Fleetwood Mac

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Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac, one-time blues band that grew into a monstrously popular rock ensemble and traveling soap opera. MEMBERSHIP: Mick Fleetwood, drm. (b. London, June 24, 1942); John McVie, bs. (b. London, Nov. 26, 1945); Peter Green, gtr., voc. (b. Bethnal Greenbaum, London, Oct. 29, 1946); Jeremy Spencer, gtr., voc.(b. West Hartlepool, Lancashire, England, July 4, 1948); Danny Kirwan, gtr. voc. (b. London, May 13, 1950) was added in August 1968. Green departed in May 1970. Christine Me Vie, kybd., voc. (b. Perfect, Birmingham, England, July 12, 1943), joined in August 1970. Spencer left in February 1971. Bob Welch, lead gtr., voc. (b. Los Angeles, July 31, 1946), joined in April 1971 and left at the end of 1974. In January 1975, Lindsey Buckingham, gtr., voc. (b. Palo Alto, Calif., Oct. 3, 1947) and Stephanie “Stevie” Nicks, voc. (b. Phoenix, Ariz., May 26, 1948) joined. Later members included guitarist-vocalists Billy Burnette (b. Memphis, Tenn., May 8, 1953); Rick Vito (b. Darby, Pa., Oct. 13, 1949); Dave Mason (b. Worcester, England, May 10, 1946), and singer Bekka Bramlett.

Undergoing numerous personnel and stylistic changes for over 25 years, Fleetwood Mac was one of the longest lived of the British groups of the 1960s, surpassed in terms of longevity by only The Rolling Stones. Formed by two former members of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in 1967, Fleetwood Mac initially pursued a successful British career as a blues band during the late 1960s blues revival. For a time sporting a three-guitar front line of Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, and Danny Kirwan, the band gradually left the blues behind with the departure of cofounder Green in 1969. At the time of his exit, Peter Green was considered one of Great Britain’s premier blues-based guitarists, rivaled by only Eric Clapton in terms of aptitude and stature. Breaking through in the United States with 1970’s Kiln House, Fleetwood Mac subsequently added singer-keyboardist-songwriter Christine McVie and singer-songwriter Bob Welch, eventually transforming into a British-Calif, soft-rock band with the addition of Californians “Stevie” Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham in 1975. Achieving massive sales with 1975’s Fleetwood Mac and 1977’s Rumours, one of the biggest-selling albums of all time, Fleetwood Mac endured into the 1990s with Mick Fleetwood and John McVie as the mainstays.

Fleetwood Mac was formed in July 1967 by two former members of John MayaH’s Bluesbreakers, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood, with Jeremy Spencer and Bob Brunning. Green had joined Mayall following Eric Clapton’s departure to form Cream in mid-1966 and appeared on MayaU’s A Hard Road album. Green had previously been a member of Peter B’s Looners and Shotgun Express, as had Mick Fleetwood. Fleetwood, a drummer since the age of 13, worked with MayaH’s group in 1967. Bassist John Me Vie, a member of The Bluesbreakers since 1963, replaced Brunning in September.

Originally known as Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, the group debuted at the British National Jazz and Blues Festival on Aug. 12, 1967, and soon signed with Mike Vernon’s Blue Horizon label. Issued on Epic in the United States, their debut album included songs by Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, and Sonny Boy Williamson, as well as blues-based originals by Green and Spencer. Only marginally successful in the United States, the album proved immensely popular in Great Britain and helped spark the British blues explosion of the late 1960s. The group soon scored their first (top) British-only hit with Green’s instrumental “Albatross,” In August 1968, Green brought in a third guitaristvocalist, Danny Kirwan, and Fleetwood Mac’s second American album, English Rose, contained songs by all three guitarists, including Green’s “Black Magic Woman,” popularized by Santana in 1970. Green’s “Man of the World” became a smash British hit in 1969, the year Fleetwood Mac recorded two albums in Chicago with blues greats such as Otis Spann and Willie Dixon.

Switching to Reprise Records, Fleetwood Mac next recorded Then Play On. One of the most diverse recordings by the group, the album featured a number of pop-style songs by Green. His “Oh Well” became a smash British and minor American hit, but, unexpectedly, he announced his departure from the group, playing his last engagement with them in May 1970. He subsequently recorded an album for Reprise, only to drop out of sight for many years. Green eventually reemerged in the late 1970s on Sail Records, only to abandon music once again.

Fleetwood Mac’s first album without Peter Green, Kiln House, confirmed the group’s move toward a softer, more harmonic, and pop-oriented sound. Containing widely divergent material, the album included Spencer’s Western parody “Blood on the Floor,” Kirwan’s rousing “Tell Me All the Things You Do,” and “Station Man” and “Jewel-Eyed Judy,” both featuring lead vocals by Kirwan. The album became the group’s first substantial success in the United States and expanded their popularity beyond the cult following that had attended their American tours since 1968. For the album, Fleetwood Mac was assisted by John McVie’s wife Christine. Married in August 1968, the former Christine Perfect had been a member of Chicken Shack from April 1967 to August 1969, playing piano and singing on the group’s British-only 1969 hit “I’d Rather Go Blind.” She also recorded a solo album in 1970 that was reissued in 1976 as The Legendary Christine Perfect Album. She officially joined Fleetwood Mac in August 1970, shortly before the release of Kiln House. However, in February 1971, during Christine’s first American tour with Fleet-wood Mac, Jeremy Spencer abruptly left the group while in Los Angeles.

Fleetwood Mac, now comprising Kirwan, Fleet-wood, and the McVies, held auditions for Spencer’s replacement, eventually choosing lead guitarist- singersongwriter Bob Welch, who joined in April 1971. Welch, a veteran of both the Los Angeles and Las Vegas club scenes, had been a member of the rhythm-and- blues band The Seven Sons. With the departures of original guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, Fleetwood Mac switched to ballads and softer-rock songs with Future Games, Christine McVie and Bob Welch’s debut recording with the group. The follow-up, Bare Trees, included Kirwan’s “Dust” and “Bare Trees,” Christine’s “Spare Me a Little,” and Welch’s “Sentimental Lady.” In August 1972, Danny Kirwan was asked to leave Fleet-wood Mac. He eventually recorded three albums for DJM Records.

Experiencing several personnel changes over the next few years, Fleetwood Mac recorded Penguin and Mystery to Me, which sold surprisingly well in the United States. Heroes Are Hard to Find, regarded as Fleetwood Mac’s first album as a transplanted Los Angeles band, yielded an underground hit with Welch’s “Bermuda Triangle.” A protracted series of legal and financial problems beset Fleetwood Mac, as their man-ager, claiming control of the group name, assembled a group of unknowns to tour America as Fleetwood Mac. The matter was litigated as the real Fleetwood Mac moved to Los Angeles and Mick Fleetwood assumed the group’s management. Eventually vindicated by the courts, the real Fleetwood Mac suffered the departure of Bob Welch at the end of 1974.

Reduced to a trio, Fleetwood Mac recruited Stephanie “Stevie” Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks had been raised in Calif, and ended up in the San Francisco Bay Area after dropping out of San Jose State Coll. In 1968, she joined a band named Fritz, whose bassist and second vocalist was Buckingham. The two persevered with the group until 1971, later moving to Los Angeles, where they recorded a duet album for Poly dor Records. The two had come to the attention of Fleetwood Mac through producer Keith Olsen before Welch’s departure. With Buckingham and Nicks joining the group in January 1975, the new lineup recorded Fleetwood Mac in Los Angeles. Once again featuring three independent singer-songwriters, Fleetwood Mac had become the quintessential British-Calif, rock band. The album stayed on the charts for nearly three years and yielded three major hits with Christine’s “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me” and Nicks’s “Rhiannon,” while containing Christine’s “Warm Ways” and Nicks’s “Landslide.” Spurred by the visual and musical focus provided by Christine Me Vie and Stevie Nicks, the subsequent six-month tour made Fleetwood Mac a massively popular concert attraction and established the group as one of the prime purveyors of pop-oriented, harmonically rich, and extravagantly produced music.

The self-produced follow-up to Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, capitalized on the group’s burgeoning popularity as the two couples, John and Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, were splitting up. The album produced four hits, Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way,” Nicks’s top hit “Dreams,” and Christine’s “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun.” It remained on the American album charts for more than two years and eventually sold more than 25 million copies worldwide. Their popularity as a concert attraction was enhanced by a ten-month, ten-country world tour in support of Rumours.

Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, recorded over a two-year period at the cost of over $1 million, was issued in late 1979. Overlong and disjointed, the highly experimental album marked the creative ascendancy of Lindsey Buckingham, whose odd, near-smash hit title cut was recorded with the U.S.C. Trojan Marching Band. Tusk also yielded a near-smash hit with Nicks’s “Sara” and a major hit with “Think About Me.” The group completed an exhaustive American tour in late 1979 and a nine-month world tour in 1980. They did not return to the studio until 1982.

During 1981, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham each launched solo recording careers. Following 1982’s Mirage (and its hits “Hold Me,” “Love in Store” and “Gypsy”) and subsequent tour, Fleetwood Mac were generally inactive as a group. Christine McVie’s 1984 album produced hits with “Got a Hold on Me” and “Love Will Show Us How,” cowritten by guitarist Todd Sharp. She remarried in 1986. The group reassembled for 1987’s Tango in the Night, which produced smash hits with “Big Love” and “Little Lies” and major hits with “Seven Wonders” and “Everywhere.” On the eve of the tour in support of the album, Lindsey Buckingham abruptly quit the group. Guitarist-vocalist Billy Burnette (Dorsey Burnette’s son), a member of Mick Fleetwood’s side band The Zoo for many years, was added for the tour, as was guitarist-vocalist Rick Vito, a veteran of the touring bands of Jackson Browne and Bob Seger. As full-fledged members, the two recorded Behind the Mask with Fleetwood Mac and performed on their subsequent tour. The album failed to produce any major hits and, with their final performance in Los Angeles on Dec. 7, 1990, Christine Me Vie and Stevie Nicks vowed to never tour with the group again. The two did record several new songs for 1992’s 25 Years—The Chain, but by then Rick Vito had also left the group.

In 1993, the Rumours edition of Fleetwood Mac reunited to perform at President Bill Clinton’s inaugu-ration. By 1994, Fleetwood Mac (Mick Fleetwood, John and Christine Me Vie, and Billy Burnette) had recruited Dave Mason, a former member of Traffic, and Bekka Bramlett, the daughter of Bonnie and Delaney Bramlett. In 1997, the Rumours edition of Fleetwood Mac reunited yet again for an MTV concert that produced a live album and subsequent support tour. The enormous popularity of Rumours resulted in the 1998 release of Legacy: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, recorded by Jewel, Elton John, Shawn Colvin, and The Goo Goo Dolls, among others.

Discography

Fleetwood Mac (1967); English Rose (1969); Blues Jam in Chicago, Vol. 1 (1969); Blues Jam in Chicago, Vol. 2 (1969); Jumping at Shadows (recorded 1969, rel. 1986); Then Play On (1969); Kiln House (1970); Future Games (1971); The Original Fleetwood Mac (1971); Bare Trees (1972); Penguin (recorded 1973); Mystery to Me (1973); Heroes Are Hard to Find (recorded 1974); Fleetwood Mac (1975); Rumours (1977); Tusk (1979); Live (1980); Mirage (recorded 1982, rel. 1984); Tango in the Night (1987); Greatest Hits (1988); Behind the Mask (1989); The Blues Collection

(1989); 25 Years—The Chain (1992); Early Treasures (1992); The Early Years (1993); Time (1995); London Live ’68 (1995); The Dance (1997). CHICKE N SHACK: 40 Blue Fingers Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve (1969); O.K. Ken? (1969). CHRISTINE M C VIE: The Legendary Christine Perfect Album (1976); Christine McVie (1984). PETER GREEN : End of the Game (1971); In the Skies (1979); Little Dreamer (1980). GREEN & GUITAR: The Best of Peter Green, 1977–1981 (1996). JEREM Y SPENCER: Jeremy Spencer and the Children of God (1972); Flee (1979). DANN Y KIRWAN : Second Chapter (1975); Danny Kirwan (1977); Hello There, Big Boy (1979). LINDSE Y BUCKING HAM AND STEVIE NICKS: Buckingham/Nicks (1973). STEVIE NICKS: Bella Donna (1981); The Wild Heart (1983); Rock a Little (1985); The Other Side of the Mirror (1989); Timespace: The Best of Stevie Nicks (1991); Street Angel (1994). LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM : Law and Order (1981/1984); Go Insane (1984); Out of the Cradle (1992). MICK FLEETWOOD : The Visitor (1981); I’m Not Me (1983). J O H N M C VIE: John McVie’s “Gotta Band” (1992).