“The dinner was the audition,” Fleetwood recalled. The drummer agreed in principle, but set up a meeting over dinner between the young songwriters and what remained of Fleetwood Mac to ascertain whether the proposed line-up might work. “To Lindsey’s credit, he made it immediately and eminently clear that he wasn’t going anywhere without Stevie Nicks,” Fleetwood recalls. It was purely the music that left such a vivid impression.”īuckingham was a natural choice to join the group, but Nicks wasn’t part of Fleetwood’s plans until the guitarist made her inclusion a condition of his involvement. It caught Fleetwood’s ear, as he told David Wild for the sleevenotes for the Fleetwood Mac album’s 2018 reissue: “Lindsey’s style was so stunning and unique, it was what hit me first, and it hit me hard… I was not looking for a new guitarist or other band members at the time.
At the studio, producer and engineer Keith Olsen played Fleetwood a few tracks from a record he’d worked on – Buckingham Nicks, the debut album from a pair of young US songwriters, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. On hearing of Welch’s departure, Mick Fleetwood remembered a chance encounter he’d had a few weeks before, when scouting Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, as a potential place to record the band’s next album. “Lindsay and Stevie joined without playing a note” Listen to Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album here.
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Less than a year before its release, it looked as through the group – already featuring just two of its founder members, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie – were in serious trouble when Bob Welch, lead guitarist, frequent singer and songwriter, announced his departure, leaving only the rhythm section, plus Christine McVie (formerly Christine Perfect) on keyboards, vocals and songwriting duties.
Very few albums have impacted a group’s career like Fleetwood Mac’s self-titled 1975 album.