AXS TV’s first season of The World’s Greatest Tribute Band just wound down.  Season 2 was just announced today, but the finale for season one was quite excellent, as the crowd in attendance went back in time to a 1977 Fleetwood Mac concert and relived a great moment in music history.

The band Rumours is a very authentic recreation of Fleetwood Mac during a period primarily focused on the self-titled Fleetwood Mac album and the incredible Rumours album, which truly is one of the greatest recordings of all time (released on 4 February 1977).  They faithfully recreated a live show from the tour from the undeniably classic album. 

 

In interviewing the “Lindsay Buckingham” of the band (Taylor Locke), along with Rumours’ “Christine McVie” (Rebecca Fishman) last week in full costume and character (and it being a quite believable experience), they stressed how there were three lead singers and songwriters in this 5 piece band that all wrote great music and were essentially competing with each other to get their songs on albums.    And if you are familiar with the band, you know of all the nonsense, infighting and weird, scandalous stuff that went on with the band during this period.  Wild times.   Ken Caillat (yes, Colbie’s dad) came out with a book last year called “Making Rumours” , in which he recalls details about producing the album. I attended his “Making Rumours” book signing around this same time in June last year (almost to the date – 360 days ago).

There was another sizeable crowd on hand for the event.  Not too long ago, Rumours actually enjoyed a “mini residency” of sorts at this same venue (The Roxy).

 

They nailed it with their look, speaking voices, accents, and mannerisms, as their costumes, equipment and moves were a perfect way to go back in time and reflect on how huge and incredible the Rumours album was when it was released.   And it’s truly stood the test of time.

They opened with”The Chain”, which was actually written by the entire band.  The majority of the remaining songs in the set were written by Stevie Nicks (“Gypsy”, “Landslide”, “Dreams”, “Silver Springs” and “Rhiannon” with four songs written by Christine McVie (“Don’t Stop”, “You Make Loving Fun”, “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me”) and two by Buckingham (“Second Hand News” and “Go Your Own Way”).

Christine McVie played by Rebecca Fishman

 

John McVie played by Nic Johns (Ben Lee, Margaret Cho)

Lindsay Buckingham played by Taylor Locke (Rooney, Taylor Locke and the Roughs)

 

Mick Fleetwood played by Ned Brower (Rooney, Mike Viola)

Stevie Nicks played by Jesika Miller

 

SET LIST/ SONG INFORMATION:

The Chain

You Make Lovin’ Fun

 

Dreams

Second Hand News

  

Over My Head

 

Don’t Stop

Gypsy

 

Landslide

 

Say You Love Me

Silver Springs

“Silver Springs” was actually released as a “B-side” to “Go Your Own Way” (bonus points for knowing what a B-side is – it means it was the other side of a small vinyl record album that had one song on each side).   It was never actually released on the Rumours album, but became a huge hit in 1997 when Fleetwood Mac reformed for “The Dance” (I caught two stops on that concert tour – one at the Hollywood Bowl and the following week at Irvine Meadows October 17 – it was quite spectacular).  And, ironically, they played every song on that tour that Rumours played tonight with the exception of “Over My Head”.

COMMERCIAL BREAK:

Rhiannon

Go Your Own Way

 

Full Set List: 

“The Chain”
“You Make Loving Fun”
“Dreams”
“Second Hand News”
“Over My Head”
“Don’t Stop”
“Gypsy”
“Landslide”
“Say You Love Me”
“Silver Springs”
Encore”
“Rhiannon”
“Go Your Own Way”

The musicianship was excellent throughout.   Buckingham’s guitar parts were played exceptionally (he received a lot of praise from guitar players after the show) and the rhythm section was just fantastic.  Given how great the players in Fleetwood Mac are, that’s not an easy task.    The facial expressions and mannerisms of “Mick Fleetwood” were priceless.  You couldn’t help but giggle at how funny and accurate he was with his portrayal.   Seeing “John McVie” playing bass right behind “Christine McVie” was pretty cool (they divorced shortly after the Rumours tour).  Their keyboard/piano and bass parts sounded great.  The use of the vintage equipment from that era really brought the spirit and sound of the band to life.  Great job.   

Several of The World’s Greatest Tribute Bands “All Star Vocalists” (past performers/ lead singers from Season 1) photo-bombed the stage towards the end of the set:

MORE PICTURES OF THE “ALL STARS of SEASON ONE” AXS TV WORLD’S GREATEST TRIBUTE BANDS

 

      

Katie had the Season 1 alums come up on stage at the end of the encore to celebrate the conclusion of the season.    

 

What a fun way this was to end Season 1!   Season 2 information is now available online. 

 

 

side note: Buckingham also wrote “Monday Morning” and “Never Going Back Again” during the time period, which are two of their best songs ever.  Had the set been longer, those are two more songs I would have wanted to hear.  Another really great song from that era is “I Don’t Want To Know”, which was  written by Stevie Nicks.   And since they ever so slightly broke out of the time frame by playing “Gypsy” from 1982’s Mirage (introducing it as a “new song that Stevie has been working on”), it would have been super-cool if they had played Buckingham’s “Holiday Road” from the Vacation movies.   Not ever likely, but that song rules.  

RUMOURS – THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE TO FLEETWOOD MAC

www.rumourstributeshow.com

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I just saw Queen live at AXS TV’s The World’s Greatest Tribute Bands at the Roxy last month.  I left feeling like I was at a Queen concert.  I’ve seen many tributes to Queen over the years and consider myself a big fan of their music.  They are easily one of the most important rock bands ever.

I got into an accident in 1980 when I was a little kid.   In the hospital, I was given Queen’s “The Game” on cassette as a “get well present”.   The album had just come out and big song on the radio at the time was “Another One Bites the Dust”.   I became a huge Queen fan.  

I still have many soundtracks where they played music for movies.  Two of my favorites are their tunes on “Iron Eagle” and “Flash Gordon” (and who can forget Highlander?).

 

I was coming home from the Tom Petty concert at The Forum on November 24, 1991 when they announced on the radio that Freddie Mercury had died.   I never actually saw him live in concert.   At that point, I owned a CD player and every one of their recordings and really regretted never seeing him play. 

I did catch Queen with Paul Rodgers at the Hollywood Bowl in October of 2005.   I actually caught a portion of Queen Nation in 2008 and they were fantastic.  Last year, I was Queen Extravaganza at Club Nokia.  That show was absolutely incredible.

Queen Nation pays tribute to Queen so well that they truly deserve the recognition they’ve received.

Constitution park was packed.    There were thousands of people here.  This was a large concert.     The amount of people in line for the  outhouses outnumbered rivaled the size of the crowd for a normal draw of an average touring band.  

They did quite a few of the same songs as their AXS TV appearance and kicked it up a notch with tons of other classics.   Queen was a great band because of the compositional value of their tunes.   Their music has a special quality to it that makes them an incredibly unique band.  They even did a few lesser-known song, which sounded great and they didn’t seem to lose the crowd in the process. 

My favorite Queen song of all time is “Dragon Attack” (from “The Game” cassette, of course), which is such a killer, heavy song..  They absolutely nailed it.  That was the highlight for me.      They also played a rocking version of “Stone Cold Crazy”, which has been covered by Metallica.   It was quite a metal moment seeing Queen Nation rocked Central Camarillo.   That was an incredible performance. . 

  

Some more highlights included “Somebody to Love”,  “Killer Queen”, and “Don’t Stop me Now”    

This lady got to ring the bell for “Bicycle Race”

 

 

What an incredible rhythm section.   Songs like “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Under Pressure” had the place hopping.  

Of course they played “Another one Bites the Dust”, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, “We Will Rock You” and “We are the Champions”.

“Freddie Mercury” and “Brian May” were remarkable.   My buddy and I agreed that seeing them makes you feel like you just saw Queen.  It was incredible.   What a fantastic job.

Queen Nation IS the real deal.  

QUEEN NATION FACEBOOK

QUEEN NATION TWITTER

         

 

 

 

 

Gregory Finsley/ Freddie Mercury – vocals

Mike McManus/ Brian May – lead guitar

 

Parker Combs/ John Deacon  – bass

 

Pete Burke / Roger Taylor – drums