Fleetwood Mac

1024px-FleetMacTulsa031018-81 (30294522547) — Fleetwood Mac, 2018

Fleetwood Mac were a British-formed rock band established in 1967. From 1971 onwards they becam a British-American outfit. With its namesake rhythm section of Mick Fleetwood (drums) and John McVie (bass), the band has evolved through several line-ups enjoying particular fame in its early years as a blues band led by Peter Green and from 1975-87 with the involvement of Americans Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. The most recent line-up consisted of Fleetwood and McVie plus Christine McVie (vocals, keyboards) and Stevie Nicks (vocals) along with recent additions Mike Campbell (lead guitar) and Neil Finn (vocals, guitar) both of whom were added to the lineup in 2018. This lineup did a tour from 2018-19 but no further work has followed owing to Finn and Campbell's involvement in their own bands and the death of Christine McVie in 2022.

This wiki takes the view that Fleetwood Mac no longer exist as a collective entity, based on Mick Fleetwood's statement at the 2023 Grammy Awards. This is regardless of the view taken by other wikis and remains the official view to be endorsed on this site unless Fleetwood officially announces any new work under the group name.

Origins[]

The band were formed in 1967 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Peter Green, at the time a member of leading British blues-rock band John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. It was in 1967 that Mayall gave Green some studio time and along with Bluesbreakers' drummer Mick Fleetwood and bass guitarist John McVie, he recorded an instrumental he had named Fleetwood Mac after the pair.

Eventually Green decided to leave Mayall to form his own band. He intended to recruit Fleetwood and McVie and name the band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood was available, having been fired for excessive drinking but McVie did not want to leave the security of the Bluesbreakers. A stand-in bassist, Bob Brunning, was recruited and played with the band at their first few gigs. Green did not want to be the sole frontman so recruited slide guitarist/pianist Jeremy Spencer to share the load. This line-up played its first gig at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival on 13th August 1967. In September the band recorded their first single, a cover of the blues standard I Believe My Time Ain't Long sung by Spencer, backed with Rambling Pony, a Peter Green original. It was around this time that John McVie decided to leave the Bluesbreakers as he was unhappy with the more jazz-oriented direction Mayall was heading in. He contacted the band and Bob Brunning stepped aside. McVie is generally regarded as an original member of the band in spite of his early absence, owing to the band partly taking its name from him (the Mac bit).

Commercial breakthrough[]

In 1968, Fleetwood Mac became the leading band on the British blues-rock scene. Two singles, Green's Black Magic Woman and a cover of Little Willie John's Need Your Love So Bad both reached the UK Top 40 and the band's first two albums Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful both reached the Top 10.

Later that year a third guitarist/vocalist was recruited in 18-year old Danny Kirwan. Spencer tended to shy from playing on Green's songs, and did not feature on the A-side of any charting single although he remained a key part of the live shows with his imitations of blues singer Elmore James and eventually artists like Elvis Presley as well. The new line-up recorded three Kirwan originals for the US only compilation English Rose (two of which would later feature on the third studio album Then Play On and two instrumentals in Green's Albatross and Kirwan's Jigsaw Puzzle Blues. These songs were released as a single with Albatross on the A-side. This release reached No 1 on the UK chart. Around this time, the band also recorded Blues Jam at Chess at Chess recording studios in Chicago with professional blues musicians. This was their last release as a pure blues band - they had already managed to alienate a few blues purists with the mellow, atmospheric sound of Albatross.

The next two singles - Man of the World and Oh Well, again composed by Green - both reached No 2. Man of the World revealed something of Green's tortured psychological state while Oh Well became a live favourite performed by several later line-ups of the band. By now the band had left Blue Horizon, their original record company. Man of the World was released on Immediate, the label owned by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham while Oh Well and the third album Then Play On marked the beginning of a relationship with Warner Brothers which continues to this day. Warners' would release every subsequent Fleetwood Mac album.

Then Play On showed Mac in a new light. There were no cover versions, five songs by Green, seven by Kirwan and two instrumentals credited to Fleetwood and McVie respectively. One track, Rattlesnake Shake, an ode to male masturbation, became a live anthem and was featured on the 1971 Greatest Hits compilation. But Green's songs hinted at a man disintegrating mentally. Memories of growing up with anti-Semitic persecution in London's impoverished East End combined with an experience of taking spiked LSD in Munich, Germany were leading to a breakdown. Green had embraced Christianity and, according to Fleetwood and McVie, wanted to give all the band's money to charity. He and Spencer had considered doing an album based on the life of Jesus Christ at one point.

A fourth Green-penned single, The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown), which hinted at his unease with his great wealth, became Fleetwood Mac's fourth consecutive Top 10 single but shortly afterwards, Green decided to leave. His subsequent life would alternate between spells of recording and spells of extreme mental illness but he very rarely composed music again.

Transitional years[]

The band were discouraged by Green's departure but did not give up. Mick Fleetwood assumed the leadership of his namesake band and persuaded them to move together to a communal home in a former oast house in Hampshire in the south of England. The next album Kiln House took its name from these quarters. It was not a major success peaking at #39 and dropping out of the chart after two weeks but two of its tracks, Station Man and Tell Me All the Things You Do became staples of the bands live set.

One contributor to the album was John McVie's wife Christine, previously with Mac's former Blue Horizon labelmates Chicken Shack. Shortly after the release of Kiln House, she became a full member of the band as keyboard player/vocalists thus enabling songs requiring piano to be performed live with two guitars once again (previously this role had been fulfilled by Spencer).

Another single, Dragonfly, failed to chart in 1971. Shortly afterwards the band received another jolt when Jeremy Spencer left them in the middle of a US tour to join religious sect the Children of God. He remains with the group (now known as The Family International) to this day but returned to regular recording and touring in later years. Peter Green stepped in to help complete the tour but did not rejoin the group on a permanent basis.

Spencer's replacement was American Bob Welch. Unlike the other members, his roots were more in jazz style playing. The band, by now living in another communal home at Headley in Hampshire, recorded two albums with this lineup, Future Games (1971) and Bare Trees (1972). The latter of these would later go platinum, probably on account of the song Sentimental Lady, which later became a solo hit for Welch. Neither charted in the UK but became the band's first charting albums in the United States where they soon developed a following on the college circuit.

But it was while promoting Bare Trees that Danny Kirwan finally buckled under the strain of the role of main guitarist/songwriter. One night prior to a gig, he smashed his guitar against the dressing room mirror and refused to go onstage with the band, merely sitting at the sound desk and offering comment after the gig. He was fired with immediate effect. Kirwan enjoyed a short solo career but his latter years were plagued by homelessness and mental illness. His last release was in 1979 and he died in 2018.

Kirwan was replaced by guitarist Bob Weston and singer Dave Walker. Walker was only added at the insistence of the group's manager Clifford Davis who maintained that they needed a frontman to work the crowds. Walker only appeared on two tracks on the subsequent Penguin album and was made redundant shortly afterwards. Weston on the other hand would remain to record the follow-up, Mystery to Me.

Mystery to Me became arguably the best loved of all the albums recorded during this transitional period. It saw Bob Welch's greater emergence as a singer and writer including on the much-loved Hypnotized. Christine McVie would later describe it as her third favourite Mac album after Rumours and Fleetwood Mac.

But trouble was brewing once again when Bob Weston was discovered to be having an affair with Mick Fleetwood's wife Jenny. Fleetwood endured this for a while but eventually told the band's management he could no longer cope with Weston being in the band. By now the band were on tour in the US. Weston was dismissed and not replaced. The tour was cancelled and the band members took time to recover from the episode.

In light of this, Clifford Davis, not wishing to lose money, put another group of musicians out to perform the remaining gigs under the Fleetwood Mac name. Fleetwood and Christine McVie were meant to be part of this but Fleetwood later claimed he never agreed to this. The lineup played a few gigs but shortly afterwards the real band sued Clifford Davis for the name, a legal battle that would last for five years.

Having re-established themselves as the real Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood, Welch and the McVies moved to America to be nearer their record company in 1974. An album, Heroes Are Hard to Find was recorded but Bob Welch, tired from the ongoing struggles, decided to leave shortly afterwards.

International breakthrough[]

It was around this time that Mick Fleetwood had occasion to be visiting a studio in Los Angeles. While there he heard a recording of the song Frozen Love by the duo Buckingham Nicks. He was struck by the beauty of vocalist Stevie Nicks whom he saw at work. When he found himself needing to replace Bob Welch, he immediately thought of the other half of the duo, guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. Buckingham agreed to join providing Nicks could join too. They were accepted into the lineup on New Year's Eve 1974.

The lineup quickly began recording together. The first song to be recorded was Christine's Say You Love Me which saw the three-part harmony of Christine, Lindsey and Stevie coalesce on the song's chorus. They began touring in May of 1975 and in July, the album Fleetwood Mac (nicknamed the White Album) was issued. It quickly became a success and spawned three US Top 20 singles in Over My Head, Rhiannon and Say You Love Me. Other songs to become anthems were Nicks' Landslide and Buckingham's I'm So Afraid. The album spent a week at the top of Billboard in 1976.

Rumours[]

By the time the group came to record the follow-up album, John and Christine McVie's marriage was disintegrating and Nicks had split from Buckingham. Fleetwood's marriage was also in the throes of breakup. The songs brought to the sessions reflected the stress of the three songwriters within the situation. The sessions themselves were fuelled with drink and drugs and tensions were high. But Mac persevered with no question of disbanding. The first single from the sessions was Buckingham's vitriolic Go Your Own Way, which was an instant hit with the album, entitled Rumours coming out in January 1977.

Rumours was a worldwide smash and featured three further hits in Nicks' Dreams, the group's only US No 1, and Christine McVie's Don't Stop and You Make Loving Fun. The album became the biggest-selling of all time for a while until being supplanted by the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack and Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Tusk[]

Once again, pressure was on from Warner Brothers to record a follow-up album. The resulting Tusk (1979) was an ambitious double album with Buckingham not only stepping up as the group's lead producer but also pursuing his own musical direction, inspired by the new wave and punk acts of the time such as Talking Heads and the Clash. He contributed nine of the twenty tracks, some of which were recorded entirely by himself in his home studio. The album sold respectably but initially not as well as Rumours and was styled the most expensive album ever made. The band embarked on an extensive tour which spawned the double Live album but by the end were in need of a break.

Solo ventures[]

During 1981, Nicks, Buckingham and even Fleetwood released solo albums. Fleetwood's The Visitor saw him recording in Africa with African musicians as well as featuring guest appearances by his former brother-in-law George Harrison and even Peter Green on a re-recording of Rattlesnake Shake. This and Buckingham's Law and Order were not majorly successful but Buckingham enjoyed a Top 10 hit single with Trouble which Fleetwood played on.

Nicks on the other hand enjoyed major solo success. Her solo debut, Bella Donna, topped Billboard and was heralded by Stop Draggin' My Heart Around, a collaboration with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a band she had become a great fan of. The song was a leftover from sessions for their Hard Promises album (which featured Insider, another duet with Nicks). The album also spawned Edge of Seventeen, partially a tribute to John Lennon, and Leather and Lace, a duet with Don Henley of the Eagles with whom Nicks had enjoyed a short relationship.

Mirage[]

The band regrouped in late 1981 to record at the Chateau D'Herouville in France. The resulting Mirage (1982) was meant to be a back to basics affair but lacked the magic of Rumours. Despite this, it topped the US charts and spawned further hits in Christine McVie's Hold Me and Nicks's Gypsy, the latter particularly poignant in that it was a tribute to her best friend who had died of leukaemia. Buckingham's Oh Diane was released in the UK and became a surprise top ten hit.

Further solo ventures[]

It was to be five years before Fleetwood Mac would release another album. In the interim, Fleetwood assembled Mick Fleetwood's Zoo and brought out I'm Not Me (1983), Buckingham experimented with electronic sounds on Go Insane (1984) and Christine McVie released a self-titled album which gave her a major US hit with Got a Hold On Me. Nicks continued to enjoy major success with The Wild Heart (1983) and Rock a Little (1985).

Tango in the Night[]

When the band eventually did regroup in 1985 it was at the cost of Buckingham's recording of his planned third solo album. Buckingham held four songs over from the project and collaborated with Christine McVie on three more. Christine added two of her own but Nicks was out touring for most of 1986 and did not come in until almost the end of the sessions. The resulting album Tango in the Night came out in April 1987 trailered by the single release of Buckingham's Big Love, a hit in both the US and UK despite the band's long absence. Further hits followed in Seven Wonders, a collaboration between Nicks and her friend Sandy Stewart and Christine McVie's Little Lies and Everywhere but the band was rocked when just as a tour had been booked, Lindsey Buckingham announced that he did not want to go on the road and was leaving the band.

Fleetwood encouraged the other members to think positively and established singer-songwriter Billy Burnette and session guitarist Rick Vito were enlisted to replace Buckingham. Vito had been a fan of the original band with Peter Green and seen them live in 1969. Because of this, the band felt confident to perform some of Green's material (Green was not making music at the time) that had not been performed by them at least since Buckingham and Nicks had joined the band. The Shake the Cage tour was a massive success and Tango in the Night became the band's biggest-selling album since Rumours, topping the charts three times in the UK.

Burnette/Vito era (1987-90)[]

The first recordings by the new line-up were released as two new tracks on the band's 1988 Greatest Hits compilation. One of them, Christine McVie's As Long As You Follow was released as a single and reached the Top 20 in Ireland and Canada.

1989 mostly saw Nicks' touring to promote her fourth solo album The Other Side of the Mirror but she nonetheless found time to work with Mac on what would become the album Behind the Mask, released in 1990.

Behind the Mask's success was more moderate than that enjoyed by the Rumours line-up but it topped the UK chart and spawned a Canadian Top 10 hit in Save Me. The following tour was successful and saw the band play to a packed Wembley Stadium in London but ended with both Nicks and Christine McVie quitting the group, Nicks over a disagreement regarding her song Silver Springs, McVie following the death of her father although she would continue to record with the group. Rick Vito left the following year.

Interim activities[]

Fleetwood Mac activity in 1992 was minimal with Fleetwood and John McVie both releasing albums with spin-off bands.

The four-piece studio line-up featuring Burnette and Christine McVie recorded the beginnings of what was meant ot be an album in the form of Love Shines and Heart of Stone. The songs were ultimately released on the silver anniversary compilation 25 Years: The Chain which also included Paper Doll, a Nicks/Vito collaboration originally intended for inclusion on Greatest Hits, and a Lindsey Buckingham track, Make Me a Mask which was entirely performed by Buckingham.

Presidential inauguration and Superbowl[]

On January 20th 1993, the Rumours line-up did a one off reunion performance at US President Bill Clinton's inaugural gala. There they performed their 1977 hit Don't Stop which, Clinton had chosen as his campaign song,and were joined onstage by Michael Jackson.

Eleven days later, when the 27th Superbowl took place, another one off reunion took place, this time with Rick Vito making a one-off return to the fold. The line-up of Fleetwood, the McVies, Burnette and Vito performed the band's 1976 hit Say You Love Me.

Mason/Bramlett era (1993-95)[]

In late 1993, former Traffic guitarist Dave Mason and country vocalist Bekka Bramlett were announced as replacements for Vito and Nicks respectively. The initial photos did not feature Burnette who had left to record his 1993 solo album Coming Home. However when the band next performed live, Burnette was back but Christine McVie had no involvement.

The new five-piece live line-up made its debut at the concert for the 1994 World Cup, held in the United States. There they performed new numbers from Mason (Blow by Blow) and Bramlett (Dreamin' the Dream) along with established anthems The Chain and Oh Well. A studio recording of Blow by Blow would feature on the various artists compilation Soccer Rocks the Globe.

The band toured in 1994 and again in 1995 under the banner of Another Link in the Chain but were mostly performing Rumours-era material, despite the fact that none of the three singer/songwriters of that period were present.

An album, Time, followed in October 1995. This featured both Blow by Blow and Dreamin' the Dream and, at Warner Brothers' insistence, new tracks from Christine McVie although these were recorded separately with session guitarist Michael Thompson.

The album, and its single I Do, were not successful and the line-up collapsed shortly afterwards.

Classic line-up reunion[]

Just weeks after disbanding Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood announced that he was assisting with Lindsey Buckingham's next solo album. John McVie was added to the sessions, and later Christine McVie.

Around this time, Stevie Nicks also enlisted Lindsey Buckingham to produce a song for a soundtrack. Her song, Twisted, was recorded as a duet between her and Buckingham and featured Fleetwood on drums.

In May 1996 Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, and Stevie Nicks performed together 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 reunion of the Rumours line-up.

The band officially reformed in March 1997 in its classic Rumours line-up configuration and performed a live reunion concert for MTV on May 23rd, later released in CD and video/DVD form as The Dance. A supporting tour followed but at the end of the tour, Christine McVie announced that she was leaving the group and moving back to England. She put this down to her fear of flying and dislike of touring.

Say You Will[]

After a short break in which Stevie Nicks brought out her sixth solo album Trouble in Shangri-La (2001) which Buckingham guested on, and the compilation The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac was released, the remaining four members of the Rumours line-up congregated at Lindsey's home in California to record the band's next album. The debate between members as to whether or not it should be released as a double album was captured on the straight-to-DVD documentary Destiny Rules (2004).

Eventually the album was released on a single CD with eighteen tracks as Say You Will in April 2003. The album was trailered with performances of the songs Peacekeeper and Say You Will at AOL studios. These were released as bonus track on a special edition along with two studio recordings, Nicks' Not Make Believe and a cover of Bob Dylan's Love Minus Zero/No Limit.

The album was an instant success, returning the band to the US and UK top ten for the first time with a studio album since 1987 and 1990 respectively. Peacekeeper was released as a single (though no single was released in the UK, although a remix version of Peacekeeper known as the 'Tin Tin Out Radio Mix' was made available as a promo CD) its highest position in a national chart being #31 in New Zealand. A successful two year tour followed with an accompanying DVD/CD release Live in Boston.

2006-13[]

There was talk of a follow-up to Say You Will but work was delayed while Buckingham did two solo albums one acoustic (Under the Skin, 2006) and one electric (Gift of Screws, 2008) as companion pieces. The band toured again in 2009 but with no new material despite a period of studio work in the year preceding. Prior to this, there was serious talk of bringing Nicks' friend Sheryl Crow on board as singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist but the combination of her recent recovery from cancer and Buckingham's reluctance to bring such a well-established singer-songwriter on board meant this did not happen. Nicks also made it clear in a BBC documentary about the band, broadcast around this time, that she did not view Buckingham as a friend.

In 2011, both Buckingham and Nicks released solo albums with Fleetwood contributing to the latter. But when new material did surface in 2013 it was in the form of a four-track download entitled Extended Play which featured only one track from Nicks, who was grieving the death of her mother and chose only to share an old Buckingham Nicks track, Without You, which had surfaced on YouTube. Of Buckingham's three tracks one, It Takes Time, was entirely performed by him and shared its tune with Show You How from his 2006 album Under the Skin.

A tour followed on which Without You and the EP's lead track Sad Angel were performed. When the band played at London's O2 Arena, they were joined onstage by Christine McVie who sang Don't Stop with them.

The tour ended early so that John McVie could be treated for cancer but he made a full recovery.

2014-17[]

At the start of 2014, all group members, with the exception of Stevie Nicks, came together to record tracks for a new Fleetwood Mac album. Nicks' reluctance stemmed initially from the fact that she had already committed to recording a solo project prior to Christine McVie rejoining the group. This was ironic in that she had previously insisted she did not want to do another album as the only female member. At any rate her eighth album 24 Karat Gold: Songs From the Vault was released later that year. Over the 2015-16 period the full lineup did the On With the Show tour - it had been hoped to release the new album to tie in with this but Nicks never came to record anything so the project was temporarily shelved.

Even when the tour was over, Nicks wanted to do her own tour to promote 24 Karat Gold, so the album was finished in her absence and released as Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie, credited to the other two songwriters as a duo, although Fleetwood and John McVie also played on all bar two of its tracks. Two others were produced by Mitchell Froom, having been recorded at the same sessions that produced the Extended Play project in 2013 while another had previously appeared as a bonus track on some editions of Buckingham's 2011 album Seeds We Sow.

The Buckingham McVie duo toured at this time although the full band also appeared at the Classic East and Classic West festivals along with the Doobie Brothers, Eagles and other veteran acts.

2018 line-up change and beyond[]

Fleetwood Mac received the MusiCares Person of the Year award in 2018. They played at the ceremony and appeared happy, Buckingham declaring "The only thing we feel for each other right now is love."

But any illusion along those lines was shattered in April when it was announced that Buckingham was no longer a member of the group and had been replaced by former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell on lead guitar and Crowded House singer/songwriter Neil Finn on vocals and rhythm guitar. The new lineup appeared on CBS This Morning announcing that Buckingham had refused to sign off on their forthcoming tour as he wanted to tour his own forthcoming album. In contrast, Buckingham had said in interviews prior to his dismissal that he wanted to do solo shows between Fleetwood Mac dates. Eventually Buckingham revealed that Nicks had become distressed at him at the MusiCares event for reportedly having smirked while she was making her speech and that he had found out through the band's new manager Irving Azoff who had phoned him with the announcement that Nicks never wanted to share a stage with Buckingham again. Fleetwood had responded to the situation by dismissing Buckingham.

Later that year the band embarked on the An Evening With Fleetwood Mac tour which saw the revival of old numbers by Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch as well as Christine McVie's All Over Again from the Time album which had never been performed live before. Eventually however these numbers were dropped although the Tom Petty standard Free Fallin' and two numbers from Finn's time with Split Enz and Crowded House respectively were included.

The tour finished in late 2019. After this, Campbell returned to recording with his band The Dirty Knobs and Finn began working on an album with a new Crowded House lineup (Dreamers Are Waiting, 2021). These bands have carried on subsequent to that time.

Christine McVie died on November 30th 2022 following a short illness. At the 2023 Grammy Awards Mick Fleetwood said that he felt the group was over although he admitted having said that in the past and been proved wrong.