Mick Fleetwood (born 24 June 1947) is a British musician and actor, best known for his role as the drummer and co-founder of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of John McVie to form the name of the band, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Choosing to follow his musical interests, Fleetwood travelled to London at the age of fifteen, eventually combining with Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Bob Brunning, at Green’s behest, to become the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood would remain the only member to stay with the band through its ever-changing line-up. After several album releases and line-up changes, the group moved to the United States in 1974 in an attempt to boost the band’s success. Here Fleetwood invited Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks to join. Buckingham and Nicks contributed to much of Fleetwood Mac’s later commercial success, including the celebrated album Rumours, while Fleetwood’s own determination to keep the band together was essential to the group’s longevity. (More from Wikipedia)
John Mayall’s band was a revolving door of famous British musicians; but even more remarkably, bandmembers who left John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers often helped form other rock bands. For instance, shortly after Eric Clapton left for good, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers consisted of John Mayall plus three of the founding members of Fleetwood Mac: Peter Green, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood.
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The new direction for Fleetwood Mac was not limited to personnel changes or new musical experimentation; this has been common in bands long before rock and roll came along. Fleetwood Mac relocated to Los Angeles in the mid-1970’s; also, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks were Americans. Thus, it is difficult to know even how to define the band. Wikipedia calls them “a British-American rock band formed in 1967 in London”, but more than a few comments in the Wikipedia “Talk” section grumble about even calling their latter-day music “rock”. In Allmusic, their article starts off: “While most bands undergo a number of changes over the course of their careers, few groups experienced such radical stylistic changes as Fleetwood Mac. Initially conceived as a hard-edged British blues combo in the late ’60s, the band gradually evolved into a polished pop/rock act over the course of a decade. Throughout all of their incarnations, the only consistent members of Fleetwood Mac were drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie – the rhythm section that provided the band with its name.”
