The Mystery of 1974's 'Fake' Fleetwood Mac [Highlight From Episode 336]

Did you know there were plans for a fake Fleetwood Mac lineup in 1974? Author Tim Durling dives deep into this fascinating piece of music history.

Listen to Episode 336 - Fleetwood Mac Uncovered: A Beginner's Journey Through The Entire Catalog

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a highlight from a recent episode of Booked on Rock.
Author Tim Durling is back on the show his latest
book titled The Sound That Haunts You. A Beginner's Companion
to Fleetwood Mac, Bob Welch had problems with the record
label or were they changing labels. There was some reason
that he left that he wasn't happy with the future
of the band contractually. And then there was this fake

(00:22):
Fleetwood Mac band that the manager was going to try
to put put out there.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
That's another story unto itself, and a fascinating one. And
there was a lot going on with seventy three seventy four.
The funny thing is is that most people, most average
Fleetwood Mac fans kind of know the story of the
drama with Lindsay and Stevie, with John and Christine, with
Stevie and Mick, with you know whatever, the whole thing, right.

(00:48):
But the odd thing is is that was their most
stable lineup once once Lindsay and Stevie joined, that was
their most stable line because the fact that it was
successful kept it together. Think you know, also, I mean
creatively it was great. Obviously it was creative. That's what
led to the success. But up until then, just about
every album had a different lineup because you had a

(01:10):
guitar player named Bob Weston come in after Kirwin left. Well,
he has an affair with mixed wife Jenny. That's Jenny
Boyd by the way, who was the sister of Patty Boyd. Yeah,
so you know, so you read about that, you go
down all these rabbit holes, like suddenly it makes a
lot of sense, but anyway, or does it.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Lots and makes a story of fleeting back. So fascinating
the history of this band.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
But there was already plenty of drama before Lindsay and
Stevie came along. It's just she didn't hear about it,
right because they weren't They weren't a high profile band.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
You were not on Warner Brothers. They were there.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Oh yeah, they were on Warner Brothers from then, play
on onward, Reprise, Warner all the same kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
In the early days, it was confusing because in the
UK they were on this label called Blue Horizon. They
came out in North America on CBS and yeah, and
then want to reissue them. But seventy three, seventy four, yeah,

(02:08):
they put the album Penguin out, which had that singer
Dave Walker on a couple of songs who came from
Savoy Brown, who sounded nothing like he belonged in Fleetwood
mac He was a raspy blues singer and if Black
Sabbath fans know that name, he was the guy that
was in Black Sabbath for like a second in nineteen
seventy eight when Ozzie briefly left before Never Say Die.

(02:31):
So you can see like a BBC clip of them
doing I don't know, I'm not up on my Sabbath,
but I think one of the songs that ended up
on Never Say Die with this Dave Walker on fold
while he was in Black Sabbath for a second. So
and then he didn't last. So it was just constant
and they weren't getting anywhere, you know, really commercially. The

(02:51):
albums were charting higher every time, I think, probably because
they just kept putting them out. But yes, there was
a situation, and I think the Bob West, Jenny Boyd
Fleetwood situation had much to do with it. Mick did
not want a tour, but their manager Clifford Davis, who
my understanding was a real snake of a manager sounds

(03:11):
like it already had a tour booked, so he put
these guys together that were in an English band called
Stretch and put them on tour as Fleetwood Mac.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Or as the new Fleetwood Macer.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
I don't know how it was built exactly. But the
odd thing about that is that this band, Stretch, eventually
recorded a cover of show Biz Blues, and I mentioned
that where I talk about all the cover versions. Now
I'm excited to hear this, and I'm giving a plug
to another author because recently on my show, I don't

(03:48):
know if you've talked to him or not, but a
guy named Steve McLean. No, he's from the UK. He's
actually a stand up comedian, but he's also an author,
and he put an excellent book out called Stealing Deep Purple,
which is about original lead vocalist Rod Evans putting together
a version of Deep Purple in nineteen eighty and touring

(04:08):
North America before it got shut down by management. It's
a story that I used to think was fake, but
it's not. It actually happened