Mick Fleetwood & Friends triumphantly fail to descend into chaos and catastrophe

The big guns come out to play on Mick Fleetwood & Friends: Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac

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Mick Fleetwood & Friends: Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac
(Image: © BMG)

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If there’s one music event with the potential to descend into chaos, if not catastrophe, it’s the all-star tribute concert, often with a spiked cocktail of big egos, self-deception, “It’ll be alright on the night” overconfidence and insufficient rehearsal hanging over it like a sword of Damocles. 

Thankfully no sword fell on the night when Mick Fleetwood and an all-star cast gathered at London’s Palladium last year for this one-off concert. 

With the ‘house band’, featured artists including David Gilmour (Albatross, Oh Well Pt 2), Jeremy Spencer (The Sky Is Crying, I Can’t Hold Out), Rick Vito (Black Magic Woman, Love That Burns) and Neil Finn (Man Of The World) all delivered solid performances.

But the highlight was always going to be Kirk Hammett – playing the very Les Paul with which Green made history – and Billy Gibbons’ spine-tingling The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown). 

The only disappointment was that Green himself didn’t make an appearance, but most people interested in this concert probably understand why. Sadly, he died shortly afterwards. 

Mick Fleetwood & Friends: Celebrate The Music Of Peter Green And The Early Years Of Fleetwood Mac is available as a deluxe 44-page hardbound book pack, gatefold four-LP, two-CD/Blu-ray mediabook, two-CD digipack, and digital audio.

Paul Henderson
Paul Henderson

Classic Rock’s production editor for the past 22 years, ‘resting’ bass player Paul has been writing for magazines and newspapers, mainly about music, since the mid-80s, contributing to titles including Q, The Times, Music Week, Prog, Billboard, Metal Hammer, Kerrang! and International Musician. He has also written questions for several BBC TV quiz shows. Of the many people he’s interviewed, his favourite interviewee is former Led Zep manager Peter Grant. If you ever want to talk the night away about Ginger Baker, in particular the sound of his drums (“That fourteen-inch Leedy snare, man!”, etc, etc), he’s your man.