"Christine Perfect"
redirects here. For the album, see Christine Perfect (album)..
| Christine Mcvie |
From
The Mirage Tour Book
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Christine Anne Perfect |
| Born |
July 12, 1943 (1943-07-12) (age 64) |
| Origin |
 Birmingham,
England |
| Genre(s) |
Rock, Blues |
| Instrument(s) |
Vocals, Keyboards, Piano |
| Years active |
1967–2004 |
| Label(s) |
Reprise, Blue Horizon |
Associated
acts |
Fleetwood
Mac (1970-1998) Chicken Shack (1968-1969) |
| Website |
www.christinemcvie.com |
Christine McVie (born Christine Anne
Perfect, July
12, 1943, in
Greenodd,
Lancashire)
is an English
singer, keyboardist,
and songwriter.
Her primary fame came as a member of the band Fleetwood
Mac, though she has also released three solo albums.
|
Contents
- 1 Early
life
- 2 Early
Music
- 3 Fleetwood
Mac
- 4 Discography
- 4.1 With
Fleetwood Mac
- 4.2 Solo
Albums
- 4.3 With
Chicken Shack
- 4.4 Singles
- 5 References
- 6 External
links
|
Early life
Christine Anne Perfect was born on July 12th, 1943. Her
father, Cyril, was a college professor and concert violinist, and
mother Beatrice (called Tee) was a medium, a psychic and a faith
healer. Her grandfather had played the organ in Westminster Abbey.
Although Christine had been introduced to the piano at age four, she
didn't really take to music until she was 11. She continued taking
classical music lessons until the age of 15, when her older brother,
John, brought home a Fats Domino songbook which transformed her musical
interest from classical music to rock n' roll. Other early influences
include The Everly Brothers and The
Beatles.
Early Music
Christine studied sculpture at an art college in Birmingham,
England for 5 years, with the goal of becoming an art teacher. During
that time she met a number of budding musicians in England's blues
scene. Although studying art at the time Christine had an innate love
for the music business. Her first foray into the music field didn't
come until she met two friends Stan Webb and Andy Silvester in
a pub one night. At the time they where playing in a band called
"Shades Of Blue" which had a few dates booked but no bass guitarist.
Knowing that Christine had musical talent they asked her to join.
Also during that time she would often sing with Spencer Davis. After 5
years Christine graduated from art college with a teaching degree, but
by that time "Shades of Blue" had split up.
Fresh out of art college Christine found that she didn't have
enough money to launch herself into the art world, so she moved to London, where she
worked briefly as a department store window-dresser.
Chicken Shack
In 1968 a friend of Christine told her that her ex-bandmate
Andy Sylvester and Stan Webb were forming a blues
band and were looking for pianist, so she wrote to them asking to join
them. A few days later they replied, inviting her to play
keyboards/piano and sing background vocals in their band Chicken
Shack.
Christine stayed with Chicken Shack for 2 albums and together they
scored the top 10 British hit "I'd Rather Go Blind" with Christine on
lead vocals. She was also given a Melody Maker award for female vocalist
of the year, and she was lauded for having one of the "top 10 pairs of
legs in all of Britain". Christine left Chicken
Shack in 1969 after meeting Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie.
Fleetwood Mac
Christine was a big fan of Fleetwood Mac at the time and while
touring with Chicken Shack the two bands would often run into each
other. Encouraged to continue her career, she recorded a solo album, Christine
Perfect, which she does not feel is among her better works.
As Christine McVie, she joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970, just after
marrying Fleetwood Mac bass guitarist
John
McVie. She had already contributed backup vocals, played
keyboards, and painted the cover for Kiln House.
The band had just lost founding member Peter Green and its
members were nervous about touring without him. McVie had been a huge
fan of the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, and since she knew all the
lyrics to their songs, she went along. McVie quickly became an
essential member of the group and the author of some of its finest
songs, a position she would continue to hold for nearly 25 years.
The early '70s
was a rocky time for the band, with a revolving door of musicians, and
only the albums Mystery To Me
and Bare Trees
scoring any successes, not to mention that a group impersonating
Fleetwood Mac was touring the United States without their
permission. John McVie's alcohol drinking became unbearable;
Christine had an affair with a music producer, and she nearly left John
and the band to make a solo album with her lover. However, he went back
to his spouse, so she did the same.
In 1974, Christine McVie reluctantly agreed to move with the
rest of the band to the US and make a fresh start. Within a
year, Stevie
Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of Buckingham
Nicks joined the band. They breathed new life into the music. Their
first album together, 1975's Fleetwood Mac,
had several hit songs, with McVie's "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me"
both reaching Billboard's top-20 singles chart.
In 1976, McVie began an on-the-road affair with the band's
lighting director, which inspired her to write "You
Make Loving Fun", a top-10 hit on the landmark smash Rumours,
one of the best-selling albums of all-time. Her biggest hit was "Don't Stop", which
climbed all the way to #3 and has become identified forever as the song
Bill
Clinton played on the Presidential campaign trail and at his 1993
Inaugural Gala (McVie and the others performed there, as well as at the
Super
Bowl a few days later).
By the end of the Rumours tour, the McVies
had divorced. The 1979 double album Tusk
produced three more top-20 hits ("Tusk", "Sara", and "Think About Me"),
but it was considered a disappointment since practically nothing could
top the success of the Rumours album. The "Tusk"
tour continued into 1980, following which, the band took time apart.
They reunited in 1981 to record the album Mirage
at a chateau in France. The album, released in 1982, returned the band
to the top of the US charts and also contained the top-5 hit "Hold Me",
co-written by McVie. The track was also the band's first music
video; McVie's inspiration for the song was her tortured relationship
with Beach
Boys member Dennis Wilson. Wilson drowned in an
accident a few years later, breaking McVie's heart.
In 1984, McVie decided to take a risk and to record a solo
album, as most of the other band members had done. She created hits
with the songs "Got a Hold on Me" (Top 10 pop and #1 adult
contemporary) and "Love Will Show Us How". The synthesizer-heavy tracks
were viewed by some as somewhat jarring in contrast to the crisp and
clear singing tones of McVie. Nevertheless, McVie is quoted in The
Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits as
saying of her solo album, "Maybe it isn't the most adventurous album in
the world, but I wanted to be honest and please my own ears with it."
She also met keyboardist Eddy Quintela (12 years her junior),
whom she married in October 1986. They divorced a decade later.
After covering the Elvis Presley standard "Can't Help
Falling In Love With You" for the Howie Mandel film A Fine
Mess, she rejoined Fleetwood Mac to record the Tango
in the Night album, which went on to become the
band's biggest success since "Rumours" ten years earlier. The biggest
hit from the album was McVie's "Little Lies", co-written with her
husband Quintela, which was top 5 in both the UK and US.
In 1990 the band, minus Lindsey Buckingham, recorded Behind the Mask,
but the sales were sluggish and the singles were only marginally
successful. McVie had always been reluctant to go on concert tours,
preferring to stay close to home with friends and family. Upon the
death of her father, Cyril Perfect, that year, during the Behind
The Mask tour, McVie made the decision to retire from touring
altogether. Despite the departure of Stevie Nicks, McVie remained loyal
to Mick Fleetwood and her former husband, recording five songs for the
band's 1995 effort Time.
The album, which suffered from a lack of publicity and was created by a
line-up unfamiliar to the public, was a commercial flop.
The members of the band seemed to have gone their separate
ways until Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey
Buckingham got together again for one of Lindsey Buckingham's solo
projects. They persuaded Christine to record and tour with them one
last time. The live album, 1997's The
Dance, went to #1 on the charts. McVie complied
with their touring schedule, and then performed for the group's 1998
induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, as well as the Grammy Awards show, and the BRIT
Awards in the UK. Thereafter, she retired from Fleetwood Mac altogether.
In the years after The Dance, Christine
McVie stepped out of public view almost completely. In 2000 she did,
however, appear in public to receive an Honorary
Doctorate in Music from the University of Greenwich,
England. Some years later, in December 2003, she went to see Fleetwood
Mac's last UK performance on the Say You Will tour
in London,
but did not join her former bandmates on the stage.
Mid-2004 saw the release of McVie's new solo album, In
the Meantime, her third in a career spanning five decades.
Recorded in her converted barn in Kent, England, McVie worked on the project with
her nephew, Dan Perfect, who contributed guitar-playing, back-up
vocals, and songwriting. There was no tour to accompany this album,
though McVie consented to a limited number of press interviews in the
UK and the USA. In 2006
McVie was awarded the British
Academy of Composers and Songwriters' Gold Badge of Merit at a ceremony
held in London's Savoy Hotel [1].
She currently lives in the south of England and rarely leaves her
countryside home.
Discography
With Fleetwood Mac
| Year |
Album |
US |
UK |
Additional
information |
| 1968 |
Mr.
Wonderful |
- |
10 |
First Fleetwood
Mac album to feature McVie as a session musician |
| 1969 |
Then
Play On |
192 |
6 |
McVie featured
as a session musician on this album |
| 1970 |
Kiln House |
69 |
39 |
McVie created
the album art |
| 1971 |
Future
Games |
91 |
- |
First album
with McVie as a full member of Fleetwood Mac |
| 1972 |
Bare Trees |
70 |
- |
- |
| 1973 |
Penguin |
49 |
- |
- |
| 1973 |
Mystery
To Me |
68 |
- |
- |
| 1974 |
Heroes Are Hard to Find |
34 |
- |
- |
| 1975 |
Fleetwood
Mac (The White Album) |
1 |
23 |
First album
with Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham |
| 1977 |
Rumours |
1 |
1 |
Featured her
biggest charting single with Fleetwood Mac - "Don't Stop" - coming in
at #3 on the US Charts |
| 1979 |
Tusk |
4 |
1 |
- |
| 1980 |
Live |
14 |
31 |
Featured a new
Christine McVie song - "One More Night" |
| 1982 |
Mirage |
1 |
5 |
- |
| 1987 |
Tango
in the Night |
7 |
1 |
- |
| 1987 |
Greatest
Hits |
14 |
3 |
Featured two
new songs including McVie's "As Long As You Follow" |
| 1990 |
Behind the Mask |
18 |
1 |
McVie stopped
touring with Fleetwood Mac after the tour in support of this album was
complete |
| 1995 |
Time |
- |
47 |
- |
| 1997 |
The
Dance |
1 |
15 |
McVie
participated in her last tour with Fleetwood Mac and retired from the
group thereafter |
| 2003 |
Say
You Will |
3 |
6 |
McVie was
credited as an additional musician. She played keyboards and provided
background vocals on some of Lindsey Buckingham's tracks. |
Solo Albums
| Year |
Album |
US |
UK |
Additional
information |
| 1970 |
Christine Perfect |
- |
- |
Featured a
cover version Of Fleetwood Mac's "When You Say" |
| 1984 |
Christine
McVie |
26 |
- |
Featured
McVie's biggest charting single outside Fleetwood Mac - "Got A Hold On
Me" coming in at #10 on the US charts |
| 2004 |
In The
Meantime |
- |
- |
McVie
co-produced this album with her nephew Dan Perfect. |
With Chicken Shack
| Year |
Album |
US |
UK |
Additional
information |
| 1968 |
Forty
Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed And Ready To Serve |
- |
12 |
- |
| 1969 |
OK Ken |
- |
9 |
- |
Singles
| Year |
Song |
US Hot 100 |
US Adult Contemporary |
Album |
| 1984 |
"Got A Hold On Me" |
#10 |
#1 |
Christine McVie |
| 1984 |
"Love Will Show Us How" |
#30 |
- |
Christine McVie |
| 2004 |
"Friend" |
- |
#29 |
In The Meantime |
References
-
External links
| v • d • e Fleetwood Mac |
| Current
members: John McVie - Mick
Fleetwood - Stevie Nicks - Lindsey
Buckingham |
| Former
members: Christine
McVie - Peter Green - Jeremy
Spencer - Bob Brunning - Danny
Kirwan - Bob Welch - Bob Weston - Dave
Walker - Billy Burnette - Rick Vito - Dave
Mason - Bekka Bramlett |
| Discography |
|
Studio albums: Fleetwood Mac
(1968) - Mr. Wonderful
(1968) - English Rose
(1968) - Then Play On
(1969) - Kiln House (1970)
- Future Games
(1971) - Bare Trees (1972)
- Penguin
(1973) - Mystery to Me
(1973) - Heroes Are Hard to Find
(1974) - Fleetwood Mac
(1975) - Rumours
(1977) - Tusk (1979) - Mirage
(1982) - Tango in the Night
(1987) - Behind the Mask
(1990) - Time
(1995) - Say You Will
(2003)
|
|
Key Singles/Songs: "Black
Magic Woman" - "Albatross" - "The
Green Manalishi" - "Rhiannon" - "Landslide"
- "Go Your Own Way" - "Dreams" - "Don't Stop" - "The Chain" -
"You Make Loving Fun" - "Gold
Dust Woman" - "Tusk" - "Gypsy" - "Big Love" -
|
|
Compilations and box sets: The Pious Bird of Good
Omen (1969) - Black Magic Woman
(1971) - The Original Fleetwood Mac
(1971) - Greatest
Hits (1971) - Greatest
Hits (1988) - 25
Years - The Chain (1992) - The
Vaudeville Years (1998) - The Complete Blue
Horizon Sessions (1999) - Original
Fleetwood Mac: The Blues Years (2000) Show-Biz
Blues (2001) - The Best Of
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac (2002) - Jumping
at Shadows: The Blues Years (2002) - The Very Best of
Fleetwood Mac (2002) - Men
of the World: The Early Years (2005)
|
|
Live albums: Fleetwood
Mac in Chicago (1969) - Live
(1980) - Live at the Marquee, 1967
(1992) - Live at the BBC
(1995) - The Dance
(1997) - Masters: Live London '68
(1998) - Live in Boston
(1998) - Shine '69 (1999) -
Live in Boston
(2004)
|
| Related
articles |
|
Say You Will Tour
|
