Christine McVie

Christine Anne McVie (; née Perfect; 12 July 1943 – 30 November 2022) was an English musician. She was the keyboardist and one of the vocalists and songwriters of the rock band Fleetwood Mac.

McVie was a member of several bands, notably Chicken Shack, in the mid-1960s British blues scene. She initially began working with Fleetwood Mac as a session player in 1968, before officially joining the band two years later. Her first compositions with Fleetwood Mac appeared on their fifth album, Future Games. She remained with the band through many changes of line-up, writing songs and performing lead vocals before partially retiring in 1998.

McVie was described as "the prime mover behind some of Fleetwood Mac's biggest hits" and eight songs she wrote or co-wrote, including "Say You Love Me", "Don't Stop", "Everywhere" and "Little Lies", appeared on Fleetwood Mac's 1988 Greatest Hits album. She appeared as a session musician on the band's last studio album, Say You Will. McVie also released three solo studio albums and recorded a duet album with Lindsey Buckingham. McVie was noted for her soulful contralto voice.

As a member of Fleetwood Mac, McVie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 1998 received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In the same year, after almost 30 years with Fleetwood Mac, she left the band and lived in semi-retirement, releasing a solo album in 2004. She appeared on stage with Fleetwood Mac at the O₂ Arena in London in September 2013 and rejoined the band in 2014 prior to their On with the Show tour.

McVie received a Gold Badge of Merit Award from BASCA, now The Ivors Academy, in 2006. She received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors in 2014 and was honoured with the Trailblazer Award at the UK Americana Awards in 2021. She was also the recipient of two Grammy Awards.

Early life

McVie was born on 12 July 1943 in the village of Greenodd, in the Furness area of Lancashire (now present day Cumbria). She grew up in the Bearwood area of Smethwick near Birmingham. Her father, Cyril Percy Absell Perfect, was a concert violinist and music lecturer at St Peter's College of Education, Saltley, Birmingham, and taught violin at St Philip's Grammar School, Birmingham. Her mother, Beatrice Edith Maud (née Reece), was a medium, psychic, and faith healer. McVie's grandfather was an organist who had performed at Westminster Abbey.

McVie was introduced to the piano when she was four, but did not study music seriously until the age of 11 when she was reintroduced to it by a local musician who was a friend of her brother John. She continued classical training to the age of 15, but shifted her musical focus to rock and roll when her brother acquired a Fats Domino songbook. Other early influences included the Everly Brothers.

Career

Early music

McVie studied sculpture at Moseley School of Art in Birmingham for five years with the aim of becoming an art teacher. While there she met budding musicians in Britain's blues scene. Her introduction to performing music came when she met Stan Webb and Andy Silvester, who were in a band called Sounds of Blue. Knowing that McVie had musical talent, they invited her to join them as the band's bassist. She also sang with Spencer Davis, who at the time was studying at the same art school as McVie. By the time McVie graduated from art college, Sounds of Blue had split up. She did not have enough money to launch herself into the art world and moved to London where she worked briefly as a department-store window dresser at Dickins & Jones.

Chicken Shack

In 1967, McVie heard that Silvester and Webb were forming a blues band, to be called Chicken Shack, and were looking for a pianist. She contacted them and was invited to join the band as pianist, keyboard player and backing vocalist. Chicken Shack's debut release was "It's Okay with Me Baby", which was written by and featured McVie. She stayed with the band for two studio albums, and her genuine feel for the blues became evident in her Sonny Thompson-style piano playing and her authentic "bluesy" voice.

Chicken Shack had a hit with a cover of Ellington Jordan's "I'd Rather Go Blind", which featured McVie on lead vocals. McVie received a Melody Maker award for UK's best female vocalist in 1969 and again in 1970. She left Chicken Shack in 1969, having married Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie a year earlier, feeling that she would not see her husband if they were in different bands.

Fleetwood Mac

McVie was a fan of Fleetwood Mac and while she was touring with Chicken Shack the two bands would often meet. Both bands were signed to the Blue Horizon label, and McVie played piano as a session musician on Peter Green's songs on Fleetwood Mac's second studio album, Mr. Wonderful. Encouraged to continue her career, she recorded a debut solo studio album, Christine Perfect, which was later reissued as The Legendary Christine Perfect Album. She was invited to join Fleetwood Mac as a keyboard player in 1970 after the departure of founding member Peter Green, having already contributed piano and backing vocals, uncredited, to their next album, Kiln House and provided the artwork for the sleeve. The band had been struggling to manage without Green and had needed another musician to fill in their sound. McVie had been a huge fan of the Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac and learned the songs for Kiln House during rehearsals.

McVie became an integral member of Fleetwood Mac as keyboard player, songwriter and female lead vocalist. Before she joined there had been talk of the band splitting up, but Fleetwood said later that "Christine became the glue [that held the band together]. She filled out our sound beautifully." The first studio album on which McVie played as a full band member was Future Games in 1971. This was also the first album on which she worked with American guitarist and songwriter Bob Welch, who had replaced founding member Jeremy Spencer.

McVie moved with the rest of Fleetwood Mac to California in 1974, where Welch left after a final album, Heroes are Hard to Find, and Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of Buckingham Nicks joined the band. The line-up now contained two female lead vocalists who also wrote songs. McVie bonded instantly with Nicks and the two women found their voices blended perfectly. McVie wrote and sang lead on four tracks on the first studio album of the new line-up, Fleetwood Mac (1975): "Warm Ways", "Over My Head", "Say You Love Me" and "Sugar Daddy", and had a joint songwriting credit with Buckingham for "World Turning". The album produced several hit songs, with McVie's "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me" both reaching the Billboard top-20 singles chart. "Over My Head" put Fleetwood Mac on American radio and into the national top 20.

In 1976, McVie began an on-the-road affair with the band's lighting director, Curry Grant, which inspired her to write "You Make Loving Fun", a top-10 hit from their next album, Rumours (1977). Her biggest hit from the album was "Don't Stop", which reached the top five. Rumours also included McVie's "Songbird", a slow ballad which featured McVie playing piano and Buckingham accompanying on acoustic guitar.

By the end of the Rumours tour, the McVies were divorced. Christine had a US top-20 hit with "Think About Me" from the 1979 double studio album Tusk, which did not match the success of the Rumours album. After the Tusk tour the band took time apart, reuniting in 1981 to record the studio album Mirage at the Château d'Hérouville's studio in France. Mirage, released in 1982, returned the band to the top of the US charts and contained the top-five hit "Hold Me", co-written by McVie. McVie's inspiration for the song was her tortured relationship with Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson. Her song "Love in Store" became the third single from the album in the United States, peaking at number 22 in early 1983.

McVie's second solo studio album, Christine McVie, released in 1984, included the hits "Got a Hold on Me" (number 10 US pop, number one adult contemporary and number one Mainstream Rock Tracks) and "Love Will Show Us How" (number 30 US pop). A third single, "I'm the One", was released but did not chart. McVie said of the 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."

McVie married keyboardist Eddy Quintela on 18 October 1986 and they co-wrote songs which featured on subsequent Fleetwood Mac albums. She rejoined Fleetwood Mac in 1987 to record the Tango in the Night studio album, which became the band's biggest success since Rumours and reached the top five in the UK and US. McVie's "Little Lies", co-written with Quintela, was the biggest hit from the album. Another McVie single from the album, "Everywhere", reached number four in the UK, the band's third-highest UK chart peak. The single peaked at number 14 in the U.S. In 1990, the band (now without Buckingham) recorded Behind the Mask, which reached Gold status in the US and McVie's song "Save Me" made the US top 40. The album entered the UK album chart at number one and reached Platinum status. McVie's "Skies the Limit", the second US single from the album, was a hit on the adult contemporary chart.