YouTube: Danny Kirwan in 1989
 

This is rather bizarre... Danny drinking at a pub in London with some people in 1989.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq_UNTLH3A8

Wow, this IS bizarre!

He actually didn't look too bad in 1989. I'd have thought by then he was a mess, but clearly he still looked young and somewhat "together."

Amazing!!!!!
How did you find out about this video.
And indeed, Danny seemed rather well in 1989.
:thumbsup:

He looks like an ordinary guy having a pint.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it actually looks like a whole group of alcoholic has-beens sitting around a table. I don't know how famous the rest of them were, but I'd suggest that Danny was probably the most talented.

Also looks can be deceiving. We have to remember that Brunning tried to interview Danny in '89 for his book and it didn't go well at all, if I recall he agreed to meet Bob but then he wasn't able to really even communicate with him and Bob had to leave after 30 seconds. Naturally I want to think he was well too but I dunno, just makes me sad what could have been and all but hopefully he's doing better now anyways. :)

John

Mistermike, thank you so much!! :] This is probably gonna be the post/find of the year! Danny don't appear to have aged much since the "last official photos" of 1979. How old was he here - approx 38-39?
He looks quiet, reserved .. but healthy.
Anyway, we only see him for a few seconds.
I would love to have seen more.

This is my impression too. These folks look like they've been living hard. Probably still are at the time of filming.

It is interesting that Danny didn't speak to the camera. He's just found a group of people who like to drink too much and relieve past glories. Really although Danny was said to be living on the street or in a homeless shelter, there must have been money coming in from royalties somewhere.

Still, he does appear to be in suprisingly good shape. No worse off than the coke-addled Fleetwood Mac of the 80's...

What a random find! I think this is more proof (if you needed it!) of how the vultures/scumbags of media present you with sensational mythical stories about 'stars' whether past or present. Most stories of DK,especially the 80's have always painted him as some sort of lunatic hobo eating out of bins and that.This short video shows he was stable enough.
Same goes for other members. The Jeremy stories were ludicrous,as were some Peter Green fabrications.
So yeah,vile media is what I'm saying.

I agree they should keep their noses out of it, I just meant he didn't speak in it (and he doesn't look happy they were doing it, probably rightfully so) so hard to say how coherent he wouldn't been though it does look like it must've been one of his better days. :)

John

Not just media, also the McVies and Fleetwood.

Definately Fleetwood, I think the McVies just go along with whatever the interviewer is saying to be fair (not that I like that either but...).

John

Media scumbag? All I saw on that video was a guy who had a shower and shave earlier that day. Most homeless shelters have showers, shaving supplies, and laundry. Danny didn't really talk or give any indication either way as to how he was doing. The media, Mick, and the McVies are just reporting what the saw. But it's funny that Peter Green, Bob Welch, Dave Walker, and Bob Weston have all said similar things about Danny. But this interview and picture really says it all.

http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/...ies/danny4.jpg

He went his own way to oblivion: Fleetwood Mac's former guitarist is found, a little the worse for wear, in a hostel for London's homeless
STEVE BOGGAN*
Saturday, 16 October 1993

AS FLEETWOOD MAC rose through the 1970s to platinum- disc superstardom Danny Kirwan dropped out, heading for more than 10 years of heavy drinking and living rough.

Now the guitarist in the pop group's early line-up of the 1960s, latterly homeless on the streets of London, may be reunited with former colleagues.

Mr Kirwan, 42, was traced by the Missing Persons Bureau and the Independent after Mick Fleetwood, the band's founder, heard about his plight. Mr Kirwan has been living in St Mungo's Hostel for homeless people in the West End of London for the past four years. He left the band before their success with Rumours, the album that sold 40 million copies in the late 1970s.

Since then he has been living on social security and 'dribs and drabs' of royalties from the band's early days. Yesterday, looking cheerful but dishevelled, he told of constant travels with a rucksack and of five years living as a hermit in a dark basement flat in Brixton, south London.

However, he said he felt no bitterness: 'I've been through a bit of a rough patch but I'm not too bad. I get by and I suppose I am homeless, but then I've never really had a home since our early days on tour. I couldn't handle it all mentally and I had to get out. I can't settle.'

Mr Fleetwood contacted the Missing Persons Bureau in London via the Los Angeles correspondent of a show business news agency. In this week's edition of the Big Issue, the London magazine sold to help the homeless, he said he last saw Mr Kirwan in 1980.

'While we were in London, I got Danny's number and in due course he showed up at the hotel,' he said. 'He appeared looking grubby. It was heartbreaking. He'd slept on a park bench the night before.'

But Mr Kirwan appeared in good spirits yesterday at the Coach and Horses, his favourite pub in the West End. He spoke of the traumas of touring but also of the pleasures: 'I was lucky to have played for the band at all. I just started off following them around, but I could play the guitar a bit and Mick felt sorry for me and put me in. I did it for about four years, to about 1972, but . . . I couldn't handle the lifestyle and the women and the travelling.'

He was not the only band member so affected. Peter Green, lead guitarist and co- founder, left the band and gave his money to charity, saying drugs and guilt made him quit.

Mr Kirwan said: 'If Mick would like to see me, then that would be nice. But he would have to come over here. America terrifies me. If he can't come, then that's OK. I don't really need anything. Unless he fancies popping a million pounds in the post. . .'

Yeah saw that article years ago...
 

The fact they needed to quote Mick's 1980 encounter doesn't really give them much material to work with ..as per usual. It's just more scandalising..'Danny a destitute alcoholic vagrant' 'Jeremy a religious nut in brainwashing cult' 'Peter a dangerous schizo' 'Christine a bitter recluse' 'Lindsey a misogynist woman-beater' blah-di-blah.Like I say:scumbag media exaggerations..newspapers,tabloid magazines,tell-all books.You can't sell stories on the boring old truth can you...

That pub is (at least now) Bar Oporto in Shaftesbury Avenue, round the corner from St Mungo's Hostel, where Danny was no doubt living at the time.

Carol Clerk, one of the girls in the film, was a music journalist who was one of Danny's closer friends. She was apparently there for Danny when most other people weren't. She died last year, sadly.

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/n...rol-clerk-rip/

Thanks for the info.

I now know why Snoot disappeared:
 

I just did a two month stint in "Fleetwood Mac Ledge Prison". I have learned not to call fellow members names in the heat of an argument.

This video is fascinating! While Kirwan looked "normal", it doesn't prove he was well then.

I'd welcome you back but it depends if you are happy to be back or not. :laugh:

To be honest I'm not sure that you could miss a lot being away for two months. Pre-Rumours (the very name of the forum suggests that everything revolves around the Rumours album) is so dead that only Jeremy Spencer releasing a new album has any chance of reviving it.

:laugh: Actually It's probably best to take two month breaks for the pre-75 fans. I have more perspective. Thanks for my welcome!

I am just getting into the Danny-era Fleetwood Mac and he was so talented and good looking, actually I think I am in love with the young Danny. It saddens me to think that he could have ended up on the streets.

I know I'm not terribly active here, but this video seems disturbing and it makes me fear worse for Danny. To be honest he crosses my mind a lot. In the grand scheme of FM members, I hate to say it but I think we'll lose him first, and even then he won't get the recognition he deserves.

Worst office pool ever...

I'd agree that Danny is right up there for being the first FM member to die. Awful topic though it is...I'd suspect that the hard-living Dave Walker might also be a good candidate though. Neither of them will get the recognition they should have, although at least Danny is well respected amongst early FM fans.

I've just purchased Danny's debut solo album, Second chapter, and I'm liking it a lot after one listen. It's different to the suff he did with Fleetwood Mac, more up-tempo and folky, but the infectious tunes are still there.

I need to find the other two albums now, but they are both at ridiculously high prices on the net. Does anybody know where I can get them a bit cheaper?

Keep watching on eBay - they should both turn up for less than a tenner. Any more than that is too much :)