James Hoag - Legends of Rock & Roll: Fleetwood Mac

By

James Hoag

~~~

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Copyright 2015 by James Hoag

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Legends of Rock & Roll Fleetwood MacCopyright 2015 James Hoag.

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Fleetwood Mac has been a staple of rock androll since its inception in 1967. The band has come and gone overthe years. The personnel have changed, but one thing has stayedconstant: the sound of a great band. Fleetwood Mac has gone down inhistory as one of the all-time greatest bands of all time.

I think it was in 2003 when they came to SaltLake City to perform. This was another in their many reuniontours. Its silly to use the word reunion in conjunction withFleetwood Mac, since they have really never gone away. Sure, thehits have dried up, just like most bands, but they keepplaying.

I so wanted to attend their concert in SaltLake City. I told my wife this might be the last time (for real)that we get a chance to see Fleetwood Mac. Somehow, we justcouldnt get the money together to get a ticket and they came andwent without me and my wife getting to see them. I was heartbroken,but I hoped there would be another chance.

It turns out that they are touring again thisyear and this time Christine McVie is touring with them. She wasnta part of the band in 2003. In fact, this year is the first timesince 1997 that she has played with the band. I have anotherchance. I was so happy but then I realized, I dont even have asmuch money now as I had in 2003. And this time, they are not comingto Salt Lake, so we would have to travel to see them. Oh well,another disappointment. But, it doesnt change how much I like thisband.

Fleetwood Mac has had many different players.The band has changed several times over the years, but the fivepeople who make up the core of Fleetwood Mac have remained more orless constant. Those five are Mac Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, JohnMcVie, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham. While each andevery one has not been with the band through their whole career,they are the core of the band.

Mick Fleetwood is the only member who hasbeen there from the beginning. John McVie came in shortly after theband was created, but he missed the first few times they played.Later, various people came in and out of the band and I will try tomake sense out of all of that with this book.

My books are really about the music. That iswhat I love. I will talk about the music produced by Fleetwood Mac,any little bits of interesting information about the songs, and thegeneral maturing of the band from a startup to being a superstar inthe music industry. Lets explore the band that is FleetwoodMac.

Michael John Kells Fleetwood, called Mick byeveryone, was born June 24, 1947 in Cornwall, England. He was thesecond child of father, John Joseph Kells Fleetwood and mother,Bridget Maureen Fleetwood. He has an older sister named Susan whogrew up to be an actress and has had some notoriety of her own. Hisdad was in the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot and as a result,the family moved around a lot when Mick was young visiting, amongother places, Egypt and Norway.

Mick is described as something of a dreamer.He did not do well in school. Mick himself says when he graduatedfrom high school he barely knew the alphabet. In the late Forties,no one really knew about dyslexia but later Mick was diagnosed withthis problem so perhaps his problems in school were not really hisfault. However, there was one thing that he could do and that wasto play a drum. During his spare time, he would pretend to play thedrums, using pretend drumsticks to pound on any surface he wasnear. His dad was a smart man and recognized that Mick had a talentso on his thirteenth birthday, dad gave Mick a set of professionalGigster drums. The rest, as they say, is history.

Mick practiced all the time. Like many boysin their teenage years, he liked to listen to music. He found hecould play along with the record, duplicating the drum sound on therecord. His favorites were Tony Meechan who played in CliffRichards band and the Everly Brothers. Unlike many artists whogrew up in the Fifties and went on to become stars, Micks parentswere completely onboard with his ambitions. His dad had played thedrums himself, and he recognized that Mick was really good.Therefore, when Mick was fifteen, his parents allowed him to dropout of school and move to London to make his mark. I have had fivechildren who are all grown up now, but Im not sure I would haveever allowed any of them to drop out of school to pursue a dream.This was very unusual.

Mick moved in with his sister for a few weeksand got a job to support himself while he looked for the job hereally wanted to do. He worked at the Liberty Department store inLondon and soon was able to move into his own house (he probablyrented). He set his drums up in the garage and practiced everychance he got. Im not sure if the neighbors complained (theyprobably did), but one man heard the noise and decided toinvestigate. His name was Peter Bardens, and he was a keyboardistplaying for a band called The Senders. They were looking for adrummer. Keep in mind these guys were all teenagers.

Peter asked Mick if he would like to join TheSenders which consisted of Peter Bardens, Eddy Lynch, Peter Hollis,and now, Mick Fleetwood. With the induction of Mick, they decidedto change the name of the band to The Cheynes, which was the nameof a popular street in London. A lot of famous people had lived onCheynes Street, so that seemed like a good name.

Now that weve got Mick started on his roadto fame, lets find out what the second member of Fleetwood Mac hasbeen up to. John Graham McVie, who would later become the secondmember of the band, was born November 26, 1945 in Ealing, WestLondon to parents Reg and Dorothy McVie. His father was asheet-metal worker, so he came from a blue-collar family. I dontthink there was much music heard in the McVie house but, somehow,John knew what he wanted. At fourteen, he bought himself a guitarand began to teach himself how to play it.

This was the early Sixties, and everybody hada band in England. The Beatles were just getting started and hadnthit the big-time yet. The biggest name in England at the time wasCliff Richard, who has been called the English Elvis. His band TheShadows was the biggest thing going at the time so, naturally,those are the players that John emulated.

John got together with some mates from hisneighborhood and formed a band called the Krewsaders. Nothing muchhappened with the Krewsaders, but it was good experience for John.The main thing that came out of the band was that John decided hewould be a bass guitar player. This came about because everyone inthe band wanted to play lead. Well, theres a limit to how manylead guitars you can have so rather than fight with his friends, hedecided to play bass. It was easy to make the switch. He justremoved two of the strings of his guitar and he was ready togo.