Christine's web site
 

I've just checked her official web site for the first time in ages and I got Universal Music UK.

What is going on here?

Gail:confused:

I looked up Universal Music & it looks like they own Sanctuary Records. I check it each day and this is the first day her web site didn't come up. I guess Martin Wyatt finally threw in the towel on her website. Something similar happened awhile back, then you contacted Mr. Wyatt & her website was back.

I emailed Martin Wyatt and this is his reply

"Hi Gail, We are trying to re start Christine's site.
It's not that easy as we don't have much to put on it.

I'm also in talks with Universal about re working the last CD.

I'll keep you up dated with any info.

Regards.

Martin"

Reworking the last CD I wonder what that means?

Gail

What??:shocked:

Gail, are you serious? April Fools Day is coming up in about 10 days.:laugh:

Well I am serious - I presume Mr Wyatt was. I wouln't hold your breath though.

Gail

"Not much to put on it"???????

After a forty year career, a long series of top 10 hits, three solo albums, a pioneering role as a woman musician in a rock band ... he has not much to put on her website?

He needs to put us in charge of that website. We'd come up with content.

I agree
 

Yeah really! I agree. We'll fix her site up with all sorts of stuff! :nod:

Why don't we let Mr Wyatt know what we would like to see on an official site?

If anyone has any ideas send me a PM and I'll gather them all together and email Martin Wyatt and he can take it from there.

Gail

Gail, I just sent you a private message.

I visited her website, in feb or january I guess and it was still there, as i remember. The "shutdown" is recent.

I think is Christine who is not interested. She is retired

Christine doesn't have to be interested for there to be a website with information about her career. Musicians who are no longer recording or even no longer alive have websites, and in some cases active ones (Warren Zevon, for example). Of course it would be great if Chris took an active role in her site (like Bob Welch does in his, for instance), but it is hardly necessary.

My point is that I was surprised Mr. Wyatt would be stuck for content. Reviews, pictures, MP3s, a fan page ... there is so much content that if it were up to me to build this website, I'd be overwhelmed and wouldn't know where to start.

I think the problem is that most "official" sites are just used as marketing tools for "the latest product" (in the case of the CM site it WAS "In The Menatime"). The management companies that set them up don't really care about the artist's history etc.

Again, JMHO, and I'm sure we could think of many exceptions to this but I bet that's the REAL reason why nothing's happening with this, even though they probably won't just come out and say it.

John

I would agree with that. If Mr Wyatt is serious about a new site then there would be plenty of things to include.

In my opinion what is required is something that is detailed and informative but low maintenance.

If anyone has any ideas send me a PM and I'll gather them up and send them to Martin Wyatt. If he doesn't want to do anything with them well that will be up to him but at least we can let him know what we think.

Gail

If there isn't enough interest in maintaining a Christine website, would there be any interest in some participation here on this website--maybe in the form of a Q&A like John did in the past? Maybe Mr Wyatt could find out?

Hey Gail what is Martin Wyatt's e-mail adress, and I applaud everything you are doing for us Chris Lovers!

Yeah, but didn't they intend to do a Q&A with Christine on her site? she didn't do it. She dropped the ball. She doesn't seem to want to do this kind of thing. All of our submitted questions are hovering in the gaseous ether of Nevernever-Land.

I think if there's any official site in the future for her, she won't really be taking any part in it. So it would require the site admin to do it himself or herself, which would mean interacting with the fanbase more & not waiting for permission from management or Big Mama.

I'm not sure that's entirely true. Chris did do some interviews to promote 'In the Meantime' ... she did seem willing to do some modest promotion for the record, which could have included answering a manageable number of fan questions. We talked about this at the time over on the old Christine McVie website board, and the conclusion we came to was that Christine must have gotten slammed with way too many questions, and she was overwhelmed by it and just didn't do it.

The record company is to blame ... they thought they'd run some silly contest, and you can be sure that a lot of people jumped on board who are mainly FM or Stevie fans, and, in the absence of a moderator, it's just inevitable that they asked all kinds of tiresome and ridiculous questions ("when will you record with the Mac again ... when will you tour with the Mac again ... do you ever have lunch with Stevie ...").

The mistake made was that nobody filtered the questions. They needed to have a moderator look over the questions and select a small number ... maybe five questions. Good, interesting questions that pertained to 'In the Meantime' or to Christine's actual creative process as a songwriter and musician. It's really too bad it wasn't done this way, because Chris might have actually enjoyed answering a few good questions, and it might have led her to become more engaged in her website. But it's too late for that now. She's been out of the public eye (and undoubtedly thoroughly enjoying her quiet life as an English tea lady) for too long for her to have any interest in being a "celebrity" again.

When I spoke to Martin Wyatt I asked him about the questions and he confirmed that they got many more than they were expecting. As you said nobody was vetting them so the same one probably got asked loads of times.

With a new site she may possibly agree to answer a few.

I'm going to email Mr Wyatt in the next couple of days with the suggestions for the site so I'll include doing a (brief) Q&A. I don't suppose it'll happen but we always ask.

Gail

I don't understand what you're saying. You'd be overwhelmed only if you had to answer every question. Christine could have answered any number of them: five, three, one. I say the ball was dropped when questions were solicited from fans & the promised feature was never delivered. Not good.

Welcome to the world of Fleetwood Mac fans. Remember the AOL Q&A with Mick? How about all the Q&A's on the Ledge? The same question gets asked (with minor variation in wording) twelve times. I wince in embarrassment when I read the questions of some of those columns. And that was all with moderator. (I was reading one the other day. A chirpy & annoying girl asked Walter Egan one thing & one thing only: "When is Stevie's album coming out?" Walter just replied "I don't know," but you could feel the impatience & even disgust in his polite, brief response.)

That's the way to do it, no doubt. But it's never happened before -- unless you consider Lindsey's question-&-answer videos an exception (I don't).

I wonder if Chris did answer some questions. Pip(the moderator) talked to that guy from the record label & she said that he had e-mailed Dan Perfect about the Q & A. Dan said that she had recorded some answers on audio tape. Chris has said that she hates to type. If that's true, someone could have transferred those tapes to digital format & posted them on her site. I blame that guy from Sanctuary, although Chris has to share some blame simply for not delivering what was promised.

I also totally agree with Joanne about that dumb contest. They probably got too many inane questions from non-Christine McVie fans. I didn't care about that contest, although I certainly would have accepted the prize if I had won.:D I just wanted a chance to ask Christine a few questions about her life & career.

Well ... good grief ... we fans would like to hear those audio recordings. Never mind transcribing them to text, actually listening to Chris' lovely voice would be far better.

Those recordings are another thing Mr. Wyatt could put on a remastered C. McVie website ... if the tapes haven't gotten lost. (Gail, you can add that to your list for Mr. Wyatt.)

Yes can do.

I was thinking of emailing him early next week so if anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.

Gail

How about any little tidbits of things, or even outtakes, that Chris & Dan & the other musicians may have been working on in the ITM sessions that didn't make the final cut? With such a relaxed atmosphere as it must have been, there's bound to be a lot of music & music bits that were recorded. With that group (Christine, Hawkins), they probably even did some old blues songs, as musicians are apt to do when the atmosphere is relaxed & casual.

Gail mentioned that Mr. Wyatt was working with that Universal Music label to "re-work" her last album. I wonder if he was going to add any outtakes & additional songs to that release. Chris had said in one of those video clips on her site that Dan still had everything on his computer. Hope he didn't accidentally lose those tracks.

I wonder how far they got with Keith and if there's any material from when he was still involved.

Michele

Dan Perfect, if you're listening .... back up your hard drive, and do it now, pleeeez. I want to hear those outtakes.

Who's Keith?:confused: It was mostly just Chris & Dan Perfect, with George Hawkins & Steve Ferrone. According to Chris, Ken Caillat helped with the bass & drums.

I thought Keith Olson was going to be involved in production originally but then they parted ways.


Michele

I never heard anything about Keith Olson, just Ken Caillat. I'd be surprised if Christine & Keith Olson have had any contact in many, many, many years.

I emailed Martin Wyatt yesterday with our collected thoughts on a new official website.

Basically I think we had all come to the same conclusions and the main common items are as follows:

Biography
Discography
Photo Gallery
Downloads (inc outtakes from ITM)
Q&A
News

I mentioned that no one had asked for a discussion forum and that I realised that any participation from Christine herself may be difficult to achieve. I did say that perhaps a Q&A with a limited number of questions might be possible.

I haven't had an answer yet - he's probably seen the email and thought "oh God not her again".

I did say that I hoped it had given him some ideas and let him (and Christine)know that we would like to see a new official site.

I'll let you know when (or if) I get a response.

Gail

Thats great! Thank you for the update Gail. I hope your email will let Christine and others know there is a serious interest!

Thanks, Gail.:) It certainly can't hurt.

The legend lives....

She is so cool. :nod:

Like a menthol ciggerette... :lol: KOOL

I'd be really happy as well to see a Chris site in full swing. As visited as an LB or SN site. If this comes along, I'd happily share some great pics I have of her.

Just as a dumb side note, I swear to you, whenever I get an FM song REALLY stuck in my head for a period of time, it's always a Chris song. I'd say I dunno why, but I figure she's the real witchy woman of FM! :lol:

I'd really like to hear some of the outtakes from ITM but I don't know if that will happen.

I think we might see a new site if Mr Wyatt can agree something with Universal for ITM. If that happens then I think a new site will.

I haven't had a response from him re our suggestions.

Gail

That's what I think too. The old site's purpose was strictly to promote ITM. I doubt that Chris really cares about having a website unless there is a reason for it( an album).

Which is actually not very caring of her fans if we only get a website to make us part with our hard earned cash. If that is the case then she is beeing a bit naughty or Martin Wyatt is. He seemed to think there was nothing to put on it.

Gail

I agree, but I just don't think the internet is a major thing with her. She admitted that she doesn't like to surf the internet. It's just a very new thing for her. I have a feeling that Mr. Wyatt has tried to push her a bit. He did buy her a new laptop a year or two ago.