DVD BLURAY & TV
ROSS HALFIN
Mick Fleetwood andfriends...
Christine McVie
Jeremy Spencer
Billy Gibbons
Noel Gallagher
…and Pete Townshend
MICK FLEETWOOD AND FRIENDS
CELEBRATE THE MUSIC OF PETER GREEN AND THE EARLY YEARS OF FLEETWOOD MAC
BMG/MAN OF THE WORLD PICTURES
7/10
Mick Fleetwood rounds up a distinctly varied set of guests for a well-timed tribute to his Mac co-founder.
By
Nigel
Williamson
THERE’S a slyly self-deprecating moment when Mick Fleetwood walks on stage at the start of this film of the tribute concert he organised for Peter Green at the London Palladium, just a month before the world went into lockdown last year.
“I’m going to be reading some stuff off the teleprompter here andI’ll do my dyslexic best, so bear with me through the evening,” he says – and everyone gets the reference as minds flash back to the Brit Awards in 1989 when Fleetwood and Samantha Fox presided over one of the most excruciatingly embarrassing screwups in the history of popular music.
Fortunately, Fleetwood has learnt a thing or two about emceeing in the three decades that have passed since that infamous night. Onthis occasion his timing was impeccable. Although Green himself wasn’t well enough to attend, he was at least still around to appreciate the honour. Five months later he was dead, aged 73, exactly half a century after he had walked out on Fleetwood Mac, his mind bent out of shape by acid visions and a desire to turn his back on fame and give away his money and his guitars.
The strength of the filming here lies in its simplicity. There’s an opening clip of rehearsals at Fleetwood’s oceanside home in Hawaii, a bit of Woodstock-style split screen, some brief backstage glimpses and a smattering of archive footage of Fleetwood Mac in their late-’60s pomp that leaves one wanting more. But basically it’s a point-and-shoot concert film, as crisp and uncluttered as you could want. That means the focus is entirely on the performances of the somewhat motley crew Fleetwood spent two years assembling. From the ranks of those who actually played with Green, there’s John Mayall, looking not a day under his 86 years but sounding half a century younger as he sings