Fleetwood Mac tribute band Rumours of Fleetwood Mac play the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre on Sunday January 31 as part of their world tour. Paddy Kehoe spoke to the band’s drummer and founder member, Allan Cosgrove.
A tribute band can only go so far in being like the product they purport to represent, but the only distance drummer Allan Cosgrove wants to go is the one that takes him to the essential spirit of Fleetwood Mac’s music.
The veteran 59-year old musician is not in the business of looking like Mick Fleetwood, founding member and drummer for over 50 years with the iconic band who completed yet another successful world tour in 2015. “I‘m a bit shorter than him, he’s a large guy,“ says Allan. Indeed, judging by the photograph, the comparisons begin and end with the music, fair enough.
Back in the sixties the keyboard player in the tribute band and Allan were in a band called the Merseybeats. Come the seventies they were both members of an outfit called Liverpool Express, when they got to meet Mick first, around 1978, when that work of genius, the Rumours album was still selling in large amounts around the world. As it happens, Liverpool Express and Fleetwood Mac were both on the Warners label.
Presumably the band is always an entity at any given time, but 17 years ago, Fleetwood Mac were not playing or performing together as such. That's when Allan got the idea for the tribute band and got in touch with Mick who gave him the thumbs up. “He backed us all the way because he thought it was a great idea and, more importantly, the gig sounded right to him - the way we had orchestrated it and the people involved. It wasn’t like `shall we found a tribute band and what band will it be? 'Like most good things, it was never planned.”
The original idea had come to Allan when he and his fellow musicians were recording an advert and the producer said the band sounded like Fleetwood Mac.There were two girl singers. “Louise sounded awfully like Stevie Nicks and Amanda, who plays the part of Christine McVie (sounded like her) – they just sounded like the original artists without mimicking, because they had been influenced by them and they'd got the trait in their voices.”
Drummer Allan Cosgrove
Of course, it's certainly not counter-productive if a band does a decent tribute show, as Mick Fleetwood would clearly have realised. “The box office monies go to Fleetwood Mac as well as to the show, the PRS (Performing Rights Society) goes to the original artists. It’s all above board, but more importantly for me it was about: “is this a cool thing to do?”
Curiously, Mick Fleetwood’s late mother, Biddy, also acted as intermediary in the relationship between Allan and Mick. “When she was alive, she used to come to the shows in Salisbury. She had a few chats with Mick on the phone – obviously, Biddy had seen every incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, and mums know best. ”
Mick has played with the tribute act on a number of occasions, and Allan has graciously stepped back from the drum kit to play maraccas on those occasions. Mick played on those deliciously sizzling tracks, Dreams, Go Your Own Way “ - and Tusk I think . . he did quite a bit.”
It should be pointed out that Rumours of Fleetwood Mac also play the music of the original blues band, Fleetwood Mac which was formed by bassist John McVie and Mick Fleetwood in the 1960s.That part of the repertoire would include songs like Albatross, Black Magic Woman and Man of the World. That's the more purist side of this iconic band, the British sound, as it were, rather than the West coast smoothness that followed on the relocation to California. Peter Green's wistful instrumental Albatross - the loneliest tune in the world surely - would be Allan's favourite piece to play, " because it was me dad's favourite song and me dad isn't here anymore. I always think of me dad when we play Albatross."
Fleetwood Mac performed another world tour last year, in one of their increasingly rare reunions. This must help ticket sales for the tribute band. "Their tickets sell within 24 hours - we take six months to do a box office in sales," Allan laughs. "But when they tour, we get invited to go and see them and Mick says: `I'll show you how to play Fleetwood Mac Music!'
To be in with a chance of winning five pairs of tickets to Rumours of Fleetwood Mac's Dublin gig on Sunday, January 31 at the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, just answer the simple question below.
What year did Fleetwood Mac form?
(a) 1967
(b) 2007
(c) 1997
Send your answer to tencompetitions@rte.ie along with your name and telephone number. Don't forget to put 'Fleetwood Mac' in the subject line.
Winners will be picked on January 29 (Friday) at 1pm.
