1974-1974: ‘Penguin’ to ‘Heroes Are Hard To Find’
The band members
Bob Welch: guitar, vocals
Bob Weston: guitar, vocals
Christine McVie: keyboards, vocals
Dave Walker: harmonica, vocals
John McVie: bass
Mick Fleetwood: drums, percussion
The studio albums
Penguin (1973)
Mystery To Me (1973)
Heroes Are Hard To Find (1974)
The story
With Fleetwood Mac again lacking a creative lynchpin, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood turned to Bob Weston, a guitarist they’d encountered on the UK live circuit back in their Bluesbreakers days, and vocalist Dave Walker (Savoy Brown; The Idle Race). The new members were bedded in as the group completed their US touring obligations in late 1972, and, in January 1973, sessions for the next Fleetwood Mac album, Penguin, began at Benifold, the band renting The Rolling Stones’ mobile recording unit for the occasion. Though Walker only featured on two of the album’s songs and left the bad just six months later, Weston made his presence felt with his elegant slide guitar. Still, Penguin is most notable for Christine McVie’s emergence as this Fleetwood Mac line-up’s strongest songwriting voice, with Remember Me and Dissatisfied pointing towards the polished melodic rock that would see the band become megastars just a handful of years later.
Also released in 1973, Mystery To Me showed further signs of the commercial successes the best Fleetwood Mac songs would enjoy, as the Bob Welch-penned Hypnotized became one of the group’s biggest US hits to date. Trouble was, however, just around the corner: while touring the US in support of the album, Mick Fleetwood discovered that Bob Weston was having an affair with his then wife, Jenny Boyd. The fallout led to Weston’s dismissal from the group, and the remaining 26 tour dates were cancelled, leading to suggestions that Fleetwood Mac had split for good.
In a bid to recoup funds, manager Clifford Davis assembled “The New Fleetwood Mac” – a collective of musicians with no prior association with the group – to tour the US in early 1974. Hostile audiences and disgruntled promoters led to a lawsuit over who owned the band’s name, putting the original Fleetwood Mac out of action for a year.
They returned in September 1974 with their ninth album, Heroes Are Hard To Find. Despite the troubles of the previous 12 months, the record became Fleetwood Mac’s highest-charting US release to date, peaking at No.34 on the Billboard 200. However, still searching for a replacement for Bob Weston, the group lacked a strong direction…
Must hear: Remember Me
1975-1987: The Buckingham-Nicks Years
The band members
Lindsey Buckingham: guitar, keyboards, vocals
Stevie Nicks: vocals, tambourine
Christine McVie: keyboards, vocals
John McVie: bass
Mick Fleetwood: drums, percussion
The studio albums
Fleetwood Mac (1975)
Rumours (1977)
Tusk (1979)
Mirage (1980)
Tango In The Night (1987)
The story
One of the greatest gambles in rock’n’roll history followed. Impressed by a track he’d heard by a new duo called Buckingham Nicks, played to him by recording engineer Keith Olsen during a visit to Sound City Studios, in Los Angeles, Mick Fleetwood asked the duo’s guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham agreed on the proviso that his partner, Stevie Nicks, also be given a role in the group.
This new adjustment to the Fleetwood Mac line-up paid off spectacularly for all concerned, ushering in over a decade of unprecedented success. A string of albums – Fleetwood Mac’s second self-titled album (1975), Rumours (1977), Tusk (1979), Mirage (1982) and Tango In The Night (1987) – saw the group become one of the biggest bands in rock history. Between them, Buckingham and Nicks brought a pop sensibility to Fleetwood Mac’s music, fashioning gleaming radio-ready soft-rock that also chronicled their own romantic partnership. Rumours became the fastest-selling album of all time, shifting 800,000 copies a week at its peak. Its polished perfection was followed by the sprawling, experimental and brilliant double album Tusk, a burnt-out and heartsick collection that reflected the excess and drama going on behind the scenes of what had by now become one of the most famous bands in relationships.
The hits kept coming in the 80s and, with solo albums such as Bella Donna and The Wild Heart, Stevie Nicks became a star in her own right, adding tensions to an already fragile group dynamic. On the cusp of a US tour, booked in support of the hugely successful Tango In The Night, Lindsey Buckingham quit the band to concentrate on his solo career. Not for the first time, another Fleetwood Mac line-up needed to be assembled fast, in order to ensure the group’s survival.
Must hear: Go Your Own Way