April 24 2013 – Tonight T-Mak World saw Fleetwood Mac perform at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. This was a very special experience and and one that we wish to share in great detail, if that sounds interesting then read on dear fans of good music…
Warning: If you want a generic Fleetwood Mac concert review, go to the website of the daily newspaper of any city the band played in so far and you can read dozens of similar stories. If you instead prefer a more in-depth look of Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 tour from a fan’s perspective – you came to the right place. The following article is presented in 2 parts; the Mick Fleetwood VIP event (this story), and the actual concert review from Newark New Jersey on April 24 2013 (which you can read here), we recommend reading them both in order for full enjoyment. We also have an article with videos of the night here.
Note: If you are a Stevie Nicks fan make sure you check out our video of her full interview at her In Your Dreams Canadian film premiere in Toronto here from a few days ago.
Mick Fleetwood VIP Event.
Let’s rewind to the juicy beginning. While searching for tickets for Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 tour I got an alert from Mick Fleetwood‘s email list. Fleetwood (the man) in association with a company called ground(ctrl) were offering VIP packages in the first 5 rows at one of the upcoming Fleetwood Mac (the band) shows. Being used to the overpriced offerings from Live Nation I almost didn’t pay attention to the information I had in front of me. What appeared to be too good to be true? Well $425 got you a pre-concert Q&A with Mick Fleetwood, as well as a photo with him, but most importantly a seat in the first 5 rows. The best part was, unlike Live Nation’s VIP Nation, you actually know where you will be sitting before you purchased. I scoured all the show offerings with one thing in mind – front row center. After having seen hundreds of concerts I always had a desire to have a ticket in row 1 (or row A) and to my surprise a couple of tour stops had them available. Newark, NJ was the closest so I pulled the trigger and decided I would fly across the border for a chance to see Fleetwood Mac from the most sacred of thrones in any arena show.
The VIP experience began with an email 2 days before the show that read simply:
“This a one-time informational email for the upcoming Mick Fleetwood VIP event taking place at Prudential Center on 04/24/13.
Please make sure to bring your photo ID and meet at the box office at 5:30pm. The VIP Coordinator will then check you in and bring you inside the building for your meet and greet. If you do not show up at the time listed above, we cannot guarantee that you will be granted admission into the VIP event.”
At 5:30 p.m. off to the box office and pick up the ticket. Right in front of the box office was our Coordinator (Don) who checked off names on a list and handed a lanyard with a 3D image of Mick with big VIP letters on it. All in all I would say there were about 30-35 people that purchased the VIP package.
Just after 6 p.m. we wer still in the box office area which is adjacent to the back of the floors section at the Pru and we begin to hear Fleetwood Mac kick off their sound check. Standing close to the door of the floors it was pretty obvious they were playing Second Hand News as their one and only sound check tune. The rules were repeated a couple of times “No cameras, no texting, no touching anything on stage. You will be asked to leave immediately if you break the rules”. We were also told we can ask Fleetwood anything but he may refuse to answer or answer with “it was the 70’s, I don’t remember”. ;-)
Eventually at 6:15 we were let in and were escorted to the first three rows on stage right (Stevie’s side). Within a couple of minutes Fleetwood walks in and tells everyone to get up on stage! All VIP members get up on stage and form a semi-circle around Fleetwood who is standing between where Nicks and McVie would play from.
Fleetwood tells people to watch the end of the stage and kicks off with jokes about the guy from Nirvana that would dive off the stage and how he might be a bit too old to do that. He mentions that this is the beginning of the tour (10th date tonight) and that “it’s a rallying of the gang”. Fleetwood Mac get together to do these tours when the time is right and everyone else has finished whatever it is they are doing. He speaks about the band doing what they like to do best and gives insight on how the new lights malfunctioned the first few shows and that now are no longer part of the set. He jokes saying “McVie who is very thrifty said – great we just saved 300 grand”. After 5 minutes he thanks everyone for coming and says “welcome to our world”. He then tells everyone to get lined up to take a picture with him. Fleetwood spoke with authority, good humour, and a confident voice.
The picture portion is very rushed and everyone gets about 5 seconds with Fleetwood in front of his drumkit and Don (the ControlAlt coordinator) takes a couple of quick snaps. A quick hello nice to meet you is pretty much all anyone has time to say, but the picture does capture a great memory.
Once everyone finishes their pictures they go back to their seat and wait for Fleetwood to come down. He ends up standing up down in front of the stage. Questions are shouted out and as that happens Don gathers one item from each person which gets passed to Fleetwood to autograph them as they come to him (as he is talking to answer questions).
I got to ask the first question (since Fleetwood was right in front of me), and it was “Can we expect a new record?”. Fleetwood answers with “We hope so, we are putting out an EP within hours or days on iTunes and eventually will release 4 new songs. We only found out this was going to happen just 2 weeks ago. Then it will go to other formats after iTunes. We hope that that in some shape or form – Lindsey, John and myself got in the studio to record some songs and we left areas for Stevie to sing. It will hopefully become something that will grow out of the EP, and I hope during the breaks on this long tour we can work on the potential of Stevie’s 3 or 4 tracks that could be made into an album. If not I am just very glad we have something new out, while we are doing this. Stevie had a really busy 2 years that meant it was not possible for her to join what we were doing and sadly she lost her mom and it wasn’t speakable until now. Before we went on the road she went in and did some singing so it’s the beginning of something that we hope will happen.”
The next question was about Christine McVie joining on stage in London and which show. Fleetwood states that he does not know which show but the best would be to go to both shows at the O2 shows to be sure. (At this point I had flashbacks of being at the O2 for Roger Waters and not knowing which show David Gilmour would show up to play Comfortably Numb on The Wall tour – I was there that lucky night and you can read about that here if interested). Fleetwood also claims that McVie is willing to do this in exchange for a trip to Hawaii with him. He says “we all hope she at least starts writing music again” and that she claims that she doesn’t miss music. Fleetwood claimed he is skeptical about that though. He wants to see how she feels stepping on stage again and see what she is missing.
The next question is about Fleetwood’s winemaking which he answers with pride. He says he has been doing wine for about 12 years now and it is a lot of work. The wine business is way worse than the music business he claims and involves a lot of “back-handers” and “playing the game”. He says it is available in Mauii and jokes how bad would it be to travel all the way there to try the wine and it tastes like crap.
The next question is about the setlist and if they will play older tracks. Fleetwood says no with authority as the old songs are really from a different band and a different time era. He does reveal though that in Europe they will play Peter Green’s Oh Well (a Fleetwood Mac song from 1969) he says which is great news for the people there.
Next someone asks about the bracelets he is wearing and Fleetwood states it’s the hippy in him and was given to him from his ex-wife Sarah. She had one made and he copied them with gold or silver. He offers to sell off one of them as a joke.
Fleetwood spends a little time talking about himself and his nonmusical endeavors. Particularly his car racing and some races he ran at 130 miles per hour as well as his acting career and admits to have anxiety for remembering lines but it was fun to do The Running Man. He also made terrible B movies and some children’s films and 15 years ago he gave up on that. Last but not least he talks about using a cane as a walking stick while climbing up mountains in Mauii which is where he lives and runs a restaurant which is actually a lot of work but a lot of fun. He claims he runs a restaurant because he loves to interact with people and the restaurant is part of his grand plan for when he stops touring with Fleetwood Mac. The people on the island call him Uncle Mick which he says is kinda cool! He also tells us his Mom lives with him and he will go back on the tour break to see her and his girlfriend.
Mick Fleetwood finishes by stating that he will have a drum solo tonight and he does still get nervous before going on stage. He truly thanks everyone for coming out for this and if it wasn’t for the fans they (Fleetwood Mac) would be having to play in their living rooms.
Roughly 40 minutes after we walked to the empty Prudential Center we are finished and walk back out to join the growing crowds for tonight’s show. Truly a very cool experience and one that surely will be remembered for a long time from everyone that was there. Mick Fleetwood is as a down to earth guy you have ever met and it would be phenomenal to hang out with him for an hour or two and listen to him tell stories of a rock star’s life while drinking a bottle of his wine with him. You can read part 2 of this story here (this is the actual concert review as seen from front row center) – the Fleetwood Mac concert review 2013
Verdict: 5 out of 5 – A once in a lifetime experience to get great insight from a rock and roll legend. The laws of supply and demand dictate the price of such a VIP experience, but I must say this is one of the most reasonably priced packages available to concert goers. Kudos to ground(ctrl) for a job very well done.
NOTE – there are still VIP packages available for a few cities, if you like what you read do not hesitate to buy – we give it our strongest possible recommendation for value and life experience! Tickets here. We leave you with the video of Mick Fleetwood’s drum solo.
Review, Photos – Terry Makedon T-Mak World: Toronto’s Site for Music, Movies and Culture www.tmakworld.com | Twitter | Facebook Get the T-Mak World Toolbar below to get all the info you need
Awesome article and all very very true! You have an amazing memory Terry, thanks for writing it, and including all the little details. It was one of the most memorable experiences my husband and I ever had along with the meet and greet we had with Stevie in 2009 at the Borgata in AC NJ, was just the two of us and she was awesome as well! cheers to Mick Fleetwood and Groundctrl.com!
If he sells off that bracelet, I’ll have mince meat made out of him!!!!!!!!
Oh oh oh! And he said that on what would have been our 25th wedding anniversary!
Somebody get the minced meat maker!!!!!!!!!
We just did the VIP package in Kansas City. Your article described our KC experience as well. It was a fantastic evening. I do have one question. Where did you go to get your picture with Mick. We were told to go to mickfleetwoodofficial.com but so far I haven’t found any pictures.
Thanks and thanks for your article.
Scott Whittaker
Hi Scott they will email you the link to the photos a day or two after the show.