Message from Wendy Welch (re: BW RRHOF induction)
 

Hey folks,

For those who haven't followed the Bob Welch on Facebook stuff, Wendy, Bob's widow, is posting as Bob on Facebook, primarily to spread news that he is gone and is also part of a group called "Let's Get Bob Welch Inducted Into The Rock&Roll Hall of Fame."

http://www.facebook.com/groups/BobWe.../BobWelch.HOF/

The precusor to Wendy's post was this:
Pixie Gee:
Bob Welch:
The link to the comment thread from above is here:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/BobWe...6670555050145/

Hopefully everyone has signed the petition and will support Wendy and friends (including myself) to achieve this goal, and if anyone is friends with BN, the Mac's, or Fleetwood himself they will persuade them a bit.

I see what Jimmy's saying but if all the band does is tell the hall who is attending then why were DK & JS inducted if they weren't attending? Thus, there must be more to it then just this. JMHO though. :)

John

Meant to also say...
 

I'm wondering how to feel about the induction now, I mean, if the petition doesn't work we'll feel we weren't heard and if it works, is he in because they genuinely had a change or heart or are they just caving to pressure and inducting him to apease fans? Hate to be a bummer but just trying to head such feelings off at the pass. :)

John

I think RRHOF needs to change policies for good and admit every member of a band or just admit a band and not clarify anything about individual members. That's the fair way of doing things. Then if a member of a band had a very influential solo career, they could be admitted individually that way.

I signed the petition to show my support for the matter.

But quite frankly, I never expected the petition to actually do anything in terms of getting him in the RRHOF.

If it worked that way, we could just petition for FM to get all the past grammy's they were nominated for but did not recieve, etc etc.

I think with the RRHOF, it is the HOF people who choose which members of a band are inducted. It is then up to those individuals whether they turn up. In some cases inductees may be deceased.

So Fleetwood Mac themselves would have had little, if any, influence in who was inducted. Mick being the all round good guy he is, probably suggested Bob to the HOF people.

There was some controversy when Genesis were inducted as Anthony Phillips was not inducted. He only played on their first two albums, neither of which was a hit, but he wrote most of their early songs and a great deal of material that would continue appearing on Genesis LP's long after he left. He was the bedrock of the band in its formative years and without him Genesis wouldn't have ever got off the ground or on the road.

With Bob Welch, he didn't play on any massive hit records or write any huge hit singles for Fleetwood Mac...and sometimes the Welch era is overlooked compared to those before it (Green and Buckingham/Nicks). But Bob was very much the glue that held Fleetwood Mac together during some difficult years, he contributed some great songs and the Mac actually had their most consistent albums at that point.

Without Bob there would have been no Buckingham/Nicks or future Fleetwood Mac...the effort he put in should not go unrecognised just because it didn't sell millions.

But as far as the RRHOF goes, perhaps he doesn't fit their criteria...whatever they are.

Can that be changed retrospectively? Probably not...for it would require the HOF people to admit they were wrong in 1998. And that will not happen.

The biggest slap in the face is:

Donna Jean Godchaux (who basically sang off key background vocals) IS a member of the R&RHoF as a member of the Grateful Dead, but Bob Welch is NOT a member of the R&RHoF as a member of Fleetwood Mac.

Those pompous, self-important piles of **** who run the R&RHoF are F****G IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Amen to that!

I understand what you're saying, but it's not as nice for every band. Fleetwood Mac has never had less than two vocalists, had a history of gradual personnel changes, and was kept together by the namesakes, who were not the singers or writers.

But what about a band like the Guess Who? The band broke up when Burton Cummings, the only lead vocalist the band had, quit. Then bassist Jim Kale registered the name and put out subsequent versions of the Guess Who and at one point even let the band play gigs without him (read: there were no original or subsequent Cummings-era members of the band). Are we really to think that the members of the Kale lead bands are relevant?

I thought that the reason that Bob wasn't inducted is because Christine refused to share a stage with him?:shrug:

I don't think we still know, for certain, if Chris was the guilty party, even if most signs point to her...:shocked: Didn't someone suggest that it might have been Peter(I highly doubt this, given his general ~albeit perceived from my own skewed vantage point~ disposition)?


Unless I missed something, Wendy has only said that it wasn't Mick or John.

Not sure if anyone else said this but I did say it jokingly back in the other thread...that everyone was thinking of Chris and yet there was one other person on stage who everyone had forgotten.

Technically, no. Chad Allan was the original Guess Who lead vocalist. :nod: Burton Cummings initially joined as keyboardist & part time co-lead vocalist. Chad Allan later quit and Cummings took over lead vocals full-time.

I'm pretty sure she ruled Christine out as well when arguing with someone that was trying to guess. The guy said Danny Graves as well and Wendy pretty much said he didn't know what he was talking about.

So who are we left with? Stevie and Lindsey? What are you thinking, John? If I had to guess between those two, I would definitely guess Lindsey.

I can't see Stevie being that petty. What reason would she have to not want Bob inducted?

For the record, I don't really see what Lindsey would have against Bob either and I have to really stretch my imagination to think he would pull such a scheme, but if I had to guess between the two of them...

Then again, these are just my perceptions of people I don't actually know. So...

According to a conversation I had with Mich Reynolds back in 1998 at the Splinter Group show in Cleveland, Peter didn't even know about it until the day of the ceremony.

Yeah, I always forget about that because the band had been going by Chad Allan & The Expressions just prior to the record company gimmick that changed the band's name to the Guess Who.

My originial point is still valid, though.

Didn't say it wasn't...;) By now, you oughta know "me & my minutae" :D

Well I never thought it was Peter anyway. Just trying to rule out the possibilities.

In my mind, it has to be either Chris or Lindsey. I suspect the former, but hope it's the latter.

Wendy became a little miffed when he suggested Christine, and didn't know who Graves was.

I do understand your point. Still, I'd rather have some people who didn't deserve it get in than to have someone who Did deserve it get left out.

Sure. But letting in all those people devalues the induction altogether.

"If everyone is special, then no one is."

When Wendy first said she regretted having spoken, she said it was because Bob loved the person. I know that ey worked together , but I find it hard to believe that she would speak of Bob as having loved Lindsey. Michele

haha!! Maybe LB choked him during French Kiss... :]

Surely it's Christine or Mick.. Wendy said it wasn't the later Mac people in some quote.

Well, according to "Bwelchhypnotized" on rollingstone.com

"Bob was always into the now.. Christine wrote that song and she knew nothing about Bob, nor has she bothered to contact me or even send a card. *Ask her why he's not in the H&R Hall of Fame. "

Copying this from the Q&A Bob Welch did here on The Ledge in 1999. He was in favor of including all the past and present members of Fleetwood Mac.


I also was very disturbed by your being excluded when FM was inducted into the HOF! The unfairness of it (not to mention the lame reasons given) really bothered me, especially since I have always really liked the FM albums you were part of. I especially like the songs Future Games, S.L. (of course), Hypnotized, Bermuda Triangle, Bright Fire, and Night Watch.

But the question I have is this: If you feel free to do so, could you explain what the lawsuit was about, why you went that route, and why you think Mick, John, and Christine seemed to take it so personally? Was there anything else going on at the time that contributed to the hostility or was it just the idea that you sued them? And, lastly, what (if anything) do you think could bring about a resolution of the rift (I'd like to see you get into the HOF retroactively!!) (Dennis Goodyear, Denver, Colorado, USA)

Dennis, I think I've already done enough of a "rant" on my feelings about the hall of fame thing... What could be done....maybe a petition, but a petition to include ALL past members, me, Burnette, Vito, Weston, Dave Mason, Bekka.....That's the fair thing...

Wendy has said that it wasn't Mick or John. Surely my lifelong heroine isn't a spiteful bi*ch...?:distress:

*hands a glass of wine*

I dunno, whoever it is, we're only getting one side of the story from Wendy. I'm sure whoever kept him out had a valid reason. They might be the most cracky band ever but they are human beings. I refuse to believe this is one sided.

I'll bet we eventually get the story...

I would bet they were bitter over the lawsuit, and that was the reason. So assuming he could only sue over the royalties from the albums he was on, and if it wasn't Mick or John, it would be easy to assume that Chris was the culprit.

I mean, I can understand how I would be upset too, over someone suing me. But a lawsuit could only earn him what was rightfully his...

Spiteful witchiness is a criteria for being a lifelong heroine of mine.

And I disagree that a lawsuit can only get you what is rightfully yours. Ideally that is how litigation works, but sometimes, due to the threat of high attorney costs and damage to the reputation that they sometimes bring, litigation is sometimes used as a form of blackmail, to gain undeserved concessions. Though, I am not saying that is what occurred in this case.

Michele

It does seem strange that none of us really knew about the suit until Bob discussed it here on his 1st Q&A after it was settled. I know FM weren't favor of the day by then or anything, but still, the press usually love that kind of drama to blow out of proportion etc. regardless what kind of "has been's" they dish dirt on and for none of them to even mention it was going on let alone report it by sensationalizing it...

John

None of this quite adds up to me. If you want to talk animosity among former bandmates (also involving a lawsuit as a matter of fact), look no further than Blondie. There is no love lost among those folks, but all members from the band's first run (1975-1982) were inducted. The ousted members wanted to perform at the ceremony and created an awkward moment by making a request during the acceptance speeches. Debbie Harry shut them down pretty quickly, and only current members performed. It was the talk of that year's ceremony.

My point is, Debbie Harry had no control over who was inducted, only who she performed with. So while someone could probably threaten, "If he's on stage, I won't be" it still doesn't seem like anyone would be denied the actual induction. How could the RRHOF give the bands control over those types of decisions and maintain any type of credibility?

This just made me think of when Traffic were being inducted. As we know Dave Mason didn't get along with Winwood but they were both there and although Mason & Winwood did the hug thing, it sounds like (from DM's website anyway, due to SW not letting him in to the Traffic performance at the show, they just did the Feelin' Alright thing later, probably the hall's way of saying "we need DM there but we'll do it (this way) so you don't have to play with him) Steve has gone back to not communicating with Dave so this must have been something the Hall wanted? Just a thought.

John

I felt in the first place all the members of Fleetwood Mac from 1967 thru today or back in 1998 when the inducted whoever was in the fleetwood mac band during that time should have been inducted in as the whole band not a certain part of the band. which I believe are 16 members in all should have all been inducted and shame on mick fleetwood for not contacting all the members that were not present.

I think Stevie and Lindsey would have been on the same page, but I think the page was to get themselves in the HOF, not to keep Bob out. If they were skating in on a technicality, then they may have been pretty motivated not to draw any more attention to themselves by insisting Bob not be inducted...

Rrhof
 

not to get to far OT, but after the beatles/aerosmith and the rolling stones, i believe the number 4 and 5 selling bands are KISS who influenced zillions and may be responsible for the LA Hair band days and RUSH, who has influenced EVERY rock/metal band since...

so if the criteria is influenced many musical peers over 3 decades they both win and if it is large sales, then they both win.

however, neither are in the Hall of Shame - yet Madonna and the Beastie boys are, and regardless of your tastes we ALL know that neither fit in the ROCK category at all...

I dunno. Sabotage was pretty rockin'. I thin Kiss, Rush, the Guess Who (or anything involving Randy Bachman), and Yes are long, long overdue. I suspect all of the line-up changes on all but Rush makes them nervous.

Will they let John Rutsy in?