Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, UK Articles

Peter Green, the Fleetwood Mac founder who dropped out, dies at 73 | The Sunday Times

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Rosamund Urwin and Grant Tucker
The Sunday Times

He was the musician who encouraged a generation of teenagers to pick up the guitar but Peter Green’s own career was marred by psychedelic drugs and mental illness.

To some music fans, Green was the best of the British blues guitarists
GEORGE WILKES/HULTON ARCHIVE

Last night, the world of rock and blues was in mourning after the death of the Fleetwood Mac co-founder at the age of 73. Green, nicknamed the Green God by fans, formed the band with drummer Mick Fleetwood and bass guitarist John McVie in London in 1967. He was so instrumental in the band’s early years that its original name was Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac.

Their greatest hits included Albatross, Man of the World, Oh Well and The Green Manalishi. After he left the band, he missed out on their biggest success, the 1977 Rumours album.

Fleetwood Mac enjoyed staggering success, with four hit albums. In 1969, the band sold more records than The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, combined, and Green became one of the most famous musicians in Europe. But he left the band at the height of its fame after a final performance in 1970. He said he was leaving the music business “for my freedom” but was also suffering from mental health issues, and was hearing voices. He later had schizophrenia diagnosed.

He had gone off the rails after taking LSD. In 1996, he admitted that the drug had left a lasting impression on him. “I’m still there. . . I never did come back off the trip. I guess I took one trip too many,” he told The Daily Telegraph.

While on tour in Munich, Germany, to promote their third album, Then Play On, matters came to a head. “Peter took some more drugs,” said Mick Fleetwood in the 2012 BBC documentary Man of the World, “and never really came back from that.”

Peter Green, far left, with other members of Fleetwood Mac
ARALDO DI CROLLALANZA/COURTESY OF ORANGE AMPS

Continue reading Peter Green, the Fleetwood Mac founder who dropped out, dies at 73 | The Sunday Times →

Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green dies aged 73 | BBC News

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Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green has died aged 73.

Solicitors acting on behalf of his family said in a statement: “It is with great sadness that the family of Peter Green announce his death this weekend, peacefully in his sleep.

“A further statement will be provided in the coming days.”

Blues rock guitarist Green, from Bethnal Green in east London, formed Fleetwood Mac with drummer Mick Fleetwood in 1967.

Green left the band after a last performance in 1970, as he struggled with his mental health. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent time in hospital in the mid-70s.

He was among the eight members of the band – along with Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie, Christine McVie, Danny Kirwan and Jeremy Spencer – who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

In February this year, artists including Fleetwood, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons and guitarists Jonny Lang and Andy Fairweather Low performed at the London Palladium in a gig celebrating the early years of Fleetwood Mac and its founder, Green.

Originally posted on July 25, 17:10 at this link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53539989 

 

Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green, Press Kits, Release Info, Website Content

Fleetwood Mac Early Years CD And LP Collections Available On September 4 From Rhino

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FLEETWOOD MAC’S EARLY YEARS SPOTLIGHTED IN TWO NEW BOXED SETS

8-CD Set Fleetwood Mac 1969-1974 Includes Remastered Versions Of Seven Studio Albums Plus An Unreleased 1974 Concert

4-LP Fleetwood Mac 1973-1974 Collection Features Penguin, Mystery To Me,

And Heroes Are Hard To Find, Plus 1974 Concert And A 7” Single Limited Edition, Colored-Vinyl Edition Available For Pre-Order Now exclusively From Rhino.com

All Three Sets Will Available On September 4

LOS ANGELES – After Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, John McVie, and Jeremy Spencer started Fleetwood Mac in 1967, they quickly found an audience eager for their British-style blues. Over the next seven years, the band would sign with Reprise Records, release seven studio albums, and release many classic tracks that are still beloved today. Fleetwood Mac’s early rise to fame takes centerstage on two upcoming Rhino releases that spotlight the group’s deep-blues roots.

The first release is an 8-CD boxed set that includes remastered versions of all seven studio albums the band recorded between 1969 and 1974, several bonus tracks, and an unreleased 1974 concert recorded just a few months before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined the band. On September 4, FLEETWOOD MAC 1969-1974 will be available on CD for $54.98.

The set covers a five-year time frame that encompasses several different band lineups, from founding members Fleetwood, Green, McVie and Spencer; to later additions like Danny Kirwan, Christine McVie, Dave Walker, Bob Welch, and Bob Weston.

The collection includes seven studio albums: Then Play On (1969), Kiln House (1970), Future Games (1971), Bare Trees (1972), Penguin (1973), Mystery To Me (1973), and Heroes Are Hard To Find (1974). Those records fueled Fleetwood Mac’s early popularity in the U.K. and propelled them into the Top Ten with singles like “Man Of The World,” “Oh Well – Pt. 1,” “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Prong Crown),” and the #1 hit “Albatross.” Continue reading Fleetwood Mac Early Years CD And LP Collections Available On September 4 From Rhino →

Fleetwood Mac, Solo Activity, Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks on Her Life in Isolation: ‘We Have to Believe’ | Rolling Stone

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April 30, 2020
Rolling Stone
by Brian Hiatt

Group chats with Fleetwood Mac, listening to Harry Styles and more snapshots from Nicks’ quarantine life

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock (10182025e)
Inductee Stevie Nicks performs at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at the Barclays Center, in New York
2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony – Show, New York, USA – 29 Mar 2019

Stevie Nicks had always intended 2020 to be a relatively quiet year, but not quite this quiet. She’s been battling a case of Epstein-Barr virus since January, and has been safely holed up in one of her California properties with three friends and her dog Lily for weeks now. She was in good spirits in a late-night phone conversation not long ago, where she answered our quarantine questions and more. “You really do start to understand, maybe, what our parents went through in World War Two,” she says. “You start thinking of all the things that have happened that have caused people’s lives to just turn upside down.”

How are you holding up emotionally through all this?
I had planned to take this year off. We’ve been on the road one way or another, whether it was me or whether it be with Mac, since basically since 2009. I had seven months off in 2016. That’s the only vacation I had, and I worked at home doing all kinds of different stuff during that seven months. It’s been solid touring ever since. So last year I made a pitch to everybody that when this Fleetwood Mac tour is over. I’m taking next year off because I want to work on my “Rhiannon” book/movie [based on the original Welsh myth that inspired her song]. And I want to maybe work with some different producers… I don’t know what I want to do! I just know that I don’t want a tour! So I think it’s not as hard for me as it is for the bands that had a tour coming up this year. Because they’d be getting ready to go into rehearsal right now. So not only is your tour canceled and your rehearsal cancelled, but you’re quarantined to your house? Continue reading Stevie Nicks on Her Life in Isolation: ‘We Have to Believe’ | Rolling Stone →

Lindsey Buckingham, Tour Info

Lindsey Buckingham Reschedules 2020 Tour

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by
April 15, 2020

Lindsey Buckingham has rescheduled most of the dates of his brief solo tour that had been scheduled for spring 2020. The musician had a dozen dates planned for April and May. Eight of them have been moved to the summer.

When he postponed the tour on March 24, Buckingham wrote, “It is with great sadness that we are having to postpone my tour dates… due to the Covid-19 pandemic.” He noted that he is in the process of rescheduling the concerts.

The original Feb. 11 announcement of the tour arrived one year after the shocking news from his wife, Kristen, that the musician had had heart surgery in early February 2019.

Buckingham’s planned tour consisted of just 12 dates, one of which, the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tenn, was announced on Dec. 20. The annual festival has since been moved to Oct. 16-18, though as of April 13, the organizers had not yet announced their revised lineup.

Buckingham’s spring tour of theater-sized venues was scheduled to begin April 25 and continue through May 13. Surprisingly, there were few days off and at one point, he had shows on six of seven nights. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.

Kristen Buckingham had shared the news of her husband’s health on his social media platforms on Feb. 8, 2019. He had suffered vocal cord damage and was “recuperating at home and each day he is stronger than the last,” she wrote. He turned 70 on Oct. 3, 2019.

Buckingham had a highly visible parting from Fleetwood Mac in 2018. The band completed a tour this fall with two replacements – the Heartbreakers’ lead guitarist Mike Campbell, and longtime Split Enz/Crowded House guitarist-vocalist Neil Finn. Buckingham spent much of his time in 2018 organizing an anthology and performing on a solo tour.

Lindsey Buckingham 2020 Tour (Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com)

To Be Rescheduled
May 03 – Memphis, TN – Beale Street Music Festival
May 05 – Atlanta, GA – Woodruff Arts Center
May 12 – Tucson, AZ – Fox Tucson Theatre
May 13 – El Cajon, CA – Magnolia PAC

New Dates
Jul 31 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant (was May 1)
Aug 02 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater (was Apr 30)
Aug 04 – Wichita, KS – Orpheum Theatre (was May 9)
Aug 05 – Oklahoma City, OK – The Criterion (was May 10)
Aug 07 – Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater (was April 28)
Aug 15 – Las Vegas, NV – The Smith Center for the Perf. Arts (was Apr 25)
Aug 29 – Huntsville, AL – Von Braun Center (was May 7)
Aug 30 – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theatre (was May 6)

Lindsey Buckingham, Tour Info

Lindsey Buckingham Update

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It is with great sadness that we are having to postpone my tour dates in April and May due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are in the process of rescheduling the dates. Please contact your venue for further information. Full rescheduled dates will be announced as soon as possible.

—

The New Yorker – Culture Desk
Music to Endure the Coronavirus Quarantine
By Amanda Petrusich
March 20, 2020

Lindsey Buckingham

The coronavirus pandemic has been like no other phenomenon I’ve ever witnessed. The breadth of its reach, the seeming geometric progression of events, along with the chaotic manner in which information is unfolding, makes it a little difficult to maintain a grasp on what’s going on. Things seem to change by the day. I have a new album coming out at some point, and though the main body of my tour in support of that album is planned to begin in August, we’d also booked some earlier dates, in May, and thus were supposed to begin rehearsals this week. On Friday, I conferenced with my agent and managers and decided it would be best to cancel those May dates and not convene for rehearsals. So, for now, everything’s on hold. A couple of tracks I’ve been listening to lately are the new single from the Killers, “Caution,” which I played on, and the new one from Haim, “The Steps,” which is also great. And my son turned me on to the new King Krule album. He’s someone I find very interesting—a touch of Joe Strummer! But, mainly, I’ve been listening a lot to my own album, as I’m right in the middle of mastering. That’s something I’ve continued doing, as it’s important to finish as many things as possible and have the album ready when things eventually get back to normal.

Fleetwood Mac, Lindsey Buckingham, Obituary, Stevie Nicks, UK Articles

Keith Olsen obituary | The Times

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The Times

Producer who turned Fleetwood Mac into superstars only to have a falling out when he banned them from taking drugs in the studio

Fleetwood Mac: Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and John McVie in 1975
GAB ARCHIVE/REDFERNS

On the last day of 1974, Keith Olsen received a phone call that was destined to change the face of popular music.

On the line was Mick Fleetwood, the drummer with Fleetwood Mac, calling from a payphone at Los Angeles airport. Olsen was booked to produce the struggling English band’s next album in the new year but Fleetwood had some bad news to impart. His services would no longer be required because Bob Welch, the group’s guitarist, singer and main songwriter, had quit and Fleetwood Mac were facing extinction.

The two put their heads together in search of a rescue plan. Olsen had recently discovered a talented young guitarist named Lindsey Buckingham and his girlfriend Stevie Nicks. They wrote songs together and Olsen had produced an album for them. The record had flopped and “sold bupkis”, as he put it: at the time of Fleetwood’s phone call the duo were without a recording contract and Nicks was working as Olsen’s house cleaner for $250 a month.

However, Fleetwood had heard their record and was one of the few to be impressed. Perhaps, he suggested, Buckingham might be persuaded to join Fleetwood Mac? Olsen told him that he thought it was unlikely and, in any case, they wouldn’t be split up and he came as a pair with Nicks.

“Well, maybe that will work. Can you see if you can convince them to join my band?” Fleetwood asked. Abandoning his new year plans, Olsen drove to the couple’s apartment, taking with him “the obligatory bottle of bad champagne”. Continue reading Keith Olsen obituary | The Times →

Fleetwood Mac, Release Info, UK Articles

Fleetwood Mac – The Alternate Rumours to be released on vinyl on Record Store Day 2020

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RECORD STORE DAY 2020 Fleetwood Mac – The Alternate Rumours

Release Date: 9/26/2020 (postponed from 4/18/2020)
Format: LP
Label: Rhino/Warner Records
Quantity: 16000
Release type: RSD Exclusive Release

The album of alternate takes mirroring the original album, from the Rumours deluxe edition. Alternate takes include early versions and alternate versions for “Gold Dust Woman”, “The Chain”, “Don’t’ Stop”, “Dreams” and “Second Hand News”. On vinyl for the very first time.

Side 1 – 1.  SECOND HAND NEWS (Alternate) 2. DREAMS (Alternate) 3. NEVER GOING BACK AGAIN (Acoustic Duet) 4. DON’T STOP (Alternate) 5. GO YOUR OWN WAY (Alternate) 6. SONGBIRD (Alternate)

Side 2 – 1. THE CHAIN (Demo) 2. YOU MAKE LOVING FUN (Alternate) 3. I DON’T WANT TO KNOW (Early Take) 4. OH DADDY (Early Take) 5. GOLD DUST WOMAN (Early Take)

Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, Solo Activity, UK Articles

Mick Fleetwood’s All-Star Peter Green Tribute review — a ‘dream come true’ celebration | The Times

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James Jackson
The Times

★★★★★

It’s not often that you get members of Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, the Who, Aerosmith, Metallica and Oasis jostling about on the same stage. In fact, this never happens. Except, that is, when it’s Mick Fleetwood organising a “dream come true” celebration of his onetime bandmate and mentor, Peter Green. The drummer clearly has quite an address book.

Former bandmates Mick Fleetwood and Jeremy Spencer on stage together for the first time in 50 years

It’s not just Fleetwood who reveres Green either. The Syd Barrett of blues burnt briefly but brilliantly in the late 1960s before LSD triggered mental collapse (Green is an elusive presence today, but by all accounts more content). As with the best guitarists, you could always hear something deeper in his playing, some indefinable evidence of a fragile soul.

No one could quite capture that magic, not even the top-tier musicians on this night, but several came close. Not least the former Mac member Rick Vito, who took charge of the breezy opening numbers Rollin’ Man and Homework. From there the star cavalcade began: Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top added a Texas shuffle to Doctor Brown, John Mayall gave some vocal welly to All Your Love (at 86 he still has the blues) and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith brought rock-star charisma to Rattlesnake Shake.

With respect to these luminaries, early on it was Jonny Lang’s earthy solo attacks and Vito’s slide-playing on Love That Burns that offered the most mesmeric moments — far more so than Noel Gallagher’s attempt at acoustic blues or even the windmilling Pete Townshend’s demonstration of the link between Won’t Get Fooled Again and Station Man. Continue reading Mick Fleetwood’s All-Star Peter Green Tribute review — a ‘dream come true’ celebration | The Times →

Lindsey Buckingham, Solo Activity, Tour Info

Lindsey Buckingham Announces 2020 Solo Tour Rolling Stone

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By Andy Green,
Rolling Stone
Feb 11, 2020

Shows will mark first performances since he was sidelined by a heart attack in 2019

Two months after announcing that he’d be performing at Tennessee’s Beale Street Music Festival in May, Lindsey Buckingham has rolled out dates for a 12-date tour of the U.S. It kicks off April 25th at the Smith Center in Las Vegas and wraps up May 13th at the Magnolia Performing Arts Center in El Cajon, California.

These will be his first concerts since he was sidelined by a heart attack in February 2019.

“Unfortunately, the life-saving procedure caused vocal cord damage,” his family said in a statement at the time, “the permanency of which is unclear.”

He re-emerged just three months after the surgery to perform the Fleetwood Mac classic “Landslide” at his daughter Leelee’s high school graduation ceremony, but the students handled the vocal parts. He has not sang in public since the surgery and the state of his voice is not known, but last year his wife Kristen Tweeted out that he had met with vocal specialists. “We’re ready for whatever is next,” she wrote. “Love conquers all.”

Buckingham was let go from Fleetwood Mac in 2018 after years of tension with Stevie Nicks and replaced by Neil Finn of Crowded House and Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He sued the band for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. The matter was settled out of court.

Last month, Mick Fleetwood ruled out any scenario where Buckingham would return to the band. “We’re very, very committed to Neil and Mike, and that passed away a time ago, when Lindsey left,” he told Rolling Stone. “And it’s not a point of conversation, so I have to say no. It’s a full drama of Fleetwood Mac, no doubt. His legacy is alive and well, and as it should be. A major, major part that will never be taken away, and never be down-spoken by any of us.”

Lindsey Buckingham Tour Dates

Apr 25th – Las Vegas, NV @ Smith Center
Apr 28th – Boulder CO @ Boulder Theater
Apr 30th – Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
May 1st – St Louis, MO @ The Pageant
May 3rd – Memphis, TN @ Beale Street Music Festival
May 5th – Atlanta, GA @ The Woodruff Arts Center
May 6th – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre
May 7th – Huntsville, AL @ Von Braun Center Arena
May 9th – Wichita, KS @ Orpheum Theatre
May 10th – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion
May 12th – Tucson, AZ @ Fox Tucson Theatre
May 13th – Cajon, CA @ Magnolia Performing Arts Center