Rumours? All true – 10 things you might not know about Fleetwood Mac.

(Picture: Allstar Collection)

1.) Founding member Peter Green, who alongside Clapton is often hailed as one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time, was suffering from mental troubles before he left the band in 1970 – he also tried to persuade the rest of the band to give away all their profits to charity. A bad acid trip in Munich sent him over the edge.

Fleetwood Mac back in 1970. Left-right: Mick Fleetwood, John Mc Vie, Jeremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan and Peter Green (Picture: Syndication International)

2.) Much has been made of the ‘curse’ on Fleetwood Mac guitarists. Following Peter Green’s departure, Jeremy Spencer went awol in LA in 1971 – he was eventually located with the Children of God cult. Another guitarist, Danny Kirwan, was fired in 1972 after a drink-fueled episode which saw him bashing his head against a bathroom wall and smashing up his guitar.

3.) And the curse struck again – Mick Fleetwood’s wife Jenny Boyd (whose sister Pattie married both George Harrison and Eric Clapton) had an affair with Mac guitarist Bob Weston. He was also fired, in 1973. Mick and Jenny would divorce, remarry and divorce again.

The real Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac – accept no imitations (Picture: Herbert Worthington)

4.) Following this stream of misfortunes, manager Clifford Davis actually put a fake Fleetwood Mac out on the road to fulfill the real band’s tour obligations. The remaining members of the true group took lengthy legal action against him when they found out.

5.) The classic Rumours lineup was the 10th incarnation of the band – Fleetwood heard a Buckingham Nicks demo at Sound City and wanted to get Lindsay on board as a new guitarist, but he said he wasn’t going anywhere without Stevie. Both were hired, without an audition.

6.) Christine McVie wrote Rumours’ ‘You Make Loving Fun’ about the band’s lighting director, Curry Grant. She was still technically married to John McVie at the time, but they were separated and both seeing other people.

7.) The Chain is the only song credited to all five members of this classic Rumours lineup – and it was created by the merging of three different songs. It’s also been the soundtrack to the for BBC’s Grand Prix coverage since 1978.

8.) Rumours only ever managed a single week in the UK hot spot – before being overtaken by Abba’s The Album. it has spent 31 weeks at Number One in America, overall.

(Picture: Rhino/Warner Bros)

9.) The Stevie Nicks penned Landslide, one of Fleetwood Mac’s most beautiful and beloved songs, was never actually released as a single. A lot of its popularity today is down to covers by The Smashing Pumpkins and the Glee cast featuring Gwneth Paltrow–otherwise unlikely bedfellows.

10.) The pair of balls which can be seen dangling from Fleetwood’s belt on the Rumours front cover are of the same kind he always wears when drumming – originally they were toilet chain-balls, snatched from a club the band played in the early days as a good luck token.

Mick Fleetwood, kicking back without his toilet chain balls… (Picture: Dominique Pandolfi)