New Year’s Eve 1974 found Lindsey
Buckingham and Stevie Nicks at their
lowest ebb for some time, until the
phone rang and their lives were never
the same again. That’s just rock ’n’
roll for you: one never knows what’s
coming next.
Fleetwood had met Buckingham and
Nicks at Sound City Studios in LA, on
a spontaneous visit that had more to
do with a trip to the supermarket than
finding new members for his band.
The pair were working on some songs
for a new album, but hadn’t really had
any luck with their previous efforts
and were on the point of calling it a
day, when in walked Mick Fleetwood.
Keith Olsen brought Fleetwood to
Sound City to consider the merits of the
studio for rent, rather than the errant
musicians who happened to be there,
but Fleetwood’s ears pricked up when
he heard Buckingham play and he knew
he’d found the next guitarist for the
band. Unfortunately he wasn’t looking for
any other musicians than a guitar player,
however, when he got in contact with
Buckingham and Nicks it was obvious
they lived, worked and dreamt as a duo,
so it would be both of them or nothing.
Fleetwood made one of the best
choices for the listening public when he
decided to give the pair a break. He was
already hoping to change the musical
direction of his band, as the previous
album had floundered, and here he had
found new song writing blood in the
form of Stevie Nicks. So it was, that
the tenth line-up of Fleetwood Mac
was born in a downtown studio in LA.
What none of them knew at the time
was that the melting pot of their musical
talent provided a dynamic chemistry on
stage and in the studio; a chemistry that
changed all their fortunes forever.
Mick Fleetwood later commented
on this initial jam session stating,
‘The first time we played together was
in the basement of our agent’s office,
and it was at that point the real, true
excitement came. It was very apparent
that something was really happening. It
was very much like when the band first
started.’
Christine McVie was slightly more
reticent about having another woman
in the band. Not that she was possessive
or controlling in any way, but she knew
that one female amongst a band of
rock ’n’ roll men was complex enough,
especially considering the band’s track
record of incestuous relationships and
general shenanigans. She summed up the
situation quite succinctly, saying, ‘Mick
and John said to me, “If you don’t like the
girl, then we can’t have either of them,
because they are a duo.” The last thing
I was thinking about at the time was to
have another girl in the band. I had been
so used to being the only girl.’ However,
Christine’s concerns were soon assuaged,
‘We met them both. We all really got on
well together. Stevie was a bright, very
humorous, very direct, tough little thing.
I liked her instantly, and Lindsey too.’
Mick Fleetwood still had his work
cut out convincing Warner Brothers that
this new incarnation of the band was the
best thing yet, and that the next album
was going to prove to the suits and to
the fans that Fleetwood Mac were back.
With hindsight, it’s easy to wonder what
all the fuss was about, knowing as we
do that the band were on the verge ofa major breakthrough, but in the mid-
seventies, Fleetwood Mac were still just
a rocking, folky, blues band that had
by all intents and purposes passed their
sell-by date. The band were seen as trying
to make headway in a music market that
had already written off their particular
genre of music as old, faded, worn-out
and highly unlikely to appeal to the
kids. Up to this point, Fleetwood Mac’s
major impact had been in the United
States, leaving Britain and Europe rather
nonplussed about the group’s appeal. The
band had a bizarre seesaw effect with their
record sales on either side of the Atlantic,
where albums and singles that did well in
the States hardly scored in England, and
the one or two that sank without a trace
on the US hit parade invariably did better
in the UK. This made it very difficult toStevie Nicks during a performance in 1976.