WalkAThinLine.
02-17-2025, 01:34 PM
Christine is perfect replacement for Peter, decide Mac
By Nick Logan
WITH the parties concerned not around to explain otherwise, the most logical assumption to be drawn from the news that Christine McVie — she wants to drop the Perfect – had joined Fleetwood Mac was that the band as a four-piece had not lived up to expectations.
After all when Peter Green left, it had seemed so obvious to replace him with Christine, who had made no secret of her growing unhappiness as a soloist, yet the group gave the impression that not only was such a move out of the question it was unnecessary anyway. Having three lead guitarist/singer/writers had been a restriction, it was pointed out, and they didn’t need anyone else.
What exactly had changed their minds I found out from Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood in a Transatlantic call to the group’s Los Angeles hotel last week.
“We needed Christine to fill the sound out,” revealed Mick, who had been not long out of bed. “To make it more relaxing for everyone, particularly Jeremy and Danny.
With just the four of us there was no time for either of them to relax or lessen their contribution because the bottom, the substance, would fall out of the overall sound.”
Christine, living with her husband John at the group’s communal country home, had started sitting in on sessions with them there said Mick and it was that that brought it home to them the need for more back up support.
“The difference between playing as a five piece with Christine and then rehearsing with just the four of us became really noticeable,” continued Mick.
“It just sort of crept up on us what should happen. It was thought of vaguely for some time and then about a week before we left for the States we decided to bring her in. “It’s worked out fine on the road. It’s all more relaxing and now it seems a very obvious choice to have Christine as a member.”
The band was into its fourth week in America when we spoke and had arrived the day before in Los Angeles for a five-day stint at the Whiskey A-Go-Go. I was lucky to have caught them said Mick because they’d been booked into a new Holiday Inn hotel — grotesque at the best of times but this one smelling of paint — and were planning to get out somewhere else at the earliest opportunity.
The tour is the first work the group has done since Peter Green left and Mick reports no adverse reactions so far to either their former leader’s absence or the new line up. “There have been shouts out for old numbers, some of them Peter’s,” said Mick, “But then our new album isn’t out here yet.
“Also we are playing in a lot of places we haven’t been to before, as is usually the pattern, and in others I think some people may not even realise that Peter has gone.”
The incoming Mrs McVie has returned the band to having three “front stars” and in that respect she is directly filling Green’s place.
As Mick Fleetwood explains, her piano playing and singing help to fill out the sound but she also has her own featured spots in a set, just as guitarists Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer do.
Having dropped all of Peter Green’s numbers as well as Kirwan’s old material, their repertoire now consists of tracks from the soon to be released “Kiln House” album along with Christine’s numbers and the old Spencer evergreens that Fleetwood Mac wouldn’t be the same without.
“To start with it was strange being back on the road,” announced Mick. “As you know, we haven’t worked for a long, long time but for me personally, and I think Danny and John too, it was just as if we were carrying on from the last tour without a break… as if those five months in between had all been lost.”
Having played only a limited number of gigs so far, the band isn`t yet sufficiently immersed in the American music scene but has noticed certain changes since their last visit and has had some first hand evidence of the reported unease in the country.
Wisely taking a two day break to rest and rehearse after they arrived, their first gig was due to be an open air festival near Boston.
Also on the bill were Sly and the Family Stone who two days earlier had been, it is claimed, the cause of a Chicago festival turning into a riot.
In the current tense atmosphere, the Boston authorities got cold feet and called the festival off… but not after 40,000 kids had already arrived.
Next on the date sheet, the band weren’t too happy to learn, was a show in the heart of the Redknecks and Easy Rider country, New Orleans. The “sweaty palms” and apprehension turned out to be unwarranted in this case, reported Mick, because it transpired to be a nice gig.
San Francisco, normally a happy hunting ground for Fleetwood Mac, didn’t live up to expectations either. “We met Procol Harum and Blodwyn Pig who had been out there before us,” said Mick, “and they told us it had changed.
“San Francisco has always been very good for us in the past but we found that the audiences had had so much of everything and that there were a lot of young kids messed up on drugs.
“By the end of an evening a lot of them would be drowsy and falling asleep. If no one else had noticed I might have thought it was just us but the other groups said the same.”
The band doesn’t return to Britain until October 11 and apart from “Kiln House,” recorded before they left and due out soon, there aren’t likely to be any more records from them until then.
Clifford Davis, their manager, said last week he would like to issue as a single a track from the album called “Jewel Eyed Julie” [sic] — written by Kirwan-McVie-Fleetwood and the first time the bassist and drummer have had a shot at writing — but would need the group’s confirmation first.
I mentioned it to Mick and he said they were “pretty sure” they wouldn’t release any album tracks as singles. “We haven’t really thought much about a single. We might do one when we get back. We’ll have a lot of new material obviously and we’ll be more together by then.”
https://geirmykl.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/article-about-fleetwood-mac-from-new-musical-express-august-22-1970/
By Nick Logan
WITH the parties concerned not around to explain otherwise, the most logical assumption to be drawn from the news that Christine McVie — she wants to drop the Perfect – had joined Fleetwood Mac was that the band as a four-piece had not lived up to expectations.
After all when Peter Green left, it had seemed so obvious to replace him with Christine, who had made no secret of her growing unhappiness as a soloist, yet the group gave the impression that not only was such a move out of the question it was unnecessary anyway. Having three lead guitarist/singer/writers had been a restriction, it was pointed out, and they didn’t need anyone else.
What exactly had changed their minds I found out from Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood in a Transatlantic call to the group’s Los Angeles hotel last week.
“We needed Christine to fill the sound out,” revealed Mick, who had been not long out of bed. “To make it more relaxing for everyone, particularly Jeremy and Danny.
With just the four of us there was no time for either of them to relax or lessen their contribution because the bottom, the substance, would fall out of the overall sound.”
Christine, living with her husband John at the group’s communal country home, had started sitting in on sessions with them there said Mick and it was that that brought it home to them the need for more back up support.
“The difference between playing as a five piece with Christine and then rehearsing with just the four of us became really noticeable,” continued Mick.
“It just sort of crept up on us what should happen. It was thought of vaguely for some time and then about a week before we left for the States we decided to bring her in. “It’s worked out fine on the road. It’s all more relaxing and now it seems a very obvious choice to have Christine as a member.”
The band was into its fourth week in America when we spoke and had arrived the day before in Los Angeles for a five-day stint at the Whiskey A-Go-Go. I was lucky to have caught them said Mick because they’d been booked into a new Holiday Inn hotel — grotesque at the best of times but this one smelling of paint — and were planning to get out somewhere else at the earliest opportunity.
The tour is the first work the group has done since Peter Green left and Mick reports no adverse reactions so far to either their former leader’s absence or the new line up. “There have been shouts out for old numbers, some of them Peter’s,” said Mick, “But then our new album isn’t out here yet.
“Also we are playing in a lot of places we haven’t been to before, as is usually the pattern, and in others I think some people may not even realise that Peter has gone.”
The incoming Mrs McVie has returned the band to having three “front stars” and in that respect she is directly filling Green’s place.
As Mick Fleetwood explains, her piano playing and singing help to fill out the sound but she also has her own featured spots in a set, just as guitarists Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer do.
Having dropped all of Peter Green’s numbers as well as Kirwan’s old material, their repertoire now consists of tracks from the soon to be released “Kiln House” album along with Christine’s numbers and the old Spencer evergreens that Fleetwood Mac wouldn’t be the same without.
“To start with it was strange being back on the road,” announced Mick. “As you know, we haven’t worked for a long, long time but for me personally, and I think Danny and John too, it was just as if we were carrying on from the last tour without a break… as if those five months in between had all been lost.”
Having played only a limited number of gigs so far, the band isn`t yet sufficiently immersed in the American music scene but has noticed certain changes since their last visit and has had some first hand evidence of the reported unease in the country.
Wisely taking a two day break to rest and rehearse after they arrived, their first gig was due to be an open air festival near Boston.
Also on the bill were Sly and the Family Stone who two days earlier had been, it is claimed, the cause of a Chicago festival turning into a riot.
In the current tense atmosphere, the Boston authorities got cold feet and called the festival off… but not after 40,000 kids had already arrived.
Next on the date sheet, the band weren’t too happy to learn, was a show in the heart of the Redknecks and Easy Rider country, New Orleans. The “sweaty palms” and apprehension turned out to be unwarranted in this case, reported Mick, because it transpired to be a nice gig.
San Francisco, normally a happy hunting ground for Fleetwood Mac, didn’t live up to expectations either. “We met Procol Harum and Blodwyn Pig who had been out there before us,” said Mick, “and they told us it had changed.
“San Francisco has always been very good for us in the past but we found that the audiences had had so much of everything and that there were a lot of young kids messed up on drugs.
“By the end of an evening a lot of them would be drowsy and falling asleep. If no one else had noticed I might have thought it was just us but the other groups said the same.”
The band doesn’t return to Britain until October 11 and apart from “Kiln House,” recorded before they left and due out soon, there aren’t likely to be any more records from them until then.
Clifford Davis, their manager, said last week he would like to issue as a single a track from the album called “Jewel Eyed Julie” [sic] — written by Kirwan-McVie-Fleetwood and the first time the bassist and drummer have had a shot at writing — but would need the group’s confirmation first.
I mentioned it to Mick and he said they were “pretty sure” they wouldn’t release any album tracks as singles. “We haven’t really thought much about a single. We might do one when we get back. We’ll have a lot of new material obviously and we’ll be more together by then.”
https://geirmykl.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/article-about-fleetwood-mac-from-new-musical-express-august-22-1970/