Tributes to Christine

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by The Catdancer

From Todd Sharp:

Around 1970, Cleveland, Ohio
Dreams
I’m 14, working at Record Revolution on Coventry Road. Off days I’m at Bill deArango’s Guitar Studio which was a well of guitar enthusiasm and musical activity.
I’m playing in various bands and spending a lot of time with guitar in hand and headphones on – copping records. Fleetwood Mac is definitely in my mix from their first album “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac” and onward through their second or third evolution including Christine McVie. Bare Trees got a lot of play at my house– “Spare Me A Little of Your Love” and “Homeward Bound” both got me. That voice and phrasing – Christine McVie from Chicken Shack. I also had her first Christine Perfect solo record. That honey coated voice. She got me. Those were days of woodshedding, figuring out how to work a guitar and dreaming of getting out of the land of Cleves and onto the bigger stages.
1978 – after two years with Daryl Hall & John Oates I’ve landed in LA and snagged an audition with Bob Welch from Fleetwood Mac. Bob had just released his first solo album - French Kiss. I walked into a rehearsal room at S.I.R. and found Bob with a bass around his neck and Mick Fleetwood sitting behind a drum kit. It was a moment. Here were two musicians that I had been admiring for a long time. It clicked. We got on like we had known each other for years. Mick was managing Bob and helping him get his band together and they hired me on the spot. Dreams.
It seemed that we (Bob) opened every US Fleetwood Mac show over the next few years and I got sort of adopted into the FM family at that point. There was an invitation from Mick to join him in Ghana, Africa to record his first solo record which I will someday write a book about. Somewhere in there I worked with another FM family artist - Danny Douma, and that is when I first really got to know Christine McVie. We spent a few nights together with Danny and his producer Nick Van Marth, at Village Recorders overdubbing on Danny’s “Night Eyes” record. Fleetwood Mac was recording “Tusk” in the next room.
Christine was from my perspective - a very comfortable rock star. She was fun, easy to know and she would often ring Angela and I to come over and have dinner and hang out. We became good friends. Even best friends for a while. I spent the next few years bouncing around LA trying to get a band going, writing songs, recording demos and doing any sessions I could get. One night I played Chris a demo I had just recorded. She loved the song and volunteered to come to the studio and sing background vocals on it. Dreams.
Not long after that, Christine asked if I would be interested to help her get a band together and to help her write songs for a solo record she was going to record during a Mac hiatus. So in about 1983 she picked me up, dusted me off and said come on, we’re going to write a batch of songs and put a band together and record an album in Europe with producer Russ Titleman. And don’t you know I have nearly every record Russ Titleman and Lenny Waronker have produced in my collection. I think I said – “pinch me” am I dreaming? Did Christine McVie just invite me to help her write an album and flush out a band to record it? Dreams..
We spent a few months writing, recruited George Hawkins and Stephen Ferrone to the band and then travelled to Montreux Switzerland to record the album. Lindsey Buckingham popped in and added his brilliance to a few of the tracks. Stephen Bruton joined us on guitar for the follow up tour and Billy Burnette lent a hand as well. These people have been my lifelong friends.
I introduced Chris to her husband Eddy Quintella who I had become friends with at Montreux. She took me to England with her where we worked with Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton and Ray Cooper - at the legendary Olympic Studios in London. James Taylor stopped in for an afternoon and we just hung out. Dreams…
The album – Christine McVie came out in 1984 and produced the Hot 100 top 10 hit “Got A Hold on Me” and top 40 “Love Will Show Us How”. We wrote both songs together.
Christine McVie. You left this place better than you found it for sure. Your music and voice will live on forever. I will never forget the opportunity you offered me and the confidence you instilled in me. I will never forget your beautiful soul, your grace, friendship and generosity. I wish I could have had the chance to tell you that one more time. Perhaps I will one day when we get together to write more songs and laugh again. Today I am heart broken.
Love always your friend,
Todd

Thank you for posting this. I love Todd. I did not realize he introduced Chris to Eddy. Fleetwood Mac really welcomed people into their family who opened for them. Todd had such a wonderful 1983 and 1984 with her. His Eric Clapton story is on youtube and how awestruck he was meeting and working with him..
Chris said she never wanted to do a solo album but Warner sort of forced her to do it. She would only do it working and writing with someone and Todd was that guy. Its so cool he had the original Chrstine Perfect album years before meeting or working with them.