Love That Burns- A Chronical of Fleetwood Mac Volume 1 [Archive]

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FuzzyPlum

03-12-2017, 04:12 AM

Micks new book; Love That Burns
at £325 +p&p, that's £1 per page.

http://fleetwoodmacbook.com/

It looks very nice, but I'm not sure if there'll be many new, unseen pictures included.

lazy poker

03-12-2017, 05:45 AM

Micks new book; Love That Burns
at £325 +p&p, that's £1 per page.

http://fleetwoodmacbook.com/

It looks very nice, but I'm not sure if there'll be many new, unseen pictures included.
. . . yes indeed, it looks VERY nice, no doubt about that. but watch out for THIS , all you hard core f.m. aficionados:
the included 7" even boasts a musical holy grail to boost - at least that's what they make you think, as it reads "an exclusive 7" vinyl picture disc includes (...) a rare instrumental track, first recorded in February 1967, titled 'Fleetwood Mac' (...)."
WOW!!! what a stunning rarity! now this REALLY justifies a princely sum like that! do they really think they can fool the folks who spend the mere few bob on this tome??? but the end always justifies the means, doesn't it . . . OH WELL (to say it in greeny's own words)!
:distress: :( :mad:

aleuzzi

03-14-2017, 10:45 PM

There's a Heroes-era pic I never saw before.

ash1

03-15-2017, 01:06 PM

sharksfan2000

03-16-2017, 09:52 AM

or you could save a lot of money and read Love That Burns by our own Rich Orlando / Brooklyn Blue. Much cheaper and with the money you've saved you'll have a deeper understanding of the surviving musical work of Peter Green and be able to buy some spiffing cd cakes to allow you to burn off all those collectable radio sessions, concert tapes etc.. that Mick should be releasing on a Peter Green's Flacworld Meet download website :)

Thanks Mick, how about starting with the BBC master of that fabulous beyond words 1970 In Concert recording uncut. That's a scorcher.
Good suggestion, ash1!

And to clear up any potential confusion, Rich's book and Mick's book are indeed two entirely different books - just by coincidence they have very similar names (Rich's book is titled "A Love That Burns") and published around the same time. You can find Rich's e-book through the Smiling Corgi Press website (https://smilingcorgipress.com/), and you can also read his very illuminating blog posts there as well - for example, he recently posted a 3-part series on "All Over Again (I Got A Mind To Give Up Living)".

And for those who prefer a "real" book rather than the current e-book format of "A Love That Burns", I've heard that one is in the works. Apparently there's a lot of hassle involved in reformatting everything for this, but hopefully the paper-and-ink version will be available in a few months.

lazy poker

03-16-2017, 11:03 AM

And for those who prefer a "real" book rather than the current e-book format of "A Love That Burns", I've heard that one is in the works. Apparently there's a lot of hassle involved in reformatting everything for this, but hopefully the paper-and-ink version will be available in a few months.
that's good news! hopefully rich will announce the print version here on "the ledge" - i'm very much looking forward to it. :thumbsup:

THD

03-16-2017, 06:42 PM

be able to buy some spiffing cd cakes to allow you to burn off all those collectable radio sessions, concert tapes etc.. that Mick should be releasing on a Peter Green's Flacworld Meet download website :)

Thanks Mick, how about starting with the BBC master of that fabulous beyond words 1970 In Concert recording uncut. That's a scorcher.

Do you know if Mick still has the right to do this ash 1 ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3463157.stm

lazy poker

03-17-2017, 05:13 AM

Do you know if Mick still has the right to do this ash 1 ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/3463157.stm
very interesting case which i didn't know anything about - has anybody got a clue what became of it?

THD

03-17-2017, 06:22 AM

I've done some deeper research : they ultimately lost the case They then sued their lawyers for giving them bad advice !

So in answer to Ash 1 -it's no good lobbying Mick about the release of the In Concert material, you'll have to lobby the BBC and they would have to renegotiate with the artist ie Fleetwood Mac in this case ,and given the outcome of the court case I doubt Mick (out of pique )would agree (unless the law requiresit to be Fleetwood Mac, as they were at the time it was recorded , as a single entity ,that must agree ,in which case it may be irellevent what he thinks .)

http://www.musiclawupdates.com/?p=2146

Surprisingly it has been mentioned before here
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=39758

lazy poker

03-17-2017, 01:17 PM

I've done some deeper research : they ultimately lost the case They then sued their lawyers for giving them bad advice !

So in answer to Ash 1 -it's no good lobbying Mick about the release of the In Concert material, you'll have to lobby the BBC and they would have to renegotiate with the artist ie Fleetwood Mac in this case ,and given the outcome of the court case I doubt Mick (out of pique )would agree (unless the law requiresit to be Fleetwood Mac, as they were at the time it was recorded , as a single entity ,that must agree ,in which case it may be irellevent what he thinks .)

http://www.musiclawupdates.com/?p=2146
many thanks for your enlightenment, thd!
:thumbsup:

Surprisingly it has been mentioned before here
http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=39758
no wonder this got lost on me - the "post-rumours" section is not my playground, really.
:o

THD

03-17-2017, 06:38 PM

no wonder this got lost on me - the "post-rumours" section is not my playground, really.
:o

Nor mine Lazt P !

Interesting that by sueing and loosing they had to pay the BBC lawyers costs and that would make Mick's company bankrupt , so in desperation they blamed their own advisors (possibly correctly -who knows -although the judge didn't think so ). N
o wonder Mick has to keep touring !!

sharksfan2000

03-17-2017, 10:33 PM

Interesting that by suing and losing they had to pay the BBC lawyers costs and that would make Mick's company bankrupt , so in desperation they blamed their own advisors (possibly correctly -who knows -although the judge didn't think so ). No wonder Mick has to keep touring !!
And trying to sell £325 books! :)

THD

03-18-2017, 08:02 AM

And trying to sell £325 books! :)

Your not wrong there Sharksfan !

It did occur to me that the bass riff from the Chain(?)which is used for any promo or actual programme to do will Formula One motor racing (at least here in the UK ) must earn them a pretty penny (or do they give it all to Mc Vie ? or did Lynsey compose it and tell John what to play ??!!)

PS I hope the Chinese don't acquire a taste for Sharksfan soup !!

sharksfan2000

03-18-2017, 09:16 AM

PS I hope the Chinese don't acquire a taste for Sharksfan soup !!:lol: :lol: :lol:

Ench

03-18-2017, 09:38 AM

Your not wrong there Sharksfan !

It did occur to me that the bass riff from the Chain(?)which is used for any promo or actual programme to do will Formula One motor racing (at least here in the UK ) must earn them a pretty penny (or do they give it all to Mc Vie ? or did Lynsey compose it and tell John what to play ??!!)

PS I hope the Chinese don't acquire a taste for Sharksfan soup !!

I would expect that all the writers, i.e. the whole band, will receive equal payment for the use of the music. Whether that is fair or not, that's how royalties and shared credit work.

sharksfan2000

03-18-2017, 01:34 PM

I would expect that all the writers, i.e. the whole band, will receive equal payment for the use of the music. Whether that is fair or not, that's how royalties and shared credit work.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that's the way it would work at all in this case. Songwriting for Fleetwood Mac's songs are nearly all credited to individuals (Green, Spencer, Kirwan, songwriters whose work they covered - or whoever else may own the copyright to the songs), and not to the band as a whole. So those individuals get the songwriting royalties, which generally earn a bit more than any other form of royalties from music - this is why disputes over songwriting credits can be so contentious and have torn apart more than one band over the years. So for Fleetwood Mac, the band members would not receive equal payment by a long shot.

SisterNightroad

03-25-2017, 06:13 AM

Mick Fleetwood: ‘Peter Green is the reason there’s a Fleetwood Mac’
Fleetwood Mac are celebrating 50 years of making music. Mick Fleetwood discusses the line-up changes, the turbulent times, and the band’s plans for the future

Before being introduced to Mick Fleetwood on the top floor of a downtown hotel in Austin, Texas, I’m reminded by his publicist that the 70-year-old drummer’s new book focuses on the band’s early years (“Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac”, as it was sometimes known).
The band’s legendary period, though – which later involved Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks and led to the stone cold classics of Fleetwood Mac and Rumours – is difficult to ignore.
The band’s penchant for cocaine, LSD and in-house extramarital relations – along with the classic lineups with Green followed by Buckingham, Nicks, Fleetwood, and Christine and John McVie – has, for many, crystallised the band’s identity.
The day before we meet, Fleetwood has been to see Stevie Nicks perform at the Frank Irwin Centre in downtown Austin. “She was great,” he says. “She did a lot of storytelling and even told the crowd to prepare themselves because she was going to be talking a lot more than she’s normally allowed to in Fleetwood Mac.”
The band turns 50 this year, with no signs of giving up. The publication of Love That Burns, the first in what will surely be a series, in the same year is merely coincidence, says Fleetwood. “We’ve been working on an idea like this for a while now and it’s just luck that we finally got it together this year.”
Diehard fans only
This, though, is one for diehard fans only. The 300-page “collector’s item” costs £325 and is filled with previously unseen photos. Only 2,000 copies are being made, with Fleetwood signing each one.
The book begins as autobiography, with many pages devoted to Fleetwood’s upbringing, part of which was spent in Norway and Egypt on account of his father’s position in the RAF. Fleetwood’s father, himself a keen drummer, encouraged his son’s interest in music, and, when he was 15, his parents reluctantly agreed to let him drop out of school to focus on music professionally. In 1963 he moved in with his older sister in London and began playing anywhere and with whomever he could.

Peter could have been the stereotypical superstar guitar player and control freak, but that wasn’t his style. He named the band after the bass player and drummer, for Christ’s sake

The British blues explosion of the late 1960s was in full swing and Peter Green recruited Fleetwood to play with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. Green had replaced Eric Clapton on guitar and was the rising star of the scene. He decided it was time to go his own way, but not without first poaching Fleetwood and later bassist John McVie from Mayall’s lineup.
Forever shying away from the limelight, it was Green who suggested naming the band after the rhythm section. But this, according to the book, was just one example of his generosity as a musician.
“Peter could have been the stereotypical superstar guitar player and control freak,” Fleetwood says. “But that wasn’t his style. He named the band after the bass player and drummer, for Christ’s sake. He was also always willing to give as much space and creative freedom to other members, like guitarist Jeremy Spencer, and songwriter Danny Kirwan, at the expense of his own creativity.”

Sense of confidence
Fleetwood attributes a lot of credit to Green for instilling in him a sense of confidence in his playing. “I’ve never been a technical player. I’ve always had quite a light touch and Peter was the first person to ever say, that’s okay. He made me believe in my style of playing, which really suited the blues we were so into at that time anyway.”
Both Fleetwood and longtime bassist John McVie subscribe to the “less is more” school of thought for drums and bass. “The rhythm section is there to serve,” he says. “John and I have always felt very strongly about that. It’s not about showing off. We’re there to support the front line so they can bounce around all over the place while we keep it cool.”
Major successes with songs such as Black Magic Woman, Albatross, Man of the World and Oh Well meant that by 1969 the band was enjoying significant success in the UK and on mainland Europe under Green’s tutelage. However, the lead singer and songwriter wasn’t that enamoured by the spotlight.
“It’s already public knowledge that he was taking a lot of acid and mescaline around the same time his illness began manifesting itself more and more,” says Fleetwood. “We were oblivious as to what schizophrenia was back in those days but we knew something was amiss.”
Hearing voices
Green began hearing voices and became increasingly paranoid.
“We might not have known it then but you can clearly hear his anguish in the lyrics of later songs such as The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown).”
When Green announced his decision to leave the band in 1970, the others were understandably devastated.

I’ve always believed you should accept musicians for what they are. That’s why Fleetwood Mac became so many different things over the years.

“When the unexpected happens you either run for the hills or, if you’ve got your head screwed on, you work with what you have left. There was definitely an element of fear and sadness when Peter left but also the realisation that we had to get our **** together or else we’d all be f**ked.”
Without Green, though, there would of course never have been a band at all. “For his legacy I think it’s important we remember that Fleetwood Mac was, first and foremost, a blues band. We all played and loved blues. And long after Peter left, we went to Chess Records in Chicago where we recorded with Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy. Can you imagine how that made us feel? Such an incredible experience could not have happened without Peter because, even though he wasn’t with us, the reason there’s a Fleetwood Mac at all is because of him.”
Peter Green continued making music after leaving Fleetwood Mac, initially with his old bandmate John Mayall. Over the years he recorded sessions with a variety of musicians, including BB King in 1972. While mental illness and drug abuse made it difficult for Green to stay focused on music, in the late 1990s he formed the Peter Green Splinter Group which went on to release nine albums between 1997 and 2004. In 1998 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Tragic figure
It clearly irks Fleetwood that many incorrectly assume Green is seen as some tragic figure, 20 feet from stardom before the rug was ripped from under him. The reality for Fleetwood is that he was lucky enough to experience fame and success twice with the same band. “People still say to me, ‘Isn’t it sad how Green started the band but didn’t enjoy get to enjoy its success?’ That’s not true. It may have been a different world to what we enjoy now but we all discovered what success felt like back in the 1960s. We had number one hits in England and across Europe and Peter, while maybe not necessarily enjoying his new-found fame, certainly experienced it.”
Green’s departure left a significant vacuum in the band, leading both Fleetwood and McVie to take refuge in family life. It was here they discovered the answer to their problems had been right in front of them all along. McVie’s wife Christine had given up her music career to marry him, having previously been a well-known musician in her own right. She joined Fleetwood Mac two days before they embarked on a US tour, and the rest is history.

The story of Fleetwood Mac isn’t over but, without getting too serious, I am 70 years old. This can’t go on forever

While the direction the music took following the departure of Green might suggest otherwise, the group’s founding father still managed to leave an unconventional yet lasting impact on the approach Fleetwood and co took in terms of bringing on new members.
“Some bands, like AC/DC, have lost members and replaced them with someone who is almost a duplicate of their predecessor,” says Fleetwood. “Perhaps because I’m not a writer or lead player myself, I’ve always believed you should accept musicians for what they are. That’s why Fleetwood Mac became so many different things over the years.”
Glimpses of genius
Fleetwood says he could see glimpses of the same genius Peter Green had when he first saw Lindsey Buckingham perform.
“They had the same essence but with very different forms of expression. In both I recognised that quality in artists who have mastered their instrument to such an extent that they begin to create a sound unique only to them.
“Peter was a very generous musician who was always willing to take a step back and let others realise their own creative vision. I have always believed in this approach and try to have faith in the artistic vision of any new musicians and writers I work with. This is what has allowed Fleetwood Mac to become so many different things.”
After several years of infighting, Christine McVie’s decision to rejoin in 2014 after quitting in 1998 was met with jubilation by the band’s fans around the world. The full five-piece outfit, most of whom are now in their 60s and 70s, were on the road for the first time in 16 years. Their On With The Show world tour in 2014-2015 was a commercial and critical hit, making just under $200 million.

Scheduled to tour
The band are scheduled to tour again in 2018, and Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham are working on a new album, that also features Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, though it will not go out under the Fleetwood Mac name. In recent interviews, Nicks says she is reluctant to record another album.
“I don’t think we’ll do another record,” she told Rolling Stone. “If the music business were different, I might feel different. I don’t think there’s any reason to spend a year and an amazing amount of money on a record that, even if it has great things, isn’t going to sell.”
Mick Fleetwood is a little more sanguine. “The story of Fleetwood Mac isn’t over but, without getting too serious, I am 70 years old. This can’t go on forever, which is why I think it’s important to leave behind lovely things that chronicle those moments in life that one is most proud of.”
Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac Volume One 1967-1974 will be published by Genesis Publications in September. Copies can be pre-ordered. See genesis-publications.com

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/mick-fleetwood-peter-green-is-the-reason-there-s-a-fleetwood-mac-1.3020150

sharksfan2000

03-25-2017, 09:12 AM

It sounds more and more like this new book will be mostly an expanded version of the first portion of Mick's two autobiographical books. Really, what would lead us to believe it would be anything much more than that, just with some new photos tossed in? There are already 140-150 pages of text in each of those two books covering the pre-1975 versions of the band - not including photos - so based on that alone, I would not expect to see a whole lot more substance in this new book.

Not that I'd pay the equivalent of £325 for a book regardless, but even assuming there will eventually be a less-expensive non-deluxe edition (which may or may not be the case), I'd still have to be persuaded that it would be worth the money. Mick's books to date have been fine for what they are, but for comparison, the Fleetwood Mac portion of Dinky Dawson's "Life on the Road" is a far more entertaining read that includes greater detail on the band's early days. Now if we could only get Dinky to release more of those early soundboard recordings!

lazy poker

03-25-2017, 10:06 AM

Mick's books to date have been fine for what they are, but for comparison, the Fleetwood Mac portion of Dinky Dawson's "Life on the Road" is a far more entertaining read that includes greater detail on the band's early days.
agreed! :thumbsup:

Now if we could only get Dinky to release more of those early soundboard recordings!
oh, yeah - there MUST be more of that in existence, probably mouldering in some vaults!

lazy poker

03-25-2017, 10:17 AM

SisterNightroad

04-04-2017, 07:27 AM

LONG ROAD Fleetwood Mac’s Mick reveals pride over Scots roots but claims band dreaded drive to Scotland in clapped-out bus
The legendary drummer claimed the drive was like going to a different country

FLEETWOD MAC used to hate travelling to play gigs in Scotland when they were starting out — as they feared their tour van would BREAK DOWN.

The band’s legendary drummer Mick Fleetwood reveals the journey north of the border back in the late 60s almost felt like going abroad due to the distance they’d have to travel from their base in London.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/mac2.jpg
Mick, second from left, has been in the band since it formed half a century ago

And getting there when your mode of transport was a clapped-out rustbucket brought its own worries.

Mick, who is putting the finishing touches to a new tell-all book, says: “Back in the day it was always a schlep going to Scotland. It was like going to a different country.

“When we made the journey it was spent worrying if the van was going to break down because it was a long way.

“I get that it is not really that far but we felt, ‘S*** we’re going to Scotland’ — 350 miles seems like a long way when you are starting out.

“Going to Scotland felt like going abroad, like getting on the boat and going to Germany.”

Despite the travelling fears, the rocker says it was always worth the trek when they met the Scots fans — and Fleetwood Mac plan to return here as part of an upcoming farewell tour.

He says: “When we were starting out, there was always this wild enthusiasm.

“Off we would go and they were wild, wild audiences in Scotland. I think it is the nature of the culture.

“Also, we became aware that the Scots are so happy to see music come to them, even on a local level.

“They really appreciated that we were here and had come up from London.”

Mick also reveals how he discovered his own Scottish roots when his father — RAF Wing Commander John Joseph Kells Fleetwood — died and he went to deal with his estate.

Mick, who turns 69 in June, explains: “I found out much later in life that I have, on my mother’s side, Scots blood.

“I went down to my mother Biddy’s house after my father passed away and we were just hanging out.

“There was one of those moratoriums on, where they allow you to bring guns in and hand them in without being arrested.

“Mother said, ‘Oh, I think daddy had a service revolver’ in what she called the kids’ playroom down in Salisbury where she lived.

“I said, ‘Well, I think this would be a good time to hand it in, mum’.

“I went in the cupboard and his airforce service revolver and some ammunition was all wrapped up in a greasy, oily rag.

“I said, ‘Mum, this is in the kids’ room!’.”

Mick then found out his mum’s family had come to Britain during the Norman invasion before settling in Scotland as part of the ancient Kerr clan.

He adds: “It was while I was in the cupboard I saw this kilt and I said, ‘Mum, what’s with the kilt?’. She said, ‘It’s mine’. That was when I found out.

“There is a whole history with the ancient Kerrs and I have my kilt.”

But Mick reckons he should have twigged he was part-Scottish all along, having picked up fashion tips from former band-mate Sir Rod Stewart.

The pair played together in a group called Shotgun Express, before Fleetwood Mac formed and Sir Rod found fame with The Faces.

Mick says: “I should have known like my old bandmate Rod Stewart, who is a total advocate of his Scots roots.

“Any fashion sense of wanting to present myself well, I blame on him. Rod was immaculate back in the day.

“He was a star before he was a star. It also helped that he was whip smart with that great sense of humour.

“He was a real peacock. Rod would never help to load up the van if it was raining — it would ruin his hair.”

These days Mick can be seen strutting around the streets of Maui, Hawaii, where he now lives — decked out in the Kerr tartan.

And he has even added a Scottish flavour to the restaurant he owns on the island.

He says: “In Maui, I put my kilt on occasionally.

“As soon as I found out about my heritage, I said, ‘Mum, I want the kilt!’.

“We also have a bagpipe player at my restaurant and every night he pipes the evening in.”

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/mac91.jpg
Mick’s mum and dad on their wedding day

Mick’s new book about Fleetwood Mac — called Love That Burns: A Chronicle Of Fleetwood Mac Volume 1: 1967-1975 — will be published by Genesis in September.

The handcrafted books are limited to 2,000 copies and each is signed by Mick.

They cover his account of Fleetwood Mac’s early blues years and the musical legacy of the group’s uniquely talented founding member Peter Green, who quit the band after being diagnosed with schizophrenia in the 1970s.

Mick said: “The book is dedicated to Peter Green.

“There simply wouldn’t be a Fleetwood Mac without him.

“Love That Burns is my very favourite song that Peter recorded and sang.”

But he adds wistfully: “Peter is greatly changed because of his illness.”

On a more positive note, Mick is celebrating after the news that his former bandmate — Fleetwood Mac’s bass guitarist John McVie — is now clear of the colon cancer he was diagnosed with in 2013.

Mick says: “John is all good. It was a scare a couple of years back. He is very, very healthy.”

Rock icons’ 50 years and 100 million record sales

FLEETWOOD Mac formed in London in 1967 and went on to sell a whopping 100million records worldwide, making them one of the biggest bands of all time.

The group’s high point came in 1977 as their album Rumours sold 45million copies and spent 31 weeks at No1 in the US.

It is also the eight-highest selling album of all time.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/04/book-e1491259139189.jpg
Love that Burns

Fleetwood Mac have also been inducted into America’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and they received a Brit Award for their Outstanding Contribution to Music.

Mick Fleetwood is the only original member of the band in the current line-up, which has changed numerous times over the years due to fall-outs and relationship break-ups.

Now typically comprised of Fleetwood, Christine McVie and her ex-husband John, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac’s farewell tour is planned for next year.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/817773/fleetwood-macs-mick-reveals-pride-over-scots-roots-but-claims-band-dreaded-drive-to-scotland-in-clamped-out-bus/

THD

04-05-2017, 06:06 AM

"And long after Peter left, we went to Chess Records in Chicago where we recorded with Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy."
WOT???
:confused:

"Fleetwood says he could see glimpses of the same genius Peter Green had when he first saw Lindsey Buckingham perform."
so sorry, but again: WOT???
:eek:

And you can add the totally inaccurate account of the Lyceum Ballroom concert (London 1970 ) ,which Mick's first two books claim was with the Grateful Dead and was Peter's last concert wth Fleetwood Mac (Spencer Line up)!!!! Not hard to check and if it was incorrect in the first book it should have been amended in the second !

SisterNightroad

04-05-2017, 06:15 AM

lazy poker

04-05-2017, 10:39 AM

To be fair I think that the second instance is the writer's fault.
even if we agree on that . . . where mick detects "the same essence" in both players i still cannot see. and with all respect due to buckingham as a songsmith, singer and guitar player - to call his sound "unique" is greatly exaggerated. any comparison at all between buckingham and green is pretty unfair on both of 'em - they're simply two completely different kettle of fish, aren't they?! :distress:

SisterNightroad

07-21-2017, 03:46 PM

SisterNightroad

07-24-2017, 01:54 PM

SisterNightroad

07-25-2017, 04:08 PM

SisterNightroad

07-26-2017, 04:23 PM

SisterNightroad

07-31-2017, 02:09 PM

sharksfan2000

07-31-2017, 07:52 PM

What a shame that this book is priced so outrageously. As much as I'm sure I would enjoy it, there's no way I could justify spending £325 (nearly $430) for the less expensive of the two editions that are being released - the deluxe version is £495 (over $650!).

Maybe we'll see a "regular" edition of the book at some point, but if one is planned, it really should be made available at the same time as these limited editions. That's done all the time with music boxed sets that are available in various editions, for example - some people will want the most deluxe edition regardless of cost but most will be happy with a less expensive option. If a regular edition of the book appears later, I'm afraid many people will have paid a small fortune for one of these limited editions, believing that was their only chance to get a copy - that would not be fair to them. And if these super-expensive limited editions are the only ones that are ever published, then it really is a slap in the face of most Fleetwood Mac fans.

This seems like a wasted opportunity on Mick's part to spread the word about the band's early years. There must be loads of fans who know next to nothing about that period and might well be persuaded to buy a reasonably-priced book about it if Mick pitched it right, but they'll never pay the crazy prices for these limited editions - and there are only 2,000 copies being made anyway.

lazy poker

08-01-2017, 03:52 AM

lazy poker

08-01-2017, 04:21 AM

(. . .) And for those who prefer a "real" book rather than the current e-book format of "A Love That Burns", I've heard that one is in the works. Apparently there's a lot of hassle involved in reformatting everything for this, but hopefully the paper-and-ink version will be available in a few months.
any more new / detailed info on the possibility of a print version of rich's book? i'm still curious to know . . . !

sharksfan2000

08-01-2017, 08:43 AM

any more new / detailed info on the possibility of a print version of rich's book? i'm still curious to know . . . !
I know that Rich has been working on it - apparently the reformatting necessary for a print edition has been time-consuming. Hopefully it will be ready sometime this summer but we'll have to see how things work out.

lazy poker

08-01-2017, 02:43 PM

any more new / detailed info on the possibility of a print version of rich's book? i'm still curious to know . . . !

I know that Rich has been working on it - apparently the reformatting necessary for a print edition has been time-consuming. Hopefully it will be ready sometime this summer but we'll have to see how things work out.
thanks very much, sharky - please keep me posted when things are getting "serious" . . . !
:thumbsup:

SisterNightroad

08-02-2017, 05:55 AM

Too bad I hadn't seen this, it could have been interesting, has anyone watched it?

Watch Mick Fleetwood to Talk Fleetwood Mac History, New Book in Live Stream Chat
Drummer's discussion with 'Rolling Stone' contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis about 'A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One: 1967–1974' to air Tuesday night

Mick Fleetwood is joining Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis for a wide-ranging conversation about early Fleetwood Mac history – including the unique talents of original guitarist Peter Green, the band's first international tours, their wildest onstage moments and the friendships that propelled the pre-Rumours line-up to international fame.

Fans can livestream the discussion, currently taking place at New york City's 92nd Street Y, above. The chat promotes Fleetwood's upcoming book, Love that Burns – A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac Volume One: 1967-1974, which is available for pre-order via Genesis Publications in two formats: a deluxe edition (numbered one to 350) and collector edition (numbered 351 to 2,000).

Both versions include a seven-inch picture disc featuring "Love That Burns" and rare instrumental track "Fleetwood Mac," along with 400-plus rare photos, memorabilia and illustrations. The deluxe edition includes two prints, one signed by blues legend John Mayall and another by graphic designer Günther Kieser.

Previous pre-orders of Love That Burns included a free ticket to today's discussion, along with a commemorative bookplate signed by Fleetwood in person before he took the stage.

Fleetwood Mac recently headlined the all-star, bi-coastal Classic East and Classic West festivals. Two of the band's songwriters, Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie issued their first collaborative LP, in June.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/mick-fleetwood-to-talk-fleetwood-mac-history-in-live-stream-w495126

SisterNightroad

08-04-2017, 01:43 PM

sharksfan2000

08-04-2017, 09:12 PM

Wow, all these blurbs that Mick Fleetwood keeps posting on his Facebook page really make me want to plunk down $400+ on his book....NOT!!! :mad:

SisterNightroad

08-07-2017, 01:45 PM

SisterNightroad

08-10-2017, 03:00 PM

Mick Fleetwood Looks Back on Fleetwood Mac's Early Days
With release of new band history 'Love That Burns,' drummer reflects on group's blues origins and why he owes everything to Peter Green

http://img.wennermedia.com/article-leads-horizontal/mick-fleetwood-rehearsing-at-benifold-for-mystery-to-me-1973-michael-putland-54666ab3-b235-4dea-95db-50dcfa7c9bda.jpg
Ahead of 'Love That Burns,' a new book on Fleetwood Mac's early history, Mick Fleetwood discusses his relationship with Peter Green and more. Michael Putland

This Sunday, August 13th, marks the 50th anniversary of Fleetwood Mac. On that date in 1967, the band played their first ever show, alongside artists like Cream and Jeff Beck, at the Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival. But according to drummer Mick Fleetwood, even with their massive success in the years since, much of Fleetwood Mac's early history remains unknown to everyday fans, many of whom quite likely believe the band to have begun life in the mid-Seventies, with Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks at the helm. The drummer intends to shine a light on his band's oft-ignored formative years as a crack British blues outfit with a new book, Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One 1967–1974, due September 19th from Genesis Publications. "It's about giving kudos to the founding fathers of a very strange journey that Fleetwood Mac ended up taking over the course of all these years," he tells Rolling Stone.

Those founding fathers include the founding father of Fleetwood Mac, guitarist and vocalist Peter Green, who formed the band with Fleetwood (the initial lineup was rounded out by guitarist Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning; John McVie, the "Mac" in Fleetwood Mac, replaced Brunning not long after the Windsor gig) following a stint in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. They soon welcomed a third guitarist, Danny Kirwan, and achieved success in the U.K. with Green-penned songs like "Black Magic Woman," "Albatross" and "Oh Well." Over the next few years, the band cycled through members and musical styles; Green, Spencer and Kirwan each exited under unusual circumstances, among them psychological and emotional struggles exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse, while later members like guitarists Bob Welch and Bob Weston and keyboardist and vocalist Christine McVie – who remains with Mac to this day – came in and helped to lead the band down new sonic paths. In late 1974, Fleetwood and the McVies were joined by Buckingham and Nicks, which is the point at which Love That Burns concludes. "That's why it's called Volume One," Fleetwood says. "And hopefully there will be a Volume Two that will pick up from there. But I wanted this to be a separate story, because it is an important story in its own right."

In Love That Burns, this story is afforded a gorgeous presentation. Fleetwood's insightful and sometimes humorous first-person account of the band's origins is fleshed out by more than 400 stunning (and in some cases never-before-published) images, as well as intimate archival material and rare memorabilia. There are also additional recollections from those close to the band at the time, including John Mayall and early Mac members Jeremy Spencer, Christine McVie, John McVie and the rarely-heard-from Peter Green himself. It's all gathered together in an exquisitely produced large-format tome that is limited to just 2,000 copies, each one signed by Fleetwood himself. "A lot of care and a lot of love went into this, and I give kudos to Genesis for that," Fleetwood says. "They don't do it unless it's done right. And there aren't hundreds of thousands of these books that are going to be made. So it really is a labor of love that something like this gets to exist, and it also is great to know that this story can be told, and anybody who has an interest in it can now know about it.

"To me, selfishly, that was an important thing," Fleetwood continues. "Because you know, at some point in the next few years Fleetwood Mac will bonk it on the head. We probably won't be active. So there is some relevance to starting to tell this story. And this book, as with any type of chronicle, contains all of those potions of magic moments, of sad moments, all the moments that unfold when you're doing something like this. It's like going through an old family album. It's been a trip, and I'm so glad we've done it. And I hope we've done it beautifully."

With Love That Burns you clearly want to bring attention to the early history of Fleetwood Mac, a period that, at least in America, isn't very well known.
No doubt. I'm hoping this tells exactly that story, and that's why the book is dedicated to Peter Green, who started the band with me in 1967. He is the reason I'm here and the reason there is a band called Fleetwood Mac. So all of that is pregnant with having put this book together. And the hope is that someone who doesn't know that story will read about it here and they'll find it quite intriguing. And Genesis Publications, you know, they're certainly up there in that special area where there are only a few publishers that do books like this. In this day and age, it's sort of refreshing, to be quite candid. I almost don't know how any of that type of approach is even surviving anywhere on this planet right now, where it's all this "here today, gone tomorrow" mentality. What we've done is an art book, really.

There are so many spectacular photos in the book. Tracking down and sorting through all the images, and likely coming across many that you hadn't seen in a long time, if ever, must have been pretty intense.
Absolutely, 100 percent. And it was revealing. We tried to tell the story with pictures that mean a **** to the story of Fleetwood Mac, and I had to rein myself in so that I wasn't overloading the book with stuff that was only relevant to me. There are pictures in there that selfishly do tell a story to me, because I am sort of the maître d' of putting it together. And that makes it personal to an extent. But I had to watch out that I wasn't being too reactive on a personal level. But, yes, it was an extraordinary experience. There are things like the [1969] Chess recording sessions, where we found all these photographs that I hadn't seen before. I knew there was a few on our album, Blues Jam at Chess, but to get a hold of the original photographer and have him spew out all these images ...

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Fleetwood Mac recording 'Blues Jam at Chess Records' with Buddy Guy, David "Honeyboy" Edwards and Walter "Shakey" Horton, 1969.

Those photos are particularly striking.
We paid quite a lot of attention to that section. Because at the very beginning we were a bunch of kids that just loved playing blues, and we were blessed with being able to go to Chess. And that strongly resonates in those pictures. You know, I don't think about it every day, but to realize, there we were, Peter [Green], Jeremy [Spencer], Danny [Kirwan], John [McVie] and myself, with Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy and Shakey Horton and a bunch of other great dudes, that's a powerful ... that's probably the most powerful part of what I think this book is. For someone who knows nothing about this band it tells you a lot. It's like, "Wow, I never knew that!" But we were a blues band. This is what started Fleetwood Mac.

"Love That Burns" is a Fleetwood Mac song from the Peter Green era. Why did you choose to use it as the title of the book?
We came with different ideas for titles and I suddenly went, "'Love That Burns.' ..." It seemed so relevant to the whole story of Fleetwood Mac. It's a beautiful song that Peter sang and played and has always been one of my favorites. And when I spoke to Peter, I will never forget what he said to me. I don't talk to him every day, and his life took a turn that in a way took him out of my life, sadly. He's not the Peter that I originally knew. He's OK ... but he's not OK, you know? A bit of both. But we got on the phone, and one part of our conversation, I said to him, "We knew each other, we played with John Mayall, we played in a band before that. But, Peter, why did you ask me to be at your side playing drums ?" Because after John Mayall, Peter was almost forced to put a band together by a bunch of agent thugs. He was sort of told, "You're like the new Eric Clapton," or whatever all those corny phrases were. But he just wanted to go to Morocco and hang out like Brian Jones, you know? And of course that didn't happen. So he asked me to join him.

And probably somewhere in there I was thinking to myself, "Well, you had the chops and you could play the blues ... you were the man!" And it was nothing of the sort. After I'd asked the question, Peter said, "Yeah, you were really unhappy, Mick." He said, "Think about it. You'd just broken up with Jenny" – my first love, who I later married and had two lovely children with – "and you were so sad, Mick. And lost. I just thought you needed to do something." And of course, it was true! That, to me, is "Love That Burns," you know? It wasn't about the music. It was about, he was my friend. I thought that was really powerful and extremely moving.

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[I]Peter Green, 1969.

In addition to all the photos, there are some great first-person interviews and recollections in the book.
Absolutely. Think of me sitting with John Mayall. If it hadn't been for John Mayall, you go, "Wow, maybe none of this would have happened." You know, John [McVie], Peter and myself were all in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. And, by the way, people always assume that we all sort of left John Mayall to form Fleetwood Mac. It was nothing of the sort. I got fired from John Mayall's band for being too drunk and all that. John [McVie] stayed with John Mayall, and Peter formed with me the beginnings of Fleetwood Mac. Then John came with us, and Jeremy [Spencer] and later on Danny [Kirwan] came in. It's a fascinating story. And to sit there talking with John Mayall, and get his slant on what was happening ... it was like sitting with an old college mate or a childhood friend. When you get together you go, "Oh, my God! Of course! That's what happened!"

As the book touches on, Peter, Jeremy and Danny each exited Fleetwood Mac while dealing with mental and emotional issues. It must give you pause to have witnessed this happen with three vital band members. Do you ever wonder what might have caused this, or do you chalk it up to coincidence?
Well, I hope to God it is coincidence, or me and John [McVie] need to go to a church and get down on our knees and pray for forgiveness! But if you look at what happened later [with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham], which is not part of this book, that's pretty bizarre too, you know? The latter-day stories of Fleetwood Mac, that in truth continue to this day, you look at that and you think, "How the hell can any of this survive?" So I don't know how to address that other than that it's heartbreaking and you have to get over it. You have to let go of it. And so this book is about paying kudos to who these people are and not getting into the drama of what we're talking about now. I did not want that to be in there. And it's not in there. Rather, it's all about the special part of what everyone had to offer. But you're right, it has been a reminder of what happened. Talking to Danny [Kirwan]'s ex-wife ... you know, it's not a happy story for Danny. And there's nothing one can do about it. But I think it's even more of a reminder to pick your trousers up, brush yourself off and say, "But look at the amazing music Danny put together. Look at what he put into Fleetwood Mac." This guy was extraordinarily talented. So the hope was to celebrate all these players that have come through Fleetwood Mac. These are the founding fathers of this band.

Peter and Jeremy were both interviewed for the book, but Danny's voice is absent. Was there an attempt to reach out to him?
There was. And he ... his wife did it. Claire did it.

There has been talk over the years of a reunion of the original Fleetwood Mac. Is that something you still hold out hope might happen one day?
It's actually not. Mainly because I went there many years ago. We got into it and we were going to put a whole thing together at the [Royal] Albert Hall. This is years and years and years ago. Probably about 15 years ago. And right at the last minute, Peter, in the world that he lives in, just suddenly pulled out. "I don't wanna do it. ..." Suddenly it was not a good idea. And we had put a whole bunch of things together, I had even booked the venue. So I would never do that again. Because I don't want it to be a pressure, you know? Having said that, my dream with this book coming out, and I'm working really hard, is that there will be a lovely show where a few people that mean a damn can come out and pay quiet kudos and tribute to Peter. Maybe we could pull off a short tour in England, or something like that. That would be my dream.

As much as Love That Burns is a tribute to Peter, one thing that also comes across in the pages is how much reverence you have for another of your bandmates, John McVie. Which is illuminating, as we don't hear much from him or about him. He tends to stay in the shadows.
That's how he likes it [laughs].

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John McVie, 1970

You're giving him the recognition he doesn't seem to be so concerned with garnering for himself.
Very much so. He's my dearest friend. He's ... he's Johnny Mac. And you're right. He's very understated. But my hope is that John would celebrate all the things this book represents. Because it's his story, too. We've been there the whole time, for 50 years. John is my partner. And we huff and puff and do our thing, but I hope when he opens this book that he's really pleased with it. If this ends up on his desk in his office, not relegated to the dustbin, I'll be happy [laughs].

It's been 50 years since Fleetwood Mac began. Is it amazing to you to look back and realize it's lasted this long?
It is. And this book has become like an old friend, really, where it's triggered all sorts of things. I just turned 70, and during this process, it gave me huge pause about from whence I have come. It must, unless you're completely insensitive. And in truth I'm probably, as John would say, too much of a drama queen. Indulging in too much sort of Irish bursting into tears and stuff [laughs]. But I'm happy to be that person. And certainly, this book, I don't like to live in the past, but it's been really useful for me, and I am proud of the fact that there has been and is a band called Fleetwood Mac. Because at the beginning we were this funny bunch of English kids, amongst many others, that ostensibly had a love for a genre of music that really no one gave a **** about. And we were part of this group of bands that really had such a huge effect – certainly, at that point in time, a way bigger effect than us bunch. Bands like Eric [Clapton] and Cream, Led Zeppelin, the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones.

But this is our story. And the band changed so much. If you look at the Rolling Stones – and it's just a "for instance," no comparison – they're always the Rolling Stones. But if you look at Fleetwood Mac, it's like, "Wow, they did that? And then they became this?" It's a pretty unique story. It's not like the band stayed the same. The style changed. The people changed. Me and John have hung in there since the beginning, but it's a lot different. And Bob Welch, Bob Weston, all the others that were there, they're all mentioned in this book. And rightly so. They're all part of this story right up to when Stevie and Lindsey joined. And that's where the book cuts off. Because it's about what came before.

And you know, the ups and downs of any band, the good and the bad of it, that is not unique property for really anyone, when it comes down to it. But the actual variety of what happened to Fleetwood Mac? That is quite unique. That is powerfully unique. And to know how that funny story started is what Love That Burns is all about.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/mick-fleetwood-on-fleetwood-mac-peter-green-love-that-burns-w495686

sharksfan2000

08-10-2017, 06:20 PM

Thanks for posting the Mick Fleetwood interview, SisterNightroad. :thumbsup:

I just wish that Mick would make his book available to more than a relative handful of folks wealthy enough to pay the $400+ for a copy. I have a few beautifully-produced photo books that cost in the $50-60 range - for something like this, that's a price I'd certainly pay. I'm sure that to bring down the cost to a more reasonable amount would involve some compromises in the book production/format from the limited edition being put on sale next month, but it would have the potential to reach far more people.

Mick stated in his interview "it also is great to know that this story can be told, and anybody who has an interest in it can now know about it" but that's not true, is it? Only that select 2,000 people who can afford this super-expensive book will know the full story that he's now telling. I still don't get it...

SisterNightroad

08-11-2017, 02:49 PM

SisterNightroad

08-11-2017, 02:58 PM

Wow, all these blurbs that Mick Fleetwood keeps posting on his Facebook page really make me want to plunk down $400+ on his book....NOT!!! :mad:

Thanks for posting the Mick Fleetwood interview, SisterNightroad. :thumbsup:

I just wish that Mick would make his book available to more than a relative handful of folks wealthy enough to pay the $400+ for a copy. I have a few beautifully-produced photo books that cost in the $50-60 range - for something like this, that's a price I'd certainly pay. I'm sure that to bring down the cost to a more reasonable amount would involve some compromises in the book production/format from the limited edition being put on sale next month, but it would have the potential to reach far more people.

Mick stated in his interview "it also is great to know that this story can be told, and anybody who has an interest in it can now know about it" but that's not true, is it? Only that select 2,000 people who can afford this super-expensive book will know the full story that he's now telling. I still don't get it...
You're welcome, and you're right, for once Mick's marketing strategies (well, those of the ones who work for him) are actually functional and it's a shame that they are for a project who concerns only a rather small portion of the FM fandom.
The fact is that Fleetwood Mac, unlike many other of their peers, still lack a definitive biography official and Mick's books may be the closest we'll ever have to it.

SisterNightroad

08-12-2017, 06:21 AM

SisterNightroad

08-13-2017, 05:34 AM

Mick Fleetwood on band's origin story and how they stayed together for 50 years

They've sold more than 100 million records since they first took the stage in Windsor, England, 50 years ago. Their sound has changed and so have the band members, but the chain has never been broken.

The iconic band, Fleetwood Mac, will celebrate its 50th anniversary Sunday.

"I always look at it - and look at that date, and that it's been worth a damn," said Mick Fleetwood, the band's drummer.

He's been there from the very beginning and recounts the early days of the band in his new book, "Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac," reports "CBS This Morning: Saturday" co-host Anthony Mason.

A story that almost took a very different course. Just two days after joining Fleetwood Mac, he got a phone call from Jeff Beck inviting him to join a band he was putting together.

The Jeff Beck Group would feature a young singer named Rod Stewart but instead, Fleetwood joined another band of blues musicians.

"We had been in a band called John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, John McVie, Peter Green and myself."

The name Fleetwood Mac came about incidentally, in the middle of a recording session.

They'd laid down an instrumental, their first unofficial track together, and the engineer asked, "What are we gonna put on the box?"

"Peter goes, 'Call it Fleetwood Mac. John and Mick are playing on it,'" Fleetwood said.

Green, a guitar god who'd replaced Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers, would write the band's first British hit, "Black Magic Woman."

"He had no interest in being a solo creature," Fleetwood said of Green. "He called the band Fleetwood Mac for a reason."

The first album was called "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" which, Fleetwood said, made Green furious. "He was asked, they said, 'Why would you call the band Fleetwood Mac? Why did you?' he said, 'Well I pretty much felt that one day I would leave and I wanted Mick and John to have a band,'" Fleetwood said.

In 1970, Green did leave.

"When we survived Peter leaving, in my mind – I would always go back to, I said, 'Well, that was the most devastating thing that ever happened to me,'" Fleetwood said. "For better or for worse and the outcome has been this weird survival story."

Their biggest album, 1977's "Rumours", which sold 40 million copies, was the soundtrack of the band's breakups.

Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham splitting with Stevie Nicks, bassist John McVie divorcing his keyboardist wife, Christine. Yet the band endured, reaching for what Fleetwood calls the elusive "It."

Asked why they stayed together, Fleetwood said, "Corny, but because they get a dose of it. They definitely get a mega dose of it, which is challenging, you know to be able to attain that with this gloriously dysfunctional story, which is us bunch."

And when they're together, Fleetwood Mac has always come first.

"And that's the only way to be in a band, you know. Or you gonna have no more."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fleetwood-mac-mick-fleetwood-on-bands-origin-new-book/

SisterNightroad

08-14-2017, 03:33 PM

Fleetwood Mac at 50: Mick Fleetwood Shares Tales of Blues and Friendship from the Iconic Band’s Early Days

For many, the story of Fleetwood Mac begins with the 1974 arrival of Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, the talented yet combustible American duo who ignited an explosive string of hits that continue to define the band. But Mick Fleetwood wants to move past those rumors. Fans of the group’s pop jewels would hardly recognize their original incarnation as one of the most respected British blues bands of the ’60s. Now the founding drummer is telling the tale of those formative years in Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One 1967–1974, a lavish new book by Genesis Publications due out Sept. 19. Featuring never-before-scene photos, insightful interviews from band members and intimates, and even a vinyl 7-inch of rare early recordings, it brings this often forgotten chapter of Fleetwood Mac’s history to life.

The band initially coalesced around Peter Green, a 20-year-old guitarist whose formidable chops had earned him Eric Clapton‘s former slot in the seminal London blues outfit John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. It was while playing with Mayall that he forged a musical alliance with Fleetwood and bassist John McVie. They ultimately splintered off to form a new project—which Green named in honor of his rhythm section. After experimenting in the studio, the group made their live debut on Aug. 13, 1967 at the Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival with the lineup of Green, Fleetwood, guitarist Jeremy Spencer, and bassist Bob Brunning. McVie, who was literally watching in the wings, would join for good soon after, as would a third guitarist, Danny Kirwan. From there, they began notching chart entries in the U.K. that include the original version of Santana’s “Black Magic Woman,” and the sublimely soulful instrumental “Albatross.”

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In what would become something of a recurring theme in their career, serious interpersonal problems soon threatened to tear the group apart from within. By the dawn of the ’70s, Green and Kirwan departed due to struggles with mental illness exacerbated by drug use, while Spencer parted ways with the group following a religious conversion. With the abdication of their primary creative forces, Fleetwood and McVie soldiered on with guitarists Bob Welch and Bob Weston, as well as the multi-talented Christine McVie, who happened to be married to the bassist. Fittingly, Love That Burns closes with an image of the El Carmen, a Mexican eatery in Los Angeles where Fleetwood and the McVies held an “audition” over dinner with Buckingham and Nicks.

But that’s a different book.

Fleetwood spoke to PEOPLE about those early days in the Swinging Sixties, reconnecting with his past, and the friendship that formed the heart and soul of one of the biggest bands in rock history.

Over the years you’ve become the unofficial archivist of the band. Was there a point when you made a conscious decision to hold onto things for the sake of history?

I held onto a chunk of stuff, though part of the story is that in truth it wasn’t as much as I thought. But the book company, Genesis, is hugely conversant with researching and finding stuff that maybe I had elements of, but not the negatives and all that. So we ended up with, in a way, upping the whole approach. These presentations are really a rarity when you get into the workings of how they come together; it’s a real piece of art in itself. All the care and attention and research became an education in how to take it a step further. “Well, we could do this, what if we do that? What if we find these people…”

If ever there’s a Volume Two, I’m very well prepared for that. I used to get ribbed even back in the day with the other band members. “What are you taking the pictures for, Fleetwood?” I’d go, “Hang on a sec!” They would just be snapshots of stuff, so I’ve done that. My father loved taking pictures so to that extent, I had something that was relevant. But we’ve ended up trying to tell a story about this strange band from whence we have come. And that starts with 1967, 50 years since we’ve done our first show at the Windsor Jazz Festival.

The book is a perfect way to mark the anniversary. Was that the intent all along?

The fact that we ended up doing it with Genesis is really a story in itself that goes back many, many years when I saw a book they did with George Harrison [1980’s I Me Mine] which was gorgeous and stunning and meaningful. It was a fantasy that one day….[laughs] Then it sort of went off the radar. But it came back a couple of years ago when I was in a shop in LA and I saw a book they had done with Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin [Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page]. We opened it up and said, “There it is! It’s them guys again!” We called the book company up and said, “Would you be interested?” And we’ve ended up here two years later.

It’s a document that is driven by pictorial images for the most part, with some editorial. I’ve done an autobiography and in many ways this gets to the point quicker. There are so many things that came out as images, you had to very selective in the end result. It has to then tell the story. And that’s what we’ve tried to do, and I’m really happy and proud. It’s a trip. It’s appropriate that it’s 50 years of Fleetwood Mac, but that wasn’t part of the plan. It just inadvertently … “Oh my God!” We just took our time doing it and realized, “Wow, it’s coming out when we’re 50 years old as a band.” So it became even more poignant and more relevant as a document.

This book is mostly focused on how we started, as it should be. But in terms of an incredible collage of different moments, and an unbelievable amount of different styles, with Bob Welch and Christine [McVie] joining and Jeremy [Spencer] and Danny [Kirwan] taking over when Peter [Green] left. It’s all featured in this book right up to the moment that Lindsay and Stevie [Nicks] joined. Me and John were always banging away there, which I think helped bring some kind of continuity to it, but it is an unusual story. I hope that someone picking this [book] up will go, “Wow, what was that? Kiln House? Never heard of it!” That’s an important part of this document, and I do consider it a document that is part of something before it might go off the radar. There’s no doubt, rightly so, that the present day incarnation of Fleetwood Mac is doubtless going to be remembered as, “That was Fleetwood Mac.” This is understandably never going to be that, but it’s nice to know that bits and pieces that might find this period interesting. I’m glad that I’m connecting to this document.

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[B]The start of the book reads almost like a Dickens story: you come to London at age 15 and immediately meet David Hockney and the Beatles, and have your hair cut by Vidal Sassoon. Was it as incredible at the time as it seems now?

Well, in a different way. Anyone who was in London then witnessed, and in some ways was involved in, a whole movement in fashion, music, and art that pushed away what the Second World War had done. It was real, and it’s still here. The tentacles of what happened were that powerful, especially in music. The game has not played out. Those guys like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are still relevant.

I blundered into being around the Beatles because I was going out with Jenny , and of course she was Pattie’s sister who was going out with George. All of that extra stuff became more relevant looking back. Now I go, “Wow!” At the time I thought, “Oh, this is cool …. Whatever.” I was just a struggling player.

But what was relevant then was this band of players that I was around, ostensibly the original four—and then five—members of Fleetwood Mac, with Danny [Kirwan] joining quite soon after we started. We were just ensconced and focused on what we were doing. We had no idea it was going to be attached to what was going on in London. It wasn’t very fashionable. It wasn’t pop music. We were living out our dream following our blues train down the rails, and then it became part of something very relevant. We were very authentic about what we were doing. You had trailblazers; the Rolling Stones came from that world, and very quickly morphed into skilled songwriters. The Yardbirds were before us bunch, too. We came and really emulated Elmore James and early Delta Blues stuff that reflected in those early recordings. And then we took our journey that was led by Peter Green with “Oh Well” and “Rattlesnake Shake,” and “Albatross,” and all the weird songs that came out of the period were all represented in our story.

[B]It’s funny when you think of everything to come, but I understand you weren’t a big fan when you first heard Peter play.

That’s one of my confessions, considering he’s my favorite guitar player and in many ways mentored me and gave me my self-worth as a player. I always say that I was a guy who happened to play drums versus “a drummer that found himself.” I just lucked out. When I first heard Peter, he auditioned for a band called the Peter B’s Looners with Peter Bardens, who was the guy who knocked on my door and started my journey as a drummer. He said, “I heard you playing in the garage!” It was like one of those fairy tales. The whole thing has been a bit like that.

It was me and Dave Ambrose, a great bass player who went on to play with Brian Auger. Me and Dave said, “He’s good, but he doesn’t play very much.” But Peter Bardens, to his great credit, said, “You’re both wrong. This guy has something unusual.” And very quickly we learned that we nearly made a terrible mistake. Anyone who listens to and enjoys Peter Green’s approach—not only the tone but also the approach and the power of condensing passion without just pissing it down the drain and over extending those moments—knows he was a master of the adage “less is more.”

In an interview in the book, John McVie talks of you cementing your friendship on a bumpy flight to London from Dublin during an early gig with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. What are your memories of that trip?

You are well-informed! Freesias! That’s a longstanding joke. Occasionally John will get a collage of freesias, the sweet-smelling flowers. On that flight, for some reason I turned up at that airport [with them]. I was thanking him for something and I said, “I have something for you.” And John’s very upright. Very different from me, I’m an old drama queen. He’s like, “I don’t understand how you can wear pink socks!” or whatever. I got into that a little bit, but he was very straightforward. So I turn up with the flowers and he’s like, “What’s all this about?” And it became this longstanding joke. So now from time to time he’ll get some freesias. And he gets it, hence him saying that. It was me reaching out.

He became very much a supportive [force]. When I first joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, I took over from a very, very, very talented drummer called Aynsley Dunbar. He was a genius drummer, like John Bonham. And I’m going, “I don’t understand why he’s moving on.” The reality was that he was so clever, it got to a point where he was too complicated to be playing [the blues] and John Mayall made the decision that he wanted to change. And Peter phoned me up and said, “I got you the gig in John Mayall’s.” I was painting walls at the time, and I’m going, “Why would you be getting rid of this genius drummer?” Aynsley had a huge following. In those days people would come and cheer, “Aynsley Dunbar!” “Mick Taylor!” “Eric Clapton!” “Peter Green!” It was hero-worshipping at these pubs and clubs where we used to play. It was a whole thing in London. We used to follow people and cheer for them.

So I’m suddenly there and not Aynsley. He did this incredible drum solo, and I couldn’t cut that sort of mustard at all. At one of my first gigs there were some hecklers in the back of this little theater saying, “Where’s Aynsley.” And I’ll always remember, John McVie came up to the mic, holding his Fender Jazz bass as if to say, “Any more of that s— and you’re going to get this wrapped around your neck!” I was always very grateful. John’s very not forward onstage, it was probably one of the few times he would come up to a microphone to say “Hello” or “Goodnight,” or anything. John is … John. But he went straight up to the mic and said, “If you don’t give this guy a f—ing chance…” and told them all to shut up. And they did! That was my first or second show I ever did with him. I remain grateful—hence he gets the flowers.

You mention Delta Blues and Elmore James forming the bedrock of the music you played with John Mayall and later with Peter Green in early Fleetwood Mac. What was it like having the opportunity to play in the actual Chess studios with people like Willie Dixon and Buddy Guy?

It was extreme. That’s a very powerful moment. Fleetwood Mac was playing with our heroes. It was much to the credit of Mike Vernon, of our little record label, Blue Horizon. He went to see all of these blues shows in England and, I suspect, knew Willie Dixon—or at least how to get to him—and he arranged that whole thing. “You mean we’re going to Chicago and making an album with all of these guys that Willie Dixon put together? What do you mean?! Oh wow, Chess Records!” We’d be like little kids listening to that stuff back in the day, even before Fleetwood Mac, so it was very important.

We paid some real attention to that moment in the book; I’m glad you brought that up. It amplifies the very nuts and bolts of what this was all about. We were a blues band, a bunch of kids that played the blues and aspired to as good as we could, and we were blessed as a band with Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. In the beginning, if you listen to Elmore James and put Jeremy on, he was Elmore James. He became not just a copyist, but he actually lived somehow that style of slide playing.

We didn’t get to play with Elmore, because he passed away, but on [sessions for] Blues Jam at Chess, there’s pictures in the book of little Jeremy, who’s five foot nothing with a huge guitar, with J.T. Brown, who was Elmore’s sax player. That is powerful stuff to see that. It was huge for the band, and that just amplifies what was going on. We were playing with our heroes. For Jeremy it was: “Elmore’s not here but I’m playing with J.T. Brown, doing an Elmore James song!” I remember J.T going, “God damn, this weird little guy! I’m closing my eyes and it’s like I’m back in my band!”

https://peopledotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/mick-fleetwood-3.jpg

I remember Peter went down to a place where, quite frankly, white folks didn’t go. Willie Dixon took him down to one of the blues clubs and Peter apparently got up and played, and everyone’s looking him down. There were no white folks in there, and I was told by one of our road managers who had gone down there that Peter cut the mustard. He was a magical, powerful player who resonated with people who were our heroes. So the whole trip to Chicago was extreme and certainly has a place in this book.

What kept you going when Peter left? Was there ever a point when you wondered if you should pack it in?

The first lesson was abject, extreme sadness. I just thought, “God, what are we going to do?” We rented a house from a friend of mine, which was Kiln House. It was a form of closing the ranks. We were very frightened. What was the formula for survival? I think, “We better close ranks or this is over.” Then that whole method of survival was probably repeated many times, which is why we’re still here. Part of the reason was always wanting to continue having a partnership with John and two or three other band members. So it was, “Let’s not throw this away. Let’s give this a go and see if we can keep going.” When you’re in a rhythm section and you don’t have someone to play with, what do you do? Play in your living room? And I’m not making light of it, but I’m giving a reason that I think was probably more important: “Let’s see if there’s a way to keep your job.” And that became a model that we never gave up.

We were very blessed along the journey with people who were part of the survival, which eventually led to a major, major chapter in Fleetwood Mac that everyone knows about. But they don’t know about the period in these pages to that extent—and they never will. Some people who aren’t here—Bob Welch isn’t here anymore—but there are people and moments that should be accoladed, and this book is part of it. Fifty years down the road, it’s a few pages that needed to be seen.

The book really gives its due to Peter Green, even down to the name The Love That Burns. How did you arrive at the title?

It’s one of Peter’s loveliest songs that he used to sing and it became very relevant. I see him when we go to England but we’re not connected. That’s a whole other story. This is about the music and what we were doing, not what happened to the people and all the blood and guts. But there was a moment, I did an interview with him [for the book] that went on about three hours, just so that Peter had a little bit of a voice. But I took license at one point and I asked him, “Why did you ask me to play drums?” He could have picked anybody. I knew him and we’d played together, but it wasn’t planned. Everyone thinks that the three of us dumped John Mayall and formed Fleetwood Mac. It was nothing of the sort. He was pressured into putting a band together and said, “Would you like to play?”

https://peopledotcom.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/mick-fleetwood-6.jpg

I said, “Well, why did you ask me?” One would imagine it was something like, “Well you’re a pretty good drummer…” but it was totally nothing to do with music at all. He said, “Don’t you remember? You were really sad. That’s when you broke up with Jenny.” I eventually married her later on, but I was devastated. He said, “You were so sad. You had nothing to do and you needed to pull your socks up.” The point being, that is the power of what is encompassed on and off through the whole history of Fleetwood Mac. It’s a mass of fear and loathing and love. [Afterwards] I burst into tears because it was so moving. He said, “I was your friend.” Later on, in a comedic way I say, “S—, I thought it was because maybe I was a halfway decent drummer!” [laughs] But there’s a lot of charm to that, hence the title made even more sense because the truth is, for better or for worse, that is still going on. And that’s a whole other story.

http://people.com/music/fleetwood-mac-50th-anniversary-mick-fleetwood-the-love-that-burns-book/

sharksfan2000

08-15-2017, 09:23 AM

Thanks for posting the people.com interview, SisterNightroad! Mick can give some very nice interviews such as this one - good to read.

Still hoping that someday a more affordable edition of Mick's upcoming book will be available...

SisterNightroad

08-15-2017, 03:21 PM

SisterNightroad

08-21-2017, 04:45 PM

SisterNightroad

09-03-2017, 06:10 AM

SisterNightroad

09-05-2017, 04:14 PM

SisterNightroad

09-09-2017, 07:15 AM

Mick Fleetwood only just discovered the secret reason he wound up in Fleetwood Mac
The drummer explains how his new book, "Love That Burns," revealed things even he didn't know about his past

Little known fact: Besides drumming for Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood is a prolific author. Over the years, he’s written three books about his time with the beloved rock band, including a 2014 autobiography, “Play On: Now, Then, and Fleetwood Mac.”

Fleetwood’s latest effort, “Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One: 1967–1974,” is slightly different: It’s a lavish, photo-heavy book that looks back at the group’s early days, when they were a scrappy blues band in England weathering an unsteady lineup and shifting musical trends.

Along with some incredible anecdotes — including photos of the band’s 1969 trip to Chess Records in Chicago, where they recorded with blues greats such as Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon — the book features short written remembrances from pivotal figures in the Fleetwood Mac universe: current members John McVie and Christine McVie, and former members Jeremy Spencer and Peter Green. Anchoring it all are Fleetwood’s memories and asides, which are full of wisdom, insightful observations and tenderness.

As far as takeaways from “Love That Burns,” Fleetwood wants readers to “really understand what motivated and started the band,” he says. “It was this whole love of playing music, for no other reason. We didn’t have any preconceived, ‘we’re going to be that type of band’ [notions] — we were just playing blues, which had no success formula attached to it at that point in time, at all. There [were] very few doing authentic, Chicago-based blues. You had Cream, and you had the Yardbirds. We were very true to the school, so our formula on paper was probably doomed.”

“But the irony was that it wasn’t,” he adds.

Fleetwood spoke with Salon in early August, during a packed two-day press blitz, about putting together “Love That Burns,” his thoughts on Fleetwood Mac turning 50 and the surprising thing he learned talking to his old friend Peter Green.

[B]As of this summer, you’re celebrating 50 years of Fleetwood Mac. Does it feel that long to you?

Well, that’s a loaded question, does it feel that long to you. [Laughs.] Not really. This whole putting together of [a book] — it’s like making an album. This is a pictorial with editorial, so it’s not like [what] I’ve done in the past couple of times, [which is] actually sit down and write an autobiography. It’s really about visual moments [that are] poignant, that you can then write and put together a road map. Once you look at the road map, at that point, I would say “Yeah, it’s a long journey.” But when you’re on it, you don’t stop to [think]. It’s like anything — just on a personal level, you go “Oh my God, where did all the time go?”

It is nice to know, when you’re going to make a chronicle, as we’ve done with the book, [that you] have these milestone and signposts that validate that part of a journey with specific things that you go, “I never realized at the time, but that was worthwhile. And that was really fun, and that’s why I play what I play, and that’s where I learned it, and that’s where I let go of it.” All of that has a real value.

We’ve done, as a band, a lot. And the main thing is, [we] survived the original idea that those four original members of Fleetwood Mac had, which was a really simple desire just to play music that we really loved to play. To that extent, we started off lucky. Some people play, but they’re not really playing what they want to play, necessarily. When I was in a pop band, I hated it. Right from the beginning, [in] our version of being in a cover band — which, in essence, we sort of were — we were covering things that we adulated, that we loved, which was all the early blues masters.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the photos of you guys recording in Chicago with Buddy Guy, and then seeing the photos from when Fleetwood Mac opened for B.B. King. That stuff is just incredible. The reverence that you all had, both as players and in the studio, really stood out. As a fan, I thought that was really cool.

Well, it is, and I’m happy that you picked up on that. But, again, if I was pushed into a corner and said, “What did the process of putting this lovely book together reveal? Was there one thing you wanted to [accomplish]?” — outside of the obvious, which is to pay kudos to the band members and how we started this whole thing way back [when] — having said that, the one thing that really does stick out, that does really endorse “How did all of this really start?” it’s really accolated in the reveal of those pictures, and the story of us being in Chicago at Chess Records. No one really knows about all of that, to any great extent.

In truth, I myself had not forgotten. But going through those pictures and really digging into the memories of that — and talking with [producer] Mike Vernon, who took us there from our record company and remembering the details, some of which are cited in the book, but also a whole myriad bumper bundle of information that hit me — and I go, “Oh my God. How amazing was that, that these funny little kids from England end up in Chicago?” And too [it’s] something that the general public that know Fleetwood Mac do not know about.

So any form of document or interview that you’re doing, you know, it is fair to say that you look for those things that you hope will be interesting for people to go, “Oh my God, I never knew that.” And that’s why we love hearing things. I’m still looking and hearing and being reminded and educated about things that went on [with] The Beatles and bands that I love, and loved. You find out stuff. So I’m really hoping that some of that, some real extent, exists. And I feel it does in this lovely book.

[The] blues jam at Chess was amazing, to be there with Buddy Guy and Otis Spann and Willie Dixon, who’s like the godfather of Chicago electric blues. The whole scene revolved around him. A lot of people that aren’t blues enthusiasts realize someone like Willie Dixon was such a major player. But even moreso, he wrote so many songs, for bands like Led Zeppelin and “Back Door Man.” He was our, like, godfather, holding our hand around that whole trip, and put all of those great people in the studio with us. One, you feel grateful; two, you realize that that’s what started. Enthusiasm was all about that music, and that’s how Fleetwood Mac started, with that music.

Photo-wise, how did you guys decide what did and didn’t go in the book? Obviously, there were probably things you didn’t know were even documented.

The whole project basically started about two years ago in terms of one, having Genesis [Publications] have the enthusiasm, and the care and getting behind telling a story that, for the most part, is quite a boutique part of Fleetwood Mac’s history. But I think it’s going to be really fascinating for a lot of people; we all hope so. It’s a process.

We were all beating bushes and emptying cupboards and realizing “Oh, I wonder if that photo assistant still knows the guy or his family? Is he still alive?” All these things kept sparking endless amounts of information. I have to say, my nephew, Kells Jesse, who’s worked on this whole project with me and kept it so focused in my world, and then working with Genesis [Publications]—they are the masters. If you are not aware, they have done so many incredible publications. That’s a whole that’s a story in itself, how masterful they are [at] getting things that you think don’t exist anymore. Five months later, they find the guy that might have had the pictures.

A lot of that came down to what tells a story. You know, the old slightly corny adage, every picture tells a story. Obviously, with a book like this, you do tend to look for things that are relevant, that can start telling the story and keeping the story focused on the history of the early incarnations of Fleetwood Mac. I have stashes of pictures I’ve got copies of now and inherited that didn’t make it into the book. The book would be the width of a double-decker bus otherwise. You end up being selective.

You often find — much like I’ve noticed on putting an album together, a musical album — sometimes you could have a song, which in this case would be a photograph, and go “No, I don’t know, it’s a bit out of focus.” Or you go “Maybe the song isn’t strong enough.” And for all intents and purposes to explain what I’m trying to explain, it becomes the ugly duckling and is discarded.

However, those items sometimes create a balance. And then when you go back into the archive, or back into the early songs when you’re trying to put an album together, you go “You know what, now that song, we didn’t notice how strong it was.” You know, because when it’s complemented in the middle of other songs, it’s a great balancing counterpart to it.

That was an interesting thing. Sometimes, I found something that was so important, personally, to me, that I had to be very careful. Otherwise, it would be [a] “I, I, I, me, me, me” thing — and I hope to God it doesn’t feel like that. But there were moments, a couple of pictures of me and Peter Green, where I go, “I remember that so vividly,” and I was able to speak to it. And what triggered it was just a picture of me and my friend. It wasn’t us in the studio, or us getting on a plane for the first time to go to America, and all of those things do exist in this book.

Those moments were, in many ways, on a personal level. And this is not all about my journey, but I am sort of Hamlet’s ghost in the background trying to tell the story on behalf of a band that I’ve been in since 1967. So it’s all been a trip and, in many ways, more poignant than sitting down with a pen and writing a book. It’s quite fascinating.

With your descriptions of what the other bandmates brought to Fleetwood Mac, their contributions and their talents, especially when you’re writing about Peter Green, there was such a tenderness to those words that really stood out to me.

It was. A personal thing, which I hope — and just even saying that, I’m realizing you get it — there would be no band without this chap, Peter Green. He was my friend, and remains so. But we’re not super connected, because his life literally took him away, and the way his life went — and that’s a whole another story.

One of the things that was devastatingly great and mind-blowing was when I was talking to Peter for a few hours, and we transcribed some of the things that were said during, really, nearly three hours of talking with him, which I don’t often do. Among thousands of other things, I did want to ask him — and I thought it was relevant for the book — I said “You know, back in the day, when this all came together, why did you ask me to be at your side playing drums?” In the band that he was forming, you know?

I became his right-hand man, and that story goes on through today, in truth. I didn’t preconceive anything. I thought that he would probably, maybe say “Well, I thought you were a really good drummer.” [Laughs.] And he didn’t — he said “Well, you were so sad. You were so sad, and you had broken up with Jenny and you were brokenhearted, and I thought you needed to do something. And that’s what made my mind up that you, out of the choice of . . . ” — maybe two or three people he’d been thinking of. One was an old buddy of his, who I knew.

He said, “I thought you needed it. You needed to pull yourself together.” And I thought that was such a loving statement. It had nothing to do with playing. He did it as a friend to pull me out of being, you know, blue. And that tied in with this title [of the book], in no uncertain terms. And the irony of the title is, if you jump forward thirty years, the whole legacy of this strange band, is all interwoven with love, really, and dysfunctional versions of it as well.

http://www.salon.com/2017/09/08/mick-fleetwood-love-that-burns-a-chronicle-of-fleetwood-mac-volume-one-1967-1974/

SisterNightroad

09-11-2017, 01:54 PM

SisterNightroad

09-18-2017, 12:07 PM

SisterNightroad

09-19-2017, 04:00 PM

Mick Fleetwood’s new Fleetwood Mac photo book and memoir, “Love that Burns,” arrives today

Genesis PublicationsMick Fleetwood‘s new limited-edition book, Love that Burns — A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac: Volume 1, 1967-1974, officially gets published today. As its title suggests, the book delves into the band’s early history, and is packed with rare photos, memorabilia and personal recollections from Fleetwood and many of the group’s other members.

Love That Burns‘ main focus is on Fleetwood Mac’s original lineup, led by blues-guitar virtuoso Peter Green. Although Green was the group’s main singer, guitarist and songwriter, Fleetwood tells ABC Radio Green shied away from the spotlight. Mick says this attitude is reflected by the fact that Peter chose to name the band after its rhythm section — Fleetwood and bassist John McVie — and was furious when the group’s label included his name in their debut album’s title, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac.

“He was the founding father that formed the spirit that continues through today,” Fleetwood maintains, “where everyone was always accepted for who they are, what they are, and bring what you have.”

The band’s name actually comes from a 1967 instrumental recording that Green, Fleetwood and McVie made while they were members of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. The trio recorded the track using studio time that Mayall gave Green as a birthday present. When the recording was done and Peter was asked what the tune’s name was, he said, “call it ‘Fleetwood Mac,’ ’cause John [McVie] and Mick are playing on it.”

That track and the 1968 Fleetwood Mac tune “Love That Burns” are included on a special seven-inch vinyl picture disc packaged with the new book.
Fleetwood will celebrate the book’s publication at a Q&A and meet-and-greet event at London’s Piccadilly Theatre on Tuesday, September 26.

For more details about Love that Burns, visit FleetwoodMacBook.com.

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/223436080?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/223436080">LOVE THAT BURNS: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, by Mick Fleetwood</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/genesispublications">Genesis Publications</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

http://rock107.com/mick-fleetwoods-new-fleetwood-mac-photo-book-and-memoir-love-that-burns-arrives-today/

SisterNightroad

09-21-2017, 01:47 PM

Mick Fleetwood Chats About Starting Fleetwood Mac: "It Was to Do With Pain"
The legendary drummer chronicles the first chapter of his band in Love That Burns.

Any music fan with a working knowledge of Fleetwood Mac can probably name at least five of the classic-rock titans’ hits: “Landslide,” “Rhiannon,” “The Chain,” “Dreams,” “You Make Loving Fun”—that is, the omnipresent radio fare that dominated airwaves in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, bolstered by Lindsey Buckingham’s guitar and Stevie Nicks’s and Christine McVie’s vocals. But that band was really the American sequel to Fleetwood Mac. Their origins trace back to 1967 and London’s mid-century blues explosion, with guitarist Peter Green at the helm and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, bassist Bob Brunning and percussionist Mick Fleetwood (the only member to survive every lineup change) at his side.

The newborn Fleetwood Mac played a well-crafted facsimile of Chicago blues, plus some faithful covers of its progenitors, mostly Elmore James and Howlin’ Wolf. The group’s lineup would famously turn over in the years ahead, with John McVie assuming bass duties and his then-wife, keyboardist Christine McVie, coming on board later. Once Buckingham and Nicks joined up in 1974, the California edition of Fleetwood Mac found overwhelming mainstream success with celebrated records like Rumours (1977), Tusk (1979) and Mirage (1982).

It’s too much to fit in one book, so Mick Fleetwood has essentially written Chapter 1 with Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, which came out Wednesday via Genesis Publications. It chronicles the band’s blues era via essays and photos, and pays homage to Green, who left the band in 1970 and has struggled off and on with mental illness in the decades since.

Paste caught up with Fleetwood, who turned 70 in June, for a conversation about his role in the formation of Fleetwood Mac, what Green said to convince him to join, and what’s kept him invested in the band after half a century.

Paste: What inspired you to discuss the genesis of the band in this way, and why did you choose to do it with the visual aspects of this book?

Mick Fleetwood: More than 20 years ago, I saw one of the lovely presentations of George Harrison’s original book. George used to be my brother-in-law, so that’s how I blundered into seeing the book. Beautiful, it was like a piece of art. The book itself started the original fantasy of, “One day, I’ll do that,” type of thing. It went off the radar, but that’s how they’re connected to this book. I wanted to do “Part 1,” or whatever you want to call it. I was totally unaware of the fact that, apart from the original members, in August, it’s 50 years [since Fleetwood Mac formed]. Totally not a part of why we were doing this. Now it’s hugely relevant.

And you intend to put out a second volume, is that right?

It has to be. That’s what’s so cool about this. Whether that happens or it [doesn’t], Genesis were super, super focused and cool with saying it, and that has real value just in it—If we never did another thing, this existed. Most people would say, “I want the whole thing.”

Why do just the band’s earliest days?

It’s too much information [otherwise]. Fleetwood Mac’s had so many incarnations and have delineated lines that are so clear, you go, “it should be done like this.” That’s what we did, and it’s been revealing. The title itself is a song that Peter [Green] used to sing.

And why choose Love That Burns for a title?

None of this would’ve happened without Peter. At all.

When the band took off commercially in the mid-’70s, did it feel strange that somebody who was your reason for being in Fleetwood Mac was no longer involved?

Someone else framed the question in a way that was very similar, but in truth, I’ve never been asked that before. You have to understand that when we started the band, very shortly after it, unbelievably quickly, the first album we made was a No. 1 album. The funny blues album we made, all the Elmore James stuff, that was Peter. Then he started writing even more stuff.

Peter’s experience was from nothing, although he had a great reputation as a guitar player already with John Mayall. A little earlier on, we were totally unknown. I worked with Peter in a small instrumental band. Then he joined John Mayall, took over from Eric [Clapton], and he became “the dude,” the gunslinger. He saw and experienced huge success from that early band, so it’s all relative. Not on the level of what you’re talking about, I get, but it is all relative. In our world and his world, we went from nothing to the biggest band in our world, which was Europe. The band was huge, and there was some joke—which I still think is a joke, but it actually was true—that there was a period where we were outselling The Beatles—which you go, “Well, who cares?” It wasn’t true—well, it sort of actually is true, but probably for about five days or something. Whatever it was, Peter wasn’t devoid of his own realization of huge success. The reality is that he didn’t want that, and it became his nightmare, so he certainly wouldn’t have been comfortable with the journey that we were later to take. With the dynamic of his personality, and what happened emotionally to him, which is truly another book. It’s touched on, but Love That Burns, the title, is about that.

You collected the essays in the book from different people in your orbit at that time, as well as from Peter. What was the process like when you reached out to him?

We spoke on the phone over a couple of hours, and we taped it all. It was very hard to listen to it, really. I was not dreading it, but I was going, “Oh my God, he’s like my mentor.” It’s like an ex-lover; it’s sort of more major [than other interviews].

So I get on the phone, and it was powerful. Some of his memories were unbelievably accurate, and at some I was going, “Wow, I never thought that.” He was almost forced to form a band, he didn’t really want to do it. He probably had agents going, “You gotta do this, you gotta do that!” So he asked me to do it with him, and I don’t remember even being asked, it just sort of happened. But in this phone conversation, when I asked him [why he decided to start a band], I thought it would be more of a musical thing. I don’t know what I was thinking. I wanted to know, “What was it that you reckoned that we put this band together?” And it had nothing to do with music at all. He said, “You were so sad and unhappy.” I had just broken up with my girlfriend, who he knew, Jenny , who I’d later marry. I burst into tears after the phone call. That’s Peter. He was concerned about that. The irony and the joke would be, if I hadn’t have been sad and ****ed up and unhappy, Fleetwood Mac would never have happened. [Laughs.] And that struck me as unbelievable. There wouldn’t have been a Fleetwood Mac if Jenny hadn’t [broken up with me]. So I phoned Jenny up, and I said, “Jenny, good job you left me, or none of this would’ve happened! Thank you!” It’s probably the truth. How about that? I found out all these years later [it] had nothing to do with, “Well you’re a pretty good drummer, and you’re my mate.” It was to do with pain.

[B]The best art often comes out of the worst pain.

It’s certainly the inception of what we were doing. It was a bunch of guys led, certainly at that point, majorly by Peter. I was the last in line to be a real blues player. John was so conversant, having played with John Mayall, and his whole life was playing blues. Peter, no wonder, he was wired to be blue. And later on, it really manifested in a way that wasn’t great for him, and there’s nothing more we can do about it.

So many members rotated in and out of Fleetwood Mac through the years. What was it that kept you there year after year?

Fear of losing a job! [Laughs.] No, it was my nature I think, and also what I had to do. It [would’ve been] a pretty lonely entity; you can’t exactly drum on your own, you know. By nature of the rhythm section, me and John go like, “****, we’re still here!” After you put the humor into it and say, “Well, you know, we needed someone to play with,” there’s sort of some truth to that: We don’t do what we do without other people. I don’t sit in a room and sing and write songs, that’s just the way it turned out. But as a team player, I’m “it.” I was wired to keep that around me, because I love it, need it, want it. It became a part of my expression.

When Peter left, we were all frightened. Really, it was a form of fear. But John, Jeremy, Danny and myself made Kiln House, that funny little album. Christine [McVie], who was now married to John, she watched us all and suddenly, after we made the album, we were like, “Would you like to join?” She didn’t even play on the album—I think she played one bit of piano, didn’t sing—but it was about holding together. My version of that was: When you’re a little fearful that the structure is falling apart, it’s human nature. You’ll even make friends with some of your enemies quickly, if the overview is saying, “You’re in trouble, you better start rowing the boat, or we’re all going to die.”

Did you ever feel like you were keeping at it for someone else, or was it always for you?

No, I think it was just my instinct not to give up. I do think it was a combination of how I was wired anyhow, and being a drummer and part of something Peter predetermined. He gave the name of the band to the rhythm section. All these things came out, and I found out a lot later, in an interview, I never knew, he said, “Well, I always thought that I would leave, but I wanted Mick and John to have the band.” This is him. It was almost like he knew what was going to happen.

Do you think that you’ll keep in contact with Peter more going forward?

No, I don’t think Peter is interested in that. I know when I go to England—I saw him on the last [Fleetwood Mac] tour, and he was happy enough to come. He came to two shows which, for him, was a lot. You can tell he has no interest. Lindsey [Buckingham], who has total respect for who Peter is, doesn’t know Peter, but knows of him through me and through John, had more than a couple at certain shows in London. Lindsey said, “Did you see Peter?” I said, “Yeah, I said hello to him.” I [used to] be like, “God, I just want Peter to say that he really enjoyed it, something.” We had played a great show, and Lindsey just said, in good humor, “I don’t know whether [Peter] liked it or not, he just talked about something that had nothing to do with anything, really.” But that’s Peter. He’s sort of disconnected from ego. That part was only really revisited after that phone call. I was realizing that Peter truly is not coming back from his particular change of life. It’s selfish, but I don’t have what I used to have, and I was re-reminded of all the withdrawals that we had as a band. The good graces of that was that it led to an ability to keep going.

I think the tragedy of losing [Peter] enabled me and my connection to this band. It’s not him we’re [following] with that ****ing flag; who’s picking the flag up again and going, “C’mon, we can do this?” It’s like that Monty Python skit where you go, “You ain’t got no legs! You’ve got nothing! C’mon, c’mon, get me!” And in the end you say, “I got no teeth, but I’ll gum you!” I think that I suffered from a bit of that. But in the end, who cares really? We are where we are. A lot of those sensibilities come from these days and all the changes.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/05/mick-fleetwood-if-i-hadnt-been-sad-****ed-up-and-u.html

jenniferuk

09-22-2017, 10:34 AM

^Thank you for taking the time to share this information. Reading about the phone conversation with Peter was a most welcome surprise...what an amazing gift he gave us. Interesting details there,and some new to me.

Lola

09-22-2017, 02:19 PM

lazy poker

09-22-2017, 02:29 PM

"i think (christine) played one bit of piano, didn’t sing" . . . well, mick, she certainly sang, at least on 'station man'.

Lola

09-22-2017, 02:31 PM

You were listening too☺️

lazy poker

09-22-2017, 04:46 PM

You were listening too☺️
no, i wasn't - it was just a reply to mick's interview in paste magazine (see above).

Lola

09-22-2017, 05:12 PM

Ha, ha could have fooled me-he repeated the same blurb about Christine's bit of piano

jbrownsjr

09-27-2017, 08:36 AM

You were listening too☺️

I caught the interview as well. I almost drove off the road when I heard, I'd Rather Go Blind. :laugh:

FuzzyPlum

09-27-2017, 11:51 AM

I just listened to an interview with Mick on Sirius xm. The show is called Music Masters on Deep Tracks channel. They advertised replays coming up this week but when I looked at the channel's website I didn't see any listed. They played Black Magic Woman from the Rock HOF, Christine's version of I'd Rather Go Blind, Hypnotized and Love That Burns. Mick said Chris was asked to go to America 3 days before they left and when they arrived they had 2 afternoon rehearsals and a longer sound check before their first show. Meg Griffin/interviewer didn't know Kiln house was a real place. She asked about Jewel Eyed Judy and Mick helping to write the song. He said it was really his wife who had a poem by the same name. He said Jeremy had trouble coming up with lyrics so Mick suggested the poem and Jeremy liked it. I wasn't aware of this but if this is old news please pardon me. Mick talked lovingly about Peter and how he lives in South End with a caretaker. I missed the first 20 minutes but still enjoyed listening

Hi Lola. Jewel Eyed Judy is one of my favourite Fleetwood Mac songs of all Fleetwood Mac bands.
Was Mick refering to Danny rather than Jeremy?
I was aware the Fleetwood credit was actually Jenny and I'm pretty sure the McVie credit should actually go to Christine. I was just wondering though- did Mick mean the song lyrics were entirely a poem by Jenny or do you think he meant just Danny took the title of the poem. If it was the entire poem then it sounds as if she could have had a career as a poet/lyricist.

SisterNightroad

09-27-2017, 12:27 PM

Mick Fleetwood Tonight on BBC Radio 2

Don’t miss Mick Fleetwood speaking to Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2 tonight at 8:00pm GMT. The 2-hour program will be available to listen to online, here.

Mick will be talking about his new memoir LOVE THAT BURNS covering Fleetwood Mac’s early days, their transformation from Blues band to global superstars, and the dynamics and relationships that made them one of the biggest bands in the world.

Celebrating 50 years since Fleetwood Mac’s debut, LOVE THAT BURNS* – A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One: 1967-’74 brings this chapter of the band’s history to life.

http://www.genesis-publications.com/News/mick-fleetwood-tonight-on-bbc-radio-2/2709

Lola

09-27-2017, 12:28 PM

Sorry if my post was a little confusing. We were driving and I was trying to take notes and use navigation at the same time. The way it sounded to me was the poem and the name Jewel Eyed Judy were used. Either Mick or the interviewer said it's about Judy Wong, which I knew. Mick talked about his first drum set not having any cases and his parents being so supportive of him..
I really want this book but the price!

FuzzyPlum

09-27-2017, 12:55 PM

SisterNightroad

09-27-2017, 01:43 PM

SisterNightroad

09-29-2017, 09:06 AM

SisterNightroad

09-29-2017, 12:12 PM

SisterNightroad

10-10-2017, 02:03 PM

Mick Fleetwood: why I left home at 16
Fleetwood Mac's self-taught drummer Mick Fleetwood recalls arriving in London at 16 and cutting his teeth on the blues. (Ovt. 10)

<iframe width="854" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5SqgF6b-giQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

http://www.swiowanewssource.com/youtube_1f3f0bb7-63a4-5e34-ac1b-dec4c6f4b3ad.html

SisterNightroad

10-12-2017, 07:33 AM

MICK FLEETWOOD SAYS ‘WITHOUT PETER GREEN, THERE WOULD BE NO FLEETWOOD MAC': EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Fleetwood Mac have been making music since 1967. That's a lot of history. Most people are familiar with only the multi-million-selling albums, like Fleetwood Mac and Rumours. As great as they are, those records are only part of the band's story.

Drummer Mick Fleetwood's new book, Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac Volume 1, 1967-1974, shifts the focus to those early years. Back then, he says they were just "four young chaps who loved playing blues." But there was much more to what Fleetwood Mac created with their original lineup of Fleetwood, guitarist Jeremy Spencer, bassist John McVie and the band's leader, guitarist Peter Green.

With its treasure trove of photos and text, Love That Burns tells the tale, following Fleetwood Mac through the mid '70s, just before the band had its breakthrough moment. Fleetwood talks about the book, his early inspirations and Fleetwood Mac's underrated early contributors in an exclusive interview with Ultimate Classic Rock.

Congratulations on the new book. It's a fascinating look at the early years of the band. What first inspired you to put this together?
Well, it's a long story really. The original inspiration probably came over 20 years ago when my ex-brother-in-law George [Harrison] showed me a beautiful book that he put together in collaboration with Genesis Books. At that point, I didn't know who they were. I said, 'This thing is beautiful,' and it was one of those things where you go, One day it would be a fantastic thing to do something like this. I made an approach to work with Genesis, then sort of got lost in the mire of what I was doing, then it went off radar, but I always remembered this incredible book. They take all this beautiful care. It's leather bound, and this that and the other. Then years and years later, about two and a half years ago, I was in L.A. and was walking around a shop and picked up a book that had a picture of Jimmy Page on the front, and lo and behold it was a Genesis book. I was with my nephew, and right then and there I turned around to him and said, 'Phone them up and see if they'd like to do a book on the original band.' So he cold-called Genesis and started a dialogue, and that's how we got to where we are. So I can blame it on George Harrison all those years ago.

The book truly is like a work of art.
Well, there you go. I remembered that, and Page's book was so beautiful as well. The great thing was, and more power to them as a book company, I understand they said 'We really want to do a book on Fleetwood Mac,' which would be the whole thing, but I really wanted to keep it focused on how this all started, and the fact that they saw the credence in all that was fairly remarkable in itself, when you look at why they might not want to do it. So we've ended up with this first chronicle of this period, which needs to survive and that's why I was sort of really pushing for that to happen in this way. There is going to be Volume Two, and that's going to be a labor of love putting that all together as well. Lo and behold, as the clock was ticking, we seriously didn't even realize that we were drifting into the date to celebrate the original incarnation of Fleetwood Mac's 50th birthday, which was not part of the plan at all. So that's how we got here.

That's wonderful. When most people think of Fleetwood Mac, they immediately zero in on the late-'70s era, but there is so much more to the band's story.
I'm just really happy with the document itself and its importance, which became more profound in terms of the 50th anniversary. I am really happy with the book, and it is guided by myself, but I'm hoping that the complexion of how this whole thing stands is not an 'I, me, me' thing at all. It's me paying kudos to what this was all about, and what started this strange creature called Fleetwood Mac on its journey, and if I have achieved that to some reasonable degree, I'm happy. So far people are, with much zeal, saying we are accomplishing that. I mean Peter [Green], just by the nature of the journey he took emotionally, and the way his life ended up being framed ... One, he has so little ego about any of this. He's not going to sit there and wave his own flag. Danny [Kirwin] is off the radar and not a very happy story there, and Bob Welch has passed away. You think some of this might be forgotten about, and I'm hoping this is at least a foot through the door to say, Hey, anyone who wants to find out about all this, it's relevant and I'm glad to have done it.

Have you always been the sort of archivist of the band? There are countless amazing photos in the book. Did you seek out a lot of the photos or were they in your collection?
Part and parcel of both things. I thought, in truth, I had more bases covered with a variety of stuff, but upon looking in endless boxes and in my barn and so forth, they either got lost or we didn't find. Having said that, I'm sort of glad that the outcome was what it was, thanks to Genesis, they are so talented with finding material, which they did. I'm actually happy that it happened differently than I thought it would, because the photographs that are personal, I knew where and what they were all about to help tell the story. The unknown photographs from shoots and from people that I did not know and was not familiar with actually spoke volumes for me and made it more of journey challenging me as to what was going on. That was more valuable than the whole load of pictures that I did know. I'm glad it happened like that, where at first I thought, Oh, my God, we’re failing to find all the pictures we need. It became a community of input, which seemed apropos. We've ended up with a really nice story telling about the first few incarnations of Fleetwood Mac. I write about it in the book, for obvious reasons, the lion's share of the book is dedicated to Peter Green. He started Fleetwood Mac, and I say very clearly without Peter, there would be no Fleetwood Mac, period, so let's get that straight. There are those who think that I formed Fleetwood Mac, well, I didn't. I was happy to be at Peter's side when Peter asked me to play drums. The rest is, of course, a long history of me being there since the beginning, and on and on we went!

So you left home at 15 to become a full-time musician. Who or what first inspired you to become a drummer?
We don't really know! A lot of people think my father was a drummer. My father was not a drummer, but he had, unbeknownst to me, messed around in the officer's mess on a drum kit. Dad was a tapper, getting a ruler or pencils and playing wine glasses with water in them at parties or tapping money in his pockets, playing spoons or something like that. That was really the sum of it. If that sort of spawned the attitude to go and be pipe dreaming about being a drummer, then so be it. I don't really know where it came from, but I used to sit around hitting furniture while Mum listened to the radiogram. So it started pretty early, probably when I was about 8. When I was at boarding school, all I wanted was to have a drum kit. I used to send away for catalogs. I would tape them all together and walk around school, an academic idiot, no smarts at all, but I had a nice big dossier of glistening drum kits. [Laughs]

Do you remember your first drum kit?
I do! My first drum kit was called a Gigster. It was almost like a toy. Gold sparkle, tiny, almost like a toy, but it was a drum kit I used to sit on the side of the sofa. There's a picture in the book of me playing that kit. Then I was off to the races, and never stopped. Then I left school when I was spot-on 15 and, at the time I was not even 16, I was on my way to London, then shortly after that a friend, who became a lifelong friend until he passed away, Peter Bardens [later of the band Camel], heard me banging around in my sister's garage in Notting Hill Gate. He lived in the same cul-de-sac, and he said, 'Hey, I heard you playing drums. I'm playing at a youth club and managing a band called the Fenders.' I'd never played with anybody, all I'd done was play at home to the radiogram and banged along to records. That's how it started. It was like a total dream come true. That's all touched on in the beginning of the book.

Each of the early incarnations of the band had its own identity, and the book shows how they connect. Over time, people would occasionally refer to the Peter Green era, but it seems only recently have more people begun to make note of the Bob Welch years.
Bob is very much an unsung hero in many ways, considering how many albums he made with Fleetwood Mac. His partnership, especially with Christine [McVie], they worked really well together. She never really worked very closely with Danny, the chemistry thing wasn't necessarily there, but with Bob it was, and he was a great mechanism. We basically went off to America. In Europe we took a dump really, after Peter left, somewhat understandably. Peter was simply such a powerful entity in those early days. So, we went off to America to somewhat lick our wounds, and we ended up staying there. There's no doubt Bob was a huge part of the survival of this crazy band.

What did you take away most from putting the book together?
For me, the whole book has been really enlightening, a regrouping from whence you have come in terms of the dynamic of what it means to me. Hopefully if John [McVie] picks up the book, he'll go, 'Yeah, I'm glad that's been done.' It's been an education on how we started, and what it was all about and I'm glad I've done it. The book is about celebrating the music that caused all of this. There's quite a drama, there is no doubt that the cause and effect of the journey has some collateral damage on some of the people, Peter being one of them. But this is the celebration of this period. I pretty much left out that whole sensibility, not because I'm hiding it, it's certainly known about, but I didn't want it to be that. I wanted it to be something that would really put a line in the sand and say this was about four young chaps who loved playing blues and started this whole thing.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/mick-fleetwood-interview-2017/

SisterNightroad

10-15-2017, 07:53 AM

Mick Fleetwood on the early days of Fleetwood Mac and why he's a terrible drummer

https://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/174B2/production/_98301459_66dbe1b0-b428-472c-9d30-e442b3527b7c.jpg

Mick Fleetwood is the backbone of the band that bears his name; the man who kept Fleetwood Mac rolling through the best and hardest of times.
In the early days he was their manager, hiring and firing musicians like a soft rock Alan Sugar.

By the late 70s, he was the bandage that stopped them falling apart amidst drug abuse, infidelity and betrayal.
And sitting behind his "back to front" drum kit, Fleetwood is the band's beating heart, constructing dozens of unforgettable rhythms - from the syncopated shuffle of Go Your Own Way, to the fidgety cowbell riff of Oh Well.
But surprisingly, the 70-year-old doesn't rate his own drumming.
"There's no discipline," he says. "I can't do the same thing every night."
Anyone who's listened to the deluxe edition of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk will know otherwise. There, you can hear multiple outtakes from the title track, with Fleetwood sitting doggedly on the song's distinctive groove for more than 25 minutes.
Still, he insists: "I am very not conformed, I change all the time."
The confession is prompted by a discussion about Fleetwood's lavish new picture book, Love That Burns, which chronicles his early career and the first incarnations of Fleetwood Mac.
It's being released 50 years after the band played their first show: A 20-minute set at the Windsor Jazz & Blues Festival alongside artists like Cream, Pink Floyd and Jeff Beck.
Back then, they were a hard-edged blues combo, working under the guidance of guitarist Peter Green - who, like Fleetwood and bassist John McVie, had previously played in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers.
Green called the group Fleetwood Mac "because I knew I was probably going to leave," he later recalled, adding: "I always wanted Mick and John to have a job."
In the late 60s, the band enjoyed hits with Albatross, Oh Well and Black Magic Woman (later covered by Santana) before the ominous The Green Manilishi presaged Green's descent into drug-induced psychosis.
It's a period of the band's history that's frequently overshadowed by their wildly-successful 70s incarnation, the one that produced Rumours and Tusk, and that's what Fleetwood hopes to in the new book.
"The other thing is so big and so famous that this [story] could just get swallowed up," he says, "I'm happy that at least there's something that says, 'Hey, this is how it all started.'"
As the story begins, the young Fleetwood is a three-town runaway from boarding school, who's been cut loose by his parents and is barrelling around London in a second-hand taxi, dropping in and out of blue bands as he learns his craft.
"In those days, if you had a drum kit that was worth something it was almost more important than if you were a half-way decent drummer," he laughs.
"So if you had the drums and the taxi it was like, 'Yeah, let's give him the gig!'"

'Monumental scolding'
One of his first paid jobs was with The Cheynes, who were hired as the backing band for visiting blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson when he played London's Marquee Club.
Unprepared for the star's tendency to improvise, the band completely lost their way and got a "monumental scolding" in front of the audience.
After bouncing between bands for a couple of years, Fleetwood ended up in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, replacing their previous drummer, Aynsley Dunbar.
"Aynsley is a brilliant drummer," says Fleetwood. "Technically, he's in a whole different league than I am, but he was probably getting a bit too clever.
"The band didn't want any more drum solos, so he was out and I was in - and I'm just Simple Simon, a rock and roll blues drummer."
That didn't go down well with the audience, however, who started chanting "Where's Aynsley?" every night.
"And I always remember in the early days, John came to my rescue and basically came to the microphone and told them to shut up."
It was a beginning of a beautiful friendship. Fleetwood and McVie not only gave their names to Fleetwood Mac, but they are the only constants in the band's ever-changing line-up.
In the book, Fleetwood says of McVie: "Musically, he helped me survive whenever I was drowning." And it is this comment that prompts the revelation about the drummer's supposed lack of skill.
"For a while, he thought he could train me into doing the same bass drum pattern every night but I couldn't... because of the way my mind works," he explains, "so John learned to push all his notes around what I do."
"It's become this weird thing. It's not really how a rhythm section should work. They're supposed to be doing exactly the same thing at the same time. I'm doing different stuff and he's falling in between the gaps."
After three years of success, Fleetwood Mac's future was jeopardised when Green quit, giving away most of his earnings in the process.
The guitarist's mental health deteriorated soon after, and he was eventually diagnosed with drug-induced schizophrenia, spending long periods in psychiatric hospitals and undergoing electroconvulsive therapy.
"I don't know why I left the group in the end," Green writes in Fleetwood's book. "I know that people looked at me like I was in a dream. I could tell that, even at the time."
Fleetwood describes Green's decline with tenderness and regret. It's clear he still feels responsible, in some way, for not spotting his illness sooner.
"I wish we had been better equipped," he tells me. "Maybe we could have seen something that could've helped - not to keep him in the band, but to help this person through the beginnings of a very emotional ride that, really, he's still on as we speak.
"It affected his life in a very dramatic way," he adds. "I don't think he was treated right for what turned out to be his illness, but he's healthy now and doing ok. I'm going to go and see him on Sunday, in fact."
After Green left, Fleetwood Mac floundered for a while, before recruiting John's wife Christine McVie - who was already a solo star in her own right.
She went on to write some of the band's most memorable songs - Songbird, Don't Stop, Over My Head - and remains part of the line-up today. But the band's fortunes really turned around in 1974, when they were joined by two young American singers, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
At this point Love That Burns draws to a close. Fleetwood says there are plans for a Volume Two, which promises to go behind-the-scenes on Rumours, the seventh best-selling studio album of all time, and one which was recorded as all five members' personal lives unravelled.
"That will be a big monster," laughs Fleetwood.
"I don't know when we're going to do it, but that story needs to be told."

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41597857

SisterNightroad

10-15-2017, 07:56 AM

New book heralds beginnings of Fleetwood Mac

LONDON - Mick Fleetwood was 16 when he left school, told his parents he wanted to pursue a career in rock 'n' roll and went to London in search of gigs.

A common tale, true, but this one has a happy ending. Fleetwood fell in with some talented blues enthusiasts, paid (barely) his dues and soared to stardom with the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, and then into the rock 'n' roll stratosphere with the second, more pop-oriented version of the band.
"School was not a good thing for me," said Fleetwood, dressed in classic British style, complete with a pocket watch on a chain. "I had a learning disability, no doubt, and no one understood what those things were. I was sort of drowning at school academically. My parents were like, 'Go and do it.' They were picking up on the fact that I had found something. They saw the one thing that I loved with a passion was teaching myself how to play drums at home. So they sent me off with a little drum kit to London, and the whole thing unfolded."

Fleetwood didn't really have to rebel, though rebellion was in the air, and he had the good fortune to make friends early with Peter Green, the supremely talented guitarist whose blues sound shaped the band's early years.

Green receives the lion's share of the credit, and the dedication, in Fleetwood's memoir of the band's formative period "Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One: 1967-1974." It has been published in a limited signed edition by Genesis Publications.

At 70, Fleetwood is anxious to acknowledge his debt to Green, who left the band in 1970.

Fleetwood and bassist John McVie later were joined by Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham for a new lineup that hit the jackpot with "Rumours," one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Fleetwood said the band's very name reflects Green's self-effacing approach.

"Peter was asked why did he call the band Fleetwood Mac," he said. "He said, 'Well, you know I thought maybe I'd move on at some point and I wanted Mick and John to have a band.' End of story, explaining how generous he was."

The photos and text of "Love That Burns" are really the celebration of an era, capturing the explosion of British music at a time when bands like the Who and the Beatles were vying for the top spots on the charts and competing with semi-forgotten bands like Freddie and the Dreamers, who actually got top billing over the Rolling Stones on a least one concert poster.

Once Fleetwood Mac made its name as a blues band, the group was able to go to Chicago's famous Chess Studios to record with some of the great American bluesmen, including a few of the pioneers who had helped perfect the driving Chicago sound.

Fleetwood remembers - with relief - that the long-haired crew of young Brits was able to at least play in the same room as Buddy Guy and Willie Dixon without sounding foolish.

"These are major, major players for anyone who knows anything about blues," Fleetwood says. "Having that take place, I don't know what they must have really thought with us funny little English kids walking into their world. I feel good about it to this day that we held our own dignity even with these guys."

He said the whole experience was "like going to their church and not just being in the congregation but actually doing our version of preaching with them."

While some fans swear the early Fleetwood Mac was better than the later, far more commercial version, Fleetwood knows the group is identified more with its string of hits, including Bill Clinton's favorite song, "Don't Stop," which earned the band a headlining gig at his inaugural celebration.

This is one reason the book focuses on the first band. Fleetwood doesn't want it to be forgotten.

"Even as we were doing it (the book), we realized that the band was 50 years old," he said. "So it's really about drawing a line in the sand to say that this happened and what caused this. And it's generally fair to say, especially in the United States, this section of the formation of Fleetwood Mac is not really known about."

http://www.readingeagle.com/life/article/new-book-heralds-beginnings-of-fleetwood-mac

SisterNightroad

11-01-2017, 09:42 AM

MICK FLEETWOOD: PETER GREEN HIRED ME BECAUSE HE FELT SORRY FOR ME

Mick Fleetwood recently discovered that he got his job with Fleetwood Mac only because Peter Green felt sorry for him in the aftermath of his split with girlfriend Jenny Boyd, whom he later married.

The story of his audition emerged while Fleetwood was interviewing founding guitarist Green for Fleetwood's new book Love That Burns: A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, 1967-1974. “I thought he was going to say, ‘Well, I thought you were a pretty good drummer,’” Fleetwood told Classic Rock. “But he said: ‘You’d just broken up with Jenny and you were devastated, and I just thought you needed to do something. That’s why I asked you to join the band, because I just wanted you to get back on your feet.’

“How amazing was that? It really had nothing to do with whether I was a halfway decent drummer or not, it was just because he loved me and didn’t want to see me in pain.”

Fleetwood said Green named the band in a gesture of “friendship" for their relationship. "Someone asked him why did he call the band Fleetwood Mac?" Fleetwood recalled. "And he said, ‘Well, in truth, I thought at some time I’d probably move on, and I wanted John [McVie] and Mick to have something after I left.”

Crediting Green with giving him confidence as a musician, Fleetwood noted, “I play from the heart. I don’t know what I’m doing half the time. And he told me, ‘Mick, you’re okay, just play.’ Peter was the consummate team player.”

Green left Fleetwood Mac in 1970. In a separate interview with Rolling Stone Australia, Fleetwood insisted that a planned 2018 group tour won’t be billed as a farewell. “Everyone in the band has decided it’s not," he said. "Phil Collins called his tour ‘I’m Not Dead Yet.’ Well, we’re not dead yet, but God forbid, we might be, so you could say, ‘I better go see them!’ But you won’t see a poster calling this a farewell tour.”

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/mick-fleetwood-peter-green-hire/

SisterNightroad

11-24-2017, 03:22 PM

Going his own way
Mick Fleetwood has spent most of his life keeping the world’s most successful band together.

Mick Fleetwood has been walking around Carnaby Street, feeling a little — not nostalgic, exactly; he bats the suggestion away — but re-energised, vindicated. It was here in central London that, aged 17, he got his first job, working the phones at British department store Liberty, gleaning fashion ideas, dreaming of a rock ’n’ roll future, earning a princely £4 a week.

Squint, and the rangy old roue sitting opposite me in this boutique hotel, a former courthouse a few loping strides from where Liberty still stands, doesn’t look to have changed very much in the intervening five decades. He’s still a straight-backed 1.98m. His clothes still scream Swinging Sixties: paisley shirt, black jeans and red desert boots, gold medallion, gold earring and big gold rings on the knuckles of both hands. The teenage Mick might not have had the bling — or the neat grey beard and ponytail — but he had the drive to go out and get it.

“I couldn’t wait to bounce out of school, being an academic no-good,” says Fleetwood, 70, in silky tones befitting his long-ago posh boarding facility in Gloucester, southwest England. “I was a schemer, and London was where it was at. It was this pocket of naive thinking, this creative roll, this attitude, where nothing was questioned. I mean, why do these things happen?” He lets the question hang in the air.

A founding member of one of the most enduring and successful bands of the past 50 years, Fleetwood loves to talk, which is good news for ticket holders to his coming appearances in Sydney and Melbourne to launch Love That Burns — A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac Volume One: 1967-1974, a limited edition tome produced by bespoke publisher Genesis. Pictorially driven, the book features contributions from early band members and colleagues, and an account of Fleetwood’s childhood and teenage years, which happened to coincide with the so-called British blues boom.

“It was a time of experimentation in music, in fashion, in art.” Fleetwood shrugs, his brown eyes wide. “Blues appealed to a chunk of kids coming out of the war. As young players we were identifying with something that let us express ourselves, our wears and tears and pain.

“We’d go out to Eel Pie Island” (a major jazz and blues venue in the Thames at Twickenham, southwest London) “and listen to bands banging out early Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, stuff right out of the blues bin. It was a bijou movement that became a tidal wave.”

This Mick, a Maui, Hawaii-based grandfather, has seen it, done it, got the T-shirt. But he’s still as animated about music as he was when a juvenile drummer in a series of London-based bands called the Cheynes (which supported early gigs by the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds), the Bo Street Runners and Shotgun Express, which featured singer-guitarist Peter Green (or as Love That Burns insists, the “legendary” Peter Green), and a spry rising star named Rod Stewart.

Not to mention John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, a notorious outfit whose fluctuating line-up variously featured Fleetwood, Green and bassist John McVie.

When Mayall kicked McVie and Fleetwood out of the band for persistent onstage insobriety, a creatively frustrated Green left too. By the summer of 1967 all three men (along with guitarist Jeremy Spencer) were members of a band named Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac. Their live debut that same year — at the celebrated Windsor Blues and Jazz Festival — marked them out as a group to watch.

“There would be no Fleetwood Mac without Peter Green,” says Fleetwood of a man who is to the Mac as Syd Barrett was to Pink Floyd. That is, a troubled, sensitive, allegedly drug-dabbling genius for whom fame and its accoutrements became too much.

“Peter was our internal combustion engine, our focus. He was completely unselfish.

“Later on, when he was asked why he named the band Fleetwood Mac, he said: ‘I didn’t want to be Eric Clapton, I wanted to be in a band with Mick, John and Jeremy.’ He always knew he was going to move on, and he didn’t want us to be left with nothing.”

Spencer left. McVie left for several years and came back. But Fleetwood has been there throughout, all bug eyes and gangly limbs behind the cymbals and snares, gurning and thrashing through a litany of hits, none of which he wrote. No matter that he has always been at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to credibility, creativity, (mega) earnings.

Keeping the Mac together has been his lifework — no mean feat given the band’s unofficial status as a sort of dysfunctional family, rife with fallings out, personnel changes, bankrupt*cies (Fleetwood’s, mainly), relationship swaps, alcohol and substance abuses, and various other intense lows and giddy, giddy highs. “My father used to say, try and have a humour about what you do, and if you know you have to get something done then don’t feel it’s necessary to take the credit.” He grins. “That,” he says, “would be the crafty side of Mick Fleetwood.”

Mention Fleetwood Mac to the person-of-a-certain-age on the street, and the line-up that will probably spring to mind is the one responsible for 1977’s US west coast dream-pop gem, Rumours, which remains one of the biggest selling albums of all time: husband-and-wife Christine and John McVie; Lindsey Buckingham and his on/off partner, Stevie Nicks; Fleetwood, there with Nicks on the album’s iconic black-and-white cover photo, his foot on a chair, a pair of wooden balls dangling from the crotch of his very tight black knickerbockers.

The balls, a “juju” good luck charm and a trademark of his wry stage get-up, date back to an early incarnation of Fleetwood Mac. The blues-playing Mac, in fact, that we’re here to talk about today.

The Mac that was based in Britain until 1975 (when they relocated to the US to build on their success), recording albums such as their self-titled 1967 debut Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, an overnight triumph, and 1968’s Mr Wonderful, which contains the Green-penned song Love That Burns, and whose guest singer, erstwhile folkie Christine Perfect, would go on to marry John McVie. Oh, and four of whose songs began with the exact same riff by Mississippi-born blues legend Elmore James.

“We were a bunch of kids playing blues and loving it. The fact that people hadn’t heard what we were producing made us something new, though in truth we were just copyists.” Fleetwood puts up his hands, you-got-me-guv style.

“If you listen to early Fleetwood Mac it’s our best efforts at doing something traditional. We weren’t like the Yardbirds, doing weird versions of classic songs. We played classic songs for better or for worse. And got better.”

He’d nicked the balls from a pub toilet after a few too many ales on tour: “The whole ethic of blues is slightly suggestive. Suitably, I walked out on stage with these two lavatory chains with wooden balls hanging down, and it just stuck.”

The son of a homemaker and an RAF pilot who moved his family from base to base — there was six years in Egypt and a long stint in Norway, where the young Mick grew fluent in Norwegian — Fleetwood was always a bit of a stirrer. This had a lot to do with what he now recognises as dyslexia; at school, unable to commit facts to memory, and with words swimming around on the page, he used to muck around for laughs instead.

“I mean, look, we’re sitting in an old courthouse,” he says now. “So many jails today are full of dyslexics and unconventional, misunderstood people. I’m so lucky that my parents encouraged creativity in all of us”

His sister Susan, who died of cancer in 1995, was an established Shakespearean actress; his other sister Sally became a sculptor and fashion designer. “They gave me a drum kit when I was 13, recognising that my future would probably be in something artistic.

“My dad liked to goof around on a drum kit or just do this sort of stuff.” He slaps out a brisk rhythm on one jeans-clad thigh. “His party piece in the officer’s mess was playing wine bottles with sticks. I’ve no idea if that is why I ended up doing what I’m doing but you know …” Another smile. “Here we are.”

Fleetwood is the first to admit he’s not the greatest percussionist ever to have whacked a high-hat.

Early on, when his nerves and a sort of rhythmic dyslexia tried to get the better of him, the ever sensitive Green would sing to fill in during drum breaks, and encourage Fleetwood to follow the beat by anticipating the lead guitarist. It was a masterclass that would prove invaluable later, when the group was auditioning Mac axemen Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch, since Fleetwood came to know what made a guitarist great.

“Peter had asked me to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and when I wondered why he’d want me over the other incredibly adept drummer he said, ‘Mick, you play the **** from the heart and it’s totally suited to blues playing.’ The other guy had got too clever for what they were doing. Peter gave me confidence. He was a mentor as well as a friend.”

Still, forget drum solos. “I hate them. Inherently drummers are forced into **** like that, like when the power goes off in a club. You ever seen Charlie Watts do a drum solo? Ringo? Any drum solo I do is buffoonery, theatre; I shout in the microphone, talk in tongues. Though Peter did give me a talking drum once,” he says of the West African tama, an instrument that is clamped under an elbow and played with a stick. “I had great fun running around the stage with that.”

Green is a spectre in our conversation, garnering more mentions than, say, any of Fleetwood’s ex-wives: Jenny, sister of Pattie Boyd (who was married to Eric Clapton), who he married and divorced twice (and is the mother of his two daughters, Amy and Lucy); Sara, the former bestie of Nicks; Lynn, with whom he has twin girls, Ruby and Tessa. His current partner, Chelsea, here today, is a language teacher who lives with him in Maui, on a spread with three dogs, a pig and her daughter’s 25 exotic chickens. “They’re like cockatoos.”

More mentions, too, than his band mates past and present — especially, and consciously, Buckingham and Nicks, the blonde fairy goddess whose quavering voice and wafting chiffon outfits became a vital part of the Fleetwood Mac brand. “Well, the book is not about them, and the whole point of this interview is about the book,” says Fleetwood, who took over management of the band in 1974, the year Love That Burns finishes, the same year he overheard a folk duo called Buckingham Nicks performing in a recording studio he happened to be visiting, and was stopped in his tracks.

“The book concludes with a picture of me outside the restaurant where I introduced John and Christine to these two lovely people that I heard by happenstance,” he says. “How did all this happen?”

The question hovers, rhetorically. “It’s unbelievable!” he says. “So I am looking up at the sign and over to what will be the next part of this historic journey.”

The story has long been out there: of how Fleetwood and Nicks had a brief intense fling after the recording of Rumours. How Fleetwood dumped Nicks for her pal, Sara Recor, which a wounded Nicks then wrote a hit song about. The post-1974 Fleetwood Mac wasn’t shy about airing dirty laundry (Sara, Over My Head, Go Your Own Way), all while fulfilling every rock ’n’ roll cliche going.

Fleetwood’s 2014 autobiography Play On tells of cocaine use that began modestly enough (“We discovered a toot now and then relieved the boredom of long hours in the studio,” he writes); he has previously estimated that if his lines of coke were laid end to end they would run to about 11km long.

The bankruptcies came later, too. Fleetwood admits he has never been great with money, although his current sideline, a restaurant and bar in Maui called Fleetwood’s, where he performs from time to time with a blues band, is healthy enough. His first bankruptcy came in 1984, not long after he’d shelled out on Wensleydale, a sprawling property in Mittagong in the southern highlands of NSW, having fallen for Australia on Fleetwood Mac’s regular visits (a world tour next year is in the works).

“It was a pipe dream of a utopian lifestyle,” says Fleetwood, forgetting that we’ve strayed off-book. “Typical me, Irish dreaming nut case. I intended to live there, emigrate, the whole thing. But it became apparent that Australia was too far away for me as a sort of gatekeeper of Fleetwood Mac’s survival.

“The politics of Fleetwood Mac are well known and I couldn’t see the band going on if I kept the house. It was hard, all of it,” he sighs, “including getting my green card back.”

Still, nothing seems to have affected Fleetwood as much as the departure of the legendary Green. According to rock ’n’ roll legend, Green’s drift away from the band was tied in with health problems caused by his increasing LSD use. Having quit the band in 1970 and released several albums under his own name, he still lives in Southend on Sea, 65km east of London, a virtual recluse, the subject of ongoing fascination.

Fleetwood will be visiting his great friend in a couple of days, as he likes to do when he is in Britain. Whether Green appreciates the gesture is hard to say. “Peter is not the same person he was back then. He’s quite detached. He is someone who should never have taken acid, but that was only part of the reason he left Fleetwood Mac.” Fleetwood shakes his head.

“Life became so heavy for him. I’ve had my whole life to look at what happened with Peter with sadness; we lost someone so dear who became so altered that you didn’t, you don’t, really know …” He pauses, recalibrates.

“There isn’t a reciprocal connection. You go, ‘Well, he might not even miss me.’ But I love him and in many ways owe him everything.”

So of all the iterations of Fleetwood Mac, was the blues-playing, Swinging London version — Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac — his favourite?

“It was the most important because it’s how we started. We were doing what we wanted to do in this hugely exciting place, London, which was full of creativity and possibility and like-minded people. I can picture it so well.”

Fleetwood nods towards the street. “I still get a buzz being back here, even now.”

Mick Fleetwood is at two evening events in Sydney on November 28 and 29 and Melbourne on December 1 and 2.
Love That Burns — A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac, Volume One: 1967-1974 is published by Genesis in a limited edition run of 2000 copies.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/mick-fleetwood-love-that-burns-a-chronicle-of-fleetwood-mac/news-story/b93a9a132179174096052c2c5cb1c082

dansven

11-30-2017, 02:08 PM

Mine arrived today. I placed the order in August. Looks really great, but I have just had a quick look. :)

JeremyGloff

12-05-2017, 12:48 AM

Mine came today it's exquisite.

SisterNightroad

02-28-2018, 03:31 PM

Music legend Mick Fleetwood on what makes a great story

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Most people know Mick Fleetwood as the towering rhythmist of the hitmaking band Fleetwood Mac. But even though his instrument doesn't speak with words, it does tell a story in its own right, and to Fleetwood, storytelling is "finding the vehicle that allows you to express yourself."

Some people tell stories through language, like poets, and others through their specific arts, trades or talents. With his drums, Fleetwood tells stories by supporting other musicians.

A story he loves is one his nephew relayed after working with Marlon Brando. Brando's premise was that anyone could act, and they do so from birth on, throughout their lives. It was Brando's conviction when telling the story that enthralled Fleetwood most.

Speaking to The Drum at SXSW 2017, Fleetwood shared that the best story he has ever told is one he continues to share — about how his parents encouraged him as he was brought up, which has affected him throughout his life and impressive musical career.

"I had great parents that allowed me and both of my sisters to be creative because, in truth, we couldn't do anything else," said Fleetwood, adding that kids aren't as encouraged to be creative today which forces them to conform, something that his parents didn't do — and a big reason why he keeps retelling the story.

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/02/28/music-legend-mick-fleetwood-what-makes-great-story

SisterNightroad

06-17-2018, 05:14 AM

Behind the kit with Mick Fleetwood: "Without Peter Green there would be no Fleetwood Mac"
Fleetwood Mac man tackles our must-know questions

As he celebrated a whopping 50 years with Fleetwood Mac, 2018 saw Mick Fleetwood enjoy some time to sit back and reflect.

But even while looking back to the past, the workaholic Fleetwood didn’t sat still for too long. That much is demonstrated in the brand new book, Love That Burns - A Chronicle of Fleetwood Mac: Volume One 1967-1974.

The limited-edition coffee table book has been produced by publisher Genesis and, as its name suggests, looks back at the early part of the iconic band’s career. With Fleetwood in reflective mood, what better time than to sit him behind our kit and put some key questions to him?

This book sounds like it has been something of a labour of love for you…

“The book came about from a rather long journey, I’d imagine it has taken about 20 years. About 20 years ago George Harrison showed me a beautiful book that he was, I believe, working on at that time. It turned out that it was a Genesis Publications book.

"I thought one day it would be good to put together a book like that. Over the years, I have seen so many beautiful books that Genesis have done over the years. They are stunning pieces of work, I consider them to be works of art in their own right. About two-and-a-half years ago, I was in Los Angeles and I picked up a book in a shop and it was a Led Zeppelin book and yet again it was a Genesis book.

"I looked in the sleeve and had the idea to just call them and see if they wanted to do a book on the original Fleetwood Mac. It wasn’t planned, but the book tied in with the 50th anniversary of the original band.

"A lot of people think that I formed Fleetwood Mac back then, they don’t realise that it wasn’t me, I was there right beside Peter Green and we put the band together. Without Peter Green there would be no Fleetwood Mac, and that is almost unthinkable. It is important that this part of Fleetwood Mac’s history should survive.

"This book looks into what started this whole thing; it was led by a bunch of lads who wanted to play blues. The book goes through the anyone and everyone who was part of the original chunk of our journey.”

What are your memories of your earliest days as a drummer, and also as a member of Fleetwood Mac?

“August 1967 was the beginning of Fleetwood Mac. I had, before that, played with John Mayall for a little bit with Peter [Green] and then I had a couple of bands with Peter. My first real band would have been the Cheynes in around 1963 and there was the Peter Bs as well. Other than that, I was just banging away at the drums in the living room on my own.”

Who were your early musical heroes?

“I loved the music more than just the drummers. I loved Buddy Holly and the way that all of that kind of thing was put together, that stuck with me. As well, The Shadows with Tony Meehan on drums alongside Hank Marvin and, of course, Cliff.”

What was your first drum kit?

“Well, my first kit was something only a little bit more than a toy rather than a full instrument. It was called a Gigster. I never had a drum stool so I would sit on the edge of an armchair and play like that. That was where I got my beginnings as a drummer and learned my first things about the drum kit.”

What is the one piece of drum gear that you couldn’t live without?

“I can’t confess that I have my original snare drum that I have been playing for 40 years. I don’t tend to hang onto things like that. I remember back in the day when we didn’t have any money, I would hang onto things.

"I would keep cymbals until they were just not playable anymore. They would crack I would carve out a section of the cymbal so that I could carry on using it. It would basically turn a cymbal into a lethal weapon. If you caught your finger in the hole that you had cut or drilled into your cymbal then that would hurt. I did that and would have cuts all over my knuckles.”

What has been the proudest moment of your career?

“On a personal level, and this is something that is told in this book, I had parents who were fully encouraging of this crazy young chap who wanted to play music. I wasn’t very good at school and one they got used to the idea that I wasn’t going to make it to college, they totally got into supporting this pipe dream of what I wanted to do.

"The thing that I am very proud of is the fact that I managed to do what I set out to do. That was a goal that was fairly obscure and unbelievable, even for my parents, at the start. They couldn’t have really known back then that it would work out. I’m proud that I had that in my make-up and that I managed to make it work.

"Maybe that was more through luck rather than anything else, who knows? But the fact that it did happen and that I have created a life out of what was basically a little pipe dream of mine in so much that I just wanted to be a drummer, that is so cool to me.”

What is the key to longevity as a drummer?

“I love what I am doing. I can’t really do anything else! Maybe that has turned out to be a reason why I have just kept on doing what I am doing. But I love it, it has taken me through my life.

"There have been ups and downs during that passage of time, but always behind it was this backdrop of being in this band called Fleetwood Mac. I can’t complain about anything at all. This is my childhood dream and 50 years later I am still doing it. We’re still doing it and planning to go out next year and do a big old tour and get back at it. The band is still playing great as well.

"As a drummer, you can’t do the show if you’re not physically able to. It was gratifying that I am able to pay attention to keeping myself fairly fit and fit enough to play the shows. There’s no reason, unless something goes physically, there is no reason why we can’t keep on doing this.

"I would carry on playing the drums even if Fleetwood Mac stopped playing. I would happily sit in the corner playing drums and having fun just like I would when I was back at home.”

What is your biggest regret?

“I am aware of the life that I have and I am very grateful for that. I have made a good living out of doing this and it has been a super interesting life. Yes, there have been some bad choices in terms of lifestyle choices, but generally I have no regrets at all. There were many moments in the putting together of this book that were thought-provoking.

"Not all of those memories were happy, but most were a celebration of the camaraderie of that early band and the desire for us all to get in the trenches and go what we all loved doing. I consider myself extremely lucky.

"I look at Fleetwood Mac and the fact that I am a musician and still doing what I set out to do at 11 years old or somewhere around that age – I actually think I was banging on the furniture at an even younger age than that. It’s nice to have a job that doesn’t feel like working.”

Did you take drum lessons early on?

“No, I didn’t take any drum lessons - can’t you tell [laughs]? I was not a good pupil in any shape or form. I listened like a hawk to music and that helped me a great deal. I would do my own version of things that my influences were doing. I would just do my best to follow what they were doing.

"Of course, half the time I was unable to get near to what they were doing. Tony Meehan, for instance, was a very accomplished player who obviously read music and all of that stuff and he had this touch as well.

"Sandy Nelson was another big influence on me. I’d hear things in the music and think, ‘Oh, I can do that,’ and then I’d soon find out that it was harder than I first thought!”

What is the best piece of advice that you’ve ever been given?

“Listen like a hawk and watch the body language of the frontline in your band. This is a three-tiered answer, because also you need to remember that sometimes less is more. But the ultimate, ultimate thing to remember is to play with dynamics. That is so important.”

https://www.musicradar.com/news/behind-the-kit-with-mick-fleetwood