Fleetwood Mac were created when Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood left "John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers" to form a new band, in 1967, in London. They found Jeremy Spencer and Bob Brunning and a few weeks after they took part in a live show under the name "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac", John McVie joined them.
The band's homonymous first album reached the fourth place on the charts in the UK and was followed by "Mr. Wonderful", a few months later. Danny Kirwan became later the band's new member and with him they recorded the song "Albatross", which reached the top in Europe. Fleetwood Mac went to the USA later and collaborated with great artists from the blues scene. They changed their style and they released the rock hit "Man of the World" in 1969. Fleetwood Mac recorded one more album ("Then Play On") and took part in festivals, until 1970, when Peter Green's problems with drums came out, leading him to leave the band in the middle of that year.
During the recording of "Kiln House", Christine Perfect (who had become McVie's wife) joined the band. Bob Welch replaced Spence in 1971 and in the same year, their fifth album "Future Games", came out. It was followed by "Bare Trees", six months later. Kirwan was fired due to his alcohol addiction and Bob Weston with Dave Walker became the new members, with the last being fired after a tour.
1973's "Mystery to Me", included the hit "Hypnotized" but the problems around the band didn't stop. Their next tour was canceled because Weston was sacked. In 1974, after a name dispute that led to the formation of an alternative band, under the name Fleetwood Mac, the original band returned a few months later, with a new album, called "Heroes Are Hard to Find". There were a lot of changes to the band's line-up until Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band at the end of 1974. A second album named "Fleetwood Mac" came out in 1975 and became a big commercial success. Among the hits are "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me".
This successful line up released four more albums during the following years, with their eleventh, "Rumours" to separate, since it won a Grammy in 1977 and contained the top hit "Dreams", along with "Go Your Own Way", "Don't Stop", "The Chain" and other. In 1987, Buckingham left the band (he returned in 1997 and left again in 2018), Rick Vito and Billy Burnette joined it, for almost 4 and 8 years respectively, Christine McVie also left the band between 1998 and 2014, when she returned until today, while Stevie Nicks stayed away from the band for 2 years, between 1995 and 1997. Kirwan died in 2018.
The band has released 3 more albums until 2018, while the successful 5-members line up (Fleetwood, John and Christine McVie, Buckingham, Nicks), reunited in the past for some shows.
Fleetwood Mac
