Bruised but still potent Fleetwood Mac on tour

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, June 24, 2004

A year ago, as Fleetwood Mac got set to release its new studio CD, “Say You Will,” drummer Mick Fleetwood knew any extended future for the reunited group would probably hinge on how things went on the impending tour to support the CD.

“Hopefully this will be a happy and successful tour – and more importantly a happy tour for everyone – this next year and a half of work,” Fleetwood said.

Apparently so.

The band, which these days includes guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham, singer Stevie Nicks and bassist John McVie, is on the road again. Their current American tour, without Christine McVie, brings them to the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn on Thursday night.

“It could have turned into a nightmare, and it didn’t,” Fleetwood said of the tour. What helps, of course, is that life has changed in drastic ways for the band members, whose personal dramas during the 1970s and ’80s were as big a storyline as their record-setting success.

In 2003, after years of ups and down, Fleetwood Mac emerged with the solid 18-song “Say You Will” CD, no Christine McVie, but at least the tenuous prospect of an extended future as a group.

The year of touring that has since followed, Fleetwood said, has done much to rebuild the bruised but still-potent chemistry in the group.

The fact that the wild days are behind the band and that all four members are far more settled in their personal lives has done a lot as well to make the reunion work, according to Fleetwood.

The boys in the band are all happily married, with Buckingham a father of three young children, including a daughter born earlier this spring, and Fleetwood the father of two children from his current marriage. Nicks is single, but by all accounts content in her life.

In addition to touring, there are several current projects for Fleetwood and his bandmates. The albums “Fleetwood Mac,” “Rumours” and “Tusk” were recently re-released, with the latter two each featuring a bonus CD of previously unreleased demos and outtakes.

And a new CD/DVD, “Live In Boston,” has just hit the stores. The two-disc DVD was filmed last year during a two-show stand in Boston.

“It’s just us where we are now,” Fleetwood said.

“It certainly, as a document, is to me is a really important one, as they (live recordings) all are. This is the first one without Christine. So in many ways, it’s very different in the dynamic in terms of what’s happening between the four of us up there on stage, and it turned out real good.”

Fleetwood Mac

* 8 p.m. Thursday, White River Amphitheatre, Auburn, $36.50-$150.50 at Ticketmaster, 206-628-0888, www.ticketmaster.com.