[michelej1]

Peter Green
uncredited writer, Beat Instrumental, June 1970

'I felt I was doing nothing with my life because there was no challenge'

PETER GREEN, like many successful guitarists and singers, lives in the pleasant county of Surrey, but not in a sprawling mansion complete with private pheasant shoot, 16-track hi-fi doorbells, electric fence and all the other trappings required by the young businessman who has decided to enter the ranks of the landed gentry.

Along with his parents, Pete lives in a small but comfortable house in a quiet uninspiringly pleasant middleclass road in the south-west suburbs of the Metropolis. He doesn't have an elaborate chain of buck-passing secretaries and flunkeys to protect him from the harsh outside world: When I rang up, his old man answered the phone. 'Hang on a minute, would you', said Mr. Green senior. 'I'll get him for you. They're rehearsing at the moment. You can probably hear the row in the background, Peter! Phone!'

Pete occupies the back room, which he has filled with a hi-fi deck and tape, practice amps, drumkit, guitars, mikes, and a really impressive record collection ranging from Vaughan Williams to Fats Domino. Although he was due to go off to a gig later in the afternoon, Pete was only too willing to say what he plans to do with his life now that he has split from Fleetwood Mac. The one thing that emerges most strongly from talking with him is that, despite the suggestions of some people that he's lost it, he has kept his head far more than most who become so successful in such a short time.

There have been a number of slighting, sarcastic stories in the national and underground press about Superstar Green giving away all his bread, man, and going into a monastery to get it all together, man. The monastery story seems to have sprung form the fact that Pete spent a time on a commune in Germany with some friends back in the spring, getting himself some peace and quiet. The money episode has also been a little distorted: 'I am definitely leaving the group,' said Peter, 'and I have started to give away some bread. I'm giving away the money I don't need and which I'll never use. As long as I've got the instruments and equipment I need as a musician, I don't need any flash houses and cars.

'For instance, I'd really like an A.C. Cobra. I think they're fantastic cars, but I'm not going to get one. If I had one I wouldn't be able to freak every time a Cobra goes by!'

In fact, the money issue has assumed more importance than it deserves, for giving money away is by no means the only thing on Peter Green's mind. It is part of a wider attitude about what he wants to do with his life and how he can help to make the world a rather better place than it is at the moment.

Basically, Peter also has plans. 'I want to play a lot...jam a lot with people whether in public or at home. I used to be a respected musician and I want to pick up some of that again. I just want to carry on entertaining the good people and anyone else who wants to listen. I want to be free of the pressures that make you feel "Got to be good tonight because we are Fleetwood Mac and people have paid to come and hear us."

'Mainly, as I say, I want to jam and that is what I am doing. If anyone calls round here and suggests playing, then I'll go and play for the sake of enjoyment, and because I can get to know other people through playing with them. I played on the commune in Germany when I stayed there, and it was then that I found out how much I've changed, through playing personally for them. When the pressure is off it all just comes out naturally.'

Although he will be playing mainly for enjoyment, Peter still plans to play live and to continue making records. 'I am dubious about forming another group,' he said, 'but I'm going to do non-profit or free concerts, gigs where it costs next to nothing to get in. I want to work like that all the time, just entertaining.'

Peter, who has apparently thought of leaving the group before, has stayed on to record a last single with them and to complete the dates for which they had been booked. After that: 'I'm going to do an album of my own music, which will include one all-time song I've had for two years and a lot of very new things. I really want to just put down what I want to say on record.

Own studio

'One thing I would like is my own studio to work in, and I'm going to keep my Warner Reprise contract going. I should get enough money from writing royalties to stay alive and I have enquired about giving up my artist's royalties so the record could come out cheaper, but I've found out that it would make very little difference to the price in the shops, and it could get swallowed up by the retailers anyway.'

On top of this, Pete is giving his German friends on the commune, who appear to have had a profound effect on his thinking, a hand in organising a free concert in Munich. Peter believes that festivals are a good means of bringing people – 'the good people' as he calls them – together. 'The Isle of Wight Festival was a pure money-making event,' he said, 'but it was great because it was so peaceful, and there was this sense of everyone being together. It's a shame that it wasn't nonprofit making or that the profit couldn't have gone to something worthwhile – yes that could be the way to do festivals, couldn't it? If the money was going somewhere worthwhile, groups that can't afford to do all these free gigs would get paid O.K.'

And what does Peter think that Fleetwood Mac achieved, looking back over the past two years since their first album was released on Blue Horizon, when Fleetwood Mac were the idols of the blues purists who reacted so childishly when the group started playing some rock and roll, and getting records in the singles charts?

'I think that Fleetwood Mac were one of the most successful groups. They had three top singles and each one went higher than the last. That was good, because they were all songs we really liked and we just put them out as they were, with no attempts to make them more commercial or anything.

'We were successful both as a blues group and a singles group, but that isn't enough if you're not happy with it. I was feeling very frustrated and fed up with being successful. I felt I was doing nothing with my life, because there was no challenge.

'I think ‘Albatross’ was the most useful song we have ever recorded...the most useful for all time, because if you want Heaven on Earth, then you want to have heavenly music, and that was, I think. It was also good that people bought ‘Oh Well’. The second verse asks what you would do if you came face to face with God, and, having listened to that, perhaps people will think about it.'

Pete has certainly thought about this, and it his is belief in God that has led him to re-assess the direction of his life. Far from making his belief in eternal life an excuse for doing nothing on this earth, he sees it as his duty to do everything he can in this world. 'In my opinion the most admirable and best thing a man can do on this earth is to try and make an effort to be like Him – like God,' said Peter. 'Peace and love are the two most important qualities, and it's good when you see someone at least trying to follow that, making an effort. That's all I'm trying to do. That's the thing – to bring man to God and unite the two.'

This is why Pete decided to give away his excess money to an organisation helping to relieve starvation in underdeveloped countries. 'I had thought of putting the money where it would help educate the people in the underdeveloped countries, but I realised you can't educate people unless they've got food in their stomachs first.

'Giving the money away is a gesture, because I know the bit I'm giving won't do anything really, but I'd rather be without it and make that gesture.

'Five years ago I was just getting along in life, and like most people I just wanted a bit of fun, a bit of a laugh, you know? Because of work I didn't have the time to think of anything else. I was a butcher and then a French polisher and I didn't want to do any of that sort of thing, so I just forgot about everything and enjoyed myself. Now I have time to think I feel a strong communion with some force controlling my life. No one person can control my life.

'A lot of people are afraid to say it, but I feel I am guided by the Good Spirit, or God if you like.

'Everything is going too fast at the moment, but the most important thing is to care for one another. We are animals until we do that – and, let's face it, a lot of us still are.'

Although some will criticise him for being naive and for not just getting on and playing music instead of talking about God, there is no doubt that Peter Green is making his attempt to do something about problems he has seriously thought about, and to encourage the music lovers to do the same. 'Let's face it,' said Pete, 'we all want Peace. I can't see it all making out, because I think that's a dream world, but from there the possibilities are incredible, so the most important thing is to do all we can.

'It's not that I think my opinion is more important than anyone else's,' Pete added, obviously slightly worried about broadcasting his beliefs. 'Everyone should try and live by his own thoughts, but if we are going to have leaders, I'd rather have a John Lennon than a Lyndon Johnson. We need people who are for the people.'

'Oh, yes, by the way,' he asked, 'Will they put a picture in this article? I'd like that space to be taken up by words to get in what I've been saying. If you do use a picture, make it a small one.'