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Old 05-06-2014, 05:28 PM
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Default Don’t Stop Thinking About Fleetwood Mac Landmarks (Photo Essay)

Don’t Stop Thinking About Fleetwood Mac Landmarks (Photo Essay)

Written by: Chris Epting
fleetwood mac band 2014

In the wake of Fleetwood Mac’s big news that keyboardist/vocalist Christine McVie would be rejoining the band, we took a look at some important West Coast landmarks closely tied to Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood and the rest of the band.

Carousel Ballroom - 10 South Van Ness Avenue - San Francisco

carousel

Soon after Fleetwood Mac made their live American debut here in June 1968, the Carousel Ballroom would become one of promoter Bill Graham‘s most famous venues, the Fillmore West. But this is where American audiences first got a live taste of Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, Mick Fleetwood, and John McVie, a London blues band that played a mix of original songs and blues standards.

Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel - Corner of Yucca Street and Grace Avenue - Hollywood, California

princess grace

In 1971, a pre-Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham version of Fleetwood Mac rolled into Hollywood, two weeks into their American tour. While staying at the Hawaiian Hotel, guitarist Jeremy Spencer went for a stroll to buy some newspapers at a bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard. He was approached by a member of a religious group called The Children of God and almost instantly fell under their spell. When the guitarist failed to show up for that evening’s gig, the police were contacted, and after five worry-filled days Spencer was traced to the Children of God headquarters at a warehouse in downtown L.A.

In order to get in to see Spencer, Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis had to make up a story about Jeremy’s wife, Fiona, being seriously ill. According to a Fleetwood Mac roadie who was at the scene, Spencer “was walking around in a daze like a zombie . . . he’d been brainwashed. It nearly killed me to see him.” His head had been shaved and he now answered to the biblical name “Jonathan.” In the course of a three-hour talk, (during which members of the cult rubbed Jeremy’s arms and chanted “Jesus loves you”), Spencer explained that he had tired of the hedonistic rock and roll lifestyle and that he was through with the group.

With six weeks left on the tour, Fleetwood Mac persuaded eccentric former guitarist Peter Green to fly in and finish the tour. Today, it is believed that Jeremy Spencer is still involved with the Children of God, and he is still playing and composing music. As for the Hawaiian Hotel, the building still exists, only now it’s the Princess Grace Apartments.

Arcadia High School - 80 Campus Drive - Arcadia, California

arcadia high school

This is where Stevie Nicks spent her sophomore and junior high school years. For her 16th birthday, her parents gave her a guitar it was while attending this high school that she would write her very first song.

She also sang in the schools a cappella choir.

Menlo-Atherton High School - 555 Middlefield Road Atherton, California

menlo atherton high edit

In the middle of her junior year in high school, Stevie Nicks transferred to Menlo-Atherton High School in Northern California. She met Lindsey Buckingham here and they formed the folk band Fritz Rabyne Memorial Band with friends, soon to re-named simply, Fritz.

Sound City - 15456 Cabrito Road - Van Nuys, California

soundcityba

In late 1974 when Mick Fleetwood was looking for a studio to record the next Fleetwood Mac album, he went to Sound City on a recommendation, liked the sound, and hired engineer Keith Olsen to produce and engineer the album. In the process of hearing a demonstration of that studio’s sound and Olsen’s production work, Fleetwood also stumbled upon two musicians who would soon become members of the band when Bob Welch departed.

Fleetwood came down to hear what the studio sounded like and Olsen put on a song called Frozen Love from the Buckingham Nicks album, which had been recorded there. Fleetwood decided to hire Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks based on the experience, and within two years the “new” Fleetwood Mac had the number one album in the country.

Click here to continue to Page 2!

- See more at: http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/20....oGS36nF3.dpuf


Continued from Page 1

Silver Spring, Maryland

silver spring
Photo: Edward Johnson
The inspiration for what has become one of Fleetwood Mac’s most beloved songs took place while the band was on tour in the mid-1970s, traveling through Maryland. Quoting Stevie Nicks, “I wrote Silver Springs about Lindsey. And we were in Maryland somewhere driving under a freeway sign that said Silver Spring, Maryland. And I loved the name … Silver Springs sounded like a pretty fabulous place to me. And, ‘You could be my silver springs…’, that’s just a whole symbolic thing of what you could have been to me.”



The Record Plant - Sausalito, California

record plant

Opened in 1972, a myriad of famous artists recorded in this famed redwood studio structure. In the mid-1970s is where Fleetwood Mac recorded much of the Rumours album, musically documenting a period in their career punctuated with excessive drug use and scandalous love affairs.

While the building still remains, it is no longer a recording studio.

The Village Recorder Studios - 1616 Butler Avenue - West Los Angeles, California

village studios

This former Masonic Temple (built in 1922) has played host to some of rock and roll’s most important recordings, including the Rolling Stones’ Goat’s Head Soup, Eric Clapton’s After Midnight(as well as his Grammy Award-winning Tears in Heaven,) most Steely Dan records (including Aja) and works by Rikki Lee Jones, Bob Dylan, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and many more. It was also here in 1978 that Studio D was famously renovated for Fleetwood Mac’s legendary recording of Tusk.

Dodger Stadium - Los Angeles

To help promote their Tusk album, Fleetwood Mac shot a video here, the famous home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Bass player John McVie was in Tahiti at the time and is represented in the video by a life-size cardboard cutout of himself.



Mojave Desert - For What It’s Worth

el mirage lake

The music video for For What It’s Worth from the Stevie Nicks’ album In Your Dreams features Stevie, Michael Campbell, and Dave Stewart riding in a bus, travelling to El Mirage Lake, a dry lake bed in the Mojave Desert on the western edge of San Bernardino County.

It’s not far from where Fleetwood Mac shot the Hold Me video in 1982.

- See more at: http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/20....DkGNo3Ua.dpuf
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Old 05-07-2014, 12:56 AM
michelej1 michelej1 is offline
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I enjoyed looking at the photos.

Michele
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Old 05-07-2014, 12:00 PM
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Talking Cool pics!

I've been to San Francisco/Sausalito a couple of times now and STILL haven't gotten a pic in front of the Record Plant! Dummy me. Gotta do that sometime.
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Old 05-07-2014, 12:11 PM
jbrownsjr jbrownsjr is offline
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Really cool photos!
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