Fleetwood Mac Means Money

I was flipping the channels on my remote recently and I came upon a Fleetwood Mac concert on a PBS station.

At least I thought it was Fleetwood Mac when I first started watching. They looked a little young. After all, Fleetwood Mac is older than I am. However, I thought this might be a replay of an old concert. That idea passed when there was a shot of the audience and the clothing and hair styles did not look out of place. Nevertheless, the music and vocals were spot on.

I watched another song and the program then took a break so that the PBS station could do some fundraising. That is when it became clear that this was a "tribute group" that goes by the name of Rumours of Fleetwood Mac that is currently touring the United States.

The group's gig is that they re-create all of the great songs of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours album and others. The PBS station was offering tickets to a live concert in consideration of a donation to the station.

I watched for another set or two and did some "second screen" research on Fleetwood Mac in order to refresh my recollection about the group. Stevie Nicks, the great lead singer, is now 70 years old. Mick Fleetwood, the drummer, is 71. Christine McVie is now 75.

I am by no means a music buff. I have probably not been to more than 25 concerts in my entire life. I doubt that I paid my own money to go to more than half of those.

However, I did buy the Rumours album when it was released in 1977. As of 2013, it had sold 40 million copies making it one of the top selling albums of all time. (5th ranked all-time according to Wikipedia). It is undoubtedly still collecting dust in my basement.

I eventually flipped to a couple of other channels and I came across another PBS channel with another Fleetwood Mac concert. This was the real deal and was from a reunion performance by the band in 1997.

I watched several songs and then this PBS station cut to a break so it also could also do some fundraising. What were they offering? A DVD of the concert for a generous donation.

What does this tell me?

It was no coincidence that two PBS stations were using Fleetwood Mac in fundraising efforts.

Fleetwood Mac means money. At least when it comes to tapping the wallets of aging Baby Boomers. This has to be a proven formula to appeal to the emotions and the beneficence of those with fond memories of an earlier age.

If you are interested, Fleetwood Mac recently kicked off a 50+ cities North American tour that will extend into Spring, 2019.

That tour is proceeding without lead guitarist and male vocalist Lindsey Buckingham who was "fired" by the band earlier this year. Buckingham has filed a lawsuit regarding his dismissal in which he alleges "breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage."

Prospective economic advantage? I think he has a point. Rolling Stone magazine reports that each member of the group is expected to earn $12-14 million for the 60 concerts in the tour.

Fleetwood Mac, 1975

Fleetwood Mac, 2018
Credit: Rolling Stone Magazine

The Rumours of Fleetwood group has also allowed the original group to effectively clone itself. The licensing and royalty fees from this group alone must insure that the original Fleetwood Mac artists are not worrying about cashing their Social Security checks to live on.

Rumours of Fleetwood Mac is also touring North America right now. You can't go wrong with them either.

Rumours of Fleetwood Mac

Just understand that if you to listen to Fleetwood Mac you might find you suddenly have an irresistible urge to contribute to a PBS station.