Born on this day in 1943: Singer and keyboardist Christine McVie from Chicken Shack, and then Fleetwood Mac, who scored the US No.1 single ‘Dreams’ taken from their worldwide No.1 album Rumours which spent 31 weeks on the US chart. Eight of her songs appeared on Fleetwood Mac’s 1988 Greatest Hits album.
Although McVie was introduced to the piano when she was four, she did not study music seriously until age 11, when she was re-introduced to it by Philip Fisher, a local musician and school friend of McVie’s older brother, John. Continuing her classical training until age 15, McVie shifted her musical focus to rock and roll when her brother, John, came home with a Fats Domino songbook. Other early influences included The Everly Brothers.
In 2013, McVie appeared on stage in Maui, Hawaii performing with the Mick Fleetwood Blues Band which included Mick Fleetwood and ex-Fleetwood Mac guitarist Rick Vito. This was her first appearance on stage in 15 years. Later in September, Christine McVie joined Fleetwood Mac on stage for the first time in 15 years to play “Don’t Stop” at The O2 Arena, London. She played on two dates and her appearance on stage was received with rapturous applause. On 11 January 2014, Mick Fleetwood announced during a concert in Maui that McVie would be rejoining the band, and it was officially announced two days later that she had rejoined. The band’s most popular lineup (Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie and Stevie Nicks) performed together for the first time since 1998 in its On with the Show tour beginning in Minneapolis at the Target Center on 30 September 2014.
In August 2016, Mick Fleetwood said that while the band has “a huge amount of recorded music”, virtually none of it features Stevie Nicks. Lindsey Buckingham and McVie, however, have contributed multiple songs to the new project. Fleetwood told Ultimate Classic Rock, “She [McVie] … wrote up a storm … She and Lindsey could probably have a mighty strong duet album if they want. In truth, I hope it will come to more than that. There really are dozens of songs. And they’re really good. So we’ll see.”
Buckingham and Christine McVie announced a new album titled Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie, which also features Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. The album was originally planned as a Fleetwood Mac album. Stevie Nicks did not participate due to her preference for a solo tour with The Pretenders. Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie was released in June 2017.
