Fleetwood Mac

FLEETWOOD MAC

Formed: 1967, London, England

Members: Lindsey Buckingham, guitar, vocals (born Palo Alto, California, 3 October 1949); Mick Fleetwood, drums (born Redruth, Cornwall, England, 24 June 1947); Christine McVie, keyboards (Christine Perfect, born Grenodd, Lancashire, England, 12 July 1943); John McVie, bass (born London, England, 26 November 1945); Stevie Nicks, vocals (Stephanie Nicks, born Phoenix, Arizona, 26 May 1948). Former members: Billy Burnette, guitar, vocals (William Beau Burnette III, born Memphis, Tennessee, 8 May 1953); Bekka Bramlett, vocals (born Westwood, California, 19 April 1968); Peter Green, guitar (Peter Allen Greenbaum, born London, England, 29 October 1949); Danny Kirwan, guitar (born London, England, 13 May 1950); Dave Mason, guitar, vocals (Worcester, England, 10 May 1946); Jeremy Spencer, guitar (born Hartlepool, Cleveland, England, 4 July 1948); Rick Vito, guitar, vocals (born Darby, Pennsylvania, 13 October 1949); Dave Walker, vocals (born Birmingham, England); Bob Weston, guitar (born England); Bob Welch, guitar, vocals (Robert Welch, born Los Angeles, California, 31 July 1946).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: The Dance (1997)

Hit songs since 1990: "Peacekeeper," "Silver Springs"

Through a tangled web of broken relationships, rotating band members, and musical journeys weaving in and out of five decades, rock group Fleetwood Mac has sold more than 100 million records. The band experienced its greatest success in the 1970s when it focused on a marketable blend of pop rock. That stage of its existence contained the musical lineup most often identified with Fleetwood Mac, and the majority of that lineup reunited to record and tour into the new millennium.

Musical Chairs

When most of its fans think of Fleetwood Mac, they are referring to the band that consisted of singer Stevie Nicks, guitarist/singer Lindsey Buckingham, keyboardist/singer Christine McVie, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick Fleetwood. However, Fleetwood Mac's roots extend back to 1967 when it was a renowned London blues band. John McVie and Fleetwood were members during that time. The other two original members were guitarist extraordinaire Peter Green and another fine London blues guitarist, Jeremy Spencer. All four core Fleet-wood Mac members were refugees from English blues legend John Mayall's group, the Bluesbreakers. By 1970 Christine McVie—Christine Perfect before marrying John McVie—had joined the group. Both Green and Spencer had already left the band to pursue their respective religious beliefs following excessive drug use, and in the case of Green, complications with mental illness. Guitarist Danny Kirwan and guitarist/singer/songwriter Bob Welch replaced them.

Welch, an American from California with pop music roots, began influencing Fleetwood Mac away from the blues and the group made inroads toward a more polished pop rock sound. However, Kirwan's drug problems forced the band's manager at the time, Clifford Davis, to fire him in 1972 and hire ex-Savoy Brown band mates, guitarist Bob Weston and Dave Walker. That move nearly derailed the band as Walker drank heavily and Weston became involved romantically with Christine McVie. At different junctures, both Walker and Weston were sent packing. Weston's firing closed down the group's U.S. tour prematurely. A series of ensuing legal entanglements resulted in 1974, and the band was, for all practical purposes, disbanded. Eventually, Mick Fleetwood took control of the situation, relieved Davis of his responsibilities, and began managing Fleetwood Mac himself. The band's tumultuous history took its toll on Welch, who left in 1975 to pursue other projects.

Spot Light: Fleetwood Mac's Farewell for President Clinton

Fleetwood Mac came out of a three-year hiatus to perform a concert in Washington, D.C., in January 2001 for President Bill Clinton, who would soon be leaving office. Organized by President Clinton's staff, it was a surprise farewell party for the president. A favorite band of both the president and the First Lady, Fleet-wood Mac's invitation made sense because their song "Don't Stop," used as a theme song for Clinton's 1992 first-term election, helped put him in office. Now they were asked to help him out of office. The impromptu concert marked Fleetwood Mac's first appearance since Christine McVie announced that she would not be performing with the band anymore. Despite major concern within the band about showing rust due to the long layoff and a lack of rehearsal time, the eleven-song set went without a hitch. Fleetwood Mac's impromptu concert included Clinton's campaign theme song, along with other Fleetwood Mac signature fare, such as "Dreams," "Landslide," and "Go Your Own Way."

In an effort to replace Welch, Fleetwood brought songwriting/performing duo Buckingham and Nicks into the group. Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had worked together previously and were lovers. Their soft rock sound, ripe with poignant lyrics coupled between catchy musical phrasing, struck an immediate chord with Fleetwood and greatly impacted the group to form the classic Fleet-wood Mac musical lineup. The band's next five years were massively successful as they turned out hits such as "Rhiannon," "Over My Head," "Say You Love Me," "Dreams," "Don't Stop," "Go Your Own Way," and many others. Their album Rumours (1977), recorded while the McVies were divorcing and the Nicks/Buckingham union was landsliding, went on to become one of the top five selling albums in rock history. Rumours has sold more than 30 million copies. Fleetwood Mac fired Fleetwood as manager in 1981 and then split up to allow various members to pursue solo careers. Nicks's solo career has become, by a wide margin over the others, the most commercially successful. They soon reunited to record Mirage (1982), but broke up again during the promotional tour that followed the album's release. They formed again in 1985 to record Tango in the Night (1987), but Buckingham left the band during the ensuing tour.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Fleetwood Mac entered the 1990s with singers/guitarists Rick Vito and Billy Burnette as Buckingham's replacements and the band recorded Behind the Mask (1990), which went platinum. At the close of the album's extremely successful tour, Nicks and Vito left Fleetwood Mac. Nicks, a major star on her own merit, stated that she would never return. Meanwhile, Fleetwood fended off rumors of the group's demise by calling it merely a hiatus. In 1992 the band consisted of John McVie, Fleetwood, and Burnette with guitarist Dave Mason and Bekka Bramlett on vocals. Fleetwood Mac received an extra boost when Bill Clinton used one of its hits, "Don't Stop," to theme his 1992 presidential campaign. Burnette officially quit the group in 1992, but joined back up for its 1995 tour and new album release, Time (1995). The album did poorly and Fleetwood Mac broke up again. This time, the band reported, it was final.

In 1996 the band re-formed with its mid-1970s classic lineup for a twentieth anniversary tour of Rumours. They released The Dance (1997), a live recording from an intimate concert in Los Angeles. The Dance contains seventeen songs, mostly 1970s hits, with four new releases added. "Landslide," a hit written by Nicks from Fleetwood Mac (1975), was released as a single from the album as was a new song, "Silver Springs." The Dance went quadruple platinum in sales and earned three Grammy Award nominations, including Best Pop Album. When the album's tour ended in November of that year, Christine McVie announced that she could no longer handle the rigors of touring and recording with the band. Fleetwood Mac entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

After another dormant period wherein Nicks and Buckingham resumed their solo careers, Fleetwood Mac regrouped yet again in 2002: this time, however, without Christine McVie but with the rest of the classic formation intact. They released Say You Will (2003) and promoted the album with an extensive North American tour. Say You Will harks back to the band's glory days with a trademark blend of moody rock, smooth harmonies, and Nicks's emotional vocal work. Many of the album's songs came from Buckingham, who used material he had slated for a solo effort that failed to work out.

No band has ever survived as much fluctuation as Fleetwood Mac and managed to achieve such monumental success. Its songs musically defined both the 1970s and the 1980s. With every effort by the band since the 1990s billed as its final act, fans have learned that, with Fleetwood Mac, never always means maybe.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Then Play On (Reprise, 1969); Kiln House (Reprise, 1970); Fleetwood Mac in Chicago (Blue Horizon, 1971); Future Games (Reprise, 1971); Penguin (Reprise, 1973); Mystery to Me (Reprise, 1973); Heroes Are Hard to Find (Reprise, 1974); Fleetwood Mac (Reprise, 1975); Rumours (Warner Bros., 1977); Tusk (Warner Bros., 1979); Fleetwood Mac Live (Warner Bros., 1980); Mirage (Warner Bros., 1982); Tango in the Night (Warner Bros., 1987); Behind the Mask (Warner Bros., 1990); 25 Years . . . The Chain (Warner Bros./WEA, 1992); Time (Warner Bros., 1995); The Dance (Warner Bros., 1997); Say You Will (Warner Bros., 2003).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

B. Brunning, Fleetwood Mac: The First 30 Years (London, 1999); L. Furman, Rumours Exposed: The Unauthorized Biography of Fleetwood Mac (New York, 1999); E. Wincentsen, Fleetwood Mac: Through the Years (New York, 1999).

donald lowe