Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac

EVERY MUSICIAN KNOWS IT’S THE RHYTHM SECTION THAT HOLDS A Band Together. But who knew we’d find as durable an application of that maxim as the one exemplified by the history of Fleetwood Mac? 

Fleetwood Mac were a British-American rock band formed in London in 1967 by guitarist and singer Peter Green.[6] Green recruited drummer Mick Fleetwood, guitarist and singer Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, with John McVie replacing Brunning a few weeks after the band’s first public appearance at the 1967 National Jazz & Blues Festival in Windsor. Guitarist and singer Danny Kirwan joined in 1968. Christine Perfect, who initially contributed as a session musician, married McVie and became an official member in July 1970 on vocals and keyboards, two months after Green left; she became known as Christine McVie.

Primarily a British blues band in their early years, Fleetwood Mac achieved a UK number-one single in 1968 with the instrumental “Albatross”,[7] and had other UK top ten hits with “Man of the World”, “Oh Well” (both 1969), and “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)” (1970). After Green’s departure, Spencer and Kirwan also left in 1971 and 1972 respectively, with Spencer being replaced by Bob Welch and Kirwan being replaced by Bob Weston and Dave Walker. By the end of 1974, Weston and Walker had been dismissed and Welch had left, leaving the band without a guitarist or male vocalist. While Fleetwood was scouting studios in Los Angeles, he heard the American folk-rock duo Buckingham Nicks, consisting of guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks. In December 1974, he asked Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham agreed on the condition that Nicks could also join.

The addition of Buckingham and Nicks gave the band a more pop rock sound and their 1975 album Fleetwood Mac topped the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Their album Rumours (1977) produced four U.S. Top 10 singles and remained at number one on the Billboard 200 for 31 weeks. It also reached the top spot in countries around the world and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. Rumours has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums in history. Although each member of the band went through a breakup (John and Christine McVie, Buckingham and Nicks, and Fleetwood and his wife Jenny Boyd) while recording the album, they continued to write and record together.

The line-up remained stable through three more studio albums, but by the late 1980s began to disintegrate. After Buckingham left in 1987, he was replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, although Vito left in 1991 along with Nicks. A 1993 one-off performance for the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton reunited the classic 1974–1987 line-up for the first time in six years. A full reunion took place four years later, and Fleetwood Mac released their fourth U.S. No. 1 album, The Dance (1997), a live album marking the 20th anniversary of Rumours and the band’s 30th anniversary. Christine McVie left in 1998. Fleetwood Mac released their most recent studio album, Say You Will, in 2003. Christine McVie rejoined in 2014. In 2018, Buckingham was fired and replaced by Mike Campbell, formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn of Split Enz and Crowded House. After Christine McVie’s death in 2022, Nicks confirmed in 2024 that the band would not continue without her.

Fleetwood Mac have sold more than 120 million records worldwide, making them one of the world’s best-selling bands. In 1979, they were honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1998, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame[9] and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2018, Fleetwood Mac received the MusiCares Person of the Year award from the Recording Academy in recognition of their artistic achievement in the music industry and dedication to philanthropy.

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