Fleetwood Mac: Live in Boston (E)

Stars: Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood

Out to buy: On DVD

Rock’n’roll’s greatest soap opera resumed last year when Fleetwood Mac took to the road for the first time in half a decade. Live in Boston, which consists of 24 songs spread across two discs, represents stadium rock of the most middle-of-the-road kind. Yet the residue of the band’s own internal psychodrama gives an intensity and chemistry to the occasion that is undeniable. Nicks weaves her womanly charms on Rhiannon as beguilingly as ever, but it is the way in which she and Buckingham interact during the songs that they wrote for each other during their stormy relationship that creates the emotional melodrama. On Never Going Back Again and Go Your Own Way, it is as though they are having a private conversation in public. It reaches its height on Silver Springs, as Nicks looks at Buckingham and sings: “Time casts a spell on you, but you won’t forget me.” The spectacle ought to be grisly. Instead, it is compelling.