Fleetwood Mac on Fleetwood Mac by Sean Egan

Author:Sean Egan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Published: 2016-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

MICK FLEETWOOD, 2001

Sean Egan

This interview with Mick Fleetwood has not previously been published in this form. It was conducted at a point when the drummer was filling in time between musical projects: he was promoting the music memorabilia company Fleetwood-Owen.

Rock band manager, club manager, restauranteur, music publishing company owner—just some of the jobs known to speckle the CV of . . . er, Mick Fleetwood.

That’s right. The man familiar to the public as the drummer and founder member of Fleetwood Mac has in fact a lesser-known hinterland as a businessman. He brings up those previous jobs for the benefit of people who might be surprised by his latest venture: Fleetwood-Owen, an entertainment memorabilia auction business run in conjunction with business partner Ted Owen.

“It’s my nature,” shrugs Fleetwood. “Business ventures are a very normal part of my life. I personally managed Fleetwood Mac for many, many years, so this whole concept of ‘How could you suddenly be doing this?’ is not a correct concept. I’ve been doing business, all of which for the most part I have really enjoyed. I do a lot of things. My input on this is not a slap-my-name-on-it-and-disappear type of [thing].”

Fleetwood Mac as a studio outfit has effectively been on hiatus since 1995’s ill-received Time, so perhaps it’s only reasonable that Fleetwood should seek to fill in the interregnum prior to the upcoming reunion with his Fleetwood Mac colleagues.

Fleetwood apparently effortlessly taking center stage dates back to 1967 when Peter Green—a hot young guitarist forming his own band—decided to name his new ensemble after Fleetwood and bassist John “Mac” McVie. “It came about when all three of us were in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers,” explains Fleetwood. “John Mayall gave Peter Green a birthday present, and that was some studio time at Decca Records up in Hampstead. Peter played an instrumental. Me and John were playing on it as we were part of that session, and [producer] Gus Dudgeon said, ‘What’s this one called?’ Peter said, ‘Well, ‘Fleetwood Mac.’

“We had no idea we were forming a band and, when that happened a few months after that session, Peter called the band Fleetwood Mac. Me and Pete started the band and then John joined after the fact. We always knew that we could get him in the band. We wanted John to play bass and he knew it. He was a security-minded type of guy, so he waited for us to show him that it was a real gig and, when it was, he jumped boat.”

Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac—as they were originally billed—were in many senses a throwback: several years after people like the Rolling Stones and the Animals had moved on from rhythm and blues, Mac was absolute in its blues purism. Did it not worry them that in the ferociously fashion-conscious sixties the band would be perceived as a bit dated? “We weren’t that type of a band,” Fleetwood responds. “We weren’t looking to do anything other than play the music we loved. That wasn’t even a thought.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.