Clarke said Gisborne punters would be up for a good time.
“We usually do about two hours ... it can even be a bit more depending on encores and things. We don’t take any breaks once we’re on stage. We’re there for the entirety.”
Clarke hesitated when asked what song was her favourite to sing.
“That’s a bit of a tough one. They’re all great songs and they’re all really fun to do.
“I named the band Landslide because Landslide was such a poignant, sort of iconic song. I guess I enjoy that because it’s something different. It’s a slower one and the crowd normally know it well and sing along ... it’s quite an emotional song for a lot of people, too. [It] has a lot of different meanings for different people ...
“Then you’ve got things like Don’t Stop, which is just a really good-time rollicking, almost like a rock and roll shuffle, sort of thing that gets people up on the dance floor.“
Clarke enjoys playing at venues like Smash.
“We are a band that people are normally up dancing [to] from the first song. It’s not really a concert. We play bars and things because we want it to be interactive and fun. We enjoy seeing people having a really good time.”
People of all ages and generations come to their gigs.
“[Over] the last few years there’s been a bit of a revival of Fleetwood Mac songs through film or memes on TikTok or Instagram and that sort of thing. Suddenly, the 20-somethings are all really into the music.
“A lot of the venues we play, if we haven’t played there before, it’s a new venue and they’re like, ‘oh we didn’t expect so many young people to come’.”
She also dresses the part for singing as Nicks.
“I think people like to see you make a little bit of an effort. Fortunately, I always used to wear similar clothing anyway, so it wasn’t really a big stretch to have things to wear. We try not to be too copycat corny type thing. We just give a little bit of a nod to that era.
“It helps you get into the vibe, and I usually burn a bit of incense on stage, hand some shawls around ... all those sorts of little things.”
They became a tribute band through audience demand.
“It kind of got chosen for us really ... we were doing Neil Young and Van Morrison and a bit of Fleetwood Mac and all that. And every time I did a Fleetwood Mac song it seemed to always go down really well and people would tell me afterwards that they really enjoyed them.
“We started adding a few more and I think we ended up [with] about half a dozen Fleetwood Mac songs in the set.
“Then one night they’re calling out ‘do this one’ and I was like, ‘oh, I think you people would just like us to play Fleetwood Mac all night, wouldn’t you?’ And they were like, ‘yeah’.
“I thought to myself maybe we should do a Fleetwood Mac cover band, we could just play Fleetwood Mac and maybe a few Stevie Nicks songs because they were going down well. So that’s really how it started.”
The audience brings her the most satisfaction from the band’s performances.
“I like to see people having a good time and I love it when they sing along and dance. I enjoy seeing people having a good time for a couple of hours, a bit of time out of their usual life. A little bit of escape ... for a couple of hours.”
Clarke said a lot of the women dressed up in clothes from the era.
“They come along, they get together with their friends, they have a few drinks, they dance a lot, they sing a lot and they go away very happy. That’s kind of what it’s about for me, otherwise I’d just sit at home and sing along to my records, wouldn’t I?”
She doesn’t see the band ending anytime soon.
“Fortunately, there’s still a lot of interest in the music, so as long as there’s a demand and we’ve got people coming to the shows, we’ll keep going.”
The band members are Andrea Clarke (vocals), Dylan Storey (guitar/vocals), Garin Keane (keyboards/backing vocals), Lee Cooper (bass/backing vocals), Gareth Scott (drums) and Deb Osborne (backing vocals).
