Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. The band sold more than 100 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling bands. In 1998, select members of Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2018, the band was declared MusiCares Person of the Year.
The lineup remained stable through three more studio albums, but by the late 1980's the band began to disintegrate. First to leave was Buckingham, followed by Nicks in 1991, to be replaced by a series of short-term guitarists and vocalists. In 1993, a one-off performance for the Presidential Inauguration of Bill Clinton featured the five key members back together for the first time in six years, and by 1997, a full reunion occurred. In 1998, Christine McVie retired from touring, and the band stayed together as a four-piece with John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Lindsey Buckingham, and Stevie Nicks. In 2014, Christine McVie rejoined again full-time. The latest studio album by the band was 2003's Say You Will, though a side project known as Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie was released in 2017 containing contributions from the other band members except Nicks. In 2018, Buckingham was fired from the band[ and was replaced by guitarists Mike Campbell, formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn, of Split Enz and Crowded House.
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| Peter Green, 18 March 1970 |
Soon after, Green contacted Fleetwood to form a new band. The pair wanted McVie on bass guitar and even named the band 'Fleetwood Mac' as a way to entice him. However, McVie opted to keep his steady income with Mayall rather than take a risk with a new band. In the meantime, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood teamed up with slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, who was in the band on the understanding that he would leave if 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 as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer. Brunning played only a handful of gigs with Fleetwood Mac. Within weeks of this show, John McVie agreed to join the band as permanent bassist.
Fleetwood Mac's self-titled debut album was a no-frills blues album, and was released by 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 with Brunning on bass). The album was successful in the UK, hitting No. 4, although 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 studio album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968. Like its predecessor, it was an all-blues album. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and a PA system, rather than plugged into the board. 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 of age, to their line-up, recruited from the South London blues trio, Boilerhouse, consisting of Kirwan on guitar with Trevor Stevens on bass and Dave Terrey on drums. Green and Fleetwood had been to watch Boilerhouse rehearse in a basement boiler-room and Green was so impressed, he invited the band to play support slots for Fleetwood Mac. Green wanted Boilerhouse to become a professional band, but Stevens and Terrey were not prepared to turn professional at the time, so Green sought to find another rhythm section by placing an ad in Melody Maker. There were over 300 applicants, but when Green and Fleetwood ran auditions at the Nag's Head in Battersea (home of the Mike Vernon Blue Horizon Club), the hard to please Green could not find anyone good enough to replace the pair, so he invited Kirwan to join Fleetwood Mac as their third guitarist.
Green had been frustrated that Jeremy Spencer had little desire to contribute to Green's songs. A 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 the compilation album, English Rose, which contained half of Mr. Wonderful, new songs from Kirwan. Their second compilation album, The Pious Bird of Good Omen, contained 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 that point, they had been on Blue Horizon. With Kirwan in the band, however, the musical possibilities were too great for them to handle with a blues-only label. The band signed with the Immediate Records label, and released the single, "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 the B-side, "Somebody'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 (through Reprise Records, a Frank Sinatra-founded label), the label they have stayed with ever since.
Under the wing with Reprise, Fleetwood Mac released their third studio album, Then Play On, in September 1969. Although the initial pressing of the American release of this album was the same as the British version, it was altered to contain the song, "Oh Well", which 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 his solo album of many 1950s-style rock and roll songs, backed by the rest of the band.
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.
By 1970, Peter Green, the frontman of the band, was not in good shape. He had taken LSD in Munich, which may have contributed to the onset of his schizophrenia. German author and filmmaker, Rainer Langhans, mentioned 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 Green, so 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 Green 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 disagreed, and subsequently, Green left 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 (5/6/7 February 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 1990's.
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| 1973 line-up with Christine McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Bob Weston, John McVie, and Bob Welch. |
Christine Perfect, who by this point had married bassist John McVie, 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 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, Louisiana. CBS Records, which now owned Blue Horizon (except in the US and Canada), released the band's fifth compilation album, The Original Fleetwood Mac, containing previously unreleased material. The album was relatively successful, and the band continued to gain popularity.
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 collaborated 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 jointly bought with their manager Davis for £23,000 (equivalent to £326,500 in 2016 ) 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, France at the time. The band held 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 their fifth studio album, Future Games. Due to Welch's arrival and Spencer's departure, the album was different from anything the band had done up to that point, and there were many new fans in America who were becoming more interested in the band. In Europe, CBS released Fleetwood Mac's first Greatest Hitsalbum, 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 their sixth studio album, Bare Trees. Though mostly composed by Kirwan, Bare Trees featured the single, "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 and Christine McVie. It also featured "Spare Me a Little of Your Love", a bright Christine McVie tune that became a staple of the band's live act throughout the early to mid-1970's.
While the band was doing well in the studio, their tours turned out to be far more problematic. Danny Kirwan developed an alcohol dependency, and became alienated from Welch and the McVies. It was not until he smashed his Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar before a concert, refused to go on stage, and criticised the band afterwards, that Fleetwood was finally convinced that he had no choice but to fire Kirwan.
The next two and a half years for Fleetwood Mac turned out to be the most challenging and far more difficult. In the three albums they released in this period, they constantly changed line-ups. In September 1972, the band added guitarist Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker, formerly of Savoy Brown and Idle Race. 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. Fleetwood, The McVies, Welch, Weston, and Walker recorded the band's seventh studio album, Penguin, which was released in January 1973. After the tour, the band fired Walker, because his vocal style and attitude did not fit well with the rest of the band.
The remaining five carried on and recorded the band's eighth studio album, Mystery to Me, six months later. This album contained Welch's song "Hypnotized" which received a great amount of airplay on the radio, and became one of the band's most successful songs to date in the US. The band was proud of the new album and anticipated that it would be a smash hit. Despite the success, things were starting to come haywire. 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. Courage soon fired Weston and the tour was cancelled. Due to lack of touring, the album sold less than its predecessor.
In 1974, the band's manager, Clifford Davis, then claimed that he owned the name Fleetwood Mac, and recruited members of a band called Legs (which had recently issued one single under Davis' management) to tour as Fleetwood Mac.
The bogus Fleetwood Mac consisted of Elmer Gantry (vocals, guitar), Kirby Gregory (guitar), Paul Martinez (bass), John Wilkinson (keyboards) and Australian-born drummer Craig Collinge (formerly of The Librettos, Procession and Third World War). The members of this conglomeration apparently had been told that Mick Fleetwood would join them on later dates, and claimed that Fleetwood had been involved in the early planning stages of the tour before dropping out.
As the tour was underway, Fleetwood Mac's road manager, John Courage, realised that the line-up being used wasn't authentic. Courage ended up hiding the real Fleetwood Mac's equipment, which helped shorten the tour by the bogus band, which soon dissolved. But the lawsuit that followed—regarding who actually owned the rights to the band name "Fleetwood Mac"—put the real Fleetwood Mac out of commission for almost a year. While the band was named after Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, they had signed contracts that showed the band forfeited the rights to the name.
In the aftermath of the dissolution of the fake Fleetwood Mac, nobody from that lineup was ever officially made a part of the real Fleetwood Mac, although some of them later acted as Danny Kirwan's studio band. Gantry and Gregory went on to become members of Stretch, whose 1975 UK hit single "Why Did You Do It" was written about the fake Fleetwood Mac touring debacle. Gantry later collaborated with The Alan Parsons Project. Martinez, meanwhile, went on to play with the Deep Purple offshoot Paice Ashton Lord, as well as Robert Plant's backing band.
During the fake Fleetwood Mac months, Welch stayed in Los Angeles, and connected with entertainment attorneys. He swiftly realized 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 from England to America, to which 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. But while this did not end the legal battle, the band was able to record as Fleetwood Mac again. Instead of hiring another manager, Fleetwood Mac decided to manage themselves.
In September 1974, Fleetwood Mac signed a new recording contract with Warner Bros., but remained on the Reprise label. The band released their ninth studio album, Heroes Are Hard to Find in September 1974, and for the first time in its history, the band had only one guitarist. While on tour, they added a second keyboardist, Doug Graves, who had been an engineer on Heroes Are Hard to Find. In late 1974, Graves was preparing to become a permanent member of the band by the end of their US tour.
I'm looking forward to adding something to this already great band; I helped engineer their album 'Heroes Are Hard to Find' and got to know each member well. It came to me as a shock when Mick asked me to join but I am enjoying playing live with the band, and hopefully will start a new studio album with the band soon.
However, Graves did not ultimately join full-time. In 1980, Christine McVie explained the decision:
"He (Doug Graves) was there to back me up, but I think it was decided after the first two or three concerts that I was better off without him. The band wanted me to expand my role and have a little more freedom, so he played some organ behind me, but he didn't play the same way I did..."
Robert ("Bobby") Hunt, who had been in the band Head West with Bob Welch back in 1970, replaced Graves. Neither musician, however, proved to be a long-term addition to the line-up, and Welch left soon after the tour ended (on 5 December 1974 at Cal State University), having grown tired of touring and legal struggles. Nevertheless, the tour enabled the Heroes album to reach a higher position on the American charts than any of the band's previous record
In 1975, the new line-up released, another self-titled album, which was their tenth studio album. The album was 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", as well as the much-played album track "Landslide" (a live rendition of which became a hit twenty years later on The Dance album).
The band's eleventh studio album, album Rumours (the band's first release on the main Warner label after Reprise was retired and all of its acts were reassigned to the parent label), was released in the spring of 1977, in which the band members laid bare the emotional turmoil they were experiencing at the time. Critically acclaimed, it was the recipient of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for 1977. The album generated multiple Top Ten singles, including Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way", Nicks' US 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 US alone (certified as a diamond album by the RIAA), and a total of 40 million copies worldwide, bringing it to eighth on the list of best-selling albums. Fleetwood Mac supported the album with a lucrative tour.
On 10 October 1979, Fleetwood Mac was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for their contributions to the music industry at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard.
Buckingham was able to convince Fleetwood to let his work on their next album be more experimental, and to work on tracks at home, then bring them to the band in the studio. The band's twelfth studio album, Tusk, was a 20-track double album released in 1979. It spawned three hit singles; Lindsey Buckingham's "Tusk" (US No. 8), which featured the USC Trojan Marching Band; Christine McVie's "Think About Me" (US No. 20); and Stevie Nicks' 6½ minute opus "Sara" (US No. 7). "Sara" 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, the 2004 reissue of Tusk and 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 sold four million copies worldwide. Fleetwood blamed the album's relative failure on the RKO radio chain playing the album in its entirety prior to release, thus allowing mass home taping.
The band embarked on an 11-month tour to support and promote Tusk. They travelled 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 their first live album, which was released at the end of 1980.
The band's thirteenth studio album, Mirage was released in 1982. Following 1981 solo albums by Nicks (Bella Donna), Fleetwood (The Visitor), and Buckingham (Law and Order), was a return to a more conventional approach. Buckingham had been chided by critics, fellow band members and music business managers for the lesser commercial success enjoyed by Tusk. Recorded at Château d'Hérouville in France and produced by Richard Dashut, Mirage was an attempt to recapture the huge success of Rumours. Its hits included Christine McVie's "Hold Me" and "Love in Store" (co-written by Robbie Patton and Jim Recor, respectively), Stevie Nicks' "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" and "Can't Go Back".
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, on 5 September 1982, for which the band was paid $500,000 ($1,267,931 today). Mirage was certified double platinum in the US.
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 disbanded; 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, their fourteenth studio album, 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' "Seven Wonders", and Lindsey Buckingham's "Big Love". "Family Man" (Buckingham and Richard Dashut), and "Isn't It Midnight" (Christine McVie), were also released as singles, with lesser success.
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| 1987–1991 line-up of Fleetwood Mac |
Although a ten-week tour was scheduled, Buckingham held out at the very last minute. He tried to explain to his bandmates that he felt his creativity was being stifled by his remaining in the band. A group meeting at Christine McVie's house on 7 August 1987 resulted in high turmoil, and tensions were slowly coming to a head. One incident highlighted where there was an alleged (in Mick Fleetwood's autobiography) physical altercation between Buckingham and Nicks. Buckingham left the band the following day.[citation needed] Following Buckingham's departure, Fleetwood Mac added two new guitarists to the band, Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, without auditions.
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, done some session work with Stevie Nicks, and backed Lindsey Buckingham on Saturday Night Live. Furthermore, Fleetwood and Christine McVie had played on his Try Me album in 1985. Vito, a Peter Green admirer, had played with many artists from Bonnie Raitt to John Mayall, and 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.
Capitalizing on the success of Tango in the Night, the band continued with a Greatest Hits album in 1988. It featured singles from the 1975–1988 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.
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.[citation needed] The disagreement between Nicks and Fleetwood garnered press coverage, and was believed to be the main catalyst for Nicks leaving the band in 1991.[citation needed] 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 US 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 member 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 their sixteenth studio album, Time, which proved to be far less successful. 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 would be her last. Bramlett and Burnette subsequently formed a country music duo, Bekka & Billy.
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 Fleetwood 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 10 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 Fleetwood Mac on the road throughout much of 1997, the 20th anniversary of their Rumours album. With the added ensemble of Neale Heywood on guitar, Brett Tuggle on keyboards, Lenny Castro on percussion, and Sharon Celani (she had toured with Fleetwood Mac in the late 1980s) and Mindy Stein on backing vocals, this would, however, be the final foray of the classic line-up with Christine McVie for 16 years. As of 2015, Brett Tuggle, Neale Heywood, and Sharon Celani still perform with Fleetwood Mac as touring musicians.
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| Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham on the Say You Will Tour, 2003 |
In 1998, Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Members inducted included the original band—Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, and Danny Kirwan—and Rumours-era members Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham, but not Bob Welch, despite his key role in keeping the band alive during the early 1970s. The Rumours-era version of the band performed both at the induction ceremony and at the Grammy Awards program that year. Peter Green attended the induction ceremony but did not perform with his former bandmates, opting instead to perform his composition "Black Magic Woman" with Santana, who were inducted the same night. Neither Jeremy Spencer nor Danny Kirwan attended. Fleetwood Mac 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. Her departure left Buckingham and Nicks to sing all the lead vocals for the band's seventeenth album, Say You Will, released in 2003, although Christine did contribute some backing vocals and keyboards. The album debuted at No.3 on the Billboard 200 chart (No. 6 in the UK) and yielded chart hits with "Peacekeeper" and the title track, and a successful world arena tour, which lasted through 2004. The tour grossed $27,711,129, and was ranked No. 21 in the top 25 grossing tours of 2004.
Around 2004–05, there were rumours of a reunion of the early line-up of Fleetwood Mac, involving Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. While these two guitarists and vocalists apparently remained unconvinced of the merits of such a project, in April 2006, during a question-and-answer session on the Penguin Fleetwood Mac fan website, bassist John McVie said of the reunion idea:
If we could get Peter and Jeremy to do it, I'd probably, maybe, do it. I know Mick would do it in a flash. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much chance of Danny doing it. Bless his heart.
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."
Fleetwood Mac, also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, is the debut studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 24 February 1968. The album is a mixture of blues covers and originals penned by guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer, who also share the vocal duties. It is the only album by the band not to feature keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie in any capacity.
The release of the album brought the band overnight success; in the UK, the album reached No. 4 and stayed on the charts 37 weeks, despite the lack of a hit single. The album barely made the charts in the US, reaching No. 198. Even though the album has sold over a million copies in the UK, it has never received a certification there. As of June 2015, the album has sold over 150,000 copies in the US.[6]
An expanded version of this album was included in the box set The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions.
2. Merry Go Round
3. Long Grey Mare
4. Hellhound on My Trail
5. Shake Your Moneymaker
6. Looking for Somebody
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1. "No Place to Go" Chester Burnett 3:20
2. "My Baby's Good to Me" Spencer 2:50
3. "I Loved Another Woman" Green 2:55
4. "Cold Black Night" Spencer 3:15
5. "The World Keep On Turning" Green 2:30
6. "Got to Move"
Mr. Wonderful is the second studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 23 August 1968. This all-blues album was broadly similar to their debut album, albeit with some changes to personnel and recording method. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and PA system, rather than plugged into the board.[citation needed] A horn section was introduced; and Christine Perfect of Chicken Shack was featured on keyboards. In the USA, the album was not issued under the name Mr. Wonderful, though around half of the tracks appeared on English Rose.
An expanded version of Mr. Wonderful was included in the box set, The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions.
Track listing[edit]
Side one
1. "Stop Messin'
2. "I've Lost My Baby
3. "Rollin' Man
4. "Dust My Broom
5. "Love That Burns
6. "Doctor Brown :48
Side two
1. "Need Your Love Tonight
2. "If You Be My Baby
3. "Evenin' Boogie
4. "Lazy Poker Blues
5. "Coming Home
6. "Trying So Hard to Forget"
Then Play on 1969
Then Play On is the third studio album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, released on 19 September 1969. It was the first of their original albums to feature Danny Kirwan and the last with Peter Green. Jeremy Spencer did not feature on the album apart from "a couple of piano things" (according to Mick Fleetwood in Q magazine in 1990). The album, appearing after the group's sudden success in the pop charts, offered a broader stylistic range than the classic blues of the group's first two albums. The album went on to reach #6 in the UK, subsequently becoming the band's fourth Top 20 hit in a row, as well as their third album to reach the Top 10. The title is taken from the opening line of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night — "If music be the food of love, then play on".
This was the band's first release with Warner/Reprise after being lured away from Blue Horizon and a one-off with Immediate Records. Forty years on, Fleetwood Mac remain with Warner. The album, which at its original UK release had an unusually long running time, has been released with four different song line-ups. The original CD compiled all songs from the two US LP versions, both of which omitted tracks from the original UK version. In August 2013, a remastered edition of the album was reissued on vinyl and CD, restoring its original 1969 UK track listing. This version reached No. 112 on the UK Albums chart.
Side one
1. "Coming Your Way
2. "Closing My Eyes
3. "Fighting for Madge
4. "When You Say
5. "Showbiz Blues
6. "Underway
7. "One Sunny Day
Side two
1. "Although the Sun Is Shining
2. "Rattlesnake Shake
3. "Without You
4. "Searching for Madge
5. "My Dream
6. "Like Crying
| 7."Before the Beginning Kiln House 1970 |
Side one
1. "This Is the Rock
2. "Station Man
3. "Blood on the Floor
4. "Hi Ho Silver
5. "Jewel-Eyed Judy"
Side two
1. "Buddy's Song
2. "Earl Gray
3. "One Together
4. "Tell Me All the Things You Do"
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