

Fleetwood Mac was an enormous hit in the U.K., spending over a year in the Top Ten. Fleetwood Mac soon signed with Blue Horizon, releasing their eponymous debut the following year. He joined the band a few weeks after their debut by that time, slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer had joined the band.

At their debut at the British Jazz and Blues Festival in August, Bob Brunning was playing bass in the group, since McVie was still under contract to Mayall. Inspired by the success of Cream, the Yardbirds, and Jimi Hendrix, the trio decided to break away from Mayall in 1967. In 1966 Peter Green replaced Eric Clapton, and a year later drummer Mick Fleetwood joined. Bassist John McVie was one of the charter members of the Bluesbreakers, joining the group in 1963. The roots of Fleetwood Mac lie in John Mayall's legendary British blues outfit, the Bluesbreakers. Buckingham left the group initially, but the band decided to soldier on, releasing one other album before Nicks and McVie left the band in the early '90s, hastening the group's commercial decline. The band reunited for one album, 1987's Tango in the Night, before splintering in the late '80s. The band retained its popularity through the early '80s, when Buckingham, Nicks, and Christine McVie all began pursuing solo careers. Combining soft rock with the confessional introspection of singer/songwriters, Fleetwood Mac created a slick but emotional sound that helped 1977's Rumours become one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. Obsessed with the meticulously arranged pop of the Beach Boys and the Beatles, Buckingham helped the band become one of the most popular groups of the late '70s. By the mid-'70s, Fleetwood Mac had relocated to California, where they added the soft rock duo of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to their lineup. Originally, guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer provided the band with its gutsy, neo-psychedelic blues-rock sound, but as both guitarists descended into mental illness, the group began moving toward pop/rock with the songwriting of pianist Christine McVie. Ironically, they had the least influence over the musical direction of the band.

Throughout all of their incarnations, the only consistent members of Fleetwood Mac were drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie - the rhythm section that provided the band with its name. Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late '60s, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade. Biography Tabs For Dreams Fleetwood Mac While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac.
