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Fleetwood Mac are an influential and commercially successful rock band formed in 1967, who have had a high turnover of
personnel (from its inception until the end of 1974, no incarnation of Fleetwood Mac lasted as much as two years) and varied
levels of success.
The only member who has been in the band from the beginning is its namesake drummer Mick
Fleetwood (bassist John McVie, despite his giving part of his name to the band, did
not play on their first single or at their first concerts). Keyboardist Christine McVie
has, to date, appeared on all but two albums, either as a member or as a session musician.
The two most successful periods for the band were: during the late 1960s British blues boom, when they were led by guitarist
Peter Green, and from 1975-1987, with the rock band that consisted of
Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham.
History
Peter Green-led era (1967-1970)
Early years
Fleetwood Mac were formed in 1967 in London when Peter Green left the British blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Green had replaced guitarist Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, and received critical acclaim for his work on their album,
A Hard Road. After he had been in the Bluesbreakers for some time, Green asked if
drummer Mick Fleetwood could replace Aynsley
Dunbar. Peter had been in two bands with Fleetwood; Peter B's Looners and the subsequent Shotgun Express
(which featured a young vocalist named Rod Stewart). John
Mayall agreed and Fleetwood became a member of the band.
The Bluesbreakers now consisted of Green, Fleetwood, John McVie, and Mayall. Mayall gave
Green free recording time as a gift, in which Fleetwood, McVie, and Green recorded five songs. The fifth song was an instrumental
that Green named after the rhythm section, "Fleetwood Mac."
Fleetwood and McVie were known for their regular drunkenness. In fact, McVie had been fired from the band several times for
his drunkenness (once replaced by Jack Bruce, which led to the formation of Cream). Fleetwood was fired from the band because of his drinking problems. Green decided to leave the band
and was replaced by future Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor.
Formation of the band
Green contacted Fleetwood to form a new band. The pair desperately wanted McVie on bass and even named the band 'Fleetwood
Mac' as a way to entice McVie. However, McVie decided that his pay with the Bluesbreakers was just too good to give up. In the
meantime, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood teamed up with talented slide player Jeremy
Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, who was in the band on the understanding that if
and when McVie agreed to join, he would leave. This version of the band made its debut on August 13, 1967 at the Windsor Jazz and
Blues Festival. Within weeks of this show, John McVie agreed to become the bassist for the band.
Fleetwood Mac's first album, Fleetwood Mac, was a no frills blues
album and was released on the Blue Horizon label in February 1968. In fact, there were no other players on the album (except for
the song "Long Grey Mare," which was recorded when Bob Brunning was in the band). The album was hugely successful in the U.K.,
though it did not have any singles on it. To alleviate that, the band released two singles "Black Magic Woman" (later a big hit for Santana) and "Need
Your Love So Bad."
The band's second album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968.
Like the first album, it was an all-blues album, but this time they had a few more frills. For example, they had it produced to
sound as if it were twenty years older than it really was. They also added horns and
featured a friend of the band's on keyboards, Christine Perfect of Chicken Shack.
Danny Kirwan
Shortly after the release of their second album, Fleetwood Mac added a third guitarist, Danny
Kirwan, to their line-up. Kirwan brought a more easy going, harmony-rich sound that was reminiscent of the sort of bands
playing in California at the time. With Kirwan, the band released its first number one single in Europe, "Albatross." Around this time, the band released its second American album, English Rose, which contained half of Mr. Wonderful, a few new songs from their new guitarist,
and its third European album called The Pious Bird Of Good Omen,
which was a collection of singles, b-sides, and a selection of some work the band did with Eddie
Boyd.
When the band went to the United States in January 1969, they recorded many songs at
the soon to close Chess Records Studio, with some of the musical "legends" of
Chicago, including Willie Dixon,
Buddy Guy, and Otis Spann. These would prove, however, to
be Fleetwood Mac's last all-blues recordings. Along with their change of style, the band was also going through some label
changes. Up until this point, they had been on Blue Horizon. With Kirwan in the band, however, the musical possibilities were too
great for them to stay on a blues-only label. The band signed with the Immediate label and released "Man Of The World", another
British and European hit single. Immediate was in bad shape and the band shopped around for a new deal. Even though the
Beatles wanted the band on Apple Records, the band's
manager Clifford Davis decided to go with Warner Bros. Records, the label they have stayed with ever since. Their first album for Warners,
released in September of 1969, was the well-regarded Then Play On. The American
release of this album contains the song "Oh Well", featured consistently in live performances until 1997. Then Play On,
which was the band's first rock album, featured only the songs of Kirwan and Green. Jeremy Spencer, meanwhile, recorded a
solo album (he was backed by the rest of the band) that consisted of many
1950s-style rock and roll songs.
Departure of Green
Fleetwood Mac were arguably the most popular band in Europe at the time. However, Peter Green, the frontman of the band, was
not in good health. He had been spiked with LSD in Munich, which began the onset of his schizophrenia. In Munich, Green
penned what would be his last hit with Fleetwood Mac, "The Green Manalishi (With the
Two-Prong Crown)" (which was later recorded by Judas Priest). Green's mental
stability deteriorated, and he wanted to give all of the band's money to charity. The rest of the band did not concur.
Green decided to leave the band. His last show with Fleetwood Mac was on May 20, 1970. During that show, the band went past
their allotted time, and the power was shut off. Mick Fleetwood kept drumming. The band, somewhat reluctantly, kept on without
Peter Green and despite press reports suggesting Danny Kirwan would assume leadership, the media-savvy Fleetwood took over as
business manager of the band.
Transitional era (1970-1975)
Christine McVie
Danny and Jeremy were left with the task of having to fill up Peter's space in their shows and on their recordings. In
September 1970, Fleetwood Mac released Kiln House. Danny's songs moved the band in the
direction of 70s rock. Meanwhile, Jeremy's contributions focused on recreating the country-tinged "Sun Sound" of the late 1950s.
John's wife, Christine, who had retired from the music business after one unsuccessful solo album made many contributions to
"Kiln House," singing backup vocals, playing keyboards, and even drawing the album cover. Since the band was sounding too "thin"
at its tour rehearsals, they decided to ask Christine McVie to join the band. They also released a single at that time;
"Dragonfly" b/w "The Purple Dancer" in the U.K. and certain European countries. The single was not a success and the B-side has
only been reissued once, on a Reprise German-only "Best of" album, making it one of their most obscure songs.
Christine made her first appearance with the band at Bristol University in May 1969 just as she was leaving Chicken Shack. She
had had success with the Etta James classic, "I'd Rather Go Blind", and was twice voted
female artist of the year in England. Christine McVie played her first gig as an
official member on August 6, 1970 in New Orleans. CBS Records, which now owned Blue Horizon, released an album of previously unreleased material from the
original Fleetwood Mac called The Original Fleetwood Mac. The album was relatively successful, and the band seemed to be
gaining popularity again.
While on tour in February 1971, Jeremy Spencer said he was going out to "get a magazine", but never returned. After several
days of frantic searching, the band discovered that Spencer had joined a religious group, the Children of God. Liable for the remaining shows on the tour they convinced Peter Green to help finish
the tour. He brought along his friend, Nigel Watson, who played the congas (twenty-five years
later Green and Watson would collaborate again to form the Peter Green Splinter
Group). The band replaced Jeremy’s portion of the set with 90 minute instrumental improvisations of "Black Magic Woman". Green, however, would only be with Fleetwood Mac temporarily, so the band decided
to search for a new guitarist.
Bob Welch
In the summer of 1971, the band held auditions for a guitarist in their large country home, "Benifold", which they bought
prior to the Kiln House tour. A friend of the band named Judy Wong recommended her high school friend, Bob Welch, who was living in Paris at the time. The band had a few meetings with Welch and decided
to hire him, without actually playing with him or listening to any of his recordings.
In September 1971, the band released Future Games. This album was radically
different from anything the band had done up to that point. There were many new fans in America who were becoming more and more
interested in the band. In Europe, CBS released Fleetwood Mac's first Greatest Hits package, which was predominantly comprised of songs by Peter
Green, though there was one song by Jeremy and one by Danny.
In 1972, six months after the release of Future Games, the band released the well-received album Bare Trees. Bare Trees featured Bob Welch's "Sentimental Lady", which would be a much bigger hit
for him five years later when he re-recorded it, backed with Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham, for a solo
album. It also featured "Spare Me a Little of Your Love," a bright Christine McVie tune that would become a staple of the band's
live act throughout the early-to-mid 1970s.
While the band was doing well in the studio, their tours were more problematic. Danny Kirwan developed an alcohol dependency
and became alienated from Welch and the McVies. It wasn't until he smashed his Les Paul Custom guitar, refused to go on stage one
night, and criticised the band afterwards that Fleetwood finally decided that he had no choice but to fire Kirwan.
Tension in the band
The next two and a half years proved to be the most challenging for the band. In the three albums they would release in this
period, they would constantly change line-ups. In September of 1972, the band added guitarist Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker, formerly of
Savoy Brown. Fleetwood Mac also hired Savoy Brown's road manager, John Courage. Mick, John,
Christine, Welch, Weston, and Walker recorded Penguin, which was released in
January, 1973. After the tour, the band fired Walker because his vocal style and attitude did not fit in with the rest of the
band.
The remaining five carried on and recorded Mystery To Me six months later. This
album contained the song "Hypnotized", which got a lot of airplay on the radio and became one of the band’s most recognisable
songs to date. While the album was a hit, things were not well within the band. The McVies' marriage at this time was under a lot
of stress, which was aggravated by constantly working with each other, and John McVie's considerable alcohol abuse. During the
tour, Weston had an affair with Fleetwood's wife, Jenny Boyd Fleetwood (whose sister, Pattie
Boyd, was the subject of Eric Clapton’s classic "Layla"). Fleetwood soon fired Weston and the tour was cancelled.
"Fake" Mac
In what would be one of the more bizarre events in rock history, the band's manager, Clifford Davis, claimed that he owned the
name Fleetwood Mac and put out a "fake Mac". Nobody in the "fake Mac" was ever officially in the real band, although some of them
later acted as Danny Kirwan's studio band. Fans were told that Bob Welch and John McVie had quit the group, and that Mick
Fleetwood and Christine McVie would be joining the band at a later date, after getting some rest. Fleetwood Mac's road manager,
John Courage, worked one show before he realised that the line being used was a lie. Courage ended up hiding the real Fleetwood
Mac's equipment, which helped shorten the tour by the fake band. But the lawsuit that followed put the real Fleetwood Mac out of
commission for almost a year. The issue was who actually owned the name "Fleetwood Mac". While it would seem obvious that the
band was named after Fleetwood and McVie, they had signed contracts (while they were in "altered states") that showed the band
forfeited the rights to the name.
During this period, Welch stayed in Los Angeles and connected with entertainment attorneys. Welch quickly realized that the
band was unknown to Warner Bros., and that if they wanted to change that, they would have to change their base of operation to
Los Angeles. The rest of the band agreed immediately. Rock promoter Bill Graham
wrote a letter to Warner Bros. to convince them that the "real" Fleetwood Mac were in fact Fleetwood, McVie, McVie, and Welch.
While this did not end the legal battle, the band was able to record as Fleetwood Mac again. Instead of getting another manager,
Fleetwood Mac decided to manage themselves.
Departure of Welch
After Warner Bros. made a record deal with them, the quartet released Heroes Are
Hard To Find in September 1974. For the first time in its history, the band only had one guitarist. On the road, they
added a second keyboardist. The first was Bobby Hunt, who had been in the band Head West with Bob Welch back in 1970. The second
was Doug Graves, who was an engineer on Heroes Are Hard To Find. Neither lasted too long.
This tour proved to be the last one for Bob Welch. The constant touring and fighting in the band had taken its toll on Welch.
He felt that he had hit the end of his creative road with the band. While his tenure wasn't a commercial success, Bob Welch
provided musical and professional direction to the group, helped the band through three major crises, and left it in a situation
where it had a record contract, a direct line to the record company, connections to industry insiders, no pressure from the
record company, and a management situation that would help foster creativity. Thus, many feel that Bob Welch had laid the
foundations for Fleetwood Mac's future.
Mainstream Success (1975-1987)
Buckingham Nicks
After Welch announced that he was leaving the band, Fleetwood began searching for a possible replacement. While Fleetwood was
scouting Van Nuys, California, the house engineer for California's
Sound City Studios, Keith Olsen, played him a track titled "Frozen Love" (from Buckingham
Nicks, Polydor PD 5058, September 1973), which he had mixed there for an American band, Buckingham Nicks. Fleetwood
liked it, and was introduced to the guitarist from the band, Lindsey Buckingham, who
coincidentally was at Sound City that day recording some demos and had heard "Frozen Love" blasting ov
