Yes, it hurts not getting Fleetwood Mac tickets but here’s the next best thing

When Fleetwood Mac announced their tour it caused the sort of manic scramble for tickets that hadn’t been since Willy Wonka opened the doors of his chocolate factory. Sadly, not everyone is a Charlie Bucket but thankfully a London club night has the solution to those fans left sighing ‘Oh Well’.

Fleetmac Wood is organised by a die-hard fan and promises punters a purely Fleetwood Mac playlist. But this isn’t a case of wishing you had a pound for every time you hear You Can Go Your Own Way blasted through the speakers, a lot of the playlist is remixes submitted to the event’s Soundcloud page.

The brains behind the party Lisa Jelliffe explains why she started the cult event. Oh and if you’re wondering, she has two favourite Fleetwood Mac songs, Big Love for dancing, Silver Springs for singing along. Oh, and she is also going to the concert in Sacramento… lucky thing!

What’s your background?

Originally from Australia, I work as a creative at an advertising agency and have been DJing (as Roxanne Roll) in London and festivals for the last eight years. In the past I’ve put on Cowbella – a night of rock, blues, honky disco, West Coast and music featuring the cowbell. It’s fun to create a unique atmosphere where people are there because they love the music and they want to be a part of something out of the norm.

Fleetwood Mac have become really popular with younger people lately – why do you think that is?

The melodies, the authenticity of emotion, and the fact you can dance to it. It’s rock n’ roll for the dance floor which has universal appeal. They are essentially a super group made up of many songwriters. When you put people like that in the studio for a year and add personal tumult, you are going to get something good. Luckily for us they stuck it out and we all have Rumours and many other albums to enjoy.

When did your love affair with Fleetwood Mac begin?

I was born in 1975, so I’m pretty much a child of the Stevie and Lindsey era. I think their music was omnipresent growing up but I distinctly remember my mum had a Fleetwood Mac greatest hits cassette that she always played in the car. Be careful what you play your kids!

Why did you decide to set up Fleetmac Wood and what was the first even like?

I had the idea about three years ago but finally found a venue and time that felt right for our first party last June. Since having the original idea, a global, vintage re-edit community has really developed on Soundcloud. I had already put on previous events with Psychemagik and Mojo Filter and they agreed to play although they were initially a little bit sceptical about the ‘all night long’ concept, but humoured me. Psychemagik’s remix of Everywhere had been played everywhere the year before and we were lucky enough to host their launch party for their new remix of Dreams – which has since had about 200,000 plays on Soundcloud.

Explain how it works with the Fleetwood Mac edits – what kind of response do you get and has anyone well known submitted one?

We put a call out to all producers to get editing- with the next deadline being the 23 of March. It doesn’t matter whether you are big time or it’s your first edit. Have a crack – it should be fun. I think that most creative people need deadlines and it gets people moving on projects that they would otherwise put off. The really fun bit is listening to all the edits as they are sent in, the tracks that are chosen and how producers add their own spin on what we know and love. There’s a lot of time and love that goes in to the edits and that’s also felt at the night. People are there for the right reasons – because they love the music.

Which of the edits has been your favourite?

The ones to beat for me are Psychemagik – Dreams, Sara [Bobby Lost & Fear of Theydon's Lost Bhagwan Mix], The Chain – Antenna Happy. Mojo Filter always contributes something really creative –his version of Go Your Own Way – was the crowd’s favourite at our last party. Everyone sang their lungs out. After the last party I woke up with a bruised blue throbbing hand from banging a tambourine all night. I wonder if Stevie ever has that problem?

Surely it’s hard to not keep playing the same songs all night?

We have a no covers, no deviation from Fleetwood Mac and solo projects rule. The great thing about FM is that they have such a huge back catalogue that spans so many different genres and musicians, so there’s literally hours and hours to choose from. Saying that, I have to try and stagger the big hits throughout the night. I get an email chain going with all the DJs and we’ll put dibs on our favourites, otherwise we’d end up with Dreams and The Chain every hour. Make them wait and then they really go mental when they hear the big tunes. Part of the appeal of the night is the over indulgence – let’s feast on it and listen until we can’t hear another one.

What are the event’s plans for the rest of the year?

Our next event is on the 23 of March at The New Empowering Church in East London. It’s our White Winged Love party, inspired by the Stevie Nicks album cover for Bella Donna. We’re encouraging everyone to wear white and there’s going to be a few surprises. We really only do a few parties a year as we like to keep it special and build up an arsenal of new edits. Our parties have a festival feel so Glastonbury would be totally right for us and we’d love to host a tent there. The big rumour is that we will be playing at our favourite festival – Secret Garden Party.

For more information visit www.soundcloud.com/fleetmacwood and www.facebook.com/FleetmacWood

Fleetmac Wood will be on 23 March, New Empowering Church, Hackney, London.

Photos by Jon Attenborough

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• FlashFellow

  Both the original and the very different later incarnations were/are brilliant.

• Hubbled

  I love Fleetwood Mac and went to see them last time they toured the UK and I’m sad to say I didn’t even try to get tickets this time round, the only members of the band that are worth seeing live are Lindsey and John, Christine doesn’t tour with the band any more, Mick is struggling to play the drums (he had a backup drummer playing behind the Amps for the whole show) and Stevie has lost a lot of her range and struggles to perform more than two consecutive songs. At least half of the show we went to see was made up of Lindsey performing solo with the rest of the band joining him for a selection of the big hits at the start and end of the show. As someone who wasn’t even born when Rumours was released and never got to see them the first time round it was quite a disappointment and if I could get too Fleetmac Wood I reckon I’d have a much better time there.

• andyshelt

  I loved the original Fleetwood Mac and Peter Green is up there as one of the greatest guitar players of all time in my book made even better by his wonderful collaboration with fellow guitarist Danny Kirwan.

  Music is obviously very subjective and each to to their own but I found the later version of the band to be too bland and over produced for my tastes.

  Early classics like Oh Well, Black Magic Woman, Green Manalishi, Albatross tower over their later output in my opinion.

  And nothing comes close to Peter Green’s “Man of the World”. That song just sends shivers down my spine whenever I hear it. Sublime.

  It’s great to see in recent years that Peter Green has re-emerged professionally from his long illness and has been touring with his band, The Splinter Group.

  Stay well, Peter, and keep on rocking!