1986 Christine McVie interview

[Mr Scarrott]

What a great interview. I love the fact that she constantly got her chronology wrong. At one point she even forgot about Tusk completely...

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by Mr Scarrott

What a great interview. I love the fact that she constantly got her chronology wrong. At one point she even forgot about Tusk completely...

yes i was yelling at her from my end, trying to remind her about tusk lol. and wasn't penguin before mystery to me? she was a bit confused on some things but this band had a long nutty history, not easy to keep it all straight. but on the whole it was a super interview.

--Lis

[Villavic]

Somehow, I'm not surprised. Sometimes people confuse or forget old names, dates when they don't keep always on their minds.

Friends is to me in tv shows what Fleetwood Mac is to me in music. So I've watched every episode a zillion times. I've memorized almost all the characters, quotes, etc. When I watched the 2021 reunion, I saw the girls couldn't remember the name of the old neighbor who always wore a bathrobe, Mr. Heckles. I thought How can't they remember! But it happens.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by Penguin Emeritus

yes i was yelling at her from my end, trying to remind her about tusk lol. and wasn't penguin before mystery to me? she was a bit confused on some things but this band had a long nutty history, not easy to keep it all straight. but on the whole it was a super interview.

From experience, just being on tour screws with one’s sense of time, and the tours I got to be a part of were much smaller than Fleetwood Mac in the early ‘70s, although I helped out on more albums than Fleetwood Mac made in that time. Throw in alcohol, drugs, and all of the drama they went through, and I totally get how she lost track of order.

Except for forgetting about Tusk. That was a little odd.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by Mr Scarrott

What a great interview. I love the fact that she constantly got her chronology wrong. At one point she even forgot about Tusk completely...

And yet, ironically, she had crystal clear memories of certain moments in time that would seem less memorable to most. She remembered so many details from the making and touring of Kiln House—and even its modest chart position in the U.S.; she remembered the night in her first solo tour that she left a stage in tears; she could recall certain details about the argument Welch got into with John backstage towards the end of the Heroes tour—even though it was minor…

There were so many valuable details and explanations here, even when her memory seems spotty or even occasionally unreliable.

[Macfan4life]

Chris was born in the UK where homosexuality was a crime. It was not decriminalized until 1967. But even then gays had to be the age of 21 to engage in consensual sex. Much of English society was taught it was not only wrong but criminal in nature. Perspective is everything. Chris was not a feminist and was always conservative. Her and John's distain for the Labor Party was evident when ET asked them if they would let anyone in England use their music for politics for Tony Blair like Bill Clinton. The McVie's reaction was almost if the ET reporter asked them to perform a satanic ritual. Granted the Labor Party of Tony Blair was nothing like the party of the 1970s. Yet their eyes bugged out of their head and said with great distain they would never do anything for Labor.

There was a time that Stevie did not embrace "A Night of 1000 Stevies" where mostly gay men dress like her and celebrate her music. There was an old article on the NicksFix back when the event was relatively new. When she asked her opinion of it, she called it "really scary."
Today she embraces it and teases she may show up some day.
But lets be real, gays and drag queens are far more accepted today

On another note. I may have to listen again but it seems we may have a contradiction. In Mick's book he writes it was Bob Welch that sort of dragged the band to the States and the McVies were reluctant participants, no? In this interview Chris states how excited they were to come to the States after Kiln House charted well.
Did I hear this correct? Any thoughts or clarifications I am missing?

[Penguin Emeritus]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

On another note. I may have to listen again but it seems we may have a contradiction. In Mick's book he writes it was Bob Welch that sort of dragged the band to the States and the McVies were reluctant participants, no? In this interview Chris states how excited they were to come to the States after Kiln House charted well.
Did I hear this correct? Any thoughts or clarifications I am missing?

I think this band is full of contradictions lol. Maybe by the time they made the decision and packed up to go, they'd gotten more excited about it because they saw it as a new opportunity and realized nothing good was gonna happen in England. I think all the brits were reluctant, and then it seemed Mick and John got on board and convinced chris of the 6 month trial. and once they started living there, they loved it.

--Lis

[Villavic]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

In Mick's book he writes it was Bob Welch that sort of dragged the band to the States and the McVies were reluctant participants, no?

Yes, Bob wanted to move to America but the McVies didn't, so Mick proposed to do it "as a trial period", and ...

This won over John McVie, and Jenny was raring to go to escape the stagnation of Benifols. Still, Chris was resistant. She had put a lot of work into her home, she was close to her family, and she wasn't all that crazy about California. But I begged her to try it for six months. I swore that we would come back to England if she didn't like it. And, of course, she saw that it was a good thing to do. We were demoralised from sitting at home for months and needed shaking up. We hadn't made any music or gone anywhere. We needed this.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

There was a time that Stevie did not embrace "A Night of 1000 Stevies" where mostly gay men dress like her and celebrate her music. There was an old article on the NicksFix back when the event was relatively new. When she asked her opinion of it, she called it "really scary."
Today she embraces it and teases she may show up some day.
But lets be real, gays and drag queens are far more accepted today

On another note. I may have to listen again but it seems we may have a contradiction. In Mick's book he writes it was Bob Welch that sort of dragged the band to the States and the McVies were reluctant participants, no? In this interview Chris states how excited they were to come to the States after Kiln House charted well.
Did I hear this correct? Any thoughts or clarifications I am missing?

I wonder what the context for “really scary” was. I have a friend who used to go to Night of 1000 Stevie’s in the mid-90s and Stevie actually donated some of her personal effects for an auction (including a signed boot).

I’m not calling her St. Stevie by any means, but even in 1985 gays embraced her—and she seemed to embrace them as part of her fan base. Her tour T-shirt and sweat-shirt for Rock a Little was “Set Your Secrets Free.” I mean…

But then she also thought Bill Clinton was too young to be president during his first term. So who knows, she may have been as contradictory and confused as so many other post-war born rockstars.

[Macfan4life]

Besides her sequencing being out of order her charting is a bit off. Kiln House did not chart at #48 in the United States. It hit #69 in USA and #39 in the UK. Still pretty good. Maybe she was referring to the UK charts. Vintage Mac albums hovered in the 60s and 70s until Heroes Are Hard To Find was released and cracked the U.S. Top 40 at #34.

Her memory seems different than Micks. She makes it sound like Kiln House's success in the States made them eager to go there. I think Mick tells a different story.
We need a verdict. Anyone got John's number?

[Macfan4life]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

I wonder what the context for “really scary” was. I have a friend who used to go to Night of 1000 Stevie’s in the mid-90s and Stevie actually donated some of her personal effects for an auction (including a signed boot).

I’m not calling her St. Stevie by any means, but even in 1985 gays embraced her—and she seemed to embrace them as part of her fan base. Her tour T-shirt and sweat-shirt for Rock a Little was “Set Your Secrets Free.” I mean…

But then she also thought Bill Clinton was too young to be president during his first term. So who knows, she may have been as contradictory and confused as so many other post-war born rockstars.

Not sure, I think the event started around 1992 and I dont know the date of the interview and that website is long gone. It probably was in her klonopin haze and without seeing the party or understanding it she made that comment. It stuck with me because when I read it was probably around 1997. They used to load that site with all sort of old interviews. It was not the focus of the interview just a question out of left field in a longer old interview. I don't think Stevie was ever anti-gay, I just brought up this up making a comparison to Chris's comments. IMHO when she was asked about it she had no idea what it was.
Stevie once said she wanted to strangle Nicki Minaj to death. She immediately apologized because of today's 24/7 news media. But back in the 1980s and even 1970s people could be interviewed and say stuff that may have been controversial but few noticed because people actually had to buy something and actually read it. I read once that Barry Manilow actually came out in an interview in the mid 1970s. Yet he remained in the closet for decades more. Few noticed or it was not on a 24/7 media storm.

[SteveMacD]

Originally Posted by Macfan4life

Besides her sequencing being out of order her charting is a bit off. Kiln House did not chart at #48 in the United States. It hit #69 in USA and #39 in the UK. Still pretty good. Maybe she was referring to the UK charts. Vintage Mac albums hovered in the 60s and 70s until Heroes Are Hard To Find was released and cracked the U.S. Top 40 at #34.

Her memory seems different than Micks. She makes it sound like Kiln House's success in the States made them eager to go there. I think Mick tells a different story.
We need a verdict. Anyone got John's number?

While that’s true, the first album peaked at 198 in the US, English Rose peaked at 184, Then Play On hit 109, Fleetwood Mac In Chicago hit 118, and Kiln House reached 69, so her larger point about it charting significantly higher than any of the Peter Green albums was accurate.

While I don’t know if the band was universally excited to go to the USA for the Kiln House tour, I could imagine Christine and John being excited, and Mick always seems excited to play. At some point, surviving the loss of Peter probably didn’t seem nearly as insurmountable.

What’s interesting is that Penguin hit 49.

[aleuzzi]

Originally Posted by SteveMacD

What’s interesting is that Penguin hit 49.

They toured that album in full. (As we know, the Bare Trees and Mystery tours were both cut short because of Kirwan and Weston’s respective firings.)

But equally important was that Dave Walker could put on a lively, entertaining show. From what I’ve gathered from the few sources we have for this time period, they rarely played anything from Penguin, except Night Watch, but they could talk the album up at shows and/or excited audience members could have run out to buy the record…

[WatchChain]

Christine and John McVie are/were very conservative. There are several documented accounts of Christine using anti-gay slurs. Fruits, fairies, lezzies, etc..

Even more disturbing is this -

In addition to the previously mentioned costumes of black face and a Nazi soldier, John McVie spent a large sum of money on rare Nazi collectibles. John had a Nazi memorabilia collection. "On a European tour, a train which once belonged to Adolf Hitler was hired, to the delight of Nazi memorabilia collector John McVie".

Call me sensitive, but this is unforgivable.

[HomerMcvie]

Originally Posted by WatchChain

Christine and John McVie are/were very conservative. There are several documented accounts of Christine using anti-gay slurs. Fruits, fairies, lezzies, etc..

Even more disturbing is this -

In addition to the previously mentioned costumes of black face and a Nazi soldier, John McVie spent a large sum of money on rare Nazi collectibles. John had a Nazi memorabilia collection. "On a European tour, a train which once belonged to Adolf Hitler was hired, to the delight of Nazi memorabilia collector John McVie".

Call me sensitive, but this is unforgivable.

This sh1t is 50 years ago. It WAS a different time.