the Peter/Chris/Danny/John/Mick Mac

[Mr Scarrott]

I've never seen any pictures of the version of the band that toured briefly after Jeremy left in 1971. Does anybody have any? I've always thought of this version of the Mac as the sixth incarnation but Pete Frame and others seem to relegate it to being part of the fifth, which as that included Jeremy doesn't make much sense to me...

Of course, this would mean that the Rumours incarnation would then be the 11th, unless you count Doug Graves as a member and it would be the 12th.... but I digress

Even better, are there any boots out there of Peter's brief return? I had thought that all they did were extended jams based on Black Magic Woman but I'm often wrong. There is something on youtube which claims to be of this period, but I have my doubts- see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17bqd4R9b7c for example. It's a great version of Tell me all the things you do, though.

[sharksfan2000]

Yes, the YouTube track you linked is most likely from the show stated there, Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino on 2/19/71. That was the first show with Peter Green and Nigel Watson with the band after Jeremy Spencer's departure. Spencer''s absence can be felt most clearly on the tracks we have from this show by Christine McVie taking over his vocal parts on "The Purple Dancer." "Station Man" and "Tell Me All The Things You Do" from this show first surfaced on the 1970s Merely A Portmanteau vinyl bootleg.

As far as I know, there are three partial shows that have turned up on bootlegs from the period of Peter Green's return to the band in early 1971:

Fleetwood Mac – San Bernardino, 2/19/71
Station Man
Get Like You Used To Be
Dragonfly
The Purple Dancer
I’d Rather Go Blind
Tell Me All The Things You Do

Fleetwood Mac – Fillmore East, New York City, 2/26/71
I’d Rather Go Blind
Jam
Station Man
Jam

Fleetwood Mac – Rock Pile, Long Island, 3/27/71
Jam

As with many bootlegs, the actual venues and dates are just what has been listed, and there's little way to tell if those are accurate, but they may well be correct. The sound quality of the San Bernardino tracks is pretty good, while the sound quality from the other two shows is as bad as it gets, nearly unlistenable.

As the San Bernardino show was Green's first during that tour, he stayed pretty much in the background and I'd assume the band played as much of their usual set as they could handle with respect to Spencer's sudden departure and with Green's and Watson's arrival very shortly before the show. From the bootlegs that have survived, it does look like they did more jamming later in the tour, though it was not strictly jamming. And it's really not that you're wrong about that - it's what has been written about those shows and handed down as fact, but these bootlegs show it was not the case.

In regard to your first question, I've never seen any photos of the band from this tour either, though you'd think some would exist.

[chiliD]

Originally Posted by Mr Scarrott

It's a great version of Tell me all the things you do, though.

Probably one of the easier tunes for Peter to pick up quickly...the jam at the end sounds eerily similar to the "Madges".

Considering the circumstances, that San Bernardino show sounds pretty good (the performance...the recording quality isn't all that great, however)

[sharksfan2000]

BTW, I think all of these performances may be on YouTube these days.

[Mr Scarrott]

Well, I'm more convinced now that those cuts on You Tube are from that first San Bernadino show. Peter's playing is very subtle in places- Dragonfly at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoip-Rnsm4s I like especially. The less said about Chris's vocals on Purple Dancer, the better, however! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etBRc_RUZx4)

[welcomechris]

This Comment Has Been Removed By It's User

[Wendy Welch]

Why does it say Peter, John, Mick and Chris in 71? Peter wasn't in the band then and Chris had just joined and Bob Welch was definitely in the band in "71. How many people want to act like he wasn't in the band from '71-75 and didn't write and sing half the songs on five albums, as well as play the guitar and sing backup on all of them, during that period?

[sharksfan2000]

Originally Posted by Wendy Welch

Why does it say Peter, John, Mick and Chris in 71? Peter wasn't in the band then and Chris had just joined and Bob Welch was definitely in the band in "71. How many people want to act like he wasn't in the band from '71-75 and didn't write and sing half the songs on five albums, as well as play the guitar and sing backup on all of them, during that period?

It's because we're discussing the period when Peter Green briefly rejoined the band in early 1971 to replace Jeremy Spencer after he left abruptly in the middle of their US tour. Peter finished the tour with the band and then left again, this time permanently. This all happened before Bob Welch joined the band. No one is trying to ignore Bob here, we're just talking about a period before he joined.

[SteveMacD]

Just read about the gold lamme suits that Bob saw when he walked in the door for the first time and then read what he saw in terms of individuals in the band. What we're talking about was really the end of the original Fleetwood Mac. It was the last of the original.

[Wendy Welch]

But Chris McVie just joined less than a year before Bob and Bob joined and was recorded in 1971

[dansven]

Originally Posted by Wendy Welch

But Chris McVie just joined less than a year before Bob and Bob joined and was recorded in 1971

Bob Welch was NOT with Fleetwood Mac during the brief period when Peter re-joined because Jeremy left. That was really the problem: They needed another player, and Bob Welch hadn't joined. Christine had joined the band at that point!! See the setlists, they even played "I'd Rather Go blind" with her on vocals.

The line-up was: Danny, Christine, John, Mick and Peter (+Nigel Watson).
Is that so hard to understand??

[Mr Scarrott]

Originally Posted by dansven

Is that so hard to understand??

You've made your point, but a little civility costs nothing.

[dansven]

Originally Posted by Mr Scarrott

You've made your point, but a little civility costs nothing.

Was it one question mark too much?

[sharksfan2000]

Perhaps a brief history lesson may be in order here (from elsewhere on this website):
http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/fwm/inde...d=38&Itemid=51

As 1971 opened, Fleetwood Mac was in its fifth incarnation. As luck would have it, however, it was not destined to last. In February, as Fleetwood Mac was in Los Angeles during another US tour, Jeremy Spencer walked out of his hotel room. Since he missed that night's gig, the crew went looking for him. By the time they found him, two days later, Jeremy's hair had been shorn and with glassy, brainwashed eyes announced that he had joined the Children Of God, one of L.A.'s many religious cults, and was quitting the band. Although clearly a shock to the band and its entourage at the time, this move was in fact long in coming. Never very comfortable in the new leadership role thrust upon him by Green's departure, Spencer, who'd been known to carry a bible sewn to the lining of his jacket, gradually began to lean more heavily on this aspect of his personality.

Green, ironically enough, was drafted to fill out the rest of the tour dates, but ardently declined to play any of the songs that made him (and the band) famous. The shows, as a consequence, consisted mostly of extended jamming, with Green allegedly ambling up to the microphones yelling "Yankee Bastards!" and laughing at the audience.

The only recorded work to come out of this incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, actually released a month after the Spencer departure, was the single "Dragonfly". Released only in Britain, it is Kirwan's (never a strong lyricist) sentimental ode to an insect. Better is the flip side, "The Purple Dancer", which features some strong guitar work from both Spencer and Kirwan, as well as each trading vocal segments.

Cut down to a foursome again by Jeremy Spencer's exodus, Fleetwood Mac for the first (and so far last) time held auditions for a replacement. After auditioning several guitarists, they decided on a Californian named Bob Welch.

Welch, a veteran of a number of unrecorded American soul and R'n'B groups, was hired not so much for his considerable guitar prowess, but because he got along so well with the rest of the band. Expecting to reel off the group's Greatest Hits, he was a bit flabbergasted when he learned that he had to provide original material as well for the next album.

The article continues, and there are details in it that we could quibble about, but on the whole it looks like it presents an accurate timeline of events in early 1971. Of course the "fifth incarnation" mentioned in the opening sentence was Spencer/Kirwan/Fleetwood/J. McVie/C. McVie.

[mzero]

Originally Posted by sharksfan2000

Perhaps a brief history lesson may be in order here (from elsewhere on this website)....
...The article continues, and there are details in it that we could quibble about, but on the whole it looks like it presents an accurate timeline of events in early 1971. Of course the "fifth incarnation" mentioned in the opening sentence was Spencer/Kirwan/Fleetwood/J. McVie/C. McVie.

thanks sf2k - a welcome history lesson or refresher as the case may be. i'd forgotten about yankee bastards!

who's got the pete frame family tree for fleetwood mac? those are excellent

z