Fleetwood Mac launches world tour in April, plays Vancouver in May

What's your favourite Fleetwood Mac album? A lot of folks tend to pick the self-titled album of 1975, which boasted such Stevie Nicks–penned gems as "Rhiannon" and "Landslide". A lot of others are more into the '77 follow-up, Rumours, their most successful release, which has moved more than 40 million copies worldwide. That one saw keyboardist-vocalist Christine McVie step up with pop-y hits like "Don't Stop" and "You Make Loving Fun", and guitarist-vocalist Lindsey Buckingham shine on "Go Your Own Way".

Then there's the old-school Fleetwood Mac types who prefer the late-'60s Peter Green era ("Rattlesnake Shake", "Stop Messin' Round"), the early-'70s Danny Kirwin/Jeremy Spencer era of Kiln House ("Station Man", "Jewel Eyed Judy"), or the early- to mid-'70s Bob Welch era of Future Games and Mystery to Me ("Hypnotized", "Emerald Eyes"). Sorry, fans of those eras, you're outta luck.

The only Mac around these days is the one with Buckingham and Nicks—plus the perennial rhythm section of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. And that's the one that today announced a 2013 world tour, with a stop at Vancouver's Rogers Arena on May 19. (Don't panic, tickets aren't on sale yet. And the group's website claims "all dates subject to change".)

The band doesn't have a new album in the works, which bodes well for those who want to hear the old stuff—but not the really old stuff. In an interview posted on Rollingstone.com today, Buckingham pondered the possible set list.

"We always have to play 'Dreams', 'Rhiannon', 'Don't Stop', 'Tusk', 'Big Love', 'Landslide' and all our most famous songs," he said. "When you've gone through all your must-do's, that's 75% of your potential setlist. I think with the other 25%, there are areas of our catalog that are more under-explored.

"Maybe we'll play more songs from Tusk," he added. "I'd also like to see an extended middle portion of the show that's just me and Stevie. This is just me talking from the top of my head. For now, I have no particular vision of what this tour is going to be."

Hey, maybe in memory of Welch—who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound last June—they could do "Hypnotized". That would be totally sweet.

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