Fleetwood Macs Group history:
Fleetwood Mac
Special Thanks to Wikipedia for all the great Info They do a great job. Visit some of their work and make a donation, there work is all by donations!!!!
Fleetwood Mac
|
|
 Fleetwood Mac live on 3 March 2009, in Saint Paul, Minnesota (L-R) John McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood |
|
Background
information
|
|
Origin
|
London, United Kingdom
|
Genres
|
Rock, blues, blues rock, pop rock, soft rock
|
Years active
|
1967–present
|
Labels
|
Blue Horizon, Reprise, Warner Bros.
|
Associated acts
|
John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Eddie Boyd, Chicken Shack, Savoy
Brown, Buckingham Nicks, Duster Bennett
|
Website
|
www.fleetwoodmac.com
|
Members
|
|
Mick Fleetwood
John McVie Lindsey Buckingham Stevie Nicks |
|
Past members
|
|
See: personnel
section
|
|
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band formed
in 1967 in London.
The only original member present
in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood. Despite band founder Peter
Green naming the group by combining the surnames of two of his former bandmates
(Fleetwood, McVie) from John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, bassist John McVie played
neither on their first single nor at their first concerts. The keyboardist, Christine
McVie, who joined the band in 1970 while married to John McVie, appeared on all
but two albums, either as a member or as a session musician. She also supplied
the artwork for the album Kiln House.
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 achieved a UK number one with "Albatross";
and from 1975 to 1987, with more pop-orientation, featuring Christine McVie, Lindsey
Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. Fleetwood Mac's second album after the
incorporation of Nicks and Buckingham, 1977's Rumours, produced four
U.S. Top 10 singles (including Nicks' song "Dreams", which was the
band's first and only U.S. number one) and remained at No.1 on the American
albums chart for 31 weeks, as well as reaching the top spot in various
countries around the world. To date the album has sold over 40 million copies
worldwide, making it the eighth highest selling album of all time.
The band enjoyed more modest
success in the intervening period between 1971 and 1974, with the line-up
including Bob Welch, and also during the 1990s which saw more personnel changes
before the return of Nicks and Buckingham in 1997, and more recently, the
departure of Christine McVie.
History
Formation and early years (1967–1970)
Fleetwood Mac was 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. Green 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 which Green named after the rhythm section,
"Fleetwood Mac".
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 him. However McVie opted for steady work
with Mayall rather than the unknown of a new band. 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 he would
leave if and when McVie agreed to join. The Green, Fleetwood, Spencer, Brunning
version of the band made its debut on 13 August 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 successful in the UK, hitting no.4, though it did not
have any singles on it. The band soon 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 it was an all-blues
album, but this time they made a few changes. The album was recorded live in
the studio with miked amplifiers and PA system, rather than plugged into the
board. This method provided the ideal environment for producing this style of
music, and gave it an authentically vintage sound. They also added horns and
featured a friend of the band on keyboards, Christine Perfect of Chicken Shack.
Shortly after the release of
their second album Fleetwood Mac added guitarist Danny Kirwan, then just
eighteen years old, to their line-up. Green had been frustrated that Jeremy
Spencer had little desire to contribute to Green's songs. A mature and
accomplished self-taught guitarist, Kirwan's signature vibrato and unique style
added a new dimension to an already complete band. With Kirwan the band
released their first number one single in Europe, "Albatross". Around
this time they released their second American album, English Rose, which
contained half of Mr. Wonderful, new songs from Kirwan, and their 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 blues 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 Records
label and released "Man of the World", another British and European
hit single. For the B-side Spencer fronted Fleetwood Mac as "Earl Vince
and the Valiants" and recorded "Someone's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked
In Tonite", typifying the more raucous rock 'n' roll side of the band.
Immediate Records was in bad shape and the band shopped around for a new deal.
Even though The Beatles wanted the band on Apple Records (Mick Fleetwood and George
Harrison were brothers-in-law), the band's manager Clifford Davis decided to go
with Warner Bros. Records (Reprise), the label they have stayed with ever
since. Their first album for Reprise, released in September 1969, was the
well-regarded Then Play On. The American release of this album contains
the song "Oh Well", featured consistently in live performances from
the time of its release through 1997 and then again starting in 2009. 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) which consisted of many 1950s-style rock and
roll songs.
In July 1969 Fleetwood Mac opened
for Ten Years After at the Schaefer Music Festival at New York City's Wollman
Rink. They re-appeared at the festival in 1970.
Fleetwood Mac were an extremely
popular band in Europe at the time. However, Peter Green, the frontman of the
band, was not in good health. He had taken LSD in Munich, which contributed to
the onset of his schizophrenia.
German author and filmmaker
Rainer Langhans mentions in his autobiography that he and Uschi Obermaier met
Peter Green in Munich, where they invited him to their "High-Fish-Commune".
They were not really interested in Peter Green. They just wanted to get in
contact with Mick Taylor: Langhans and Obermaier wished to organise a
"Bavarian Woodstock". They wanted Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones
to be the leading acts of their Bavarian open air festival. They needed the
'Green God' just to get in contact with The Rolling Stones via Mick Taylor.
Green's last hit with Fleetwood
Mac was "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown)" (first
recorded at the Boston Tea Party in February 1970 and later recorded by Judas
Priest). This recording was released as Green's mental stability deteriorated,
and he wanted to give all of the band's money to charity. Other members of the
band did not agree, and subsequently Green decided to leave the band. His last
show with Fleetwood Mac was on 20 May 1970. During that show, the band went
past their allotted time and the power was shut off, although Mick Fleetwood
kept drumming. Some of the Boston Tea Party recordings (February 5/6/7 1970)
were eventually released in the 1980s as the Live in Boston album, with
a more complete remastered 3-volume compilation released by Snapper Music in
the late 90s.
Transitional era (1970–1975)
Kirwan and Spencer 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.
Kirwan's songs moved the band in the direction of 70s rock. Meanwhile,
Spencer's contributions focused on re-creating the country-tinged "Sun
Sound" of the late 1950s. Christine Perfect, who had retired from the
music business after one unsuccessful solo album, contributed to Kiln House,
singing backup vocals, and drawing the album cover. Since Fleetwood Mac were progressing
and developing a new sound, Perfect was asked 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. Despite good notices
in the press, the single was not a success and the B-side has been reissued
only once, on a Reprise German-only "Best of" album, making it one of
their most obscure songs.
1973 line-up with
Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Bob Weston, John McVie, and Bob Welch.
Christine Perfect was married to
bassist John McVie, and made her first appearance with the band as Christine
McVie 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 6 August 1970 in
New Orleans. Columbia Records, which now owned Blue Horizon (except in the US
and Canada), 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). Green, however, would only be back with Fleetwood Mac
temporarily, so the band decided to search for a new guitarist.
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 composed
of songs by Peter Green, though there was one song by Spencer and one by
Kirwan.
In 1972, six months after the
release of Future Games, the band released the well-received album Bare
Trees. Bare Trees featured Welch's "Sentimental Lady",
which would be a much bigger hit for him five years later when he re-recorded
it for his solo album French Kiss, backed with Mick Fleetwood, Christine
McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham. 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 were 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.
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
1972, the band added guitarist Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker, formerly of
Savoy Brown. Bob Weston was well known for playing slide guitar and had known
the band from his touring period with Long John Baldry. 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. The band were justifiably proud
of the new album and were poised to make it a hit. However, things were not
well within the band. The McVies' marriage at this time was under a lot of
stress, which was aggravated by their constant 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, the sister of Pattie Boyd Harrison.
Fleetwood soon fired Weston and the tour was cancelled. Due to lack of touring,
the album sold less than its predecessor.
In what would be one of the most
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 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
realised that the band was being neglected by 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, Welch and the McVies. 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.
The fake Mac consisted of Elmer
Gantry (vocals, guitar), Kirby Gregory (guitar), Paul Martinez (bass), John
Wilkinson (keyboards) and Craig Collinge (drums). Gantry and Gregory went on to
become members of Stretch, Gantry would later join The Alan Parsons Project and
Martinez would eventually become a bassist for Robert Plant's solo efforts.
After Warner Bros. made a record
deal with the real Fleetwood Mac, the quartet released Heroes Are Hard to
Find in September 1974. For the first time in its history, the band had
only 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 proved to be a long-term addition to the line-up.
This tour proved to be the last
one for Bob Welch, who had tired of the touring and legal struggles, but the
tour enabled the Heroes album to reach a higher position on the American
charts than any of the band's previous records.
Mainstream success (1975–1987)
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. Fleetwood soon asked him to join. Buckingham agreed, on the
condition that his musical partner and girlfriend, Stephanie "Stevie"
Nicks, also become part of the band; Fleetwood agreed.
In 1975, the new line-up released
the eponymous Fleetwood Mac. The album proved to be a breakthrough for
the band and became a huge hit, reaching No.1 in the US and selling over 5
million copies. Among the hit singles from this album were Christine McVie's
"Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me", and Stevie Nicks'
"Rhiannon" and "Landslide" (actually a hit twenty years
later on The Dance album).
But in 1976, with the success of
the band also came the end of John and Christine McVie's marriage, as well as
Buckingham and Nicks' long term romantic relationship. Even Fleetwood was in
the midst of divorce proceedings from his wife, Jenny. The pressure put on
Fleetwood Mac to release a successful follow-up album, combined with their
new-found wealth, led to creative and personal tensions, fuelled by high
consumption of drugs and alcohol.
The album the band members
released in 1977 was Rumours, in which they laid bare the emotional
turmoil experienced at that time. Critically acclaimed, it was the recipient of
the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for 1977. Hit singles included
Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way", Nicks's U.S. No.1 "Dreams",
and Christine McVie's "Don't Stop" and "You Make Loving Fun".
Buckingham's "Second Hand News", Nicks' "Gold Dust Woman"
and "The Chain" (the only song written by all five bandmates) also
received significant radio airplay. By 2003, Rumours had sold over 19
million copies in the U.S. alone (certified as a diamond album by the RIAA),
and a total of 40 million copies worldwide, maintaining its status as one of
the biggest-selling albums of all time.
Buckingham was able to convince
Fleetwood to allow his work on their next album to be more experimental and to
work on tracks at home, then bring them to the band in the studio. His expanded
creative role for the next album was influenced by an appreciation for New Wave
music.
The result of this was the quirky
20-track double album, Tusk, released in 1979. It spawned three hit
singles; Lindsey Buckingham's "Tusk" (U.S. #8), which featured the USC
Trojan Marching Band; Christine McVie's "Think About Me" (U.S. #20);
and Stevie Nicks' 6½ minute opus "Sara" (U.S. #7). The last of those
three was cut to 4½ minutes for both the hit single and the first CD-release of
the album, but the unedited version has since been restored on the 1988 Greatest
Hits compilation and the 2004 reissue of Tusk as well as Fleetwood
Mac's 2002 release of The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac. Original guitarist
Green also took part in the sessions of Tusk, but his playing for the
Christine McVie track "Brown Eyes" is not credited on the album.
Tusk remains one of Fleetwood Mac's most ambitious
albums to date, although selling only four million copies worldwide. This, in
comparison to the huge sales of Rumours, inclined the label to deem the
project a failure, laying the blame squarely on Buckingham. Fleetwood, however,
blames the album's relative failure on the RKO radio chain playing the album in
its entirety prior to release, thus allowing mass home taping. In addition, Tusk
was a double album, with a high list price of $15.98.
The band embarked on a huge
18-month tour to support and promote Tusk. They travelled extensively
across the world, including the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France,
Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In Germany they
shared the bill with reggae superstar Bob Marley. It was on this world tour
that the band recorded music for the Fleetwood Mac Live album, which was
released at the end of 1980.
The next album, 1982's Mirage,
following 1981 solo turns by Nicks (Bella Donna) and Buckingham (Law
and Order), was a return to the more conventional. Buckingham had been
chided by critics, fellow bandmembers and music business managers for the
lesser commercial success enjoyed by Tusk. Recorded at a château in
France, Mirage was an attempt to recapture the huge success of Rumours.
Its hits included Christine McVie's "Hold Me" and "Love In
Store" (each song being co-written by Robbie Patton and Jim Recor,
respectively), Stevie Nicks's "Gypsy", and Lindsey Buckingham's
"Oh Diane", which made the Top 10 in the UK. A minor hit was also
scored by Buckingham's "Eyes Of The World".
In contrast to the Tusk
Tour, the band only embarked on a short tour of 18 American cities, the Los
Angeles show being recorded and released on video. They also headlined the
first US Festival, for which the band was paid $500,000 ($1,204,138 today). Mirage
was certified double platinum in the U.S.
Following Mirage, the band
went on hiatus, which allowed members to pursue solo careers. Stevie Nicks
released two more solo albums (1983's The Wild Heart and 1985's Rock
a Little), Lindsey Buckingham issued Go Insane in 1984, the same
year that Christine McVie made an eponymous album (yielding the Top 10 hit
"Got A Hold On Me" and the Top 40 hit "Love Will Show Us
How"). All three met with success and it was Nicks who became the most
popular. However, also during this period, Mick Fleetwood had filed for
bankruptcy, Nicks was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction problems,
and John McVie had suffered an addiction-related seizure—all attributed to the
lifestyle of excess afforded to them by their worldwide success. It was
rumoured that Fleetwood Mac had finally broken up; however, Buckingham
commented that he was unhappy to allow Mirage to remain as the band's
last effort.
The Rumours line-up of
Fleetwood Mac recorded one more album for the time being, Tango in the Night,
in 1987. Initially, as with various other Fleetwood Mac albums, the material
started off as a Buckingham solo album before becoming a group project. The
album went on to become their best-selling release since Rumours,
especially in the UK where it hit no. 1 three times over the following year.
The album sold three million copies in the USA and contained four hits:
Christine McVie's "Little Lies" and "Everywhere" (the
former being co-written with McVie's new husband Eddy Quintela), Sandy Stewart
and Stevie Nicks's "Seven Wonders", and Lindsey Buckingham's
"Big Love". "Family Man" and "Isn't It Midnight"
were also released as singles, with lesser success.
Broken chain (1987–1997)
1987–91 line-up
of Fleetwood Mac
Following Buckingham's departure,
Fleetwood Mac added two new guitarists to the band, Billy Burnette and Rick
Vito. Burnette was mainly added for his singing and songwriting skills and Vito
for his lead guitar abilities.
Burnette is the son of Dorsey
Burnette and nephew of Johnny Burnette, both of The Rock and Roll Trio. He had
already worked with Mick Fleetwood in Zoo, with Christine McVie as part of her
solo band, did some session work with Stevie Nicks and even backed Lindsey
Buckingham on Saturday Night Live. Furthermore, Fleetwood and Christine
McVie played on his Try Me album in 1985. Vito, a Peter Green admirer,
played with many artists from Bonnie Raitt to John Mayall, and even worked with
John McVie on two Mayall albums.
The 1987–88 "Shake the
Cage" tour was the first outing for this line-up, and was successful
enough to warrant the release of a concert video (simply titled "Tango in
the Night"), filmed at San Francisco's Cow Palace arena in December 1987.
Capitalising on the success of Tango
in the Night, the band continued with a Greatest Hits album in 1988.
It featured singles from the 1975–88 era, and included two new compositions:
"No Questions Asked" written by Nicks, and "As Long as You
Follow" written by McVie and Quintela, which was released as a single in
1988 but only made No.43 in the US and No.66 in the UK. It did, however, reach
No.1 on the US Adult Contemporary charts. The Greatest Hits album, which
peaked at No.3 in the UK and No.14 in the US (though has since sold over 8
million copies there), was dedicated to Buckingham by the band, with whom they
had now reconciled.
Following the Greatest Hits
collection, Fleetwood Mac recorded Behind the Mask. With this album, the
band veered away from the stylised sound that Buckingham had evolved during his
tenure in the band (also evident in his solo works), and ended up with a more adult
contemporary style from producer Greg Ladanyi. However, the album yielded only
one Top 40 hit, McVie's "Save Me". Behind the Mask only
achieved Gold album status in the US, peaking at No.18 on the Billboard
album chart, though it entered the UK Albums Chart at #1. It received mixed
reviews, and was seen by some music critics as a low point for the band in the
absence of Lindsey Buckingham (who had actually made a guest appearance
by playing on the title track). However, Rolling Stone magazine said
that Vito and Burnette were "the best thing to ever happen to Fleetwood
Mac" and the British Q magazine also praised the album in their
review. The subsequent "Behind the Mask" tour saw the band play sold
out shows at London's Wembley Stadium, and on the final show in Los Angeles,
the band were joined onstage by Buckingham. The two women of the band, McVie
and Nicks, had decided that the tour would be their last (McVie's father died
during the tour) though both stated that they would still record with the band.
However, in 1991, both Nicks and Rick Vito announced they were leaving
Fleetwood Mac altogether.
In 1992, Fleetwood himself
arranged a 4-disc box set spanning highlights from the band's 25 year history,
titled 25 Years – The Chain (an edited 2-disc set was also available). A
notable inclusion in the box set was "Silver Springs", a Stevie Nicks
composition that was recorded during the Rumours sessions but was
omitted from the album and used as the B-side of "Go Your Own Way"
instead. Nicks had requested use of the track for her 1991 best-of compilation TimeSpace,
but Fleetwood had refused her request as he had planned to include it in this
collection as something of a rarity. The disagreement between Nicks and
Fleetwood garnered press coverage, and is believed to be the main catalyst for
Nicks leaving the band in 1991. The box set, however, also included a brand new
Stevie Nicks/Rick Vito composition, "Paper Doll", which was released
in the US as a single. As both members had left the band by this point, the
track was presumably a leftover from the Behind the Mask sessions. There
were also two new Christine McVie compositions, "Heart of Stone" and
"Love Shines", the latter of which was released as a single in the UK
and certain other territories. Lindsey Buckingham also contributed a new song,
"Make Me a Mask", which bore all the markings of an insular
Buckingham studio creation, devoid of input from other band members. Mick
Fleetwood also released a deluxe hardcover companion book to coincide with the
release of the box set, titled My 25 Years in Fleetwood Mac. The volume
featured many rare photographs and notes (written by Fleetwood himself)
detailing the band's 25 year history.
Some months after this, the
Buckingham/Nicks/McVie/McVie/Fleetwood line-up reunited at the request of U.S.
President Bill Clinton for his first Inaugural Ball in 1993. Clinton had made
Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" his campaign theme song. His subsequent
request to perform it at the Inauguration Ball was met with enthusiasm by the
band, however this line-up had no intention to reunite again.
Inspired by the new interest in
the band, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie recorded another
album as Fleetwood Mac, with Billy Burnette taking on lead guitar duties.
However, just as they made the decision to continue, Billy Burnette announced
in March 1993, that he was leaving the band to pursue a country album and an
acting career. Bekka Bramlett, who had worked a year earlier with Mick
Fleetwood's Zoo, was recruited. Solo singer/songwriter/guitarist and Traffic's Dave
Mason, who had worked with Bekka's parents Delaney & Bonnie twenty five
years earlier, was subsequently added. By March 1994, Billy Burnette, himself a
good friend and co-songwriter with Delaney Bramlett, returned with Fleetwood's
blessing.
The band, minus Christine McVie,
toured in 1994, opening for Crosby, Stills, & Nash, and in 1995 as part of
a package with REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar. The tour saw the band perform
classic Fleetwood Mac songs from the initial 1967–1974 era. In 1995, at a
concert in Tokyo, the band was greeted by former member Jeremy Spencer, who
performed a few songs with them.
On 10 October 1995, Fleetwood Mac
released the unsuccessful Time album. Although hitting the UK Top 60 for
one week the album had zero impact in the US. It failed even to graze the Billboard
Top 200 albums chart, a stunning reversal for a band that had been a mainstay
on that chart for most of the previous two decades. Shortly after the album's
release, Christine McVie informed the band that the album was her last.
Bramlett and Burnette subsequently formed a country music duo, Bekka &
Billy.
Re-connected chain (1997–2007)
Just weeks after disbanding
Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood announced that he was working with Lindsey
Buckingham again. John McVie was soon added to the sessions, and later
Christine McVie. Stevie Nicks also enlisted Lindsey Buckingham to produce a
song for a soundtrack.
In May 1996, Mick Fleetwood, John
McVie, Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks made an appearance at a private party
in Louisville, Kentucky prior to the Kentucky Derby (with Steve Winwood filling
in for Lindsey Buckingham). A week later, the Twister film soundtrack
was released, which featured the Stevie Nicks-Lindsey Buckingham duet,
"Twisted", with Mick Fleetwood on drums. This eventually led to a
full Rumours line-up reunion when the band officially reformed in March
1997. The regrouped Mac performed a live concert recorded on a Warner Bros. Burbank,
California soundstage on 22 May, and from this performance came the 1997 live
album The Dance, bringing Fleetwood Mac back to the top of the US album
charts for the first time in 15 years. The album returned Fleetwood Mac to
their superstar commercial status that they had not enjoyed since their Tango
in the Night album. The album was certified a 5 million seller by the RIAA.
A successful arena tour followed the MTV premiere of The Dance, which
kept the reunited Mac on the road throughout much of 1997, the 20th anniversary
of their Rumours album. However, this would be the final foray of the
classic 1970s line-up with Christine McVie.
Stevie Nicks and
Lindsey Buckingham on the Say You Will Tour, 2003
In 1998, Fleetwood Mac (Mick
Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Peter
Green, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan) were inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame and performed at the Grammy Awards program that year. They were
also the recipients of the "Outstanding Contribution to Music" award
at the BRIT Awards (British Phonographic Industry Awards) the same year.
In 1998, Christine McVie left the
band and returned to the UK to retire from touring (though not from the music
business entirely as she created a new album, In the Meantime, in 2004).
Her departure left Buckingham and Nicks to sing all the lead vocals for the
band's 2003 album, Say You Will, although Christine did contribute some
backing vocals and keyboards. The album debuted at No.3 on the Billboard
200 chart (#6 in the UK) and yielded chart hits with "Peacekeeper"
and the title track, and a successful world arena tour which lasted through
2004.
In interviews given in November
2006 to support his solo album Under the Skin, Buckingham stated that
plans for the band to reunite once more for a 2008 tour were still on the
cards. Recording plans have been put on hold for the foreseeable future. In a
September 2007 interview Stevie Nicks gave to the UK newspaper The Daily
Telegraph, she noted that she was unwilling to carry on with the band
unless Christine McVie returned. However in a more recent interview, Mick
Fleetwood said "...be very happy and hopeful that we will be working
again. I can tell you everyone's going to be extremely excited about what's
happening with Fleetwood Mac."
Unleashed tour and future projects (2008–present)
On 14 March 2008, the Associated
Press reported Sheryl Crow as saying that she would be working with Fleetwood
Mac in 2009. Crow and Stevie Nicks collaborated a great deal in the past and
she has stated that Nicks has been a great teacher and inspiration for her. In
a subsequent interview with Buckingham, he said after discussions between the
band and Crow, the potential collaboration with Crow "lost its
momentum". However, in a June 2008 interview, Nicks denied that Crow would
be joining Fleetwood Mac as a replacement for Christine McVie. According to
Nicks, "the group will start working on material and recording probably in
October, and finish an album." On 7 October 2008, Mick Fleetwood confirmed
on the BBC's The One Show that the band were working in the studio and
also announced plans for a world tour in 2009.
In late 2008, Fleetwood Mac
announced that the band would tour in 2009, beginning in March. As per the
2003–2004 tour, Christine McVie would not be featured in the line-up. The tour
was branded as a 'greatest hits' show entitled Unleashed, although they
played album tracks such as "Storms" and "I Know I'm Not
Wrong". The first show was on 1 March 2009, and in February they announced
a slew of new dates.
According to Billboard,
Mick Fleetwood said during a teleconference with reporters on 12 February 2009,
"This is the first time we've gone on the road without an album. This is
truly a new experience for Fleetwood Mac to go out and play songs that we
believe and hope people are going to be familiar with and love."
Stevie Nicks stated that, with
regard to a new Fleetwood Mac album, "There isn't any plan at this
point... for any album. We're going to get through this tour before deciding
what to do with an album."
During the concerts mentioned,
Buckingham stated, "the time is right to go back to the studio—but only
after a tour. I think maybe there was even a sense that we would make a better
album if we went out and hung out together first on the road ... Maybe even
sowing some seeds musically that would get us more prepared to go in the studio
rather than just going in cold. It takes the pressure [off] from having to go
in and make something cold."
During their show on 20 June 2009
in New Orleans, Louisiana, Stevie Nicks premiered part of a new song that she
had written about Hurricane Katrina.
In October 2009, the band began a
tour of Europe which carried on into early November, followed by a tour of
Australia and New Zealand in December.
Also in October The Very Best
of Fleetwood Mac was re-released in an extended two-disc format (this
format having been released in the US in 2002), premiering at number six on the
UK Albums Chart.
On 1 November 2009, a new
one-hour documentary, Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop, was broadcast in the UK
on BBC One, which featured recent interviews with all four current band
members. During the documentary, Nicks gave a candid summary of the current
state of her relationship with Buckingham, stating "Maybe when we're 75
and Fleetwood Mac is a distant memory, we might be friends...". It also
included outtakes from the Tusk recording sessions, not seen for many
years since their availability on VHS cassette in 1981.
On 6 November 2009 Fleetwood Mac
played the last show of the European leg of their Unleashed tour at
London's Wembley Arena. Christine McVie was present in the audience, so Stevie
Nicks paid a tribute from the stage to a standing ovation from the audience,
stating that she thought about her former bandmate "every day", and
went on to dedicate that night's performance of "Landslide" to McVie.
On 19 December 2009, Fleetwood
Mac played the second to last act of their Unleashed tour to a sell-out
crowd at what was originally intended to be a one-off event at the TSB Bowl of
Brooklands, New Plymouth, New Zealand. Tickets, after pre-sales, sold out
within twelve minutes of public release, and another date (Sunday 20 December),
which also sold out, was added.
On 19 October 2010, Fleetwood Mac
played a private show at the Phoenician Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona for TPG (Texas
Pacific Group).
On 3 May 2011, the Fox Network
broadcast an episode of Glee (Season 2, Episode 19) entitled
"Rumours" that featured six songs from the band's 1977 album. The
show sparked renewed interest in the band and its most commercially successful
album, and Rumours reentered the Billboard 200 chart at #11, the same
week that Stevie Nicks' new solo album In Your Dreams debuted at #6.
(Nicks was quoted by Billboard saying that her new album was "my
own little Rumours.”) The two recordings sold about 30,000 and 52,000
units, respectively. Music downloads accounted for ninety-one percent of the Rumours
sales. The spike in sales for Rumours represented an uptick of 1,951%.
It was the highest chart entry by a previously issued album since The
Rolling Stones's reissue of Exile On Main St. reentered the chart at
#2 on 5 June 2010.
On 13 May 2011 Stevie Nicks
announced that Fleetwood Mac would go out on tour again in 2012 (not mentioning
the scale) and talked of a possible new album.
Original Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob
Brunning died on 18 October 2011, at the age of 68. Former Fleetwood Mac
guitarist Bob Weston was found dead on 3 January 2012, at the age of 64.
In an April 2012 interview with Playboy
magazine, drummer Mick Fleetwood expressed doubt at Fleetwood Mac ever
reuniting for a tour, blaming Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham for years of
delays due to commitments to solo projects. "I played drums on most of
Stevie's album (In Your Dreams), the one she is still out there
supporting and the one that is the reason that, for now, she refuses to do a
Fleetwood Mac tour," Fleetwood stated.
Remasters
- The 1967–69 Blue Horizon albums (Fleetwood Mac, Mr. Wonderful, The Pious Bird of Good Omen and Fleetwood Mac in Chicago) and 1971 outtakes album The Original Fleetwood Mac have been fully remastered & reissued on CD, as have the 1975–79 Warner Brothers albums Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, and Tusk.
Tours
- Kiln House tour – 1970
- Future Games tour – 1971
- Bare Trees tour – 1972
- Penguin tour – early 1973
- Mystery To Me tour – Mid 1973
- Heroes Are Hard To Find tour – 1974
- Fleetwood Mac tour – April–December 1975, April–December 1976
- Rumours tour – 1977–1978
- Tusk Tour – 1979–1980
- Mirage tour – 1982
- Shake The Cage tour – 1987–1988
- Behind The Mask tour – 1990
- Time tour – 1994–1995
- The Dance – 1997
- Say You Will Tour – 2003–2004
- Unleashed tour – 2009
Discography
Since 1967, Fleetwood Mac have
released 17 studio albums, 12 compilation albums, 69 singles, and 12 music
videos.
Studio albums- 1968: Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac
- 1968: Mr. Wonderful
- 1969: Then Play On
- 1970: Kiln House
- 1971: Future Games
- 1972: Bare Trees
- 1973: Penguin
- 1973: Mystery to Me
- 1974: Heroes Are Hard to Find
- 1975: Fleetwood Mac
- 1977: Rumours
- 1979: Tusk
- 1982: Mirage
- 1987: Tango in the Night
- 1990: Behind the Mask
- 1995: Time
- 2003: Say You Will
Personnel
Fleetwood Mac personnel
|
|
(1967)
|
(When John McVie refused to join the newly formed band, they hired
Brunning with the understanding that he was out if McVie changed his mind.)
|
(1967–68)
|
(After a few weeks, John McVie joined the band in time to record their
debut album.)
|
(1968–70)
|
|
(1970)
|
|
(1970–71)
|
|
(1971–72)
|
|
(1972–73)
|
|
(1973–74)
|
|
(1974)
|
|
(1975–87)
|
|
(1987–90)
|
|
(1991–92)
|
|
(1993–95)
|
|
(1997–98)
|
|
(1998–present)
|
|
Timeline
Gallery
 |
| Danny Kirwan, 1970 |
 |
| Jeremy Spencer, 1970 |
 | |||
| John McVie, 1970 |
 |
| Mick Fleetwood, 1970 |
 |
| Peter Green, 1970 |
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to follow my blogger and leave some feedback for any improvements or if you are having any problems with any links.
Thank You for visiting, come back frequently for more updates.