sense of humour – or perhaps just a
healthy sense of irony. Christine McVie
later discussed the album reflecting,
‘The outcome of the various separations
and emotional upheavals in the band
that caused so many rumours are in
the songs. We weren’t aware of it at the
time, but when we listened to the songs
together, we realised they were telling
little stories. We were looking for
a good name for the album that
would encompass all that, and the
feeling that the band had given
up, the most active rumour flying
about. And I believe it was John,
one day, who said we should call it
Rumours.’
In 1976, Fleetwood Mac
withdrew to the Record Plant
studio in Sausalito, California
with producer Richard Dashut
to record the songs that were
coming out of this difficult period.
However, it turned out to be so stressful
that eventually the group went out on
the road just to relieve the tension that
being cooped up in a studio had brought.
This gave Fleetwood Mac an opportunity
to test out some of the new songs they
had been working on and provided a
good level of feedback, so that when they
returned to recording again they had a
fresh idea of what was working for the
fans and what wasn’t going down so well.
Instead of carrying on at the Record
Plant studio, they shifted back to LA, and
eventually recorded parts of the album in
no less than four different studios.
The services of Keith Olsen had
been discarded, not through any major
problems with his work, but becausethe band wanted to take greater control
of what was happening at the mixing
desk. They now exhibited the kind of
confidence in themselves that favourable
record sales encouraged, and were keen to
stamp their individual characters firmly
on the album called Rumours.
Taking this desire to have greater
control over all the aspects of producingthe albums and touring the band, Mick
Fleetwood and John McVie set up
their own managerial company, rather
amusingly called Seedy Management.
The bulk of the responsibility for this
enterprise fell on Mick’s shoulders,
‘We’re much less insulated,’ he said,
explaining their ethos, ‘because I make
sure everybody knows what’s going on.
An outside manager has a tendency
to try to make it look as though
everything is going smoothly even
when it’s not. I think we’ve got
complete peace of mind. I think,
for instance, that if someone from
outside had been handling this
band we would have probably
broken up when there were
problems. This band is like a highly
tuned operation, and wouldn’t
respond to some blunt instrument
coming in. There’s a trust between
all of us that would make that a
problem.’
John McVie was particularly proud
of their efforts and was keen to point
out that, ‘The hardest thing for people
in the business to accept is the fact that
the band achieved all that it has without
professional help. Some people still think
that Mick’s just a dumb drummer and
I’m a dumb bass player.’Christine McVie (left) and Lindsey Buckingham (centre) in performance during the Tusk tour.“The way we approach it is more
like the way the Beatles used to
approach their thing in the studio;
having a general idea and then
going into the studio and letting
the spontaneity happen.”Lindsey Buckingham