Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie celebrates her 78th birthday today. McVie was born Christine Anne Perfect on June 12, 1943 in Bouth, Lancashire in the UK. Christine came from a musical family and became acquainted with music at an early age. In 1967 she joined a blues band called Chicken Shack whose debut single was written by Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie.
Before joining Fleetwood Mac as a full-time member, Christine worked as a session musician playing keyboards and singing on the band’s second album, 1968’s Mr. Wonderful. She and McVie would marry that same year and she joined Fleetwood Mac full-time in 1970.
Christine McVie would go on to write some of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest hits including “Over My Head” and “Say You Love Me” from the band’s second self-titled album released in 1975, the first with vocalist Stevie Nicks and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. The band had recently relocated to the United States and Christine’s “Over My Head” broke them into American radio and cracked the nation’s Top 20. Christine would also contribute to Fleetwood Mac’s most commercially successful album, 1977’s multi-platinum Rumours, with the hits “You Make Loving Fun” and “Don’t Stop.”
While the band didn’t replicate the commercial success of Rumours on its follow up, the more experimental 1979 double LP Tusk, Fleetwood Mac returned to the charts in a big way with Mirage in 1982. The legendary rock band would wrap up the Mirage Tour with two concerts at the famed Forum in Los Angeles on October 21 and 22. Fleetwood Mac treated the L.A. audience to a litany of their hits including “The Chain,” “Gypsy,” “Rhiannon” and “Go Your Own Way” with the show eventually being released as a VHS compilation video. The subsequent film also included Christine’s “You Make Loving Fun” and frequent concert closer, “Songbird.”
To celebrate Christine McVie’s birthday, watch Fleetwood Mac from The Forum in 1982 below via Neil Carroll:
Setlist:
The Chain, Gypsy, Love in Store, Not That Funny, You Make Loving Fun, I’m So Afraid, Blue Letter, Rhiannon, Tusk, Eyes of the World, Go Your Own Way, Sisters of the Moon, Songbird
[Originally Published: July 12, 2020]
