As her solo material is compiled, the singer and writer of hits including Little Lies and Everywhere will take on your queries
Fleetwood Mac’s songs span the full range of human emotion and pop expression, but the chances are that if you’ve danced to one at a wedding, it was written by Christine McVie. Everywhere, Little Lies, Don’t Stop, You Make Loving Fun – the band’s greatest joie de vivre was invariably channelled by her. And as her solo material is reissued on a new compilation this month, she joins us to answer your questions about her remarkable career – post them in the comments below.
McVie was grounded in the British blues scene of the mid-60s, duetting with Spencer Davis while studying at art school in Birmingham and playing in a local band, Sounds of Blue. She had a Top 20 hit with her next group, Chicken Shack, singing a cover of I’d Rather Go Blind, and came into the orbit of another set of British blues stars, Fleetwood Mac.
She married bassist John McVie, and started to add details to the band’s recordings: piano, backing vocals, and even the cover art for their fourth studio album Kiln House. She became a full member with 1971’s Future Games, and – amid a period of both great productivity and flux for the band – started to point them towards the pop-rock for which they would become globally famous. Her signature bright poignancy lights up McVie-penned songs such as Spare Me a Little of Your Love from Bare Trees (1972), Remember Me from Penguin (1973), and Just Crazy Love from Mystery to Me (1973), and she took lead vocal duties alongside Danny Kirwan and Bob Welch during this period.
The band settled into their imperial phase with the inclusion of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks who would share lead vocals with McVie, though their early hits in this lineup were still coming from McVie herself: her songs Over My Head and Say You Love Me both reached the US Top 20. The band went supernova with 1977’s eternally popular Rumours, with four McVie numbers – Don’t Stop, Songbird, You Making Loving Fun and Oh Daddy, plus the co-written The Chain – appearing on what has become one of the 10 biggest-selling albums of all time.
She was embroiled in the notorious emotional upheavals around the album – You Make Loving Fun was about an affair she was having with the band’s lighting director – and she and John McVie divorced, though the band continued with the pair of them. McVie got engaged to Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson, released a successful solo album in 1984, and then cemented Fleetwood Mac’s next superstar phase by writing two huge hit singles, Everywhere and Little Lies, for the 1987 album Tango in the Night, the latter with her new husband Eddy Quintela (they later divorced in 2003).
Aside from a brief mid-90s hiatus, the band have pressed ever onwards, though McVie took a long break between 1998 and 2014, before returning to a delirious reception for a Fleetwood Mac concert at London’s O2 Arena in 2015, and touring with the band ever since. Her solo material has sometimes been overlooked amid the stadium success of her main band, but gets a new outing this month with the compilation Songbird, which includes a new orchestral version of the title track, old solo tracks featuring Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton, highlights from 2004 album In the Meantime and two previously unreleased songs: Slow Down and All You Gotta Do.
Ahead of its release on 24 June, McVie, now 78, will answer your questions about her life and career – post them below and she’ll take on as many as possible.
Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie: ‘Cocaine and champagne made me perform better’
As she releases a compilation of her solo work, the writer and singer of some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits answers your questions on excess, infighting and Joe Cocker joining her wedding night
The UK blues and rock scene of the late 1960s was a very male-focused, testosterone-heavy environment. Did you ever consider yourself a groundbreaker for moving into that world? GeoffWhit
In those days, there were very few women, especially playing the blues, but I never felt singled out. It just all came very naturally to me when I was with Chicken Shack and things started happening for them. Shortly after that I met Fleetwood Mac. It just all fell into place and was really fantastic. Not too many women have said, “Thanks for groundbreaking”, to be honest. I’m sure I was appreciated, but it wasn’t hero worship or anything like that. Can you tell them to start [laughs]?
I first saw you with Chicken Shack at the Toby Jug at Tolworth in ’68/’69. Some astonishingly big names from rock and blues [among them Led Zeppelin, and David Bowie launching the Ziggy Stardust tour] appeared in the pub. Do you have any special memories from that small circuit? IDNumNoLongerWorks
I remember that place! We played there a few times and it was a pretty great gig. The atmosphere was phenomenal. In a small club, the sweat is palpable. It was such a great, friendly vibe and we thoroughly enjoyed playing in them. I wonder if we enjoyed it slightly less playing in much bigger places. Playing to thousands of people is more daunting, but you get used to it in the end. After the first 20 rows they all disappear anyway.
It wasn’t really a honeymoon. We just got married locally because my mother was sick. Oddly enough, there was that famously husky-voiced singer … Joe Cocker! He was staying at the same hotel and he got plastered with us, on our wedding night! Until we kicked him out [laughs].
What are your memories about joining Fleetwood Mac, after the departure of Peter Green? Skysaxon
Chicken Shack used to open for them. I got to know John, fell in love with him and it was just sensational and exciting. Fleetwood Mac were fantastic and really funny. The biggest joker was probably Peter Green, but they all had a very copacetic sense of humour with each other. It was heartbreaking for them when Peter left. They were rehearsing at Kiln House [Hampshire], and I was down there with all the wives. They came out of the rehearsal room and said: “Hey Chris, do you want to join?” I couldn’t believe my luck. I said: “Are you serious?! I’m just a girl who plays piano.” The style had to change because I was a keyboard player, and it developed a more commercial bent. It was thrilling, and I have to say to this day it still kind of is, knowing that I did that. Then it just got better.
What is your favourite period in Fleetwood Mac’s history and why? JohnB11
I would be silly not to say the Stevie [Nicks] and Lindsey [Buckingham] era, because that was pretty sensational. We had our fights here and there, but there was nothing like the music or the intensity onstage. We weren’t doing anything in Britain, so just decamped to America and fell into this huge musical odyssey. Stevie and Lindsey had been playing as a duo, made a great record [Buckingham Nicks], which to this day I really love, but hadn’t got very far. I think it was Mick [Fleetwood] who invited them to meet us. We all met in this Mexican restaurant, drank a few margaritas and decided to give it a go. We all got into this little rehearsal room and it just shot off like firecrackers.
What was it like being at the centre of the Rumours hurricane, with all the drug and relationship issues and stunning creativity? jimd
It’s hard to say because we were looking at it from the inside, but we were having a blast and it felt incredible to us that we were writing those songs. That’s all I can say about it, really.
Fleetwood Mac had a legendary alcohol and drug intake. In Keith Richards’ autobiography, he acknowledges some “blanks” in his memory. Is this the same for you? Mattyjj
No. I have to say I’m not guilt-free in that department but Stevie and I were very careful. The boys used to get provided with cocaine in Heineken bottle tops onstage, but Stevie and I only did the tiny little spoons. I suppose sometimes we got a bit out-there, but we were quite restrained, really. I always took fairly good care of myself. My drug of choice was cocaine and champagne. I didn’t use any other drugs at all. It’s easy for me to say, but I think it made me perform better. Maybe somebody could tell me different [laughs].
Which of the band’s glorious rock-star excesses (grand pianos in hotel suites, demands that hotel rooms be repainted) makes you smile or cringe the most? Mattyjj
I don’t think I ever had a piano in my room. Stevie always did, but she couldn’t play it [laughs]. So she’d have me come down and play. Nothing made me cringe. We all had definite images in the band. Stevie was the Welsh witch. I was mother nature. Mick was the raving lunatic. Everyone was very different, but we all got on, for the most part. In those days it was just all good clean fun. Well, fairly clean fun!
What are your memories of [late Fleetwood Mac guitarist] Danny Kirwan, and did you stay in touch with him over his many lost years? cymbula
No, not really. Danny and I didn’t really gel that well. Without wishing to offend anybody, we just didn’t click, but he was a knockout guitar player and he wrote some fantastic songs. So I do have a lot of respect for him.
Who or what was Sugar Daddy about? GeekLove
I don’t recall it being about anybody. I just dreamed it up. Most of my songs are based on truth, and real people, but a lot of them are just fantasies, really.
Do you regret your [16-year] hiatus [from Fleetwood Mac]? Or was it necessary for your mind and body? Did you think you would come back? Malaprop
I just wanted to embrace being in the English countryside and not have to troop around on the road. I moved to Kent, and I loved being able to walk around the streets, nobody knowing who I was. Then of course I started to miss it. I called Mick and asked: “How would you feel about me coming back to the band?” He got in touch with everybody and we had a band meeting over the phone and they all went: “Come baaaack!!” I felt regenerated and I felt like writing again.
How did you get over your fear of flying? Kmpmilano
One day I just decided not to be afraid of it any more, and that was it! I felt liberated. Then I thought: “I’m actually enjoying this.” Life’s too short to be afraid of things like flying. You’d never go anywhere. I love flying now.
It wasn’t until my 30s that I knew you grew up in the same village as me. Do you still consider yourself Cumbrian or is that a distant memory? GreenNick79
I was born in Greenodd and we lived there for three or four years before moving to Birmingham, where my father was a music teacher. Cumbria is a beautiful part of the world and we had a good time, but my distinct memory is of nearly drowning. I slipped in the mud and fell in the river, and they had to get me out using a fishing net.
Which of the songs that you have written are you most proud of? georgialh
I’ve got to say Songbird. I couldn’t sleep, started to get a song rolling around in my head and I wrote it in half an hour. “For you there’d be no more crying …” It’s sort of like a little prayer for everybody. We went into Zellerbach Hall studios [In Berkeley, California], they got me a bunch of red roses and I sang it alone on the stage.
What interests do you have outside music? appfree
Sailing. I have friends who have a yacht in Portofino, Italy, so sometimes go over there. I’m also a telly freak and like these long sagas. Narcos on Netflix is brilliant. It’s about Pablo Escobar and has a great plot.
Any thoughts on the Mac following in Abba’s footsteps and staging a virtual concert with your own avatars? Gauchiomurphio
I don’t think we’re doing it. It’s a novelty. People would rather see the real people, I’m sure.
Christine McVie’s Songbird (A Solo Collection), featuring two previously unreleased recordings, is released on 24 June and can be preordered now.
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