Rumours Fleetwood Mac Usher Hall Edinburgh 21st May 2024 Review
Image Copyright © 2024 CMP
Rumours of Fleetwood Mac were at the Usher Hall Edinburgh tonight, as part of their current, very busy tour schedule that, as always, celebrates the music of one of the most popular bands in musical history – Fleetwood Mac.
To be clear at the start of this review, RFM of course fall into the “tribute band” category and for many years now they have been accepted by many people as the most popular of the many FM bands out there. They are, however, the only one of these bands that Mick Fleetwood personally endorses by video at the start of every show.
A few things, however, separate RFM from many other similar bands and their attention to the detail of the songs of FM is one of them, and tonight as always there seemed to be a never ending selection of guitars played on-stage to make sure that the sound of that particular song was just as it should be. This band is also not touring lightly; the range of the on-stage technical equipment that they have is always impressive and no doubt needs some very specialist behind the scenes technical staff to make sure everything works just right on the night. Maybe the most important thing about RFM is that they are not a “clone band” and everyone in RFM knows that they are not the original FM and everyone in the audience knows that too. What connects both is simply celebrating this music together.
Like all “tribute to the music of” bands, RFM have always got a potential problem with the set list of any tour, and tonight was no different. That problem is that, despite having in this case such a vast catalogue of songs to choose from, there simply have to be so many of the most well-known ones performed or many people in the audience will get disappointed if they are omitted. Even then, the band is always going to overlook someone’s favourite song on the night.
It will be no surprise then that the set list tonight included “Rhiannon”, “Songbird”, “Oh Daddy”, “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop”, “Go Your Own Way”, “Little Lies”, and “Never Going Back”. Still though, the band have managed to put a few new musical surprises into this show and I have no intention of telling you what ones here just in case anyone reading this review has still to catch up with the band live on this tour.
As always in this show, the girls in the band take a short rest and the boys concentrate on the formative years of the band with founding member Peter Green, and British Blues fans in the audience get a trip down memory lane and a reminder of just how successful and influential this version of the band was in its day (and long after). How this British Blues band eventually transformed its band line up and musical style to become one of the most successful songwriting, performance and recording bands in musical history is of course a long and complicated story.
Bringing all the band line-up versions of FM together and their different influences and styles is never an easy task for anyone, but as usual the RFM band managed to do that tonight with the individual and combined talents of – ALLAN COSGROVE (DRUMS), JESS HARWOOD (LEAD VOCALS), JAMES HARRISON (LEAD GUITAR / VOCALS), SOPHIE WORSLEY (KEYBOARDS / LEAD VOCALS), DAVE GOLDBERG (KEYBOARDS / LEAD VOCALS), ETIENNE GIRARD (BASS GUITAR) and SCOTT POLEY (GUITARS / MUSICAL DIRECTOR).
As always, lead vocalist Jess Harwood has a lot of work to do on-stage as so many of the songs require her to be out in front of the band. Guitarist James Harrison also takes the male vocals on many songs and, together with Jess, you get that combination of talents that works so well because they have spent so much time over the years working together on these songs.
Allan Cosgrove on drums is always, to me, impressive and whilst many people would probably go for a song like “Tusk” to showcase his talents, for me it is his work on “Albatross” that always stands out. For a drummer, there is no hiding place in this song and any weakness in their ability to keep to a metronome-like timing will be instantly exposed. As always, Alan never waivers here.
There are no weak members in the RFM band at the moment, and Scott Poley needs a mention here too for some very strong guitar work that was often, away from his spotlight performances, just there in the background tonight doing exactly what any good guitarist should do – drop into the background when required but still play exactly what is needed. There was some excellent keyboard work too from Dave Goldberg with Etienne Girard always there and so precise on bass guitar. On keyboards and vocals Sophie Worsley gave this audience exactly what they wanted to hear too.
Oddly though it took, as always at the Usher Hall, well into the second half of the show for this audience to finally, at the band’s request, get up out of their seats and become a little less reserved. A lot of this though may have been that the venue itself seems to deter that happening at shows like this.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
To be clear at the start of this review, RFM of course fall into the “tribute band” category and for many years now they have been accepted by many people as the most popular of the many FM bands out there. They are, however, the only one of these bands that Mick Fleetwood personally endorses by video at the start of every show.
A few things, however, separate RFM from many other similar bands and their attention to the detail of the songs of FM is one of them, and tonight as always there seemed to be a never ending selection of guitars played on-stage to make sure that the sound of that particular song was just as it should be. This band is also not touring lightly; the range of the on-stage technical equipment that they have is always impressive and no doubt needs some very specialist behind the scenes technical staff to make sure everything works just right on the night. Maybe the most important thing about RFM is that they are not a “clone band” and everyone in RFM knows that they are not the original FM and everyone in the audience knows that too. What connects both is simply celebrating this music together.
Like all “tribute to the music of” bands, RFM have always got a potential problem with the set list of any tour, and tonight was no different. That problem is that, despite having in this case such a vast catalogue of songs to choose from, there simply have to be so many of the most well-known ones performed or many people in the audience will get disappointed if they are omitted. Even then, the band is always going to overlook someone’s favourite song on the night.
It will be no surprise then that the set list tonight included “Rhiannon”, “Songbird”, “Oh Daddy”, “Dreams”, “Don’t Stop”, “Go Your Own Way”, “Little Lies”, and “Never Going Back”. Still though, the band have managed to put a few new musical surprises into this show and I have no intention of telling you what ones here just in case anyone reading this review has still to catch up with the band live on this tour.
As always in this show, the girls in the band take a short rest and the boys concentrate on the formative years of the band with founding member Peter Green, and British Blues fans in the audience get a trip down memory lane and a reminder of just how successful and influential this version of the band was in its day (and long after). How this British Blues band eventually transformed its band line up and musical style to become one of the most successful songwriting, performance and recording bands in musical history is of course a long and complicated story.
Bringing all the band line-up versions of FM together and their different influences and styles is never an easy task for anyone, but as usual the RFM band managed to do that tonight with the individual and combined talents of – ALLAN COSGROVE (DRUMS), JESS HARWOOD (LEAD VOCALS), JAMES HARRISON (LEAD GUITAR / VOCALS), SOPHIE WORSLEY (KEYBOARDS / LEAD VOCALS), DAVE GOLDBERG (KEYBOARDS / LEAD VOCALS), ETIENNE GIRARD (BASS GUITAR) and SCOTT POLEY (GUITARS / MUSICAL DIRECTOR).
As always, lead vocalist Jess Harwood has a lot of work to do on-stage as so many of the songs require her to be out in front of the band. Guitarist James Harrison also takes the male vocals on many songs and, together with Jess, you get that combination of talents that works so well because they have spent so much time over the years working together on these songs.
Allan Cosgrove on drums is always, to me, impressive and whilst many people would probably go for a song like “Tusk” to showcase his talents, for me it is his work on “Albatross” that always stands out. For a drummer, there is no hiding place in this song and any weakness in their ability to keep to a metronome-like timing will be instantly exposed. As always, Alan never waivers here.
There are no weak members in the RFM band at the moment, and Scott Poley needs a mention here too for some very strong guitar work that was often, away from his spotlight performances, just there in the background tonight doing exactly what any good guitarist should do – drop into the background when required but still play exactly what is needed. There was some excellent keyboard work too from Dave Goldberg with Etienne Girard always there and so precise on bass guitar. On keyboards and vocals Sophie Worsley gave this audience exactly what they wanted to hear too.
Oddly though it took, as always at the Usher Hall, well into the second half of the show for this audience to finally, at the band’s request, get up out of their seats and become a little less reserved. A lot of this though may have been that the venue itself seems to deter that happening at shows like this.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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