The 20th of February 1972

Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 20th to Saturday the 26th of February 1972

Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 19th of February

Results counted from Sunday the 20th,

announced on Tuesday the 22nd,

and broadcast on B.B.C. Radio 1 on Sunday the 27th of February 1972.

Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits

At No.48 on the The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart on the day I was born is Fleetwood Mac  with “Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits”.

At No.48 on The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart on the day I was born…

…we find the original Greatest Hits collection highlighting the first line-ups of ‘Fleetwood Mac’.

This album would be a slow burner indeed, and we will catch up on it’s journey further along my musical road.

But for now, I meet this collection at the very beginning of it’s epic journey.

The compilation spans the years 1968 up to 1971,..

…which is also the year this LP was released.

But I’m going to go way back to the origins of the group and build up a musical picture from there.

And I’ll begin with the ‘Mac’ of the group. At the bass-line itself, as it would become. And which will originate in its embryonic stage with another ‘John’.

The main catalyst,..

…of the formation of the group would be the music legend that is John Mayall.

The iconic musician, songwriter, and producer, was such an important influence, with his foresight to penetrate the music of the blues into the awareness of the British populous, it’s unimaginable what the musical landscape could have been without him.

With his band the ‘Blues Breakers‘, three members would eventually emerge that would go on to become part of ‘Fleetwood Mac’. And the first of those would be John McVie.

John,..

…although not John Mayall’s first choice for his rhythm section (that would be Cliff Barton), he nevertheless came highly recommended, and was the first bassist to audition for this new group.

Impressed by the 18 year old, but noticing he needed to hone his skills, he gave John some B. B. King and Willie Dixon records to listen to, and practice with.

Early the following year, the new group, now officially called ‘John Mayall and the Blues Breakers’ released their first single, with John McVie on bass.

A while later, and after releasing the band’s first live debut album,..

…John Mayall hired another guitarist (some guy you may have heard of, called Eric), and released his second album with John on bass entitled “Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton” to showcase his new hire’s guitar prowess.

No better way is Eric’s virtuosity more evident, than on their cover of the 1959 Memphis Slim track “Steppin’ Out”.

After Eric left to form a power trio named ‘Cream’,..

…John Mayall replaced him with another highly respected and exceptional guitarist.

As DECCA producer Mike Vernon recalls in a later biography on the new recruit…

‘Mayall said, “Don’t worry, we got someone better.”

I said, “Wait a minute, hang on a second, this is ridiculous. You’ve got someone better? Than Eric Clapton?” John said, “He might not be better now, but you wait, in a couple of years he’s going to be the best.”

Then he introduced me to Peter Green’.

Peter,..

…had previously played in a couple of other R&B outfits before making a record with ‘Peter B’s Looners (the ‘B’ stood for Bardens) called “If You Wanna Be Happy”.

Not long after this recording,..

…Peter Bardens recruited a new drummer in the towering 6’ 6” form of Mick Fleetwood.

Mick,..

…would later credit keyboardist Peter Barden for kick starting his career as a drummer.

And it was while Peter Green was still part of that group, that Mick became firm friends with the guitarist, who briefly stayed, on while the ‘Looners’ morphed into a new group called ‘The Shotgun Express’ and welcomed new vocalists by the names of Rod Stewart and Beryl Marsden.

However, with Peter Green having joined the Peter B’s just after his 19th birthday, and before this new group got into the studio, he’d been lured away to join the ‘Blues Breakers’.

Nevertheless, ‘Shotgun Express’ carried on and released a single, featuring Mick on drums, which was “I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Around”.

Meanwhile, over in the Blues Breakers,..

…Peter had settled in to the band and, with him now teamed up with John McVie on bass, the group now recorded their third album ‘A Hard Road’, which featured a stunning piece of guitar work on Peter’s own composition “The Super-Natural”.

Shortly afterwards,

…the group also played backing on American blues pianist, singer, and songwriter Eddie Boyd’s album ‘Eddie Boyd And His Blues Band’.

And following that,..

…Mick got the chance to join Peter, and met John McVie (who quickly became Mick’s drinking buddy), over in the ‘Blues Breakers’ and played some live gigs with them.

During this time, John Mayall gave himself a break, and gifted a block of studio recording time to Peter, who promptly went into the studio with John McVie and Mick to record a few tracks, one of those he named after his now favourite Rhythm Section, which he called “Fleetwood Mac”.

However, back in the Blues Breakers,..

…Mick’s love of the bottle was noted by John Mayall to be proving more alluring than his commitment to his band, and so the new drummer was subsequently fired from the group after only playing live with them for a couple of months.

Peter, at this time, was also beginning to get itchy feet and (not wanting to lose touch with his favourite tub-thumper) decided he wanted to form a new group anyway, so followed Mick, and offered him a new drum seat for his new venture.

He also tried to entice John McVie away as well, but John decided to stay on, comfortable in his corner of the ‘Blues Breakers’ (and with a safe stream of income), with John Mayall for one further album with Peter’s replacement. 18 year old guitarist, Mick Taylor.

Unperturbed, Peter decided to carry on growing his new band,..

… by first recruiting another guitarist, Jeremy Spencer, to fill out the sound, and bass player friend Bob Brunning, who came on board in the understanding that it was a temporary measure (so sure Peter was at this time that he would get John eventually).

Jeremy,..

…had been discovered playing in the “Levi Set Blues Band”, by record producer Mike, and now co-founder of the new group’s record label ‘Blue Horizon’.

Impressed by what he witnessed at one of their live performances, Mike booked the the group some studio time, so that they could record some songs for a demo tape.

Afterwards, Mike spoke to Peter,..

…and played him the demos, suggesting that Peter also go and see the band play live.

And it was at that performance, that Jeremy was enticed to leave his current band and join Peter’s new outfit.

The new fledgling group,..

… now consisted of Peter and Jeremy as the guitarists, Bob on bass, and Mick on drums.

With this temporary line up, they recorded a few tracks, including “Long Grey Mare”.

Back to John,..

…who, weighing up his own personal future prospects, was sensing his current band were swerving towards a jazzier type of groove by adding horns to their sound.

The vibes from Peter’s old-school sound became too much of a temptation, and he eventually decided to jump ship, and took over from Bob as the bass player in Peter’s combo.

With the unit now complete, and Peter now satisfied that he now had everyone he wanted, the band recorded their first eponymous album and set out on the road.

And as for Bob,..

…having now relinquished his bass position in the band to John, moved on to another established blues outfit ‘Savoy Brown’, who released the single “Taste And Try (before you buy)”.

By the time ‘Fleetwood Mac’ came to record their 2nd album,..

…Peter decided he was going to follow the trend of his old bandleader John Mayall, and introduce a horn section into the group.

Another addition would be a keyboardist to help fill out the sound, who arrived in the form of Miss Christine Perfect.

Christine,..

…had leaned heavily into the blues scene since her teenage years, and that feel became a go-to in her piano manner, especially after she borrowed her brother’s Fats Domino songbook, and began playing in that style.

The first group she was involved with were called ‘Sounds of Blue’, which eventually morphed into ’Chicken Shack’ where, as well as their keyboardist, she would become backing and lead vocalist too.

It wouldn’t be long before the group were signed to the same ‘Blue Horizon’ record label as ‘Fleetwood Mac’, and were themselves releasing their own records, beginning with “Its Okay With Me Baby”.

And it would be between recording commitments with ‘Chicken Shack’,..

…that she would lend her keyboard skills, and fall in love with the bass player of the other group, while recording their second album, which was aptly titled (for Christine anyway) “Mr Wonderful”.

A short while after the album had completed, she stopped being Perfect and became Mrs. McVie instead, organizing a hastily arranged marriage between their separate live commitments, with Peter providing Best Man duties for the wedded couple, and afterwards spending their honeymoon at a hotel in the idyllic romantic surroundings of Birmingham, before both going back off to tour with their respective bands.

With the ‘Fleetwood Mac’ now fully established,..

…and with a growing following, they became part of what was known as ‘The Big Six’. An exemplary line up of the six most influential blues acts in the country. The ‘Six’ being John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, Chicken Shack, Savoy Brown, Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, and themselves.

The movement was now such a huge part of the musical DNA of the U.K. , that there was even a song recorded by a group called ‘The Liverpool Scene’ which sent-up the recent trend in the blues boom, and called it “I’ve Got These Fleetwood Mac, Chicken Shack, John Mayall, Can’t Fail, Blues”.

During the ‘Mac’s next tour around London,..

…Peter and Mick had chanced upon yet another blues trio called ‘Boilerhouse’, which impressed Peter to the point that he’d arrange for them to play as Fleetwood Mac’s support act.

Although he was keen to see this band turn professional, two members of the trio decided that the music business wasn’t for them which left their guitarist Danny Kirwan, on his own.

Danny,

…a truly delicate soul, had began playing guitar three years before, when he was just 15 years old.

A naturally gifted player. His inwardly nature, which enclosed his insecurities and emotional sensitivities, would surface through the beauty of the guitar strings when he played.

When he wasn’t performing in his three-piece set-up, he would listen to old Jazz Band 78’s and replicate their music through his guitar playing.

He would also lose himself in the music of the British blues records, and would find the opportunities to witness ‘Fleetwood Mac’ around his nearby clubs, and especially study Peter’s playing from the audience.

Having lost his own father at a young age, Danny looked at Peter as part father-figure, part big brother, and he became such a follower of the band, that he’d turn up and help them into the clubs with their equipment, assist them setting up, and jam with Peter after the band had finished their sound checks, before settling himself into the front row to take in the show itself.

Peter had been looking for someone to write songs with since the formation of the group, as Jeremy, although a great guitarist, frustratingly couldn’t write his own material.

After further jam sessions with Danny, and noticing his guitar style perfectly complimented his own, he convinced the skeptics in the rest of the band that Danny would be a benefit to the group.

Letting Peter act on his judgement, the bandleader then stunned his young follower by offering him a paid up position as a third guitarist, and also a writing partner, within the group.

Danny never had a chance to catch his breath, as the band were immediately booked to play up and down the country, recording radio broadcasts, and flying off to entertain clubs on nearby overseas Scandinavian shores.

In amongst all of that, Danny helped complete one of Peter’s unfinished tunes, that would culminate in the group’s first No.1 single “Albertross”, and also recorded one of his favourite old 1933 big band tracks by the ‘Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang Blue Five’ named “Jigsaw Puzzle Blues”, as his first lone credit for the B-side of the single.

So good was Danny’s playing, that even Peter had trouble replicating the tune, so let Danny take the lead on the track.

The performance peak of the group,..

…in this current line-up, would come when they landed for a tour in the United States, and managed to play at the legendary Ter-Mar blues studio at Chess Records, before it closed its doors for good.

Recorded in one day, the band, along with many illustrious label mates of the Chess name, recorded enough material to produce two albums worth of material., including this track, led by Jeremy, titled “I Can’t Hold Out”.

The unity of the band with one of Chess’ legendary musicians,..

…the revered Chicago blues pianist Otis Spann, resulted in Peter, Danny and John contributing to Otis’ album ‘The Biggest Thing Since Colossus’ not long after the session.

Meanwhile, back in Blighty,..

…Christine was getting ready to leave ‘Chicken Shack’ and retire from the music business entirely, due to not wanting the spend her married life in a different touring band.

However, before she made that decision, and with the band being pressured into achieving a successful single, she recorded the hit song originally co-written by American musician, songwriter, and record producer Ellington Jordan and first released by fellow co-writer Etta James, entitled “I’d Rather Go Blind”.

Christine’s vocal on that song alone secured her a ‘Melody Maker’ award for the U.K.’s Best Female Vocalist.

Back with Fleetwood Mac,..

…and after their successful U.S. tour, and blistering session at Chess, the group got together to record their next hit single with a B-Side taken over by Jeremy and the band, and credited as ‘Earl Vince and the Valients’, with his thought provoking and romantically tender (I’m joking of course) track “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite”.

However, it was the behaviour of their leader,..

…which was beginning to concern the other members of the band, beginning with the lyric on the A-side of that single “Man Of The World”.

In spite of these concerns for their bandleader’s emotional change in behaviour, the band, now signed to the Warner Bros. label ‘Reprise’ (as their output now wasn’t ‘pure’ enough to be recorded onto their previous label), and entered the studio to record their next album, with John’s wife Christine returning to donate her keyboard skills once again.

But one group member was notably absent for most of the recording.

Jeremy had been feeling increasingly isolated,..

…especially when it came to recording any material with the rest of the band. Peter and Danny were more than capable of providing the required guitar work for each record that they released.

In fact for the upcoming album, which would eventually be titled ‘Then Play On’, the only contribution Jeremy made to the sessions, was some piano on the second part of the track “Oh Well”, which wasn’t even included on the U.K. album’s release.

Jeremy’s contributions always outshone and entertained the others during the live shows. Where he would impersonate legendary musicians such as Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly. Even John Mayall, and Jeremy’s idol Elmore James, much to the audience’s amusement. Although it sometimes got too out of hand, even resulting in the band getting,…well..banned from the Marquee because of Jeremy’s extrovert behaviour.

All these antics though, we’re just a stage persona. Off stage, he would withdraw into himself, looking for an inner peace which he searched for by sticking his head in a bible.

For the album, not wanting to leave their guitarist out of the picture altogether, they intended to try and showcase his onstage personality onto vinyl, by included an EP of tracks, with Jeremy sending up his heroes. Much like he did on the B-side of their previous single.

On the EP, he would become ‘Ricky Dee and the Angels’ singing doo-wop, sing country blues as ‘Texas Slim’, or even become ‘The Orange Electric Squares’ and perform some acid rock.

The idea, which was given the name “The Milton Schlitz Show” was eventually shelved for inclusion on the album, and it would take almost 30 years for the tracks to eventually resurface.

As the band began approaching end of the decade,..

…with ever growing acclaim and success, other little cracks were beginning to set in, which although went relatively unnoticed, with the band getting on as harmoniously as they’d always done, the inner pressure would begin to gradually snowball to become an intense and extremely volatile time for all connected to the band, which would ultimately incur some huge repercussions, as the world spun ever on towards the 1970’s, taking sacrifices along with it.

With Christine now officially departed from ‘Chicken Shack’,..

…and with her record company desperate to hang on to her, they asked their prize winning voice to reconsider her retirement intentions by offering her the chance to record a solo album.

Pulling from her recordings in the ‘Chicken Shack’ days, including their hit single, and also getting assistance from her husband and his fellow band member Danny, when she covered Danny’s “When You Say” from their last album, she pulled her debut solo effort together.

Initially named ‘I’m On My Way’, she eventually decided to just call the album ‘Christine Perfect’, using her maiden name as her stage name.

When the album eventually released a few months later, it resulted in a second U.K. Best Female Vocalist ‘Melody Maker’ award for the second year in a row.

Jeremy,..

…after his EP fell through for the group’s album, also decided to record his own solo effort.

Naming his debut eponymously, he followed the same concept as the EP and filled the album with parody performances, and tributes to his guitar heroes.

In all but name, the record was a Jeremy-led ‘Fleetwood Mac’ LP, as the group backed him on every single track, apart from Peter, who only appeared on one song playing banjo.

The album in a way was a telling snapshot of Jeremy’s mindset at the time.

Using imitations, pretending to be others, onstage and now off as well, but withdrawing into himself spiritually when not have to ‘perform’, it seems pretty obvious to me personally that he was going through an ever building identity crisis at the time.

Mick, meanwhile, reunited with (and introduced Danny to) old band member Bob,..

…the original bass player of ‘Fleetwood Mac’, who was now playing in the group ‘Tramp’ at this juncture, and all three lent their skills to that band’s first self-titled album.

Nowhere is this more prominent than on the track “Hard Work”.

That left the group’s founder,..

…and the one who’d created the band.

To the outside, and probably to his fellow band mates who were using their time between group commitments to enjoy more music-making and enjoying the simple, and now affordable, pleasures in life, there didn’t seem too much to worry about.

However, Peter’s quiet corner of the group wasn’t slacking either. There were busy times going on, but they weren’t necessarily to do with music as such, but more to do with his own personal exploration, with others who may have seemed to mean well, and guide him to more exploratory heights, but were in reality more interested in the more exploitative benefits for themselves.

Events were accumulating. The snowball was getting ever bigger and gaining momentum, which the one concerned seemed to be fully cooperating in its growth and manifestation, that would ultimately lead to a clear watershed moment, not just for him, but for the whole future of the band.

In time, it would go down in Fleetwood Mac’s history as the catalyst of the group’s near fatal implosion, which they recall infamously as “The Munich Incident”.

Peter’s divination,..

…which had planted it’s seed as far back as their first American tour, now seemed to be developing within him at such a rate, it was beginning to blur the lines between his illusionary world and the real one.

Having succumbed to the divine exploratory allowances of the Lysergic Acid Diethylamide he was consuming at an ever growing rate since then, in his bid to obtain the ultimate higher state of supreme consciousness. He was now finding himself increasingly at odds with the mortals who were remaining with their feet firmly grounded.

There had been moments…

…when he had explored new musical avenues with members of the band, such as the idea of an overblown orchestral and choral concept album on the life of Jesus Christ, which he’d considered with Jeremy, the other member of the band who was also looking for a deeper meaning of existence.

Peter even took his interests to then next level by shifting his dress sense from jeans and t-shirts, to robes and the adornment of crucifixes. growing his hair and cultivating a big bushy beard, in an attempt to outwardly assist in the transcendence incarnate.

For the group, this was all well and good while they toured Europe and America to support their latest release, as long as the habits stayed within their limits of normalcy.

As concerning as this behaviour was to the rest of the group, as long as he could hopefully keep some sort of lid on it to the outside world, and still play the blues, and that they could still secure a tele-communicative line to his cognitive internal brain framework, the whole thing could work out okay. And it did, until they touched down in Munich on their second European leg of their tour, on the 22nd of March 1970.

It would be misconceiving…

…to say that certain individuals, eminently burgeoning on aristocratic in demeanour, were there to greet the band in good natured friendly welcomes, when in fact they seemed to only have special interests in Peter himself. Especially when he approached them as if they were old familiar friends.

It has since been surmised that the ‘welcoming party’ were German writer and filmmaker Rainer Langhans and his lover. Fashion model and actress Uschi Obermaier. Both were communards of the politically motivated ‘Kommune 1’ religous cult, which at the time was going through its second phase of sex, music, and drugs, which in turn would become the flash point that sparked the sexual revolution (the first act had focused on acts of political provocation).

With the Germanic couple’s openness to talk about once highly personal and explicit subjects which broke all manner of social taboos, their conduct began to gain notoriety, not least from other musicians who, impressed and also spurred on by this outlandish reactionary behaviour, and the wave of notoriety it was attracting in the public domain, began to follow their example (John Lennon and Yoko Ono being a case in point).

Even Jimi Hendrix, feeling that this was his type of party, turned up in the commune’s bedroom unannounced, and was immediately pounced upon by Uschi, who immediately fell in love with him.

According to Rainer, the driving purpose of meeting Peter was for him to help plan their own “Bavarian Woodstock” for which they planned to headline Jimi, and the Rolling Stones.

Peter was there to be used, to assist them with the insertion of the ‘Stones’ into the line-up.

To do this, the couple had concocted to invite Peter to their Kommune, where he would be given every available courtesy he so desired, however outlandish his requests, and be served drinks spiked with (unbeknownst to Peter) impure LSD.

According to the rest of the band, they felt that this meeting had been weeks, possibly months, in the planning, in what seemed to be a welcoming party to hail the new messiah himself, where everything would be offered that had once felt out of reach. Money was absolutely no object, and with Uschi being the most beautiful woman any of the band had ever laid eyes on, it seemed that nothing was off the table, especially for Peter, who they witnessed, welcomed it all with open arms.

The band played their scheduled set at the ‘Circus Krone’ beforehand,..

…and were then told that their band leader had been invited to a very special after-show party, which Peter very willingly stepped into their awaiting transport, for which he was whisked away to the most magnificent palatial internally psychedelically decorated manor, situated deep in the Bavarian Forest.

Having not been invited, all that the rest of the band could do at this stage was to tag along as an afterthought, and when they did finally arrive there, found that Peter was already fully ensconced in the Germanic ethereal orgy.

Also already present, was an air of uneasiness about the whole event of the fully manifested, made up, and paid up ‘Kommune 1’, with ‘Fleetwood Mac’s main blues man given the symbolic gratuities as their biggest illustrious and famous potential convert. Guided in like the symbolic sacrifice having their last extravagant hallucinogenic supper (whether he was aware he was following in Jimi Hendrix’s wake he probably never knew).

For Peter, this moment had been prepared for.

For the band, it was the culmination of every very bad thing which they’d all feared could never happen. But here it was, and they could do nothing to try and stop it.

Throughout the night,..

…the group’s manager, members of the touring crew which had tagged along, and the remaining members of the band (except for Danny, who had followed his leader down into submergence of drug fuelled dystopia), tried in vain to pull Peter, and Danny, up from the poisonous waters they were willingly drowning themselves in, but to no avail.

When the two guitarists did eventually resurface, and were bundled into the back of a waiting car to get the hell out of there, it was too late.

The two now-dysfunctional figures in the back, with their heads resting on each other, now resembled a pair of stroke afflicted bookends. Their mouths drooped, matched in a vegetative catatonic state. Completely void of any neurological function.

For Danny, he slowly reemerged to gain some semblance of self, but for Peter, and his position in the band, it was virtually all over.

The band limped through a couple more dates in Germany,…

…before heading back to the U.K. to finish off the tour. But within a couple of months, due to a concoction of drink, drugs and exhaustion, Peter fell away completely, after the last concert at the Roundhouse in London, on the 28th of May, leaving the overwhelmed quartet to go on without him.

With Jeremy terrified of having to fill Peter’s shoes, and Danny in a more fragile state than ever,..

…the group almost fell apart entirely.

It was only thanks to a couple of things which kept them all together.

The first was each of them having a quiet supportive talk with Mick, which managed to alay any sudden exits.

The second was the decision, as a group, to move collectively into an old converted kiln house (a purpose built house once used for drying hops for brewing beer), serenely based near the ancient market town of Alton, Hampshire, nearby to the village of Chawton, where Jane Austen lived the last 8 years of her life.

The setting would be a welcome relaxation for the band to readjust and collaborate on a new album, and once again, John’s wife Christine, which they now found officially retired after the low response from her solo effort, was again welcomed on board to help on keyboards and backing vocals.

For this album, she would also draw the artwork for the album cover, which the group would end up naming after the home they all now lived and worked in.

It was also around this time that Mick also got hitched to Helen Boyd, who was nicknamed Jenny.

Jenny was younger sister to Patti, who had married the Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison back in the mid 1960’s.

With Mick and Jenny’s Union, that meant Mick was also now George’s brother in law.

Although a lot of the album…

…was either separated Jeremy or Danny compositions, the new dynamic out front would form some songs together, such as the track “Station Man” which turned out to be a three-way collaboration, with Jeremy, Danny, and John.

The first weeks after the release of the album,..

….which took in dates up and down the U.K., the blues purists in the audience and fans of Peter, didn’t hold back about how much they disliked the new format. For both the album and the tour.

The pressure at this point really began to get to both guitarists, causing an already fragile Danny to begin drinking excessively over time, to try and steady the nerves.

After their last appearance at the beginning of January 1971, and prior to a U.S. tour which would start at the beginning of February, exactly a month later, which would see the band stay away until the beginning of Spring, John, this time with the rest of the band, proposed once again to his wife. This time for Christine to come over with them, and become a fully paid up member of the band.

Reluctant to spend the next couple of months on her own at home, she gladly took them up on the offer, and they were glad she took it, as although the surroundings while recording the last album had been a healing experience, there was definately a void to fill when they went back out on the road.

Christine again…

…found a welcome place within the band, but this time on a more secure basis.

While touring the U.K. without her, the loss of Peter had been ever more noticeable, but now with the prospect of Christine coming onboard for the U.S. dates, the sound on stage would begin to fill out again.

This in turn would also help calm the nerves of the two nerve-wracked guitarists. As Mick succinctly observed…

“Christine became the glue [that held the band together]. She filled out our sound beautifully.”

Back to being a 5-piece band once again,..

…they headed over to Seattle to begin the American leg of the tour, before moving down the country to San Francisco, where they played 4 successful shows at the ‘Fillmore West’.

The pessimism, negativity, and general doom and gloom of cold damp wet England soon subsided. Partly due to the fact that their latest album ’Kiln House’ had been better received in the States, than back home. Plus the majority of the audiences were at least prepared to give them a chance.

All seemed to be going well. However the next aftershock was to now cause even more panic and disruption to the group.

For Jeremy,..

…at the outset of the U.S. tour, and before he even gave the audiences there a chance, had been too affected by the initial reactions of the British press and public, and had begun to slip down the same psychological and psychedelic route his previous guitarist leader had fallen for. Jeremy’s drug of choice however had been Mescaline, which, when tuned into his ever growing spiritual internal advancements, began to amplify all manner of neurological torments already under severe stress in his brain.

The first signs began to show, when the group were listening to a recently recorded performance.

When Jeremy heard himself singing, he immediately repelled from the playback. Revolted by the sound of his own singing.

It didn’t help that, as well as his doubts about the other’s growing optimism of the whole band and tour, he was suffering from acute disastrous premonitions that something awful was about to happen

This was then exacerbated when the band’s next stop, a date at the Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles came with the news that the City of Angels had just experienced a severe earthquake.

It just became too much for Jeremy, who implored the band to cancel this part of the tour.

Attempting to calm him, they assured Jeremy that everything was going to be okay.

Besides this, there was too much at stake for the band to just stop. His appeals may have been acknowledged more sympathetically if this was the end of the tour, but they’d literally only begun the week before, and with only 5 dates now completed, but with another 30 to go, there was absolutely no chance they could invalidate so many audiences. It would be professional suicide. So collectively, they eventually managed to get him to L.A.

As the group settled into their hotels,..

…no doubt recovering themselves from the whole experience, Jeremy left the room he was sharing with Mick and decided to get some air and visit a bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard.

If it was answers to his spirituality and premonitions he was after, then this one moment was about to change the fate of, not just himself, but to everyone connected to him, with repercussions bigger than the earthquake they’d all just dodged. And for Jeremy himself, this opportunity came in a human form of someone who named himself Apollos.

The situation that ensued…

…was like a premeditated line of events which would, for Jeremy, be the answer that he’d been waiting for. And for the band, it would turn into a perfect storm that left them fighting at the wind which blew like a tornado around them.

It seems that who Jeremy met that day, was part of a small but significant number, who were proselytising, and spreading their spiritual message of revolution and happiness, where members could escape the outside world. A world which they called ‘the system’, and in turn, anyone who followed them would find redemption from the oncoming apocalypse which, to them, had been prophesied to return imminently, bringing with it the coming of a dictator, known to them as the ‘Anti-Christ’, promising a merciless One World government, which they alone would witness eventually being conquered by the return of Jesus Christ himself in the second coming.

In reality, they were part of an authoritarian religious cult which at that time, were amassing a huge amount of followers by talking to would-be believers, handing out leaflets, and generally spreading their word, and inviting whoever they could into their communes (not dissimilar to where Peter found himself at Kommune 1).

Naming themselves, at that time, the ‘Children of God’, they would invite these new ‘interests’ to one of their colonies, and each colony (or commune) had a leader, and all these interconnecting leaders were attached to one another in what they referred to as (and this is prophetic itself for any Fleetwood Mac fan) The Chain.

For Jeremy, it was as if God himself had answered all his prayers, and like a child being led away with the promise of a bag of sweets, he went willingly to their commune, never to return.

As the hours passed,..

…the group were growing more tense, sensing something was wrong.

Jeremy should have been back hours before, but there was no sign of him.

As the minutes ticked by, and got nearer to showtime, it became clear that a search party would have to be raised, and soon it became frantic. They didn’t know if he was still alive or dead. He’d literally disappeared off the face of the earth.

As the evening wore on, they faced the inevitability that the show itself would have to be cancelled while they kept up the search, with some band members probably now thinking that, if they did find him alive and well, they’d kill him themselves.

Anyone who could, asked anyone who knew of anyone that may have seen him. The search went on into the early hours, then into the next day, then into the next night.

Eventually, somebody managed to get a lead, and tracked it down to the commune where they found Jeremy, completely happy, content, and devoted to his new tribe.

Relieved that Jeremy was alive, but eventually having to accept that his chances of returning to the band were now dead, and with the one remaining guitarist refusing to take on America out front on his own, their manager pulled on the one redeeming hope which he could think of, to save the whole tour.I

It was a huge gamble, but it was the best chance they had.

The return of Peter…

…must have been a bit of a shock to all.

Since the huge setback he’d given the band less than a year before, he’d recovered enough to team back up to play with his old bandleader John Mayall and play with him at a festival in Bath the previous summer.

He’d also released his first solo album which sprang from an experimental free-form (most would less politely describe it as directionless) jam session with a different team.

The album had been called (quite forseeably) ‘The End Of The Game’.

If the members of the band had wondered…

…what sort of prospect they had to finish the tour with their old bandleader, and were then given this album, they may well have seriously decided just to give up there and then.

However, Peter’s redeeming qualities had also managed to shine through, when he had also teamed back up with the other Peter in this story, Peter Bardens, when he played lead guitar (under the pseudonym Andy Gee) for Peter’s own solo effort, the much more cohesive LP ‘The Answer’.

There were a couple of conditions…

…which he asserted upon the management, prior to his return.

The first was that he would only come back as a support guitarist for Danny, not playing any old songs, not taking the spotlight, but instead performing under the pseudonym of ‘Peter Blue’.

The other was that he could bring with him his friend (who also turned out to be Fleetwood Mac’s manager Clifford Davis’ brother in law) guitarist Nigel Watson, who had collaborated with Peter on a recent solo single release “Heavy Heart”.

Nigel would support the band on tour playing congas.

With these conditions readily agreed,..

…Peter, with Nigel, rejoined the band that he’d christened himself, ‘Fleetwood Mac’ (which now consisted of John, Mick, Danny and Christine), at the Swing Auditorium at San Bernardino, California, on Friday the 19th of February, which the band recorded for prosperity.

From here,..

…the band travelled east where they played a couple of shows at the Fillmore in New York, followed by a show at the State University of New York College, and finally finishing up at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, before heading back home with Peter and the band going their separate ways for the final time.

Later on, Christine would summarize the previous twelve months into one succinct drawing of a line under the whole dramatic event…

“Over the last year, it seems as if we have just been battered and beaten about the head with a giant club.”

Retreating back to Hampshire,..

…but this time to a large country pad called ‘Benifold’, which they’d conjointly bought with their manager before going on tour, they rested up and held auditions for a rhythm guitarist to support Danny, who they agreed, had earned himself the honour to become the main lead guitarist of the group.

Getting a tip-off from a friend of the band called Judy Wong, they decided to organise a meeting with her old American school friend Bob Welch (who was living in Paris at the time), at their new residence.

This new Bob…

…to the group, had been born and raised into a showbiz lifestyle in Hollywood, California.

His father was a producer and screenwriter at Paramount studios who had once produced films for Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. His mother was a singer and actress who had worked with Orson Welles at the Mercury Theatre in Chicago.

Although Bob initially took up playing the clarinet at school, he soon changed to guitar, where he became interested in Jazz, R&B and rock music, and around the age of 18 he’d lent his guitar playing skills, when he joined the vocal group calling themselves ‘The Seven Souls’.

This band had previously entered into a ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition in the States, where the potential winners would win a contract with ‘Epic’ records. However they lost out to a soul and funk combo called ‘Sly and the Family Stone’.

‘The Seven Souls’ did release a single called “I’m No Stranger”, which didn’t fare too well. However it’s B-side “I Still Love You” would go on to become quite a ‘Northern Soul’ anthem over here in the U.K..

Since then, Bob had relocated to Paris,..

…where he’d set up a new 3-piece band named ‘Head West’, but which had not gained much success, before his opportunity to meet up with ‘Fleetwood Mac’ arrived.

The band ended up having two meetings with Bob, and he never played a note with them.

Instead, they’d based their judgement on some recordings of his songs, and promptly invited him, firstly into the band, and then also their home at ‘Benifold’, which he humbly accepted. Leaving behind his Parisian digs, where, by his own admission, he’d been “living on rice and beans and sleeping on the floor.“

Danny,..

…was now officially out front, with Bob there to support him on rhythm guitar.

The decision to welcome Bob into the group had been a collective decision, as Mick recalled years later in his book (which he jointly penned with Stephen Davis) entitled ‘My Life and Adventures with Fleetwood Mac’…

“We loved his personality. His musical roots were in R&B instead of blues [and] we thought it would be an interesting blend. He had a precise sense of phrasing and timing and he was well-trained, as opposed to us, who had just wandered into it.”

However, when it came to the two guitarists playing together,..

…their styles were completely different.

Whereas Danny was fully embedded into Peter’s rock and blues niche, Bob’s more Jazz fusion, boarding on FM friendly style was nowhere near the same.

It was also clear, when it came to composing songs which would form the bands next release, that they found it difficult to write together, with the resulting album ‘Future Games’ consisting of 3 of the 8 tracks specifically written by Danny, 2 written by Christine, 2 written by Bob (including the album’s title track), and an instrumental jam, credited to the whole group.

The drastic, eventful, but helpless changes which had plagued them over the past 18 months, had now completely transformed the style and dynamic of the group, making them almost unrecognisable to what had gone before.

The band, up to this point,..

…had barely survived the extraordinary challenges which had behest them throughout their short life. It’s difficult to process, that most of which I’ve written, and that you have just read, from their inception, to their latest studio album, has spanned little over a 4 year period.

Peter, Mick, Bob, and Jeremy.

Peter, Mick, Jeremy, and John.

Peter, Jeremy, Mick, John, and Danny.

Jeremy, Danny, Mick, and John.

Danny, Jeremy, Mick, John, and Christine,

Danny, Mick, John, Christine, and Peter (again).

and lastly (for now) Danny, Christine, Mick, John, and (a new) Bob.

With their latest album now released,..

…it would soon be time to begin a promotional tour, which would start back where they left off, on the east coast of America.

And to tie in with the new tour, the band would release their first official ‘Greatest Hits’ album. Which brings me right up to the day I am born.

This retrospective set,..

…would ride through all their hits to date, with two thirds of those being standalone singles, and nothing included from the latest line-up’s sessions, or new studio album.

Due to this, the album features Peter singing on virtually every track, apart from one, which is Danny’s composition ‘Dragonfly’ (with words lifted from Welsh poet William Henry Davies’ poem of the same name), which had been recorded as part of the ‘Kiln House’ sessions.

At this stage, this album will achieve only a couple of weeks in the chart, and this week is the 2nd of those 2 weeks.

The week before it had entered at the slightly higher position of No.41.

After this week though, it will leave, only to return for further week-long visits for the rest of 1972.

The first one of those week long stays being a month later, in mid-March, where it reaches No.36.

It returns again a month further on, in mid-April. Again, only residing for one week, this time at No.48 again, before it’s final showing this year, when it lands back in at No.44, for the last week in September.

And even though that would be all the chart action it would achieve this year, it’s absence would not be for long, and would definitely not be for good.

Side 1

Side 2

As yet there is no source online to stream this album.

There have been so many other Greatest Hits of Fleetwood Mac that the later years have swallowed this effort up.

For now, I have done my best to create playlists for both sides of this album so I hope I’ve got the track versions correct.

Many thanks go to the following YouTube Channels for providing the chance to hear this music once again.

Please show your appreciation by visiting their channel:

• MissClawdymusic
• John Mayall – Topic
• tatarin23
• iGaucho
• maestroronnepon
• Fleetwood Mac
• Andria Rogava
• chadiatary 1960
• Savoy Brown – Topic
• David Oldman
• The Liverpool Scene – Topic
• Radio Wollaton
• Otis Spann – Topic
• Chicken Shack – Topic
• Lobo Jones
• lazy poker
• Dixie Blue
• Nicholas Woltersdorf
• Brunning Sunflower Blues Band – Topic
• Peter Green – Topic
• Peter Bardens – Topic
• I Am The Passenger
• Solstice Shadows
• brico
• MECA PD CHANNEL

Listen to “The Official Top 50 UK Singles Chart: 20th February 1972” Playlist here:

• The Official Top 50 UK Singles Chart: 20th February 1972

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No.47 on “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart” on my Birth Day

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No.49 on “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart” on my Birth Day

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