(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Mick Fleetwood is one of the top people you can talk to about what keeps a rock and roll band together. It might seem insane to entertain that idea since Fleetwood Mac have broken apart so many times, but throughout every iteration, Mick has always been the steady foundation of the group, and alongside John McVie, he’s created one of the most enduring rhythm sections that rock and roll has ever seen. But there were always going to be opportunities where he had to sweet-talk some people into embracing rock and roll once again.
But as we’ve seen from the walking rock and roll soap opera, sweet-talking doesn’t always work. Lindsey Buckingham was determined to leave the band before Tango in the Night was brought to the stage, and even if they were trying to accommodate whatever he wanted, that didn’t stop the guitarist and Stevie Nicks from getting into a physical brawl halfway through the band meeting.
Fleetwood couldn’t always get everyone on the same page, but he was one of the few artists that everyone in the band listened to. He had been there since the early days with Peter Green in the late 1960s, and even if someone had strong opinions about where the music should be going, Fleetwood was treated like the wise sage who knew everything there was to know about the music business.
And that didn’t only apply to the members of ‘The Mac’, either. Fleetwood knew that many artists hadn’t said their final goodbyes properly, and while The Dance may have given the original lineup a new lease on life in the 1990s, the drummer couldn’t help but feel sad looking at Jimmy Page and Robert Plant getting together to play Led Zeppelin tunes without John Paul Jones.
For him, they were still among the finest rock bands to walk the Earth, and when he got ahold of Page, he knew he needed to plead his case for Zeppelin to give it one more shot, saying in 2007, “When we played in London last year, he came to see us. And I was talking to him from a fan point of view, telling him: ‘So many people want to see Led Zeppelin back together!’ And he was telling me: ‘No, man, the rest of the guys don’t want to do it right now’ and ‘I don’t know if I’ll be able to pull it off’. But I told him: ‘You gotta do it! If we can do it, you can!’ So I wouldn’t say I was responsible for Zeppelin getting back together, but after that, they did play that great tribute gig.”
If Zeppelin were going to come back, it would have to be done right. They had been out of practice for years, but when listening to Celebration Day, it was like they hadn’t aged a day since the early 1980s, with Plant’s voice still being in fine form and Page proving to everyone why he was considered a genius.
It was always going to be disheartening knowing that John Bonham wasn’t there, but with his son, Jason, subbing in for him, this was as close to a Zeppelin reunion as people were ever going to get. The lack of a proper tour was bound to be disappointing, but anyone who ever had the opportunity to witness the band back together is content to smile because it happened rather than ask for more.
Fleetwood might not be solely responsible for Zeppelin getting back together, but the fact that they were able to go out one more time and prove to the world that they were something special was all he needed. ‘Bonzo’ may have only been there in spirit, but seeing tracks like ‘Rock and Roll’ once again was just what Zeppelin fans wanted.
Related Topics
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independant voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.