Live

The Tusk world tour lasted between October '79 and September '80 and was so successful that a double album featuring some of 'the best bits' was released in the December after, to keep fans entertained while the band got round to recording the next studio album. It's the first live album by the band to feature the current line-up of Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Fleetwood Mac..." starts off the album, followed by a guitar intro that goes into an electric performance of Monday morning. Say you love me follows with Christine vocally proving her worth alongside natural front people Lindsey and Stevie. Then we come to Dreams which was rather disappointingly recorded at a Paris soundcheck (Don't go is also from a soundcheck, but appears later in the album), and it stands out for not having any crowd noise although Stevie is vocally on top form.

The only pre-Fleetwood Mac white album band song to appear is Oh well, which Lindsey puts his own stamp on and really makes his own. The guitar solo is out of this world and makes for a definite highlight on this album, and I think I may even prefer it to the original. This flows into a nice version of Over & over, and it's good to hear Christine's endearing talking voice as she introduces the song. A seven minute version of Sara comes after, which is a song that never sounds anything other than great.

Lindsey gives everything he's got on a nine minute interpretation of Not that funny, turning a pretty good song into a feast of epic proportions. Naturally there is a lot of instrumental, with some dazzling guitar work at the end. I'm not sure if drugs are responsible for the strange noises he makes in the middle but it all comes together like a masterpiece. Far better than the version on Tusk. He then slows it down for an emotional version of Never going back again, which shows off his vocal talents like never before, and not even Stevie can outdo him on her heart-rending performance of Landslide (although she comes close).

The second album starts with the first of three new songs that were recorded in front of friends and the road crew. Fireflies was written and sung by Stevie Nicks, and was also released as a single the following year. It's a nice song which has a good energy to it. Christine then introduces Over my head as "the first single we ever had from the white Fleetwood Mac album" and they give another strong performance. The mighty Rhiannon follows, complete with extra lyrics, and the guitars at the end bring some added power to the song making you wish you were there at the time (lucky you if you were).

Don't let me down again isn't a new track but was originally on the self-titled Buckingham Nicks album from 1973 and was written by Lindsey. It's a powerful performance on here and has more guts than the original version. One more night definitely is a new track which was written and performed by Christine McVie. It is a tender ballad that shows off her vocal talents to the max. Lovely.

Lindsey then gives an almighty performance of Go your own way which starts with him screaming to the audience. The band are all great on this and it seems like they might be trying to outdo each other, but they all sound like they are having a good time which makes for an electric performance. After such a rush it's then a bit of a come-down to have a soundcheck performance of Don't stop, a song which is anthemic enough to benefit from some crowd participation. It's a strong performance nonetheless, but would have sounded so much better in front of a crowd.

I'm so afraid is the most bluesy thing on here, and you can really feel the pain and angst in Lindsey's voice, which together with the strong guitars make for a really outstanding performance that goes on for eight and a half minutes. I can only imagine what it was like to be in the crowd at this point. The album finishes with the last of the 'new' tracks, which is actually a cover of The Beach Boys' The Farmer's daughter. It was around this time that Christine was having a relationship with Dennis Wilson, so I don't know if that prompted the interest in recording one of their tracks. Whatever, it's a good cover which has great harmonies in it.

Having listened to this album a couple of times now I would definitely recommend that fans should get it, especially for the new tracks, although I would have preferred it if all the tracks had been sung in front of a crowd to get a real feel of what a Fleetwood Mac concert would have been like in those golden days. There are also some strange omissions, there's no Tusk, The Chain, Songbird or You make loving fun, all of which would surely have gone down a storm at the time. Although I'm usually more of a fan of the girls, and everyone gives a very strong performance on here, it's really Lindsey that steals the show overall and he has really gone up in my estimation after this.