the news broke this week that Fleetwood Mac had sacked Lindsey Buckingham and replaced him with Neil Finn, many music fans thought it was a very late April Fools’ joke.

After all, just three months ago Buckingham and his band mates had put on a united front in New York at an awards show.

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He even told the crowd: “What we are feeling even more now in our career is love. This has always been a group of chemistry.”

But once Buckingham’s surprise exit was confirmed, it became merely the latest chapter in the history of the most dysfunctional band in rock.

It’s not even the first time Buckingham has left the Mac — he jumped ship in 1987 before rejoining a decade later.

Fleetwood Mac in the 1970s.

The constant tensions within Fleetwood Mac were famously laid bare in the band’s biggest album, 1977’s mega-platinum Rumours, which was literally the soundtrack to on-and-off workplace romances between hard-living and hard-loving members Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Mick Fleetwood, as well as Christine and John McVie.

Buckingham and Nicks joined the already established band in 1974 as a couple, and by the time of the Fleetwood Mac album in 1975 (home to Landslide, Rhiannon and Say You Love Me) they’d split and the McVies’ marriage was ending. Nicks would go on to briefly date Fleetwood, whose marriage had also finished.

That Rumours line-up is the most successful, but the Mac’s revolving-door approach means the band has had 12 official members, including the freshly booted Buckingham.

That’s more than AC/DC but still not quite as many as Guns N’ Roses or Iron Maiden.

When Christine McVie rejoined the band in 2014 — she had left in 1998 — it was the iconic line-up back on stage together. Including sold-out Australian dates in 2015, the reunion world tour netted them more than $250 million.

McVie knew it was what fans had been waiting for.

Fleetwood Mac. Picture: Marc Robertson

“It’s utter joy,” she told the Herald Sun at the time. “You make eye contact with people who are almost crying because they can’t believe they’re seeing the Rumours five back again, they can’t believe their eyes.

“It’s almost like a family reunion on stage — there’s no angst, no animosity, just a tremendous amount of friendship. First and foremost we are a family. Dysfunctional though we might have been, we’re not now. We genuinely enjoy eachothers’ company.”

To mark McVie’s return to the fold, Nicks gave her friend a silver chain, a metaphorical gift which McVie said represented the fact that “the chain of the band will never be broken”. She then added: “Not by me anyway. Not again by me.”

But it wasn’t McVie who would break ranks. She took one for the team with last year’s Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie album. It was originally meant to be a brand new Fleetwood Mac album — Mick Fleetwood and John McVie play on it — but Nicks was notable by her absence. Rather than work with the Mac, Nicks issued an album of previously unreleased material and went on a solo tour that highlighted her friendship with Tom Petty and Prince and her long history with Buckingham.

Music industry whispers suggest the relationship between Nicks and Buckingham had become so toxic that they could barely be in a studio together, let alone in the same band.

Fleetwood Mac in January this year. Picture: AP

The former lovers had put the bad blood behind them for many years, but it seems Mick Fleetwood calls the shots and opted for Nicks over Buckingham to keep the band together.

Buckingham requires two men to replace him — Neil Finn and Tom Petty’s guitarist Mike Campbell.

Music icon Molly Meldrum is pleasantly surprised by the move. “I think it’s fantastic,” Meldrum says.

“I’ve known Fleetwood Mac for a long time and Neil Finn back to the Split Enz days, and he’ll be perfect in that band.”

Neil Finn’s longtime publicist Peter Green (no relation to the man who founded Fleetwood Mac in 1967) says joining Fleetwood Mac is the latest in a long line of unexpected choices for the Kiwi musical genius.

“I recall Neil saying, ‘It’s one of life’s exciting adventures, you have to grab on to it’,” Green says. “Like when he joined elder brother Tim’s band Split Enz in 1977, Neil was the youngest. Same for Fleetwood Mac, but unlike when he joined the Enz, Neil now has a bit of a pedigree.

“He’s no longer a kid from Te Awamutu — and this time his guitar playing and vocals will certainly be in the mix.

“I like it that Neil’s musical career isn’t a predictable straight line, with lots of interesting detours.

“This certainly is one. The original shock and confusion seems to have settled into fascination, intrigue and a touch of pride for many.

“When your inbox suddenly has 47,000 emails, you know it has become a topic that fans are talking about.”

The connection between the new band mates stretches back to 1981, when Split Enz opened for Tom Petty in the US.

The connection between the new band mates stretches back to 1981, when Split Enz opened for Tom Petty in the US — around the time Stevie Nicks was a regular on Petty’s tour duetting live with him on their smash hit Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.

And Mick Fleetwood played on some of Finn’s solo material when at his studio in Auckland.

“They stayed in contact,” Green says. “Neil having a jam in Maui with Fleetwood Mac a few weeks back probably came from that connection. I can’t imagine Neil doing this if the jam session wasn’t fresh and exciting.”

Music journalist Jeff Jenkins says Finn joining the band is more of a shock than Axl Rose fronting AC/DC after they ousted Brian Johnson.

“If it were simply ‘Buckingham out, Finn in’, I’m not sure it would be the right move,” Jenkins says. “But Mike Campbell is a great guitarist and I think he’s a logical replacement for Buckingham — and he would have been looking for a gig after the sad passing of Tom Petty.

“It will be fascinating to see how this move is received by Fleetwood Mac fans in the US. Of course, Neil Finn is a god in our part of the world, but he hasn’t had a Top 40 album in the US in 30 years.

“Credit to Neil for making such a left-field move. This is almost like a footballer switching codes. Will it work? I’m not sure. But he can always go back to his solo career and Crowded House, and making albums with his brother Tim.

“And who wouldn’t say ‘Yes’ to joining Fleetwood Mac? What a classic catalogue of songs!

“It’s also important to remember that Fleetwood Mac line-up changes have been commonplace over the years.

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“The Fleetwood and the Mac — Mick Fleetwood and John McVie — have been the only constants. Lindsey, Stevie and Christine have all come and gone and come back again. I wouldn’t rule out Lindsey one day returning to the band. It is rock’s greatest soap opera.”

Neil and son Liam will release their debut album Light Sleeper in August. But the music world will be far more interested in how Neil fits into Fleetwood Mac.

Green says: “It’s a bit too soon to tell how it will work. I honestly haven’t asked him (much about it), I want to be surprised. Lindsey Buckingham is such a huge part of the soul of Fleetwood Mac, so I’d imagine it being exceptionally respectful.

“Fleetwood Mac is a mighty beast that takes over one’s life. Finn-Campbell will add fresh blood, which can be great for a band. Like many, I am fascinated as to what the result will be.”

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