Odyssey rocks to the return of The Mac

DON'T Stop sang Fleetwood Mac to a heaving Odyssey in Belfast last night.

But unfortunately for a sell-out, delirious crowd they eventually had to.

Not, however, until the veterans had delivered nearly three hours of their distinctive music to legions of established fans - and no doubt quite a few new ones.

The Mac may be regarded these days as rock dinosaurs but they also happen to be one of the best-selling acts in music history.

And last night they were obviously determined to show everyone why.

The evening got off to a promising start with the haunting sound of The Chain, proving that the old double act of Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had lost none of the vocal magic that made the album Rumours such a monster hit 25 years ago.

And old favourites from that recording and their other multi-platinum effort Tango in the Night were also belted out to raucous enthusiasm.

Songs such as Dreams, Go Your own Way and Big Love were delivered with predictable passion and gusto, but let's not forget that the group, founded by Mick Fleetwood and John McVie in the '60s, had new material to plug for their new album.

Recent single Say You Will went down a treat although What's The World Coming To comes over in concert as a stronger track.

But one of the most memorable moments was Nick's revival of Beautiful Child, rarely sung these days at a Mac concert.

All this, plus Buckingham's occasional forays into his legendary guitar solos, at one stage backed by three sets of drums, made the expensive tickets good value on the night.

Return of the Mac? On this showing, it seems they were never away.