Started: 1967
City and Country of Origin: London, England
Music Training:
Awards:
Top Recordings: "Over My Head," "Rhiannon," "Go Your Own Way," "Don't Stop"
Fleetwood Mac Biography: Originally performing as Steve Winwood this British blues combo of the late '60s underwent a complete metamorphosis into a highly polished pop/rock band. The only remaining original members of the group drummer Mick Fleeetwood and bassist John McVie, hence the name Fleetwood Mac, were not the leading musical influence behind the band. Rather, it was guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer who helped form the groups psychedelic blues-rock sound, but both men became mentally ill and left the band. It was the songwriting of Chritie McVie who moved the group into the pop/rock category. The group arose out of the ashes of John Mayall's legendary British blues band the Bluesbreakers in the early '60s, John McVie having been a charter member of the group. In 1966 Peter Green replace Eric Clapton and in '67 Mick Fleetwood joined the Bluesbreakers and being true to the name joined MacVie and Green breaking away from the Mayhall group to form Fleetwood Mac. Shortly after Jeremy Spencer joined the group and in 1968 the group added guitarist Danny Kirwin. After a few contracts with small record labels they signed a recording deal with Reprise/Warner in 1970. In the early '70s lead singer Christine Perfect joined the group and soon became Christie McVie with her marriage to bassist John McVie. In 1974 the band moved its permanent residence from Paris to California. During an audition for an engineer the group heard the duo of Buckingham-Nicks and asked them to join the group. Lindsay Buckingham was a seasoned veteran of the pop music scene and a songwriter to boot, Stevie Nicks was a lead singer/songwriter with a hippie like stage presence. By the mid 70's the band began experiencing internal problems when the McVies divorced and the romance of Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham came to a screeching halt. If you could choose just one word to describe the band I guess it would be "survivors." Through all the changes and reincarnations this group continues to function even to this very day.

Music by the Decade:

Sounds of the Fifties

Sounds of the Sixties

Sounds of the Seventies

Sounds of the Eighties

Sounds of the Nineties