History Music / FleetwoodMac

Green's departure proved to be the first sign of the later line-up chaos that Fleetwood Mac would become infamous for. The band, retaining two songwriters and frontmen, seemed to cope well enough with his departure at first, releasing ''Kiln House'' in 1970. ''Kiln'' showed a big divide between the two now-band leaders, with Kirwan pushing the band towards folky, mellow blues-rock while Spencer devoted his songs to {{Homage}}s and [[SatireParodyPastiche parodies]] of fifties rock 'n roll. Christine Perfect's involvement with the group likewise expanded, playing keyboards on multiple tracks, providing uncredited backing vocals and even painting the album's sleeve cover.\\

In the meantime, John [=McVie=] had married Christine, who was officially brought on board as a member shortly after ''Kiln'''s release; her earliest lead vocals appear on the single "Station Man". However, while on tour in California February 1971, Jeremy Spencer said he was going out to "get a magazine", but never returned. After several days of frantic searching, the band discovered that Spencer, interpreting a recent LA earthquake as a negative omen, had joined a religious group, the Children of God. The band-members convinced Green to come on board temporarily to finish the tour, with the band eventually hiring American guitarist Bob Welch to occupy Spencer's role full-time.\\

Fleetwood Mac was formed by Peter Green after leaving John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in 1967, alongside his Bluesbreakers band-mate Mick Fleetwood. Bob Brunning was their initial bassist, as John [=McVie=] initially refused. Once [=McVie=] changed his mind, Brunning stepped down. Green named the band after them, which proved kind of prescient in a way since they turned out to be the band's only constant members. Green completed the line-up by recruiting talented slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer.\\

The band's style so far was straightforward, no-frills blues-rock largely similar to what Green had been doing with John Mayall. This proved to be okay with the British public, which sent its debut album ''Fleetwood Mac'' up to #4 on the charts in early 1968 and provided them with a hit single in "Black Magic Woman" (later covered by Music/{{Santana}}). Their second album, ''Mr. Wonderful'', followed on the heels of the self-titled debut (literally: it came out in summer 1968), boasting a more vintage production and the first appearance of Christine Perfect, future member of the band and John's wife, as a session keyboardist.\\

After a quick holiday in the USA where they recorded many blues songs at Chess Studios with some legendary UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} bluesmen (Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Otis Spann), Fleetwood Mac [[ChannelHop moved]] from the small blues-only label Blue Horizon to Creator/RepriseRecords, where they've remained since[[note]]with a few releases on Reprise's parent label, Creator/WarnerBrosRecords[[/note]], and began diversifying away from pure blues-rock. Once again with Christine around as a session musician, the band recorded ''Then Play On'', a critically-acclaimed album that gave them their early SignatureSong: "Oh Well", a heavy riff-driven blues-rocker that transitioned into a Music/EnnioMorricone-styled sparse instrumental for a grand total of [[EpicRocking 9 minutes runtime]].[[note]]8 minutes, but the way it was edited together from the single repeats a minute.[[/note]] All the songs on ''Then Play On'' were recorded solely by Kirwan and Green, with Spencer barely present since he was working on a solo album of [[TheFifties fifties-style retro-rock 'n roll songs]]. They also scored another non-album hit a year later with "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown), later covered by Music/JudasPriest.\\

Despite being popular in Europe, all was not well within the band. Green's experimentation with LSD had contributed to the onset of his schizophrenia, and his mental stability steadily deteriorated. After a conflict over finances, Green left the band, playing his last show on May 20, 1970.

Green's departure proved to be the first sign of the later line-up chaos that Fleetwood Mac would become infamous for. The band seemed to cope well enough with his departure at first, releasing ''Kiln House'' in 1970. ''Kiln'' showed a big divide between the two now-band leaders, with Kirwan pushing the band towards folky, mellow blues-rock while Spencer devoted his songs to {{Homage}}s and [[SatireParodyPastiche parodies]] of fifties rock 'n roll.\\

In the meantime, John [=McVie=] had married Christine, who was officially brought on board as a member shortly after ''Kiln'''s release. However, while on tour in February 1971, Jeremy Spencer said he was going out to "get a magazine", but never returned. After several days of frantic searching, the band discovered that Spencer had joined a religious group, the Children of God. The band-members convinced Green to come on board temporarily to finish the tour, and a new guitarist was recruited, an American named Bob Welch.\\

''Future Games'' proved to be a NewSoundAlbum - sans Spencer, Fleetwood Mac drifted further and further away from their blues roots and into a mellow, folky pop-rock sound that they would in time transition to and fully embrace. Christine began establishing herself as a songwriter here, writing her first trademark pleasant ballads and catchy pop songs, while Welch and Kirwan did their folk-rock thing. Their followup, ''Bare Trees'', continued the formula but with better reception and a hit single, Welch's ballad "Sentimental Lady".\\

It wouldn't last - Kirwan left the band in 1972 due to alcohol dependence and strained relationships with Welch and the [=McVies=]. For two and a half years afterwards, the band entered some of its toughest times, suffering from constantly shifting lineups, reflected in the poorly-received, tepid ''Mystery To Me'' (which still managed to get some U.S. FM airplay with the track, "Hypnotized"), internal tension (John and Christine's stressful marriage, John's alcohol abuse, Weston's affair with Fleetwood's wife) and found itself on the receiving end of probably the weirdest event in rock history (and considering the history of both rock ''and'' Fleetwood Mac, that's saying ''a lot'').\\

The band's manager claimed that he owned the name Fleetwood Mac and put out a "fake Mac". Nobody in the "fake Mac" was ever officially in the real band, although some of them later acted as Danny Kirwan's studio band. Fans were told that Welch and John had quit the group and that Fleetwood and Christine would be joining the band at a later date, after getting some rest. Fleetwood Mac's road manager, John Courage, worked one show before he realised that the line being used was a lie. Courage ended up hiding the real Fleetwood Mac's equipment, which helped shorten the tour by the fake band. A lawsuit soon followed over who owned the name "Fleetwood Mac" that dragged out for almost a year but eventually was solved in the band's favour. Interestingly, the fake band renamed themselves Stretch, and had [[OneHitWonder one hit]] in 1975 with "Why Did You Do It?", the lyrics of which accused Mick Fleetwood of being involved with putting the fake band together, but had failed to join them on tour.\\

During their forced hiatus, Fleetwood Mac relocated to Los Angeles at Welch's suggestion and recorded ''Heroes Are Hard to Find'' with the pared-down lineup of Welch-the [=McVie=]s-Fleetwood. Welch resigned shortly afterward, burned out by the touring and the lawsuit. Still, ''Heroes'' reached higher on the US charts than any previous releases and the band was in a very good position, having cleared up all the mess and eager to get back to music.

While searching for somebody to replace Welch, Fleetwood heard a song by the American duo Buckingham Nicks courtesy of a studio engineer in Van Nuys. Impressed, Fleetwood met guitarist [[GenderBlenderName Lindsey Buckingham]] and asked him to join. Buckingham said he would if his girlfriend [[TomboyishName Stevie Nicks]] could also join, something which Fleetwood quickly agreed to.\\

With the new line-up in place, the band made another NewSoundAlbum, ''Music/FleetwoodMacWhiteAlbum''. The new album showcased the band re-imagined as a Californian pop-rock band filled with catchy hooks and lush vocal harmonies, slightly mellow overall but kept away from outright soft-rock by Buckingham's restlessness (which saw the band sneaking blues, folk and country influences into their sound) and a straightforward production, sounding closer to a relaxed [[Music/TheBeatles Beatles]] circa ''Music/AbbeyRoad'' than the smooth, lifeless sound that made the term "soft-rock" so hated by many. Buckingham by now had completely seized creative control of the band and became one of the three main songwriters besides Nicks and Christine, leading to a very clear group dynamic: Buckingham being the driven, sort-of experimental weirdo, Christine providing the catchy pop songs/ballads and Nicks being the mystical, slightly {{Cloudcuckoolander}} but charming folkie (proto-Music/KateBush?).\\

After some time off to recover and for Nicks and Buckingham to release solo albums (Nicks would eventually release four solo [=LPs=] and Buckingham two over the course of the decade, with Fleetwood also releasing two and Christine [=McVie=] putting out one), Fleetwood Mac returned with ''Mirage'', their first album of TheEighties. Replacing the whacked-out-on-coke-insane-paranoia with accessible pop melodies and replacing the simple, muscular sound Dashut and Caillat gave to previous efforts with a shiny production, ''Mirage'' sold better than ''Tusk'', propelled by a few successful singles - Christine's "Hold Me", "Love In Store", Nicks' poppier offering "Gypsy" and Buckingham's "Oh Diane". The band celebrated this by partying hard, shovelling more cocaine up their noses and continuing their excessive lifestyle, which came back to bite them in the arse – Nicks had to go into rehab to get rid of her addictions (and had to go into rehab ''again'' in the early 1990s to get rid of an addiction to the medication she had been prescribed to help overcome her cocaine addiction), John suffered a seizure due to his alcohol abuse but got better and Fleetwood declared bankruptcy.\\

Dissatisfied with ''Mirage'' and wanting to close on a high note, Buckingham initially began working on some solo material before bringing it to the band and making it a group effort after all. Adding synthesisers to the mix but managing to avoid bland SynthPop hell or soft-rock anaemia, ''Tango in the Night'' turned out to be another massive success which spun off hit singles like Christine's "Little Lies" and "Everywhere", Nicks' "Seven Wonders" and Buckingham's "Big Love"; it ultimately became their second biggest-selling album after ''Music/{{Rumours}}''. With the band in very good standing, Buckingham then left the band after an acrimonious confrontation over his reneging on a commitment to tour, which led to a fight with Nicks (Fleetwood claimed in his 1990 autobiography that Buckingham and Nicks physically assaulted each other).

Fleetwood Mac brought in two guitarists to replace Buckingham: Billy Burnette, who was chosen for his vocal skills, and Rick Vito, who was chosen for his lead guitar skills. Unfortunately, these didn't show much on the new line-up's first album, ''Behind the Mask''. Another NewSoundAlbum, ''Behind the Mask'' saw the band move away from the mellow-yet-catchy pop-rock sound that they had been steered towards by Buckingham, instead achieving a bland adult-contemporary sound that did them no favours and earned them a big trashing from critics, who still see it as probably the band's lowest point. This may be somewhat unfair to Burnette and Vito, who, while not at Buckingham's level, were charming, accomplished live performers and developed a following among the band's more dedicated fans. The band received a further blow when Nicks and Vito left in 1992.\\

The old line-up with Buckingham and Nicks reunited to play "Don't Stop" at the inauguration of UsefulNotes/BillClinton in 1993, who had made it his campaign song and personally requested the band's one-off performance. After this, they went back to business and brought in new members: legendary Music/{{Traffic|Band}} and Music/DerekAndTheDominos guitarist Dave Mason and vocalist Bekka Bramlett (Bonnie and Delaney Bramlett's daughter). The resulting album, ''Time'' sank without a trace - it didn't even make the ''Billboard'' charts, a telling sign of its abysmal quality given that Fleetwood Mac had been mainstays on the charts the past two decades. Fleetwood Mac would subsequently break up for the next two years.

The 1974–87 line-up reunited in 1997 and released the live album/film ''The Dance'' to much fanfare, with lead single "Silver Springs" finally getting its time to shine. Following this, they started a successful tour and managed to see themselves get in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before Christine retired from the band in 1998. Her retirement was notably free of the bad blood that marked earlier line-up changes, and she retained good relations with the band (we're just as shocked as you are). They've recorded a new album, ''Say You Will'', and have been chugging along pretty well ever since, free of all the insanity they were known for in the past and going on sold-out tours once every few years. Nicks and Buckingham have kept their solo careers active on the sidelines as well, and have even become good friends again (yes, we're just as stunned as you are about that too).\\

* {{Irony}}: Something of a meta-example. When Mick Fleetwood asked Lindsey Buckingham to join the band, his main condition was that he bring his then-girlfriend and collaborator Stevie Nicks along as well. The existing members of the group were concerned that this might create some tension with Christine [=McVie=], then the only woman in the band and obviously used to being the main female presence. When the two actually met, however, Nicks and [=McVie=] got along famously, and in the resulting relationship implosions and meltdowns that would come to characterise the "Buckingham-Nicks" era of the band the two women were reportedly two of the only members who consistently remained friendly with each other.

** Christine [=McVie=] sings lead vocals on "Little Lies" (a song she co-wrote), with Stevie Nicks providing the more recognizable Fleetwood Mac sound as backing vocals during the chorus along with Lindsey Buckingham.

As of 8 April 2018, it was reported that Fleetwood Mac and Lindsey Buckingham would part ways once more, this time with Buckingham being allegedly fired. Whatever the reason, it was an acrimonious split, with Buckingham filing a lawsuit against the rest of the band. Mike Campbell, the former lead guitarist for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn of Australian/New Zealander rock groups Music/CrowdedHouse and Music/SplitEnz subsequently joined the band to take Buckingham's place.