Prior to the release of arguably one of Fleetwood Mac’s most popular and renowned albums ‘Tango in the Night’, rumours had circulated that the band had officially split up. Mick Fleetwood had filed for bankruptcy, John McVie suffered from an alcohol induced seizure whilst Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie enjoyed solo career success. And although Stevie Nicks did too, she checked into Betty Ford Clinic to battle her cocaine addiction. However Buckingham didn’t want their previous album ‘Mirage’ to be the bands final outing and we’re REALLY glad it wasn’t!
As our session began, the opening track ‘Down the Endless Street’ might have sounded familiar to the die-hard Mac fans, as it was the B-side to the fourth single from ‘Tango in the Night’, ‘Family Man’. Unquestionably it’s a perfect way to kick off our session as it has that classic 80s sound and is a great embodiment of the band. The second track however ‘Special Kind of Love’ is one of many that had been locked away for 30 years and we can’t imagine why. Written by Lindsey Buckingham, it’s a synth happy track with a really bouncy and light melody that could have easily squeezed onto the album, especially considering the quality of the recordings at Buckingham’s LA studio where the final album was also recorded.
By track three we headed into demo and early version territory of some absolute classics. A cheer filled the room for Stevie Nicks’ early demo of ‘Seven Wonders’. Although sparse in comparison to its finished recording, it’s still an absolute belter. The following demo version of ‘Tango in the Night’ however was very reminiscent of the ‘Tusk’ era with plenty of experimental quirks that leads us to think it could have very well ended up on the album.
There were plenty of stripped back moments on the album that reminded us of the beautiful and delicate piano work Christine McVie is capable of. Case in point is ‘Where We Belong’ that could have easily had a place on the album had it passed the early vocal and piano demo we were treated too. A piano only version of ‘Mystified’ came later, which in its instrumental form only reinforced the undeniable talent of McVie when she steps up to the keys. To play out the album ‘You and I’ Parts One and Two were finally married together as previously were separated to their own LP and B-side releases. If you consider yourself a big Fleetwood Mac fan, this reissue is one you simply can’t miss.
Our Event
To celebrate the release of the reissue we teamed up with Richer Sounds and Warner UK to hold an exclusive UK premiere of the unreleased tracks in our Melomania venue. Competition winners were greeted with ‘Tango in the Night’ played over our custom built sound system with some beautiful artwork on show to get everyone warmed up and in the mood. Stuart Wheeley from Warner Music was in attendance to introduce and give insight into each unreleased track before we heard them.
After the session had ended, some exclusive prizes were given away and more drinks were poured whilst we played out the night with some of Fleetwood Mac’s greatest hits. A fantastic night was had by all!
Make sure you check out our video from the night below to see exactly what went down. The reissue of ‘Tango in the Night’ is out on the 30th March.