The more I read about this band, the more I love it.
This single cover rules!
1970
January - Spencer releases his first solo album, titled
Jeremy Spencer, on which he is backed by Fleetwood Mac.
February 27 - Topping his increasingly erratic behaviour, Green tells the New Music Express that he is going to give all of his earnings away.
March - "Oh Well" reaches US #55.
March 22? - When in Munich, Green, Fleetwood, Spencer and a road manager are invited to a party at a hippie mansion, called Highfish Commune, located in a forest. (It has been said that Green was invited not for company, but so that filmmaker Rainer Langhans and Uschi Obermaier could get in contact with Mick Taylor. Langhans and Obermaier wanted to hold a Bavarian Woodstock, with Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones performing.)
Green unwittingly drinks wine spiked with LSD. Green stays at the party for 24 hours, spending time jamming in a basement. Dennis Keen, the road manager, gets bad vibes and leaves. Spencer and Fleetwood cook eggs.
At a concert the next day, Green feels "marvelous, fresh and not grubby". Later, Green says that at Highfish, "he went on a trip, and never came back." His overuse of LSD may have contributed to his schizophrenia.
April 11 - Green announces his departure of the band while in Zurich, the pressures of stardom now proving intolerable. To avoid breach of contract, he agrees to finish the tour and then leave.
April 25 - The group takes part in a music festival at Reading Football Club's ground in Reading, Berks., with Christine McVie and Chicken Shack.
May 24 - Green plays his last gig with the group at the Batch Festival, Bath, Somerset.
June - "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Prong Crown)" hits UK #10. In his last single with the group, Green gives a graphic description of the mental terrors that have been haunting him.
August 8 - After earlier announcing she was quitting the music business for good to become a housewife, Christine McVie flies to the US to officially join Fleetwood Mac. The year previous, she was voted Melody Maker's Female Vocalist of the Year.
September 18 -
Kiln House (named after the band's shared house in Alton, Hants.), the band's first post-Green album, and the last album to feature Jeremy Spencer, is released. Christine McVie drew the cover art and appeared on a few songs, although she won't be a full member of the band until a few months after the recording of
Kiln House.
October -
Kiln House reaches UK #39 and US #69.
November - Peter Green's first solo album,
The End of the Game, is released, composed of free-form jams and instrumentals.
December - Fleetwood Mac embarks on a series of UK dates and buys Benifolds Mansion near Headley, Hampshire, where they will live and work together.
1971
Date Unknown - Fritz, a San Francisco based band, breaks up. Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks would hit superstardom in just a few years time.
February - Spencer leaves abruptly during a US tour at the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel, LA. He left to buy a book at Pickwick's Bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard and met a member of a religious group called the Children of God. When Spencer did not come back that night, the band called the police. Five days later he was found at the Children of God headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. It is later discovered that he has felt the same pressures as Green did. After Spencer's departure, the band cancels the scheduled Whisky-a-Go-Go dates before asking Green (who brings along conga player Nigel Watson) to replace Spencer for the rest of the tour. He obliges, and after the completion of the tour, Green returns to his self-imposed retirement.
April - After the troubled tour, the group is in disarray, having lost its two main guitarists and songwriters. Judy Wong, wife of Jethro Tull's bassist Glenn Cornick and friend of the band, introduces Fleetwood Mac to California-born guitarist Bob Welch. He joins, without having a proper audition, saving the band and becoming the first American member of Fleetwood Mac. Before joining the Mac, Welch played in a soul band called the Seven Souls, which breaks up in 1969. Welch goes on to form Head West, releasing one album in 1970.
July -
Fleetwood Mac in Chicago, recorded two years earlier, reaches US #190.
September 3 -
Future Games is released, the first Fleetwood Mac album featuring Bob Welch and Christine McVie as a full member.
October - "Black Magic Woman" peaks at US #143.
November -
Future Games makes US #91. The band continues to tour the US extensively.
Greatest Hits, a compilation album, is released.
1972
February -
Greatest Hits reaches UK #36.
April -
Bare Trees is released. It will be the last album with Danny Kirwan.
May -
Bare Trees makes US #70.
August - Kirwan (whose drinking has been getting harder to handle) leaves the band after refusing to appear on stage, and goes on to smash his head against a wall and breaks his Les Paul into pieces. He watches the group fail without him, and after the show, gives a negative review of the concert. He becomes the first member of Fleetwood Mac to be fired. After recording a few solo albums in the 1970s, he is placed in a psychiatric hospital and becomes homeless.
September - Dave Walker (also from Christine's hometown), ex-vocalist of Savoy Brown and Bob Weston, who met the band while on tour with Long John Baldry, are hired to replace Kirwan.
The new line-up performs at the North Carolina Motor Speedway, Rockingham, NC with Alice Cooper and others.
1973
March -
Penguin, cut at the Rolling Stones' mobile studio, is released. It is the first album to feature Dave Walker and Bob Weston. The album reaches US #49. Peter Green makes a guest appearance, but despite this, the album fails to chart in the UK. The Fleetwood Mac penguin association is due to John McVie; he is a member of the London Zoological Society and has a tattoo of the bird on his right forearm.
June - Reissued "Albatross" hits UK #2. Dave Walker is asked to leave the band, once again leaving the band as a five-piece.
September - The band begins a tour to promote the forthcoming
Mystery to Me album, and Weston begins an affair with Fleetwood's wife Jenny Boyd.
October 15 -
Mystery to Me, also recorded at the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio is released. Welch's song "Hypnotized" becomes a radio staple and is covered by the Pointer Sisters in 1978.
October 23 - In Lincoln, Nebraska, Weston leaves the band after Fleetwood learns of the affair. Road manager John Cougar sacks Weston and puts sends him on a plane.
November 1 - Fleetwood Mac's manager Clifford Davis, furious at the group's decision to cut short the tour, tells Welch that he intends to form a new Fleetwood Mac to tour and asks Welch if he might be interested to take part in the new line-up. Welch calls the band at Benifolds and informs them of Davis's plan. Davis goes ahead and assembles a bogus band to fulfill the dates, which leads to a bitter year-long legal battle that almost killed the real Fleetwood Mac.
December -
Mystery to Me makes US #57.