(Credits: Fleetwood Mac)
Tue 28 October 2025 8:33, UK
Spend some time with a creative person mid-artistic flow, and you will see how being in a relationship with someone like that might struggle during the tense times. Creativity is, in itself, a delicate balance between emotional and practical expression, and it is a magic trick that, when pulled off, can leave the entire world in awe. Fleetwood Mac know a thing or two about that.
The band are famous for always being on the edge of breaking up, and much of that was down to the many romantic relationships littered throughout the group. It would provide a tension that would lurch between greatness and despair at almost every moment.
As a band, Fleetwood Mac thrived from adversity and did excellent work during circumstances that would have caused most acts to part ways. Rather than sink, they swam, delivering the kind of records that would soundtrack generations of love affairs and romances. But one album proved particularly challenging to make, with Lindsay Buckingham claiming it captured Stevie Nicks at her “worst”.
During the 1980s, members of Fleetwood Mac splintered off into different directions and sought out solo endeavours, which allowed them to express another side of their artistry. In theory, this should have allowed the band to hit the reset button and return to the fold feeling refreshed, leading the group to become stronger than ever.
However, in reality, the temporary break from activities with Fleetwood Mac only caused their members to drift further apart, which caused friction during the recording process of Tango In The Night. While the album took a staggering 18 months to complete, Nicks was only at the studio for a few weeks to lay down her vocals, and her contribution to the album didn’t please Buckingham.
Lindsey Buckingham in the 1970s. (Credits: Far Out / Press)
While the pair were once an inseparable couple who couldn’t spend a moment apart from one another, by this stage, they had become two very different individuals from the people they once were. Additionally, Mick Fleetwood, who typically acted as the peacekeeper in the band, was struggling with personal problems of his own, which left Buckingham to take the reins.
During a conversation with Uncut in 2003, the guitarist, who also co-produced Tango In The Night, admitted: “We had to rise to the occasion. It was a very difficult record to make. Half the time, Mick was falling asleep. We spent a year on the record, but we only saw Stevie for a few weeks. I had to pull performances out of words and lines and make parts that sounded like her that weren’t her.”
Buckingham might have been the band’s principal guitarist, but he was also one of the more gifted musicians in totality, able to craft songs on his own; it was only natural he would helm the record as the rest of the band seemingly slipped away uninterested. Did the band become uninterested because he was behind the mixing desk? Who knows. But it seemed it was a band-wide affliction.
Although Buckingham described Nicks as “the most challenging to deal with” from the band, he conceded everyone was difficult to varying degrees. He continued: “Everyone was at their worst, including myself. We’d made the progression from what could be seen as an acceptable or excusable amount of drug use to a situation where we had all hit the wall. I think of it as our darkest period.”
Damningly, he concluded: “The way people were conducting their lives made it difficult to get serious work done. Mick was pretty nuts then. We all were. In terms of substance abuse, that was the worst it got. And Stevie was the worst she’s ever been. I didn’t recognise her. She wasn’t the person I had once known.”
Despite the ongoing chaos surrounding the recording process, Tango In The Night somehow avoided being a disaster, largely because of Buckingham. If he hadn’t fully committed to the project, it would have collapsed, but instead, the guitarist was there to serve his bandmates during their hour of need.
Listen to the album below.
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