Mirage (Fleetwood Mac album)

Background

Following a hiatus of over a year after the completion of the worldwide Tusk tour, the band temporarily relocated to Château d'Hérouville in France to record a new album. By this time Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham had each commenced a solo career, the former to multi-platinum #1 success with 1981's Bella Donna, the latter faring not as well with his first outing Law and Order (US Billboard #32).

The Stevie Nicks composition "Gypsy" (#12 Pop, #4 Rock, and a #16 hit in Canada) was the second single from the album and was accompanied by a lengthy video, the highest-budget music video ever produced at the time, directed by Russell Mulcahy, and was the very first "World Premiere Video" on MTV in 1982. The edited version of "Gypsy" that appears on the album and single releases runs for only 4:24, but a 5½-minute version had been originally recorded. The latter version was (initially) used in the video, and was not available on CD until the release of 1992's retrospective box set 25 Years – The Chain.

Of the other two compositions from Nicks on the album, "That's Alright" dated back to the Buckingham/Nicks days of 1974, whilst "Straight Back" was written in the winter of 1981 and referred to her separation from (then) lover, producer Jimmy Iovine, and the huge wrench she experienced having to leave her newly established and highly successful solo career to re-join Fleetwood Mac for the 1982 project (Nicks refers to this on the DVD commentary to her 2008 retrospective Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks). "Straight Back" was also a US rock radio hit in late 1982.

The album returned the group to the top of the US Billboard charts for the first time since their 1977 album Rumours, spending five weeks at #1. It spent a total of 18 weeks in the US Top Ten and was certified double platinum for shipping 2,000,000 copies there. It also reached #5 in the UK where it was certified platinum for shipping 300,000 copies, and #2 in Australia.

A deluxe edition of Mirage was released on September 23, 2016. This expanded reissue features a remaster of the original album, 13 live tracks, B-sides, outtakes, plus other songs that did not make the final cut. Some of these songs include "Goodbye Angel" and "Teen Beat", which were both released on 25 Years: The Chain, and "Smile at You", later released on Say You Will. and "If You Were My Love" later released on Stevie Nicks' solo album 24 Karat Gold: Songs From The Vault

Personnel

Mirage Tour video / DVD

Two of the final shows of the Mirage tour were filmed in Los Angeles in 1982. Originally released on VHS and CED videodisc in 1983, many tracks were edited out, with the loss of "Second Hand News", "Don't Stop", "Dreams", "Brown Eyes", "Oh Well", "Never Going Back Again", "Landslide", "Sara", and "Hold Me", reducing the 135 minute show to just 80 minutes on cassette. The running order was also completely rearranged so that Nicks' "Gypsy" followed "The Chain", whilst "You Make Loving Fun" and "Blue Letter" were moved to the first half of the edited show.

The performance also includes what is often referred to as the 'speaking in tongues' version of "Sisters of the Moon", in which Nicks delivers the song's coda in such intense gravelly vibratos that her words are rendered mysteriously indecipherable.

The concert was not released on DVD until 2003, but this was limited to Brazil on the Studio Gaba label, and featured an unmastered soundtrack.

In 2006 a good quality release was issued in Australia, with an added special feature comprising six Stevie Nicks solo promotional videos for some of her singles released between 1981 and 1986. This collection had previously been issued separately on VHS in 1986 under the title Stevie Nicks – I Can't Wait, and exclusively includes a live solo version of her top ten hit "Leather and Lace" (a duet with Don Henley), which was recorded on the final night of Nicks' 1981 Bella Donna tour. The clip was not included in the 9-track edit of Nicks' "White Wing Dove" live concert VHS release in 1982, and neither was it included in the DVD supplement to her 2008 retrospective Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks. To date, this is therefore the only DVD availability of this live performance.

In 2009, another DVD incarnation of the Mirage concert was released under the title Fleetwood Mac – In Performance by the Showline label on a region-free disc.