Christine McVie, Fleetwood Mac’s “songbird,” is silent

Christine Perfect was no stranger when she joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970. While studying sculpture in Birmingham, she had already gained many fans for her bluesy singing voice and had previously sung backing vocals with Spencer Davis and played keyboards in a blues band. After graduating, she moved to London, where she learned that her former band members had formed a new band, Chicken Shack. They were only too happy to agree when she asked if they could use a keyboard player and singer. She sang their biggest hit, a cover of Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind,” and wrote several songs for the group.

The Chicken Shack toured regularly with another group on their record label, Fleetwood Mac. After one concert in 1968, sparks flew with their bassist John McVie. They got married a few weeks later and she was named after her. “The joke I always made is that I was perfect until I married John.”

Perfect came from a rather unorthodox and artistic family. His father Cyril Perfect was a concert violinist, his mother Beatrice Reed a medium and faith healer. In an interview with The Guardian as of 2016, he said he strongly believed that his mother had cured several people of cancer.

When guitarist Peter Green, one of the founders of Fleetwood Mac with John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, decided in 1970 to trade the group for a quiet life in a German commune, McVie asked his wife to join the band. She had already played keys on some of the band’s songs. And Fleetwood Mac had hired a very young guitar god in 1968, Danny Kirwan, who led the group away from the pure blues they had been playing up until then. The instrumental hit “Albatros” was the most famous example of that new sound.

Although Christine McVie had just recorded a solo album in 1969, she accepted the invitation.

Revolving door

In the years that followed, the group seemed to have a revolving door: Kirwan was fired due to his drinking problem, guitarist Bob Weston because he started an affair with Fleetwood’s wife, Jenny Boyd. Christine and John McVie moved to Los Angeles in the early 1970s, where Mick Fleetwood listened to guitarist Lindsey Buckingham in 1974. He wanted to join Fleetwood Mac if his girlfriend Stevie Nicks could come with him. With the addition of the two Americans, the group changed again, now to a California rock group.

Fleetwood Mac, the group’s first record with Buckingham and Nicks, was an instant success, with Nicks’ “Rhiannon” being the biggest hit. Four songs were written by McVie, plus “World Turning”, which he co-wrote with Buckingham, accounting for the lion’s share of the songs. From Voices from 1977, which is even more successful, he wrote the hits “Don’t stop” and “You make loving fun” and “Songbird”, which was his favorite song. “You Make Loving Fun” was dedicated to Curry Grant, the group’s lighting technician, with whom she was having an affair: she and John had broken up, as had Buckingham and Nicks. Mick Fleetwood was also divorced.

• Stevie Nicks: Little Woman, Big Gestures

In the midst of those broken relationships, McVie and Stevie became best friends with Nick. “We shared a room on tour, painted our faces and lived on a diet of Dunkin’ Donuts,” he said. McVie was level-headed and professional: her divorce from John, unlike Buckingham and Nicks, was amicable, and Nicks had made it clear early on that they would be allies in the group, not rivals. ‘It was a bit like the Army,’ he said of their lives: despite addictions to sex, drugs and alcohol, the group completed endless tours.

In 1998, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and McVie called it a day. He developed a fear of flying and retreated to the Kent farmhouse he was renovating. But in 2013 she felt the itch again and returned to the group. After Buckingham was kicked out of the group, she recorded a record with him in 2017.

McVie’s death came as a surprise and was announced by his family. She passed away peacefully in hospital this morning, Wednesday 30 November 2022, after a short illness. She was with her family. We kindly ask that you respect the family’s privacy at this painful time.” She turned 79.