Flared pants and flowing black gowns have become essential items in the wardrobe of Kyabram entertainers Jess De Luca and Matthew Heard.
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The pair are reprising the glory days of much-loved Fleetwood Mac band members Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham — through tribute band The Fleetwood Pac, dominated by Goulburn Valley musicians.
They have joined husband-and-wife team Bianca and Dayna Hopkins (who take on the personas of Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood), along with Ezekiel Fenn (John McVie) and Dave Zemmit, and have earned rave reviews for their performances.
Ms De Luca is the voice of Stevie Nicks, the now 74-year-old American folk singer who was named by Rolling Stone magazine as the Queen of Rock and Roll.
The same magazine ranked the band in the mid-40s in its top 50 bands of all time, smack bang between Red Hot Chili Peppers and Smashing Pumpkins.
Mr Heard is in the role of Buckingham, the lead guitarist who wrote several of the band’s biggest hits.
The Buckingham/Nicks/McVie/McVie/Fleetwood line-up, and several other incarnations through an initial 30-year stint, has sold 120 million records worldwide.
Fleetwood Mac was formed in London in 1967 when drummer Mick Fleetwood put together a three-member group.
Bassist John McVie came on board a year later prior to, in 1970, Christine Perfect graduating from her role as a keyboard player and back-up singer at the band’s recording sessions, to full-time member when she married McVie and joined the band.
In 1974 Fleetwood recruited folk-rock duo Buckingham and Nicks.
Buckingham only joined the band on the proviso that Nicks could also join.
A year later they had the number one album in the United States, followed by another with Rumours in 1977.
Mr Heard is a former St Augustine’s College student, while Ms De Luca went to Kyabram P-12 College.
Both, however, are products of Liz Dillon’s tutelage at Dilmac Entertainment.
Mr Heard didn’t pick up an instrument until his mid-teens, after an initial experience as a 10-year-old with Dilmac.
He is the youngest of five siblings: his sister Angela Doughty now lives at Mooroopna, he has one bother still living in town (Andrew), while Phillip is at Cooma and Damien is in Melbourne.
None of them are musicians — Mr Heard having a different upbringing, as he is 11 years younger than his parents’ second youngest child.
“Mum was from Tongala and Dad from Waaia. All my siblings moved to Kyabram from Nathalia before I was born,” he said.
Mr Heard said he loved his Dilmac experience so much that he eventually added piano and drum lessons to his guitar and singing education.
“Both Jess and I are Dilmac alumni,” he said.
The pair teach at the Bianca Fenn (now Hopkins) School of Music in Greensborough. Ms Hopkins is originally from Shepparton.
“All the members of the band are teachers, or have taught, at the school run by Bianca,” Mr Heard said.
The school of music has a nine-year history — it’s a Greensborough warehouse converted into a performance area with almost a dozen teaching rooms.
“I started working at the school in 2020, but Jess had been there for about five years before I arrived,” Mr Heard said.
He said he returned to Kyabram as often as he could; the band’s first road trip to Bendigo attracting a strong audience from Kyabram.
The band was only launched by the Hopkinses in February this year.
“Bianca and Dayna had always wanted to do a tribute band of some sort,” Mr Heard said.
“When they started looking for members they realised they had them on staff.”
Mr Heard’s on-stage partner, and former Dilmac classmate, grew up with Fleetwood Mac ringing in her ears.
“There were three CDs that were on repeat in the car, and house. Fleetwood Mac was one of them, along with the Eagles and Eva Cassidy,” Ms De Luca said.
“I love Fleetwood Mac. A lot of my earliest memories are of Fleetwood Mac music in the car on trips to Melbourne.
“I jumped at the chance to be in the band.”
Ms De Luca is in the process of recording an album.
“It’s been really fun being in a band. I usually play guitar when I perform, so just having the tambourine and singing has been kind of nice,” she said.
“Getting into character has also been fun, I have watched everything to try and get the right vibe.
“She (Stevie Nicks) does a lot of stuff with her face, she gets really intense in her storytelling. Her dancing is a bit easier, just flailing around say, it suits me,” she said.
Ms De Luca said such had been her commitment to playing her role that she found herself tearing up while watching a 2022 documentary on Nicks.
“That’s when I realised just how much I was into it,’’ she said.
She had a glimpse of the tribute world in 2016-17, while singing back-up in an Elvis tribute.
The Bendigo show was only the band’s third live appearance, having launched with back-to-back shows at St Kilda’s Memo Music Hall.
Ms De Luca recalled her first Dilmac piano lesson fondly, along with her regular appearance at school assemblies.
“I remember being in a final countdown performance with Dilmac at a concert supporting The Gift. On reflection it’s where I first performed with Matt,” she said.
“Before that he was just the guy that worked at Safeway who came into Subway (where Ms De Luca worked part-time) for lunch,” she said.
The De Luca family has been a constant in the Kyabram community for half a century, Ms De Luca’s mother, Sheryl, and aunt Debbie long-time hairdressers in the town.
“My brother and a sister, along with my cousins, all grew up in Kyabram. I get back whenever I can,’’ Ms De Luca said.
She said there were half a dozen faces in the audience at Bendigo last week that she recognised, which was nice.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor