Fleetwood Mac have announced their only festival performance of 2015 – and it won’t be at Glastonbury. The band have signed up to play the Isle of Wight festival on Sunday 14 June, the band’s first – and only – UK festival appearance since Christine McVie returned to the band to complete the classic 1970s line-up.
A statement from the band said: “We’ve always wanted to come to the UK to play the Isle of Wight festival, and so we are delighted that in 2015 we are finally making it happen. So many fellow artists and friends have played at this historic event over the years, and we can’t wait to see all of our fans on the island next summer.”
The booking ends months of speculation that the group, who have a series of UK dates booked in June, would headline Glastonbury. Instead, they will play at a festival that has, in the past, hosted Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and the Doors. More recent bookings have included the Stone Roses, Bruce Springsteen and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Festival-goers will have the chance to see the band’s most famous lineup, responsible for their trio of classic 1970s albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours and Tusk – as well as the 1987 smash Tango in the Night. Until this year, the band had been without their songwriter and keyboardist Christine McVie, who left the band in 1998. But following a brief guest spot at the O2 in London in September 2013, McVie revealed her desire to rejoin permanently and, in January 2014, Mick Fleetwood confirmed that the keyboardist was returning full time. McVie returned to the stage in September to play with the band at Minneapolis’s Target Centre.
Isle of Wight festival organiser John Giddings said that the band had been on his wishlist for some time: “I’m very pleased and extremely proud to have them headline next year’s event. With Christine now back in the band, too, it is going to be a momentous occasion, a moment in music history.”
• Tickets for Isle of Wight festival go on sale at 9am on 5 December.
