Review of Rumours of Fleetwood Mac as they bring the party to Sunderland's Fire Station

The latest in The Fire Station’s series of excellent outdoor ‘Summer Parties’ brought The Transatlantic Ensemble’s Rumours of Fleetwood Mac back to Sunderland for one of their regular visits.

They’re back at The Fire Station for two nights in mid-December, and on this evidence it could be a great early Christmas present to yourself to go along.

A packed Parade Ground lapped up two hour long sets where no song introductions were required as it was purely hit after hit, played mainly with note for note precision.

Starting with Don’t Stop, highlights of the show included Oh Daddy, Dreams and the inevitable show closer, The Chain.

On the downside, one of Fleetwood Mac’s most beautiful songs, Landslide seemed loose, as did Never Going Back Again.

Although there was no lack of value for money from the performance, the early bluesy incarnation of Fleetwood Mac was ignored, so numbers such as Albatross and Oh Well were conspicuous by their absence.

Nonetheless, this was a highly enjoyable show that had many dancing non-stop throughout.

For me, the standout performer from the seven piece outfit was Bryony Purdue, one of two lead female vocalists. She sang on the Ed Sheeran tracks Azizam and Sapphire last year and has performed at Glastonbury.

During the interval news started to seep through that Dolly Parton had passed away.

Following a pulsating rendition of Rhiannon, Purdue gently touched upon the death of Dolly before providing an exquisitely tender version of Christine McVie’s Songbird in her honour.

This was expertly handled.

Purdue’s harmonising with fellow vocalist Rachel Farago provided some of the evening’s best moments, as did lead guitarist Luke Bowman.

A word too for Sunderland’s own Greg Coulson on keyboards. His big solo came on, You Make Loving Fun. Complete with a light show, smoke machines and pyrotechnics the show was certainly plenty of fun, befitting the summer party vibe.

With four tracks from another great Mac album, Tango in the Night there was much more to enjoy than the multi millions selling Rumours.

Review by Rob Mason