FLEETWOOD MAC 101
Lesson One: The Early Years
This is the story of Fleetwood Mac
before they came the United States and became stars
In 1966, a new incarnation of John
Mayall's Bluesbreakers was
formed, as Eric Clapton had left the group to join Cream.
This incarnation consisted of John
Mayall, a British blues legend, guitarist Peter
Green, bassist John McVie, and drummer Mick
Fleetwood.
In 1967, Mayall
fired Mick Fleetwood for drunkenness. Also this year, Clapton re-joined
the band, which caused Peter Green to leave.
Green and Fleetwood started a new
band, named Fleetwood Mac. The name came from an instrumental song that
Green wrote which featured the talents of John McVie
and Mick Fleetwood. Green also found another guitarist, Jeremy
Spencer.
John McVie
turned down a chance to be the groups bass player, so
the band chose Bob Brunning.
The sound of the group primarily
emanated from the emotional singing and masterful guitar playing of Peter
Green. They played their first gig together at the "7th Windsor National
Jazz and Blues Festival" at August 13th, 1967. Peter continued to ask John
McVie to join them, but John kept putting Peter off. Finally,
after a few months, John finally agreed to join the band named after him and
Bob Brunning was gone.
In February 1968, the
band released their first album, "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" which
made the UK Top 40.
In August 1968, the band released their
second album, "Mr. Wonderful."
Green then hired a new
guitarist, Danny Kirwan. The band put out a
single, Albatross, which reached number one on the UK charts.
In 1969, the album "English
Rose" was released and yielded two hits, Man of the World, and Oh
Well.
Fleetwood Mac
released three more albums that year, "The Pious Bird of
Good Omen," "Fleetwood Mac in Chicago," and "Then Play
On," which was their first album to sell more than 100,000 copies.
Fleetwood Mac
had become enormously popular and had a virtual lock on the British Blues scene
at the time. This band sold more records in Great Britain in 1969 then
the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
The band played several times
together with another group, called Chicken Shack.
The lead singer of Chicken Shack
was piano player and vocalist Christine Perfect.
She and John McVie
started seeing each other and eventually married. Christine left Chicken
Shack and coincidentally named Female vocalist of the year by a UK magazine.
A little later on in 69-70 Peter
Green starting to feel guilty about his success, as there were many
impoverished people in the world, and was trying to donate as much money as he
could, and tried to get the other band members to do the same. Green
would be willing to donate every last cent and the shirt off of his back
because he felt so guilty. In 1970, he decided to leave the band after
recording the haunting single, "The Green Manalishi."
The rest of the
group, Mick, John, Jeremy. and Danny struggled on without Peter for a few months.
Everybody knew that it wouldn’t be easy to replace him, but it was really the
fans that couldn’t accept Peter's departure. The band retreated and
recorded the album "Kiln House" which made the top 100 in the US, the
first Fleetwood Mac album to do so.
Later in 1970, Fleetwood Mac asked
Christine McVie to join the band, after she released
her solo album, "Christine Perfect."
In
1971, Fleetwood Mac was touring the U.S. with its new lineup, when suddenly Jeremy
Spencer left his LA hotel room and never returned. After two days of searching.
they ended up finding Jeremy at the Children of God
'headquarters' with his hair shaved off. Although it was initially unclear as
to why Jeremy had run off and done this, Fleetwood Mac's manager Clifford Davis
did eventually get to speak to Jeremy and ask him why he had joined this
'cult'. He discovered that he was indeed with them because he wanted to be. The
band had no choice but to accept the situation and move on. Jeremy would be
sorely missed. Peter Green did stand-in for Jeremy for the rest of the tour,
but refused to play any of the hits he formerly had together with Fleetwood
Mac.
At this time, guitarist Bob Welch
was introduced to the group, from a mutual friend, and was hired on. Bob
was an American and the band thought that this would be the perfect
opportunity to take some steps towards re-defining Fleetwood Mac as a soft rock
band.
Towards the end of 1971, they
released "Future Games." This album was the beginning of a new
era for Fleetwood Mac, as they were starting to develop an American
audience.
In 1972, the band released
"Bare Trees." After this album, Fleetwood Mac was gaining
popularity in the US, and the band was starting to be in more demand. The
toll was starting to mount on Danny Kirwan, who
turned to alcohol. He became more and more aggressive, and eventually got
into a fight over something trivial with Bob Welch, and got in to a furious
rage. Mick Fleetwood fired him and cancelled the rest of the tour.
Dave Walker and Bob Weston were
then hired on as new guitarists and vocalists.
In 1973, they released
"Penguin."
After months, the band wanted
Walker out, as he was not a definitive front man.
The remaining five members
released the album "Mystery to Me."
While
they were on the road in America in 1973 to support "Mystery To Me", Mick realized something was terribly wrong.
Band mate Bob Weston was spending more and more time with Mick’s wife Jenny. It
wasn't long before Mick found out that his wife was having an affair with his bandmate. Bob was released from the band after a few
months although it was unclear who told him he was done.
The band then went though
struggles with management who felt as if they owned the band.
There were also legal disputes as
to who owned the name "Fleetwood Mac."
It was also
during that time period that Christine and John McVie,
Mick Fleetwood and Bob Welch decided to settle permanently in the U.S. The name
Fleetwood Mac eventually got legally assigned to its rightful owners, Mick
Fleetwood and John McVie.
After the management disputes and
legal battles, Fleetwood Mac was relieved to get back to recording. They
later released "Heroes are Hard to Find" in 1974.
At the end of 1974, Bob Welch
couldn't handle the drama of being in Fleetwood Mac, and left the band.
This left the trio of Mick
Fleetwood and John & Christine McVie searching
for a new guitarist.
And that is where we will continue
with Lesson Two.