Thanks to his gift for storytelling and stadium-sized choruses, Sam Fender is often referred to as ‘The Geordie Springsteen’, but now another US rock legend has suggested that he can spot his own influence on one of the British singer-songwriter’s hits.
We’re talking about Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, who was played a live version of Fender’s 2024 single, People Watching, by his son, Will.
As we see the pair reacting to the video of Fender’s performance, it’s Buckingham Junior who first spots the Fleetwood Mac influence, so he asks his dad if that’s something that he likes to see, or can easily spot.
“It’s hard to be objective about that, you know?” says Lindsey. “I mean it did occur to me that maybe the guitar part was very much something I would do.”
Interestingly, Buckingham Senior also notices something about Fender’s songwriting and the production of People Watching that he finds familiar.
“The general kind of limits that the song puts on itself is very much like what we would do,” he says. “It kind of holds a certain emotive space and never varies from there, you know, and he knows what that is and wants to hold on to it.”
Later, the former Fleetwood Mac man also comments on how Fender’s songwriting is evolving. “He did Seventeen Going Under and that was great, too, but this is more of a complete song to me.”
Having noted the size of the crowd in the video, which was filmed last year at the London Stadium, Lindsey ends by asking his son if he’s also playing to big audiences in the US.
Having had it confirmed that he is, he says: “Well, that's good. He deserves it.”
We guess that goes down as a glowing endorsement.
